ORDINATION ADDRESSES 
 
 AND 
 
 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. 
 
ORDINATION ADDRESSES 
 
 AND 
 
 COUNSELS TO CLERGY 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 JOSEPH BARBER LIGHTFOOT, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D, 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE LIGHTFOOT FUND 
 
 ILontron 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 AND NEW YORK 
 
 1890 
 
 All Rights reserved 
 
Cambriuge : 
 
 FRINTKI) BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS, 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
EXTRACT FROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTA- 
 MENT OF THE LATE JOSEPH BARBER LlGHTFOOT, 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM. 
 
 "I bequeath all my personal Estate not herein- 
 " before otherwise disposed of unto [my Executors] 
 "upon trust to pay and transfer the same unto the 
 " Trustees appointed by me under and by virtue of a 
 " certain Indenture of Settlement creating a Trust to 
 " be known by the name of ' The Lightfoot Fund for 
 " the Diocese of Durham ' and bearing even date 
 "herewith but executed by me immediately before 
 " this my Will to be administered and dealt with by 
 "them upon the trusts for the purposes and in the 
 " manner prescribed by such Indenture of Settle- 
 " ment." 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE INDENTURE OF SETTLE- 
 MENT OF ' THE LIGHTFOOT FUND FOR THE 
 DIOCESE OF DURHAM.' 
 
 "WHEREAS the Bishop is the Author of and is 
 "absolutely entitled to the Copyright in the several 
 " Works mentioned in the Schedule hereto, and for the 
 
 M232290 
 
vi Extract from Bishop Lightfoofs Will. 
 
 " purposes of these presents he has assigned or intends 
 "forthwith to assign the Copyright in all the said 
 "Works to the Trustees. Now the Bishop doth 
 " hereby declare and it is hereby agreed as follows : 
 
 "The Trustees (which term shall hereinafter be 
 " taken to include the Trustees for the time being of 
 " these presents) shall stand possessed of the said 
 "Works and of the Copyright therein respectively 
 " upon the trusts following (that is to say) upon trust 
 " to receive all moneys to arise from sales or otherwise 
 "from the said Works, and at their discretion from 
 " time to time to bring out new editions of the same 
 " Works or any of them, or to sell the copyright in 
 " the same or any of them, or otherwise to deal with 
 "the same respectively, it being the intention of 
 "these presents that the Trustees shall have and 
 " may exercise all such rights and powers in respect 
 "of the said Works and the copyright therein re- 
 "spectively, as they could or might have or exercise 
 " in relation thereto if they were the absolute bene- 
 "ficial owners thereof.... 
 
 "The Trustees shall from time to time, at such 
 "discretion as aforesaid, pay and apply the income 
 "of the Trust funds for or towards the erecting, 
 "rebuilding, repairing, purchasing, endowing, sup- 
 porting, or providing for any Churches, Chapels, 
 " Schools, Parsonages, and Stipends for Clergy, and 
 
Extract from Bishop Lightfoot's Will. vii 
 
 "other Spiritual Agents in connection with the 
 "Church of England and within the Diocese of 
 "Durham, and also for or towards such other pur- 
 poses in connection with the said Church of 
 " England, and within the said Diocese, as the 
 "Trustees may in their absolute discretion think fit, 
 " provided always that any payment for erecting any 
 " building, or in relation to any other works in con- 
 " nection with real estate, shall be exercised with due 
 " regard to the Law of Mortmain ; it being declared 
 " that nothing herein shall be construed as intended 
 "to authorise any act contrary to any Statute or 
 "other Law.... 
 
 " In case the Bishop shall at any time assign to 
 "the Trustees any Works hereafter to be written or 
 " published by him, or any Copyrights, or any other 
 " property, such transfer shall be held to be made for 
 "the purposes of this Trust, and all the provisions 
 "of this Deed shall apply to such property, subject 
 " nevertheless to any direction concerning the same 
 " which the Bishop may make in writing at the time 
 " of such transfer, and in case the Bishop shall at any 
 " time pay any money, or transfer any security, stock, 
 "or other like property to the Trustees, the same 
 " shall in like manner be held for the purposes of this 
 " Trust, subject to any such contemporaneous direc- 
 tion as aforesaid, and any security, stock or pro- 
 
viii Extract from Bishop LigJ it foot's Will. 
 
 "perty so transferred, being of a nature which can 
 "lawfully be held by the Trustees for the purposes 
 " of these presents, may be retained by the Trustees, 
 " although the same may not be one of the securities 
 " hereinafter authorised. 
 
 " The Bishop of Durham and the Archdeacons of 
 " Durham and Auckland for the time being shall be 
 " ex-officio Trustees, and accordingly the Bishop and 
 "Archdeacons, parties hereto, and the succeeding 
 " Bishops and Archdeacons, shall cease to be Trus- 
 " tees on ceasing to hold their respective offices, and 
 " the number of the other Trustees may be increased, 
 " and the power of appointing Trustees in the place 
 "of Trustees other than Official Trustees, and of 
 "appointing extra Trustees, shall be exercised by 
 " Deed by the Trustees for the time being, provided 
 "always that the number shall not at any time be 
 "less than five. 
 
 " The Trust premises shall be known by the name 
 " of 'The Lightfoot Fund for the Diocese of Durham.' ' 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot 
 
 speak : for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, 
 Say not, I am a child... .Behold, I have put My words 
 in thy mouth. 
 
 JEREMIAH i. 69. . 3 
 
 II. Replenish them with the truth of Thy doctrine, 
 
 and endue them with innocency of life. 
 
 EMBER COLLECT. . 17 
 
 ill. The heaven for height, and the earth for depth. 
 
 PROVERBS xxv. 3. . 30 
 
 IV. Ambassadors for Christ. Your servants for Jesuf 
 sake. 
 
 2 COR. v. 20, iv. 5. . 44 
 
 V. God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of 
 power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 
 
 2 TIMOTHY i. 7. . 55 
 
 VI. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights 
 
 burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait 
 for their lord, when he will return from the wedding. 
 
 S. LUKE xii. 35, 36. . 67 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 VII. In the world. Not of the world. 
 
 S. JOHN xvii. n, 14. . 8a 
 
 VIII. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine. 
 
 i TIMOTHY iv. 16. . 95 
 
 IX. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the 
 Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 
 
 i CORINTHIANS iv. 5. . 107 
 
 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. 
 
 A. AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 
 
 I. S. PETER'S TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan 
 hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as 
 wheat : but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith 
 fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy 
 brethren. 
 
 S. LUKE xxii. 31, 32. . 123 
 
 n. BURDENS. 
 
 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the 
 
 law of Christ .for every man shall bear his own 
 
 burden. 
 
 GALATIANS vi. a, 5. . 136 
 
 in. WHAT is THAT TO THEE? 
 
 What is that to thee f follow thou Me. 
 
 S. JOHN xxi. i. . 149 
 
 iv. THE PASSAGE FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE. 
 
 We know that we have passed from death unto life, 
 because we love the brethren. 
 
 i JOHN iii. 14. . 168 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 v. OUR HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 Our citizenship is in heaven. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS iii. 20. . 183 
 
 vi. NOT MEAT AND DRINK. 
 
 The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but 
 righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 ROMANS xiv. 17. . 194 
 
 B. CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 
 i. FELLOW-WORKERS WITH GOD. 
 
 For we are fellow -workers with God. 
 
 i CORINTHIANS iii. 9. . 214 
 
 ii. THE REPULSION AND ATTRACTION OF CHRIST. 
 Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. 
 
 S. LUKE v. 8. 
 
 Lord, to whom shall we go f Thou hast the words 
 
 of eternal life. 
 
 S. JOHN vi. 68. . 225 
 
 in. SELF-CONSECRATION. 
 
 For their sakes I sanctify Myself. 
 
 S. JOHN xvii. 19. . 241 
 iv. THE PARTISAN SPIRIT. 
 
 Do nothing of party spirit nor yet of vain glory. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS ii. 3. . 258 
 
 v. ADVENTURING THE SOUL. 
 
 Whosoever would save his soul shall lose it. For 
 what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world 
 
 and forfeit his soul? 
 
 S. MARK viii. 35, 36. . 271 
 
 vi. COMMUNICATION OF SELF. 
 
 Not one of them said that ought of the things 
 which he possessed was his own; but they had all 
 
 things common. 
 
 ACTS iv. 32. . 283 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 vii. THE UNIVERSAL TEACHER AND THE UNIVERSAL 
 LESSON. 
 
 He will guide you into all Truth. He shall take 
 of Mine, and shall show it unto you. 
 
 S. JOHN xvi. 13, 14. . 294 
 
 viii. FAREWELL. 
 
 Farewell in the Lord always; again I will say, 
 
 Farewell. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS iv. 4. . 309 
 
CHARGES 
 
 TO 
 
 ORDINATION CANDIDATES. 
 
 O.A. 
 
DELIVERED IN S. PETERS CHAPEL, 
 AUCKLAND CASTLE. 
 
:' V 
 
 I. 
 
 Then said I, Ah, Lord God ! behold, I cannot 
 speak : for I am a child. But the LORD said unto 
 me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all 
 that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee 
 thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces : for 
 I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD. 
 Then the LORD put forth His hand, and touched my 
 mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have 
 put My words in thy mouth. 
 
 JEREMIAH i. 69. 
 
 [Trinity, 1880; Advent, 1883; Advent, 1887.] 
 
 THE words which I have just read to you will 
 form a fit starting-point for our meditation this 
 evening. You are on the threshold of a new career, 
 on the eve of a new life a new career, a new 
 life, fraught with issues of infinite moment to your- 
 selves not only to yourselves (that is only a small 
 thing), but (it may be) to hundreds and thousands of 
 
 I 2 
 
4 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [l. 
 
 others besides a new career, a new life, full of hope, 
 full of fear, charged with a tremendous alternative of 
 good or of evil. With what thoughts do you approach 
 the solemn moment ? The crisis is confessedly a 
 unique crisis for you. Does awe, does joy, does hope, 
 does misgiving, does the dread of the responsibility, 
 does the glory of the privilege, does the apprehension 
 of the issues, prevail in your minds at this crisis ? 
 Are you overwhelmed with some bitter memory of 
 the past, or overawed by some solemn forecast of the 
 future ? Is God, or is self, predominant at this moment 
 in your hearts ? Yes ; this is the question, Has God, 
 or has self, the chief place with you at this, the 
 turning point in your lives ? 
 
 You are entering upon a ministerial career. The 
 passage which I have read describes the feelings of 
 one situated so far at least just as you are situated 
 this day. His words will speak to your hearts have 
 spoken, I doubt not, as they were read, to your 
 hearts. His thoughts may serve to mould your 
 thoughts. His life may help to guide your lives. 
 
 Certainly no ministerial career was more remark- 
 able than his in its inauguration, and in its issues. 
 In its inauguration ; for incapacity, hopeless in- 
 capacity, is its opening confession. In its issues ; 
 for failure, signal failure, was its characteristic feature. 
 His life is a book written within and without with 
 
I.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 5 
 
 lamentations and mourning and woe. His name is a 
 byword and a proverb for despondency and grief in 
 its most aggravated forms. 
 
 What then is the feeling uppermost in your minds 
 to-day the feeling which led you to seek this tre- 
 mendous responsibility, the feeling which, having 
 guided you hitherto, will give a colour to your lives ? 
 
 Is it the alternative of success or failure, which 
 sways your heart and dominates your motives ? Are 
 you elated by the anticipation of triumph ? Are 
 you disheartened by chill of misgiving or of dis- 
 appointment ? 
 
 If it be so, I entreat you to put away such 
 thoughts from your hearts. Thrust them resolutely, 
 sternly, aside. By a determined effort resolve by 
 God's help from this day forward to regard, not the 
 issues of the work, but the work itself. Pursue the 
 work for the work's sake, that is, for God's sake. 
 Pursue the work, and leave the issues of the work in 
 God's hands. 
 
 If you will resolve thus, then your way is plain. 
 Here is a definite thing to be done, and you will do 
 it do it with heart and soul, do it with all your 
 might, do it through evil report and good report, do it 
 in season and out of season, do it in success and in 
 failure, do it as bravely in the moment of a crushing 
 defeat as in the crisis of a splendid victory, do it knowing 
 
6 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [l. 
 
 that, though you may fail, God cannot fail, do it, because 
 it is not your doing but God's doing. Resolve this 
 once for all. Resolve this now, this day, and be stead- 
 fast in your resolution. This evening in the silent 
 hours of self-examination tomorrow morning at the 
 solemn moment of ordination itself during the serious 
 meditations which must follow, let this be your one 
 vow, your one prayer, ' God helping me, I will do His 
 work, because it is His work. God helping me, I 
 will preach His truth, because it is His truth. I will 
 not be discouraged by failure ; I will not be elated 
 by success. The success and the failure are not my 
 concern, but His. God helping me, I will help my 
 brothers and sisters in Christ, because they are my 
 brothers and sisters. Do they spurn my advances ? 
 Or do they welcome my message ? What then ? It 
 shall make no difference in me and my work. They 
 and I alike are in God's hands.' 
 
 Again and again I say, do this. Thus, and thus 
 alone, you will ensure true peace of mind, the peace 
 of God, the peace which passeth all understanding. 
 Then, and then only, you will go on your way 
 rejoicing, always cheerful, always bright and happy, 
 because always feeling that you are in God's hands. 
 In the career of a minister of Christ the surest way 
 to success is to think nothing at all about success. 
 
 I suppose that with some who are entering upon 
 
I.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 7 
 
 the lower office of the ministry the predominant 
 feeling is likely to be hope. Their eyes are dazzled 
 by bright visions of ministerial success, of a church 
 rilled, of a neighbourhood reclaimed, of a spiritual 
 wilderness turned into a garden of the Lord, of a 
 devoted people hanging on their lips. If this be so, 
 I entreat you, stamp out this feeling. It is egotism, 
 sheer egotism, however much it may assume the guise 
 of zeal for Christ. It is putting self in place of God. 
 
 Those, on the other hand, who have had a year's 
 experience of the ministry and are now seeking the 
 higher office of the priesthood, are more likely to look 
 on the work with different eyes. Theirs is the 
 opposite temptation. They will be assailed by dis- 
 appointment, by despondency, sometimes almost by 
 despair. Not success, but failure, is the idea which 
 dominates and threatens to crush their hearts. A 
 year's experience has wrought a great change in their 
 feelings. It has shattered many a proud hope ; it 
 has stultified many a high ambition ; it has belied 
 many a sanguine project. What have they found ? 
 A mass of sin, a density of ignorance, of which they 
 could only touch the skirts. There was indifference 
 here, there was malice and antagonism there. No- 
 where, or almost nowhere, was there the ready 
 appreciation of their work, the glad welcoming of 
 the truth, which they expected, which they almost 
 
8 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [l. 
 
 claimed as a right. How much did they not hope 
 to do, and how little have they done ! Ah ! this is 
 egotism, as the other was egotism, the egotism of 
 wounded self-love, the egotism of baffled self-com- 
 placency. 
 
 So then put away, relentlessly away, all thought 
 of the results. You cannot control them. The opera- 
 tions are in your hands ; the issues are far beyond 
 your reach. And, if you cannot control them, so 
 neither can you estimate them. You see only a little 
 way ; but God's purposes are far. You regard only 
 the surface ; but God works underground, works out 
 of sight. Nothing can be more false than human 
 estimates of success and failure. Could any failure, 
 as men count failure, be greater than the failure of 
 Elijah : ' I, even I only, am left, and they seek my 
 life to take it away '? Or the failure of S. Paul : ' No 
 man stood with me, but all men forsook me' ? Yes; 
 there was a failure more terrible even than the failure 
 of Elijah, or the failure of S. Paul the failure of 
 Him Who, abandoned, despised, buffeted, scorned and 
 hated of all men, died a malefactor's death on the 
 Cross the failure of all failures, but the success of 
 all successes, the victory over sin, the triumph over 
 death, the one signal achievement in the drama of 
 this world's history, before which the angels veil their 
 faces and bow their heads in awe. 
 
I.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 9 
 
 So it was with him, whose words I read to you at 
 the outset. I have spoken of the sorrows, the un- 
 redeemed sorrows, of his career. He failed in every 
 purpose of his heart. And yet he achieved after 
 death, what he failed to achieve in life. No prophet 
 held a larger place in the hearts of the Jews in later 
 times. His words live, his deeds live live and speak 
 to untold generations yet unborn. No one can crush 
 them. They are founded on righteousness and truth. 
 And righteousness and truth must triumph. Where 
 these are, immediate failure is only triumph deferred. 
 
 So then be not disheartened. ' We have toiled 
 all the night.' Yes ; but the morning will break, 
 perhaps in this life, possibly beyond the grave. ' We 
 have taken nothing.' Yes ; but at length your nets 
 shall be full. Fishers of men, persevere. With the 
 break of day His voice will be heard ; His presence 
 will be felt. There will be no complaining then that 
 your labour has been in vain. 
 
 Success and failure your success or my failure, 
 the success of an hour or the failure of an hour 
 what are these confronted with the eternal purpose? 
 Specks in boundless space, moments in limitless time. 
 Ah ! yes, it is just this. We do not realise that we 
 are children of eternity. If we did, then success 
 would be no success, and failure would be no failure 
 to us. Eternal truth, eternal righteousness, eternal 
 
IO ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [l. 
 
 love ; these only can triumph, for these only can 
 endure. If you hold fast to these, then your victory 
 is certain, whatever may come meanwhile. 
 
 I have spoken of the errors of regarding the 
 immediate issues of your work instead of the work 
 itself, of putting success in the place of God. But 
 there is another danger besetting your path. I mean 
 the error of regarding your own capacities instead of 
 your work, of putting self-consciousness in place of 
 God. This error is more amiable than the former, 
 but it is a serious hindrance to your work. It is 
 against this danger that we are warned in the history 
 of Jeremiah's call. 'Then said I, Ah Lord God! 
 behold, I cannot speak : for I am a child. But the 
 LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child : for thou 
 shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever 
 I command thee, thou shalt speak.' 
 
 I 1 cannot speak, I am a child.' Is not this your 
 feeling now, when the responsibilities of your office 
 are beginning to dawn upon you ? Must not this be 
 still more your feeling when you find yourselves 
 fairly launched into your work ? ' Here am I, so 
 young, so inexperienced, so helpless. Who and what 
 am I, alone, or almost alone, amidst so many 
 thousands ? How can I pierce this mass of ignorance 
 and vice and unbelief, which confronts me ? As well 
 dash my head against a fortress of stone, as attempt 
 
I.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. I I 
 
 so hopeless a task. What can I do to heal this 
 wounded spirit, to melt this hardened conscience, to 
 soothe these dying agonies ? Who am I, that I 
 should act as Christ's ambassador, should bear God's 
 message to these ? I am tongue-tied. I can only 
 stammer, can only lisp out half-formed words like a 
 child.' 
 
 And the reproof comes to you as it came to 
 Jeremiah of old, ' Say not, I am a child. Be not 
 afraid of their faces.' And the promise is vouchsafed 
 to you now, as it was vouchsafed to him then, 'I 
 am with thee to deliver thee.' * Behold I have put My 
 words in thy mouth.' 
 
 This sense of weakness, of incapacity, of helpless- 
 ness, may take many forms. But, whatever guise it 
 may bear, it must be remembered only to be forgotten. 
 The sense of your weakness must be merged, must 
 be absorbed, must be lost, in the sense of God's 
 strength. 
 
 Is it with you, as it was with Moses ? The call, 
 the command, the imperious necessity of obeying the 
 command, is there. And yet you shrink ; and yet 
 you are reluctant. It is a work which seems especially 
 to demand a ready tongue or a facile pen. It is just 
 here that you feel your deficiency. You have no gift 
 of speech ; you have no literary aptitude. * O my 
 LORD, I am not eloquent.' ' I am slow of speech.' 
 
12 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [l. 
 
 ' O my LORD, send I pray Thee by the hand of him 
 whom Thou wilt send.' If so, remember it only 
 that you may be humbled, but then forget it lest you 
 should be paralysed. To remember it beyond this 
 point is to distrust God. ' I will be with thy mouth, 
 and teach thee what thou shalt say.' 
 
 Or again, is it with you, as it was with Isaiah ? 
 You are overwhelmed (how can you help at such a 
 moment being overwhelmed ?) with the sense of 
 moral unworthiness. 'Woe is me for I am undone. 
 I am a man of unclean lips.' Yes, you have been 
 transported into the Holy of Holies. You have seen 
 the Lord sitting upon His throne high and lifted 
 up. Your ears have been pierced with the seraph 
 voices. And in the awe of the crisis, the past and 
 the present alike flash upon your memory with a 
 painful vividness. There is the old sin, long since 
 renounced, but leaving still an indelible scar behind 
 on your hearts. There is the recent temptation, 
 successfully (by God's grace) but painfully en- 
 countered and kept at bay. Remember them, yes, 
 remember them, only that your iniquity may be 
 taken away, and your sin purged with the live coal 
 from the seraph's hand. But forget them if they 
 gather about you as a snare, if they assail you that 
 they may tempt you to disobey the Divine call and 
 to renounce the Divine mission. 
 
I.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 13 
 
 Or again, is your case the case of Jeremiah ? Is 
 it your inexperience, your crudeness, your inadequacy, 
 your feebleness, which overawes you ? ' I am a child.' 
 They, to whom you are sent, are older, wiser, abler, 
 riper in experience, than yourself. You are one only ; 
 they have the strength of numbers. There is a dis- 
 proportion a disheartening, crushing, killing dispro- 
 portion between the agency and the end. Remember 
 it, that it may teach you modesty ; the young clergy- 
 man must be before all things modest. Remember it, 
 that you may be taught to seek your strength 
 elsewhere. But forget it forthwith in the presence 
 of an imperious, paramount, irresistible call. 
 
 Or lastly ; do you find a type of your case in S. 
 Paul ? Has it by any chance happened that words 
 which you have spoken, or acts which you have done 
 in times past, have given occasion to men to blas- 
 pheme ; that in some way or other, directly or 
 indirectly, you have reviled the name of Christ, you 
 have persecuted the Church of God ? And now the 
 past rises up as a horrible spectre before you. * Lord, 
 they know that I imprisoned and beat in every 
 synagogue them that believed on Thee.' Remember 
 it to your shame. Remember it with thanksgiving 
 for your escape. Remember it that you may deal 
 tenderly with others in like case. But forget it, if it 
 should stop your ears, or clog your steps, when the 
 
14 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [l. 
 
 command comes to go forth, and bear witness of the 
 things which you have seen. 
 
 Yes, forget your weakness, whatever that weakness 
 may be. It is egotism, it is selfishness after all, for 
 it is a dwelling on self. Forget your weakness ; and 
 remember your strength. 
 
 It is a great privilege, that you are called to be 
 ministers of a national church. The Church in 
 England is the Church of England. Your duties 
 as ministers of Christ thus coincide with your duties 
 as citizens. You have a recognised territory marked 
 out for you, in which your ministry is to be exercised. 
 It is a great advantage to you to have the direct 
 support of the laws and" institutions of your country. 
 
 But this is not your true strength. This is only 
 an adventitious circumstance of your position. If 
 you are apostles at all, you are apostles, not of men, 
 nor by man. Your sufficiency is of God. And so 
 your strength is threefold. 
 
 I. You will bear a commission from God, for you 
 have received a call from God. Yes, to you the voice 
 has gone forth, * Whom shall I send, and who will go 
 for us?' And you, despite all shrinking, despite all 
 indolence, despite all reluctance of self, you have 
 answered promptly, 'Here am I ; send me.' Is it not 
 so? If not, then even at this eleventh hour withdraw. 
 Would you meet with a mocking answer that solemn 
 
I.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 15 
 
 question, ' Do you trust that you are inwardly moved 
 by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this office and 
 ministration ?' Nay, do not enter the holy precincts 
 with a lie upon your lips. 
 
 And so you will receive His commission. Through 
 His appointed minister, He will meet you with it. 
 You will go forth as His ambassadors. It is this 
 assurance which will make you strong. You are 
 the representatives, the vicegerents, of the Great 
 King. Your feebleness is backed by His power. 
 
 2. And secondly, you will remember not only 
 the source of your commission, but the potency of 
 your message. The power of Christ's Cross can never 
 fail. The power of Christ's Resurrection is ever living. 
 This is the lesson of all history. The weapon which 
 you wield is a weapon of the keenest temper. 'The 
 word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than 
 any two-edged sword.' The hand that wields it may 
 be feeble, but the sword itself cannot lose its edge. 
 
 3. Thirdly and lastly; remember that you have 
 the promise of the indwelling, the guidance of the 
 Holy Spirit. Here is a perennial inspiration, a never- 
 failing supply of force, which shall enable you to 
 wield your weapon effectively. Very solemn words 
 will be addressed to you to-morrow to the priests 
 especially. Whatever else they mean, they must mean 
 this much at least, that we that you and I believe 
 
1 6 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [l. 
 
 in a very special gift of God's Holy Spirit, vouchsafed 
 in and through Ordination to those who are truly 
 called and duly commissioned as ministers of His 
 Church. Were it not so, it would be mockery for me 
 to say, or for you to hear, these words. Forget not 
 that from that moment forward you will be in a very 
 special sense the temples of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 This then is the threefold cord of your assurance 
 the authority of your commission, the potency of your 
 message, the reality of your inspiration. Here is the 
 triple breastplate, with which you will gird yourself 
 for the fight, the call of God the Father, the message 
 of God the Son, the guidance of God the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 Remember these things. Meditate upon these 
 things. Pray over these things. Much, very much, 
 may be done still in the time which remains before 
 the solemn vows are made and the high investiture is 
 received. Wrestle with the Angel this night and 
 compel him to bless you. God grant that you all 
 may come forth from the conflict Princes of God ; 
 and that the dawning of day may bring to you the 
 dawning of a truer, higher, holier life a life in God, 
 and for God. 
 
II. 
 
 Replenish them ivith the truth of Thy doctrine, and 
 endtie them with innocency of life. 
 
 EMBER COLLECT. 
 
 [September, 1880, 1884, and 1888.] 
 DEACONS ONLY. 
 
 You are standing on the brink of a new career. 
 An unknown sea lies before you, a boundless expanse 
 to which you will commit yourselves with no other- 
 guidance than the stars of heaven. In a few hours the 
 choice will be made, the crisis will be past. A wide 
 gulf will separate the new life from the old. A wide 
 and impassable gulf; for though the law now allows 
 a return, you will feel that for you no such return is 
 possible. Fidelity to your most solemn vows, the 
 honour of God, even the sense of self-respect, all will 
 combine to exclude the thought of such a renuncia- 
 tion. You resolve, God helping you, to serve in the 
 O. A. 2 
 
1 8 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ll. 
 
 sacred ministry of His Church to the end through 
 honour and dishonour, through evil report and good 
 report, in life and in death. You will not dare to look 
 back, lest the longing backward gaze should stiffen 
 and petrify your spiritual being, and the history of 
 your life become fixed as a pillar of warning to all 
 passers by. To you at this turning point of your 
 lives the words will come home with a double force } 
 'No man, having put his hand to the plough, and 
 looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God. 1 
 
 At such a time it will be a consolation and sup- 
 port to you to remember that day after day during 
 the week past the prayers of the whole Church have 
 risen and gathered round the throne of God, calling 
 down His grace and heavenly benediction upon you. 
 In every language, under every sky, in every climate 
 and season, under all external conditions of human 
 life, this one prayer has gone forth, the chorus of the 
 Universal Church. Lay this thought to your hearts 
 this evening in the silent hours of prayer and self- 
 examination, when you are preparing yourselves for 
 the pledges and the benediction of to-morrow. What 
 strength, what sense of companionship, what inspira- 
 tion may you not draw from it ! * For me, for my 
 weakness, for my inexperience, for my ignorance, for 
 my inability, all these voices have ascended as one 
 voice to the mercy-seat of God.' 
 
II.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 1 9 
 
 From these Ember prayers I take the sentence 
 which I desire to make the subject of our meditations 
 on this eve of your ordination : 
 
 'Replenish them with the truth of Thy doctrine, 
 and endue them with innocency of life.' 
 
 Here are the two points, the doctrine and the life, 
 the teaching and the example, the terms of the 
 message and the conduct of the messenger, not only 
 * What will you say?' but 'What will you be?' These 
 are the two questions which you must ask yourselves 
 to-night. 
 
 i. First of all then, what shall be your message ? 
 May we not say that it is summed up in two proposi- 
 tions, 'God the righteous/ 'God our Father'? 
 
 On these two propositions hang all theology and 
 all ethics. 
 
 ' God the righteous.' To make your people under- 
 stand what righteousness is, this must be the basis of 
 all your teaching. To understand what righteousness, 
 absolute righteousness, is does this seem a very easy 
 lesson, a very common acquisition ? To talk about 
 it, to think about it, this no doubt is easy; but to 
 stand face to face with it, to scan all its lines, to view 
 all its proportions, to feel the beauty, the power, the 
 majesty, the dread of it yes, the dread of it, for there 
 is in true goodness an overpowering something before 
 which we guilty creatures are constrained to veil our 
 
 2 2 
 
2O ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ll. 
 
 faces and bow our heads and adore in silent awe to 
 understand what righteousness is in this way; to know 
 God as the absolute righteousness, the faultless holi- 
 ness, the spotless purity, the unfailing truth, the 
 perfect goodness to understand and to know all this 
 is the most difficult of all lessons. He who knows 
 this however partially, he who sees this however 
 faintly, will start back with a shudder from the un- 
 truthful word and the dishonest act and the impure 
 thought, as from red-hot iron or from scalding water. 
 Do you understand it ? Do you know it ? It is vain 
 to speak of the consolations of the Gospel, vain to 
 insist on the privileges of Church-membership, so 
 long as these things are forgotten or only faintly 
 remembered. Here is the initial test for your parish- 
 ioners and for yourself; 'What shrinking, what pain, 
 what abhorrence, do these cause me these tempta- 
 tions, these sins?' Until you, and they, have satisfied 
 this initial test, the Gospel has no consolations and 
 Church-membership has no privileges for you. 
 
 This then is the first thesis of theology, ' God the 
 righteous ;' and the second is like unto it, ' God our 
 Father.' 
 
 'God our Father.' To recognise love, fatherly 
 love, as the beginning and the end of all God's 
 dealings with man this is the completion, as the 
 other was the foundation, of theology. To go to 
 
II.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 21 
 
 God as a Father; to take counsel with Him as a 
 Father; to open our hearts to him as a Father; to 
 lay before Him our joys, our sorrows, our perplexities, 
 our temptations, our shortcomings ; to seek comfort, 
 to seek strength, to seek inspiration, from this close 
 community with Him as with a Father this is the 
 goal, as the other was the starting point, of the 
 Gospel message. 
 
 Teach this lesson to your people ; but learn it 
 yourselves first. For their sakes, for your own sakes, 
 learn it. When you are downcast and saddened by 
 disappointment, when all seems to be going wrong 
 with you, when your sermons gain no hearing and 
 your parochial visits are spurned, when the mourner 
 refuses your consolations and the sinner hardens 
 himself against your warnings, and you return home 
 (it may be) at evening after a hard day of fruitless 
 labour fatigued, downcast, self-accusing, desponding, 
 almost heart-broken, then, oh ! then, remember that 
 your heavenly Father is very near to you, throw 
 yourself into His arms, and sob your childish heart 
 to rest in His embrace, that you may rise fresh and 
 cheerful for the morrow's work. 
 
 But these, it will be said, are such very old and 
 very simple elementary truths that it was hardly 
 worth while dwelling upon them. Yes, they are very 
 old ; older than man, older than the first traces of life 
 
22 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ll. 
 
 upon this earth, older than the oldest of the stars ; 
 but fresh and fertile still, as the earth is fresh and 
 fertile, fresh and glorious still, as the stars are fresh 
 with undiminished glory. 
 
 They are simple, simple as a law of nature is 
 simple. But like a law of nature the law of gravita- 
 tion for instance in their very simplicity they hold 
 the potency of infinitely varied applications. 
 
 But, you may say again, this is not S. Paul's way 
 of looking at the matter. When S. Paul sums up the 
 Gospel message, he says nothing of these two proposi- 
 tions. His definition is quite apart from them. ' I 
 determined/ he says, 'to know nothing, save Jesus 
 Christ and Him crucified.' My answer is that Christ, 
 more especially Christ crucified, is the interpretation, 
 is the embodiment, is the manifestation of these two 
 truths, the righteousness of God, the fatherly good- 
 ness of God ; that in the Incarnation of Christ, in the 
 Life of Christ, above all in the Death and Passion of 
 Christ, these truths were seen and handled, as it were, 
 were pressed upon the attention of mankind. 
 
 ' God the righteous.' Does not S. Paul again and 
 again speak of the Gospel as a manifestation of 
 the righteousness of God? Is not Christ Himself 
 specially designated the Just or the Righteous One? 
 Christ is the manifestation of God's righteousness 
 first of all, as setting forth the one only exemplar of 
 
II. J ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 23 
 
 a perfectly righteous human life. But He is still 
 more the manifestation of this righteousness in the 
 stupendous sacrifice of the Incarnation and the Cross. 
 The sacrifice of the Incarnation, I say, as well as the 
 sacrifice of the Cross ; for could any sacrifice, any 
 condescension, any self-abasement be conceived 
 greater than that the Eternal Son of God should 
 deign to be born as a man, to live as a man to say 
 nothing of His dying as a man? Preach this sacrifice 
 in all its length and breadth, in all its height and 
 depth ; not with any hard dry .treatment, not under 
 any stiff technical forms : and you will indeed preach 
 the righteousness of God. What vindication of right- 
 eousness could be conceived more complete, what 
 condemnation of sin can imagination compass more 
 thorough condemnation of man's sin, of your sin, of 
 my sin than this ? 
 
 The heathen knew something of the meaning of 
 sin ; the Jew knew much more. But sin has become 
 a thousand times more sinful when seen in the light 
 of Christ's sacrifice. 
 
 And so again with the other thesis, ' God our 
 Father.' Where was God's fatherly goodness so 
 manifested as in the Incarnation and Passion of 
 Christ ? Love, unspeakable love, fatherly love, is the 
 glory which encircles the cradle of Bethlehem and 
 the Cross of Calvary. Herein was love, not that we 
 
24 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ll. 
 
 loved God, but that He loved us. What else is the 
 meaning of the saying, ' He that hath seen Me, hath 
 seen the Father ' hath seen, not the Omnipotent, not 
 the Avenger, not the King of Kings, but the Father, 
 ' My Father and your Father.' 
 
 Once realise this manifestation of God's fatherly 
 love, and all difficulties vanish away all the anoma- 
 lies of this present world, the terrible physical 
 catastrophes, the cruel social grievances, the injustice, 
 the want, the suffering, the sorrow, the pain, every- 
 thing which seems to speak to us of a stern and 
 pitiless ruler of the universe' all these are only as 
 dust in the balance when weighed against this one 
 transcendent act of redeeming love. As we contem- 
 plate it, all our questionings are silenced. How can 
 we doubt His love now ? We have seen the Father, 
 have seen our Father ; for we have seen Christ seen 
 Him in Bethlehem, seen Him at Gethsemane, seen 
 Him on Calvary. 
 
 2. But I pass on to the second point. Not only 
 must the message be correctly delivered, but the 
 messenger himself must be such as to recommend it 
 to acceptance. If there must be 'truth of doctrine/ 
 there must also be ' innocency of life.' 
 
 You will be commissioned to-morrow, if it please 
 God, as ambassadors of Christ. But an ambassador 
 must not only be loyal to his King, must not only 
 
II.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 25 
 
 adhere strictly to his instructions; he must also be 
 persuasive. The persuasiveness of the Christian am- 
 bassador is the consistent tenour of his life, is the 
 innocency of his life. A large number of your people 
 will be incapable of abstract truths ; they can only 
 apprehend them when exhibited in concrete forms. 
 The Incarnation and Life of Christ was such an 
 embodiment in the highest sense ; your life must be 
 such an embodiment in a lower degree. They will 
 interpret, will judge, your teaching by your actions. 
 There is no logic so convincing as the logic of an 
 upright and truthful life. There is no rhetoric so 
 persuasive as the rhetoric of a sympathetic and 
 innocent heart. 
 
 There are two points more especially in the clergy- 
 man's character on which I desire to dwell this 
 evening, as being essential to his efficiency as an 
 ambassador of Christ. 
 
 I . The first of these is ttprightness. By uprightness 
 I mean that straightforward, honorable dealing, that 
 honesty in word and deed, which is looked for between 
 man and man in worldly affairs. Be not deceived. 
 If this is wanting, all else will be vain. Your sermons 
 may be fervid ; your organisations may be admirable; 
 your parochial visits may be assiduous. But if your 
 word cannot be trusted, if you are loose in money 
 matters, if you involve yourself in debt, all the rest 
 
26 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ll. 
 
 goes for nothing. Here is a standard, which the men 
 of this world can appreciate. They look for this 
 uprightness from one another; they look for more 
 from you. Are they wrong in doing so ? You tell 
 them that their standard is a low standard ; you 
 undertake to lead them to higher things ; you your- 
 self are a light set upon an hill. And yet you fail, 
 fail miserably, in the commonest virtues. It is futile, 
 it is a mockery, to preach the heavenly life the life 
 of prayer, of holiness, of communion with God, if we 
 show ourselves ignorant of these first rudiments of 
 social morality. If we have not proved ourselves 
 faithful in these least things, who will commit to our 
 trust the greatest ? 
 
 2. The other point of which I would speak is 
 simplicity absolute and entire singleness in motive, 
 in aim, in conduct. There is no persuasiveness more 
 effectual than the transparency of a single heart, of a 
 sincere life. I need not tell you what stress is laid on 
 this quality in the Gospels and in the apostolic 
 writings, how duplicity in all its forms is denounced 
 the double tongue, the double heart, the double 
 dealing. 
 
 Simplicity is the characteristic of the little child ; 
 and it is the child-like spirit alone which storms the 
 gates of the kingdom of heaven. To mean what you 
 say, to be what you seem to be, to be transparent and 
 
II.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 27 
 
 to be guileless this will be your constant study. 
 Your constant study, I say ; for do not imagine that 
 simplicity is a purely natural grace ; that simplicity 
 cannot be acquired by discipline and by habit. Check 
 every underhand motive ; check every unreal word ; 
 yes, every unreal word, and how many unreal words 
 are spoken from the pulpit, are spoken even in the 
 pastoral visitation ? In the despised stream of 
 common every-day duties you, like the Syrian of 
 old, may cleanse the leprosy of your soul, and it 
 shall be once again as the soul of a little child. You 
 are God's ambassadors; you are God's diplomatists. 
 With the ambassadors of this world diplomacy has 
 too often been a synonym for duplicity. Singleness, 
 guilelessness, must be the very heart and soul of 
 your diplomacy. 
 
 Ambassadors of God. Do not forget this. You 
 will go forth with a commission from Christ. The 
 sense of this commission will give you strength. 
 You will feel that however feeble, helpless, isolated, 
 you may be in your own self, you have the mighty 
 hosts of the Great King Himself at your back, to 
 sustain you against your spiritual foes. 
 
 Ambassadors of God. Yes ; He lays upon you the 
 burden of a special responsibility, but He grants you 
 the support of a special grace. If He calls you to be 
 His witnesses, as He called the Apostles of old, yet 
 
28 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iL 
 
 He promises you, as He promised them, that the 
 Holy Ghost shall come upon you and ye shall receive 
 power, if only you will trust Him. The Pentecostal 
 gifts have not ceased. To-morrow the earnest of the 
 Spirit is yours. Therefore go forth on your mission, 
 joyfully, hopefully, courageously. 
 
 Ambassadors of God. Remember this commission 
 in yourselves, but do not parade it before others. Do 
 not vulgarise it. An assertion of authority by a 
 young clergyman provokes only opposition. Rather 
 approve yourselves to your people as ambassadors of 
 Christ by delivering the message of Christ, by doing 
 the works of Christ, by living the life of Christ. 
 
 Ambassadors ; yes, even you deacons : but still 
 more ministers, as the very title of your office implies 
 ministers, servants. And is not this a nobler title 
 after all? Was it not for this that Christ left the 
 glories of the Eternal Throne, and became as one of 
 us, 'not to be ministered unto, but to be a minister* 
 ov Bt,aKowr]0rjvat, d\\a Sia/covrja-ai to be a minister, 
 to be a deacon ? Is it not this, to which the chiefest 
 promise of the Gospel is attached ? He who would 
 be first must be last of all, must be minister of all, 
 deacon of all. To work for others, to think for others, 
 to feel for others, to be a deacon in the truest sense, 
 this is your work. This also will be your crown, your 
 joy and your glory. 
 
II. J ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 2$ 
 
 Therefore in the silence of this night, and in the 
 quiet of to-morrow's daybreak, pray to God, that He 
 will grant you the spirit of ministration, the spirit 
 of deaconship ; the simplicity, the guilelessness, the 
 humility, the mercy, the cheerfulness, the sympathy 
 the helpfulness, the love. Pray, nothing doubting 
 that He will vouchsafe a special gift of His Holy 
 Spirit according to your faith and according to your 
 need. Pray this for His blessed Name's sake, Who 
 was Himself the chief of deacons. 
 
III. 
 
 The heaven for height, and the earth for depth. 
 
 PROVERBS xxv. 3. 
 
 [Advent, 1880; Trinity, 1884; Trinity, 1888.] 
 
 THESE words will serve as a fit starting point for 
 our meditations. I desire to speak to you of the two 
 elements as well in the dispensation of grace as in the 
 ministerial office, the internal and the external, the 
 spiritual and the temporal, the heavenly and the 
 earthly. 
 
 A plant which has its fibres hidden deep in the 
 soil but is fed with the dews and the sunshine of 
 heaven, which takes root downward and bears fruit 
 upward; this is the image of the Gospel, of the Church 
 of Christ. It has its earthly relations as well as its 
 heavenly. It is before and above all time, and yet it 
 manifests itself in time. It is transcendental, and yet 
 
III.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 3! 
 
 it is historical. It is most divine, and yet it is most 
 human. 
 
 This it is which constitutes its power. Other 
 religions sacrifice the one element to the other. They 
 are, so to speak, altogether heavenly ; and thus they 
 fail to take hold of man. Or they are altogether 
 earthly ; and thus they fail to lift up man from the 
 earth. There is theism on the one hand with its offer 
 of a God unrevealed, unknown, unknowable, a God 
 whose face is veiled and whose tongue is mute, a God 
 who has no response for human yearnings and no cure 
 for human ailments, a God that cannot be realised. 
 There is idolatry on the other hand, whose gods are 
 sensuous, material things gods easy enough to 
 realise, but gods altogether of the earth earthly, gods 
 which leave their worshippers where they found them, 
 grovelling still. All false religions and all false 
 forms of Christianity fail on the one side or on the 
 other; the outward is sacrificed to the inward, or the 
 inward is sacrificed to the outward; the spiritual to 
 the material, or the material to the spiritual. They 
 tend to become all body or all spirit, the one merged 
 or half-merged in the other. 
 
 It is the main characteristic of the true religion 
 that it is both body and spirit, each perfect in itself, 
 neither marring the completeness of the other, yet the 
 two bound together in one indissoluble whole. It is 
 
32 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ill. 
 
 so with the record of the Christian religion the Bible; 
 it is so with the substance of the Christian religion 
 the Incarnation of the Son of God; it is so with the 
 appointed guardian and witness of the Christian 
 religion the Church of Christ 
 
 i. Take first the written record, the Bible. Com- 
 pare it with the sacred books of the other great 
 religions of the world with the Vedas, with the Zend- 
 Avesta, with the Koran. What a contrast have 
 we here! In these other bibles you have abstract 
 moral precepts, abstract ceremonial rites, abstract 
 theological doctrines everything uniform and colour- 
 less, nothing, or almost nothing, which touches life 
 and stirs the heart of man. As you lay down 
 these sacred books, take up ours. What do you find 
 here? Quicquid agunt homines. All the manifoldness 
 and all the variety which characterises the lives and 
 the activities of men history, poetry, philosophy, 
 legislation all bound up in this one volume! The 
 rise and fall of nations ; the vicissitudes of individual 
 lives, kings, nobles, priests, peasants ; the aspirations, 
 the yearnings, the passions, the temptations of human 
 hearts; human joys and human sorrows in all their 
 most characteristic and pathetic forms. In no book 
 that ever was written is humanity so fully exhibited. 
 This is the body. But withal there runs throughout, 
 binding chapter to chapter and book to book, from 
 
III.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 33 
 
 the opening words of Genesis to the closing words of 
 the Apocalypse, the one golden thread, the one eternal 
 purpose, the one divine idea, growing and broadening 
 out unto the perfect day. The hands may be the 
 hands of history, but the voice is the voice of God. 
 Here is the soul. May we not say that in this case 
 also God took of the dust of the earth, of the strivings 
 of men and the turmoils of nations, and breathed into 
 it the breath of life, thoughts that thrill and words 
 that speak speak to all time and through all time to 
 eternity? 
 
 2. And, as we turn from the record to the subject 
 of the revelation, this same characteristic forces itself 
 on our notice. God entering into man, man taken up 
 into God this is the sum and substance of the whole. 
 This indwelling of God in man, this assumption of 
 man into God, is partial, is gradual, during the long 
 periods which precede the Incarnation. At length the 
 Word is made flesh. God, Who before had spoken 
 through patriarchs and priests and prophets, now 
 speaks in His Son. The union is complete. It is no 
 longer God inspiring man, but God become man. It 
 is no longer man moved by God, but man one with 
 God. Here is the true response to all devout yearnings, 
 the final goal of all religious instincts this perfect, 
 indissoluble, union of God and man at length realised 
 in the Incarnation of our Lord. Heaven and earth 
 O. A. 
 
34 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ill. 
 
 have kissed each other. Perfect God, perfect man 
 this is the one Catholic doctrine of the Person of 
 Christ. 
 
 Has this doctrine of the Incarnation seemed to 
 some to be a stumbling-block in the way of belief? 
 Nay, it is the most powerful witness, the strongest 
 recommendation, of Christianity. It marks off Chris- 
 tianity as the one true, absolute, final religion. If 
 Christianity had stopped short of this, if Christianity 
 had offered, as all other religions offer, some imperfect 
 union between the human and the divine, it would 
 have taken its place with other religions. It would 
 have failed, like them, to find an adequate response to 
 the yearnings of the human heart; it would have 
 failed, like them, to supply a solution to the problem 
 which consciously or unconsciously underlies all the 
 religious aspirations of mankind. And yet the solu- 
 tion was a surprise. It could not have been foreseen. 
 It was unlike anything else which had gone before. 
 
 Therefore this doctrine is not a stumbling-block, 
 not an encumbrance, to the Gospel. It is the very 
 essence of the Gospel. It alone gives meaning, gives 
 force, gives cohesion, gives finality, to the teaching of 
 the Bible. It is the crown of the religious edifice. 
 And so all other views of the Person of Christ Arian, 
 Socinian, Gnostic condemn themselves, on this 
 ground alone. They dethrone Christianity. They 
 
III.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 35 
 
 deprive it of its significance. They stultify its title 
 to universal dominion. 
 
 3. We have traced these two elements first in the 
 record, and then in the substance of revelation. Let 
 us consider them lastly in the Church, the guardian of 
 revelation. Here too there is an external element, as 
 well as a spiritual. It is possible to exalt the external 
 at the expense of the spiritual. But it is possible 
 also to neglect the external to the detriment of the 
 spiritual. The Church is something more than a 
 fortuitous concourse of spiritual atoms, a voluntary 
 aggregation of individual souls for religious purposes. 
 There is nothing accidental, nothing arbitrary, in the 
 Church. The Church is an external society, an 
 external brotherhood, an external kingdom, con- 
 stituted by a Divine order. It has its laws, it has its 
 officers, it has its times and seasons. It is not there- 
 fore a matter of indifference, how loosely or how 
 firmly we hold by the Church. We cannot regard 
 ourselves as mere individual units, concerned only 
 with the salvation of our own souls. We are members 
 of a brotherhood; we are citizens of a kingdom. 
 There may be times when the Christian conscience 
 will be perplexed, when our duties towards the visible 
 body may seem to clash with our duties towards the 
 invisible Head. But whatever may be the perplexi- 
 ties, however great may be the difficulty of balancing 
 
 32 
 
36 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ill. 
 
 our duties, this idea of a brotherhood, of a kingdom, 
 with all the responsibilities which it carries with it, 
 must never be lost sight of. Loyalty to this idea is 
 essential to the equipment of a true Christian. 
 
