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SERM ONS B Y TH E WA Y

FREDERIC W. EARRAR D .D. F.R.S.

Lale Fellow qf Tri n i ty Colleg e Cambridg e Archd ea con and Ca non ofH

'es tmimfer Ckapla in in to the Queen

AUTHOR OF THE LlPB OF CHRIST ETC.

LONDON

WM . ISB ISTER L IM I TED

56 LUDGATE H ILL

PREFACE .

“N the title to th is volume of Sermons,r a

l ’ I

I have endeavoured to express the

humbleness oftheir pretensions. They

a re ordinary parochial exhortations, mainly de

livered on Sundays after Trinity, during that

great division of the Church’s year in which

s he endeavours to impress on us the reiterated

lessons of daily duty— that duty towards God,

and duty towards our neighbour, on which hang

all the Law and the Prophets .

The work ofpreaching, which so many despise,

i s full of anxious responsibility. The anxiety

of any sincere and hones t man is only to teach

the truth s o far as God has enabled him to see

it. I can imagine no calling more vulgar or

vi PREFACE.

more miserable than that of the preacher, if he

has in view anything but the ed ifica t ion, the

moral advance, the religious instruction, the

spiritual awakenment ofhi s congregation . And,

among many other perils of unfaithfulness, he

must be on his guard lest, through carelessness

or indolence, he fail “ rightly to divide the

word oftruth .

The elements of our re ligious belief come to

us not from one s ource but from many. Our

relig ion is Natura l— for it is confirmed by, and in

part even derived from, that great Book of God

which is the nature of created things. It is

Historical— for even our shortest creed mentions

the name of a Roman Procurator, and refe rs

to facts which took place in the course of

historical events. It is Revealed—for its most

e s sential truths were brought to light by the

Son of God, and were such as man’

s unaided

intellect would never have discovered . It is

Scriptural—for it refers as its ultimate authority

to the Word ofGod ,contained in a sacred book .

PREFACE. vi i

I t is Experiential—for its convictions are

b rought home to us by the teachings of provi

dential circums tance, which now b right, now

sombre, are woven l ike warp and woof into the

web of our little lives . It i s altogether Super

natural— for its deepest and holiest intuitions

are uttered by the Spirit ofGod within us they

are the voiceless whispers heard with in the

silence and darkness of that Holy of Holie s

which is the regenerate soul of man . It is the

duty of the preacher,s o far as lies wi thin hi s

power, to bring out some parts at least of thes e

many-s ided revelations ; he must try ever to

keep before the minds ofhis hearers the illustra

tions,the facts

,the messages, the confirmations ,

the hopes, the g leams of inward light which

radiate in constant pulsations from the divine

centre ofthe Christian ’s life .

But while the Gospel and it s lessons may be

considered under numberle s s aspects theymayall be summed up under these two heads

less ons of doctrine, and les s ons of practice. A

viii PREFACE.

teaching exclusively doctrinal might appeal

on ly to the understanding, and might result in

nothing but an intolerant Pharisaism a teaching

exclusively practical might only resemble a

child’s flower struck in the sand , which has no

root. Doctrine and morality can never be

dis linked from each other, for i t is the ir per

petualconnexion which cons t itutes the unity of

Scripture. In this matter St . Paul s ets us a

consummate lesson . Nearly all his Epistles fall

into two well-marked divisions, in one ofwhich

he lays down the foundations of all Christ ian

truths, while in the other he rears the supe r

structure of moral exhortation . But we mayappea l to a higher authority even than that of

the Great Apostle. For the s ame remark holds

t rue of the teaching of Him who spake as never

man spake . What were all His m iracles but

less ons taught in action ? What were all His

parables but eternal precepts springing out of

eternal t ruths ?

The lessons.

which I have tried to inculcate

PREFACE.ix

in the following sermons are not mainly doc

trinal. Yet I do not think that in any one of

them, however immediately practical its aim ,

the great essential doctrines of the Gospel have,

even for a moment,been left out of sight.

With these words then I send them forth .

No one can feel more deeply than I do their

manifold imperfections . But if He deigns to .

bless them, Who can us e the humblest in s tru

ments for the furtherance ofHis kingdom, there

may be some readers to whom they will not

have been addressed in vain .

FREDERIC W. FARRAR.

WESTMINSTER,

Oct. 1 887.

CONTENTS.

I . HEAVEN IN EAR’

I‘

H LV HOMES

I I . HOW TO MAKE EARTH LIKE HEAVEN

I I I . \VRAT TO TH INK ABOUT

IV. CH ILDREN, AND THE CH ILD CHRIST

V. UNSEEN REALITIES

V I . IVHERE‘VITH TO MEASURE LIFE

V I I . TH E ESSENTIALS OF PRAYER

V I I I . TH E SANCTITY OF PRINC I PLE

IX . THE POSSIB ILITY OF GOODNESS AND TH E

AM PLE OF TH E SAINTS

TH E BIBLE

TEMPTA’

I’

ION

XI I . SELLING TH E B IRTHRIGHT

XI I I . KNOWN BY ITSFRU ITS

V IV . DEATH-BED REPENTANCE

OFTHE INNER REVERENCE OFA MAN FOR H IS

OWN PERSON

XVI .

XVII.

XVI I I .

XIX.

XX.

CONTEN TS.

HONOUR ALL MEN

COUNSELSTo TH E DEFEATED

TH E SERV ICESor TH E DESPISED

TH E MARKS OFTH E LORD JESUS

TH E TRUE G LORY OF HUMAN ITY

h eaven in Earthly h omes .A NEW YEAR

’S SERMON.

But, according to H is promis e, we look for new heaven sand a new earth, wherein dwelle th righteous nes s .

—2 PETERiii. 1 3.

OPE,says the poet, springs eternal

in the human breast. We are everlooking forward to a golden time,

which like the splendour of the rainbow,flying

before us as we advance, leaves us only amid thedriving rain. Man ,

” adds the poet in the nextline

,never i s , but always to be blest.

” H is hap 1

pine s s is much more often a thing ofmemory orof hope, than a thing of fruition . In vain heexperiences the perpetual disenchantment ofnewyears. In vain he finds

New t imes , new climes , new lands , newmen—but s tillThe s ame old tears , old crimes , and oldes t ill.

In the minds ofthe early Christians there was astrange mixture offeelings as regards the presentlife . They were looking forward with constantand eager expectation for the coming of the

1 4 EVERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE.

Lord . The word