 And this train of thought the unity in duality, 
 the combination of the external with the spiritual, as 
 manifested everywhere in God's dealings with man- 
 kind may fitly occupy your minds on this eve of the 
 day when you purpose dedicating yourselves by the 
 most solemn dedication to the special service of 
 Almighty God. 
 
 Is it your call} What is the question, which will 
 be put to you to-morrow a question addressed to 
 deacons and priests alike in a slightly different form ? 
 
 ' Do you think ' ' think in your heart ' ' that you 
 are truly called, according to the will of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and the due order of this realm ' ' the 
 order of this Church of England ' ' to the ministry 
 of the Church' 'to the order and ministry of priest- 
 hood ? ' 
 
 Here again the external and the internal are com- 
 bined. There is the inward call 'according to the 
 will of our Lord Jesus Christ ;' and the outward call 
 ' according to the due order of this realm,' ' the 
 order of this Church of England.' 
 
 Do you indeed think from your heart that you are 
 so called ? This is the question which you will 
 
III.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 37 
 
 answer to me to-morrow. This is the question which 
 I want you to answer to yourselves this evening. 
 
 'According to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 
 Has He spoken to you ? Has He entreated you ? 
 Has He commanded you? This voice of His, how is 
 it heard ? This will of His, how is it expressed ? 
 
 Is it the old demand repeated once more ? ' Put 
 me into one of the priests' offices, that I may eat a 
 piece of bread ?' This is no voice of His. This is the 
 tempter's voice. The labourer indeed is worthy of 
 his hire; but the hire is for the sake of the office, not 
 the office for the sake of the hire. Better a thousand 
 times that your tongue were cut out, than that you 
 should answer the question in the affirmative, if you 
 have no sounder reason for your answer than this. Is 
 it again for the sake of the respectability, the position, 
 which attaches to the clerical office? Cast this motive 
 also behind your back. It is akin to the other. 
 What then? The circumstances of your previous life 
 point to it. You hardly recollect a time when you 
 did not look forward to this step. Or, again; your 
 friends desire it. You are willing to gratify their 
 desire; for, wishing to serve Jesus Christ, you do not 
 see why you should not serve Him in this way, as 
 well as in any other. Or, again; there is in some 
 particular place a work to be done; and, as no one 
 else is forthcoming, you do not see why you should 
 
38 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ill. 
 
 not step forward. Good reasons these, but not 
 adequate in themselves. A deeper underlying prin- 
 ciple must be sought. For after all does not this 
 question, 'Do you think that you are truly called, 
 according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ', 
 resolve itself into that previous question, ' Do you 
 trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy 
 Ghost? 1 
 
 ' Inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost. 1 Do you 
 hear a voice calling to you over the troubled waters 
 of this life, 'Follow thou Me?' Are you conscious 
 of an eager yearning not only to live Christ in your- 
 self, but to declare Christ to others ? Not indeed 
 that this voice will be allowed to speak to your soul 
 without interruption or dispute. Other sounds pierc- 
 ing ones, tumultuous, clamorous will be provoked 
 into life by rivalry with it, and will well-nigh drown it 
 with their noises. There will be the memory of past 
 sins, so lightly committed (it may be) at the moment, 
 so incongruous, so hideous now. These will shriek 
 in your ears. There will be the sense, the crushing 
 sense, of your weakness, your own inexperience. 
 There will be the awe of embarking on an unknown 
 future, a boundless ocean of possibilities which you 
 can only vaguely forecast. This voice too will deafen 
 you with its monotonous reiteration. 
 
 There will be the ideal of the clerical life, with its 
 
III.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 39 
 
 heroic devotion, with its infinite sympathies, with its 
 intense spirituality, so unspeakably beautiful and yet 
 so appalling by its contrast with the dull, sluggish, 
 apathetic, selfish motions, of which you are too pain- 
 fully conscious in your own soul. This cry too will 
 ring piercing and clear. Voices these, which are sent 
 to be our monitors, but must not be our tyrants, must 
 not be our tempters. Else moral paralysis must 
 supervene. Stronger, clearer, more persistent than 
 these, is the voice of the divine call, 'Follow Me.' 
 And what shall be the response ? 
 
 'Lead Thou me on. 
 
 Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see 
 The distant scene; one step enough for me.' 
 
 But this is not sufficient There must be an out- 
 ward call, as well as an inward call. You must be 
 invited, ordained, accredited in a legitimate way, 
 according to an approved order. The body, as well 
 as the spirit, must concur to make your ordination 
 complete. The Church the external, visible, Church 
 must be sponsor for your commission. Do you 
 believe this also ? ' Called not only according to the 
 will of our Lord Jesus Christ, but according to the 
 order of this Church of England.' Does this also 
 enter into your conception of your call ? Do you 
 believe that you have this call ? Do you believe that 
 you are commissioned by a body, ordained through 
 
4O ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ill. 
 
 a representative of that body which body and 
 which representative have authority from Christ 
 Himself? 
 
 But, again, the 'order of this Church of England' is 
 otherwise described as ' the order of this realm.' You 
 cannot afford, when you are answering the question, 
 to put this out of sight. It may be an accident of 
 your position as English Churchmen, but it is a most 
 valuable accident, that the order of the Church is also 
 the order of the realm. Not the least advantage is 
 that your duties as clergymen are coincident with 
 your duties as citizens. Ask yourselves then it is 
 a pertinent question to ask, especially at this time 
 ' Do I feel that as a clergyman I can be loyal to the 
 laws of my country, as well as loyal to the claims 
 of my Church ? ' 
 
 And not only is this twofold element present in 
 your call. It must pervade your whole clerical life. 
 It will manifest itself in your ministrations. This is 
 the distinguishing character of the Christian ministry, 
 as contrasted with other priesthoods, that it is charged 
 with a direct care for the bodies as well as the souls 
 of men. It is human, most human, as well as most 
 divine. Hence humanity is its leading characteristic. 
 Sympathy with poverty, with sickness, with pain, 
 with all the bodily miseries and all the mundane 
 struggles of your flock this will be the fulcrum on 
 
III.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 4! 
 
 which you will rest the spiritual lever that shall raise 
 earth to heaven. It will manifest itself in your studies. 
 There is no bar to your reading (if you have the time) 
 books of history, books of science, books of travel, 
 books of philosophy. You may read the same books 
 which the worldling reads it is well to some extent 
 that you should read them but you will not read 
 them in the spirit of the worldling. You will 'draw all 
 your cares and studies this way.' You will see God's 
 Face everywhere piercing every disguise. Yes; *O 
 Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth ' earth as well 
 as heaven, if we could but see it ' heaven and earth 
 are full of Thy glory/ It will manifest itself more 
 especially in your direct teaching, in your sermons. 
 Why is it that so many sermons fail to hit the mark, 
 are mere beating of the air ? Is it not this, that either 
 body is wanting, or spirit is wanting? Either they are 
 mere abstract doctrine, mere abstract reflexion, with 
 nothing that touches the immediate, individual wants 
 of this or that person, of this or that class of persons. 
 So they fail to lay hold of the man. Or they are mere 
 social talk, mere literary disquisition; and so, though 
 they may get hold of the man, they cannot lift him; 
 they leave him clutching the dust, as they found him. 
 ' The heaven for height, and the earth for depth.' 
 Is not this the true description of the effective 
 preacher ? 
 
42 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [ill. 
 
 Yes, and the true ideal of the clerical life also. 
 This is the inestimable privilege, the peculiar bliss, of 
 the clergyman's profession, that there is nothing too 
 human, and nothing too divine, for his cognizance. 
 Happy he who strives to realise this ! Happy he who 
 keeps this ideal ever in view eager ever to probe the 
 lowest depths of human sympathy and to scale the 
 loftiest heights of divine grace ! Happy now, despite 
 opposition, despite misgivings, despite weakness, 
 despite failure, despite the fears within, and the 
 fightings without cruel antagonists both! Happy 
 now in this life beyond the happiness of all other 
 professions; but happy, unspeakably happy, then 
 when he shall receive the crown of righteousness, 
 laid up by the Lord the Righteous Judge. 
 
 Claim this happiness for yourselves. Follow the 
 example of your Master Christ. Descend with Him 
 to the lowest parts of the earth, that you may rescue 
 souls in prison. Ascend with Him far above all 
 heavens, that you may present souls to God. 
 
 And to this end retire to your chambers this 
 evening; enter into the Holy of Holies; fall on your 
 faces before the glory of the Eternal Presence ; give 
 yourselves wholly to God this night that He may 
 give Himself wholly to you. So when to-morrow 
 comes, and the question is put to you, ' Do you trust 
 that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost?' 
 
III.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 43 
 
 'Do you think that you are truly called?' you will 
 answer promptly and cheerfully, will answer with 
 thanksgiving, but will answer also in no self-confident 
 spirit, will answer with awe and trembling of soul, ' I 
 trust so,' ' I think it.' 
 
IV. 
 
 A mbassadors for Christ. 
 
 2 CORINTHIANS v. 20. 
 
 Your servants for Jesus sake. 
 
 i CORINTHIANS iv. 5. 
 
 [Trinity, 1881 ; Advent, 1885.] 
 
 A NEW office, a new work, a new life ; not less 
 momentous than this is the crisis for all of you 
 for the deacons more especially. 
 
 To-morrow the change will come. To-morrow the 
 commission will be issued. To-morrow the irrevocable 
 step will be taken. 
 
 Yes, the irrevocable step. Remember this. What- 
 ever latitude the existing law of the land may give, 
 there must be no latitude for you;, there must be 
 no looking back, when the hand is once put to the 
 plough ; there must be no paltering with your ordina- 
 tion vows vows made not to man but to God. 
 
 What thoughts then should occupy your minds in 
 
IV.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 45 
 
 the few hours that remain ? What note shall I strike 
 now, as the key note to those thoughts ? 
 
 Let me direct your attention to some titles which 
 are assigned to the Christian ministry in the New 
 Testament The designations are manifold. The 
 Christian minister is a steward. The Church is a 
 household, a family. The gifts and graces, promised 
 under the Gospel, are the household stuff, the food 
 and the wages of the members ; and he the minister 
 is the dispenser, is the distributor, of these good 
 things of God. Again he is a watchman, a sentinel. 
 He stands on his lofty tower; he patrols the battle- 
 ments, ever wakeful, ever alert with eye and ear, the 
 guardian of the citadel of religion, truth, and morality, 
 against a sudden surprise of the foe. Again he is a 
 pastor, a shepherd. The congregation is a flock of 
 sheep. He tends them. He protects them from the 
 assaults of wild beasts by night. He finds shelter for 
 them from the burning sun at noonday. He leads 
 them to the green pastures and the cooling streams. 
 He carries the young, the weary, the footsore, on his 
 shoulders. And there are other designations also on 
 which I might dwell. But I prefer to-day asking you 
 to fix your attention on two titles more especially, 
 which we find given to the Christian minister, startling 
 in themselves and still more startling by their contrast 
 ambassador and slave. 
 
46 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iV. 
 
 Yes, you aspire to become to-morrow ambassadors 
 of God. You claim all the dignity, the pomp, the 
 circumstance, which appertains to the delegates, the 
 commissioners, the representatives, of the King of 
 Kings. And yet at the same time you submit to be 
 slaves, not ministers only (Sidfcovoi), not underlings 
 only (vTrrjperai), but slaves (SoDXot); slaves not of God, 
 not of Christ (this were a small thing), but slaves of 
 your congregation, slaves of your people, slaves of 
 men. You sign away your liberty ; you rivet your 
 fetters ; you place yourselves at the beck and call 
 of all men. Is not this the true ideal of Christ's 
 minister an ambassador and a slave ? So at least it 
 was with S. Paul. ( Now then we are ambassadors 
 for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us.' 
 ' For which I am an ambassador in bonds/ ' I have 
 made myself a servant,' literally, ' I have enslaved 
 myself unto all.' ' Ourselves your servants, your 
 slaves, for Christ's sake.' 'Ambassador' and * slave' 
 the highest and the lowest. Herein is fulfilled the 
 saying, 'Everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, 
 and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.' 
 
 ' Ambassador ' and * slave.' Yes ; most true slave, 
 because most faithful ambassador; most successful 
 ambassador, when most abject slave. And why so? 
 Because then you will be most like Him, Whose 
 representative you arc ; most like Him, Who was 
 
IV.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 47 
 
 at once the highest and the lowest; most like Him, 
 Who became Slave of Slaves, and yet ceased not to 
 be King of Kings. 
 
 This then is the lesson which I desire to impress 
 upon you on the eve of the day which shall witness 
 your dedication of yourselves to a new office in the 
 Church of Christ. Remember that you are ambas- 
 sadors, but remember also that you are slaves. Do 
 not merge the ambassador in the slave, and do not 
 lose the slave in the ambassador. If you forget that 
 you are ambassadors, your work will be feeble, flaccid, 
 listless and inefficient, because nerveless and sinewless. 
 If you forget that you are slaves, it will be arrogant 
 and harsh and repulsive ; it will win no sympathy, 
 because it will show no sympathy; it will gain no 
 adherents, because it will make no sacrifices. 
 
 Let us therefore ask first, what ideas are involved 
 in this image of an ambassador. We may sum up 
 the conception, I think, in three words, commission, 
 representation , diplomacy. The ambassador, before 
 acting, receives a commission from the power for 
 whom he acts. The ambassador, while acting, acts 
 not only as an agent but as a representative of his 
 sovereign. Lastly, the ambassador's duty is not 
 merely to deliver a definite message, to carry out 
 a definite policy ; but he is obliged to watch oppor- 
 tunities, to study characters, to cast about for ex- 
 
48 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iV. 
 
 pedients, so that he may place it before his hearers 
 in its most attractive form. He is a diplomatist. 
 
 Apply these three elements in the conception 
 of an ambassador to the Christian ministry. 
 
 I. First of all. there is the commission. Yes, this 
 must be the foundation of all your work. This is the 
 question which you will ask yourselves, and answer to 
 yourselves, before all things ; ' Do I believe that God 
 calls me, commissions me, authorises me, to be His 
 appointed messenger, delegate, ambassador, to offer 
 terms of peace, to negociate a treaty with men ? ' 
 How can you know this ? It is necessary indeed that 
 you should receive your commission through some 
 authoritative visible channel ; but this is a very small 
 and a very worthless thing, if it stands alone. No 
 external summons, no outward investiture, no voice or 
 authority of man, is sufficient in itself to assure you of 
 this commission. How then shall you receive the 
 assurance ? See what shape the question takes in 
 the ordination vows which you will take to-morrow. 
 ' Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the 
 Holy Ghost ?' ' Do you think that you are truly 
 called according to the will of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ?' 'Moved by the Holy Ghost/ 'called accord- 
 ing to the will of Jesus Christ ' you will answer these 
 questions not without awe and trembling ; you will 
 answer them with much misgiving and distrust of 
 
IV.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 49 
 
 self; but, if your ordination to-morrow is to have any 
 spiritual power, if your work in the ministry from 
 that day forth is to bear any real fruit, you must 
 be able to give a genuine and a truthful answer. 
 A genuine and a truthful answer ? What is involved 
 in this? Why, you must be conscious of a voice 
 within you. Not a sharp piercing cry perhaps, not a 
 deafening thunderclap, not the sound of a mighty 
 rushing wind as on that first day of Pentecost. The 
 Holy Ghost does not always manifest Himself thus. 
 God does not commonly speak so to the soul of man. 
 The Spirit's manifestation may be as the soft breath 
 of eventide ; God's voice may be the still small voice, 
 the low but distinct whisper of a gradually growing 
 and ripening conviction. But in -some way or other 
 the prompting must be felt, the voice must be heard. 
 'Here is a work, God's work, to be done. And 
 God wants me, God summons me, to do it. I know 
 my weakness ; I know my inability ; I know my 
 ignorance, my inadequacy, my unworthiness in all 
 respects. But notwithstanding this sense of feebleness, 
 I will obey the summons. Notwithstanding it ? Nay, 
 by reason of it ; for is not strength, God's strength, 
 made perfect in weakness ? I cannot bear to think of 
 so many souls perishing for lack of food. I cannot 
 bear to see so many sons of God estranged from their 
 Father in Heaven. A ministry of reconciliation. Of 
 o. A. 4 
 
SO ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iV. 
 
 reconciliation, why, the very name draws me with 
 an attractive power which I cannot resist. Dost 
 Thou ask, Lord, " Whom shall I send ? and who 
 will go for us?" There is only one answer, there 
 can be only one answer, " Here am I, send me." ' 
 
 This sense, this yearning, this inwrought conviction, 
 will be your strength. It may be that here and there 
 a man has taken upon himself the clerical office 
 without any such conviction, and yet has been found 
 in the end a faithful ambassador of Christ. Brought 
 face to face with stern spiritual exigencies in the 
 agonies of the penitent, or in the sorrow of the 
 bereaved, or in the solemnities of the death-bed, 
 he has learnt at length the terrible responsibilities 
 of that office which he so lightly assumed ; and the 
 very revulsion from his former carelessness has by 
 God's grace purified and transformed and exalted 
 him. But it is a perilous thing to build on this 
 sandy foundation of vague possibility. It is a perilous 
 thing, when seeking an office which will tax all your 
 strength, to despise this which is the only true foun- 
 tain of strength the belief that God calls you and 
 therefore will be with you, that this is God's work 
 and therefore it will be done in God's strength. 
 
 2. And this brings me to the second point. Not 
 only is the ambassador the commissioned agent or 
 officer of his sovereign ; he is also his representative. 
 
IV.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 5! 
 
 I tremble to apply the image. It is so easy to 
 overstep the limits and to run into extravagance, 
 even into blasphemy. But this very danger adds 
 awe and solemnity to the lesson. A representative 
 of God the clergyman is not less than this.. Is 
 it not S. Paul's own application of the image? 'We 
 are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech 
 you by us?' This conception absorbed and burnt 
 into your soul will it not give intensity, power, 
 illumination, to your ministry ? Not yourselves, but 
 God ; God speaking in and through you ! How shall 
 you realise this ideal? How shall you make this a 
 fact, which is now a potentiality ? How else but by 
 seeking God, by conferring with God, by standing 
 face to face with God, by dwelling in His presence, 
 thus reflecting the glory of the Lord with unveiled 
 face and being 'transformed into the same image 
 from glory to glory, as from the Lord the Spirit/ 
 
 For, be assured, whether you will or not, you will 
 be taken by the mass of your people to represent God, 
 to represent the Gospel of Christ, in another sense. 
 They will judge the Gospel, not by its inherent cha- 
 racter, not by its natural tendencies, but by the lives 
 of you its ministers. This is very unreasonable, but 
 so it will be. You, its most prominent advocates, 
 will furnish the measure, the standard, of its value 
 to your parish. If you fail in your lives, if you are 
 
 42 
 
52 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iV. 
 
 worldly and self-seeking, are time-serving, are under- 
 hand in your dealings (I say nothing of worse sins, 
 intemperance and the like, which alas ! are not 
 altogether unknown in the clergy), the Gospel will 
 be degraded, and God will be blasphemed in you. 
 
 3. And this brings me to the third point the 
 diplomacy of the ambassador. The ambassador has 
 to recommend his policy. Everything, or almost 
 everything, depends on address in the ambassador. 
 What corresponds to this in your case ? What ele- 
 ments go to make up address in a clergyman ? Why, 
 the first element is character, and the second is 
 character, and the third is character the character 
 and life of you the minister of Christ, of you the 
 preacher of the Gospel a life of earnestness, of 
 self-forgetfulness, of truthfulness, of singleness of 
 purpose, of simplicity. 
 
 Of simplicity yes, of childlike simplicity in all 
 your aims and all your actions. Diplomacy ! What 
 ideas do we not commonly connect with the word ? 
 Ambiguity, manoeuvre, chicane, overreaching, fraud. 
 Not such must be your diplomacy. Only let your 
 people feel that you have a single heart and a single 
 eye ; only let them see that in all your words and all 
 your acts you seek not theirs, but them; not yourself, 
 but your work ; not yourself, but Christ Jesus your 
 Lord ; and the battle is already half won. Duplicity, 
 
IV. J ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 53 
 
 untruthfulness, insincerity, self-assertion, self-seeking 
 in any form this it is which mars the clergyman's 
 influence, this it is which nullifies the effect of a 
 hundred sermons. 
 
 Self-assertion ; I have mentioned this as one 
 form of self-seeking, and so it is ; one of the most 
 mischievous, one of the most fatal, in a clergyman. 
 It is so insidious too ; for it disguises itself under 
 the garb of zeal for the respect due to the office 
 which he holds, or the Church which he represents. 
 I have seen not a few instances in which much 
 piety, much zeal, much laborious work has been 
 nullified, and a whole parish has been estranged 
 or thrown into confusion, by this form of self- 
 seeking, a stiffness of self-assertion, a stubbornness 
 which is easily provoked, which beareth nothing, 
 hopeth nothing, endureth nothing. 
 
 Simplicity, and not simplicity only, but sympathy 
 these are the twin graces which will open the doors 
 of your people's hearts and gain a lodging for your 
 message there twin graces, twin sisters, I say, for 
 is not both the one and the other a negation of self ? 
 
 And, when I have mentioned sympathy, have 
 I not in this one word indicated, have I not ex- 
 hausted, the second great division of my subject? 
 You are constituted to-morrow the ambassadors of 
 God, but you are branded at the same time the 
 
54 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iV. 
 
 bondslaves of men. Wherein does this servitude, 
 this slavery consist ? Is it not in sympathy, active, 
 inexhaustible, boundless sympathy, Christ-like sym- 
 pathy, in rejoicing with those that rejoice and 
 weeping with those that weep, in living with those 
 that live and dying with those that die? To enter 
 into all the cares however trivial, to share all the 
 sorrows however private, to study all the temptations 
 however special, of those committed to your charge, 
 to find a place for all these things in your heart this 
 is the servitude, to which to-morrow will bind you 
 over. Servus servorum, ' slave of slaves ' ; such is 
 the high title, which the proudest of Christian prelates 
 arrogates to himself. Poor indeed when so arrogated ; 
 but blessed, unspeakably blessed, if it be not a title, 
 but a fact ; not a fashion of speech, but a rule of life. 
 Ambassador of God, slave of men. Here are 
 the pillars which flank the gateway of ministerial 
 efficiency. These two conceptions realised make up 
 the ideal of the clerical office. Strive you to realise 
 them. Realise them in your prayers and medi- 
 tations in the few hours which remain before your 
 consecration to-morrow; realise them in your lives 
 throughout the long years which lie before you, the 
 long years with all their hopes and fears, with all 
 their tremendous responsibilities and all their glorious 
 potentiality. 
 
V. 
 
 God hath not given us tJte spirit of fear ; but of 
 power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 
 
 i TIMOTHY i. 7. 
 
 [Advent^ 1881 ; Advent, 1884.] 
 
 TO-DAY a deacon, to-morrow a priest; to-day a 
 layman, to-morrow a deacon for all a great change, 
 for some the great change in the condition of your 
 lives is imminent. How shall you best prepare to 
 meet it? What at such a moment shall be the 
 predominant feeling in your hearts ? Shall it be 
 exultation ? God forbid. You know little of your- 
 selves, if, confronted with the burden of responsibilities 
 which awaits you, you can find place for exultation. 
 A profound sense of awe will be yours ; an abundant 
 overflow of thanksgiving will be yours; that you 
 your unworthiness, your feebleness, your ignorance, 
 your nothingness you of all men should have been 
 
56 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [v. 
 
 chosen for so high a dignity and so weighty a task ; 
 but for exultation there is no room. Shall it be 
 depression and despondency ? Again, God forbid ; 
 a thousand times, God forbid. You do well to recall 
 at such a crisis the sins of your past lives your 
 wayward youth, your wasted opportunities, your 
 spurned blessings. You do well to pour out your 
 heart in contrition before God for all these things. 
 You do well to pause for a moment on your own 
 weakness, your own incapacity. To pause there, but 
 not to dwell there. This is before all things a time 
 for faith, for hope, for a trustful reliance on God, for a 
 thankful looking forward to the work of Christ which 
 is in store for you, remembering always that you have 
 not chosen Him, but He has chosen you. What then 
 shall be the attitude of your souls on this the eve of 
 your ordination ? Not exultation, and not despondency ; 
 not pride in your strength, for this is your weakness ; 
 not dismay at your weakness, for this may be your 
 strength; no dwelling on your capacities or incapacities, 
 on your greatness or your littleness, but on God on 
 God's pledges, on God's gifts, of which you will receive 
 the earnest to-morrow. 
 
 So then let us steady and concentrate our thoughts 
 by fixing them on one text, which describes the hopes 
 nay, let us rather say, the assurances of our con- 
 secration to the clerical office. Ov/c eScoKev r^lv 6 
 
V.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 57 
 
 o? TTvev/Jia SetXtW, aXXa SvvdfjLea)<; ical dydTrr)? KOI 
 
 'God gave us not a spirit of Tearfulness, but of 
 power and of love and of sobering discipline.' 
 
 These are directly ministerial gifts, you will observe. 
 The context makes this quite clear. They are the 
 gifts which Paul himself received, the gifts which 
 Timothy received, the gifts which every duly ordained 
 minister of Christ receives or may receive by virtue 
 of the promise of the Holy Spirit, which Christ has 
 left to His Church ; a great potentiality which by 
 prayer, by self-discipline, by zeal and devotion may 
 be developed into an active, living, power; a magni- 
 ficent earnest of a larger, fuller, richer endowment in 
 the time to come ; a germ of living fire, which, duly 
 fanned and fed with fuel, will spread into a mighty 
 flame, purifying, dissolving, illuminating; an ever 
 intensifying centre of light and heat. ^ -^ 6iS 
 
 Yet, though a ministerial gift, not differing in its 
 essential qualities from the gifts bestowed on the 
 faithful, whosoever they may be. Is not power, is 
 not love, is not the discipline of the heart and life, the 
 attribute of the layman not less than of the ordained 
 priest and deacon ? Should you expect it otherwise ? 
 What is your diaconate but an intensification of the 
 function of ministering which is incumbent on all 
 believers alike ? What is your priesthood but a 
 
58 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [v. 
 
 concentration of the priesthood of the whole people 
 of Christ ? Yes, you will do well to press upon your 
 people in season and out of season that the Church of 
 Christ is one great priesthood, one vast spiritual 
 brotherhood, gathered together of all sorts and 
 conditions of men, for the good of humanity, if you 
 will, for the saving of individual souls, if you will, but 
 beyond all and through all and before all for the 
 offering of continual sacrifices to the praise and honour 
 and glory of God ; that God not humanity, not this 
 or that parish, not this or that man may be all in 
 all. 
 
 All in all. Yes, God is the end of your work, but 
 He is the beginning also. God is the last link of the 
 chain, but He is the first also. If there is to be 
 hereafter any power, any vitality, in your ministrations ; 
 if you would rescue your clerical office from sinking 
 into a listless, lifeless, thing a dreary round of mono- 
 tonous tasks without heart, without hope why then 
 you must feel and know that, along with the burden 
 of responsibility which He lays upon you in your 
 ordination, God endows you with the strength to bear 
 that burden ; He bestows upon you then and there 
 the earnest of His Spirit. Looking back on the day 
 of your ordination in the months and years to come, 
 you must be able to say; 'God gave to me gave to 
 me a potentiality of power and love, which (His 
 
V.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 59 
 
 grace helping me) shall be manifested with an ever 
 increasing energy in my life and my ministrations. 
 He baptized me anew with the baptism of the Holy 
 Ghost ; He gave to me a spark of a divine fire, which 
 shall be stirred up and fanned into a mighty flame.' 
 This realisation of the gift that He gave to you this 
 and this only will endow your ministry with living 
 force. 'Not by might, nor by power, but by My 
 Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.' 
 
 And how is this spirit characterised ? One thing 
 it is not. It is not a spirit of fearfulness, not a spirit 
 of cowardice. There will be no misgiving, no shrink- 
 ing back, no calculation of overpowering odds, no 
 terror of possible consequences, if you frankly accept 
 the gift which God offers you to-morrow. What ? 
 You are overwhelmed, as you contemplate the step 
 which you are about to take. You look into yourself 
 and you scrutinise yourself. You are crushed by the 
 sense of your feebleness. You review in detail your 
 intellectual deficiencies, your practical incapacity, your 
 spiritual inexperience. You think of your past sins 
 and your present temptations. Be bold nevertheless. 
 God did not give you the spirit of cowardice. You 
 look out from yourself, and the magnitude of the 
 work overawes and stuns you. These many hundreds, 
 or perhaps thousands, of practical heathens; all 
 this misery, all this vice, all this ignorance, massed 
 
60 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [v. 
 
 and welded together, these serried legions of Satan 
 who am I, that I should withstand singlehanded this 
 invincible host ? Again I say, be brave. The spirit 
 which God gave you is no craven spirit. You watch 
 the rising tide of atheism and unbelief. Slowly and 
 surely it is advancing, or at least it seems to you 
 to advance. There is a horrible fascination in the 
 sight. Who are you, that you should stem its imperious 
 torrent ? It seems as though you must be riveted to 
 the ground on which you stand, until you also are 
 engulfed with the rest. Nay, be strong, and very 
 courageous. God gave you not a spirit of faith- 
 lessness, not a spirit of despair. And once more. 
 You compare your capacities and qualifications with 
 those of others ; and it seems to you that every one, 
 whom you meet, is better equipped and armed for the 
 work than yourself. One man has a flow of words 
 and a power of expression of which you are utterly 
 devoid. Another has a charm of presence or an 
 attractiveness of address which is denied to you. 
 A third has a capacity of business and a power of 
 organisation which is wholly foreign to you. You are 
 less than the very least. What then ? God has called 
 you. God wants you. God has work for you to do. 
 ' Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before 
 thce ' yes, before t/iee ' go up and possess it.' ' The 
 Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee ; He 
 
V.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 6 1 
 
 will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. 1 ' Fear not, neither 
 be dismayed.' 
 
 A spirit not of fearfulness, but of power. Realise 
 this power. Ask yourself whence it comes, what it is, 
 how it works. 
 
 You the ministers of the Gospel, you the priests of 
 God, are called to wield an instrument of unrivalled 
 capacity, an instrument of very subtle delicacy, it is 
 true, but above all things an instrument of unique 
 power. S. Paul had found it so ; you may find it so 
 likewise, if you will. He thus describes this instru- 
 ment for you, 'Christ the Power of God.' The 
 Incarnation, the humanity, the words and the works, 
 above all the Cross of Christ here is the true secret 
 of your strength. You, like the Apostle, may go 
 forth to-morrow, or the next day, on your errand 
 in weakness and in fear and in much trembling ; you, 
 like him, may be painfully conscious of your many 
 defects, the mean presence or the contemptible speech, 
 the ill-furnished mind or the youthful inexperience; 
 but you, like him, will go forth conquering and to 
 conquer, if only you march forward in the strength 
 of the Cross of Christ. For what manifestation of 
 God's righteousness, what indication of God's justice, 
 what denunciation of sin, what revelation of mercy 
 and goodness is there in heaven and earth comparable 
 to this Cross of Christ ? This message at once of 
 
62 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [v. 
 
 infinite righteousness and of infinite love is placed 
 in your hands; this truth of boundless range and 
 inexhaustible application, overawing, rebuking, re- 
 deeming, purifying, regenerating the souls of men, 
 touching all the best instincts and awakening all the 
 truest affections, piercing the conscience and thrilling 
 the heart ; this attractive power, this lifting up of 
 Christ, which shall draw all men to Him drawing 
 them indeed with the cords of a man, but drawing 
 them by the hand of God. 
 
 This engine, most human, most divine, is entrusted 
 to you, wherewith you may vanquish and lead captive 
 the souls of men, chaining them to the car of Christ, 
 having first been vanquished and led captive your- 
 selves. Ah, yes : it must be with you, as it was with 
 those first disciples of old. Through the bolted doors 
 of convention and habit and circumstance, into the 
 closed chamber of your inner life, the apparition of the 
 Crucified Christ forces its way the apparition, nay 
 not the apparition, the Crucified Christ Himself. 
 There are the wounded hands and feet ; there is the 
 pierced side. This vision, this realisation, of the 
 Crucified Christ, become the Risen Christ, must be 
 yours. Here is the one indispensable condition, the 
 one absolute prerequisite, without which the spirit of 
 power will not descend on you. Thus appropriating, 
 absorbing, imaging in yourself, reflecting from yourself 
 
V.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 63 
 
 the beauty, the potency, the glory, of the Cross of 
 Christ, you, like the Apostles of old, will be endowed 
 from on high. You, like them, will ' receive power, 
 when the Holy Ghost is come upon you.' To you the 
 message of peace, the peace which passeth all under- 
 standing, will come. To you the great commission 
 will be given. ' As the Father hath sent Me, even so 
 send I you/ Over you the breath of the Saviour will 
 pass, while into your hands is delivered the power of 
 binding and loosing through the instrumentality of 
 the Eternal Gospel, and with the authority of Christ 
 Himself, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosesoever sins 
 ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever 
 sins ye retain, they are retained.' So you will go from 
 strength to strength ; you will advance from victory 
 to victory. And what is the source of your strength ? 
 Simply this. The Holy Ghost has taken of Christ's, 
 and has shown unto you. 
 
 The spirit of power, but yet of love or shall we 
 not say the spirit of power, because of love. Is it not 
 so with our Lord Himself? What is the secret of His 
 power over the hearts and lives of men ? Is it not 
 love the amazing love of the only-begotten Son of 
 God, Who condescended to take our flesh, and to live, 
 and to labour, and to die for us ; a love defying all 
 parallel, and transcending all thought ? Is it not love 
 the surpassing love of the Incarnate Son of God, 
 
64 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [V. 
 
 manifesting itself in all the fair humanities of life, 
 unfathomable in its depth and unapproachable in its 
 beauty ? Is it not this which has arrested, attracted, 
 impelled, successive generations of Christian men and 
 women ? And here again, whatever success may by 
 God's grace attend your ministry will be due to the 
 same cause. The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, will 
 take of Christ's take of Christ's love, as He took of 
 Christ's power and will give to you. Christ's love 
 will constrain you. Christ's love will call forth your 
 love. Christ's love will melt, will fuse, will remould 
 your hearts, as of old the lightning flash melted and 
 refashioned the heart of the fusile Apostle on the way 
 to Damascus. 
 
 But the bounty of God's Spirit does not end here. 
 Power and love are mighty engines ; but they need a 
 guiding, controlling hand. Power may be abused. 
 Love may run into extravagance. So God adds yet 
 another to these His gracious gifts. He bestows upon 
 you a spirit crwcfrpovia-fjiov, 'of sobering, chastening, 
 discipline,' which shall correct all excesses, shall 
 regulate all the impulses of the heart and all the 
 actions of the life, shall harmonize the functions and 
 energies of your ministerial work. What common 
 sense is in practical life, this o-aKfrpovio-fio? is to the 
 moral and spiritual life; without it the ideal of the 
 ministerial gift would be imperfect. What else should 
 
V.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 65 
 
 prevent your spiritual sympathies from degenerating 
 into sickly sentimentalities ? What else should guard 
 your self-examination and contrition from becoming 
 a mere morbid anatomy, paralysing all your best 
 energies, and driving you to despair? What else 
 should save you from the confusion of a fatal, self- 
 complacency which persuades you that you are 
 magnifying your office, when in fact you are only 
 magnifying yourself? What else should guard your 
 zeal for Christ's Church, and your championship of 
 God's truth, from sinking into a mere accentuation of 
 differences or a wayward exhibition of party spirit ? 
 What else should repress that spirit of irritability, 
 of angularity, of sensitiveness to personal slight, 
 the temper which ere now has neutralised many a 
 clergyman's zeal and devotion, and shipwrecked many 
 a ministerial career of the brightest promise and hope 
 at the outset ? What else, but this spirit of sobering 
 discipline, which along with the spirit of power and 
 the spirit of love God gives to you ? 
 
 To-morrow you will be reconsecrated as the 
 temples of the Holy Ghost. How shall you spend 
 the few hours which remain ? How, but in cleansing 
 and purifying these temples ? Old things are passed 
 away ; behold, all things are become new. Strive this 
 night by one supreme effort to realise the change. 
 Recall all the spiritual lessons and experiences of the 
 O. A. 5 
 
66 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [v. 
 
 past. If ever you have known, as you must have 
 known, the long agony of contrition for some reckless 
 sin of a moment ; if ever you have felt the blessed 
 recompense which an act of genuine self-sacrifice has 
 brought in its train ; if ever in the scourge of sorrow 
 or pain or sickness or bereavement you have recog- 
 nised the chastening hand of a merciful and loving 
 Father; if ever the dear sanctities of home and 
 the ennobling communion of friendship have given 
 strength or solace to your life ; if ever by some sudden 
 flash inexplicable to yourself God's righteousness or 
 God's love has revealed itself in all its splendour 
 to your soul, gather up this night all these gracious 
 lessons and experiences, and lay them as a sweet 
 incense on the altar of your self-devotion. One night 
 only remains. But one night has done much ere now, 
 and one night may do much again. One night 
 crowned the treachery of all treacheries, and con- 
 summated the work of the son of perdition. Yes, 
 but one night also one night of wrestling and of 
 prayer won the blessing of all blessings, and changed 
 a Jacob into an Israel, the supplanter of his brother 
 into the Prince of God. God grant that this may be 
 such a night for all of you, a night of Peniel, a night 
 when God is seen face to face. 
 
VI. 
 
 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights 
 burning ; and ye yourselves like unto men that iv ait for 
 their lord, when he will return from the wedding. . 
 
 S. LUKE xii. 35, 36. 
 
 \Trinity, 1882; Trinity -, 1886.] 
 
 A GREAT change in your lives, a tremendous 
 pledge given, a tremendous responsibility incurred, 
 a magnificent blessing claimed, a glorious potentiality 
 of good bestowed how else shall I describe the 
 crisis which to-morrow's sun will bring, or at least 
 may bring, to all of you, to deacons and priests 
 alike, to those who are entering on the first stage 
 of the ministry most perceptibly, but to those whose 
 ministry is crowned with the duties and the privileges 
 of the higher order most really ! 
 
 A great and momentous change momentous be- 
 yond all human conception for good or for evil, to 
 yourselves, to your flock, to every one who comes 
 
 52 
 
68 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vi. 
 
 in contact with you. For good or for evil. It must 
 be so. This is the universal law in things spiritual. 
 The same Christ, Who is for the rising of many, 
 is for the falling of many likewise. The same 
 gospel, which is to some the savour of life unto life, 
 is to others the savour of death unto death. A 
 potentiality of glory must likewise be a potentiality 
 of shame. You cannot touch the ark of God with 
 profane hands and live just because it is the ark 
 of God. 
 
 I know not, I never do know, what to say on 
 such occasions as these. Where shall I begin and 
 where shall I end ? What shall I say, and what 
 shall I leave unsaid ? One short half-hour of ex- 
 hortation, where the experience of a long lifetime 
 were all too little for the subject ! One short half- 
 hour, where the issues involve an eternity of bliss 
 or of woe to many immortal souls of your brothers 
 and sisters for whom Christ died ! 
 
 At such a moment we cannot do better than 
 steady our thoughts by gathering them about some 
 scriptural text. If all else should be forgotten, if all 
 else should be scattered to the winds, it may be that 
 the text itself will linger on the ears and will burn 
 itself into the heart. I will therefore sum up these 
 parting words of exhortation in the opening sentence 
 of to-morrow's Gospel ; ' Let your loins be girded 
 
VI.J ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 69 
 
 about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves 
 like unto men that wait for their lord, when he 
 will return from the wedding.' 
 
 I know not how it may be with others ; but no 
 words in the Ordination Service not even the 
 tremendous and searching question, ' Do you trust 
 that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost 
 to take upon you this office and ministration?' not 
 even the solemn words of the higher commission 
 itself, ' Receive the Holy. Ghost for the office and 
 work of a priest in the Church of God ' no other 
 words sank so deeply into my mind at the time, or 
 affect me so profoundly when I hear them again, as 
 these opening words of the Gospel. 
 
 For here is the twofold equipment of the man 
 of God ; the loins girded, and the lamps burning. 
 The loins girded ; the outward activities, the ex- 
 ternal accompaniments, the busy ministrations, on 
 the one hand. The lamps burning; the inward 
 illumination, the light of the Spirit fed with the oil of 
 prayer and meditation and study of the scriptures, on 
 the other. 
 
 And both alike are brought to the final searching 
 test of the great, the terrible, the glorious day, when 
 every secret of the heart shall be revealed and every 
 deed of man shall be laid bare. 
 
 To such a test I desire you to put yourselves in 
 
7O ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vi. 
 
 imagination this night in reference to your ordination 
 vows. All is over. The life's probation is accom- 
 plished. The ministrations in the sanctuary have 
 ceased. The voice of the preacher is silenced. The 
 pastoral visits are ended. And now the scrutiny, the 
 review, the trial begins. The great Heart-searcher puts 
 His questions. 'How didst thou deal with the soul 
 of this sinning brother, or this sorrowing sister, with 
 this, and this, and this ? What study, what thought, 
 what pains didst thou bestow on this sermon, and on 
 this, and on this ? How hast thou conducted thyself 
 in this Church ministration, and in this, and in this 
 with what reverence, with what concentration of heart 
 and mind, so that the contagion of thy devotion 
 spread through the assembled people, and their 
 sympathetic responsive Amen said to thy praise and 
 thanksgiving redounded to the glory of God the 
 giver? Hast thou been faithful to thy Church? 
 Hast thou been faithful to thy flock? Hast thou 
 been faithful to thyself?' 
 
 'Hast thou been faithful to thyself?' Yes; after 
 all, the many and various questions are gathered up 
 and concentrated in this. If you have only proved 
 true to yourself, you cannot have been found untrue 
 to your office, to your work, to your brothers and 
 sisters, to the Church of God. As are the equip- 
 ments of the minister, so will be his ministrations. 
 
VI.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 7 I 
 
 Have you kept your loins ever girded, and your lamp 
 ever burning ? Then, whensoever and howsoever 
 Christ has come, He has found you ready to meet 
 Him. Has He presented Himself to you in the 
 penitent, burdened with past sin and struggling with 
 present temptation ? Has He come to you in the 
 bereavement of the mourner, or in the helplessness 
 of the ignorant ? Is His presence manifested in the 
 bitter opposition of some reckless foe, or in the 
 passive resistance of some stolid indifference, in the 
 unreasonableness, or the worldliness, or the over- 
 bearingness, or the misunderstanding of those around 
 you ? How can you command at a moment's notice 
 the sympathy, the patience, the forbearance, the 
 courage, the resourcefulness, the tact, the wisdom, 
 the power, which the occasion requires ? How shall 
 you escape the perplexity, the confusion, the shame, 
 the failure, the desolation, the despair of those foolish 
 five, who at the supreme crisis awoke from their 
 slumber to find the lights quenched and the doors 
 closed closed for ever ? 
 
 So then I desire to-day to call your attention 
 more especially to those questions in the Ordinal 
 which relate to your intended treatment of your- 
 selves, as distinguished alike from those which test 
 your beliefs and those which enquire after your 
 purposed fulfilment of duties towards others. 
 
72 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vi. 
 
 These questions are two ; the one addressed in- 
 deed to priests but hardly less applicable to deacons ; 
 the other put in substantially the same words to 
 both orders alike ; the one relating to the inner man, 
 to the furniture of the soul; the other to the outward 
 conduct and life. 
 
 First; 'Will you be diligent in prayers, and in 
 reading of the Holy Scriptures, and in such studies 
 as help to the knowledge of the same, laying aside 
 the study of the world and the flesh ?' 
 
 Secondly; 'Will you apply all your diligence to 
 frame and fashion your own lives... according to the 
 doctrine of Christ, and to make yourselves... whole- 
 some examples of the flock of Christ ?' 
 
 These two questions correspond roughly to the 
 two clauses of the text. 'Your lamps burning;' here 
 is the diligence in prayer and study; 'your loins 
 girded ;' here is the framing and fashioning of your 
 lives. 
 
 Well then. Forget me, forget the service of to- 
 morrow, forget the human questioner. Transport 
 yourselves in thought from the initial to the final 
 enquiry. The great day of inquisition, the supreme 
 moment of revelation, is come. The Chief Shepherd, 
 the Universal Bishop of souls, is the questioner. It is 
 no longer a matter of the making of the promises, but 
 of the fulfilment of the promises. The 'Wilt thou' 
 
VI.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 73 
 
 of the ordination day is exchanged for the 'Hast 
 thou' of the judgment day. ' Hast thou been diligent 
 in prayer? Hast thou framed and fashioned thy life?' 
 
 I. First then; as to the inner furniture and 
 equipment of the soul, intellectual as well as spiritual. 
 Has the lamp been kept burning? Has it been 
 constantly trimmed, constantly replenished with oil ? 
 
 This equipment is set forth in the one question. 
 It is threefold ; first, prayer ; secondly, the reading of 
 the Holy Scriptures ; thirdly, such studies as help to 
 the knowledge of the same. 
 
 But it will be pleaded, prayer is good, medi- 
 tation is good, study is good ; but how am I 
 to find the time for all these things ? Work 
 presses upon me from all sides work incomplete 
 and work unbegun. I cannot rest satisfied while the 
 schools are so inefficient; I cannot give myself leisure, 
 so long as whole families, perhaps whole districts, in 
 my parish are untouched, or barely touched, by my 
 ministrations. There are a thousand projects which 
 I have had in my mind, and which, for mere lack of 
 time, I have never been able to carry out. Is it not 
 selfish, is it not unpardonable, to retire into myself, 
 to think of myself, when so many others are uncared 
 for ? No, not selfish, for unless in this matter of the 
 inner life you are true to yourself, you cannot be true 
 to others ; not selfish, for where there is no fire, there 
 
74 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vi. 
 
 can be no light and no warmth ; not selfish, for you 
 cannot draw for others out of an empty fountain. 
 You want recreation, you want relief, you want 
 change, amidst this ceaseless worry, these anxious 
 cares, this turmoil of never-ending business. And 
 what refreshment, what medicine, what recreating 
 of the soul so effective as to take your troubles to 
 God, to tell them one by one to Him, to pour out 
 your heart to your Father, and so to lay down your 
 burden at His foot-stool ? Try to realise the strength 
 of the expression in S. Peter far stronger in the 
 original Greek than in our translation, iracrav rrjv 
 /jLepifjLvav V/JLOJV eTripptyavTes eV avTov, ' casting, toss- 
 ing off, all your anxiety on Him.' What complete- 
 ness, what energy, what promptness, what eagerness 
 and (if I might say so without irreverence) what 
 familiarity in the action! And after all there is time 
 enough for prayer, if only prayer is sought time 
 enough for the lifting up of the heart to God. All 
 places and all hours are convenient for this. No spare 
 interval is so short but that one unspoken ejaculation 
 of the soul is possible. Do not mistake me. I do 
 not desire to encourage dreaminess, sentimentalism, 
 vagueness, unsubstantiality. Prayer true prayer 
 is essentially firm and strong and real. And this 
 firmness, this strength, this reality, it and it only will 
 communicate to your ministerial work. 
 
VI.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 75 
 
 But side by side with prayer is the reading of the 
 Holy Scriptures. These are the two pillars of the 
 pastoral edifice. This reading of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures what does it imply ? The devotional study ? 
 This certainly ; but clearly it involves very much 
 more than this. What place else were there for 
 ' such studies as help to the knowledge of the same ? ' 
 Plainly the exegetical, the theological, the historical 
 study of the book is included. Every ray of know- 
 ledge, from whatever source it comes, which throws 
 light on this book, will be welcomed by the faithful 
 priest of God. We know the proverbial strength 
 which attaches to the homo unius libri. The man of 
 this one book this book of books will be strong in- 
 deed. But then he must know it ; know it within and 
 without, know it in all its bearings, find food for his 
 intellect, his imagination, his reason, as well. as for his 
 soul, for his heart, for his affections; find nourishment 
 for his whole man. If Christianity had been a dry 
 code of ethics, then he might have neglected the 
 theology ; but now its morality flows from its theolo- 
 gical principles. If the Gospel had been an abstract 
 system of metaphysics, then he might have ignored 
 the history; but now the Gospel dispensation is em- 
 bodied in a history. The Incarnation, the Cross, the 
 Resurrection, are a history. 
 
 I wish I could impress upon you, as strongly 
 
76 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vi. 
 
 as I feel myself, the necessity of this faithful, con- 
 centrated, diligent study of the Bible. I wish I 
 could make you realise the greatness of the oppor- 
 tunity which lies before you. The greatness of the 
 opportunity. Aye, that is it. There never was a 
 time when men on all sides were more eager after 
 Biblical knowledge. Your people are standing open- 
 mouthed, hungering and thirsting for meat and drink. 
 Will you deny it to them you the appointed stewards 
 and dispensers of God's mysteries, of God's revela- 
 tions? The appetite, of which I speak, may not always 
 be very spiritual, very exalted. I do not say it is. 
 It may be an undefined craving, it may be a mere 
 vague curiosity, in many cases ; though I believe 
 it is more often a deeper feeling. But there it is. 
 And it is your opportunity. But it is knowledge 
 which is required. Mere empty talk, mere repetition 
 of stereotyped phrases, mere purposeless rambling 
 about the pages of the Bible, will not satisfy it. 
 The teaching, which it demands, can only be acquired 
 by earnest, assiduous, concentrated study on the part 
 of the teacher. But then what a speedy and abundant 
 harvest it yields to the teacher and the taught alike ! 
 Do not say you have no time. Time can always be 
 made, where there is the earnest desire to make it. 
 The fact is, we want more back-bone in our teaching. 
 Instruction is craved; and instruction, as a rule, is just 
 
VI.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 77 
 
 what our people do not get in our sermons. We 
 want more systematic teaching on the great doctrines 
 of the faith ; we want more continuous elucidation 
 of particular books of Holy Scripture ; we want more 
 detailed exposition of the duties and responsibilities 
 of Churchmen as members of a body of the mean- 
 ing of the Church as the spouse of Christ, of its 
 ordinances and its seasons. The Incarnation, the 
 Incarnation itself, is the type, the pattern, of the 
 best form of teaching. God is immanent in man. 
 God speaks through man. So too the Bible is the 
 most human of all books, as it is also the most divine. 
 Use its humanity, if I may so speak, that you may 
 enforce its divinity. 
 
 And so it is that you are encouraged in the 
 question of the Ordinal to range outside the sacred 
 volume itself. You pledge yourself to be diligent 
 in such studies as help to the knowledge of the 
 same. This is a large subject, and I cannot venture 
 to go into it. Only I would apply to this intellectual 
 food the words which S. Paul uses of the material 
 food. 'Nothing is to be refused ;' but, observe, on this 
 condition that ' it is sanctified by the word of God 
 and prayer.' It must be studied in the light of 
 God's word ; it must be employed for the elucidation 
 of God's word ; it must be hallowed by the uplifting 
 of the soul to Him. Biography furnishes illustrations; 
 
78 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vi. 
 
 poetry supplies images; science and history are the 
 expression of God's laws and God's dealings with 
 man. Have you eyes to see ? Then for you heaven 
 and earth are full of His Glory. 
 
 2. But the great Judge, the Searcher of hearts, 
 passes on to that second and not less momentous 
 question. ' Hast thou framed and fashioned thy life 
 thy life and the lives of those about thee accord- 
 ing to the doctrine of Christ ? Hast thou, and have 
 they, been wholesome examples and patterns to the 
 flock ? Answer this, thou teacher in Israel ; answer 
 this, thou priest of the Most High God. Hast thou 
 never brought scandal on the Church of Christ ? 
 Hast thou never by the evil deed of a moment, 
 neutralised, discredited, held up to scorn and blas- 
 phemy, the teaching of months and years ? ' What ! 
 Do I wrong you, if only for a moment I entertain in 
 my mind the possibility of such an issue to your 
 ministry ? Indeed I hope so, I believe so. Other- 
 wise it were better for me better far that my right 
 hand were cut off, than that I should lay it on the 
 head of such a one. It were better for him a 
 thousand times better that he should skulk home 
 this night under cover of darkness, unordained, dis- 
 graced, cast helpless and hopeless on the sea of life, 
 to shape his course afresh, than that he should thus 
 betray the Son of Man with a kiss. And yet such 
 
VI.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 79 
 
 things have happened. Already in the few short 
 years of my episcopate, I have seen the fall of one 
 and another and another. This incumbent or that 
 curate has brought blasphemy on the name of God, 
 has scandalized the Church of Christ by intemper- 
 ance or even worse than intemperance. Therefore I 
 say, ' Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed 
 lest he fall/ Check the first risings of the evil 
 passion in you. You, the ministers of Christ, are 
 beset with many and great perils by virtue of your 
 very office. You enjoy confidences, you excite sym- 
 pathies, you stir sensibilities, which may be most 
 pure, most holy, most heavenly. But beware, beware. 
 The opportunity of boundless good is the opportunity 
 of incalculable evil. There is no fall so shocking, so 
 terrible, as the fall of a minister of Christ. 
 
 But I desire rather to warn you against lesser 
 faults of character trifling unimportant faults they 
 might be regarded in laymen, but with you nothing 
 is unimportant, nothing is trifling. There is the fault 
 of temper, the impatience of opposition, the stiffness 
 of self-assertion, a magnifying of self which veils 
 itself from itself under the guise of magnifying of 
 your office. It is not in vain that at the outset of 
 your ministry the prayer is offered for you that you 
 may be modest and humble, as well as constant, in 
 your ministrations. There is again the reckless- 
 
8O ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vi. 
 
 ness of an unbridled tongue, there is the indulgence 
 in idle gossip, there is the absence of self-restraint in 
 the character and the limits of your recreations. All 
 these things, and far more than these, are involved 
 in the pledge of to-morrow to frame and fashion 
 your lives, that you may be a wholesome example 
 and pattern to the flock of Christ. 
 
 The pledge of to-morrow ! The hour is fast 
 approaching, the hour which binds you to a lifelong 
 devotion, to a lifelong labour. Answer to the ' Wilt 
 thou,' as remembering the great day when you must 
 answer to the 'Hast thou;' answer to it, as purposing 
 henceforward by God's grace to ask and to answer to 
 yourselves continually ' Am I ? ' ' Am I diligent in 
 prayers and in reading of the Holy Scriptures ? Am 
 I framing and fashioning my life according to the 
 doctrine of Christ ? ' 
 
 The hour is fast approaching. What satisfaction, 
 what joy, what thanksgiving should be yours ! On 
 you the highest of all honours is conferred. To you 
 the noblest of all endowments is pledged the earnest 
 of God's spirit, the gift of God's grace, the germ and 
 the potentiality of untold blessings to many, many 
 souls of men. What joy and thanksgiving ; and yet 
 what awe and trembling ! This priceless treasure, 
 and these earthen vessels! This high commission, 
 and my utter feebleness ! This Holy Spirit the All- 
 
VI.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 8 1 
 
 pure and All-righteous and my sullied heart, my 
 sinful life ! O God, my God, what a contrast, what 
 a contradiction, what an impossibility is here ! Help 
 me, strengthen me, cleanse me with the blood of Thy 
 dear Son, purge me with the fire of Thy blessed 
 Spirit. Take me to Thyself this day, and make me 
 wholly Thine. 
 
 O. A. 
 
VII. 
 
 In the world. 
 
 S. JOHN xvii. ii. 
 
 Not of the world. 
 
 S. JOHN xvii. 14. 
 
 {September 1882, 1885, and 1889.] 
 DEACONS ONLY. 
 
 ONE sunset and one sunrise. Then the great 
 change for you. A new work opens out for you. A 
 new life dawns upon you. Old things are past away, 
 past for ever, past beyond recall the old ambitions, 
 the old passions, the old frivolities, the old tempta- 
 tions. And all things become new new aims, new 
 studies, new aspirations, new energies. A new spirit 
 with the new office. Shall it be so with you ? 
 
 One sunset and one sunrise more. Then the irre- 
 vocable step is taken. The stream is crossed. The 
 frontier line is traversed. The door is closed upon 
 
VII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 83 
 
 the past. You have all doubtless thought seriously 
 over the momentous nature of the change. I should 
 do you a cruel wrong, if I supposed that you any 
 one of you could face this crisis lightly or carelessly. 
 It will be to you an occasion of anxious misgiving, of 
 deep self-abasement, of silent heart-searching, of awe 
 and trembling ; and yet withal of profound, over- 
 flowing thankfulness. 
 
 Is it not in some sense with you as it was with 
 Abraham ? God summons you to leave the land of 
 your fathers, to give up home and kindred. He 
 beckons you forward into an unknown country. Aye, 
 but with this demand He couples a promise. A fairer 
 land, a brighter home, a nobler kindred, a more 
 numerous race, in the region of the unvisited and 
 unknown. And you believe Him ; you go forth in 
 faith, go forth you know not whither, not having as 
 yet ground whereon to set the sole of your foot. 
 Abraham's faith is the type of your faith. Such faith 
 alone will enable you to turn your backs at once and 
 for ever on Ur of the Chaldees. Such faith alone 
 will win for you the land of promise. 
 
 How then shall we describe the life which must 
 be henceforth yours ? Shall we not say that you 
 henceforth will be ' in the world ' and yet ' not of the 
 world ? ' This is the ideal of the ministerial office. 
 It is true of every faithful Christian ; it is especially 
 
 62 
 
84 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vll. 
 
 true of every faithful clergyman. * Not of the world.' 
 This conception is not difficult to grasp, though infi- 
 nitely difficult to realise. But ' in the world ' also ? 
 How is this idea to be harmonized with the other? 
 And yet the minister of Christ, if his work is to be 
 truly effective, must never lose sight of it. A mo- 
 ment's reflexion will show that in one sense he is, or 
 ought to be, much more in the world than other men. 
 The recluse life is forbidden to him. He cannot shut 
 himself up within himself. His interests, his sym- 
 pathies, are wider than other men's. The affairs of 
 his parishioners are his affairs. Their troubles, their 
 anxieties, their sorrows, their dangers and their temp- 
 tations in all these he claims a companionship, for 
 all these he has a responsibility. What distraction, 
 what worldliness, is involved in all this ! And yet he 
 is ' not of the world.' 
 
 Does not the very question which will be put to 
 you to-morrow remind you eloquently of this twofold 
 aspect of your office ? ' Do you think that you are 
 truly called according to the will of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ and the due order of this realm ?' ' The will 
 of our Lord Jesus;' here is the one aspect of your 
 office, 'not of the world.' 'The due order of this 
 realm ; ' here is the other, ' in the world.' 
 
 And just for this very reason, just because more 
 than other men he is ' in the world,' while less than 
 
VII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 85 
 
 other men he is ' of the world,' the perils and the safe- 
 guards, the blessings and the curses alike, of the 
 clergyman's life are heightened and intensified. No- 
 thing for him is trivial or insignificant. Everything 
 is on a larger scale. Everything that he does or says 
 has an influence on others and reacts upon himself to 
 an extent wholly disproportionate to its intrinsic 
 importance. 
 
 To be forewarned is to be forqarmed. Let us ask 
 ourselves what are the special perils which beset a 
 clergyman, more especially a young clergyman, at 
 the outset of his career. 
 
 i. There is first of all desultoriness. No peril to a 
 clergyman is greater than this. There is no walk in 
 life so exposed to this temptation as his. Other men, 
 whether engaged in trade or commerce, or labouring 
 with their hands, or exercising some profession, have 
 for the most part definite times of work and of rest. 
 A definite task is set before them to do. Their 
 employer, or their client, or their pupil, or their 
 customer, is their taskmaster. There is always some- 
 one at hand to see that the work is done, and done in 
 time. The clergyman is his own overseer. He sets 
 his task for himself; he alone sees that it is done. 
 He makes his own work for himself; and therefore 
 he may do much or little, he may do it now or then, 
 as it pleases him. This is a glorious liberty for those 
 
86 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vil. 
 
 who know how to use it, but it involves a tremendous 
 responsibility also. Moreover the character of the 
 work itself increases the temptation. It is so various, 
 so distracting; so many people have to be seen, so 
 many places have to be visited, so many trifling 
 details have to be handled, that desultoriness seems 
 almost inevitable. And yet the clergyman, least of 
 all men, can afford to fritter away his life. The 
 clergyman, more than any other man, needs concen- 
 tration, concentration of spirit, concentration of pur- 
 pose, concentration of energy. Fight against this 
 temptation, fight against it with all your might. This 
 first year, the year of your diaconate, will probably 
 fix your habit of life, and thus it will make or mar 
 your efficiency as a clergyman. Resolve stedfastly, 
 and act unflinchingly. Exercise a rigorous control 
 over yourself. Map out your time carefully, so far as 
 circumstances permit. Some hours of the day at all 
 events the earliest and the latest probably you can 
 call your own. Let nothing interfere with these. 
 Begin at once. Let there be no vagueness, no delay. 
 To lose time is to lose all. 
 
 2. And a second danger of the clerical office is 
 worldliness. It may seem strange to single out this 
 as a special temptation of the clergyman. The 
 ministry is a spiritual office. Its work is a spiritual 
 work. How then can this be ? 
 
VII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 87 
 
 And yet is it not so ? Is it not so, just because, 
 as I said before, the clergyman lives more than most 
 men ' in the world ? ' He has such a multiplicity of 
 interests, only too prone to degenerate into mundane 
 interests, unless he is ever on his guard. Then again 
 his visits are necessarily frequent and wide ; and here 
 the attractions of society, as it is called, may be his 
 lure, and may prove his ruin as a minister of Christ. 
 Then again he can choose his own time for his recrea- 
 tions and amusements; and, this being so, there is 
 infinite peril lest these recreations should exceed their 
 proper bounds, and encroach upon his work. The 
 ill-prepared sermon and the unpaid visit to the sick is 
 the consequence. And lastly, his office secures him a 
 deference and a consideration, which neither his age, 
 nor his experience, nor perhaps his character, could 
 otherwise claim ; and only a little self-complacency is 
 needed to set this down to his own merits, and to fill 
 him with a sense of his own importance. What 
 abundance of fuel is there in all this for worldliness 
 more subtle, but certainly not less intense, than the 
 worldliness of the layman if the spark of worldli- 
 ness smoulders in the heart. 
 
 How shall this danger be avoided? I know only 
 one way. By recalling the presence of God. The 
 retirement for continuous devotion indeed may not 
 be possible in the hurried business hours of the day. 
 
88 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vil. 
 
 But the uplifting of the heart to God, the mental eja- 
 culation, the breathed but unspoken prayer, enough 
 to recall you and to adjust your soul ; * God's work, 
 not my own,' * Christ's honour, not mine/ ' This 
 which I am doing, may I do it to the Lord; this 
 is always possible, and this will cleanse, will exalt, 
 will sanctify, will glorify, even the meanest details 
 of your routine life. 
 
 3. And again there is the peril of formalism. 
 The familiarity with sacred things begets not indeed a 
 contempt of but an indifference to sacred things. They 
 lose, or they tend to lose, their freshness, their awe, 
 their glory, for our souls. Of this temptation I need 
 say little. The corrective is obvious, as the danger is 
 obvious. The letter killeth ; the spirit alone giveth 
 life. Only the constant communion of spirit with 
 Spirit, of our mind with God's Mind, can quicken and 
 sustain our inner being, can save us from the unreality, 
 the deadness, the hypocrisy and self-deceit of a pro- 
 fessional religion, of formal ministrations, which have 
 no power for others because they have no meaning 
 and no life for ourselves. 
 
 But is there not with many persons a directly 
 opposite danger, a reaction and a rebound arising 
 from the dread of hypocrisy, a Scylla of deterioration 
 ready to engulf them as they shun this Charybdis of 
 unreality ? They will say nothing that they do not 
 
VII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 89 
 
 mean. So far they act rightly. But they will preach 
 nothing which they do not practise. They will hold 
 out no ideal which is not an actuality to themselves, 
 and to those around them. Thus they gradually 
 lower the standard of their teaching to the level of 
 their own lives, instead of gradually elevating their 
 own lives to the level of God's commandment. They 
 forget that the Christian standard is in its very nature 
 unattained and unattainable, an ever-receding goal 
 seeming most distant to those who have travelled 
 farthest on the path ; for it is nothing less than 
 absolute sinlessness, infinite goodness, the faultless- 
 ness of God's own being. 'Be ye perfect, even as 
 your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' Who 
 shall dare to acquit himself of unreality, when he tries 
 his life and ministry by such a standard as this ? 
 Your message must always remain far above your- 
 self. Try to lift up yourself to it, but do not do 
 not, at your peril consent to lower it to yourself. 
 
 4. And this leads me to speak of a fourth danger, 
 which especially besets the ministerial career. I mean 
 despondency. Despondency begets weariness, and 
 weariness begets indifference and sloth; and so the 
 hands hang idly, the task is abandoned, and God's 
 harvest is unreaped. God forbid that your ministry 
 should so end. Distrust yourselves, if you will ; but 
 distrust yourselves only that you may trust God the 
 
9<D ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vil. 
 
 more. What is the meaning of those texts, 'My 
 strength is made perfect in weakness/ ' When I am 
 weak, then am I strong,' 'We have this treasure in 
 earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may 
 be of God, and not of us,' ' I can do all things/ yes, 
 all things ' through Christ which strengtheneth me/ 
 ' Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith 
 the Lord'? 
 
 But I know the temptation. You look out, and 
 you are appalled by the immensity of the work before 
 you. These many thousands ; and you are sent ill- 
 equipped and single-handed to cope with them. Yes; 
 but has not God before now delivered the giants, the 
 children of the Anakim, into the hands of people that 
 were as grasshoppers in their sight? And after all, 
 God is not a cruel taskmaster. God does not demand 
 of you more than you can compass. Get hold of the 
 most promising of your people, one here and another 
 there. Work upon them. Create out of them fresh 
 centres of evangelistic activity. And so the message 
 will spread. 
 
 And, after looking outward, you direct your gaze 
 inward. And again the paralysis seizes you. All is 
 inability, inexperience, helpless and hopeless ineffici- 
 ency. There is the sluggishness of intellect, there is 
 the dcadness of spirit. The preparation of the 
 sermon what a struggle against incapacity ! The 
 
VII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 9 1 
 
 thoughts will not come ; or, if the thoughts are there, 
 the words will not wed themselves to the thoughts. 
 The visit to the sick-bed what a crushing humilia- 
 tion is this ! So earnest a desire to say the right 
 word and to do the right thing, to speak as a dying 
 man to dying men ; and yet nothing after all but the 
 feeble stammering prayer, the helplessly muttered 
 sympathy. What shall I say to all this ? How shall 
 I restore the lost confidence and sustain the waning 
 courage ? 
 
 Is it the sense of youth and ignorance and inex- 
 perience which oppresses you ? Listen to this. ' Then 
 said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak : for I 
 am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I 
 am a child : for thou shalt go to all that I shall send 
 thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt 
 speak. Be not afraid of their faces; for I am with 
 thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord/ 
 
 Is it the dread of some natural incapacity ? Listen 
 again to this. 'O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither 
 heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy 
 servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow 
 tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath 
 made man's mouth ? Or who maketh the dumb, or 
 deaf, or the seeing, or the blind ? Have not I, the 
 Lord ? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy 
 mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.' 
 
Q2 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vil. 
 
 Once more, is it the burden of your own unworthi- 
 ness which threatens to paralyse you ? Here also I 
 have a word God's word of comfort and encourage- 
 ment for you. 'Woe is me! for I am undone; because 
 I am a man of unclean lips. And he laid the live 
 coal from the altar upon my mouth, and said, Lo, 
 this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is 
 taken away, and thy sin purged.' 
 
 5. One danger more and I have done. I wish to 
 warn you against sentimentality in your ministrations. 
 This danger is akin to formalism, though it wears a 
 very different aspect. Both alike are the substitution 
 of an unreality, a counterfeit, for true religion which 
 is spirituality. Sentiment, true sentiment, is a very 
 noble and ennobling thing. True sentiment is the 
 sympathy with all that is pure, and generous, and 
 brave, and loving in the best sense of loving. It is 
 not of such that I speak. But there is a morbid 
 sentimentality feeding on sickly fancies, which neither 
 purifies the heart nor influences the life. It substi- 
 tutes feeling superficial feeling for action ; and it 
 drugs the conscience by a false show of spirituality. 
 Not seldom, alas ! it sinks to lower depths than this. 
 Beginning in sentiment, it ends in sensuality. Young 
 men, be on your guard. As ministers of Christ, it is your 
 duty to shun not only every evil, but every appearance 
 of evil. Let your domestic arrangements be such as 
 
VII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 93 
 
 to lend no handle to malice or slander. Be exceed- 
 ingly careful too in your ministrations. As clergy- 
 men, you will be allowed a freedom of intercourse 
 and an interchange of confidences which is denied to 
 other men, above all to other young men. So guard 
 yourselves that no breath of suspicion may sully 
 your work or your office. 
 
 I have spoken of the perils, of the difficulties of 
 the clerical office ; but how shall I speak of its bless- 
 ings ? What profession, or what career in life, shall 
 compare with it ? Is it a small privilege, think you, 
 that your earthly work, instead of being a hindrance, 
 an interruption, a distraction to your spiritual life, is 
 the truest education for heaven ; that in your profes- 
 sion success is not only not purchased by the failure 
 of others, but confers the highest happiness on others ; 
 that the thoughts and the works which to the layman 
 are the exceptional refreshments and purifications of 
 his daily life, are to you the continuous employment 
 of your daily life ; that, as you came from God and are 
 going to God, so also the work of every day and 
 every hour reminds you of God ; that He has called 
 you you, the feeble, the ignorant,- the faithless, the 
 rebellious ; you, as you must appear to yourself this 
 day, the chief of sinners to be -His herald, His 
 ambassador, the bearer of His message of righteous- 
 
94 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vil. 
 
 ness and peace and love; that before you, as the 
 beacon-light of your journey and the crown of your 
 hope, gleams the glory of the unfailing promise that 
 ' they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as 
 the stars for ever and ever ' ? Think of God's astound- 
 ing goodness to you ; and, as you think, lay down this 
 day at the foot of the Eternal Throne all your ambi- 
 tions, all your energies, all your powers, all that you 
 have and all that you hope for, as a thank-offering to 
 Him for His unspeakable mercy and loving-kind- 
 ness. 
 
VIII. 
 
 Take heed unto thyself, and tinto the doctrine. 
 
 i TIMOTHY iv. 16. 
 
 [Trinity, 1883 ; Advent, 1886.] 
 
 A NEW mission, a new work, a new life awaits 
 you. To-morrow's sun will not set, as it rose, for you. 
 A great event will have taken place. The layman 
 a deacon, the deacon a priest: the one change obvious 
 enough ; the other, though less patent, yet not less 
 real, for it endows you with other functions, other 
 responsibilities, other promises, than those which were 
 yours before. 
 
 What shall I say to you then on the eve of this 
 great crisis in your lives ? What thoughts shall I 
 suggest to you ? What questions shall I bid you ask 
 of yourselves ? 
 
 What questions ? This self-interrogation is the 
 most efficient, because the most direct and personal, 
 of all lessons. 
 
96 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vill. 
 
 The questions then which I desire you to put to 
 yourselves on this eve of your ordination are three. 
 What office and work am I undertaking ? How shall 
 I conduct myself in this office ? How shall I find 
 strength and capacity for this work ? 
 
 i. First then; what is this office of the diaconate, 
 this office of the priesthood, with which (if God so 
 pleases) to-morrow will invest you ? What is its end, 
 its aim, its work ? 
 
 Shall we say, that you will receive your diploma 
 as physicians ; that your patients are the souls of 
 men ; that their ailments will be your study ; that 
 their diet, their medicine, their surroundings, their 
 exercise, will be your care ? The degree of responsi- 
 bility in the physician depends on two considerations, 
 first on the difficulty of the diagnosis and treatment, 
 and secondly on the value of the life committed to 
 his care. As either or both of these are enhanced, so 
 also will his responsibility be heightened. How then 
 shall it be with you ? Whichever way you look at it, 
 you must be overwhelmed with the task that lies 
 before you. The human soul presents the most 
 difficult of all problems. It is complex beyond 
 calculation. It defies analysis. It is swayed at every 
 moment by countless impulses, passions, emotions. 
 Its processes therefore are infinitely subtle and elusive. 
 Look within yourself yourself, with whom you are 
 
VIII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 97 
 
 living day and night ; yourself, from whom you have 
 no concealments. How little do you know of your 
 own soul ? Is it not after all an insoluble enigma to 
 you ? You cannot tabulate its processes ; you cannot 
 predict its course. And, if you are thus unable to 
 read your own soul, what hope is there that you can 
 understand and prescribe for another soul another, 
 of which you only catch passing glimpses now and 
 then, which studiously disguises itself before you, at 
 whose working you can only dimly guess ? Yet the 
 souls entrusted to you are counted not by units or 
 by tens, but by hundreds and by thousands. 
 
 And again; how will your sense of the responsi- 
 bility be intensified when you consider the value of a 
 human soul ! The soul is the life of the life ; the soul 
 is capable of an eternity of weal or woe. This it is 
 in itself, but reflect also what it is in its influence on 
 others. See what incalculable potentialities of good 
 or evil it possesses potentialities not limited to the 
 length of the individual life, but stretching out into 
 all time and beyond time into a boundless eternity. 
 Thus on your treatment of this individual soul in this 
 special crisis, on your care or neglect, on your devotion 
 or on your indifference at this particular moment may 
 depend ah ! you know not what, and you dare not 
 think, lest the very thought should unnerve and 
 
 paralyse you. 
 
 O. A. 7 
 
98 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vill. 
 
 I have spoken of these souls in themselves and 
 in their influence on others. But they have a higher 
 value still. The value of a thing is measured by the 
 price paid for it. The cost of human souls of each 
 individually and all collectively was nothing less 
 than the blood of the Eternal Son Himself. So 
 then, if you would appraise the souls committed to 
 you, you must consider not only what they are or 
 may be, not only what they do or may do (these 
 thoughts are appalling enough), but the value which 
 God Himself has set upon them. This is no intrusive 
 comment of my own. I am only following in the 
 lines of the Ordination Service. * Have always 
 printed in your remembrance', so runs the exhorta- 
 tion, 'how great a treasure is committed to your 
 charge : for they are the sheep of Christ ', not ' which 
 are destined to eternal life or eternal death ', not 
 'which have capacities of boundless good or bound- 
 less harm' though all this were true but 'which 
 He bought with His death, and for whom He shed 
 His blood ! ' Here is the climax of the exhortation. 
 Have you not then good reason to remember ' into 
 how high a dignity, and to how weighty an office and 
 charge you are called ? ' 
 
 But the charge committed to you is weightier, far 
 weightier, even than the souls of men. What is stated 
 in the Ordination Service to be the end and aim of 
 
VIII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 99 
 
 the institution of the Apostolic ministry to which you 
 have succeeded ? Is it not that by the labours of this 
 ministry ' a great flock was gathered together in all the 
 parts of the world ' not for the saving of the souls of 
 men, though this might have been said, and is said in 
 effect immediately afterwards but 'to set forth the 
 eternal praise of Thy Holy Name.' And so again in 
 the same prayer it is declared to be the proper end of 
 this ministry that 'Thy Holy Name may be for ever 
 glorified, and Thy blessed Kingdom enlarged.' And 
 again and again this same thought is dwelt upon. 
 So then it is the glory of God which is entrusted to 
 your hands, this and nothing less. ' The glory of Thy 
 name, and the edification of Thy Church.' 'Thy glory, 
 and the salvation of mankind.' This is the true order. 
 God's glory first and foremost ; all human considera- 
 tions afterwards, even the highest. I cannot but 
 think that we lose much by forgetting this order. 
 Why are we bidden to let our light shine before men, 
 but that they may glorify our Father which is in 
 heaven ? Why are we charged to sanctify ourselves 
 as temples of the Holy Spirit, but that we may 
 glorify God in our bodies ? What is this saving of a 
 soul from sin and winning it for Christ, but a glorify- 
 ing of God in the restitution of the repentant sinner ? 
 So then this is the true and only end of your ministry 
 the only end, I say, for it includes all lower aims 
 
 72 
 
100 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vill. 
 
 the praise and glory of God. Is not yours then an 
 office of unapproachable dignity and honour ? 
 
 2. We have answered the first question, and we 
 turn now to the second. How shall I conduct myself 
 in this office ? St Paul's words shall supply the 
 answer ; eVe^e aeavro) /cal rf] Bt,$acrKa\la. ' Give heed 
 to thyself and to thy teaching.' A twofold exhorta- 
 tion, which reappears again and again in the Ember 
 and Ordination prayers : * Replenish them with the 
 truth of Thy doctrine, and endue them with innocency 
 of life/ ' Both by their life and doctrine they may set 
 forth Thy glory.' 
 
 "ETre^e (Teavru). ' Give heed to thyself.' The man 
 himself first, and then the teaching. The man first, 
 because this includes the teaching. Such as a man is 
 in himself, such in the long run will be his teaching ; 
 for 'out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
 speaketh.' The man first, because only through the 
 man will you obtain a hearing for the message. 
 
 "ETre^e creavTO). This first, and this last. This 
 when you rise up in the morning, and this when you 
 close your eyes at night ; this when you enter the 
 reading-desk, and this when you stand by the sick- 
 man's bed. Here is your phylactery. Bind it for a 
 sign upon your hand, and write it upon the posts of 
 your house. 
 
 <7eauTo>. Need I tell you that it is before 
 
VIII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. ifc'f 
 
 all things necessary that you should set an example 
 in those commoner virtues, which, as they are 
 expected and assumed in laymen, can least of all be 
 dispensed with in you such as truthfulness, honesty, 
 sobriety, and the like? It cannot but happen that 
 some of you will have straitened incomes at one 
 time or another. It will be necessary for you there- 
 fore rigidly and at all sacrifices so to regulate your 
 expenditure that it falls within your income. To do 
 otherwise is to practise dishonesty, however you may 
 disguise or palliate the offence by specious pleading. 
 How can you expect a tradesman to respect your 
 teaching when you commend the higher graces of 
 humility, self-sacrifice, and the like, if he finds that 
 you do not pay your debts ? And so with sobriety. 
 And so with other things. You will be most scrupu- 
 lously careful, for instance, about your domestic 
 arrangements and your social relations with your 
 flock, so that no breath of scandal shall touch you. 
 It is required of the minister of Christ that he should 
 not only be a/-te//,7rro9, but likewise aveTriK^^irro^ He 
 must not only keep himself free from just accusation, 
 but (so far as may be) free from unjust accusation 
 also ; not only free from fault, but also free from 
 blame. He must give no handle which anyone can 
 take hold of. This strong word, az/e7r/X?7fi7rro9, is three 
 times repeated in the ministerial passages in S. Paul's 
 
1O2 OKDINATION ADDRESSES. [vill. 
 
 First Epistle to Timothy, where we might have 
 expected a simpler expression. Things permitted to 
 others are not permitted to you. Indulgences which 
 are innocent for others become guilty excesses for 
 you excesses in physical recreation, and social 
 amusements, and the like. Something has been said 
 to you already about the small things which go to 
 create the impression made by a clergyman, but too 
 much cannot be said. How much for instance depends 
 on temper. I do not use the word in its narrower 
 sense. But I include all assertions of self which are 
 inconsistent with humility, gentleness, forgiveness, 
 patience, charity, loyalty to others, obedience to 
 authority. I have seen many a ministerial career, 
 which gave promise of the highest usefulness, wrecked 
 upon this rock. 
 
 "E-Tre^e creavrui. ' Give heed to thyself.' Take care 
 to feed the spiritual fire within. There can be no 
 light or warmth for others, when the flame is dying 
 down into its embers in your own soul. And this 
 will be, unless there is a regular and constant re- 
 plenishment of the fuel. You cannot show God to 
 others, unless you live in God's presence yourself. 
 
 "E-Tre^e aeavTO), /cal rf) Si$ao-ica\la. ' Give heed ' like- 
 wise, not, as in the Authorized Version, 'to the doctrine,' 
 but with a wider meaning 'to thy teaching,' the manner 
 as well as the matter of the instruction conveyed. 
 
VIII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. IO3 
 
 What shall we say of the matter? May we not 
 briefly express the case thus ? That the doctrine of 
 S. Paul is the doctrine for our own time, because the 
 doctrine for all times ; that we need not less but more 
 of the preaching of Christ and Him crucified; but 
 that we want it preached as S. Paul preached it, in 
 a larger, higher, more sympathetic way, not solely 
 or not chiefly as a dogma apprehended by an intel- 
 lectual faith, but as a moral and spiritual influence, 
 taking captive the heart and regenerating the life. 
 We want it preached as the signal manifestation of 
 the Father's love imposing upon us a reciprocal 
 obligation. We want it preached as S. Paul preached 
 it, when he said, * God forbid that I should glory save 
 in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,' not 'which has 
 saved me all trouble,' not 'which teaches me that God 
 needs no effort of mine/ but 'whereby the world is 
 crucified unto me, and I unto the world.' Yes, this 
 Cross of Christ is a magnificent gift of God, but it is 
 also a tremendous responsibility on man. Christ's 
 crucifixion demands your crucifixion. Christ's death 
 is available for you, only if you become conformable 
 to Christ's death. 
 
 And what again shall I say about the manner and 
 the accessories of your preaching ? Throw as much 
 human interest into your sermons as you can, by 
 illustration, by forcible and epigrammatic expression, 
 
IO4 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vill. 
 
 by directness of reference, by every legitimate means 
 of arresting attention, that this human interest may 
 be the channel for the divine lesson. Have you not a 
 precedent for this in the Incarnation itself? God was 
 made Man, that all our human sympathies might be 
 aroused, and all our human life be made divine. 
 Above all, do not think preaching an easy matter. A 
 sermon needs all the pains that you can give it, if 
 only that it may be made simple for simple people. 
 There is no more dangerous error than to apply to 
 your public teaching the promise given to those first 
 disciples ; * Take no thought,' or rather, ' be not an- 
 xious/ (pr) nepipvYio-Tj-re) ' how or what ye shall speak ; 
 for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye 
 shall speak ;' no more fatal delusion than to apply 
 to your pastoral lessons language which, as spoken, 
 referred only to Christians arraigned before heathen 
 tribunals. On the contrary, think long and earnestly, 
 think prayerfully, think beforehand, think with awe and 
 trembling, what ye shall speak. If you have the gift 
 of fluency, train and educate this gift. If you have it 
 not, cultivate it. Preach unwritten sermons if you 
 will ; but extempore sermons, sermons unprepared or 
 ill-prepared, sermons unwritten only because trouble 
 is saved never. To do this is not to trust God but to 
 tempt God. Give your very best intellect and heart, 
 soul and spirit to the preparation of your sermons. 
 
VIII.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 1O5 
 
 3. The third and last question remains to be 
 answered the question of questions for you and for 
 your flock. Whence shall come your sufficiency? 
 How shall you find strength and capacity for so 
 weighty and at the same time so difficult a charge ? 
 
 The answer you know. One short monosyllable 
 comprehends all God. Trust in God, and the de- 
 votion of the heart and life, which as surely accom- 
 panies this trust, as the heat accompanies the fire 
 this is the secret of all ministerial success. But at 
 this moment, on the eve of your dedication to the 
 ministry, your faith will be directed especially to two 
 points. Believe that you have a call from God ; 
 believe also that the promise of special gifts and 
 graces is attached to your ordination. 
 
 You have a call from God. You will be asked 
 to-morrow to declare before the congregation your 
 belief that you are so called. You, the deacons, 
 will be questioned likewise, whether you trust that 
 you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take 
 upon you this office and ministration. No more 
 solemn questions have ever been put to you before. 
 No more solemn questions will ever be put to you 
 again. Examine yourselves therefore this night. 
 Assure yourselves that this is indeed a divine 
 prompting which leads you to seek the office not 
 a passing caprice or a superficial sentiment or a 
 
IO6 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [vill. 
 
 worldly ambition or (worst of all) a desire to be put 
 into the priests' office that you may eat priests' bread. 
 You will satisfy yourselves nay, you have satisfied 
 yourselves already (have you not ?) of this. And 
 so you will go forth to-morrow, endowed with that 
 strength which the sense of a call, a mission, a com- 
 mission from God alone can give. 
 
 And, secondly, you will believe that by God's good 
 pleasure this rite of ordination is made the channel 
 of very special gifts and graces offered not absolutely, 
 not without the active consent, the self-surrender, the 
 earnest prayer, of the recipient, but conditional only 
 on these. So you will prepare yourselves this night, 
 that you may come before God to-morrow and claim 
 His priceless gifts. You will pray long and pray 
 earnestly, that He will endow you with the grace 
 of sympathy, with the grace of self-sacrifice, with the 
 spirit of wisdom and understanding, with the spirit of 
 counsel and ghostly strength, with the spirit of His 
 holy fear. And having thus prayed, you will present 
 yourselves on bended knees with heads bowed lowly, 
 with souls overawed by His Presence, and with hearts 
 overflowing with thankfulness, to receive His com- 
 mission and to claim His grace. 
 
IX. 
 
 We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; 
 and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 
 
 i CORINTHIANS iv. 5. 
 
 [September 1883 and 1887.] 
 DEACONS ONLY. 
 
 ' THIS office of the diaconate what is it ? What 
 is its purpose, what is its character, what are its func- 
 tions ? What change will it make in my thoughts, in 
 my habits, in my manner of life ? What shall I be 
 to-morrow which I am not to-day ? What shall I do 
 to-morrow which I am not required to do to-day?' 
 These questions will press upon you at this moment. 
 
 To-morrow will close for you the door on the past. 
 It will not be with you as with other men. If they 
 make an unfortunate choice in their profession, they 
 have power to retrieve it. The false step is not 
 irreparable. If they find that they have mistaken 
 their abilities, or that their heart is not in their work, 
 
1O8 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iX. 
 
 or that they can better themselves by looking else- 
 where, or that they have little success in their business, 
 it is still open to them to repair the false step. It 
 cannot be so unto you. When you have put your 
 hand to the plough, you may not look back not 
 even for a moment, not even in imagination. You 
 will only enfeeble your soul, you will only dissipate 
 your energies, by regretful longings after what might 
 have been. You cannot undo what you have done, 
 without such shame and self-condemnation as I am 
 sure none of you would for a moment bear to con- 
 template. The step is irretrievable, is absolute, is 
 final. You devote yourselves to a lifelong work. 
 Failure, vexation, disappointment, opposition, all 
 these things you must be prepared to face. I do 
 not say that all or most of these things will befal 
 you. I do not say that you will fail ; nay, I am 
 quite sure you will not fail, if you approach your 
 life's work in the true spirit. But in your profession 
 the absolute condition of success is indifference to 
 success as men count success. Work for the work's 
 sake, work for others' sake, work for Christ's sake. 
 But success or failure do not give a second thought 
 to this, except so far as the thought may suggest im- 
 provements in your methods. Leave this in God's 
 hands. It is far better there than in your hearts. 
 This is the first point. It is an irrevocable step. 
 
IX.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. IOQ 
 
 It must therefore be taken with no backward longings, 
 with no half-heart, with no misgivings with no mis- 
 givings at least of God's call, of God's purpose for 
 you, of God's will and God's power to help you, 
 though with a thousand misgivings of your own 
 ignorance, your own incapacity, your own helpless- 
 ness. You have thought of all this. So far as you 
 can read your own hearts, so far as you know 
 yourselves, you are prepared to give yourselves 
 wholly, unreservedly, absolutely, to God and God's 
 work to bear unrepiningly any cross which He may 
 lay on your shoulders, to trust and to follow Him. 
 
 But this is a tremendous resolution ; tremendous, 
 if we look only at the irrevocability of the pledge; 
 still more tremendous, if we regard the infinite issues, 
 to yourself and to others, which may be bound up 
 in it. 
 
 On this eve of your ordination therefore, in these 
 parting words which are now addressed to you, how 
 can I do better than ask you to consider what this 
 pledge means, what obligations this office imposes 
 upon you, how you can hope to discharge it aright ? 
 
 And let these words of S. Paul be our starting 
 point, words which you have heard already this week 
 in the Epistle for S. Matthew's day. I know no 
 instructions which are a better outfit for you, as you 
 set forth on your ministerial journey. 
 
IIO ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iX. 
 
 'We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the 
 Lord ; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake/ 
 
 'For God, Who commanded the light to shine out 
 of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the 
 light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face 
 of Jesus Christ.' 
 
 ' But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that 
 the excellency of the power may be of God, and not 
 of us.' 
 
 Try and review your ministerial life at intervals 
 in the light of these words. It will be a wholesome 
 discipline for you. 
 
 'We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the 
 Lord ; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake/ 
 
 Here is the description of your office, of the 
 diaconate, not less than the apostolate. The function 
 is twofold ; It is a message, and it is a ministry. 
 
 It is a message. 'We preach,' we herald, with 
 no faltering voice, with no unsteady aim, without 
 timidity and without reservation ; we step forward 
 into the lists, and proclaim with the voice of a 
 trumpet the message which has been entrusted to 
 us. And its subject! What? 
 
 It is strange that the Apostle should first describe 
 the message by a negative, stranger still that the 
 negative should take this form ' not ourselves/ 
 What minister of Christ would think of preaching 
 
IX.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. Ill 
 
 himself? What herald heralds his own majesty or 
 his own victory? And yet you have only to probe 
 your own hearts a very little way, and you must 
 confess that the precaution is not unneeded. Say 
 this then to yourselves now at the outset; say it at 
 every turn, at each fresh trial, each recurring tempta- 
 tion ; ' Not myself, God helping me. Not myself, 
 dear Lord, but Thee and Thee only. Not myself, 
 a thousand times not myself.' 
 
 For remember this. You cannot preach your- 
 self, and preach Christ likewise. Christ and self 
 are mutually exclusive. The more you think of 
 yourself, the more you lead others to think of you 
 the more completely is Christ shut out of view. 
 Forget yourself, obliterate yourself; think only of 
 Christ, and of the souls committed to you in Christ. 
 
 There are many ways in which men preach them- 
 selves without seeming to themselves to do so. 
 
 There is first of all the spirit of self-assertion, the 
 manifestation of self-importance. This is a common 
 failing in all walks of life ; but it is a special temptation 
 in the ministerial office. A special temptation here, 
 I say, because it veils itself under a specious guise, 
 and so eludes observation. We, the ministers of 
 Christ, are invested with the most magnificent of 
 all functions. No office can compare with ours 
 for its far-reaching issues. No subject of human 
 
I I 2 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iX. 
 
 speech is so lofty, so potent, so impressive, as our 
 message. We feel constrained at least we ought 
 to feel constrained to pitch our language in a far 
 higher key than any human oratory. But it is the 
 propensity of man to credit himself with his sur- 
 roundings his noble birth, his great wealth, his 
 inherited name, his social advantages, his country's 
 fame, to make these part of himself, to ascribe these 
 (more than half unconsciously) to himself, to pride 
 himself on these. Our danger is of the like kind, 
 but infinitely greater. We take to ourselves the 
 homage which is paid to our office and to our 
 theme. Here is spiritual pride. We resent, as 
 against ourselves, any resistance to our message. 
 Here is personal sensitiveness. Nothing is more 
 fatal to ministerial efficiency than this temper of 
 self-consciousness and self-assertion, intruding itself 
 at every turn. A truly hateful thing, this spiritual 
 jealousy, and yet how common ! Do not fail to test 
 yourselves, if ever you are so tempted and you will 
 be so tempted. Ask yourselves whether you, like 
 S. Paul, can rejoice that in every way Christ is 
 preached, even though you may be slighted in the 
 preaching. Ask yourselves, whether you, like the 
 Baptist, can break out into thanksgiving, because 
 another increases while you decrease. This is a sure 
 test. Here is this layman for instance, who has gifts 
 
IX.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 113 
 
 which you have not, gifts which may be efficiently 
 employed in Christ's service ; will you hold him in 
 check, will you deny him the opportunity, lest his 
 capability should interfere with your influence ? God 
 forbid. You will put him forward, will you not? 
 You will place him where his gifts will tell ; you will 
 rejoice, if he succeeds where you fail. 
 
 Yes, dear brothers, not unfitly in the special 
 prayer for the deacons in the Ordination Service 
 petition is made that they may be found 'modest 
 and humble' in their ministrations. Whatever else 
 it may be, let this year of your diaconate be to you a 
 schooling in modesty, in humility. 
 
 But how shall this be ? How shall you resist this 
 tremendous temptation of confounding your office 
 with yourself, and thus magnifying yourself while 
 you imagine you are magnifying your office. Re- 
 member again the Apostle's words. 'We have this 
 treasure in earthen vessels,' lest the sufficiency should 
 be of ourselves. In earthen vessels, ev oo-rpaKivois 
 o-Kevecriv. Yes, a mere potsherd a vile, broken worth- 
 less thing, which no one would care to pick up on the 
 roadside a mere potsherd may hold the living water 
 which will revive the parched and dying lips in the 
 last gasp. 
 
 But there is another way in which unconsciously 
 you may be preaching yourselves when you ought 
 O. A. 8 
 
114 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iX. 
 
 to be preaching Christ. There is a favourite doctrine 
 of yours, which you found, or thought you found, 
 neglected, which has taken possession of you, which 
 you think it necessary to emphasize. It may be quite 
 true in itself. But it becomes false by disproportionate 
 emphasis. Other truths are kept out of sight This 
 absorbs the whole horizon of your preaching. It is 
 possible to preach justification by faith in such a 
 manner as to eclipse, or at least to obscure, Christ, the 
 Christ of the Gospel, the Christ of the Incarnation. 
 Or perhaps you belong to quite another school. There 
 is the doctrine of the Church its nature, its unity, 
 its discipline. You may find yourself planted down 
 among persons in whom the idea of a Church is a 
 blank. It is a sore temptation to you to press 
 the point in season and out of season. But such 
 exaggeration defeats itself. It is right that this 
 should have a place in your teaching. It is not 
 right that it should have the principal place. You 
 are preaching yourself, not Christ. 
 
 But the Apostle has no sooner declared that the 
 true preacher of the Gospel preaches 'not himself,' 
 than he is obliged to contradict himself. Yes, the 
 Gospel is not only a message ; it is also a ministration, 
 a service. We do preach, we do proclaim ourselves. 
 We do put ourselves forward. We cannot retire into 
 the back-ground. We must in one sense preach 
 
IX.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. 115 
 
 ourselves; but only as your servants, your slaves 
 for Christ's sake. Your very name will speak to you 
 of this function. You are called to be deacons, 
 ministers, servants. 
 
 This service is the basis of the clerical office ; the 
 preaching is the superstructure. Every clergyman 
 begins as a deacon. This is right. But he never 
 ceases to be a deacon. The priest is a deacon still. 
 The bishop is a deacon still. Christ came as a deacon, 
 lived as a deacon, died as a deacon. Mr) SiaKovrjdrjvat, 
 a\\a Sta/covfjcrai,, 'not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister,' ' not to receive service, but to render service/ 
 Think with awe then of this diaconate to which you are 
 called, Christ's own title, Christ's own office. Cherish 
 it with reverence, for was it not glorified in its first 
 institution by signal examples of zeal and devotion ? 
 Was not Stephen, the first martyr, a deacon ? Was 
 not Philip, the first foreign missionary, a deacon ? 
 What other office can boast such a history ? The 
 prerogatives of acting and of suffering alike belong to 
 it, as typified by these two men. Will you tarnish 
 your inheritance by sloth, by worldliness, by self- 
 seeking? It is yours to be the servants of all, as 
 Christ was the servant of all; yours to bear the 
 burdens of all ; yours to be at the beck and call of 
 all. It was said by an earthly monarch of an earthly 
 minister of state that he was always in the way and 
 
 82 
 
Il6 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iX. 
 
 yet never in the way. What higher commendation 
 could be pronounced on you, the ministers, the 
 deacons, of a heavenly King, than this to be 
 always in the way, when any service is to be 
 rendered, when any sympathy can be shown, and 
 yet never in the way by asserting yourselves, by 
 obtruding yourselves, by arrogating to yourselves. 
 
 'When any service is to be rendered, when any 
 sympathy can be shown/ It is this, this sympathy, 
 manifesting itself in this service, which will be your 
 best passport. Men may question your claims. Men 
 may deny your authority. But this recommendation, 
 this diploma the recommendation of a Christlike 
 service, the diploma of a Christlike sympathy they 
 cannot question or deny. The ministry will thus be 
 the pathway to the message. Only exhibit your 
 ministry, and men will welcome your message. 
 
 And the message itself. What is it ? Let us turn 
 again to S. Paul's words which I took as my starting 
 
 point. 
 
 ' God, Who commanded the light to shine out of 
 darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light 
 of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face 
 of Jesus Christ.' 
 
 Its characteristics are Might' and 'glory.' Do not 
 forget this. The Gospel is too often preached as if it 
 were neither light nor glory. 
 
IX.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. II J 
 
 Not light ; for is it not presented as if it were a 
 congeries of abstruse dogmas, which make no appeal 
 to the understanding and have no affinities with the 
 heart, but which demand a blind acceptance on peril 
 of eternal death ? Not light this, but darkness. 
 
 Again, not glory ; for preachers have too often 
 spoken, as if they had received, not a ministration of 
 righteousness, but a ministration of condemnation; 
 as if they would lead their hearers not to Sion, the 
 city of the living God, but to Sinai, the mountain 
 that burned with fire, to blackness and darkness and 
 tempest. I do not say that it may not be right at 
 times to present the sterner aspects of Christian 
 doctrine before men. But of this I am sure that, 
 where one man may be drawn to Christ by threats 
 of vengeance, a hundred may be drawn to Him 
 by manifestations of love. Preach then the message 
 of mercy, of forgiveness, of reconciliation, in all its 
 fulness ; ' God loved the world,' ' God willeth all men 
 to be saved.' Is not the progress of the Salvation 
 Army, notwithstanding all its painful irreverence and 
 all its sensational excesses, due largely to the fact that 
 (wherever else it may be wrong) it does strive to 
 present the Gospel as light and as glory? 
 
 And S. Paul tells us too, what this light and glory 
 is, and where it is to be found. It is the glory of 
 God's holiness and the light of God's love presented 
 
Il8 ORDINATION ADDRESSES. [iX. 
 
 to us, as in a mirror, in the face, the person, the life, 
 the death, the resurrection of Christ. We cannot 
 gaze directly at the unclouded mid-day sun. We 
 must look at it through a medium or in a reflexion. 
 * No man hath seen God at any time.' But here we 
 can read Him, here we can study Him, the perfect 
 righteousness which demanded such a gift, the perfect 
 love which accorded such a gift, the gift of the Incar- 
 nation leading up to the gift of the Passion, the gift 
 of the Eternal Son to live our life and die our death. 
 A few very simple facts these, but infinite in their 
 resources and boundless in their applications, not 
 barren dogmas, but living, breathing lessons with 
 hands and feet, as Luther said of S. Paul's words 
 hands that grasp and feet that move, lessons by 
 which a child may live, but lessons which an 
 archangel cannot exhaust. 
 
 But there is one preliminary condition of your 
 teaching these lessons effectively; yes, one absolute, 
 indispensable condition, however we may disguise 
 it from ourselves. You cannot teach what you do 
 not know. Again let S. Paul be our monitor. God 
 shining in the hearts of the preachers this is the 
 first step ; the illumination of others through the light 
 of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of 
 Christ this is the later stage in the sequence. 'I 
 believed and therefore I spake.' I saw the light, I 
 
IX.] ORDINATION ADDRESSES. IIQ 
 
 drank in the glory. Therefore I drew others to the 
 light ; therefore I showed others the glory. 
 
 And you who to-morrow, if it please God, will 
 enroll yourselves in the latest ranks of Christ's 
 deacons you will retire (will you not?) like Moses 
 of old, retire from the turmoil and distractions of 
 this lower world, retire in the quiet of this night and 
 the calm of the early morning, retire again and again 
 from time to time to the Mountain of God, and there 
 stand face to face with the Eternal Presence; there 
 contemplate the majesty of God's holiness and the 
 glory of God's love, as mirrored in the Person and 
 the Life of Christ; there behold transfixed, till the 
 light is reflected on your own countenance ; there gaze 
 and gaze again, that you may be transformed into the 
 same image from glory to glory. 
 
 And ever and again, as the season comes round, 
 and the autumn Ember days return, and the festival 
 of him, who rose from the receipt of custom and left 
 all to follow Christ, is kept, these words of S. Paul, 
 read in the Epistle for the day, will meet your eyes, 
 reminding you of your ordination lessons, of your 
 ordination vows, of your ordination hopes and fears. 
 They will meet your eyes. May they sink into your 
 hearts. 
 
COUNSELS TO CLERGY. 
 
A. ADDRESSES DELIVERED IN S. PE TER'S CHA PEL, 
 AUCKLAND CASTLE, AT THE ANNUAL GATHERINGS 
 OF THE AUCKLAND COLLEGE. 
 
 B. ADDRESSES DELIVERED A T CUDDESDON COL- 
 LEGE TO RESIDENT OXFORD TUTORS, OCT. 1885; 
 REPEATED IN ELY CATHEDRAL TO RESIDENT 
 CAMBRIDGE TUTORS, JAN. 1888. 
 
A. AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 
 
 I. 
 
 And tJic Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan 
 hath desired to have you, that he may sift yon as wheat: 
 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and 
 when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. 
 
 S. LUKE xxii. 31, 32. 
 
 [S. Peter's Day, 1883.] 
 
 OF the novel readings in the Revised Version 
 probably few will have caused more surprise than the 
 change of the patronymic of S. Peter, as given in the 
 Fourth Gospel, from Jona or Jonas to John. It will 
 seem at first sight to have added another to the many 
 discrepancies which modern criticism is thought to 
 have discovered between S. John and the other 
 Evangelists. 
 
 Further examination however will correct the first 
 hasty impression. Out of a contradiction it will elicit 
 harmony. This is not a solitary instance, where an 
 
124 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 apparent discrepancy has yielded to patient investi- 
 gation a subtle beauty or an unsuspected fulness of 
 meaning, when the disguise is stripped aside. The 
 name Johanan or John appears under manifold forms, 
 more or less contracted, in the Greek Bible. Jonan 
 or Jonas is one of these. Thus the name of the 
 Apostle's father, though the same in form, is not the 
 same in meaning, as the name of the prophet the son 
 of Amittai. It signifies not ' the dove,' but ' the grace 
 of Jehovah/ * the grace of God/ So it was that the 
 Baptist's father, having received a son out of due 
 course and knowing the exceptional destiny which 
 awaited him, declined to call him after himself. He 
 would give the child a name which should proclaim 
 how 'the Lord had showed great mercy' to the 
 childless parents. The child should be called 'the 
 grace of God.' 
 
 The words of the promise given to S. Peter, as a 
 reward for his confession, when read in the light of 
 this fact, assume a new significance. 'Blessed art 
 thou, Simon Barjona.' Why this intrusive patronymic, 
 which, as commonly understood, has no bearing on 
 the context and was not wanted here for the purpose 
 of identification ? But, when once we have learned 
 its true meaning, then it appears eminently appro- 
 priate, as introducing the words which follow, ' Blessed 
 art thou, Simon Barjona son of God's grace, I say 
 
I.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 125 
 
 for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 
 but My Father which is in heaven.' Thus the cor- 
 rected reading in S. John throws a flood of light on 
 the interpretation of S. Matthew, and the essential 
 harmony of the two Evangelists is only the more 
 strikingly brought out, when emphasized by the 
 seeming contradiction. 
 
 The force of the patronymic is the same in another 
 passage. The interpretational key, which has fitted 
 the confession of S. Peter in S. Matthew's Gospel, 
 may be applied to unlock the meaning of the words 
 referring to the first call of S. Peter in S. John. 
 ' Thou art Simon the son of John ; thou shalt be 
 called Cephas.' The operation of God's grace is the 
 prior stage; the solidity, the stedfastness, the hard 
 unyielding strength of character, is the outcome. He 
 is Cephas, the rock or stone, last, because he is the 
 child of Johanan first. 
 
 But is there not a significance also in his own 
 individual name, as well as in his patronymic ? Why 
 otherwise should there be in both passages this 
 emphatic stress on the name, 'Thou art Simon/ 
 * Blessed art thou, Simon.' So again in the threefold 
 pastoral charge given to S. Peter after the Resurrec- 
 tion our Lord seems to dwell with special fondness 
 on both personal name and patronymic, as if to the 
 speaker and the hearer alike they would suggest 
 
126 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 ideas beyond the identification of the person addressed. 
 Why else should they have been repeated with each 
 successive charge, ' Simon son of John, lovest thou 
 Me?' 
 
 Is it altogether fanciful if we see in all these 
 passages alike a reference to the meaning of the 
 name Simon or Symeon, ' hearing'? God's grace is 
 fruitless, if there is deafness in the person addressed. 
 There must be a willing mind, a receptive ear, or the 
 word is spoken in vain. Not Simon alone, nor 
 Barjona alone, but the union of the two is needed, 
 that Cephas may be the result. 
 
 This open ear Peter had had pre-eminently. The 
 character of Peter is marred by many faults. There 
 is haste, there is impetuosity, there is lack of courage, 
 there is altogether a want of balance in the man. And 
 yet he towers head and shoulders above his com- 
 panions, as a spiritual leader. May we not say that 
 the secret of this pre-eminence was his spiritual 
 receptivity? His ear was never closed to the voice 
 of God. 
 
 Hence his repeated emergence from moral and 
 spiritual failure or defeat. Of no character in the 
 New Testament are so many errors recorded. Again 
 and again he stumbles ; but again and again he 
 recovers himself. The word, the gesture, the look, is 
 sufficient to recall him. There is no reluctance or 
 
I.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 127 
 
 hanging back. The tones of God's voice go straight 
 to his heart and conscience. The sensitiveness of his 
 spiritual ear never fails him. 
 
 And hence also his moral failures leave no moral 
 scars behind. There is no deterioration of the man, 
 when he has stumbled. There is not only no deteri- 
 oration, but he emerges the stronger and the better 
 for the trial. On the stepping stones of his dead self 
 he has risen to higher things. 
 
 Spiritual greatness is in this respect like all other 
 greatness. The general whose campaign is com- 
 menced amidst a series of disasters, but who neverthe- 
 less by repairing his mistakes, by- concentrating his 
 forces, by watching his opportunities, carries ultimate 
 triumph out of defeat, is the truly great captain. The 
 statesman or the orator, whose maiden effort was 
 covered with confusion and ridicule, but who resolves 
 in spite of this, or rather because of this that he 
 will force his opponents to hear him and to respect 
 him, shows in his own line a greatness of a different 
 order from the average great man. In each case it is 
 the ability and the readiness to learn from failure 
 which is the secret of success. 
 
 So too in the Church of Christ. No two men 
 could be named who had more influence on their own 
 and succeeding ages, none therefore of whom greatness 
 could more truly be predicated, than S. Paul and 
 
128 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 S. Augustine. Yet S. Paul's most magnificent career 
 as a theological teacher was built on a theological 
 failure a failure so gigantic that hardly a parallel 
 can be found. And Augustine too. We may demur 
 at accepting his theology in all respects, but we 
 cannot deny his exceptional saintliness of life. Yet 
 this saintliness was built upon a tremendous moral 
 failure, which (we might have thought) must have 
 barred the way to the saintly life at the outset. 
 Each was most strong just where he had been most 
 weak. But S. Paul had an ear open to the voice on 
 the way to Damascus, which was to others only a 
 confused inarticulate sound ; and S. Augustine dis- 
 cerned in the refrain Tolle, lege, notwithstanding the 
 childish voices which gave it utterance, a message 
 direct from heaven recalling him to a truer life. 
 
 It was a terrible price paid for the spiritual lesson 
 in S. Augustine's case most terrible ; yet who can 
 doubt that in both instances the intensity of the 
 regenerate life can be traced to the errors of the 
 earlier career, that the fire of zeal for God was fed 
 with the fuel of this bitter experience in the past ? 
 
 But in S. Peter's case there was no such violent 
 dislocation between the past and the present. It was 
 not one great leap, but a succession of steps, by 
 which he rose from lower to higher. The walking on 
 the water, the washing of the disciples' feet, the scene 
 
I.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 1 29 
 
 of the apprehension in the garden, display the man 
 in the earliest years of his discipleship. The Domine 
 quo vadis story if we may believe it true reveals him 
 at the close of his career, still the same. And why 
 should we not believe it true ? Is it not far beyond 
 the reach of invention ? What more true to character 
 than the timidity of the first flight, the sudden arresting 
 of the fugitive, the moral shock of the Saviour's 
 rebuke, the suddenly regained courage and the reso- 
 luteness which faces certain death ! And again what 
 a depth and what a fulness of meaning there is in the 
 Saviour's answer to the question of the startled 
 disciple, ' I go to Rome to be crucified afresh ' ' to be 
 crucified by thee, because thou fleest and wilt not be 
 crucified ; to be crucified with thee, because thou wilt 
 repent and be crucified ; to be crucified through the 
 cowardice of a faithless disciple now ; to be crucified 
 in the courage of a faithful disciple then ! ' For both 
 reasons alike, because it is so subtly true to character 
 and because it is so eminently profound in its signifi- 
 cance, we are led to assign to this tradition a weight 
 which the external testimony in its favour would 
 hardly warrant. 
 
 The one lesson then, which I desire that we all 
 
 you and I should carry away from our S. Peter's 
 
 day gathering this year, is the main lesson of S. 
 
 Peter's life. The subjects in yonder windows enforce 
 
 O. A. 9 
 
130 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 it again and again. They bid you hear God's voice 
 in moral failure. They bid you feel God's touch in 
 spiritual defeat. 
 
 No lesson is more needed by us ; for none is 
 wider in its application, and none is more directly 
 appropriate to a ministerial career. By failure and 
 by defeat I mean, not external inefficiency of what- 
 ever kind, not the missing of any direct aim outside 
 ourselves, not the want of ministerial success, at least 
 not this directly or chiefly ; but something quite 
 irrespective of the results of our actions, the sense 
 that we have been wanting in ourselves, that there 
 has been something wrong, something inadequate, 
 perhaps something directly and definitely sinful in 
 ourselves a declension from truth or uprightness or 
 purity or love or, if not this, an unsatisfactory inward 
 state, a spiritual sluggishness or a spiritual hardness, 
 which hangs heavy on our souls. 
 
 This last is the commonest form, which our failure 
 will take. It is perhaps also the most insidious. 
 But for these very reasons it is the more necessary 
 that we should keep our ear open to Christ's voice, 
 that we should recognise the divine element in the 
 temptation. 
 
 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to 
 have you ' egyTijo-aro v/ta?, asked to have you and (in 
 a certain sense) obtained you ; asked and obtained, 
 
I.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 131 
 
 as he asked and obtained Job, that he might be the 
 means of sifting you, of sifting the bad from the 
 good in your company, rejecting the traitor Judas 
 and retaining the eleven faithful ones, of sifting the 
 bad from the good in each individual soul in the 
 soul of thee, Simon Peter, rejecting the cowardice, 
 the hastiness of temper, the ambition, the carnal 
 conception of Christ's kingdom, but retaining the 
 passionate love and the fervent zeal and the abandon- 
 ment of self-sacrifice, purified and sanctified by the 
 process, so that Satan's assault has proved God's 
 opportunity. 
 
 I took the instance of spiritual sluggishness, as a 
 common direction which Satan's assault takes, and in 
 which nevertheless we may and ought to recognise 
 God's presence, however distant He may appear at 
 first sight. I characterised it as specially insidious. 
 The Satanic element and the Divine element in it 
 alike are smothered and disguised. I can compare it 
 to nothing else but to the dull drowsy feeling which 
 overtakes the traveller in the freezing atmosphere of 
 some high mountain region, which must be certain 
 death to him, if he yields to it. And yet, unlike the 
 bleeding wound or the mangled limb, it causes no 
 acute pain, and therefore its terrors are unseen. 
 
 But if the Satanic temptation is there in all its 
 force, ^so also is the Divine discipline, the Divine 
 
 9-2 
 
132 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 sifting. Only struggle, only persevere, only resist the 
 invading influence, only refuse to resign yourself to 
 what seems to be a soothing slumber, but is in fact a 
 numbing death-chill. It may cost a greater, at least 
 a more sustained effort, than the paroxysm of re- 
 pentance or of revulsion following upon the acute 
 temptation or the definite sin ; but assuredly the 
 spiritual gain will not be less. 
 
 I will take an instance. You are preparing a 
 sermon. The spiritual and intellectual atmosphere 
 hangs like a dull leaden cloud over you. It is a 
 wearisome, almost loathsome struggle to advance 
 at all. I do not say how far the cause may be 
 physical. This does not affect the case. Our 
 physical conditions are as much a discipline to us as 
 our moral and spiritual conditions. What then shall 
 you do ? Will you yield to your temptation, give up 
 the struggle, and take an old sermon, or (if not this) 
 go on and set down any commonplaces that may 
 come into your head, so as to fill so much paper or 
 occupy so much time ? No, you will take the nobler 
 alternative ; you will by God's help wrench the best 
 out of yourself, whatever effort it may cost, whatever 
 expenditure of time and labour, of self-concentration 
 and self-loathing. And what is the result ? Believe 
 it ; this is the result of experience. It is just this one 
 sermon, which was born of so much agony, which has 
 
I.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 133 
 
 caused you so much dissatisfaction just this that has 
 touched the hearts of men. Others which have 
 flowed smoothly from your pen or your lips, have 
 glanced ineffectively off the ears and the minds of 
 your hearers. But of this, thank God, you can say 
 that it has converted at least one soul to Christ. 
 
 And why was this ? Because it cost you so much; 
 because it was the child of sacrifice, and its parentage 
 somehow though you saw it not was reflected in 
 its features ; because in your temptation you heard 
 the higher voice, and God's grace responded to your 
 hearing. 
 
 And so may it be with us always. The Divine 
 voice is there, there where the temptation clamours 
 most loudly. May the open ear be ours ; ' Speak, 
 Lord, for Thy servant heareth.' 
 
 Have we plunged into an unknown sea of difficulty 
 and danger ? Are we sinking deeper and deeper in 
 the waves of misgiving, of scepticism, of despair? 
 Our faith fails us. But the form of the Son of Man 
 is there walking buoyant on the waters. We 
 recognise Him. We grasp at Him. The touch of 
 His hand suffices. Our weakness is made strong. 
 We walk with Him, walk on the waters as on the 
 dry land. 
 
 Or again ; are we failing in some great emergency, 
 shrinking from some painful duty, fleeing from some 
 
134 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 manifest danger? Christ meets us, bearing the Cross 
 the Cross which is at once the token of our redemp- 
 tion and the standard of our lives ? Shall we pass by 
 Him, avert our gaze, refuse to recognise Him ? Nay; 
 we will be bold, we will accost Him. ' Lord, whither 
 goest Thou ? Whither goest Thou, for whither thou 
 goest, I go also.' His word recalls us. ' I go to be 
 crucified afresh. Take thou thy cross also, and follow 
 Me.' 
 
 Or again, the temptation is of another kind, not of 
 faithless misgiving, but of selfish cowardice. The sin 
 has been committed. The Lord has been denied 
 denied by our silence or denied by our overt act. 
 What next ? It is a question of life and death to us. 
 Shall we be tempted to indifference, or to hardness of 
 heart, or to remorseful despair ? Any one of these is 
 fatal. Yet some one of these may overtake us, must 
 overtake us, but for His presence. But He is there. 
 His reproachful look rests on us for a moment. We 
 will go out from the scene of our temptation ; we will 
 weep bitter tears of repentance ; we will turn to God, 
 till God shall turn to us, and the clean heart is made, 
 and the right spirit is renewed within us ; and with 
 us, as with S. Peter, the last shall be more than the 
 first. ' O give me the comfort of Thy help again, and 
 stablish me with Thy free spirit. Then shall I teach 
 Thy ways unto the wicked, and sinners shall be 
 
I.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 135 
 
 converted unto Thee.' The charge of the Saviour is 
 the response to this aspiration of the Psalmist. 
 'When thou hast been converted, when thou hast 
 turned again, strengthen, stablish thy brethren. 1 2v 
 7TOT6 eTTiarTpeijras <nr)pt,(TOV rou? aSeX<ou9 aov. 
 
 The touch of Christ, the voice of Christ, the look 
 of Christ, but above all the prayer of Christ ! ' I have 
 prayed for thee.' What else shall we need, if only we 
 realise this ! Christ interceding for me, Christ con- 
 centrating His prayer on me, Christ individualising 
 His merits for me, Christ pleading for me His atoning 
 blood before the Eternal Throne I 
 
II. 
 
 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law 
 
 of Christ .for every man shall bear his own burden. 
 
 GALATIANS vi; 2, 5. 
 
 [S. Peter" s Day, 1884.] 
 
 I ONCE heard a famous living writer, when lectur- 
 ing on art, declare that he was never satisfied until he 
 had contradicted himself two or three times. This 
 paradox, which seemed an untruth, expressed the 
 highest truth. The lecturer desired to imply that 
 the principles of art were complex and manifold ; 
 that they crossed and recrossed each other; that 
 human language on the other hand was finite ; that 
 it was only possible to express in a given sentence 
 a partial aspect of the question ; and that qualifica- 
 tions arid counter-qualifications were needed to correct 
 and supplement the idea conveyed by this sentence, 
 before any adequate conception of the whole truth 
 could be arrived at. 
 
II.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 137 
 
 If we arc constrained to admit the truth of this 
 paradox in the principles and criticisms of art, it is 
 surely much more applicable, when we are speaking 
 of the theology or the ethics of the Gospel. S. Paul 
 at all events seems to have thought so. He has not 
 only no fear of contradicting himself; he seems to 
 delight in such self-contradiction. The close juxta- 
 position of opposite statements challenges attention 
 to this feature. Thus, writing to the Philippians he 
 bids his converts 'work out their own salvation with 
 fear and trembling ;' but he tells them in the very next 
 sentence that they do not and cannot do that which 
 he bids them do it is God and not themselves, ' God, 
 Who worketh' in them 'both to will and to do.' The 
 'I' and the 'not I' of his famous antithesis expressed 
 elsewhere is the underlying principle of all true moral 
 and spiritual progress, each negativing the other and 
 yet both necessary for the result. So again in the 
 Epistle to the Romans he declares the commandment 
 to be 'the occasion of sin' and so to have slain him ; 
 and yet almost in the same breath he pronounces 
 that the law is 'holy and just and good.' 
 
 In like manner here, he enjoins us to bear one 
 another's burdens, and he entorces this injunction by 
 declaring it to be the fulfilment of the law of Christ ; 
 but three verses lower down he declares this to be 
 impossible which he has so emphatically urged upon 
 
138 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 us. Each man has his own proper burden, and this 
 he must bear for himself. 
 
 It is worth observing however that though the 
 same word 'burden' appears in both places in the 
 English Version, this is not the case in the original ; 
 dX\,r)\(0v rd ffdpr) /SaoTafere' e/cacrros TO iSiov <f>opriov 
 fiaardo-ei,. The difference seems to be a matter of 
 deliberate choice. There are burdens of various kinds 
 physical, moral, social, spiritual which befall a 
 man ; trials which come and go, troubles which may 
 be shared or removed, a miscellaneous aggregate of 
 anxieties and vexations and oppressions. These are 
 his fidpr). But over and above all these though not 
 perhaps independent of these there is one particular 
 load, which he cannot shake off, which he must make 
 up his mind to bear, which he is destined to carry on 
 his own shoulders (it may be) through life to the end. 
 This is TO Ibiov fyopTiov, his pack (as it were), a well- 
 defined particular load, which is his and not another's, 
 which never can be another's. Let us speak first of 
 this personal burden. 
 
 What image may we suppose to have presented it- 
 self to the Apostle when he uses these words ? May 
 we not regard it as one of those military metaphors in 
 which S. Paul delights ? Life is a campaign. It has 
 its exercise ground, its forced marches, its sudden 
 surprises, its pitched battles. Christ is the great 
 
II.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 139 
 
 general, under whom we serve. Each soldier carries 
 his own pack. It is a burden indeed ; it adds much 
 to the fatigue and toil of the march ; but it is abso- 
 lutely necessary, not only for the man's efficiency, 
 but even for his sustenance. It comprises not only 
 his accoutrements, but it includes also provisions for 
 the journey. This is his fyopriov. 
 
 Thus explained, the expression is eminently sug- 
 gestive. We each severally have such a burden. We 
 cannot shake it off. We cannot devolve it upon 
 others. It was laid upon our shoulders by our com- 
 manding officer. If it is burdensome, it is necessary. 
 Our efficiency as soldiers of Christ depends on our 
 bearing it manfully, bearing it cheerfully. To sink 
 under it is pusillanimous. To throw it off is rebellious, 
 and will lead to certain destruction. 
 
 How shall we put this lesson in a concrete shape ? 
 What form does this burden, this soldier's pack, take 
 in any individual case, so that we may recognise it as 
 Christ's own imposition ; and, recognising it as such, 
 may bear it not only patiently, but joyfully ? 
 
 It may be perhaps some physical disability, which 
 places us at a disadvantage in our communication 
 with others, and more especially in our ministerial 
 work. It is perhaps some defect of voice or some 
 ungainliness of manner, something which prevents us 
 from doing at all what others do, or at all events only 
 
I4O COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 allows us to do it with great difficulty, while they do 
 it with ease. Or it may be some physical disqualifi- 
 cation of another kind some ailment, like S. Paul's 
 thorn in the flesh, which prostrates us, which from 
 time to time deprives us of all power over our move- 
 ments, and which perhaps (as in S. Paul's case) lowers 
 us in the estimation of others. 
 
 Or again, it may be an intellectual hindrance. 
 There is a sluggishness in our own mental constitu- 
 tion, which is a terrible impediment to our efficiency. 
 Every sermon, every address, every pastoral act, which 
 requires an intellectual effort, is a severe trial to us. 
 Our thoughts will not flow; our words will not come; 
 our pen will not move. 
 
 Or again, perhaps it is something in our social or 
 domestic surroundings, which hangs about us as a 
 load ; but of which, even if it were possible, it would 
 not be right to rid ourselves, because by so doing we 
 should be repudiating some obvious duty. 
 
 Or last of all, it may not be any of these things; 
 not any disability, whether physical or intellectual or 
 social, which it has never been in our power to order 
 otherwise. It may be some permanent or far-reaching 
 consequence of a former act of our own; some 
 neglect, or recklessness, or sin in the past, which has 
 hung a weight about our necks. The sin may be 
 repented of; the pardon may be assured. But the 
 
II.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 14! 
 
 temporal consequences of the sin remain, and will 
 remain so long as we have breath. This is the most 
 irksome and the most painful form which a man's 
 individual burden can take. 
 
 In all such cases the Apostle's terse maxim will 
 be our teacher, ' Every man shall bear his own 
 burden (TO tSiov <f>opriov)' He must make up his 
 mind to the inevitable. It is his burden, and he must 
 bear it. It is mere waste of strength, mere enfeeble- 
 ment of purpose, mere exhaustion of his energies, to 
 repine against it, to struggle under it, to try to shake 
 it off. All this only makes it the more galling. If 
 he is wise, he will adjust his shoulders to the weight, 
 and the weight to his shoulders; and then he will 
 trudge forward manfully. It will soon cease to vex 
 and harass, if he will so treat it. 
 
 But more than this. He will regard it as Christ's 
 special burden laid upon him. It is part of his 
 equipment as Christ's soldier. It is his accoutrement 
 on his march. So viewed, it will assume a widely 
 different light. It will be glorified in his eyes. And 
 just in proportion as he learns thus to think of it, will 
 the pressure be relieved. The inspiring strains of the 
 martial music will quicken his step and thrill his 
 heart; he will press on eagerly to the combat; know- 
 ing that where there is no battle, there can be no 
 victory. 
 
142 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 Thus his burden will be no more a subject of 
 complaining. It will even be a matter for thanks- 
 giving. For is it not his lesson, his discipline ; not 
 only the condition, but the instrument of ultimate 
 victory ? This will be the case, even though it may 
 assume that most terrible form of which I have 
 spoken, the consequence of some sin in the past. 
 This form of burden is essentially his own his own 
 in the making, his own in the bearing, his own from 
 first to last. From its very nature it will be frequently 
 such that another cannot touch it, in order to lighten 
 it, even with the tip of his fingers. It may be some- 
 thing which for some reason or other it would not be 
 right to communicate to others ; or in which, even 
 if communicated, they could afford him no relief. 
 He must accept the isolation, the loneliness. But 
 what then ? Though alone, he is not alone not 
 alone, unless his eye is blinded to the invisible 
 Presence. He will learn to separate the sin from 
 the consequences of the sin. The sin is abhorred, 
 is repented of, is put away, is altogether of the past. 
 The sin was no part of God's purpose. The sin was 
 all his own. But then God stepped in, and took the 
 matter into His own hands. Christ imposed this 
 burden He and not another, He the great captain 
 of our salvation. This consequence of your sin 
 painful and harassing though it may be is God's 
 
II. J AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 143 
 
 fatherly chastening, sent to be the purifier and the 
 sanctifier of your life. It is a manifest token to you, 
 if only you have eyes to see, not that God has 
 forsaken you, not that God has cast you off, not that 
 God abhors you ; but that He loves you, loves you as 
 His son. It will not drive you to despair ; it will 
 fill you with renewed strength and hope. It will 
 even be a joy to you. You will learn to hug your 
 load, because it is Christ's burden. 
 
 And more than this. Reminding you of your 
 own weakness, it will be a never-failing source of 
 sympathy and helpfulness towards others. He, who 
 has felt the burden, is best able to relieve the burden. 
 He, who has known the forgiveness and love, will 
 most effectively plead the forgiveness and love with 
 and for others. 
 
 And this brings me to the second part of the text. 
 ' Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law 
 of Christ.' 
 
 I have been speaking hitherto, as if there were 
 two separate sets of burdens one which we must 
 bear for ourselves, and another which we must help 
 others to bear and which others can help us to bear. 
 And I have regarded the one bearing as distinct from 
 the other. This is a true view in a certain sense, but 
 it is not a complete view. Already I have been 
 obliged to transgress the line of demarcation. I have 
 
144 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 just said that, by bearing our own burdens, we shall 
 best learn how to bear other people's. But the con- 
 verse is not less true. There is no help towards 
 bearing our own burdens so effective as the bearing 
 the burdens of others as well. This is the moral 
 paradox of our being. Are we sinking under the 
 weight of our own burden ? Then let us go up to 
 our neighbour, and courageously shoulder his also. 
 The two will be lighter, incomparably lighter, than 
 the one was. Is not this demonstrably true ? Is a 
 man's heart wounded and bleeding with some recent 
 sorrow a cruel bereavement, a disappointed hope, 
 an outraged affection ; and he broods over it till the 
 pain becomes too terrible to bear? The only relief 
 for his agony is found in ministering to the wants or 
 consoling the sorrows of another. His sympathy is 
 thus evoked ; and with sympathy come new interests, 
 new feelings, a new life. Sympathy cures selfishness. 
 There is always an element of selfishness in excessive 
 sorrow. Excessive sorrow arises from cramped iso- 
 lated affections, which centre in self. Sympathy 
 revives hope, and drives away despair. Or again, 
 our trial may be of a different kind. It may be the 
 presence of some temptation which dogs our steps 
 everywhere, which forces its hideous presence upon 
 us in season and out of season. Here again the 
 remedy is the same. Divert your thoughts from self. 
 
II.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 145 
 
 Try to help others. Consult their weaknesses, relieve 
 their maladies ; strive to raise them up, and by so 
 doing you will most effectually raise yourself up also. 
 Where is this lesson more eloquently and powerfully 
 taught than in the life of the great Apostle, whose 
 name is commemorated in this chapel, and whose 
 festival is our annual rally i ng-poin t ? In the great 
 crisis and agony of his life, what is the language of 
 the Master whom he has so cruelly, so heartlessly, 
 betrayed ? 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired 
 to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I 
 have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not : and when 
 thou art converted ' what then ? Not ' go and shut 
 thyself up, ' not ' go devour thy soul with remorse,' 
 but ' go strengthen thy brethren ' strengthen them, 
 because thou thyself art weak, strengthen them, be- 
 cause strengthening them thou wilt strengthen thyself. 
 Speaking to those who are or who (by God's grace) 
 soon will be ministers of Christ, how can I better sum 
 up the ideal of their pastoral work than in this precept 
 of S. Paul ? ' Bear ye one another's burdens, and so 
 fulfil ' or rather ' and so shall ye fulfil ' ' the law of 
 Christ. ' If this is a duty incumbent on all Christians, 
 it is especially incumbent on you. This practical 
 thoughtful sympathy for others, this forwardness to 
 bear their burdens, their sorrows, their weaknesses, 
 their doubts, their trials, their temptations will be 
 O. A. 10 
 
146 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 the very soul of your ministerial life. It will be the 
 strength and inspiration of your own being. It will 
 melt and overawe and convince others. 
 
 But we, who are gathered together to-day, have 
 another bond of union. Though in some sense a 
 Theological College, yet we differ in one respect from 
 other such Colleges. Our ideal is a family, a brother- 
 hood. Let us never lose sight of this ideal. But a 
 brotherhood implies closer union, more intimate sym- 
 pathies, a readier disposition to bear one another's 
 burdens. 
 
 Our meeting this year is not without a special 
 significance. It has pleased God in His goodness 
 still to maintain our ranks unbroken. Not one of 
 our members yet has been summoned to cross the 
 narrow stream which separates us from the eternity 
 beyond. But in other respects there is an expansion 
 and a scattering. The wings are stretched out for 
 flight. Now for the first time one is called to labour 
 far away among the heathen, and before our next 
 anniversary will be separated from us by two con- 
 tinents. Now for the first time one and another are 
 working in other and distant dioceses. Now for the 
 first time one will be solemnly set apart to the 
 incumbency of a parish. It is good that our cor- 
 porate interests should be enlarged. It will not be 
 good if the bonds of our corporate union are loosened. 
 
II.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 147 
 
 In such a brotherhood as this, the Apostle's pre- 
 cept has a special force. We have the most direct 
 duties of sympathy and helpfulness one to another 
 and to the whole body. Of us it is signally true that 
 'whether one member suffer, all the members suffer 
 with it; or one member be honoured, all the members 
 rejoice with it.' As this our home is the centre of the 
 diocese, our doings will be more the subject of re- 
 mark than those of others. Ours is a city set upon 
 a hill. 
 
 We should do well then to reflect upon our special 
 responsibilities, but not in the spirit of exclusiveness. 
 Nothing could be more fatal to the true spirit of our 
 work than that we should come to regard ourselves 
 as an inner circle. The spirit of caste-righteousness 
 is only less dangerous than the spirit of self-righteous- 
 ness. The distinction between those within and those 
 without is more injurious to those within than to 
 those without. 
 
 So then we here especially need the reciprocal 
 sympathy and cooperation of which the text speaks. 
 And all can render it. Each can help to lighten the 
 burdens of the rest. Even he, who looks upon him- 
 self as least gifted, has some special talent or quality, 
 which may do something towards raising and' com- 
 pleting the ideal of the ministerial office, which it is 
 our business to strive and realise. Those who have 
 
 10 2 
 
148 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 left us can aid us hardly less efficiently than those 
 who are still with us. I was going to say every 
 success, but I will not say success success, as suc- 
 cess, is nothing in itself; success and failure are in 
 God's hands I would rather say every work of self- 
 sacrifice and love, every development of ministerial 
 activity, every manifestation of loyalty and devotion 
 to Christ, in any member of our body in however 
 remote a part of the diocese or of the Church, is a 
 distinct gain to us here. It helps us ; it stimulates 
 us by the sense of companionship; it raises our ideal; 
 it lifts our burden. 
 
 How then can I better sum up these thoughts, 
 which I have laid before you, than in the language 
 of exhortation addressed by an older disciple of the 
 Apostles to a younger, by the martyr of to-morrow 
 to the martyr of half a century forward, by Ignatius 
 to Polycarp a reminiscence it may be, of S. Paul's 
 own words; vraz/ra? ySacrrafe, w? KOLI ere 6 
 TrdvTow ra? vocrovs /Saorafe, 009 reXeto? 
 OTTOV vrXetW KOTTO?, TTO\V /cepSos. ' Bear all men, as 
 the Lord also hath borne thee. Bear the maladies of 
 all, as a consummate athlete. The greater the pain, 
 the larger the gain.' f fl? icai <re 6 Ku/ato? 'as the 
 Lord also hath borne thee ' borne thy sorrows, borne 
 thy trials, borne thy rebellions, borne thy sins and 
 the sins of the whole world. 
 
III. 
 
 What is that to thee? folloiv thou Me. 
 
 S. JOHN xxi. 11. 
 
 [S. Peter 's Day, 1885.] 
 
 THE place and the time alike guide our thoughts 
 in one direction. The place, a chapel bearing the 
 name of S. Peter ; the time, the season of S. Peter's 
 festival. The lessons of the day conspire with the 
 paintings in the windows to suggest a subject for our 
 meditations this morning. I have already on one 
 such occasion at least sought instruction in the career 
 of S. Peter. Let me again draw from the same source. 
 Though the fountain is small, the stream is copious. 
 The few facts which are recorded of S. Peter furnish 
 abundant material for reflexion. The unevenness of 
 his character and the vicissitudes of his life are emi- 
 nently instructive. Nowhere in the Scriptural narra- 
 tive are so many successes and so many failures 
 
I5O COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 recorded within the same space. No one man receives 
 such signal commendation and such stern rebuke. 
 
 The passage which I have chosen presents two 
 features which may well rivet our attention. He is 
 here seen in the most touching of human relationships, 
 the intimacy of friendship. And he is seen likewise 
 at a supreme crisis of his life. Friendship, true friend- 
 ship, has its home in the sanctuary of God. It is the 
 association of heart with heart, the communion of life 
 with life, for the purposes of mutual edification and 
 support. It is the carrying out in the fullest sense of 
 the Apostle's precept, which enjoins that we bear one 
 another's burdens. It is felt to be the most sacred 
 trust, which God commits to man, for He places in 
 the hands of the recipient the keeping, as it were, of 
 the heart, the conscience, the aspirations, the designs, 
 of one who is more than a brother to him. It is 
 confessed to be the highest blessing short of Himself 
 which God bestows upon a man ; for it quickens 
 his affections, it purifies his motives, it gives him an 
 adviser and a champion and a never- failing ally. It 
 is the sacrament and the satisfaction of his life. It 
 binds him by a solemn obligation appealing alike to 
 his heart and to his conscience to consecrate himself 
 for the sake of his friend. 
 
 All this friendship is, when it truly deserves the 
 name. But it assumes a still higher aspect in special 
 
III.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 
 
 cases. If the sphere of its exercise is not only the 
 intercourse of private and social life, but association 
 in some great and beneficent work, some philanthropic 
 labour, some religious enterprise, then it not only 
 moves in the sanctuary, it passes within the veil, it 
 abides in the holy of holies, it lives in the very 
 presence of God. 
 
 All this, and more than this, was realised by the 
 friendship between Simon the son of Jonas and John 
 the son of Zebedee. It began, as friendships com- 
 monly begin, in the outward circumstances of their 
 lives. They were natives of the same place, pliers of 
 the same craft. They were partners, as fishermen, on 
 the Galilean lake. But, if their friendship had its 
 roots in the soil beneath, it was destined to shoot up 
 into the skies overhead. Their earthly craft would be 
 exchanged for a heavenly. Fishermen, partners, they 
 would remain still ; but henceforth it would be their 
 life's work to gather into the meshes of the Gospel 
 wandering souls tossing in the sea of the world. As 
 friends they would be called to bear the chief part in 
 the mightiest spiritual work which the world has ever 
 seen or ever would see. As friends, as comrades still, 
 they would stand forth to fight in the foremost ranks 
 of God's army, to do, to suffer, to live, to die, for 
 Christ. 
 
 In this army they were enlisted as recruits at the 
 
152 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 same time. The same shores of this Galilean lake, 
 which now witnessed the last charge of the risen Lord 
 to the two friends before His ascension, had witnessed 
 also His first encounter with them at the commence- 
 ment of His ministry. On one and the same day, 
 first John, then Peter, enrolled themselves as the 
 disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. On the shores of this 
 same lake the call to discipleship was shortly after- 
 wards consummated in the call to apostleship. Then, 
 as now, the two friends were together. Then, as now, 
 a miraculous draught of fishes confirmed their faith 
 and sealed their allegiance. Then, as now, their 
 earthly calling became the symbol and the sacrament 
 of their heavenly. Then, as now, the obligation of 
 their lives was summed up in the one simple precept 
 simple in form yet infinite in application ' Follow 
 Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' 
 
 From that time forward they had shared in com- 
 pany the most intimate confidences of their Master. 
 Within the inner circle of the Apostles there was an 
 inmost circle still, and to this they belonged. As 
 such they witnessed together the supreme acts of His 
 power, as at the raising of Jairus' daughter; they 
 beheld together the supreme manifestations of His 
 glory, as at the Transfiguration on the Mount ; they 
 received together the supreme revelations of His 
 purposes, as in those private discourses concerning 
 
III.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 153 
 
 the Second Advent on Olivet; they were admitted 
 together to the supreme moment of His self-abase- 
 ment, as in the agony of Gethsemane. Nothing was 
 too high and nothing was too low, nothing too human 
 and nothing too divine in His life and working, to be 
 confided to them. And so it was in the final scenes. 
 At the last entry into Jerusalem, they two were 
 despatched to provide a chamber for the paschal 
 feast. At the Last Supper they two concerted together 
 the question which detected the false one of the 
 twelve. At the trial they two entered together the 
 palace of the high-priest. After the resurrection they 
 two ran together to the tomb the first to explore the 
 empty sepulchre. And now in this closing scene of 
 all, when the parting injunction of the risen Lord is 
 given, they two are linked together in this last inci- 
 dent which concludes the last Gospel. 
 
 Moreover, the companionship, thus cemented dur- 
 ing the life of the Saviour, is continued during the 
 history of the nascent Church. At the chief crisis of 
 its development they two stand out from the main 
 body of the Apostles as companions and fellow- 
 workers. They two are the instruments chosen to 
 perform the first miracle at the Beautiful Gate, the 
 pledge of Christ's power immanent in the Church. 
 They two are selected by their brother Apostles to 
 confirm the work of Philip in Samaria, thus sanction- 
 
154 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 ing the first extension of the Gospel beyond the limits 
 of Judaism to a mongrel race. They two hold out 
 the right hand of fellowship to the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles, thus recognising the absolute liberty of the 
 Gospel and the complete universality of the Church. 
 And as if to ensure their companionship to the end of 
 time, their Epistles occupy a place side by side in the 
 sacred volume which is the charter of Christendom. 
 
 If it be permitted to us to compare small things 
 with great, this is the ideal of the friendship which our 
 association past and present in this house should 
 suggest to us. Whatever other affinities may have 
 drawn man to man during their residence here 
 community of neighbourhood, community of tastes 
 and interests, harmony of disposition, mutual attrac- 
 tion of characters supplemental the one to the other 
 the true and ultimate bond of union must be the 
 participation in a common work, and the loving de- 
 votion to a common Master. This is the consecration 
 and the crown of your friendships, of your brother- 
 hood. 
 
 Of your brotherhood. Yes, I delight to place this 
 before you as the ideal of our fellowship here. A 
 brotherhood in Christ ; not an exclusive association 
 of clique or caste ; not a repulsive Pharisaism which 
 exalts special advantages into special merits; not a 
 centripetal, but a centrifugal influence or rather 
 
III.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 155 
 
 centrifugal because it is centripetal, a force gathering 
 strength at a central fire, but a force diffusing heat 
 and light and life far and wide. What is the sequence 
 in the Apostle's list of sevenfold graces, which flow 
 from faith? 'Ei/ rfj <^\a8eX$ta rr)v dydTnrjv. As it is 
 in that greater brotherhood of the Church, so it is also 
 in this lesser brotherhood of ours. The affection of 
 brother to brother is only a stepping-stone to that 
 larger grace which knows no distinction of man and 
 man, which transcends all external barriers that 
 divine gift of love or charity, which is the bond of 
 perfectness, the fulfilling of the law, the most excellent 
 way of all. If it stops short of this, it fails of its true 
 end. It becomes a snare to ourselves, and a stone of 
 offence to the Church of Christ. Remember there- 
 fore the Apostle's precept, 677-^0/377777 crare ev rfj 
 <t>i\aSe\(f>ia ryv cvyaTrrjv. Let your <tAa8eX<ta ex- 
 pand into dyaTrrj. It will be only the stronger and 
 truer, only the more lasting for this expansion. 
 
 But there is another feature in the incident, which 
 (as I said) claims our attention. It is a great crisis 
 in the Apostle's life a moment of transition, when 
 the irrevocable past and the unknown future rise up 
 and confront each other. The thrice-repeated test 
 question, ' Lovest thou Me?' has been met by the 
 thrice-repeated prompt assurance, 'Thou knowest that 
 I love Thee.' The pastoral charge has been given. 
 
156 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 The moment of severance is at hand. The Master 
 will depart. The living voice will be no more heard. 
 The orphanhood of the disciples will begin. What 
 future is in store for himself Peter, for his best- 
 beloved friend John, for them all ? These thoughts, 
 we cannot doubt, were uppermost in the Apostle's 
 mind, when they were anticipated by Him who 
 needed not that any should testify, for He knew 
 what was in man. 
 
 And here also different as the circumstances are, 
 the lesson will speak specially to us to-day. These 
 annual festivals, whatever else they may be, are land- 
 marks on the journey of life, when we reckon with 
 the past and when we face the future. 
 
 What then shall we say of the past ? Whatever 
 other feelings may throng in our hearts this morning 
 as we review the year that is gone by regrets for 
 shortcomings, mourning over failures, penitence for 
 sins, a deep sense of inadequacy, of feebleness, of 
 indolence, of cowardice, a general dissatisfaction with 
 self yet to-day at least our predominant feeling will 
 be thankfulness. 
 
 Thankfulness, that we are permitted to meet to- 
 gether again on this joyful occasion, to kneel once 
 more at the Holy Table in pledge of our brotherly 
 union, once more to reciprocate friendly greetings, 
 and to exchange friendly counsels. Thankfulness, that 
 
III.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 157 
 
 during the year past God has been pleased to accept 
 our poor services in His vineyard, to give us a work 
 to do and strength to do it; that by His grace and 
 goodness we have been suffered to assist in the lifting 
 up of struggling souls and in the relief of struggling 
 lives. Thankfulness, that this brotherhood has ex- 
 panded and is expanding, its sphere enlarged and its 
 activities multiplied. Last year I pictured the wings 
 ready extended for flight. The flight has begun. 
 Already we are represented in a distant continent. 
 At home too our work is growing. Two others will 
 be set apart to-night for independent charges ; and a 
 like dedication of a third will follow soon. Thankful- 
 ness yes, thankfulness, before all things thankfulness 
 (on this point I have never wavered), great as was 
 the loss to many of you, to myself, to this diocese 
 thankfulness that it pleased God to release our dear 
 brother and to take him to Himself. Why should 
 we wish him back again ? To him to die was gain ; 
 and for ourselves has not his death consecrated our 
 brotherhood with a higher consecration ? The latest 
 letter which I received from him was a written fare- 
 well after our last year's gathering, for he had been 
 accidentally prevented from speaking it. 'Such meet- 
 ings, as that we have just enjoyed/ he wrote, 'with 
 their wonderful charm of rest, strength, and sympathy, 
 should nerve one to fresh energy and enthusiasm in 
 
158 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 one's work.' And is it not a pleasant thought that 
 the memorial of our affection is placed in the most 
 venerable sanctuary of the north the Church hal- 
 lowed by so many rich associations of the past and 
 visited by English-speaking pilgrims far and wide, so 
 that the tribute of our love will be spelt out by 
 many a curious .eye from distant lands in the ages 
 to come ? 
 
 But, if these are the thoughts suggested by the 
 past, what shall be our contemplation in the future ? 
 ' Lord, lift the veil, if it be but for a moment. Lord, 
 leave us not, without some word of hope. Lord, what 
 shall this man do ? But, before Thou tellest me this, 
 tell me first what shall I myself do ? ' Listen to the 
 reply. 
 
 ' When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself and 
 walkedst whither thou wouldest ; but when thou shalt 
 be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another 
 shall gird thee, and shall carry thee whither thou 
 wouldest not.' Thou wast free, unconstrained, light- 
 hearted, master of thine own actions in thy earliest 
 years; thou shalt be the captive, the slave, the victim, 
 of others' cruelty and injustice in thy latest. Behold 
 the contrast. Here is the recompense of thy fidelity ; 
 here is the consummation of thy life. 
 
 'And, when He had spoken this, He saith unto 
 him, Follow Me.' 
 
III.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 159 
 
 If we might credit the ancient story to which I 
 made allusion two years ago, the last act of S. Peter's 
 life was a literal fulfilment of this precept. The per- 
 secution, we are told, was raging in Rome. The aged 
 Apostle fled from it, and had passed the gates of the 
 city. Outside the walls he met One bearing a cross. 
 He looked at him : it was none other than the 
 Saviour Himself. He accosted Him, ' Lord, whither 
 goest Thou ? ' ' I go to Rome/ was the reply, ' I go 
 to Rome to be crucified again.' The Apostle felt 
 the reproach ; he turned his steps ; re-entered the 
 city, and cheerfully met his fate. He was crucified 
 (said one form of the tradition) with his head down- 
 ward by his own wish, holding it too high an honour 
 for him, the servant, to be as the Master, and desiring 
 that his death though the same might not be the 
 same. 
 
 'And, when He had spoken this, He saith unto 
 him, Follow Me/ 
 
 Christ's answer to S. Peter is His answer to all 
 His servants. In some sense or other, you gird your- 
 selves now, but another shall gird you hereafter ; you 
 choose your own path now, but your path will be 
 chosen for you hereafter. You have still the making 
 of your character to a great extent; but the character 
 will be formed, the habits will be riveted, and the 
 possibilities of life will be narrowed accordingly. 
 
l6o COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 You may create for yourselves ideals of a future 
 it is well that you should create such ideals, if only 
 they are conceived in the right spirit, for they serve 
 to educate the soul and to form the character but 
 you are not master of their realisation. Circum- 
 stances interpose and mar them. Your ideal perhaps 
 becomes your idol. Then God shatters it. He makes 
 it impossible for you ; perhaps He calls you calls 
 you in clear articulate tones which you cannot mistake 
 some other way. Thou art carried carried by an 
 irresistible constraining power whither thou wouldest 
 not. 
 
 I spoke of the right spirit in framing ideals. The 
 dominant conception of your ideal must not be self- 
 glorification, but self-renunciation. Yet self-glorifica- 
 tion will insinuate itself subtly disguised, unless you 
 are on your guard. It is often the truest self-renun- 
 ciation to throw aside your own self-chosen self- 
 renunciation, that you may put yourself into God's 
 hands, and accept God's choice in place of your 
 own. 
 
 I am ambitious for you all. But my ambition 
 does not take the form of wishing to see you in 
 places of emolument or of ease or of comfort or of 
 popularity. I desire before all things that you should 
 be fit to do Christ's work, that you should be ready 
 to do it, and that you should have the scope and 
 
HI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. l6l 
 
 opportunity for doing it I covet for you not the 
 honour of men, but the honour of God. If the alter- 
 native lay before me of offering any of you a place 
 of emolument and dignity on the one hand, or a place 
 of difficulty and responsibility on the other, be assured 
 that the emolument and the dignity should go else- 
 where, and the difficulty and responsibility should be 
 laid on your shoulders, if only I thought them strong 
 enough to bear the burden. I should feel you would 
 feel (would you not?) that only too much honour was 
 done to you, when you were called to bear the brunt 
 of the fight in the van of God's army, even though 
 your shoulders might wear no epaulettes and you 
 yourselves receive less than a subaltern's pay. This 
 neither more nor less than this is the meaning of 
 Christ's prediction to S. Peter, as applied to your- 
 ' Expect toil ; expect to spend and be spent; 
 expect in some form or other a cross; but in spite of 
 this, or rather because of this, follow Me, follow Me.' 
 But, if bright anticipations for self are forbidden, 
 may they not be entertained for another? 'Lord,' 
 and what shall this man do?' 
 
 It was just then when S. Peter had received this 
 crushing announcement, this glorious promise, when 
 for the first he became assured of this cruel and igno- 
 minious fate, this more than royal diadem awaiting 
 him in the future, that he looked round and saw the 
 O. A. 
 
1 62 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 friend who had been more than a brother to him by 
 his side. It was characteristic of his generous, im- 
 pulsive, self-forgetting nature, that even at such a 
 moment he thought nothing of himself. He, who 
 exclaimed in horror, ' Far be it from Thee, Lord,' 
 when he heard of his Master's impending fate, utters 
 no exclamation and feels no horror now, when he 
 hears of his own. It is not, ' God forbid, that Thou 
 shouldest reward me so, for all my losses and all 
 my toils in Thy service.' It is not, ' God forbid, 
 that Thou Who didst promise me riches and houses 
 and friends a thousandfold in this life, shouldest put 
 me off with a hideous death ; that Thou Who not so 
 long ago didst seat me on one of the twelve heavenly 
 thrones shouldest now stretch me out on a male- 
 factor's cross/ It is not, ' God forbid, that I should 
 meet with such a death;' not even, ' God' be thanked 
 that I shall be crowned with such a crown;' but 
 'Lord, and what shall this man do?' This my 
 friend, this my brother, who has shared all Thy 
 confidences with me, who is ready to suffer all Thy 
 trials with me, my companion alike in earthly things 
 and in heavenly shall he be spared this fate ? Shall 
 he be vouchsafed this crown ? We, who through life 
 have been one shall it be said of us, as of those 
 other friends whose names are handed down in the 
 Scriptures, that 'in death they were not divided?' 
 
III.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 163 
 
 Divided in their deaths they were. The elder 
 friend was crucified, as his Lord had foretold. The 
 younger outlived him by some thirty years, the last 
 survivor of the Apostles, lingering on to extreme old 
 a g e > dying peacefully at last, and reiterating with his 
 latest voice he the impetuous 'Son of Thunder' 
 the one lesson needful, the one imperious duty of 
 love. 
 
 Divided, and yet not divided. For to the true 
 disciples ' to live is Christ and to die is gain.' There 
 is no preference of the one over the other. To the 
 true disciples neither life nor death nor things present 
 nor things future can bring a severance between 
 friends, for they are united in the love of Christ. 
 
 And yet this anxiety of S. Peter natural as it is 
 in itself calls forth only a prompt rebuke, * What is 
 that to thee? Follow thou Me/ 
 
 S. Peter's anxiety typifies the impertinence of 
 curiosity, the impatience of ignorance, in things 
 sacred, which has been the temptation of Christians 
 in every age. The rebuke is the Master's protest 
 against indulgence in this spirit. Energetic work 
 in the present, not idle speculation about the future, 
 is the parting charge which He gives to His chief 
 disciple, and through him to His whole Church so 
 long as time shall be. 
 
 It is strange to reflect how much energy is thrown 
 
 II 2 
 
1 64 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 away in attempting to know the unknowable. Our 
 life is wrapt in mysteries which with our present 
 faculties must be final; and yet we will not acquiesce. 
 The future is hidden by a dark impenetrable veil, 
 and yet we struggle to pierce through it. Again and 
 again the question rises to our lips, ' Lord, and what 
 shall this man do ? ' 
 
 ' What shall this man do ? Those many thou- 
 sands of infants, children of Christian parents, who 
 die before they are baptized what will be their lot, 
 when Thy kingdom shall come ? Those many thou- 
 sands of grown-up men and women who have never 
 had a chance in this life, who perhaps may have 
 heard of Thy Name, but against whom the vicious 
 influences of education and companionship have 
 erected an insuperable barrier what shall they do ? 
 Those many myriads, the scum and refuse of our 
 great cities, who, living in Christian lands, are steeped 
 in a lower than heathen degradation what shall 
 they do ? Those many righteous men before Christ's 
 coming who, pagans though they were, yet lived up to 
 the light that was given to them and set the example 
 of a higher morality to their generation what shall 
 they do ? Those famous founders of the great 
 religions of the world, who, though they taught not 
 the truth as the truth has been revealed to us, yet 
 introduced among vast masses of men clearer views 
 
III.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 165 
 
 of God and purer forms of worship and nobler aims 
 in life than they found what shall these men do?' 
 Nay ; thou believest that God is righteous ; thou 
 believest that God is loving. Is not this belief suffi- 
 cient for thee ? But the ' how/ and the ' when,' and 
 the ' where,' what modes of purgation there may be, 
 what accesses of enlightenment, what opportunities 
 of recovery, in another state or another what 
 knowest thou, what canst thou know, of these ? Ask 
 thyself, 'What is time? What is eternity?' Nay; 
 thou canst only stammer out in reply some confused 
 inarticulate faltering words, which thou callest a defi- 
 nition, though thou hast defined nothing. Thou hast 
 made nothing clear, but thine own ignorance ; thou 
 hast ascertained nothing, but thine own incapacity 
 of knowledge. These speculations on the unseen world, 
 these curious questionings about the hereafter of this 
 man or this class of men What are they to thee? 
 * Follow thou Me.' 
 
 1 Follow Me.' This was the first charge which 
 the Lord gave to the first- called of His disciples at 
 the opening of His ministry ; it is the last which He 
 gives to the last-addressed of them at its close. It is 
 the first and it is the last which He gives to you, to 
 me, to the Church in all ages. 
 
 ' Follow Me '. One man is a missionary perhaps 
 in some foreign land ; he is alone, one Christian 
 
l66 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 among thousands of heathen, and he would fain 
 know what will become of all these. Another is 
 labouring single-handed as a parochial minister in 
 the midst of a thronging town population whom his 
 words never reach and never can reach ; and he asks 
 in dismay what shall be the end of all these. If he 
 picks up one soul here and another there out of the 
 seething mass of ignorance and vice, it is all that he 
 can hope to do. To his faithless questioning the 
 rebuke is addressed, * What is that to thee ? Thou 
 hast a work to do; thou hast a message to deliver. 
 Thou knowest that thy message is truth, and because 
 it is truth, therefore it is salvation. This is enough 
 for thee. Execute thy task to the best of thy power, 
 and leave the rest to Me.' 
 
 ' Follow thou Me.' It is not perhaps the destiny 
 of others ; it is your own future, which gives you 
 anxiety. You do not see your way before you. You 
 apprehend entanglement which may beset your path. 
 You dread to think that a night of sorrow or trouble 
 may set in before your journey's end is reached. You 
 are far from home, and you shudder at the vague 
 shapeless terrors which haunt the darkness. What is 
 that to thee to thee, thy true self, to thee, thine 
 immortal being? Be not faithless, but believing. He 
 will keep thy feet. 
 
 Do not ask to sec 
 The distant scene ; one step enough for thee. 
 
III.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 167 
 
 Plant thy foot firmly in the prints which His foot has 
 made before thee. 
 
 'Follow thou Me. Keep My words. Live My 
 life. The sanctification of thyself, that being purified 
 thou mayest purify and strengthen others is not 
 this a life's work, and more than a life's work ? 
 
 * Obey My call and follow thou Me. I am thy 
 Shepherd, therefore canst thou lack nothing. My 
 sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they 
 follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and 
 they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck 
 them out of My hand.' 
 
IV. 
 
 We know tJiat we have passed from death unto life, 
 
 because we love the brethren. 
 
 i JOHN iii. 14. 
 
 [S. Peters Day, 1887.] 
 
 THIS is not the language of an idle theorist. The 
 writer of these words gives the results of direct per- 
 sonal experience. ' We speak that which we do know.' 
 Look at the contrast which you have before you. 
 John the youthful fisherman on the shores of the 
 Galilean lake, and John the aged teacher in the far- 
 famed heathen city of Ephesus. Here is the eager, 
 impetuous youth, whose ambition claims the first 
 place in the kingdom of heaven, and whose resent- 
 ment will only be satisfied by calling down the 
 avenging fire from heaven on his Master's enemies. 
 There on the other hand is the old man, calm and 
 patient, awaiting his Lord's long-deferred summons 
 with childlike humility, tender and sympathetic 
 
IV.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 169 
 
 always, repeating ever and again this one charge 
 and this only, ' Little children, love one another.' 
 
 It is a striking change ; we might say, a change 
 from youth to age, a change of friends, of occupation, 
 of home and scenery, a change of feeling and of 
 character. To himself it is very much more than a 
 change, more even than a passage from one state of 
 being to another. It is a change from non-existence 
 to existence. 'We have passed from death unto life.' 
 
 Wherein consisted this death? What is the mean- 
 ing of this life ? 
 
 The life is one only. The death may be mani- 
 fold. There is death in religion, as there is death in 
 irreligion ; death in cold formalism or in glowing 
 fanaticism, as there is death' in profligacy and self- 
 indulgence and irreverence. Whatsoever kills love, 
 kills life ; though it should even possess the name of 
 religion, though it should wear the garb of Christi- 
 anity ; for life is love, and love is life. 
 
 Is not this the lesson of all experience ? Where 
 some hostile principle dominates the heart to the 
 exclusion of love, a state ensues which can only be 
 described as a deadness of the spiritual being. 
 
 One man surrenders himself to the gratification 
 of some sensual passion. He devotes himself to this 
 one aim. He can see nothing else, think of nothing 
 else, pursue nothing else. It holds him by a sort of 
 
I7O COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 fascination. It constrains all his movements. He is 
 wholly paralysed by it. 
 
 Another is absorbed in a greed of money-getting. 
 The deadening power may not be greater in this case 
 than in the former, but it is more patent. The moral 
 and social incapacity which steals over the miser's 
 life is a matter of common observation. He becomes 
 hard and selfish ; he isolates himself ; he seems to 
 lose by degrees all consciousness of an external world, 
 all sense of his relations and duties to other men. 
 His existence becomes a very death in life. 
 
 A third broods over some real or fancied wrong, 
 or indulges some personal jealousy. A passion of 
 hatred is thus engendered. It engrosses all his 
 thoughts; it sits like a night-mare on his imagination; 
 it taints all his opinions and purposes; it incapacitates 
 him for any healthy action. It deadens his whole 
 soul. 
 
 S. John in the language of the text associates 
 himself with his hearers in the same experience. He 
 had been brought up under the rigour of Judaism, 
 they amidst the license of heathendom. Yet both he 
 and they had undergone the same transition. Having 
 been dead, they had found life life in Christ, because 
 love in Christ. 
 
 Yet his death had been very different from their 
 death. As heathens they had conformed to the sins 
 
IV. J AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 
 
 of their age and country ; had walked as other 
 Gentiles walked ; had lost all feeling, as S. Paul 
 says ; had been numbed, paralysed, deadened by 
 indulgence in vice ; had been alienated from the life 
 which is found in God alone. But this had not been 
 his case. His conduct had been pure and sober and 
 upright. Had he not been brought up from his 
 infancy in the study of the law ? The words might 
 be true of his Gentile converts, but how could they be 
 true of him ? 
 
 If vice is the death of the irreligious many, 
 formalism is the death of the religious few. If the 
 one was the common danger of the heathen, the other 
 was the special temptation of the Jew. To this 
 special temptation, we may suppose, he like St. Paul 
 had been exposed. He had died through the law, 
 and now he lived through Christ. He had been 
 assiduous in the performance of his religious duties ; 
 he had striven to keep all the minutest ordinances of 
 the Mosaic code, all the vexatious additions of later 
 interpreters. In common with his age he had for- 
 gotten, or almost forgotten, the essence in the form. 
 He had failed to see that love is the fulfilling of the 
 law. So he had toiled on drearily and hopelessly 
 through the wearisome never-ending routine, which 
 seemed to bring him no nearer to God, which multi- 
 plied the transgression without assuring the pardon, 
 
172 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 which contained no principle of growth, brought no 
 purification of heart, gave no satisfaction to his 
 heavenward yearnings. And in the bitterness of his 
 despair he too had exclaimed, ' O wretched man that 
 I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death?' 
 
 From both these perils alike, from the death of 
 irreligion and the death of religion, Gentile converts 
 and Jewish converts alike all true Christians to the 
 end of time are rescued in Christ. They have passed 
 from death to life because they have learnt to love 
 to love the brethren. 
 
 We have read in a striking work of fiction, how a 
 miserly recluse, isolated from his kind by unjust and 
 cruel suspicions and hardened by bitter disappoint- 
 ment, having abandoned all faith in God or man, is 
 quickened into new life by one touch of human 
 sympathy. The little motherless child found asleep 
 on his solitary hearth-stone arouses him from the 
 lethargy of his soul. The beauty, the innocence, the 
 freshness, the helplessness, of this unexpected visitant, 
 stirs his sympathy. The hard crust which had iced 
 over his better nature and frozen the springs of his 
 affection cracks and melts in the sunshine of its 
 presence. His interest in humanity starting from 
 this centre spreads and grows. He lives once more, 
 because he loves once more. Again you may re- 
 
IV.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 173 
 
 member in another story founded on fact how a wise 
 schoolmaster, anxious for the welfare of an elder pupil 
 at a critical time in his life, places under his charge a 
 younger boy that he may shield and guide him, 
 hoping, and not hoping in vain, that the affectionate 
 interest, thus awakened, might have an elevating in- 
 fluence on his character more powerful than reiterated 
 precepts and warnings. 
 
 And you know (do you not ?), you know from 
 experience, that such regenerations are not mere 
 fictions of romance, but in one form or other truths of 
 common life. You have seen in others, you have felt 
 in yourself, how some self-denying devotion, some 
 ennobling friendship, some purifying love, has been 
 to you a new energy, stirring a thousand good im- 
 pulses and suggesting a thousand elevating thoughts, 
 the source of untold happiness, the well-spring of a 
 higher life. 
 
 This and more than this is meant by S. John 
 when he speaks of love for the brethren as a passage 
 from death to life. More than this, for the love 
 which he contemplates is wider, deeper, more abiding, 
 than any such partial manifestation. It does not 
 fasten on one isolated object ; it runs no risk of 
 becoming selfish in its exclusiveness. It manifests 
 itself towards friend and foe alike. It seeks employ- 
 ment even in that which is repulsive. Wherever pain 
 
174 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 is to be soothed or sorrow to be comforted, wherever 
 ignorance or poverty lie prostrate and helpless, wher- 
 ever in short the cry of humanity is heard, thither 
 is it drawn, there its kindly offices are freely dis- 
 pensed. It seeks no excuses, draws no distinctions. 
 For the evasive question, 'Who is my neighbour?', it 
 substitutes another question, 'Whose neighbour am 
 I?' And its answer is prompt and comprehensive. 
 'Whosoever is in trouble, whosoever requires my 
 sympathy, whosoever needs what I can give, he is my 
 neighbour/ 
 
 More than this ; for love towards men has found 
 a coherence, a sanction, an ideal in the Son of Man 
 himself. A light, a glory, has been shed upon it by 
 the Incarnation and Life and Death of Christ. It 
 has been kindled into a glow of enthusiasm by this 
 manifestation of redeeming love. Our love is only 
 the response to Christ's love. There is the true 
 centre whence all love radiates. ' Herein,' says 
 St. John, ' herein is love, not that we loved God, but 
 that He loved us. If God so loved us, we ought also 
 to love one another.' In Christ love was installed 
 in a sovereign throne. Henceforward it appears as 
 a new power, a new creation. Henceforward it is not 
 only the leading principle of all morals, but the 
 central truth of all theology. God Himself is re- 
 vealed to us, as love. 
 
IV.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 175 
 
 There is yet one aspect of the subject which we 
 should do well to consider. See how the sentence 
 hangs together, 'We know that we have passed from 
 death unto life, because we love the brethren.' At first 
 sight this language seems to imply a logical inference. 
 But a second glance dispels this first hasty im- 
 pression. S. John appeals rather to an intuitive 
 conviction, a spiritual experience. In S. John's First 
 Epistle we are struck with the constant repetition of 
 this expression, 'We know,' 'Ye know.' There are 
 some things about which you cannot reason, which 
 you can only know. If S. Paul is the Apostle 
 of argument, S. John is essentially the Apostle of 
 insight. 
 
 Thus, if you asked how you are assured of your 
 personal identity, you can only answer, ' I know that 
 I am I, and not another/ If you are bidden to prove 
 this or that sensation, you can only reply, ' I know 
 that I hear this sound, I know that I see this colour, 
 I know that I feel this substance.' So it is here 
 S. John appeals to his converts to bear witness that 
 in possessing the love they possess the life also. His 
 own consciousness suggests the appeal ; their con- 
 sciousness is the response to it. The love is more 
 than the assurance of the life. The love is the life 
 And to the consciousness of every man now the 
 appeal still stands. He knows that in proportion as 
 
i;6 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 he learns to feel sympathy with others, to think for 
 others, to live for others in the same degree a new 
 principle of life is developed in him, quickening, 
 cheering, sustaining, sanctifying, ennobling him. 
 
 But the writer himself, as I said at the beginning, 
 was no idle theorist. So neither will he suffer his 
 hearers to be idle theorists. ' My little children,' he 
 adds, * let us not love in word, neither in tongue ; but 
 in deed and in truth.' 
 
 If we have felt, however faintly, this quickening 
 power of love, if we have known, however partially, 
 this passage from death to life, let us devote ourselves 
 henceforward to the cultivation of this diviner faculty. 
 It is no abstruse lesson of the schools. It demands 
 no superior abilities, supposes no educational ad- 
 vantages. Our teachers are our brothers and sisters, 
 our relations, our parishioners ; our lessons are the 
 trials, the experiences and the occupations of our 
 pastoral and social life. Other graces have their 
 special seasons and demand their special oppor- 
 tunities. But love commands the whole horizon of 
 human life. Not in brilliant flashes of self-denial is 
 its beauty most clearly traced. Not by startling acts 
 of heroism is its power most justly measured. It is 
 in its very nature simple and untheatrical. Would 
 you seek its companionship ? Would you know its 
 power? Then curb the rising passion stirred by 
 
IV.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 177 
 
 some petty annoyance, the disdainful scorn kindled 
 by some real or imagined wrong. Then deny your- 
 self the complacent triumph of the withering jest 
 which blights a brother's fame, the biting retort which 
 wounds a brother's name. Then learn to forego the 
 innocent amusement which casts a stumblingblock in 
 the way of the least of Christ's little ones. Then 
 school yourself to give up unrepiningly the well- 
 earned hour of leisure, to postpone the long looked-for 
 enjoyment, that you may console the sorrows, or 
 minister to the wants, or even contribute to the 
 pleasures of others. Very poor and homely deeds 
 these, soon forgotten, if noticed at all, by men, but 
 thrice blessed in the sight of God more lovely than 
 the profuse liberality which bestows all its goods to 
 feed the poor, more noble than the transcendent 
 heroism which gives its body to be burned. These 
 acts repeated will beget the habit; this habit con- 
 firmed will mould the character. And then you will 
 feel with the assurance of a deep inward experience, 
 with a strength of conviction which no logic can wrest 
 from you, the truth of the Apostle's words 'We 
 know, we know y that we have passed from death unto 
 life, because we love the brethren.' 
 
 "O dyaTrwjjiev roi)9 aSeXc^ou?. A fit thought this 
 to occupy our minds to-day. If this Auckland 
 College is not a brotherhood, it is nothing at all. 
 o. A. 12 
 
178 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 If you do not meet to-day as brothers, feel toward 
 each other as brothers, this gathering will have lost 
 its savour and its force. For what was the meaning 
 of your residence in this place ? What did you carry 
 away with you which you did not bring when you 
 came ? A few practical lessons, a little experience 
 in dealing with men, which might serve as a prepara- 
 tion for pastoral work ? A certain amount of theo- 
 logical training which might fit you to stand forward, 
 young as you are as the teachers of others? 
 All this, I trust, but more than this. Behind these 
 more obvious purposes has there not been a secret 
 silent power drawing you consciously or unconsciously 
 together, a binding force which has made you feel 
 that you are not isolated units in God's vast economy, 
 not separate workers for His great purposes, but 
 members of a body with common interests and sym- 
 pathies, common aims and purposes ? What else is 
 the significance of this joyful gathering to-day ? It 
 is a festive meeting; it is a religious service. Yes, 
 but that which gives it its distinctive character, that 
 which dominates either aspect of this reunion, is the 
 sense of brotherhood. 
 
 I earnestly trust that you each individually will 
 studiously cultivate this feeling. As you read over 
 the list which was forwarded to you all the other day, 
 there will be some whom you have never met face to 
 
IV.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 
 
 face, some who are strangers, or almost strangers, to 
 you known to you, if known at all, only by name. 
 Yet I trust that every man in that list will have an 
 interest for each of you individually; you will feel 
 that he has claims on you, because he has preceded 
 or followed you in this place, because he has witnessed 
 the same scenes, gone through the same training, 
 because he has been sped forth like yourself in this 
 very chapel for the same holy work. 
 
 I know that in one sense this is becoming year 
 by year more difficult. Time and space interpose 
 formidable obstacles. The student of this term be- 
 longs almost to another generation from the student 
 of eight years ago. Then again how wide apart is 
 the sphere of labour, to which God has called the 
 members of our brotherhood ! Already we have taken 
 possession of two distant continents besides our own. 
 In life or in death, Asia and Africa are ours. One 
 of our number is probably at this very moment on 
 the wide ocean. His pastoral charge is afloat on the 
 restless seas. 
 
 In life or in death. In death, as in life. Yes, 
 again and again and once again we have crossed that 
 narrow stream. How very narrow it is, we have 
 been permitted to realise. A very few hours, and 
 the passage has been made by our brothers. A very 
 few hours, and at any moment it may be made by 
 
 12 2 
 
l8o COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 you or by me. I cannot trust myself to speak, as I 
 would wish to speak, of those who so lately have 
 shown us the way. There are some thoughts far too 
 deep for words. Only this I would say, that assuredly 
 death is not the insurmountable barrier to the com- 
 munion between brother and brother. Shall it not 
 rather assist us to realise this communion, this 
 brotherhood ? You feel it (do you not ?) you who 
 have known them. They are as truly present with 
 us to-day nay, much more truly than when we met 
 them face to face two years or three years ago. 
 How then shall their presence affect us ? Not for 
 one moment shall it cast any cloud over our rejoicing. 
 Not for one moment shall it subdue the voice of our 
 thanksgiving. Let it rather enhance our joy and 
 thankfulness, but let it consecrate them. 
 
 But, though time and space interpose obstacles, 
 yet the sense of an ever-enlarged influence which this 
 brotherhood is exerting, as its numbers increase, 
 should be more than a compensation. Each indi- 
 vidual member gains by the strength and health of 
 the body. At all events it will be our care indi- 
 vidually to foster and cherish this feeling. For this 
 reason our meetings grow in value year by year, and 
 I look with increasing satisfaction on a large attend- 
 ance. 
 
 But, as I have said to many of you on a former 
 
IV.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. l8l 
 
 occasion, so I say to all now, this sense of brotherhood 
 must not be a selfish, self-absorbed, sentiment. Our 
 <^Xa8eX</>i'a, if it is to be healthy in itself, if jt is to 
 fulfil its divine purpose, must expand into dyaTrrj 
 that larger principle of sympathy, which seeks ex- 
 pression in ever-widening circles of interest, till it 
 becomes coextensive with the enthusiasm of humanity. 
 The realisation of this ideal lies with you. Each one 
 may do something to advance it. 
 
 Have we not recently had a signal example of 
 this principle for which I am contending that for 
 one occupying a public position the affections culti- 
 vated in the inner circle of the family should be the 
 training-ground for those wider sympathies which the 
 public position demands, both by intensifying the 
 central fire of love, and by setting the tone to these 
 more distant interests ? What else has been the 
 secret of the beneficent reign of half a century which 
 we have just been commemorating, but that the 
 sovereign did not consider her domestic affections 
 apart from her queenly duties, but took the one as 
 the starting point for the other, that by being a 
 mother to her family she strove to become a mother 
 to her people also ? Was not this the inner meaning 
 of that closing scene to the ceremonial in the Abbey 
 the other day most touching, most eloquent, most 
 sacred of all which those who witnessed it will never 
 
1 82 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 forget? Did not this thought inspire that patriotic 
 letter, which we all read in the newspapers only two 
 days ago, this linking together of the family affections 
 with the imperial cares and sympathies? 
 
 Here then is our ideal. Let us do our best to 
 realise it. But the time is short. The hour will 
 come, come full soon, when another shall speak from 
 this place. The hour will come when this goodliest 
 brotherhood shall be broken up. 'The old order 
 changeth.' A new ideal, perhaps a higher ideal let 
 us earnestly pray that it may be so will supplant 
 ours. So the Church of God advances ever on 
 stepping-stones of the dead past. Who shall regret 
 this ? Meanwhile in this faith we will strive to work 
 honestly, while it is yet day. The night cometh 
 how soon we know not and the task must be laid 
 aside. Meanwhile this lesson shall be ours to absorb 
 it in our hearts and to live it in our lives. ' Let 
 brotherly love continue.' C H 
 
V. 
 
 ' Our citizenship is in heaven! 
 
 PHILIPPIANS iii. 20. 
 
 [S. Peters Day, 1888.] 
 
 WE Englishmen are all proud of our country. 
 We delight to think of ourselves as belonging to a 
 land on which whosoever sets foot is free. We reflect 
 with satisfaction that we are the citizens of a great 
 empire, on which the sun never sets. We feel that we 
 have derived a very real advantage from our position. 
 The glory of the past history of our country is 
 somehow reflected upon us. We think with pride 
 how freedom has ' broadened slowly down from pre- 
 cedent to precedent ' in her past history. We cherish 
 the recollection of all its most glorious scenes, as if 
 somehow they were part and parcel of ourselves. 
 We feel ourselves of one family with its long roll of 
 illustrious statesmen, illustrious generals, illustrious 
 men of science and of literature. Their renown is our 
 renown. Our sympathies are enlarged, our minds 
 
184 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [v. 
 
 are strengthened, our aspirations are quickened and 
 intensified. It is a great thing to extend our range 
 of view beyond ourselves, beyond our household, 
 beyond our parish and neighbourhood ; and yet to 
 feel that there is a bond of union still, that we are 
 members of a great family, citizens of a great 
 kingdom, units in a great empire. The inspiration of 
 this thought makes us higher, nobler, larger than 
 ourselves. It drives out all pettiness of character and 
 all narrowness of view. Patriotism, true patriotism, 
 is a very noble and ennobling sentiment. To be 
 ready to do and to surfer, if need be, to die, for our 
 country what elevation of soul is there not in this 
 temper ! 
 
 S. Paul felt all this. He was proud, as we are 
 proud, of the city, of the nation, of the empire -to 
 which he belonged. 
 
 He was proud of the city, in which he first saw 
 the light. We cannot mistake his tones here. ' I am 
 a citizen,' he says, ' of no mean city/ This Tarsus, in 
 which he was born, stood second to none as a seat 
 of learning at this time, as the great University of 
 the world. 
 
 He was proud too of his nationality. Here again 
 we cannot mistake the feeling which underlies his 
 language. ' I also am an Israelite, of the seed of 
 Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.' 'Are they 
 
V.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 185 
 
 Hebrews ? So am I. Are they Israelites ? So am I. 
 Are they the seed of Abraham ? So am I.' Yes, he 
 too was the son of the patriarchs ; he too was the 
 heir of the promises ; he too had his portion among 
 the twelve tribes that serve God day and night. Was 
 he not descended from the favoured tribe which had 
 given its first king to Israel, which had remained 
 faithful to the house of David when all others revolted, 
 which ever marched in the van of the Lord's host 
 when the armies went out to do battle ? ' After thee, 
 O Benjamin.' No taint of foreign admixture had 
 sullied the purity of his blood. He was a Hebrew of 
 the Hebrews. No concession to foreign customs, and 
 no relaxation of national rites, had ever compromised 
 his position. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Of 
 all these things he might well be proud, prouder than 
 the proudest; albeit he 'pours contempt on all his 
 pride/ he ' counts all as loss for the excellency of the 
 knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord.' 
 
 And lastly; he was proud of his position as a 
 member of that great empire, which stretched out a 
 hand into every clime, and gathered citizens in all 
 quarters of the globe. Here again his own language 
 tells its tale. ' They have beaten us publicly uncon- 
 demned, men that are Romans.... and now do they 
 thrust us out privily ? Nay verily, but let them come 
 themselves, and bring us out.' ' Is it lawful for you 
 
1 86 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [v. 
 
 to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?' 
 Yes, it was a magnificent privilege this wheresoever 
 he might be, to claim the immunity, the protection, 
 the deference, which was everywhere accorded to a 
 citizen of Rome ; to feel that he, a solitary homeless 
 wanderer, had nevertheless at his back all the power 
 and all the prestige and all the majesty of the 
 mightiest empire which the world had ever seen. 
 
 But however natural and however (in some sense) 
 justifiable may be this pride in ourselves or in S. Paul, 
 we are reminded in the text that he and we alike are 
 citizens of a far larger, wider, more magnificent, more 
 powerful, more enduring empire ; for which we have 
 every reason to feel not indeed pride, not self-satis- 
 faction, not vainglory, but thanksgiving perpetual 
 thanksgiving and benediction, to the author and giver 
 of all good things. ' Our citizenship is in heaven.' 
 
 ( Our citizenship.' I have adopted the reading of 
 the Revised Version here, as restoring its proper force 
 to the word. It points us out as members of a 
 commonwealth, citizens of a polity, subjects of a 
 kingdom, in which we have special interests, special 
 responsibilities and functions. So again the Apostle 
 tells the Ephesians now converted from heathen- 
 ism to the knowledge of Christ * Ye are no more 
 strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the 
 saints.' 
 
V.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 187 
 
 ' Fellow-citizens with the saints.' You and they 
 bound together as members of one great nationality, 
 with common duties, common sympathies, common 
 aims citizens of a kingdom, of which the noblest and 
 most powerful earthly empires are only faint types 
 and shadows a kingdom which shall have no end. 
 Yes 
 
 Two worlds are ours: 'tis only sin 
 
 Forbids us to descry 
 The mystic heaven and earth within, 
 
 Plain as the sea and sky. 
 
 And shall we not strive to-day to pierce through the 
 veil, that so we may realise our heavenly citizenship ? 
 On this our annual festival it will be well for us to 
 enter into the Holy City, to dwell on the glories of the 
 unseen world, to commune with the beatified servants 
 of God of all ages and all countries, and to gather 
 inspiration and strength and refreshment for our daily 
 task. 
 
 To pierce through the veil, the dark impenetrable 
 veil which shrouds the unseen world. Yet, ever and 
 again this veil is lifted for a moment. Ever and again 
 we are made to feel by some startling occurrence, how 
 narrow is the stream which separates the seen from 
 the unseen, the material from the spiritual, the world 
 of time from the world of eternity. Ever and again 
 the stern monitor death rises up an unwelcome spectre, 
 an unbidden guest, in the midst of our worldliness 
 
1 88 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [v. 
 
 and self-complacency, scaring us with the suddenness 
 of the apparition. Ever and again, as we have met 
 together on S. Peter's Day, we have had to chronicle 
 the loss of one or another of our members, whom we 
 could least afford to lose. Mystery of mysteries, that 
 lives so valuable have been suddenly snapped asunder, 
 while so much everywhere that is worthless is spared ! 
 Mystery quite insoluble, if this life were all, if the 
 region beyond the grave were a mere vacuum, if man 
 were dust and nothing more, if there were no immor- 
 tality, no heaven, nothing to live for, nothing to suffer 
 for, nothing to die for. 
 
 And this day, they who have gone before are 
 with us again. This is our glorious privilege as 
 members of the communion of saints. Death is no 
 barrier to that communion. Whether their bodies 
 lie in the quiet village churchyard at their English 
 home, or in a steaming African waste among strange 
 faces and strange tongues, they are with us in spirit 
 this morning, joint members of the same communion, 
 joint heirs of the same hope. Let us take them, as 
 our teachers to-day; they will help us to realise, as 
 we otherwise should not realise, the communion of 
 saints, the vast assemblage to God's consecrated 
 people, whom not even the icy hand of death can 
 part the one from the other. 
 
 They have gone before. Let them bear their part 
 
V.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 189 
 
 in our joyful commemoration. They are not lost, 
 even to us. Still less are they lost to themselves, 
 not annihilated, not effaced. Rather do we believe 
 that they are purified and glorified by the change ; 
 that baptized in the deep waters of death they have 
 emerged to a higher, brighter, keener life ; that each 
 several capacity, each several acquisition, each several 
 grace, which drew us to them and them to us, will 
 find their place and their function in the varied 
 economy of Christ's heavenly kingdom. No more 
 cramped and straitened by the environments of time, 
 they will have free play and will fulfil their ideal. 
 ' The Lord was my stay ; He brought me forth into 
 a large place ; He delivered me, because He delighted 
 in me.' 
 
 They have gone before, and we shall follow after. 
 Yet a little while how little we know not and we 
 too shall cross the stream. This year by God's merci- 
 ful goodness we have no fresh death to record. Let 
 us thank Him for it. But with our large and increas- 
 ing numbers we cannot long expect such immunity. 
 Whose turn shall it be next ? Yours or mine ? The 
 thought shall not overcloud our rejoicing to-day. 
 Rather shall it give strength and solemnity to that 
 rejoicing. But we can ill afford least of all on a 
 great day like this to turn a deaf ear to the warning 
 that this life is not our true life, that here we are 
 strangers and pilgrims, that heaven is our only 
 
TQO COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [v. 
 
 abiding home, that we are fellow-citizens with the 
 saints. 
 
 c Fellow-citizens with the saints.' Think for a 
 moment how much is implied in this. What a vast 
 assemblage, what a glorious companionship, in which 
 we you and I with all our frailties, all our short- 
 comings, our self-seeking, our worldliness, our dis- 
 trust, our faithlessness, are bidden boldly to claim a 
 place ! All those great and heroic spirits venerable 
 patriarchs, righteous kings, rapt seers, holy priests, 
 inspired psalmists who lived and wrought and 
 suffered in the ancient days in the hope of a better 
 promise men who through faith subdued kingdoms, 
 of whom the world was not worthy ! All those Apostles 
 and Evangelists and teachers, who kindling their 
 torches at the central fire, the glory of the Eternal 
 Son Himself, carried the light of the Gospel into all 
 lands, giving up everything for Christ, eager to lose 
 their lives that by losing they might find them ! All 
 those martyrs and doctors of later ages, who handed 
 down the sacred treasure through successive genera- 
 tions amidst the fire of persecution and the confusion 
 of barbarism and the darkness of idolatry Ignatius 
 rejoicing to be mangled by hungry lions, and Polycarp 
 calm and prayerful as the flesh shrivelled in the 
 flames, and the fervid eloquence of Chrysostom, and 
 the devout insight of Augustine ; and lastly, all those 
 whose memory is inseparably connected with this 
 
V.j AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 
 
 Northern Church Oswald and Aidan and Bcde, 
 whose light shone with unwonted lustre amidst the 
 surrounding darkness of the ages ! 
 
 And others there are too in this glorious company, 
 whose names live in history; true saints of God, 
 though they appear not in the calendar of any 
 Church men and women, from the record of whose 
 lives succeeding generations have drawn inspiration 
 and strength, whose holiness and purity, or whose 
 courage and self-sacrifice, or whose gentleness and 
 meekness, or whose truthfulness, or whose loving 
 charities, have been a never-failing fountain of refresh- 
 ment to the weary pilgrim in the thirsty wilderness of 
 the world. 
 
 And others too there are, whose memorial has 
 perished with them, who have left no name in history, 
 but whose brows nevertheless God Himself has 
 crowned with a halo of everlasting glory poor, 
 despised, unknown, artisans and peasants, weak 
 women and feeble children, martyrs in the martyr- 
 dom of a daily life, saints with the saintliness of 
 homely duty, throngs innumerable of every nation 
 and kindred and people and tongue, clothed with 
 white robes and palms in their hands, standing before 
 the throne of God and serving Him night and day in 
 His temple. 
 
 And others again there are, unknown to the world, 
 but well known to you or to me, of our home, of our 
 
I Q2 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [V. 
 
 school, of our college, of our parish ; the voices which 
 though silenced years ago still linger in our ears, the 
 hands long crumbled into dust whose pressure still is 
 felt, the eyes long since glazed in death but even 
 now keen and bright for us the mother at whose 
 knees we lisped our infant prayer, the master to whose 
 wise teaching we owe what is best in our moral and 
 spiritual growth, the friend more than a brother to 
 us whose nobleness and purity and unselfishness was 
 the good genius of our lives these all are there, with 
 these we hold communion, with these we walk and 
 talk once more, as of old. 
 
 This is the citizenship of which the text speaks, 
 more rich, more manifold, more glorious beyond 
 comparison than any earthly society which eye hath 
 seen or of which ear hath heard. 
 
 Of this glorious assemblage, the meeting of our 
 brotherhood to-day is a type however faint, a parable 
 however dark. If it is not this, it is nothing at all. 
 If it is not this, it fails utterly in its purpose. This 
 smaller society is a training ground for the exercise 
 of those graces and capacities which have their fuller 
 development in the larger the sense of mutual 
 responsibility, the sense of mutual obligation, the 
 realisation of what we have owed to one another 
 (even the oldest to the youngest, the strongest to the 
 weakest), the realisation therefore of what we are 
 bound to repay to one another, the sympathy of 
 
V.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 1 93 
 
 membership in the body each with each, in all its 
 subtle ramifications and interdependencies. For this 
 reason I have dwelt on the Communion of Saints, 
 because it alone can truly interpret to us the duties 
 of our position in this lower sphere. 
 
 And indeed we have only too much need to be 
 reminded of our heavenly citizenship. Even in our 
 work which is called spiritual, there is so much of mere 
 mundane care and interest, and there must inevitably 
 be so very much that is of the earth earthly. It is 
 with you, as with Moses of old, when he descended 
 from the Mountain of God. The radiance will vanish 
 away from your countenance only too soon, as you 
 mingle with the busy crowd below, you will need to 
 repair ever and again to the heights, that standing 
 there face to face with the Eternal Presence, you 
 may gather once more in your visage the rays of the 
 Ineffable Glory. 
 
 And the mountain of God for you is no more 
 Sinai as of old, not the mountain which burned with 
 fire, not the blackness and darkness and tempest, not 
 the terrible sight which should make you exceedingly 
 fear and quake. Nay, rather you are come to the 
 Mount Sion, to the city of the living God, the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of 
 angels, to the general assembly and Church of the 
 firstborn, which are written in heaven. 
 
 O. A. 13 
 
VI. 
 
 The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but 
 righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 ROMANS xiv. 17. 
 
 [S. Peter's Day, 1889.] 
 
 THIS is, I believe, the seventh year of our Annual 
 Commemoration. The term of my episcopate has 
 now run through its decade. Ten years ago I came 
 into this diocese, migrating, as it seemed to me then, 
 into a strange land, not knowing whither I went, 
 leaving my intellectual and spiritual kindred, aban- 
 doning old pursuits, old haunts, old associations, 
 bidding farewell to familiar faces, but believing (as 
 God gave me the light to read His purposes) that He 
 had truly called me, that He had another work for 
 me to do, that henceforward I must live and labour 
 among strangers, and that it would be mean and 
 cowardly in me to decline the call from any personal 
 
VI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 1 95 
 
 shrinking or reluctance, from indolence, from mis- 
 giving, from the sense of incapacity, from the fear of 
 an unknown future. 
 
 I may be pardoned this reference to my own 
 personal history, speaking on this anniversary, speak- 
 ing as to sons, desiring (even though I should never 
 be permitted to speak to them again) to leave behind, 
 as the best heritage which I can bequeath them, this 
 assurance of God's goodness, this experience of God's 
 faithfulness, Who rewards a thousandfold any venture 
 of faith however small which is indeed a venture 
 of faith, whatever appearance it may wear to others. 
 Abraham's history is a parable, as well as a history 
 a parable written in large characters by the finger of 
 God, a parable for you and for me, if we follow at 
 however great a distance in the traces of Abraham's 
 footprints. The land of exile will be found a land 
 of promise. Though we may have left home and 
 kindred, we shall find countless sons and daughters 
 in the years to come. Though we have quitted the 
 parcel of ground highly prized as it was which we 
 called our own, He will give us an inheritance rich 
 and fertile and boundless, eternal in the heavens. 
 
 And may I pursue this personal history one step 
 further ? After much consultation with friends, after 
 much self-dissection of motives and of incapacities, 
 after much communing with my own soul and with 
 
 132 
 
IQ6 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 God (in my poor way), I determined to accept the 
 call, for such I believed and still believe it to have 
 been. From that time forward I have never had a 
 moment's hesitation or misgiving, have never felt 
 so much as a desire to look back. 
 
 But in that long wakeful night when the decision 
 was finally made which transferred me from Cambridge 
 to Durham, the idea of this College first took shape 
 in my brain. It was thus identified with the work of 
 my episcopate in its origin. It has proved, by God's 
 grace, a very real blessing to myself (may I say to 
 ourselves ?), and, what is far more important, to this 
 Diocese. It rests with you now that henceforward 
 the promise of the future shall outstrip the achieve- 
 ments of the past. 
 
 The idea was not long delayed in the execution. 
 From the commencement of the October Term after 
 my arrival in the diocese the College dates its birth. 
 Like much greater institutions, its growth has been 
 only the healthier, because it arose from small begin- 
 nings. It is a great happiness to note that in to-day's 
 meeting we miss none of those who were present at 
 its first inauguration. The two chaplains, who taught 
 the first students, are still working in the diocese and 
 are with us to-day. The three students, who formed 
 the nucleus of the future College, are likewise with 
 us; they too occupy busy spheres of labour in the 
 
VI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 197 
 
 diocese. For two or three years our numbers were so 
 few, that a periodical gathering did not enter into our 
 thoughts. At length on S. Peter's Day 1883 our first 
 Commemoration took place. From that day forward 
 we have held these joyful gatherings annually. The 
 number on our lists mounts up to eighty-two. Of 
 these God has taken three to Himself; no less than 
 sixty still have charges in the diocese or are students 
 preparing for ordination. Of the remaining twenty, 
 one is on the high seas, and another in India ; the 
 rest are working in divers spheres in other parts of 
 England. 
 
 But it seemed only too probable a few months 
 past, that we had met together for the last time; 
 that never again we should be permitted to hold 
 our joyful Annual Commemoration ; that this holy 
 brotherhood would be speedily broken up, as others 
 holier still more noble, more beneficent, more divine 
 had been dissolved before it ; that having served its 
 time and having done its work, it would pass away. 
 God has not so willed. But, even if it had been other- 
 wise, what then ? Would it not have made a vacancy, 
 which some higher ideal might fill ? Would it not, 
 like all our ' little systems/ have ceased to be, lest 
 stamping and stereotyping its own narrowness, it 
 should corrupt our little world, which it was designed 
 to elevate, and thus have thwarted God's great law 
 
1 98 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 of progress, from which no human action can exempt 
 itself without rapid decay and speedy death. 
 
 Was it in unconscious anticipation of the crisis 
 which was fast" approaching, that two years ago, 
 speaking of the passage from life to death and from 
 death to life, I reminded you how narrow was the 
 stream and how easily crossed which separates the 
 one from the other, that I told you not to look upon 
 death as the insurmountable barrier to communion 
 with brother and brother, that I warned you in words 
 which recent events have invested with a fuller mean- 
 ing ; 'The time is short ; the hour will come, come full 
 soon, when another shall speak from this place ; the 
 hour will come when this goodliest brotherhood shall 
 be broken up?' Was it the irony of God's providence 
 which often suggests to the lips of the speaker words 
 far deeper in significance than he himself dreams, 
 when again at our last year's Commemoration I struck 
 the same note, taking as my theme 'the citizenship 
 in heaven,' and desiring all to remember that ' we can 
 ill afford least of all on a great day like this to 
 turn a deaf ear to the warning that this life is not our 
 true life, that here we are strangers and pilgrims, 
 that heaven is our only abiding home, that we are 
 fellow-citizens with the saints/ Yes, indeed it is 
 most true. God has taught us this lesson since, by 
 a sharp but merciful experience. Not in our schools 
 
VI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 1 99 
 
 or our Universities, not at Eton or at Harrow, not at 
 Oxford or at Cambridge, not in our parishes, not in 
 this county or diocese of Durham, not on this seem- 
 ingly solid earth which we tread, nor yet in those 
 vague dreamy regions beyond the skies, which we 
 vainly call heaven is our great Metropolis. Where 
 God is and God may be everywhere for us where 
 God is, there is heaven. Verily we are citizens of no 
 mean city. 
 
 And now again, when by God's grace we have 
 met together once more, may we not fitly seek to 
 make fuller acquaintance with this our permanent 
 home under the guidance of the same Apostle? 'The 
 kingdom of God/ says S. Paul, the kingdom of which 
 we are citizens, ' is not meat or drink ; but righteous- 
 ness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' 
 
 Here then are two crucial tests by which you and 
 I, as citizens of the kingdom, must try our hearts and 
 conduct. Do they satisfy these tests ? Is righteous- 
 ness the pole-star of our lives ? Is peace the music of 
 our hearts ? If so, then the third gift of the kingdom 
 also will be ours. Then to us, as to the simple shep- 
 herds of old, the angel's message is addressed ; ' Be- 
 hold I bring you good tidings of great joy'; then upon 
 us, as true and faithful citizens, loyal to the laws and 
 customs of the kingdom, our Sovereign will confer His 
 crowning privilege of all 'joy in the Holy Ghost.' 
 
2OO COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 But with joy comes thanksgiving. Thanksgiving 
 is the outpouring of gladness. Thanksgiving is the 
 consecration of the joyful heart. Thanksgiving is 
 the gratitude of the subject towards His king. 
 
 Thanksgiving therefore we render to God with a 
 full heart for His mercies, thanksgiving that He has 
 brought us through so many vicissitudes, thanksgiving 
 that He has called us from death into life, thanksgiving 
 that we are permitted to gather together once more 
 for this Holy Commemoration, to hold communion 
 the elder with the younger, the far off with the near 
 at hand, the living with the dead (yes, they are with 
 us), to cheer our hearts and to invigorate our lives 
 by this sense of Christian fellowship enforced and 
 intensified by this sympathy of brotherhood. 
 
 'Joy in the Holy Ghost'; joy unfailing, joy cease- 
 less and unbroken. The true Christian spirit realises 
 the Apostle's injunction to rejoice always. Yes, he 
 makes no exception ; to rejoice under all circum- 
 stances and at all times, to rejoice in tribulation, not 
 less than in prosperity, to rejoice in mourning and in 
 gladness, to rejoice in sickness and in health, to rejoice 
 in life and in death, yes, to rejoice in death as well as 
 in life. 
 
 S. Paul had not yet seen Rome when these words 
 were written. He had planned a visit, and he hoped 
 to carry out his design shortly. His intention was 
 
VI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 2OI 
 
 for the time frustrated by his seizure at Jerusalem; 
 and nearly three years elapsed before the desire of 
 his heart was gratified. 
 
 It was not therefore with any personal knowledge 
 of the condition of the Roman Church that he penned 
 these words. But his information nevertheless was 
 accurate. He had a large number of intimate friends 
 living there, Christian friends, and in some instances 
 at least Christian converts, who had migrated from 
 Palestine or Syria or Asia Minor for purposes of 
 commerce or otherwise. There were Aquila and 
 Priscilla, the itinerant tentmakers, followers of his 
 own craft, whom he had known at Corinth and again 
 at Ephesus ; there was the mother of Rufus, who had 
 been a second mother to himself; there was Mary 
 originally a Jewess, as her name would seem to 
 suggest who had bestowed much labour on him 
 and his fellow-workers. There were his kinsmen, 
 that is, Hebrews of the Hebrews like himself, 
 Andronicus and Junias, who had shared one of his 
 many imprisonments and were already converts to 
 the faith of Christ, while he himself was still a blas- 
 phemer and a persecutor of the saints. There were 
 these, and many others, whom he mentions by name, 
 and from whom he would receive full information 
 of the condition of the Roman Church. 
 
 Communications between Rome and the East 
 
2O2 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 were rapid and unintermittent ; with Palestine more 
 especially the intercourse was incessant. The three 
 great festivals brought crowds of Jews resident in 
 Rome to the Holy City. The exigencies of com- 
 merce carried others in large numbers to and fro 
 across the Mediterranean. Thus there was a constant 
 ebb and flow of humanity between the two places. 
 The Apostle would not be at any loss, if he desired 
 to communicate with the Christians in Rome. 
 
 The Church of Rome had grown up in an irre- 
 gular way. Some of those Romans, Jews and prose- 
 lytes, who witnessed the manifestation on that first 
 Day of Pentecost, probably carried the earliest 
 tidings of the Gospel there. Several years before 
 S. Paul writes this letter, we hear of disturbances 
 among the Jews at Rome, occasioned by the excite- 
 ment of Messianic hopes disturbances which led to 
 their wholesale, though temporary, expulsion by 
 Claudius, as incidentally mentioned in the Acts of 
 the Apostles. It is evident from this notice, that 
 there was a great religious ferment among the Jews 
 in Rome. The rival claims of the true Christ, and of 
 false Christs, were eagerly discussed. But mean- 
 while no Apostle had visited the city. This is quite 
 clear alike from what S. Paul says, and from what he 
 leaves unsaid. The later tradition of S. Peter's early 
 visit to Rome is thus shown to be untrue. If he ever 
 
VI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 2C3 
 
 went there, as probably he did, it was at a later date, 
 after S. Paul's own visit. 
 
 Thus the Church had grown up without the steady- 
 ing influence of Apostolic guidance and counsel. 
 There was much earnestness of purpose, no doubt, 
 but there was also much narrowness of view. There 
 was much self-devotion, but there was much conten- 
 tiousness also. By one dispute more especially the 
 peace of the Church was endangered. The burning 
 question among the Christians in Rome at this time 
 was the question of meats. Some converts Jews by 
 birth brought into the fold of Christ the strict obser- 
 vance of the Mosaic prohibitions, in which they had 
 been brought up. They were careful not to violate 
 the distinction of animals clean and unclean, as laid 
 down by the law. Others educated we know not 
 under what influences went beyond this. They 
 would not touch animal food at all. They were 
 strict vegetarians. Perhaps they had conscientious 
 objections to taking life; perhaps their abstention 
 was a development of asceticism. Others again, 
 Gentiles by birth and education, took the opposite 
 extreme. They ostentatiously vaunted their indif- 
 ference in these matters. They would eat anything 
 that came in their way. It might be clean or unclean 
 from a Jewish point of view; it might even have been 
 offered for sacrifice on a heathen altar in an idol's 
 
2O4 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 temple. They suffered no scruple to stand in their 
 path. 
 
 But they were not content each to follow his own 
 practice, and to leave his neighbours alone. The 
 abstainers denounced the non-abstainers, as men of 
 loose principles who brought dishonour on the Church. 
 The non-abstainers despised the abstainers, as men of 
 narrow views who were ignorant of the true Gospel of 
 liberty. Thus there was strife and dissension, there 
 was mutual recrimination, there was hatred and divi- 
 sion, where there should have been union and peace 
 and brotherly love. 
 
 It was a pitiable dispute in the Apostle's eyes. 
 Here they were this Christian brotherhood a mere 
 handful of men confronted by so many myriads of 
 unconverted pagans. They needed all the strength 
 which union alone can give ; and yet they dimin- 
 ished, they dissipated, they neutralised what force 
 they had by internal quarrels. And quarrels about 
 what ? About meats and drinks things which perish 
 in the using, things mean and transitory, utterly 
 valueless in themselves. 
 
 It was a pitiable dispute. So the Apostle told 
 them plainly. It was not, that he himself had no 
 opinion on the point at issue. He had a very decid- 
 ed opinion. He saw that the old Mosaic law about 
 things clean and unclean was only temporary ; that 
 
VI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 2O5 
 
 it had been abrogated in Christ, and that now there- 
 fore all meats were alike. He saw that in the nature 
 of things there was no line of distinction between 
 one kind of food and another. He pronounced that 
 every creature of God was good. He declared that 
 all things were pure, that nothing was unclean. He 
 was altogether on the side of liberty. 
 
 But, while he entirely approved the principles of 
 the one party as against the other, he had no sym- 
 pathy at all with their practice. While their doctri- 
 nal position was the same as his own, their moral 
 tone was altogether hateful to him. It is very plain 
 throughout this passage that, though he holds neither 
 party free from blame, yet his sternest rebukes are 
 aimed at those who thought as he himself thought. 
 These are they, who put a stumbling-block in their 
 brother's way. These are they, who walk not charit- 
 ably. These are they, who with their meat destroy 
 him for whom Christ died. These are they, who are 
 bidden finally not to please themselves, even as 
 Christ pleased not Himself. How then is S. Paul's 
 language to be explained ? 
 
 There is something more sacred in the eyes of 
 God than right opinions. This is conscience, the 
 human conscience. No orthodoxy, no utility, no 
 principle in heaven or on earth, justifies a wrong 
 done to this. Conscience is supreme ; conscience is 
 
2O6 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 God's vice-gerent ; conscience must be obeyed at 
 all hazards. The principle of liberty is very sacred 
 in S. Paul's eyes. The indifference of days, of meats, 
 of all ceremonial observances in themselves, except 
 as means to an end, is a leading principle of his 
 teaching. What language can be more strong than 
 his condemnation of his converts, when he saw a 
 danger of their falling away from the truth ? 'Sense- 
 less Galatians, who hath bewitched you ? ' ' How 
 turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, 
 whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?' 'Christ 
 is become of no effect in you. Ye are fallen from 
 grace.' It was a sorcery, it was a desertion, it was a 
 slavery, it was a stultification of Christ's sacrifice 
 this abandonment of the principles which he had 
 taught them. 
 
 But here was a far higher principle at stake. 
 Conscience, I say, was attacked, and an attack on the 
 conscience was an act of high treason. Conscience 
 is king of the moral nature, and loyalty to conscience 
 is the first and last duty of all our faculties. These 
 men who abstained on principle from unclean meats, 
 who abstained on principle from animal food of 
 any kind, might be weak, might be narrow-minded, 
 might be wrong in a matter of real importance. But 
 what then ? Would you put pressure on them ? 
 Would you laugh them out of their earnest convic- 
 
VI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 
 
 tions? Would you flaunt your own liberty, your own 
 license, in their faces, thus shocking their prejudices, 
 as you heartlessly say ? Nay I you little know what 
 a great, what an irreparable wrong you are doing to 
 them. They are weak, and you you are strong? 
 Then be chivalrous; then respect their scruples; 
 then deal tenderly with them. Better, a thousand 
 times better, that they should do the wrong thing, 
 believing it to be right, than that they should do the 
 right thing, believing it to be wrong. Do the right 
 thing ; nay, for them it is not right. * He that doubt- 
 eth is condemned, if he eat ; because he eateth not of 
 faith' not of conviction 'for whatsoever is not of 
 faith is sin/ Therefore before all things bear the 
 infirmities of the weak. Beware of wounding them 
 in the vital part of their moral nature. ' If meat 
 make my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while 
 the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.' 
 And thou thyself thou boastest that thou art strong. 
 Look well to thyself. Is this really principle, or is it 
 self-will ? Is it display ? Is it mere worldliness ? 
 ' Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that 
 which he alloweth.' ' Who art thou that judgest 
 another man's servant ? ' Think of the time when 
 thou too with him wilt stand before the tribunal of 
 the Great Master thou, stripped of all this pretence 
 of principle, of all this arrogance of self-assertion 
 
2O8 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 thy heart laid open and naked before the piercing 
 eye of the Great Searcher. 
 
 For how mean, how contemptible, after all, is the 
 matter of dispute ; how unworthy of your calling, of 
 your faith, of your destiny, as Christians ! What a 
 nice appreciation does this strife betray ! ' The 
 kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but right- 
 eousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost' 
 
 It is not a little startling in such a connexion to 
 find any mention of the kingdom of God. We should 
 have expected some very different expression 'the 
 right principle of conduct ', or c the true rule of life ', 
 or ' the proper bond of brotherhood ', or ' the teaching 
 of the Gospel ', or ' the Church of Christ. ' Any of 
 these phrases would have appeared more natural. 
 But ' the kingdom of God ' seems not a little out of 
 place. It only seems so, because we do not realise, 
 as the Apostle realised, that the dispensation of the 
 Gospel, the Church of Christ, is itself the very king- 
 dom of God. Notwithstanding the warning which 
 stands recorded, we persist in thinking that the king- 
 dom of God cometh by observation, that it must be a 
 kingdom of pomp and circumstance, that therefore it 
 is something very remote and distant from anything 
 we see about us. But S. Paul viewed it quite other- 
 wise. This little society of men and women ; this 
 motley group of Jews, Greeks, Syrians, immigrants 
 
VI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 2OQ 
 
 from all parts of the world ; mostly gathered together 
 from the middle and lower classes of society, artisans 
 and small shopkeepers, where they were not slaves ; 
 poor, ill-educated, struggling for a livelihood ; de- 
 spised, where they were not ignored, by mighty Rome 
 in the heart of which they lived ; this little society, 
 with its trials and its sufferings and its dissensions, 
 is the kingdom of God, is the kingdom of heaven. 
 The Gospel message cannot mean less than this. 
 It tells us that God has come down from heaven, 
 that He has pitched His tabernacle in the flesh, has 
 made His abode among men. And so henceforth 
 His kingdom is in the midst of you, is within you. 
 Here He holds His court ; here He keeps state. 
 Hence His glory radiates, invisible to the mere eye 
 of flesh, but transcendently bright to the spiritual 
 organs of faith. And just in proportion as we realise 
 this fact, just in proportion as we recognise the 
 kingdom as a present kingdom, just in proportion as 
 we see our Sovereign in the midst of us, will the 
 glory stream in upon us, in our parish, in our schools, 
 in our studies, in our homes, cheering our hearts and 
 enlightening our path. The sunlight of the Eternal 
 Presence will pierce and scatter the fogs and smoke 
 of this beclouded world, and above the ceaseless din 
 of traffic will be heard the angel voices of the Se- 
 raphim singing ' thrice holy ' to the Lord of Hosts. 
 O. A. 14 
 
2IO COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 But it is clear that the kingdom of heaven cannot 
 have anything in common with meats and drinks. 
 There is such manifest incongruity between the two, 
 that the Apostle does not even think it necessary to 
 discuss the question. He states the fact, and he 
 leaves it. These paltry squabbles about eating and 
 drinking what have they in common with the glory 
 of the Eternal Presence, with the light of the hea- 
 venly kingdom ? And yet by these dissension is sown 
 among the brotherhood. And yet by these the sacred 
 Name is blasphemed among the heathen. And yet 
 by these the seamless coat of Christ is rent in pieces. 
 
 It might have been thought, that the Apostle's 
 condemnation would have closed for ever such dis- 
 sensions in the Church of Christ. It is so plain in 
 its bearing. It is so lofty in its tone. It is altogether so 
 commanding in its appeal to the Christian conscience. 
 And yet strange to say the history of the Church 
 is one continuous record of disputes on trivial mat- 
 ters, whereby the unity of the body has been im- 
 perilled, even where an actual severance has not 
 taken place. The greatest and most fatal schism 
 which the world has ever seen the separation 
 between the East and the West is a notable in- 
 stance. It almost surpasses belief that among the 
 questions of difference fiercely discussed were the 
 tonsure of the beard and the permission of milk and 
 
VI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 211 
 
 cheese as a Lenten diet. It was a miserable spectacle. 
 I do not say that these were the only or the chief 
 matters of dispute, but they helped to widen the 
 rift and to prevent the wound from healing. Of later 
 manifestations of the same spirit I forbear to speak. 
 The history recorded in the windows of this Chapel 
 is perhaps the noblest page in the records of the 
 Christian Church since the Apostolic times. Mingled 
 with our thanksgiving to-day must be the thought 
 that God has bestowed upon us on you and on me 
 this priceless inheritance. Where else could we learn 
 such lessons of simplicity, of self-devotion and self- 
 forgetfulness, of missionary zeal, of love for Christ? 
 Yet, as if to throw out all this Christian heroism into 
 stronger relief, there is a very dark background of 
 human folly. Where else could we find a sadder warn- 
 ing than in this same history against the trivialities 
 of the human heart ? No, the kingdom of heaven is 
 not meat and drink neither is it the regulation of a 
 calendar, nor the form of a tonsure. It was a miser- 
 able squabble which marred the beauty of the picture, 
 a spectacle over which angels well might weep. 
 
 Indeed the kingdom of God is not of trifling 
 details, but of eternal principles. The kingdom of 
 God is not of external observances, but of moral and 
 spiritual conditions. The kingdom of God is before 
 all things righteousness. This is implied also in our 
 
 142 
 
212 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 Lord's own words, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of 
 God, and His righteousness.' Righteousness is a 
 term of comprehensive scope. It comprises honesty, 
 truthfulness, sincerity all the elements which com- 
 bine to form uprightness and frankness and nobility 
 of character. Righteousness is straightforward in 
 intellectual matters, as well as in practical. Right- 
 eousness respects the feelings, the affections, the 
 characters of others, as well as their property. 
 Righteousness therefore is temperate, is pure, is 
 chivalrous. Righteousness pays deference to enemies 
 as well as to friends. It is scrupulously careful not 
 to misrepresent, not to depreciate, not to wrong in 
 any way an antagonist whether a personal or a re- 
 ligious antagonist. Righteousness abhors the maxim 
 that the end justifies the means. 
 
 This then is one characteristic of the kingdom of 
 heaven ; and another is peace. The King Himself is 
 announced as the Prince of Peace. Peace also is the 
 special message of the Epiphany Season. Peace is 
 the true complement of righteousness. Its work 
 begins, where the work of righteousness ends. The 
 Apostle elsewhere assigns a special function to peace, 
 in the regulation of our conduct. In our English 
 Bibles his words are rendered somewhat loosely, 
 'Let the peace of God rule in your hearts.' But 
 his own language is much more expressive, ' Let 
 
VI.] AUCKLAND ADDRESSES. 213 
 
 the peace of God be umpire in your hearts/ Wher- 
 ever there is any hesitation about lines of action, peace 
 must step in and decide. Not self-assertion, not 
 consistency, not stickling for rights, not punctilious- 
 ness about details, but peace must carry the day. 
 Thus peace covers all the ground, which righteous- 
 ness leaves unoccupied. The two go hand in hand. 
 Righteousness not minute external observance ; and 
 peace not contention about trifling details; these 
 are the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Here then are two crucial tests, by which you and 
 I, as citizens of the kingdom, must try our own 
 conduct. Does it satisfy these tests ? Then the third 
 characteristic of the kingdom will be ours. Is right- 
 eousness the pole-star of our lives ? Is peace the 
 music of our hearts ? If so, then to you, as to the 
 shepherds of old, the message of the Epiphany is 
 addressed, 'Behold I bring you good tidings of 
 great joy. 1 If so, then to you, as true and faithful 
 citizens, loyal to the laws and customs of the king- 
 dom, your sovereign will confer His crowning privi- 
 lege, 'joy in the Holy Ghost.' Not joy as men count 
 joy, no earthly passion and no transitory excitement ; 
 but the abiding inward satisfaction of a conscious 
 harmony with the will of God, the gladness of the 
 ransomed of the Lord returning to Zion with songs 
 and everlasting joy upon their heads. 
 
B. CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 
 
 I. 
 
 For we are fellow-workers with God. 
 
 eoO yap e'oyxez/ (rvvepyoi. 
 
 i COR. iii. 9. 
 
 IN most countries, more especially in an earlier 
 stage of society, the typical form of labour is agri- 
 culture. The tillage of the soil occupies the vast 
 majority of those who work for their own bread. It 
 is at this stage that the language is substantially fixed. 
 Words contract a significance which clings to them 
 long after the condition of things to which they owe 
 it has passed away. So it is with the word before us. 
 From the days of Hesiod onward 'works' got to 
 signify works of tillage, of husbandry. The workman 
 (ep7aT77<?) was the man who tilled the ground, the 
 agricultural labourer as we should say. Doubtless 
 
I.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 215 
 
 something of this sense clings to a-vvepyoi here. The 
 metaphor is a continuation of the planting and the 
 watering in the preceding verses. It is still further 
 carried out in the yewpyiov, the cultivated field, of the 
 verse which follows. We the duly ordained and 
 duly accredited teachers are fellow-husbandmen, 
 fellow-tillers, in God's field, in God's garden. 
 
 But the text says more than this. Interpreted 
 naturally, it speaks of us as fellow-tillers, fellow- 
 labourers, with God. 
 
 Startled by the boldness of the expression, as 
 if it verged on profanity, interpreters have been 
 found to give it a different meaning, ' fellow-labourers 
 under God, fellow-labourers in God's field.' This 
 does not seem to be justified by the language; nor 
 can we afford to sacrifice the lesson which is thus lost 
 to us. In another passage in the First Epistle to 
 the Thessalonians the Apostle according to a prob- 
 able reading designates Timothy 'a fellow-worker 
 with God.' In this second passage however the vari- 
 ations forbid us to speak with any certainty ; though 
 scribes would naturally be anxious to tone down a 
 reading which seemed to place man on a level with 
 God. In a third passage in the Third Epistle of 
 S. John the disciples are invited to be not fellow- 
 workers for, but fellow-workers with the Truth, in a 
 somewhat similar way. 
 
2l6 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 I desire to say to you this evening a very few 
 words by way of preface to the addresses, which I am 
 privileged to give you on the two following days ; 
 and I have chosen the text as the fittest vehicle for 
 my purpose. It will serve at once to introduce myself 
 to you, and to introduce you to the subject. 
 
 It is not without much fear and trembling that 
 .1 undertake this task, from which I have a natural 
 shrinking. When I ask myself what qualifications 
 I have for such a work, I can only find one poor 
 answer to this questioning of self. I have at least 
 had experience, long experience, of the life which 
 you live, and of the work in which you are engaged. 
 I spent considerably more than half, the best half, of 
 my life at a great University. I passed through all 
 the stages of an Academic career. As an under- 
 graduate and student, as a private tutor, as a fellow 
 and lecturer and tutor in a large College, lastly as a 
 Professor, I have had personal acquaintance with the 
 privileges, the dangers, the opportunities, the im- 
 pediments, the spiritual advantages and the spiritual 
 hindrances of a University life. This is my claim 
 to address you. I shall speak to you as one of your- 
 selves. ' We are fellow-workers ' you and I. Not 
 ' we were ', but ' we are ', for may I not assert a 
 present companionship with you ? After so many 
 years' residence at a University the mind, the temper, 
 
I.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 217 
 
 the thoughts, the sympathies, the failings, of an 
 Academic life will cling to a man more or less to 
 the end. 
 
 So then, when I speak to you, I speak to myself. 
 If I seem to warn or to rebuke you, it is not so much 
 you, as myself, to whom the warning or the rebuke 
 is addressed. If I am thought to dwell with too 
 great emphasis on obvious facts or common-place 
 lessons, it is just because I know that these plain 
 truths are what I need for my own guidance. In all 
 things I shall talk freely, as talking to and against 
 myself. 
 
 But I am laying myself open to one criticism. 
 What claim, it will be said and said fairly, what 
 claim have you to this position which you are assum- 
 ing? You are holding out to us a lofty ideal of 
 Academic life. Did you realise it nay, did you 
 approach at all near to the realisation of it in 
 your own person ? I would gladly forestall that 
 criticism. 
 
 And how can I better make my apology before 
 you than by adopting the words of a true saint of 
 God one who had less, far less need of this line of 
 defence, than I am conscious of having? 
 
 Thus writes Leighton to the Clergy of his Synod 
 at Dunblane : 
 
 'Is it not, brethren, an unspeakable advantage, 
 
2l8 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 beyond all the gainful and honourable employments 
 of the world, that the whole work of our particular 
 calling is a kind of living in heaven, and, besides its 
 tendency to the saving of the souls of others, is all 
 along so proper and adapted to the purifying and 
 saving of our own ? 
 
 ' But you will possibly say, What does he himself 
 that speaks these things to us ? Alas, I am ashamed 
 to tell you. All I dare say is this ; I think I see the 
 beauty of holiness, and am enamoured of it, though 
 I attain it not ; and howsoever little I attain, would 
 rather live and die in the pursuit of it, than in the 
 pursuit, yea, in the possession and enjoyment, though 
 unpurified, of all the advantages that this world 
 affords. And I trust, dear brethren, you are of the 
 same opinion, and have the same desire and design, 
 and follow it both more diligently and with better 
 success.' 
 
 'Alas', brothers, 'I am ashamed to tell you.' 
 And it is just the hope that this shame and humilia- 
 tion, as I look back on the splendid opportunities of 
 an Academic teacher, and reflect on the poor use 
 which I myself made of them, may give some force 
 and edge to words which would otherwise be power- 
 less it is just this hope which gives me courage to 
 address you. Do not press the question home. ' Alas, 
 I am ashamed to tell you.' 
 
I.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 2IQ 
 
 But while my shame is necessarily far deeper than 
 Leighton's, my desire is not less strong than his 
 desire that you may be more successful than we 
 have been, that you and your generation may in- 
 crease, while I and mine decrease; that you may 
 cultivate larger and finer sympathies, intellectual, 
 moral and spiritual; may be more energetic, more 
 devoted, more helpful, more Christlike than we were, 
 and that God may be more glorified in you than He 
 was in us. 
 
 But the text will serve not only to introduce us 
 one to another, but likewise to introduce to us the 
 subject which will largely occupy our thoughts during 
 the next two days the magnitude and the dignity 
 and the responsibility of the task which lies before 
 us. 06ou eafjiev avvepyol, ' we are fellow-workers with 
 God'; not fellow- workers under God, or fellow- 
 workers for God, but fellow-workers with God. He 
 and we are engaged in the same task, the same 
 tillage. He and we are working (do we not tremble 
 to say it ?), are working side by side. 
 
 Is there something startling in this language ? 
 Does it cost us a shudder to repeat it ? Is there not 
 a touch of blasphemy in the familiarity which under- 
 lies it ? Nay, not so. The Incarnation interprets 
 and justifies such a mode of speech. The Incarna- 
 tion removes God very far from us, while at the same 
 
220 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 time it brings Him very near to us. It realises for 
 us at once the infinite distance, and the infinitesimal 
 proximity, between God and the servant of God. It 
 tells us on the one hand that He dwelleth 'in the 
 light unapproachable, Whom no man hath seen nor 
 can see '; and it assures us on the other, ' I will dwell 
 in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God.' 
 It was said of Socrates that he brought philosophy 
 down from the skies. But is it not most true of the 
 Incarnate Word that He brought down God from 
 the heaven of heavens, and domiciled Him in our 
 earthly homes, and enshrined Him in our wayward 
 human hearts ? Other gods are not as our God. 
 They are altogether distant, invisible, unthinkable, 
 unknowable, like the god of the Theist and the god 
 of the Agnostic ; or they are altogether like ourselves 
 magnified men indeed, but men still with our pas- 
 sions, our frailties, our limitations like the gods of 
 the polytheist, like the gods of the savage. Our God 
 is unapproachable ; and yet He is near us, He is with 
 us, He is in us. 
 
 This paradox of the Incarnation pervades all our 
 relations with God. It explains, while it justifies, the 
 expression in the text. It warns us that the awe and 
 the reverence is not abated, but rather enhanced, by 
 the familiarity; that He is our absolute and supreme 
 Lord, while yet He consents to be our friend and our 
 
I.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 221 
 
 companion ; that we work under Him, while yet we 
 work with Him. 
 
 'Fellow-workers with God.' Is it not so ? For it 
 is your special task to promote the spread and to 
 enlarge the bounds of knowledge. And what is pro- 
 gress in knowledge but the larger acquaintance with 
 the laws of God, the purposes of God, the mind of 
 God ? What is all science and all history the phe- 
 nomena of nature, the structure of language, the laws 
 of human society and of the individual mind what 
 are all these but the impress of the Divine Logos 
 stamped upon His creation ? 
 
 'Fellow-workers with God/ For what work can 
 we conceive as more directly God's work than the 
 instructing, guiding, moulding of youth youth with 
 all its magnificent potentialities and its brilliant hopes 
 the piloting of the human soul and the human 
 intellect through the most perilous, most stormy, 
 most fateful passages of earthly life? 
 
 'Fellow-workers with God' before all things. For 
 the University is the very seed-plot of the future 
 preachers of the Word, the stewards of Christ's 
 mysteries. Hence will be drawn the flower and the 
 chivalry of the Clergy. I had almost said that the 
 making of the Church of England in the generation 
 to come is in your hands, but I dare not so disparage 
 the power and the goodness of God. His grace may 
 
222 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 counteract our neglect. His perfection may supply 
 our inadequacy. His wisdom is powerful to redeem 
 our folly. Yet humanly speaking, the destiny of the 
 Church will be decided by the character of the clergy; 
 and the character of the clergy will be determined by 
 the character of its leaders. 
 
 What then are the chief thoughts which the ex- 
 pression will suggest ' fellow-workers with God ' ? 
 
 First of all. There is the awe and dignity of your 
 position. Must you not work with fear and trembling, 
 when you remember that God is working with you ? 
 Must you not reverence your very selves, whom God 
 has thus associated with Himself in this highest of 
 all callings ? It is no longer possible for you to 
 magnify your office too highly. Human language 
 cannot exaggerate the honour or the compass or 
 the importance or the responsibility of the task 
 assigned to you. 
 
 This thought is crushing. This thought over- 
 whelms and paralyses. This thought leaves you awe- 
 stricken and helpless. But God be thanked the 
 lesson does not end here. It is, secondly, an assurance 
 of help. If God is doing this work, and not I only, 
 then there is God's strength, God's skill, God's know- 
 ledge, employed upon it. I am no longer discouraged 
 and enfeebled by the sense of my own incapacity, my 
 own ignorance and inexperience, my own faint heart 
 
I.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 223 
 
 and feeble hand. There is beside me an inexhaust- 
 ible fountain of ability, from which I can draw. 
 God's strength is made perfect in weakness. Yes, 
 I will forget myself in God. I am no longer dismay- 
 ed by the difficulty of the task. I can look now 
 with unblenching eye on the glory which comforts 
 me. This very glory is strength, is assurance, is 
 vigour, is renewed and ever-renewing energy and life 
 to me. 
 
 But thirdly and lastly. It is something more than 
 the assurance of strength to me ; it is the pledge 
 of victory. Who will not labour diligently and un- 
 repiningly, if he knows that success must attend his 
 efforts ? Who will not fight bravely, if he is assured 
 that the battle well fought will be crowned with 
 triumph ? 
 
 You are God's fellow-workers. This is God's work. 
 Therefore it must be triumphant. There is no place 
 for misgiving or despondency. No sense of personal 
 frailty, no calculation of opposing odds, no menaces 
 of approaching evil, no symptoms of immediate failure, 
 none of these can appal us. God's work is eternal. 
 Nothing no, not the gates of hell can prevail 
 against it. There may be temporary defeats, partial 
 fallings back. Men may come and men may go. But 
 what then ? ' All flesh is as grass, and all the glory 
 of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, 
 
224 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [l. 
 
 and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word 
 of the Lord endureth for ever.' 
 
 So then lie down to-night in peace and rise up 
 to-morrow morning with joy, in the strength of this 
 one thought eoO e&jjLev avvep^oi, eov avvepyol. 
 
II. 
 
 Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, 
 Lord. 
 
 air eyLtoO, OTA avrjp afjt,apTco\6s eljjbi, Ku/Ke. 
 
 S. LUKE v. 8. 
 
 Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words 
 of eternal life. 
 
 Kupte, 777)09 rlva aireKevao^eOa; prj^ara fouy? 
 aiwviov e^6t?. 
 
 S. JOHN vi. 68. 
 
 THE reason why I have placed these two sayings 
 side by side will have been already apparent. The 
 speaker is the same; the person addressed is the 
 same ; even the scene seems to be laid in the same 
 place, or at least in the same neighbourhood. And 
 yet the one utterance is the direct negation of the 
 other. In the one the speaker implores a separation; 
 in the other he deprecates a severance. In the one 
 
 O. A. 15 
 
226 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iL 
 
 the presence of his Master is painful, is intolerable 
 to him ; in the other it is joy and hope and life. 
 
 Whence comes this paradox? Must we seek a 
 solution in the change which in the meanwhile had 
 passed over the character of the speaker ? This will 
 explain the contrast in part, but it is clearly not the 
 whole account of the matter. Doubtless the Apostle 
 had risen during this interval to a higher conception 
 of his relations to Jesus. Doubtless fear had in some 
 measure given place to hope. But the paradox of S. 
 Peter's language is a paradox inherent in the religious 
 life. This contrast of repulsion and attraction is the 
 true attitude of the devout spirit towards God. Side 
 by side they have their place in the heart deadly 
 foes in appearance, but in reality stedfast friends 
 and sworn allies. There is the awe which repels, and 
 there is the love which attracts. There is die sense 
 of sin, which deprecates God's nearness, and there is 
 the craving for support, which yearns for His 
 presence. We thrust Him away, and yet we run 
 after Him, we cleave to Him. The same hand, which 
 has inflicted the wound, also heals the wound. The 
 moral convulsion bridges over the yawning gulf, 
 which itself ha* created. 
 
 In the first of these two incidents we have an 
 account of S. Peter's calL A stupendous miracle 
 strikes amazement into the simple fisherman's heart ; 
 
II.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 22 7 
 
 the confession of unworthiness, of sin, is wrung from 
 the lips of the awe-stricken man ; the reassurance 
 and the charge follow immediately on the confession, 
 ' Fear not ; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.' 
 
 But in S. John's Gospel we are confronted with a 
 wholly different story of the Apostle's call. His 
 brother Andrew is a scholar of the Baptist. The 
 Baptist points out Jesus to Andrew and another 
 disciple. They follow Jesus ; they are accosted by 
 Him; they lodge that day with Him; they leave 
 Him convinced that He is the Christ. Andrew then 
 takes his brother Simon to Jesus. Jesus receives 
 him. The divergent accounts are not contradictory, 
 but supplementary the one to the other. As we read 
 S. Luke's narrative, it becomes apparent that this 
 cannot have been the first meeting of Simon Peter 
 with our Lord. I put out of sight the healing of his 
 wife's mother, because, though this is related in an 
 earlier chapter by S. Luke, it might be urged that the 
 events are not recorded in chronological order. But, 
 looking at this incident in itself, what does it reveal 
 as regards the relations of the Apostle to our Lord ? 
 These fishermen have been toiling throughout the 
 night. Their labour has been wholly unrewarded, 
 though the night was the proper season for plying 
 their craft. And now in the bright glare of the 
 morning sun now, when, after the ill-success of the 
 
 152. 
 
228 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 night, it would be perfect madness to expect a haul, 
 now they are suddenly, imperiously bidden to put 
 out again into the deep and throw in their nets. 
 And the command is obeyed. There is the lurking 
 misgiving ; there is the tacit remonstrance ; but there 
 is the prompt compliance notwithstanding. ' Master, 
 we have toiled all the night... nevertheless at Thy 
 word I will let down the net.' ' At Thy word.' Who 
 is this, that His most unreasonable demand is met 
 with such ready acquiescence ? This can have been 
 no mere passing stranger, no mere casual acquaint- 
 ance. How would His advice have been entertained 
 for a moment, when he told an experienced fisher- 
 man to do what fishermen knew to be utterly foolish 
 and futile? S. Peter would never have acted as we 
 find him acting, if he had not known, or at least sus- 
 pected, that there was a more than human power and 
 intelligence in Jesus. Thus the narrative of S. Luke 
 presupposes the narrative of S. John. Jesus speaks 
 to Peter now, as one who had a right to command. 
 The incident in S. John gives the personal call of S. 
 Peter; the incident in S. Luke gives his official call. 
 On the one occasion he is accepted as a disciple and 
 a follower; on the other he is declared an Apostle 
 and a teacher, 'From henceforth thou shalt catch 
 men/ 
 
 It was not however for the discussion of its 
 
IT."] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 2 29 
 
 historical aspects, but for the. consideration of its 
 religious lessons, that I asked your attention to this 
 incident All history teaches by examples ; and the 
 scriptural narrative is the intensification of history. 
 
 And have we not here a parable of the most 
 intense pathos and the widest application ? ' Master, 
 we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing.' 
 What is this, but a true, painfully true, image of the 
 efforts, the struggles, the futilities, the despairs, of 
 humanity ? Do we seek illustrations among the 
 great ones who have trodden this earth ? History 
 teems with examples enforcing this theme. We have 
 only to look to times very near our own for such 
 examples. What was the last end of the two great 
 men, who at the commencement of this century 
 between them swayed the destinies of Europe, the 
 destinies of the civilised world ? The prime minister 
 of England held a position such as no ruler among 
 us before or after has held, since England had a 
 constitutional government. He had scarcely emerged 
 from boyhood, when he took the helm of state in his 
 hands. He had a tenure of office almost unparalleled 
 in our constitutional history. He had enjoyed the 
 confidence of the country to a degree never equalled 
 by any other minister. He had steered the ship of 
 state through revolutionary storms more violent than 
 had been witnessed for centuries. He was the life 
 
230 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 and soul of the coalition against the foreign tyrant. 
 His hand was felt in every court and in every city of 
 Europe. He formed leagues, enrolled armies, lavished 
 treasure, with this one object of thwarting the com- 
 mon foe. I do not say that this great minister rested 
 his hope in this life only. But, if it had been so, then 
 must he have been reckoned of all men the most 
 miserable. For what was the end of his earthly 
 career ? The defeat of Austerlitz came. His schemes 
 were scattered to the winds ; and he was prostrated 
 by the blow. The sad Austerlitz look settled on his 
 face, and never left it, till his eye was glazed in death. 
 Truly to him it must have seemed that he had toiled 
 all the night and taken nothing. And the victor of 
 Austerlitz ? Was he more fortunate in his end ? 
 Nay, there is no irony of human destiny more keen 
 than the fate of the conqueror of Europe, the man 
 who had made and unmade kings at pleasure, who 
 had bowed the nations to his yoke, at whose very 
 name little children in their nurseries would shudder, 
 fretting and chafing in his island cage, draining the 
 dregs of a helpless, hopeless existence in the mid- 
 ocean, far away from the scenes of his triumphs. 
 And yet the deserted hopes of a Pitt, and the 
 disappointed ambition of a Napoleon, are only yours 
 and mine writ large. 
 
 Thus not only in isolated cases here and then N 
 
II.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 23! 
 
 this parable enforced ; thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands of men and women are born into this world 
 and live and labour and suffer and die, without 
 securing any substantial and enduring good, simply 
 because they have lived apart from God from God, 
 Who alone survives the decay of time, and alone can 
 give satisfaction to the yearnings of an immortal 
 spirit. It is the rule, not the exception, in human 
 life. ' We have toiled all the night.' Yes, we see it 
 now now when the morning light of eternity has 
 burst upon our aching eyes. 'We have toiled all 
 the night.' There was darkness above and around 
 us; there was toil of hand and toil of heart; there 
 was the struggle for subsistence ; there was the race 
 after wealth and fame and honour; there was the 
 eager pursuit of phantom good ; we had our pleasures 
 and our pains, we had our failures and successes 
 yes, our splendid successes, as men counted them, 
 as we half persuaded ourselves into counting them 
 then but we have taken nothing. Our successes are 
 as our failures ; our pains are as our pleasures now 
 engulfed alike in the all-absorbing abyss of time. 
 We have taken nothing, absolutely nothing nothing 
 which can escape the jaws of the grave, nothing which 
 will pass the portals of death. We stand alone, 
 stripped of everything alone with God, alone with 
 eternity. 
 
232 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 This man has pursued wealth, it may be, and 
 pursued it not in vain. He determined that his 
 career should be a success, and a success he made it. 
 He has surrounded himself with every material 
 comfort ; he has added to these substantial appliances 
 all the embellishments and all the refinements of life. 
 What then ? Have they given him the satisfaction 
 he hoped for? Could he feel that there was any 
 finality in such aims and acquisitions as these ? No, 
 the hope was better than the fulfilment ; the prospect 
 was brighter than the attainment. There was a 
 hunger of soul, though he would not confess it a 
 hunger of soul, which rejected these husks. And 
 now, where are they, and what are they? 
 
 This other again has pursued honour and fame. 
 And men have lavishly bestowed upon him that 
 which he eagerly sought, till he seemed to have all, 
 and more than all, that he had set his heart upon. 
 But still there was no contentment, because there 
 was no finality. Each fresh draught of applause 
 created a fresh thirst. Every imagined slight, every 
 unintentional neglect, every trivial rebuff, was a keen 
 agony to him. He had only increased his sensitive- 
 ness ; he had not secured his satisfaction. 
 
 And again another has set his heart on human 
 love God's greatest boon, if we use it without misus- 
 ing it, if we subordinate it to His divine love. His 
 
II.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 233 
 
 human affections, his human friendships, were every- 
 thing to this man. In the buoyant hopefulness of 
 youth, in the stolid security of middle age, it seemed 
 as if these must last for ever. But soon enough the 
 painful truth dawns upon him. The march of life 
 begins to tell on his comrades in the journey, on his 
 friends or his kindred. One drops at his side, and 
 then another. The ranks are visibly thinning, and 
 there is no one to step in and take their vacant places. 
 First the mother at whose knees he had lisped his 
 earliest faltering prayer ; then the friend who shared 
 all his counsels, who had been more than a brother to 
 him ; then the wife whom he had cherished as another 
 self; then the daughter whose sweet childish talk had 
 been the solace of many a weary hour. So one by 
 one they fall away, and he is left gradually more 
 and more alone. They leave him then, when he 
 needs them most. And at length, in the vacancy of 
 his solitude, he makes the bitter discovery, that 
 though he has toiled all night, he has taken nothing. 
 
 And the change, the conversion comes, sometimes, 
 it may be, almost despite ourselves, but comes most 
 often in answer to an act of stern obedience on our 
 part. We may complain, we may demur, we may 
 distrust, 'we have toiled all night, and have taken 
 nothing;' but we recognise the authority of the 
 Divine voice, and we force ourselves into compliance. 
 
234 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 The command is general ; it is given to all alike, 
 'Let down your nets;' but, like Peter, we specialise 
 it, we adopt it, we appropriate it to ourselves ; 'I will 
 let down the net.' And so we do what seems hard 
 and unreasonable; we do what we have never done 
 before. 
 
 And the response to this obedience is a light 
 flashed in upon the soul, a double revelation a 
 revelation of mixed pleasure and pain ; for it is a 
 revelation at once of sin within, and God without. 
 The marvellous bounty of God's grace dazzles and 
 astounds our vision : and in our perplexity of heart, 
 the despairing, craving, forbidding, yearning cry is 
 wrung from our lips, * Depart from me, O Lord, for I 
 am a sinful man/ 
 
 ' Depart from me, O Lord.' I know it all now. I 
 see my sin, because I see Thy goodness. Yes, I have 
 beheld Thy holiness, Thy purity, Thy truth, Thy 
 grace, Thy power, Thy love ; and I have been 
 stunned with the contrast to self. The brightness of 
 the light has deepened the blackness of the shade. 
 
 ' Depart from me, O Lord.' What can I have in 
 common with Thee ! I so selfish, so vile, so sin-laden, 
 with Thee so merciful, so righteous, so holy, so pure ! 
 In very deed Thy ways are not as my ways, and Thy 
 thoughts are not as my thoughts ! 
 
 'Depart from me, O Lord.' This fear of the 
 
II.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 235 
 
 Lord is indeed the beginning of wisdom. This 
 consciousness of sin is the straight pathway to 
 heaven. The saintliest of men have ever spoken 
 and felt most strongly of their own sinfulness. The 
 intensity of their language has provoked the sneers of 
 the worldling. Has he not evidence here, on their 
 own confession, that, despite all their pretensions to 
 holiness, they are no better than he ? But they know, 
 and he does not know, what sin means, for they know 
 what God means. And therefore the despairing cry 
 is wrung from their agony, ' Depart from me, O 
 Lord.' 
 
 * Depart from me;' and yet not so, O Lord. Even 
 while Peter is speaking, his gestures belie his words. 
 His lips implore Jesus despairingly to depart, but his 
 eyes and his hands entreat Him to stay. Not so, 
 Lord : for how can I endure to part from Thee ? In 
 Thy presence only is comfort, is strength, is hope, is 
 light, is life. 
 
 ' Depart from me ? ' Nay; it is for the godless to 
 say, ' Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge 
 of God.' It is for the unclean spirits to rave against 
 Thee, ' Let us alone, Thou Jesus of Nazareth, what 
 have we to do with Thee ?' But I, I have everything 
 to do with Thee. I am created in the image of God. 
 I have a ray of the Divine Light, a seed of the Divine 
 Word, within me. And like seeks like. Therefore I 
 
236 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 yearn after Thee; therefore I am drawn towards 
 Thee ; therefore I stretch out my hands to Thee over 
 this wide chasm of sin which yawns between us. 
 'Lord, to whom else shall we go? Thou hast the 
 words of eternal life.' 
 
 And so we pass from the one utterance to the 
 other. The one scene melts into the other. The 
 Master is the same ; the scholar is the same. But 
 the circumstances are changed. The clouds are 
 gathering about the Master's life. The storm of 
 persecution is gaining strength. Enemies are multi- 
 plying ; disciples are falling off. The test question is 
 put to the twelve, 'Will ye also go away?' Now as 
 then, Peter comes forward eagerly, the spokesman of 
 the rest. Is there not something strangely perverse, 
 strangely incongruous, in the relation of the Apostle's 
 words to the circumstances of the moment ? Then 
 there was a signal manifestation of power, a lavish 
 display of beneficence ; then the future was bright 
 with the brilliancy of unclouded hope. Yet he could 
 not brook the presence of Jesus ; he would drive Him 
 away ; ' Depart from me.' Now there are angry 
 looks and muttered threats; there is desertion of 
 friends, and there is plotting of foes ; the sun which 
 arose in glory is fast setting in gloom. And now he 
 cannot bear the thought of a severance ; now he 
 clings to Him, as the mainstay of his hopes. 'Lord, 
 
II.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 237 
 
 why ask this question of us? Lord, to whom shall 
 we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life/ 
 
 ' To whom shall we go ?' Shall we cast in our lot 
 with the worldling ? Shall we smother our fears, our 
 misgivings, our aspirations, our hopes, in the amuse- 
 ments, the interests, the pleasures of this lower world, 
 and thus by a determined effort quench the divine 
 light which is in us ? Nay, we cannot do this. We 
 cannot forget the home from which we came. Ever 
 and again, the memory of the Father Whom we left 
 intrudes itself upon us. We began our career of self- 
 will in riotous living ; and we have ended it in famine 
 and destitution. These husks may be good enough 
 for the swine that perish ; but to us, the children of 
 our Father, to us the heirs of heaven, they are vile, 
 they are loathsome, they are sickening. 
 
 'To whom shall we go?' Shall we seek counsel 
 of the secularist ? Shall we be content to bound our 
 hopes and fears by the limitations of time and space ? 
 Will it suffice us to extend our scientific knowledge, 
 to perfect our machinery, to improve our police regu- 
 lations, to study our sanitary conditions, shutting our 
 eyes meanwhile to the immensity which lies above 
 and around us ? Nay, our eternal spirit would lash 
 itself into agony against the bars of this narrow cage. 
 ' Our immortality broods ' over us ' like the day,' * a 
 presence which is not to be put by.' 
 
238 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 'To whom shall we go ?' Shall we close with the 
 teaching of the philosophical deist ? What will he 
 give us in return for our confidence ? A cold abstrac- 
 tion, a far-off something, a personified tendency, a 
 hard law, a rigid and lifeless thing like the marble 
 statues which men worshipped of old, more imposing 
 indeed but less beautiful, a being unknown and un- 
 knowable, whom we cannot approach, cannot realise, 
 cannot pray to, cannot love. What consolation is 
 there here in our sorrow? What strength is there 
 here in our temptation ? What purification is there 
 here in our sin ? Nay, Lord, Thou hast brought us 
 into the presence of a holy loving Father. By Thine 
 Incarnation and Thy Passion Thou hast taught us 
 the lesson of the Father's boundless love. By Thy 
 faultless, peerless life most human, most divine 
 Thou hast set before us an ideal of perfect loveliness, 
 which we cannot but admire, cannot but strive (in 
 our feeble way) to imitate. To whom else should we 
 go ? Thou, Thou only, hast the words of eternal life. 
 
 ' To whom shall we go/ we whom Thou hast called 
 to the Pastoral Charge, we on whose shoulders Thou 
 hast laid this heavy burden ? To whom shall we go 
 for counsel, for guidance, for help, tor strength, as we 
 stagger under the weight of this responsibility ? 
 
 Can we for a moment doubt about the answer to 
 this question we who have gone about in Christ's 
 
II.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 239 
 
 company, we who have heard Christ's words, we who 
 have witnessed Christ's miracles ? Though our ears 
 have been dull and our eyes dim, though we have 
 been utterly unworthy of such companionship, yet 
 for us only one answer is possible. Thou, Thou hast 
 the words of eternal life the words which alone will 
 purify, will strengthen, will sustain us and carry us 
 through our work. 
 
 Yet the old antithesis starts up once more. If 
 Christ is so very near to our hearts, yet He is so very 
 far from our lives. There is a negative, as well as a 
 positive, pole to the magnet. How can we confront 
 His infinite righteousness, His absolute holiness with 
 our frail hearts, our halting resolves, our work which 
 has been so faultily, shamefully done, our lives which 
 have been such a miserable failure? 
 
 'Depart from me ?' Nay, rather grant, Lord, that 
 no coldness of mine, no selfishness, no neglect of 
 prayer, no disregard of Thy warnings, no indifference 
 to Thy appointed means of grace, no deference to 
 worldly opinion, no absorption of worldly cares, no 
 carelessness in my daily task, no faithless despondency, 
 may draw the veil, and hide Thy presence, and sever 
 me from Thee. 
 
 'Depart from me?' Nay, not so; but abide with 
 me. Absolve me, teach me, purify me, strengthen 
 me: take me to Thyself, that I may be Thine and 
 
240 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ll. 
 
 Thine only. Abide with me ; for the day of this life 
 is far spent, and the night cometh when no man can 
 work. Stay with me, now and evermore, and so 
 fulfil Thy gracious promise, 'If a man love Me, he 
 will keep My words; and My Father will love him: 
 and We will come unto him and make Our abode 
 with him.' 
 
III. 
 
 For their sakes I sanctify Myself. 
 ep avrwv <y(o dyia^co 
 
 JOHN xvii. 19. 
 
 THE Gospel of S. John is the Gospel of strong 
 and emphatic contrasts. If on the one hand it sets 
 forth the loftiest truths of a transcendental theology, 
 on the other it presents historical features the most 
 exact and vivid covert allusions to contemporary 
 thought and contemporary history, exact notices of 
 time and of place, inobtrusive details of incident, 
 minute traits of individual character. It is at once 
 the most ideal, and the most realistic, of all the 
 Gospels. It soars aloft into the heaven of heavens, 
 and yet its foot is planted on this solid earth in 
 which we live and move. 
 
 And that which is true of the Gospel as a whole, 
 
 is especially true of its central feature, the delineation 
 
 of the Person of Christ. Here also the contrast is 
 
 greater than in any of the other Gospels. The kcy- 
 
 O. A. 16 
 
242 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 note is struck at the very commencement. The 
 Word was God : the Word was made flesh. And this 
 twofold representation, of which we are warned in 
 the prologue, is sustained without interruption through- 
 out. Most Divine, most human ; most human, most 
 Divine this is the alternative, or rather the combina- 
 tion (for the two aspects can hardly be said to 
 alternate), which the narrative of Christ's words and 
 works forces upon us at every point in its progress. 
 It is customary to speak of the three earlier Evange- 
 lists as presenting the human aspect of our Lord's 
 person, of S. John's in contradistinction as occupied 
 with the Divine. Nothing can be more misleading 
 than this statement unless qualified. The appeal 
 which this same Apostle makes in the opening of his 
 Epistle to the evidence of the senses, as the founda- 
 tion of his doctrine, has its exact parallel in the 
 narrative of his Gospel. The Word of life is not a 
 mere abstraction, an idea which the religious faculty 
 creates to satisfy the vacancy of a hungry breast : it 
 is something which was heard, which was seen and 
 gazed upon, which was touched, handled, fingered, if 
 you will. He is an audible, visible, tangible, perfectly 
 human Christ, whom S. John presents for our accept- 
 ance. Some modern theological writers seem to 
 think that no injury will be inflicted, but rather a 
 benefit conferred, upon Christianity if men can be 
 
III.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 243 
 
 brought to reject the Christian history, while they 
 retain the Christian ideal. Apparently they imagine 
 that they are following out the lines traced by the 
 fourth Evangelist, who (they seem to think) set aside 
 the human historical Christ and substituted a Divine 
 ideal Christ in his stead. I will not stop to enquire 
 whether a being like man, whose ideal conceptions 
 (however independent may be the faculty which makes 
 them possible) do yet grow out of and take their 
 shape from his historical experiences whether a 
 being so constituted can rest satisfied with a religion 
 which lacks a historical basis, and thus entirely 
 ignores the one element in his twofold nature. I 
 believe that all reason and all experience would 
 answer such a question in the negative. But for my 
 immediate purpose it is enough to say that the fourth 
 Evangelist affords no precedent for this treatment of 
 Christianity. If the Divine Christ is everywhere 
 apparent in S. John's Gospel, the human historical 
 Christ is never for a moment forgotten or obscured. 
 
 Nay, if we wish to collect traits of His perfect 
 manhood, it is to this Gospel, rather than to the 
 biographies of the earlier Evangelists, that we shall 
 have recourse. In the other Gospels Christ speaks 
 as a man, acts as a man, suffers as a man : but in S. 
 John the very depths of His humanity are sounded. 
 It is here that the physical conditions of His. human 
 
 1 6 2 
 
244 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 body are especially emphasized ; we find Him resting 
 in the still noontide on the brink of the well, fatigued 
 with the length of His journey; here that we read 
 the record of a human grief finding relief in human 
 tears; here that an eyewitness gives personal testi- 
 mony to the real blood and water flowing from His 
 human side ; here lastly that, after the great and 
 transcendent change which might have seemed to 
 have altered all the conditions of His human body 
 and to have transformed it into a higher, ethereal, 
 intangible substance, the sceptical disciple is invited 
 to thrust his finger into the prints of the nails in His 
 palms, and to thrust his hand into the wound of the 
 spear in His side, that he then, and we after him, 
 might not be faithless, but believing believing that 
 Christ was Very Man, with our human body, our 
 human emotions, our human capacities for enjoyment 
 and for suffering. 
 
 And this characteristic feature of S. John's Gospel 
 was the result of S. John's position. He lived in an 
 age when the doctrine of Christ's Person was attacked 
 from two opposite sides. If there were those who 
 could not rise to the conception of His deity, there 
 were those who would not condescend to the accept- 
 ance of His humanity. It was inconsistent with 
 their ideas that a being so great, so holy, so divine, 
 should demean himself by the assumption of a human 
 
III.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 245 
 
 body, should defile himself by contact with matter in 
 any form. It was necessary to enforce upon such 
 with all the cogency which the evidence of an eyewit- 
 ness could command, that Christ took not on Himself 
 the nature of angels, but was partaker of flesh and 
 blood, that through flesh and blood He might rescue 
 the children whom God had given Him. 
 
 But, if S. John's Gospel is truly the Gospel of 
 humanity, it is more especially the Gospel of Christ's 
 friendship. While the intercourse of social life gene- 
 rally is hallowed by the manhood of Christ, the more 
 intimate and social relation, which we call friendship 
 the preference of individual for individual, the 
 partiality of social intercourse finds here its most 
 perfect expression and its highest sanction. The 
 first miracle is wrought to promote the geniality of a 
 friendly festive gathering ; the last miracle is wrought 
 to assuage the grief of friends mourning on the death 
 of a friend. * Jesus loved Martha and her sister and 
 Lazarus.' 'Lord, behold he whom Thou lovest is 
 sick.' ' Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.' It is amid 
 these sorrowing friends, for this lost friend, that the 
 tears of Jesus recorded in this Gospel are shed. To 
 the bystanders they tell this tale plainly, ' Behold, 
 how He loved him.' It is in this Gospel that the 
 twelve are called by the endearing name of friends. 
 * Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay 
 
246 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends.' 
 Yet within this narrow circle a narrower still is 
 drawn. From this small company of chosen associates 
 one is singled out for the deeper affections and the 
 more intimate confidences of a special friendship. 
 Among the very disciples there is a favoured one who 
 leans on His bosom, who puts to Him the question 
 that others shrink from putting, who is specially 
 designated the disciple whom Jesus loved. What 
 wonder that he should develope into the Evangelist of 
 love ? What wonder that his narrative should take 
 its colour from the special circumstances of his own 
 position, and that the friendship of Jesus should 
 occupy in it a prominent place? 
 
 ' Ye are My friends.' The University is the seed- 
 plot of friendships, and we have known all of us, in a 
 greater or less degree, the exalting and sanctifying 
 influence of some cherished human friendship. The 
 association with one nobler, purer, more upright, 
 more chivalrous, more devoted, one of larger mental 
 capacities, of higher spiritual graces, than ourselves, 
 and the interchange of confidences and sympathies 
 with such a one is not this a good gift of God, far 
 greater, far more precious, than all earthly possessions 
 besides ? What an unfailing spring of inspiration is 
 here ! What a boundless theme of joy ! What a 
 glory of hope and thankfulness and benediction ! 
 
III.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 247 
 
 And yet what is all this compared with the 
 friendship of Him, who is not only absolute purity, 
 absolute righteousness, absolute truth, but also abso- 
 lute sympathy and absolute love? The thought 
 transcends all thinking. The glory of the promise is 
 blinding to our mortal eyes. 
 
 But the promise is not immediate, is not uncondi- 
 tional. There is a preliminary stage in our relation 
 to Christ, before we can claim this promise of His 
 friendship. 'Ye are My friends.' 'Henceforth I call 
 you not servants/ Yes, we must be servants first, 
 that we may be friends afterwards. There must be 
 the submission of obedience first, that there may be 
 the interchange of sympathy afterwards. We must 
 submit our wills to Christ's will, must subordinate 
 our desires to Christ's command. Christ must be our 
 Master, before He can become our friend. This is a 
 spiritual law, absolute in its application. Friendship 
 presupposes sympathy; but there can be no sympathy, 
 where there is no congruity of character, no com- 
 munity of thought, of wish, of temper. So then the 
 mind which is in Christ Jesus must be in us also. 
 But conformity to Christ is obedience to Christ. 
 Christ therefore must be our Master, our Ruler, our 
 King. 
 
 But my object in putting forward these passages, 
 which dwell on the friendship of Christ, was not so 
 
248 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 much to emphasize the privileges which His friend- 
 ship confers on us, as to enforce the example which it 
 holds out to us. 
 
 Do we desire to know the relations which should 
 exist between the older and the younger men, between 
 the teachers and the taught, in our University bodies, 
 between the clergyman and the people in his parish? 
 Here is the answer to our question. Christ's disciples 
 were His friends. Do we further enquire how such 
 friendship can be truly realised ? Here again is 
 the response to our enquiry. ' I sanctify, I consecrate 
 myself for their sakes (virep CLVTWV eyw yma> 
 e/jiavTov).' A friendship, beginning and ending in 
 self-consecration this is the root of the whole 
 matter. Of such self-consecration I desire to speak 
 to you. 
 
 r Ayida) epavrbv. I hallow, consecrate, dedicate 
 myself, offer myself heart and soul, as a pure sacrificial 
 offering on this altar of friendship. 
 
 In its highest aspect, this devotion of self for 
 others cannot be shared by us, but is reserved for 
 Christ alone. He, Who was the foreordained offering, 
 the atoning sacrifice, for the sins of the whole world, 
 did in a very peculiar sense consecrate Himself as the 
 one absolute oblation, the one pure and spotless 
 victim. But this, though the crowning application of 
 the words, does not exhaust their significance. 
 
III.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 249 
 
 Christ had His human relationships, His friends and 
 companions, as we have ours. He felt towards them 
 our human emotions. He reposed in them our human 
 confidences. He experienced (for was He not a man 
 of like affections with ourselves ?) the consolations, 
 the supports, the bright influences, the priceless bles- 
 sings, of these companionships. And, feeling these, 
 He felt and confessed the tremendous responsibilities 
 which they carried with them. Thus a necessity was 
 laid upon Him to devote, to sanctify, to consecrate 
 Himself for those whom God had given Him. 
 
 The idea of this dyiaa-fjios, this consecration, is 
 twofold. There is first the self-surrender, self-devo- 
 tion, self-extinction, corresponding to the death of 
 the victim. But there is also another not less 
 prominent idea. A sacrifice on God's altar must be 
 without blemish. The Divine yu<w fjioo- K OTTOS (I am 
 employing the image of two Apostolic fathers) 
 scrutinises the victim with His piercing eye, lays bare 
 the most secret thoughts and intents of the heart, 
 detects the hidden faults which unfit him for a 
 sacrificial victim. Thus not only self-surrender is 
 needed, but self-purification likewise. This twofold 
 idea must be realised before our consecration can be 
 acceptable to God. 
 
 There are many gradations in the estimate which 
 men will form of the duties imposed by friendship. 
 
250 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 At the very lowest, it will be felt, that like deserves 
 like ; that, where kindly offices have been rendered, 
 kindly offices are due in turn ; for it is not only 
 ingratitude, it is injustice, to take all that one can, 
 and to give back nothing in requital. The very 
 meanest standard requires that a man should perform 
 friendly services, that he should put himself to some 
 inconvenience for this purpose, that he should be 
 prepared to stand by his friend, as his friend has stood 
 by him. This is not a very high ideal of friendship. 
 Friendship, so estimated, hardly rises above the level 
 of a commercial transaction, a nice calculation of loss 
 and gain. It is so much payment payment in kind 
 for so much work done. This may be called the 
 reciprocity of friendship. 
 
 But generous spirits will not rest satisfied with 
 this mean conception of their obligations. Friend- 
 ship to them is not merely a useful arrangement, a 
 beneficial compact, into which two persons enter for 
 their mutual advantage, just as they might form a 
 partnership in trade. Friendship is an enthusiasm, 
 which lifts them out of themselves, which raises them 
 above themselves, which nerves them to do and to 
 dare. So feeling it, they cannot stoop to mete out 
 their friendly offices with a just but careful hand. It 
 does not occur to them to ask whether they have 
 received just so much in advance, or may expect to 
 
III.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 251 
 
 receive just so much in return. They give to their 
 power and beyond their power, give as freely as the 
 occasion demands. To these men friendship is in 
 some sense a divine inspiration ; and, as such, it 
 copies the lavish profusion which distinguishes the 
 bounty of God, 'good measure, pressed down and 
 shaken together and running over.' To them it is 
 not an arduous duty, it is a lofty enthusiasm, to deny 
 themselves for a friend, to suffer wrong for a friend, 
 to incur obloquy and misunderstanding for a friend. 
 They rise far above the level of reciprocity. Theirs 
 is the chivalry of friendship. 
 
 This lofty conception of friendship is not in any 
 sense a discovery of the Gospel or even of revelation. 
 Heathen fable, and heathen history, offer many 
 examples of it. The love of David and Jonathan is 
 very far from standing alone in pre-Christian times. 
 And as it cannot claim a Christian origin, so neither 
 does it satisfy the Christian ideal. However noble 
 and however ennobling this chivalrous enthusiasm of 
 friendship is in itself, it may plainly coexist with 
 much that is very faulty and ill-regulated, and even 
 with much that is very corrupt. It is necessary then 
 that we should rise not only above the level of 
 reciprocity, but also above the level of chivalry, in 
 our friendships. We must feel what is meant by the 
 sanctification of friendship. 
 
252 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 For this chivalry of friendship, alone and unsus- 
 tained by any higher principle, is liable to all the 
 vicissitudes and corruptions of other human emotions. 
 Like all passionate enthusiasms, it has untold capaci- 
 ties for good; like them, it may become in its 
 degradation the mere instrument, and partner of evil. 
 What are all our affections and passions, but faculties 
 absolutely necessary to the full development of our 
 moral being ? And yet these supply their vilest inci- 
 dents to the base ephemeral literature of the day; 
 these scatter the seeds of irreparable misery and ruin 
 in families ; these stain the annals of our police courts 
 with their darkest crimes. 
 
 And plainly it is possible to be a chivalrous friend, 
 without being a wise and therefore a true friend. As 
 the fondest mother is not always the best mother, so 
 neither is the most devoted friend always the best 
 friend. You may deny yourself for another; you 
 may subordinate your private inclinations and feelings 
 to his ; you may hold it a privilege to do all this ; 
 you may be ready to suffer or even to die for him ; 
 and yet in all that concerns his highest interests, in 
 all those influences that tend to elevate and purify 
 and to inspire with a nobler and more adequate ideal 
 of life, your friendship may be absolutely worthless : 
 it may even leave him worse than it found him. 
 The mere chivalry of friendship is helpless here, if 
 
III.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 253 
 
 the sanctification of friendship be wanting. For such 
 as you arc in your own self, in your secret motives 
 and principles, in your inner life, such will be the 
 influences which you communicate to your friend, 
 and such therefore will be the effects, which your 
 friendship will produce on his character for good and 
 for evil. Herein lies the very conception of friend- 
 ship, that it involves a close intercommunion of hearts, 
 not of actions only, an interchange, more or less 
 conscious, of the confidences of the genuine self. A 
 man's inner life, as distinguished from his outward 
 actions, may produce very little effect on the political 
 sphere in which he moves. A statesman may be 
 corrupt and base at heart ; and if he is only careful 
 and prudent, his influence upon his generation may be 
 on the whole beneficial, because it is exerted almost 
 solely through measures taking a definite external 
 form. But in the more intimate relations of life such 
 a result is impossible. If you would be a true friend 
 to your friend, if it is your ambition that you should 
 leave him wiser, purer, more manly, more upright, 
 more self-denying, more gentle, more reverent, and 
 not only more successful, more brilliant, more popular, 
 than you found him (and what other ambition can 
 compare with this?), then you can only gain your 
 end by cultivating wisdom, purity, manliness, upright- 
 ness, gentleness, reverence, in your own heart. In 
 
254 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 short you must do that for him, which perhaps you 
 would not do for yourself; you must sanctify yourself 
 for his sake. 
 
 Do you ask, who are these friends for whom you 
 are required thus to consecrate yourselves ? I answer 
 that the range of your friendship will be coextensive, 
 or almost coextensive, with the range of your educa- 
 tional or your pastoral relationships. Christ's friend- 
 ship is the type and example of your friendship. As 
 those were His friends who gathered about Him, who 
 hung on His lips, who went forth with His commission, 
 so those are especially your friends who look to you 
 for instruction and guidance in their work. To these 
 you owe this self-consecration ; for these are they 
 whom God has given you. 
 
 And what motive more potent, more imperious, 
 more effective, to influence and mould our whole 
 lives than this ! The human interests and affections 
 consecrated by the Divine obligation, the Divine 
 impulse interpreted and intensified through the 
 human sympathies and associations, the two com- 
 bined making one rich harmony of the whole man 
 body and spirit, intellect and affections rising and 
 swelling in one full glorious song of praise and 
 thanksgiving to the Almighty Giver of all ! 
 
 But these thoughts are truisms truisms, if not 
 to men generally, at least to those who have serious 
 
III.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 255 
 
 thoughts of God and duty, presumably to all those 
 who have met here to-day. Yes, truisms they are; 
 but is not a man's religious life made up of truisms ? 
 Truisms they are ; but is it not pardonable to 
 dwell thus long upon them, if by so doing we can 
 impress them more deeply on our minds ? A new 
 Academic year has just dawned upon you. A new 
 starting point in the great race of eternity is vouch- 
 safed to you. It is the great privilege of Academic 
 life that it has these great breaks, these annual sever- 
 ances, which prompt a review of the past and suggest 
 a forecast of the future. Whatever other plans and 
 purposes you may have formed for your work in the 
 coming year, at least carry with you this lesson, this 
 resolve, this endeavour to think over, to pray over, 
 to realise in your heart, to work out in your life 
 ' For their sakes I consecrate myself, for their sakes 
 whom Thou, O God, hast of Thine unspeakable 
 goodness given me.' Bind it as a sign upon thine 
 hand, and as a frontlet between thine eyes. 
 
 And be sure to particularise it. Translate the 
 abstract into the concrete. There is no sounder rule 
 for the building up of the moral and spiritual life. 
 
 Particularise it first as regards your own tempta- 
 tions and failings. Does the unholy thought rise up 
 in your heart, an unwelcome and unbidden guest ? 
 Confront it with this check, ' I consecrate myself.' 
 
256 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [ill. 
 
 Does the reckless word tremble for utterance on your 
 lips ? Silence it with this rebuke, ' I consecrate 
 myself.' Are you tempted to ignoble ease and self- 
 indulgence, when a plain duty claims your presence ? 
 Rouse yourself by the trumpet-call, ' I consecrate 
 myself.' 
 
 And particularise it also with reference to those 
 with whom you have to deal. Not only for their 
 sakes, but for his sake his and his I consecrate 
 myself. For this bright winning young fellow whose 
 very attractions are his temptations, fresh from school 
 and revelling in the social freedom of the place, for 
 him I consecrate myself. For this clever inquisitive 
 student plunged suddenly into the vortex of intel- 
 lectual speculation, and striking out wildly for his 
 very life, for him I consecrate myself. For this 
 vigorous athlete of rude health and strong passions 
 whose foot is already hovering on the fatal incline, 
 for him I consecrate myself. For all and every of 
 these each one a potential hero of God, if only he 
 can be moulded and guided aright and not for these 
 only, but for others, not so attractive or so striking, 
 but each one nevertheless a soul stamped with God's 
 image, a soul for which Christ died, for their sakes I 
 consecrate myself. 
 
 And if for their sakes whom He has given, how 
 much more for His sake Who is the Giver! How 
 
III.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 257 
 
 can I refuse to consecrate myself for Him, Who first 
 consecrated Himself for me ? Remembering this, shall 
 we not present ourselves this day, a reasonable and 
 living sacrifice on the altar of God's love revealed in 
 Christ ; that seeing His glory we may be made perfect 
 in Him ; that the love wherewith the Father loved 
 Him may be in us and we in Him? 
 
 O.A. 17 
 
IV. 
 
 Do nothing of party spirit nor yet of vain glory. 
 
 ev Kara epiOeiav /JLrjSe Kara /cevoSogtav. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS ii. 3. 
 
 LET me say a few words first on the criticism and 
 exegesis of the passage. 
 
 Two distinct habits of mind are here condemned 
 and rejected. In the common text rj icevobofyav the 
 distinction is more or less obliterated. By the resto- 
 ration of the correct reading aySe /cara tcevoSoj-iav it 
 is brought out and emphasized. 
 
 What are these two tempers which the Apostle 
 condemns as influencing action in a perverted way ? 
 Briefly we may say that they are the spirit which 
 unduly exalts party, and the spirit which unduly 
 exalts self. The two indeed are not unallied, but 
 their objects are different ; and the Apostle therefore, 
 while treating them together, treats them as distinct. 
 They are two species of the same genus. 
 
 The one is epidela. I need not remind you that 
 
IV.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 259 
 
 this word is confused with epis and translated ' strife ' 
 in the Authorised Version. But its true significance 
 is thus obliterated, and the force of the passage 
 before us disappears. It denotes the temper, habit, 
 principle of action, of the epiOos, the hireling, the 
 hired servant, the hired canvasser, the hired partisan. 
 Thus it designates party-spirit generally ; for, though 
 no actual money may have passed into his hands, the 
 partisan consciously or unconsciously is influenced by 
 the motive of gain. It may be influence or success 
 or reputation or the getting one's own way or the 
 humiliation of one's enemies or some other low aim. 
 But in some form or other, gain to self through the 
 triumph of party is the underlying motive. Though 
 the direct object is not self, yet ultimately this spirit 
 may be traced to self. 
 
 But in the other word, /cevo&ogla, self is the imme- 
 diate as well as the ultimate aim. The whole motive 
 concentrates itself on self. It is the inflated estimate 
 of one's own ability, one's own reputation, one's own 
 position and importance. 
 
 The former is the more insidious and therefore 
 the more dangerous vice of the two, especially in its 
 influence on the preaching of the Gospel and the 
 welfare of the Church of Christ. Vain glory, self- 
 satisfaction, self-complacency, carries its own con- 
 demnation on its face. But the spirit of partisanship 
 
 172 
 
260 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 in religion has a specious, and (as it may be thought) 
 a chivalrous side. It is therefore the more necessary 
 to rescue the Apostle's language here from the obscu- 
 ration which it has suffered, that his condemnation 
 may stand out in distinct outline and colour. 
 
 S. Paul had only too painful experience of the 
 evils of party spirit in his surroundings at Rome, 
 when he penned this letter to the Philippians. The 
 Roman Church was split up into parties. There was 
 a party for Paul, and there was a party against Paul ; 
 there were those who preached Christ from genuine 
 motives of faith and love, and there were those who 
 preached Him e epidelas, from party spirit, ov% 
 dyvto*;, impurely, from base and corrupt motives. 
 Envy and dislike of others, of Paul and Paul's cause 
 more especially, stimulated their zeal. The triumph of 
 their party stood first, and the triumph of the Gospel 
 only held a very subordinate place in their hearts. 
 
 We are keenly alive to the faults of our neighbours. 
 One party has a quick eye to detect the factious 
 spirit, the epiOeia, in the opposite party, while it is 
 altogether blind to the same vice in its own ranks. 
 This is proverbially the case in politics. Alas ! that 
 it should be the case in religion likewise ! Yet is it 
 not true, painfully true ? The Philippians would be 
 grieved, deeply grieved, at the state of things in the 
 Roman Church. They would have no words strong 
 
IV.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 26 1 
 
 enough to condemn this spirit of faction. But what, 
 if at this very moment the germs perhaps more than 
 the germs of a like noxious growth existed among 
 themselves, among his own faithful, affectionate, 
 beloved children in Christ at Philippi ? Here was 
 Euodia; and there was Syntyche. Had they not 
 already, or would they not soon have, each a follow- 
 ing? What, if epiOeia were a danger threatening 
 them ? What, if /cevoSogla were a danger threatening 
 not only them, but himself also ? 
 
 Himself? Yes, let us not be afraid to say it. 
 He himself would have been the first to confess it. 
 He was the object of incessant attack from unscrupu- 
 lous enemies. He was constrained to emphasize his 
 authority, his privileges, his achievements. It was 
 necessary for him to assert himself. What fuel was 
 there here for icevoSogla, if only the spark of self were 
 once permitted to touch it ! And again, he was the 
 centre of a party despite himself. Men gathered 
 about him, men hung on his lips, men adopted his 
 name as their watchword. Notwithstanding all his 
 protestations, they would say, ' I am of Paul.' Must 
 we not imagine then that S. Paul wrote these words 
 as in the presence of a very real and immediate 
 danger, of a subtle and insidious enemy, in whose 
 proximity it would be fatal for him even for a 
 moment to relax his vigilance? 
 
262 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 ev Kara epiOeiav. This epideia is especially 
 dangerous, because it masks itself and disguises its 
 true character. Though a messenger of Satan, it 
 presents itself as an angel of light. Its object may 
 be something eminently good and true in itself. It 
 may display its activity in the dissemination of the 
 truth or in the defence of the Church of God. Where 
 for instance do we find more painful and extravagant 
 exhibitions of it than in the great Councils of the 
 Church ? Thus it arrogates to itself the respect and 
 honour which belongs to the object of its pursuit. 
 
 And again, though base and corrupt itself, it is 
 closely allied to the noblest qualities in man, chivalry 
 and devotion and zeal. Thus it wins an admiration 
 which belongs to another condition of mind. The 
 man who works hard for his party, who is true to his 
 party, who suffers with his party, has some qualities 
 which command respect. Party-spirit is the un- 
 healthy parasite, the rank fungus which fastens upon 
 these, which chokes their growth and mars their 
 fruitfulness. 
 
 And am I not justified in saying that this is a 
 danger very near to us to you and to me that at 
 this crisis there are circumstances eminently favour- 
 able to its spread, that in our time and amidst our 
 environment more especially the climate and the soil 
 will conspire to promote its growth, unless by a 
 
IV.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 263 
 
 determined and persistent effort we resolve to weed 
 it out by the roots ? If so, we should do well to lay 
 to heart this injunction of the Apostle, fjLrjSev Kara 
 epideiav. 
 
 For the age in which our lot is cast is essentially 
 an age of conflict. The truths by which we live and 
 the institutions which we love as our own souls are 
 attacked, sometimes unscrupulously, sometimes con- 
 scientiously, but in either case bitterly and relentlessly 
 attacked. Where there is attack, there must be 
 defence. But defence implies organisation. Men 
 must be gathered together, they must have a rallying 
 point, they must be marshalled and taught to act in 
 concert. This is an absolute necessity of our position. 
 Yet this banding together in the face of an opponent 
 tends to become the very seed-plot of party-spirit. 
 
 There is first of all the conflict between the 
 Gospel and infidelity, between the Church and Secu- 
 larism. The foe is not one but many. Yet for our 
 purpose we may consider them as one ; for in their 
 opposition to revealed truth they fight in the same 
 ranks. Perhaps this intellectual conflict is nowhere 
 more keenly felt than in the Universities ; because 
 nowhere else are the combatants brought into such 
 close quarters. Here are the outposts, as it were, of 
 the two contending armies. I do not doubt that to 
 many of you this is a source of great anxiety, mental 
 
264 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 and spiritual; that it tries your constancy, ruffles 
 your equanimity, tempts your soul to violations both 
 of justice and of charity. It is necessary that you 
 should take a side, a very definite side ; and that you 
 should not flinch from the consequences. But the 
 danger of eptdela is great, great in proportion to the 
 magnitude of the conflict and the importance of the 
 questions at issue. 
 
 And again, secondly, there is the conflict between 
 the Church and Nonconformity. I do not know that 
 this is waged more fiercely in the Universities than 
 elsewhere, or even so fiercely ; but it is especially a 
 conflict of our own day. The clamour for Disesta- 
 blishment raises new issues, and (it is to be feared) 
 will add fresh bitterness to the struggle. The re- 
 ligious difference is aggravated by the political. 
 What a temptation there is here to indulgence in 
 the recklessness of partisanship ! 
 
 Lastly, there is the existence of different schools 
 or modes of thought within the Church itself. I am 
 thankful that there has been in the last few years a 
 very perceptible diminution in the intensity of this 
 conflict ; that the pressure upon us from enemies with- 
 out has drawn us closer one to another ; and that we 
 are beginning to understand each other and to learn 
 from each other far more than not long ago would 
 have seemed possible. Nothing is more remarkable 
 
IV.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 265 
 
 than the change of tone in the religious newspapers, 
 the strongholds of rancorous partisanship a change 
 equally perceptible on both sides within a very few 
 years. We have good cause to fall on our knees and 
 thank God for all this ; for, if party rancour has been 
 so greatly moderated in so short a time, it is assuredly 
 His doing, not our own. But, though something has 
 been done already, far more still remains to be done. 
 And it is just here that epiOeia, the spirit of the 
 partisan, is apt to be most rife. I do not doubt that 
 at Corinth the party of Paul was more bitter against 
 the party of Cephas, and the party of Cephas against 
 the party of Apollos, than either was against the 
 heathen philosopher or the heathen religionist with- 
 out, just because they had so much in common, just 
 because they lived in such close proximity, just 
 because the differences separating them were com- 
 paratively small. 
 
 Ah ! yes, it is so. This Ipideia, this party-spirit, is 
 the last infirmity of the religious man, the devoted, 
 and zealous follower of Christ, follower at least (at 
 however great a distance) in His zeal and self- 
 devotion ; but not follower in His wide sympathy, 
 not follower in His large charity, not follower in His 
 concessive, indulgent, moderation, His eirieiiceia which 
 is the direct negation of partisan zeal. 
 
 This partisan spirit is ever the infirmity of the 
 
266 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 undisciplined follower zealous for his master's honour. 
 The larger sympathies and the more comprehensive 
 range of view of the master interposes to correct this 
 mistaken zeal. Was not the prophesying of Eldad 
 and Medad a scandal in the camp of Israel, so that 
 even Joshua demanded its prohibition ? But what 
 says the master ? 'Enviest thou for my sake? Would 
 God that all the Lord's people were prophets.' Did 
 not the disciples of the Great Apostle of the Gentiles 
 think to do him honour, when they cried, * I am of 
 Paul?' What was the rebuke of the master here 
 again ? 'Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye 
 baptized into the name of Paul?' And to take the 
 greatest example of all when the chosen disciples of 
 the Great Master Himself, the future heralds of the 
 Kingdom, were scandalized at one casting out devils 
 in Christ's Name, because he belonged not to Christ's 
 company, and would have had him desist, they are 
 met with a stern rebuke, ' Forbid him not, for he that 
 is not against us is for us.' 
 
 What are the two pillars of Christian ethics ? 
 Shall we not say that they are truth and love ? To 
 think, and say, and do the truth in love, akijdeveiv ev 
 dyaTrrj, this is the beginning and the end of the 
 morality of the Gospel. But truth and love are 
 fearfully imperilled by partisan zeal. How shall we 
 save ourselves from being swallowed up in this abyss? 
 
IV.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 267 
 
 Is our controversy with one who takes his stand 
 upon the lessons of modern science? Shall we de- 
 preciate, question, deny these lessons ? Nay, ought 
 they not to be to us quite as precious as they are to 
 him ? Are we not professed disciples of the Divine 
 Logos ? Do we then forget the Apostolic doctrine 
 that the Logos is not less the Mediator of the Father 
 in the physical world than in the spiritual ; and that 
 the laws of nature are as much His laws as the laws 
 of grace? 
 
 Is the question before us the claims of the Church 
 as against Dissent ? Ought we not to be scrupulously 
 careful to give credit where credit is due; to recognise 
 the good done by Nonconformist bodies ; to avoid 
 any appearance of minimising their spiritual achieve- 
 ments ? Where the tokens of God's working are 
 manifest in consecrated hearts and regenerate lives, 
 are we not approaching perilously near to the sin of 
 blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, if we attempt to 
 deny the presence of the Spirit, that we may make 
 our own case stronger? Nay is it not safer, even 
 where the tokens appear to us questionable, to err on 
 the side of that charity which hopeth all things, 
 believeth all things? 
 
 Do we find ourselves in conflict with a member of 
 our own Church, whose ways of looking at Christian 
 truth are not our ways ? Do we feel tempted, as a 
 
268 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 justification to ourselves, to depreciate his character 
 or his motives, if not to others at least secretly in our 
 own hearts. Let us fling away the temptation, lest 
 we sully a holy cause by unholy instruments. Every- 
 thing, it is said, is allowable in warfare. Nay, not in 
 the Christian's warfare. The Christian body-armour 
 is righteousness and truth. Every breach of these is 
 a scandal and a wound inflicted on the Church of 
 Christ. Have the direct attacks of her enemies been 
 half so fatal to her well-being as the uncharitableness, 
 the bitterness and rancour of her friends yes, even 
 of fathers and of Councils ? The pages of Church 
 History are blotted with such painful records, a 
 stumbling-stone and an occasion of blasphemy to 
 those without. And the wrong inflicted is only the 
 greater, if the offender is some otherwise holy cham- 
 pion of the truth. Truth is dragged in the mire, and 
 holiness held up to scorn. 
 
 But what is the antidote? The sentence which 
 follows the words of the text will supply this ; ' Let 
 each esteem other better than themselves.' Try and 
 find out what is good in the sect or the individual or 
 the tenet, with whom or with which your controversy 
 lies. Strive to recognise any quality in your oppo- 
 nent in which he is your superior. . You will have no 
 difficulty in doing this, if only you search honestly. 
 This man, who holds what seems to you a dangerous 
 
IV.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 269 
 
 error, is more courageous, or more persistently ener- 
 getic, or more truthful and straightforward, or more 
 self-sacrificing, or more patient, or more widely sym- 
 pathetic ; he is an example to you in his domestic 
 life, or in his official work. This will be a doubly 
 valuable discipline to you. It will mitigate and 
 correct the promptings to party-spirit; and it will 
 shame and stimulate you to supply the defects in 
 your own character and conduct. And generally, 
 even where party controversy is not involved, what 
 a golden rule of life is this precept of the Apostle, 
 not found here alone, ' In lowliness of mind let each 
 esteem other better than themselves/ 'In honour 
 preferring one another!' Nothing is more degrading 
 to the soul of man, nothing more warping to the 
 judgment, nothing more blinding to the eyes and 
 withering to the heart, nothing more fatal to that joy 
 and peace which is the promise of the Gospel, than 
 the pessimist temper, which fastens on all the faults 
 and ignores all the virtues and graces of others, which 
 suspects where it does not know, which assumes that 
 every man is worse than he appears. Nay rather, 
 learn to seek out, learn to admire and respect, learn 
 to reverence, in others the image of God imprinted 
 on their souls; for there it is, if only we will set 
 ourselves to find it. This admiration, this respect, 
 this reverence of others, will be a very joy and 
 
270 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [iV. 
 
 comfort and refreshment to yourself. In one word, 
 absorb into your own mind the mind of Christ Jesus. 
 Tovro fypovelre ev VJMV o /ecu ev Xpiarra) 'Irjcrov. To 
 eTTieifces V/JLWV yvayo-OiJTCo Tracriv avQpwTrois. t Let this 
 mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.' 
 1 Let your moderation be known unto all men.' 
 
V. 
 
 Whosoever would save his soul shall lose it. For 
 what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world and 
 forfeit his soul? 
 
 ' X O9 iav Oe\rj TTJV eavrov 
 
 avrijv. TL yap cofaXel avOptoirov Kep&r/aai, TOV 
 o\ov Kai rj[ju,ct)6f)vat, Trjv ^frv^rjv avrov ; 
 
 S. MARK viii. 35, 36. 
 
 ABOUT three centuries and a half ago there resided 
 at the University of Paris, first as a student, then as 
 a teacher, a young man of high aristocratic birth, of 
 great abilities, of agreeable manners, of healthy and 
 active constitution, cheerful, lively, attractive, sought 
 out by all around as a delightful companion, the very 
 idol of the society in which he moved. Nature 
 appeared to have lavished on him all her choicest 
 gifts. He was born to a career of exceptional 
 brilliancy. No conquest was beyond his reach. He 
 might have had all the world at his feet. 
 
272 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [v. 
 
 But all those bright dreams were scattered in a 
 moment. The whole current of his life was suddenly 
 changed. There were no more festive companion- 
 ships, no more gay revelries for him. No more 
 admiring crowds would gather about him to hang on 
 his lips. A new power had interposed. A new 
 motive had sprung up in his heart. This power, this 
 motive, was the question in the text the most 
 tremendous of all questions ' What shall it profit a 
 man ? ' What shall it profit a man to gain money, to 
 gain fame, to gain knowledge, to gain popularity, to 
 gain comfort and ease ? What shall it profit a man 
 to eat, drink, and to be merry, to revel with his 
 companions, to take his fill of this world's pleasures ? 
 What shall all this profit him, when one by one the 
 lights are quenched, and the last hour comes, and the 
 darkness of the grave closes over him, and he is 
 driven forth, cold, naked, homeless, shelterless, to 
 present himself in shame before the piercing glance 
 of the all-seeing eye, before the judgment-seat of the 
 Eternal Righteousness ? What shall it profit him, 
 when he finds that he has bartered for hollow, unreal 
 pleasures, pleasures which were cloying and unsatis- 
 factory in the very enjoyment, which left a bitter 
 aftertaste behind, and which long since have taken to 
 themselves wings and flown away, that he has 
 bartered away for these worse than worthless things 
 
V.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 273 
 
 that most priceless of all treasures a human soul, 
 his own soul ? 
 
 You know how this change came about. There 
 was in that same University at this time an older 
 man, a friend of this gay young student. He followed 
 him about He plied him with this question. He 
 forced it upon him at every turn. It was the relent- 
 less, pitiless, ceaseless dropping of the water which 
 at length wore its way through the stubborn rock. 
 In season and out of season the words were repeated 
 in his ear, 'What shall it profit a man?' Was he 
 engrossed in his amusements, the centre of a gay 
 circle of companions, frivolous, lighthearted, caring 
 for nothing but the passing hour? Suddenly the 
 older man's voice would be heard, whispering in his 
 ear, ' What shall it profit a man ?' Was he in the 
 lecture room, surrounded by a crowd of admiring 
 pupils, entrancing them with his eloquence, drinking 
 with eager ear the intoxication of their applause? 
 Again the solemn warning voice broke in upon his 
 day-dreams, ' What shall it profit a man ?' 
 
 And so the question was driven home to his 
 conscience. He could not choose but entertain it. 
 It arrested, entranced, overawed, subjugated him 
 wholly. He could not escape from the conclusion. 
 He must forsake all and take up his cross and follow 
 Christ. Thenceforward he was content and more 
 O. A. 18 
 
274 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [v. 
 
 than content to spend and be spent for Christ, to live 
 a life such as few have lived before or after, to die 
 alone and unbefriended, a homeless missionary on a 
 far distant shore. 
 
 I joffer no apology for dwelling thus long on a 
 familiar story, which is not a story. The account of 
 Francis Xavier's conversion will bear repeating. Is 
 it not itself a signal example of the power of repeti- 
 tion ? But I had a special reason for singling it out, 
 in addressing an audience like this. The story of 
 Francis Xavier has connected the text indissolubly 
 with the capacities and responsibilities of an Aca- 
 demic position. The familiar words of the text speak 
 with a fresh force and significance to such as you, 
 when read in the light of this incident. 
 
 Ignatius Loyola never showed more of the wisdom 
 of the serpent than when he singled out this place 
 and this man for a deliberate, persistent, stubborn 
 assault. Where else but in a famous University 
 should the keenest and best instruments for a great 
 religious movement be found ? Here is the enthusi- 
 asm and the chivalry and the malleability of youth. 
 Here is the quick intellect, and the keen interest, and 
 the bodily vigour, and the attractive grace, and the 
 hopeful temperament : here in fact are all the gifts 
 and endowments which, duly directed and consecrated, 
 go to make up the heroic reformers of abuses, the 
 
V.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 275 
 
 fearless preachers of righteousness. Here, if any- 
 where, is the raw material out of which the finest 
 spiritual fabric may be wrought. Must it not be the 
 first care of any Church to retain and to strengthen 
 her hold on such a province the recruiting ground 
 of her bravest and most efficient soldiery? 
 
 I need not travel far for illustrations of my theme. 
 It is no business of mine to enquire what amount 
 of alloy is mixed with the nobler metal irr these 
 religious movements to which I refer as indeed 
 there must be some in all. I mention them now only 
 as illustrating the immense spiritual potentialities of a 
 University. But where can you point in recent ages 
 to any more striking religious developments than the 
 Wesleyan movement at Oxford in the last century, 
 or the Evangelical movement in the early years of 
 the present century, of which Cambridge was the 
 head-quarters, or later than this the so-called Tract- 
 arian movement again at Oxford all of them 
 incalculably important factors in the spiritual history 
 of the English-speaking race, all of them cradled in 
 our great Universities as their nursery. 
 
 Think for a moment what the single conversion 
 of a Francis Xavier has been to the religious history 
 of the world. Consider him in relation to the 
 religious order to which he belonged the most 
 powerful of all religious orders whether for good or 
 
 1 8 2 
 
276 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [v. 
 
 for evil an order of which he was the heart, as 
 Ignatius Loyola was the head. Reflect on him again 
 as an evangelist, the father of modern missionaries, 
 whose example has been even more valuable to the 
 missionary cause than his work. Here again it is no 
 concern of mine to weigh the good and the evil, the 
 errors and the triumphs, in opposite scales. I am 
 concerned only with the one fact of the spiritual 
 power and influence of the man. And may there not 
 be in the midst of you at this very time the makings 
 of such as Francis Xavier, if only you can kindle the 
 spark, and light up the flame ? 
 
 But you look round, and you are filled with 
 dismay, almost with despair. There is so much 
 self-complacent scepticism, so much suspense and 
 vagueness in religious matters. There is a sort of 
 atmosphere which chills and numbs. Would you 
 not do better to seize the first opportunity, to transfer 
 yourself elsewhere, to do God's work in some more 
 congenial sphere, and thus at all events to work 
 out your own salvation, and to save your own 
 soul ? 
 
 I say no, a thousand times no. What is this 
 language of despair but faithlessness, pure faithless- 
 ness, a distrust of God's power, a repining at God's 
 dispositions, a lurking disbelief (however it may 
 disguise itself) in the triumph of the Church, a 
 
V.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 277 
 
 stealthy suspicion that (the promise notwithstanding) 
 the gates of hell may prevail against it. 
 
 For after all God has placed you here. I do not 
 say that He may not call you elsewhere. But take 
 care that you do not mistake your own yearning for 
 God's call. Take care that the call is clear and 
 articulate, the unmistakeable voice of God. Take 
 care that, in your craving for a position of greater 
 spiritual comfort and ease, you do not in a hasty 
 moment desert the post of honour which God has 
 entrusted to you. Grant for a moment which I do 
 not grant that this despairing estimate of the 
 spiritual condition of our Universities were justified 
 by the facts. What then ? ^irap-rav eXa^e?. It has 
 been assigned to you, specially to you y to protect and 
 to cherish. 
 
 But is this gloomy foreboding justified by the 
 actual condition of things? I confess that I cannot 
 read the facts so. The recruits which the two 
 ancient Universities furnish year by year to the 
 ministry of the Church are not fewer than in past 
 times. They are certainly not less zealous nor less 
 efficient. The flower of the clergy are still reared 
 there; these give the tone and set the standard to 
 the rest ; and the increased and daily increasing zeal, 
 self-devotion and efficiency of the clergy as a body 
 is a matter beyond dispute. Are there not also 
 
278 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [v. 
 
 features in the religious life of our Public Schools 
 and Universities which should inspire us with hope ? 
 The more definite interest in foreign missionary work, 
 and the direct organisations to civilise and to evange- 
 lize the masses in the metropolis these at least are 
 a characteristic of our own time, and cannot be 
 omitted from our reckoning. 
 
 It is undeniable that large items must be placed 
 on the other side of the balance-sheet. The Univer- 
 sities reflect only too faithfully the religious suspense 
 of the age. They do not even escape the direct 
 antagonisms to revealed religion which manifest 
 themselves elsewhere. But what are these seasons 
 of agony to the eye and ear of faith but the caSives, 
 the birth-throes, of a larger, nobler, purer, future ? 
 Out of this religious chaos, be assured, the Almighty 
 Word is even now calling into being a more glorious 
 order, a new heaven and a new earth. 
 
 Does it seem to you sometimes, as if only the old 
 story were repeated ? Do the words of Elijah once 
 more in Horeb ring strangely in your ears ' I, even 
 I, only am left?' Nay, these were not the words of 
 faith, but of faithlessness. They were the exaggera- 
 tions of despair, and they were rebuked as such. 
 Were there not even then seven thousand in Israel, 
 who had not bowed the knee to the popular divinity 
 of the age? Docs not God work through a remnant 
 
V.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 279 
 
 sometimes a very scanty remnant ? ' I only/ ' I 
 alone.' What if it were so ? What if there were not 
 those seven thousand true men at your back ? ' I 
 alone' nay not alone, for God is there. 
 
 But the mischief of this despairing tone does not 
 end here. It goes far beyond the spiritual paralysis 
 of the person who cherishes it. These gloomy fore- 
 bodings have a tendency to fulfil themselves. 
 Despair breeds despair, the prolific mother of a fatal 
 brood. Hopelessness is faithlessness. 
 
 Nay, God has entrusted to you the citadel the 
 very citadel of His Church in England. Bow your 
 heads in awe in awe, but in thanksgiving also 
 when you think of this. Was ever greater honoui 
 bestowed on any of His soldiers than is bestowed 
 upon you ? Shall you not defend it with the last 
 drop of your life-blood, if need be ? There shall be 
 no complaining, no distrust and sinking of heart, no 
 craven desire to escape, no unsoldierly yearning for 
 an easier lot. As the storm rises, your courage will 
 rise also. 
 
 But the temptation to cowardice will clothe itself 
 in the most insidious garb. Must I not for my own 
 soul's sake seek a change ? There is something 
 unhealthy in this Academic atmosphere, in which 
 my spiritual being seems to pine and sicken. The 
 contact with unbelief here, and half-belief there, is 
 
280 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [v. 
 
 telling upon me. The negative critical temper of the 
 place has a chilling effect. Active parochial ministra- 
 tions would restore the tone of my soul. Contact 
 with the ignorant poor, who (whatever else may be 
 their faults) are not weighted with this cold intel- 
 lectualism, would revivify and reinvigorate by the 
 touch. Would you endanger my spiritual well-being? 
 Come what may, I must save my soul. Save your 
 soul yes, but not by deserting your post. You will 
 be shot down as a coward. Save your soul, by such 
 counteracting influences, such curative means of 
 grace, as God has placed in your way in such 
 abundance, if you will only avail yourself of them. 
 
 Save your soul, yes. But how ? Save it by 
 losing it. Venture it for Christ's sake, for then you 
 will venture it in God's keeping. Venture it for 
 Christ's sake, and you will receive it back healthier, 
 stronger, purer, more Christlike a hundredfold than 
 before. 
 
 Speaking to you, I need not dwell on the 
 incalculable loss which the passage has suffered by 
 the interchange of the renderings ' soul ' and * life ' in 
 the English version in this passage. I need not 
 remind you that by this tywxf) is denoted the living 
 principle of the man, that strange mysterious some- 
 thing by which he thinks and acts, the centre of all 
 his capacities, of all his passions, of all his energies; 
 
V.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 28 1 
 
 the very seat of the man's personality. I need not 
 caution you that if you think only of the physical 
 danger to be undergone by the early disciples the 
 persecutions and the martyrdoms you have not only 
 not exhausted the force of the passage, but you have 
 only touched the fringe of its range, of its applica- 
 tion. It is a taunt against us Christians that our 
 religion is a religion of selfishness, that all this 
 anxiety about the welfare of the soul paralyses the 
 energies and cramps the power ; that it makes us 
 more self-conscious and self-contained, less helpful, 
 less ready to dare and do ; that in short it cripples 
 us as citizens and as men. Christ's paradox in the 
 text is the refutation of this reproach. The saving 
 of our souls of course the Gospel must recognise 
 this. Self-preservation is an instinct lying at the 
 very root of our humanity. It were sheer madness 
 to neglect this. But the condition of saving them is 
 the losing them. Here is the negation of selfishness. 
 It is not 'a cloistered virtue,' which Christ asks; not 
 a padded and cushioned faith ; not a valetudinarian 
 treatment of the soul. The soul is ruined by incon- 
 siderate care. It is lost by being saved. It must 
 adventure itself amidst the intellectual perplexities, 
 the moral and social troubles, of the age. It must 
 buffet with the elements, that it may drink in the 
 free air and the genial sunshine. 
 
2-S2 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [v. 
 
 For, if you turn cowards, who shall fight for 
 Christ ? Who so directly called as you ? Who so fit 
 as you ? With all the educational and social advan- 
 tages which you have received, with all the spiritual 
 opportunities which you enjoy the daily prayer, the 
 frequent communions, the unlimited command of 
 privacy for your meditations. Is not this the very 
 outfit for the soldier of Christ, the best training for 
 the man of God, the preacher of righteousness? 
 
 So then at the commencement of another year 
 you gird yourselves bravely for the work. You 
 commit yourselves trustfully, cheerfully, unrepiningly, 
 into God's hands. You pour forth your thanksgivings 
 from an overflowing heart that He has been pleased 
 to call you yes, you with all your incapacities, all 
 your cowardice, all your sins to this glorious task. 
 Your spiritual welfare is safe in His keeping. You 
 are content, and more than content, to lose your soul 
 yes, to lose it for Christ's sake that you may 
 save it 
 
VI. 
 
 Not one of them said that ought of the things 
 which Jie possessed was Jds own; but they had all 
 things common. 
 
 OvSe el? TL TWV virap^ovr^v avrw e\eyev liov elvat, 
 ,' r}V avTols iravra tcoivd. 
 
 ACTS iv. 32. 
 
 t HAVE no intention of discussing with you the 
 rights of property. It is beside my purpose to inves- 
 tigate the moral basis on which those rights are built. 
 The communistic or other theories which aim at the 
 wide, and more equal distribution of this world's 
 goods, may clamour for consideration ; but I shall 
 be content here to pass them by on the other side. 
 Whatever bearing the incident in the text may have 
 or seem to have on the Christian's duty in reference 
 to such topics, it does not fall within the range of 
 my present design to dwell upon these points. I wish 
 merely to call your attention to an ideal; and, having 
 
284 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 done this, to ask you to refer to this ideal a certain 
 province of your Academic responsibilities. 
 
 The ideal obviously has a strong fascination for 
 the sacred historian. This is not the first time that 
 he holds it up to view. The voluntary relinquishment 
 of property has already been emphasized, as the 
 immediate consequence of the outpouring of the 
 Spirit and of the Pentecostal preaching. The watch- 
 word there, as here, is the same, el^ov Travra Koivd. 
 
 The ideal soon vanishes from our sight. ' Osten- 
 dent terris hunc tantum/ The conditions of our 
 earthly existence would not suffer its continuance. 
 When and how it passed away, we know not. As 
 the Apostle says of another kindred revelation, a veil 
 was drawn over its face, so that we may not look on 
 the glory as it fades away. 
 
 But, though the manifestation was temporary, the 
 lesson is permanent. The duty of KOiwvla is never 
 lost sight of. Those that are rich * in this world ' (Iv 
 TO) vvv alwvi) are charged to be 'glad to distribute, 
 ready to impart or communicate' (eu/aeraSoTot, KOI- 
 vwviicoi). The inequalities of natural distribution are 
 to be compensated, as far as may be, by voluntary 
 sympathy. Thus the valleys will be exalted and the 
 hills levelled, to make a high-way for our God. The 
 distribution of worldly goods will follow the law of 
 the distribution of the heavenly food ; ' He that had 
 
VI.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 285 
 
 gathered much had nothing over; and he that had 
 gathered little had no lack.' 
 
 But it was not in the first and most obvious sense 
 that I desire to dwell on the duty of communicating 
 our worldly advantages to others. It is not to such 
 an audience as this that I need emphasize the responsi- 
 bilities of riches in the ordinary sense of riches. The 
 possessions, which I have in my mind, are of a 
 different kind. I refer to that wealth, which is the 
 truest wealth, because no vicissitudes and no reverse 
 of fortune can deprive you of it ; that wealth which 
 is in the strictest sense your personalty, for it has 
 become part of yourself and you carry it about with 
 you. Such for instance are the intellectual acquisi- 
 tions, such again are the social experiences, such 
 above all are the moral and spiritual lessons, which 
 you have accumulated. No man, whose opinion you 
 would value, could hesitate for a moment to reckon 
 these possessions far above mere material wealth. Yet 
 God has bestowed all these advantages on all of you 
 to a very great extent some of them and on some 
 of you to a degree which very far transcends the 
 average. Here is a responsibility, a tremendous re- 
 sponsibility, for you. You denounce, justly denounce, 
 the selfishness of rich men, their stupid selfishness, as 
 it appears to you, blinding them to the immense 
 power of the instrument which God has placed in 
 
286 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 their hands, and which remains idle, or worse than 
 idle, there. What if I bid you look to yourselves? 
 What if, while you are so anxious to extract the mote 
 from your brother's eye, you are wholly unconcerned 
 about the beam that is in your own eye ? 
 
 And there is this further consideration which 
 increases the responsibility of your position and 
 makes the ignoring of it inexcusable. You have 
 not to go about and search for the recipients of 
 your bounty. The heinousness of Dives' sin in the 
 parable consisted in this, that Lazarus lay at his very 
 gates, that as he went in and out he could not choose 
 but see him, and that thus the want, and the duty 
 of relieving the want, were pressed upon his notice. 
 Is it not so with you ? The neediest are the nearest 
 to you. You go in and out among them. 
 
 I purpose therefore speaking to you about the 
 duty, which for want of a better term I shall call the 
 duty of self-communication the duty of imparting 
 freely to others that wealth which consists of your 
 intellectual, moral, and spiritual acquisitions. 
 
 I am not wrong (am I ?) in supposing that the 
 danger, against which I wish to warn you, is a very 
 real danger to those who live an Academic life, a 
 very real and an increasing danger to every man, as 
 the years roll on. We have an index (have we not ?) 
 of the magnitude of this danger in the fact that, 
 
VI.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 287 
 
 where so very much knowledge is acquired, so very 
 little comparatively is reproduced for the benefit of 
 others. The comparative literary barrenness of our 
 Universities has been a frequent taunt against them, 
 not altogether without justice, though we may see 
 palliating circumstances which others do not sec. 
 Nay, have not members of our own body been found 
 even to commend this temper, what I may call this 
 miserly temper, in the scholar? Yet is the selfish 
 accumulation of knowledge one whit more honourable 
 at least so far as regards its selfishness than the 
 selfish accumulation of money? But I am not con- 
 cerned specially with literary work, though I do 
 believe that a grave responsibility rests on Academic 
 men in this matter, and that it is very far from out 
 of place to refer to this duty even in the midst of 
 solemn services such as these. But I only instanced 
 literary work, as an index of the temper against 
 which we need to be on our guard. We live (may 
 I speak of myself once more as one of you ?) we live 
 so very much by ourselves, that there is great danger 
 lest we should come to live mainly for ourselves. 
 The circumstances of our life secure us from the 
 intrusions and interruptions to which other men are 
 subjected. We miss to a great extent the hourly 
 education and sympathy and forbearance, the give 
 and take, of the family and social circle. Isolation, 
 
288 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 the wrapping up in self, grows into a habit with us, 
 unless we resolutely set our faces against it. Self- 
 communication in such circumstances is not only a 
 duty towards others ; it is an act of self-preservation. 
 
 'No man liveth to himself.' This may be taken 
 either as a statement of fact, or as a precept of 
 obligation. 
 
 It is a statement of a fact full of serious and 
 painful reflexion. We cannot, however careful we 
 may be, isolate our lives from the lives of others. 
 We each one of us, you and I are appreciable 
 factors in the history of humanity. We have added, 
 we are adding daily, to the weal or woe, the good or 
 the evil, of the race. The current of our individual 
 lives enters into the general current of human mora- 
 lity infects, modifies, tends to purify or corrupt it, 
 as the case may be. Do I use too strong language 
 if I call it a terrible thought ? In our sober moments 
 we must be overwhelmed when we regard the possible 
 consequences of our actions. Is it a reckless word, 
 a careless gesture ? Physically we know what pulsa- 
 tions are thus set in motion which must vibrate to 
 the extreme boundaries of the Universe ; for where 
 the laws of nature extend, there the effect of the 
 movement of our lips or of our hands must extend 
 also. 
 
 But the physical effects are only types of the 
 
VI. J CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 289 
 
 moral and spiritual effects. It is very seldom indeed 
 that we can trace them far, if we trace them at all. 
 We see at most the immediate influence of the vile 
 word or the vile act on the one person, in whose 
 presence the word is spoken or the act done most 
 frequently not even this. But vileness propagates 
 vileness. It passes from soul to soul in a never 
 ending succession. The sin may be repented of, 
 may be forgiven, may even be forgotten. But it 
 cannot be undone. Whether one member suffers, all 
 the members all without exception suffer with it. 
 Every moral atom in this our corporate humanity 
 is affected for evil by our sin. The little pebble 
 dropped in the pool sets the water in motion in ever 
 widening circles till the whole surface is troubled with 
 the ripples. Here is a parable which invites our 
 most serious reflexion. 
 
 We are half-disposed in our heart of hearts to 
 resent the stern edict which declares that for every 
 idle word we shall give an account. For every idle 
 word ! God have mercy upon us indeed ! Yet what 
 is an idle word, a single idle word ? A seed sown ; 
 a seed which grows into a noxious weed propagating 
 itself far and wide, as the thistle-down is wafted by 
 the winds. What tremendous consequences from 
 one idle word perhaps of scepticism, perhaps of 
 unrighteousness, perhaps of some other immoral 
 
 O. A. Q 
 
2QO COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 tendency lodged in a too susceptible soil ! What 
 a harvest of ruined souls is in store here! 
 
 A sharp pang must shoot through the heart and 
 conscience, when one recalls some idle word uttered, 
 it may be, long years ago, in boyhood or in early 
 youth but so vividly remembered still, not even 
 at the time representing the truer self, and now in 
 the retrospect seeming unspeakably horrible. Is such 
 an agony of reflexion to be condemned, as a distrust 
 of God's fatherly forgiveness, a disparagement of 
 Christ's atoning power? I think not. Rather is it 
 God's own message to us, to keep us humble and 
 modest in ourselves, to quicken our sympathies with 
 others, and to warn us that, though we be standing, 
 we must take heed lest we fall. 
 
 ' No man liveth to himself.' However careful we 
 may be, we cannot isolate ourselves. Each item is 
 small; but the aggregate result, which we call cha- 
 racter, is incalculably great This character generates 
 a certain moral atmosphere which we carry about 
 with us, and our character is built up of frequent 
 inobtrusive thoughts, of successive trivial acts. 
 
 ' No man liveth to himself A man of generous 
 impulses would often give anything, if he could shield 
 others from the consequences of his sin or his crime. 
 It is often the keenest aggravation of punishment 
 that he cannot bear the penalty alone. Yet he can 
 
VI.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 
 
 only at the most see the external consequences the 
 ruin, the misery, the social degradation, of those 
 dearest to him. What, if his vision could pierce 
 through the veil and trace the moral results of his 
 action ! Would not his chivalry be wounded to the 
 quick, wounded almost beyond the hope of healing? 
 
 ' No man liveth to himself.' I have asked you to 
 consider these words as a statement of fact. Let us 
 now regard them as a precept of obligation. The 
 one aspect of the words will have prepared the way 
 for the other. If you cannot help communicating the 
 evil that is in you, will you make no effort to com- 
 municate the good ? Will you not, as far as you can, 
 make amends not amends to God, for no amends 
 are possible here, there can be no debit and credit 
 account between the finite and the infinite but 
 make amends to poor humanity whom you have so 
 wronged ? Open the flood-gates of your sympathy ; 
 give freely, as you have received freely ; pour out the 
 treasures of your intellect, or of your heart, without 
 stint. 
 
 It is astonishing how very soon we forget the 
 lessons of our earlier experience. Only a very few 
 years ago, how you looked up to those who were no 
 older perhaps even younger than you are now ! 
 What value you set on their opinion ! How you 
 were stimulated by a look of encouragement from 
 
 19 2 
 
COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vi. 
 
 them ! How deeply a word of warning or rebuke 
 sank into your heart ! Do not distrust your capacity 
 of influencing others. Believe me, it is almost bound- 
 less, if you will only give it free course. Make a 
 young man feel that he has your sympathy, and there 
 are few things that you cannot do with him. 
 
 For this purpose it is not only necessary that we 
 should feel sympathy ; we must show that we feel it. 
 But this will cost an effort. The reluctance, the 
 sluggishness, the natural reserve of the Englishman, 
 the superadded reserve of the Academic temper, must 
 be overcome. There must be frankness. You must 
 impart yourself, must communicate yourself. May 
 we not learn much, altered as the circumstances are, 
 from the self-communication of Socrates a true 
 Academic teacher in his own age and according to 
 his own lights ? 
 
 But do not mistake me. The duty of self-com- 
 munication has its limits. The crude half-formed 
 opinion, if it has any important practical bearing, 
 should not be shown in the making. Infinite harm 
 has been done by recklessness of communication in 
 this way harm that has cost the offender terrible 
 pain and remorse in the years to come, but harm that 
 cannot be undone. Who knows that further reflexion 
 may not wholly reverse the opinion at which you 
 seem to be arriving ? And meanwhile what a mighty 
 
VI.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 2Q3 
 
 conflagration those sparks hastily thrown off from the 
 anvil have lighted up ! 
 
 And if this communication of self may by God's 
 grace be largely blessed to the recipient, be assured 
 it will be blessed a hundredfold more to the giver. 
 This is the paradox of the intellectual, and still more 
 of the moral and spiritual world. Our stores increase 
 by being dispensed. We become richer by parting 
 with our riches. We seem to be giving away our 
 talent, but we are only placing it out at interest. 
 Each fresh act of sympathy creates a fresh capacity 
 of sympathy. So our wealth accumulates we hardly 
 know how by compound interest. Tiveade TpaTre- 
 tfrat, SoKt/jbol. Learn before all things how to invest 
 your talent wisely. If it be true of the wealth which 
 can be handled and counted, it is infinitely more true 
 of the invisible wealth of heart and mind and spirit, 
 that 'it is more blessed to give than to receive.' 
 
VII. 
 
 He will guide you into all Truth. He shall take 
 of Mine, and shall skew it unto you. 
 
 L i5yua<? 6/9 Trjv aXrjOeiav iracrav. 'E/e roO 
 XrJ/u,A|rerat KCLI dvayyekei vfjblv. 
 
 S. JOHN xvi. 13, 14. 
 
 THIS is the last evening, which we shall spend 
 together. Once again we meet to-morrow morning 
 for our farewell service, when I hope to address to 
 you a very few parting words. But so far as regards 
 these meditations, this is the close. 
 
 How then can I more faithfully fulfil my part 
 than by striving to lead you into the presence of the 
 Eternal Guide Himself and there leave you ! There 
 are TraiSaycoyol many and various. It is a high 
 privilege for any of us to be called to fulfil this 
 function, however mean our capacities, and however 
 poor the fulfilment. But there is one only Teacher 
 (el? &8a<r/ea\o9), the Eternal Spirit of Truth, Who 
 takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us. 
 
 The death of Christ threatened to be the orphan- 
 
VII.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 295 
 
 hood of the disciples. I need not tell you that where 
 our English Bibles make Him speak of leaving them 
 comfortless, His own expression is 'leave you deso- 
 late, leave you orphans'. They would be fatherless, 
 motherless, homeless, friendless at least so it seemed 
 to them when He was gone. Their natural guardian, 
 teacher, friend, would be withdrawn. They would be 
 left as waifs and strays on the ocean of this life 
 swept to and fro by the tide of human affairs, to be 
 stranded no one could say where? 
 
 Who shall say that this was an exaggeration of 
 their hopeless state at this crisis ? They had left all 
 and followed Him. They had forsaken parents and 
 friends, and He had become father and mother and 
 sister and brother to them. They had surrendered 
 houses and lands, and He was henceforth their 
 home. Their dependence on Him was absolute. 
 Whatever of joy they had in the present, and what- 
 ever of hope they cherished for the future, were alike 
 centred in Him. 
 
 And now this close communion of soul with soul, 
 and of life with life, must be ruthlessly severed. 
 Christ slain, Christ buried, Christ lost lost for ever 
 as it would seem to them what joy, what strength, 
 what comfort could they have henceforward ? Surely 
 never was orphanhood more helpless, more hopeless, 
 than the orphanhood of these poor Galileans ! 
 
296 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vil. 
 
 It was to prepare them for this terrible trial, that 
 the promise in the text was given. He must go, but 
 another should come. They should not be without 
 a teacher, without a guide. One Paraclete, one 
 Counsellor, one Advocate, should be withdrawn ; 
 but another should take His place. There would 
 still be a friend, an adviser, ever near to take them 
 by the hand, to whisper into their ear, to prompt, to 
 instruct, to protect, to fortify, to guide them into all 
 truth. 
 
 Another Paraclete, and yet not another. There 
 would not be less of Christ, but more of Christ, when 
 Christ was gone. This is the spiritual paradox which 
 is assured to the disciples by the promise in the text, 
 * He shall take of Mine, and shall shew it unto you. 
 All things that the Father hath are Mine : therefore 
 said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall shew it 
 unto you.' 
 
 Another, and yet not another. It was not Christ 
 supplanted, not Christ superseded, not Christ eclipsed 
 and quenched ; but a larger, higher, truer, more 
 abundant Christ, with Whom henceforward they 
 should live, a Christ Whose tongue was ever arti- 
 culate, though no waves of air might vibrate with the 
 impulse. It was not a Christ of now or then, not a 
 Christ of here or there, but a Christ of every moment 
 and in every place, a Christ as permeating as the 
 
VII.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 2Q7 
 
 Spirit is permeating ; for He is wafted on the wings 
 of the Spirit, whithersoever the Spirit finds an en- 
 trance. ' He shall take of Mine, and shall shew it 
 unto you.' ' Lo, I am with you always ' I and not 
 another 'even unto the end of the world/ 
 
 The compensation was more than a compensation. 
 It was even expedient that Christ should go away. 
 The effect on the temper of the disciples is immediate. 
 On the eve of the severance they are weak, hesitating, 
 fearful, sense-bound and narrow in their ideas. On 
 the morrow they are strong, stedfast, courageous, 
 far-sighted, endowed with a new spiritual faculty, 
 which pierces into the heaven of heavens. If hitherto 
 they have known Christ after the flesh, henceforth 
 they will know Him so no more. 
 
 To have known Christ after the flesh. What 
 would we not give to have known Christ after the 
 flesh ! What a source of strength it would have been 
 to us, just to have listened to one of those parables 
 spoken by His own lips, just to have witnessed one 
 of those miracles of healing wrought by His own 
 hands, just to have looked, if it were only for a 
 moment, on Him as He stood silent in the judgment- 
 hall or hung bleeding on the Cross ! So we persuade 
 ourselves foolishly. 
 
 To have known Christ after the flesh. What 
 would such knowledge have profited us? Did not 
 
298 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vil. 
 
 all the disciples, who forsook Him and fled, know 
 Him after the flesh ? Did not Thomas who doubted, 
 and Peter who denied, know Him after the flesh ? 
 Did not Judas who betrayed, and Caiaphas who 
 plotted, and Herod who scorned, and Pilate who 
 condemned, know Him after the flesh? Did not the 
 Jewish mob which hooted and reviled, and the Roman 
 soldiers who mocked and scourged, know Him after 
 the flesh ? What security was this knowledge after 
 the flesh against scepticism, against cowardice, against 
 blasphemy, against apostasy and rebellion ? Seeing, 
 it is said, is believing ; yes, and hearing too. But it 
 is the seeing of the spiritual eye, and the hearing of 
 the spiritual ear; the seeing of a Stephen, when he 
 beheld the heavens open and the Son of Man stand- 
 ing at the right hand of God ; the hearing of a Paul, 
 when he was caught up into Paradise and heard 
 unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man 
 to utter. 
 
 This then is the function of the Spirit as described 
 by our Lord Himself in the text. To us, as to the 
 disciples of old, the Spirit offers not less but more of 
 Christ. In place of a Christ Who walked on the 
 shores of a Galilean lake, Who sat down weary on 
 the brink of a Samaritan well, Who shed tears over 
 a doomed city on the brow of Olivet instead of such 
 a Christ, or rather through such a Christ, He presents 
 
VII.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 299 
 
 to us a Christ of all times and in all places, a Christ 
 Whose throne is the heaven, and the earth is His 
 footstool, a Christ Who traverses the Universe. 
 
 Look at the explanation which is attached to the 
 promise. ' He shall take of Mine, and shall show it 
 unto you.' How so ? Why of Christ's, and Christ's 
 only ? Has the Spirit nothing else to teach ? Hear 
 what follows; 'All things that the Father hath 
 are Mine ; therefore said I, that He shall take of 
 Mine, and shall shew it unto you/ So again at a 
 later point; 'All Mine are Thine, and Thine are 
 Mine/ ra epa irdvra ad IO-TLV KOI ra era e'/ia. All 
 things there is no limitation all history, all science, 
 all creation, all truth in whatever domain it may be. 
 * Think you/ He seems to say to us, ' think you that 
 My working is confined to a few paltry miracles 
 wrought in Galilee ? The Universe itself is My 
 miracle. Think you that My words are restricted 
 to a few short precepts uttered to the Jews ? Heaven 
 and earth are vocal with My teaching.' 
 
 We make our foolish distinctions, we impose our 
 artificial limitations, we confine the Christ of our 
 imagining within narrow barriers of our erecting; 
 but Christ, the Christ of Christ's own teaching, the 
 Christ of the Spirit's showing, over-leaps all barriers. 
 We are careful to distinguish between natural and 
 revealed religion. We exclude our Christ from the 
 
300 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vil. 
 
 former, and we relegate Him to the latter; but the 
 Christ of Christ's own teaching is the Eternal Word, 
 through Whom the Father speaks, whensoever and 
 wheresoever He speaks. We draw a rigid line be- 
 tween science and theology, between religion and 
 nature; but the Christ of the Bible is the Hand of 
 the Father not less in science and nature, than in 
 religion and theology. We have our trenchant dis- 
 tinctions between the secular and the spiritual, as if 
 the two were directly antagonistic or at least recipro- 
 cally exclusive. We misinterpret a saying of Christ, 
 as if it taught that our duty to Caesar was something 
 quite apart from our duty to God ; as if forsooth it 
 were possible to have any moral obligation to any 
 man or any body of men, which was not also an 
 obligation to God in Christ. But the Christ of the 
 Gospels claims sovereignty over all alike over that 
 which we call secular not less than over that which 
 we call spiritual. 'All things that the Father hath 
 are Mine : therefore said I, that He shall take of 
 Mine.' 
 
 And so we pass by a natural transition from the 
 Teacher to the lesson the all-pervading, all-compre- 
 hensive lesson, which centres in the Incarnation of 
 the Divine Word. 
 
 We cannot afford in this nineteenth century to 
 restrict either the operations of the Teacher or the 
 
VII.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 30! 
 
 bearings of the lesson. Human knowledge, human 
 thought, human interest, has expanded on all sides 
 to an extent almost without a parallel in the history 
 of our race. We are constrained to ask what relation 
 all this has to our theological conceptions, to our 
 religious aspirations ? Least of all can you, who as 
 teachers at a great University are brought across all 
 currents of thought and knowledge, afford to be 
 indifferent to this wider teaching of the Spirit. You 
 will strive, so far as you may, to take all these lessons 
 up into Christ. You will do your little it may not 
 be much to solve the enigmas which they present. 
 You will not be impatient. You are finite, and the 
 lessons are infinite. But at all events you will recog- 
 nise the problem in its breadth and magnitude. You 
 will at least reject the distinctions of popular religion, 
 and take your stand once more on the teaching of 
 the Apostles. I remember once hearing a sermon 
 from a very famous man, on the doctrine of the 
 Trinity. He told his hearers that the First Person 
 of the Blessed Trinity was God in Nature, and the 
 Second was God in Revelation. This is just the 
 heresy against which I am contending put into its 
 most epigrammatic form. This is the very negation 
 though the preacher saw it not of the teaching of 
 the Apostles. For what does S. Paul mean, when he 
 tells us that by Him and for Him, through Him and 
 
302 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vil. 
 
 unto Him (8t* avrov KOI et? avrov) all things were 
 created, things visible, as well as things invisible, 
 things in heaven as well as things on earth ? What 
 does S. John mean when he tells us that by Him all 
 things were made and without Him has not anything 
 been made ; that He was in the world from the 
 beginning, though the world knew Him not ? What 
 does the writer to the Hebrews mean, when he 
 describes Him, as upholding all things, the whole 
 Universe, by the Word of His power? Nay, what 
 does Christ Himself mean, when He affirms, 'All 
 things that the Father hath are Mine?' 
 
 So then to you who are OeoSlSaicToi,, to you who 
 are disciples of the Logos, the great central fact of 
 Christianity will have this wider meaning. You, like 
 S. Paul, will determine to know nothing but Jesus 
 Christ and Him crucified the Incarnation of the 
 Word culminating in the Passion but you will know 
 it in all its manifold bearings. You will not be 
 content to regard it, as it is too commonly regarded, 
 in one narrow relation, from one cramped and con- 
 fined point of view. It will be to you the centre of 
 all your moral and all your theological aspirations. 
 For what does it proclaim ? Nothing less than the 
 absolute righteousness and the infinite love of God 
 the absolute righteousness not only in the manifesta- 
 tion of a faultless exemplar of a perfect human life, 
 
VII.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 303 
 
 but still more in the stupendous sacrifice of the 
 Incarnation and the Cross. And where again is 
 God's fatherly goodness and love so manifested as 
 in the Incarnation and Passion of Christ ? He, Who 
 from all eternity was in the form of God, holds it not 
 beneath Him to take upon Himself the form of a 
 man, the form of a slave. Try to realise this fact. 
 It is a thought which transcends all thinking. Sum- 
 mon to your aid all the analogies which history 
 can supply or imagination can invent. They all fade 
 into nothingness before the condescension of 'the love 
 of Christ. Before the Eternal Throne, the mightiest 
 prince and the meanest beggar are as one. The 
 infinite distance annihilates our petty distinctions 
 between one human littleness and another, the little- 
 ness of an Alexander or a Napoleon, and the littleness 
 of the veriest pauper wasted with famine and disease. 
 To the ruler of the Universe it were as such an act 
 of condescension to become an emperor as to become 
 a peasant, to wield the sceptre of an Augustus as to 
 ply the tools in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth. 
 Yet for our sakes He preferred the meaner alterna- 
 tive. And what did He gain by this condescension ? 
 Was it popularity or honour or gratitude ? He was 
 reviled ; He was misunderstood ; He was despised 
 and rejected ; He had not where to lay His head. 
 He was condemned as the lowest criminal ; He was 
 
304 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vil. 
 
 gibbeted He, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, was 
 gibbeted amid the acclamations of a ruthless mob 
 and a ribald soldiery. Yes, herein was love, herein, 
 if anywhere, not that we loved Him (did we not 
 hate Him, did we not persecute Him, did we not 
 kill Him ?) ; herein was love, that while we were 
 yet sinners, while we were yet rebels, Christ died 
 for us. 
 
 But, as you are disciples not only of the Incarnate 
 Christ but of the Eternal Logos, this great fact of the 
 Incarnation will have wider application for you. The 
 old perplexing question iroOev TO KCLKOV; 'What is the 
 origin of evil ?' will still remain. It is far older than 
 the Christian revelation. The mystery of sin and 
 death is yet unsolved, until we know even as we are 
 known. But the Christian revelation at least offers 
 us a corrective. Once realise the Incarnation and 
 the Cross of Christ, as the manifestation of the 
 Father's love; and you can afford to wait patiently. 
 All must become clear in His good* time. 
 
 ' He shall take of Mine.' Are we attracted by the 
 magnificent discoveries in science which are the 
 special glory of our age ? Do these discoveries ap- 
 peal at once to our imagination as fairy tales, and to 
 our reason as logical demonstrations ? Has Christ 
 then our Christ no handiwork in these? Nay, if 
 the Apostles be true, it was He the same Christ 
 
VII.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 305 
 
 Who lay in the manger at Bethlehem and hung on 
 the Cross at Calvary He Himself, Who hurled the 
 planets into space, He Himself, Who charged the air 
 with electricity, He Himself, Who stored up coals for 
 fuel and stones for building countless ages before 
 man trod this earth. We speak commonly of the 
 * revelations ' of science. Revelations indeed they are 
 not merely of inanimate processes, not merely of 
 impersonal laws, but revelations of the Eternal Word, 
 through Whom the Father works. Therefore as 
 Christians we are bound to look upon these as 
 Christ's. Therefore, if we are true to our heavenly 
 schooling, the Spirit will take also of these, and will 
 shew them to us. 
 
 'He shall take of Mine.' Are we diligent students 
 of the lessons of history ? Do we delight to trace 
 the progress of the human race from the first dawn 
 of civilisation to its noonday blaze ; to decipher the 
 obscure past of the great nations of the earth in 
 their language and their institutions ; to mark the 
 development of the arts of government; to follow 
 the ever-widening range of intellectual thought; to 
 discern everywhere the stream of human life broad- 
 ening slowly down with the course of the ages? 
 Then let us see the finger of Christ not less in the 
 progress of history than in the laws of science. ' He 
 was in the world, and the world knew Him not.' 
 O. A. 20 
 
306 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vil. 
 
 ' He was the true light, which lighteth every man 1 ; 
 the light burning ever brighter and clearer through 
 the ages, till it attained its full glory in the In- 
 carnation. The school of human history also is a 
 school of the Holy Spirit, for it is a setting forth of 
 Christ. 
 
 'He shall take of Mine.' If you have traced 
 Christ's footprints in the processes of nature, if you 
 have heard Christ's voice in the teachings of history, 
 then surely you will not fail to see and to hear Him 
 in your domestic and social relations. That pure 
 affection which has been to you a perennial fountain 
 of benediction, that ennobling friendship which has 
 been a crown of glory to your life can you, dare 
 you think of it apart from Christ ? If you find not 
 Christ here, assuredly you will seek Him in vain 
 elsewhere. What was that nobility, that truthfulness, 
 that purity, that unselfishness, that devotion, which 
 attracted you, but a broken light of the Great Light, 
 a reflected ray from the Central Sun Himself? Yes ; 
 the Spirit took of Christ's, and shewed to you, when 
 through that affection, through that friendship, He 
 held up to you a nobler, because a more Christ- 
 like, ideal of life, shaming you out of your baser 
 self. 
 
 'He shall take of Mine.' ' He shall bring all 
 things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said 
 
VII.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 307 
 
 unto you.' Last and chiefest for this is the crown 
 of all the other teaching, this gives their force, their 
 meaning, to all the other lessons He shall set before 
 you the full significance of those unique words and 
 works of Christ, the words not less operative than 
 the works, the works not less articulate than the 
 words. He shall lead you to understand, to apply, 
 to extend them to all the varying needs of your 
 daily life. He shall teach you the lesson of the 
 Incarnation. ' He was made Man.' He shall teach 
 you the lesson of the Passion. He shall remind 
 you day and night of the paramount obligation which 
 it lays upon you 'thou, yes t/iou, art bought with 
 a price : thou art not thine own ' till the love of 
 Christ shall constrain you wholly, shall bind you 
 hand and foot, shall lead you captive to the will 
 of God. He shall teach you the lesson of the Resur- 
 rection, shall lead you to know, as S. Paul desired to 
 know, the power of that Resurrection, emancipating, 
 purifying, strengthening, exalting, till He makes you 
 conformable thereunto. Thus you too will rise from 
 the sepulchre in which you have lain many days, 
 will cast off the graveclothes of inveterate evil habit, 
 will breathe the pure air of God's presence once 
 more, will sit at meat with your risen Lord. Though 
 in the world, you will no longer be of the world. 
 Despite all the environments of the senses, and all 
 
 20 2 
 
308 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vil. 
 
 the disabilities of weakness, you will live even now 
 as full citizens of that kingdom of heaven, which 
 is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
VIII. 
 
 Farewell in ttie Lord always ; again I will say, 
 Farewell. 
 
 Xa/pere eV Kvplw Train-ore* Tra\w epeS, ^aipere. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS iv. 4. 
 
 THE intimate and affectionate relations which 
 existed between S. Paul and his Philippian converts 
 are a commonplace with Biblical students. These 
 relations give their character to the Epistle which he 
 addresses to them. Nowhere else in his Epistle is 
 the sunshine so bright and the sky so cloudless. 
 Trustfulness, joy, hope it would not be enough to 
 say that these predominate : they occupy nearly the 
 whole ground. 
 
 A parting between a spiritual father and his 
 spiritual children under such circumstances must 
 always be mingled with pain. The Apostle finds it 
 difficult to say farewell even in a letter to his 
 Philippian converts. He has tried to say it once 
 already, but he has failed. He resumes it here again, 
 
3IO COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vill. 
 
 and he emphasizes it by reiteration. But still he 
 lingers on, that he may delay the parting. 
 
 The solemnity of a farewell is not measured by 
 the intimacy, still less by the length, of the acquaint- 
 anceship. The solemnity depends on the nature of 
 the occasion which has brought men together, and 
 of the bond which has united them with each other. 
 
 So regarded, our farewell to-day must have a very 
 sacred meaning. We have during the two days past 
 incurred responsibilities one to another which we 
 may not forget. We met together less than three 
 days ago some of us at least strangers to each other. 
 We part to-morrow perhaps to be once more strangers 
 on earth. Our work is appointed for us in strangely 
 diverse spheres; yours is a chief centre of culture 
 and refinement, mine is the rough coal-field of the 
 North ; yours lies amidst the staid and time-honoured 
 memorials and traditions of the past, mine amidst 
 the undisciplined hopes and yearnings for the 
 future. When shall be our next meeting? Then 
 probably, and not till then, when we shall stand 
 before the great tribunal, face to face with the 
 Eternal Righteousness; and the work of these two 
 days will rise up before us with more than the 
 vividness of this present moment ; and my lips and 
 your ears will be arraigned and will plead at the bar 
 of the Omnipresent and Omniscient Judge. 
 
VIII. J CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 3! I 
 
 Farewell. A farewell is the occasion for recalling 
 and gathering up recollections of what is past. As 
 these are the last words which I shall address to you, 
 forgive me if for a few moments I attempt to recapitu- 
 late the lessons, which I have striven to impress upon 
 you, and upon myself, during the two days past. 
 
 I asked you first, then, to reflect on the greatness 
 of the work which God has assigned to you, its 
 magnificence and its honourableness. I began with 
 this thought, and I have recurred to it again and 
 again. Indeed it is my desire, if it please God, to 
 burn it into your hearts and consciences, that it may 
 be present to you day and night. But if the awe of 
 the responsibility crushes you, the promise of strength 
 will revive you, and the assurance will sustain you to 
 the end. It is God's work ; God is working with 
 you : this is enough. 
 
 But how shall you set about it? Who shall be 
 your teacher ? So I sent you at once into the 
 presence of Jesus Christ. I left you in that presence 
 awhile, torn asunder by two opposite forces. There 
 was the fear and trembling before His holiness, and 
 there was the intense craving for His sympathy and 
 His countenance. You felt at once a double agony 
 the repulsion and the attraction of Christ. 
 
 Such is the Teacher, and such must be your 
 attitude towards Him. But what next ? What shall 
 
312 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [VIII. 
 
 be the lesson ? I summed this up in one idea, Self- 
 consecration for the sake of those committed to your 
 charge ; Self-consecration in its double aspect, both 
 as sacrifice and as purification. 
 
 Then we stepped aside for a moment to consider 
 a particular temptation which, if not resisted, might 
 prove a fatal hindrance to your work, which at all 
 events, if indulged in, must be a fresh scandal to the 
 Church of God a temptation specially affecting our 
 own age and our Academic environments the temp- 
 tation of partisanship, partisanship in the cause of 
 God and His Church, partisanship which makes 
 shipwreck at once of truthfulness and of charity, 
 partisanship which in its unconscious blindness justi- 
 fies the means by the end. 
 
 Then we returned once more to the main current 
 of our thoughts. You had apprehended the character 
 of the work entrusted to you. You had gone to the 
 right teacher for instruction. You had learnt the 
 primary lesson for a true workman. But then the 
 strain begins. Then you are sorely tried by despon- 
 dency and misgiving. Then you are grievously 
 tempted to desert and to abandon your post. The 
 lure, which the tempter offers, is his most specious 
 bait He plays upon your spiritual fears. His 
 inducement is the saving of your soul. In this 
 wilderness of your despair his deadly promptings are 
 
VIII.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 313 
 
 met, as they were met in the wilderness of old, by 
 the Master's voice : ' It is written, Whosoever would 
 save his soul, shall lose it.' 
 
 And lastly, this lure being put aside and the work 
 resumed, there is one duty of every day and every 
 hour, which it is necessary to emphasize, if only 
 because we are much tempted to neglect it. If the 
 initial obligation of the instruction of others is self- 
 consecration, the continuous obligation is self-com- 
 munication, the sympathetic imparting of your 
 accumulated stores, intellectual, moral and spiritual. 
 
 But a farewell is something more than a crisis 
 gathering up past recollections and recalling solemn 
 responsibilities. A farewell, a true farewell, is an 
 interchange of bright promise, an invitation to rejoice, 
 a moment when we recall ourselves, and ask others 
 to recall, the glorious privileges and the splendid 
 hopes of which we, as the children of God, are the 
 joint heirs. This conception of a farewell is especially 
 prominent in the text. In the earlier part of the 
 Epistle, where it was not yet a question of parting, 
 the call to mutual joy and congratulation is conveyed 
 in the same terms, %aipo> KOI a-vy^aipa) Traaw V/JLW' 
 TO Se avro teal vpels ^atpere KOI a-vy^aipere poi. ' I 
 joy and rejoice with you all : and in the same manner 
 do ye also joy, and rejoice with me.' Now, when the 
 idea of a farewell is prominent, still the old conception 
 
COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vill. 
 
 remains (for indeed it is inherent in the word), joy 
 underlying the pain of severance, joy defiant of all 
 opposition, joy persistent, uninterrupted, triumphant 
 always. 
 
 So this is the one idea which I should wish to 
 connect with our parting to-day the after-taste, as 
 it were, of our meeting, the lingering echo of the 
 prayers uttered and the words spoken, this duty and 
 privilege of rejoicing. 
 
 Bishop Racket chose as his motto, ' Serve God, 
 and be cheerful.' Golden words these : I do not know 
 how it may be with you ; but the remembrance of 
 these words has often lifted me up from the pit, and 
 dissipated the cloud of gloom. Yes, learn to con- 
 nect with the direct service of God this obligation 
 of cheerfulness cheerfulness having its springs in 
 Christian joy, cheerfulness flushing and refreshing the 
 heart, cheerfulness overflowing in deeds and thoughts 
 of kindliness towards others, and of thankfulness 
 towards God. 
 
 Have we not cause for joy we children of God ? 
 What is God's message to us but a Gospel, tidings of 
 great gladness ? If it is this by its name, it is certainly 
 this in its contents. What have we here, as we were 
 reminded last night, but the manifestation of God's 
 Fatherly goodness in the Incarnation and the Cross 
 of Christ the assurance of absolute forgiveness, of 
 
VIII.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 315 
 
 infinite love, of an undying inheritance ? Said not the 
 Apostle rightly that the Kingdom of God is not only 
 peace the cessation of troubles, the putting away of 
 anxieties, the calming, tranquillising of the heart and 
 soul but joy likewise, active exultation, in the Holy 
 Ghost ? 
 
 But these are often-repeated truths, expressed in 
 often-repeated words this story of Christ's Cross, 
 this lesson of God's Fatherly love. Why dwell with 
 such emphasis on this simple familiar topic ? 
 
 Simple and familiar, yes. But reiteration is never 
 stale, where love is fresh. Does not the loving child 
 throw its arm round its mother's neck and call to its 
 * darling mother/ though it may have used the very 
 same words a hundred times before the same morn- 
 ing ? It would be well for us, if in approaching our 
 Heavenly Father we had more of the simplicity the 
 reckless simplicity of the child. ' My Father, My 
 Father' is not everything, every most cherished 
 thought, every most sacred feeling, summed up in 
 that one word 'Father'? 
 
 Happy he, who rejoices with this joy. Happy he, 
 who can say from his heart of hearts, ' If God is for 
 us, who is against us ? ' (d 6 @eos vTrep rj^wv, rt? /caO' 
 rjf^cuv;) not, as we are accustomed to hear the words, 
 ' If God be for us, who can be against us ? ' The 
 promise is absolute, and the conclusion is absolute. 
 
3l6 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vill. 
 
 God is for us. How do we know this ? Did He not 
 give us His own Son ? And does not this gift contain 
 in itself the potentiality of every other gift ? Yes, 
 the love of God is inseparably, is indissolubly, ours, 
 from that day forward. Nothing not persecution or 
 famine or sword, not height or depth, nor life or 
 death nothing can sever us from it, or it from us. 
 Henceforth we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full 
 of glory, for we believe where we see not. Hence- 
 forward our joy no man taketh from us. 
 
 Such joy is the fruit of our realisation of God's 
 love in Christ ; and it finds its fittest expression in 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 Thanksgiving. We do not reflect or if we do 
 reflect, we do not realise in practice the prominence 
 which thanksgiving claims in the teaching of the 
 Gospel. It was an instructive appreciation of this 
 truth which led the Early Church to call the highest 
 act of Christian worship, the Eucharist, the Thanks- 
 giving. Thus the privilege and the duty of thanks- 
 giving is vividly brought before us. Here, as else- 
 where, this Sacrament exhibits in its highest form 
 the lesson, which should pervade the whole domain 
 of life. Our life must be one perpetual Eucharist 
 
 What an inestimable benefit it will be to ourselves, 
 if we strive to make it so ! Never were truer words 
 spoken than the saying of the Psalmist, ' It is a joyful 
 
VIII.] CUDDESDON ADDRESSES. 317 
 
 and a pleasant thing to be thankful.' Why should 
 we not exult in this joy ? What forbids us to revel 
 in this pleasure ? Gratitude, thankfulness, thanksgiv- 
 ing is indeed twice blessed. It blesses him who 
 receives it, but it blesses him who offers it still more. 
 Thankfulness is the negation of self, thankfulness is 
 love, thankfulness is life. It is suicide to dwell on 
 the sorrow, the troubles, the pains, the cares and 
 anxieties, of our condition, when there is such abun- 
 dant food for thanksgiving in the countless blessings 
 spiritual and temporal, which God has vouchsafed to 
 us. Count it duty to be thankful. Fall asleep each 
 night with a thanksgiving on your lips, and rise up 
 each morning with a thanksgiving in your heart. 
 
 And so doing, you will fulfil the true end of your 
 being. For why were you created ; why were you 
 redeemed by Christ's blood ; why were you gathered 
 into the Church of God ? To save your souls ? No, 
 no, not this alone, nor this chiefly ; but before and 
 above all things that God may be glorified in you. 
 The saving of your individual soul only then holds 
 its proper place when it is regarded as a factor in 
 God's glory. And how is God more truly glorified 
 than by thanksgiving of His children ? By thanks- 
 giving you will crush the earthly and sensual that is 
 in you. By thanksgiving you will rise to your higher 
 self. By thanksgiving you will enrol yourself in that 
 
318 COUNSELS TO CLERGY. [vill. 
 
 countless white-robed choir which stands face to face 
 with the Eternal Presence, giving blessing and glory 
 and honour to Him that sitteth on the Throne and 
 to the Lamb for ever and ever. 
 
 As once more the familiar words sound in our 
 ears, ' We offer and present unto thee, O Lord, 
 ourselves, our souls, and bodies, to be a reasonable, 
 holy, and lively sacrifice unto Thee/ may our hearts 
 respond with a fervency of devotion and a stedfastness 
 of purpose such as they have never known before ! 
 So shall we make our lives one perpetual Eucharist, 
 one ceaseless benediction. 
 
 Xat/aere ev Kvpiw TrdvTore- -nakiv epu>, 
 
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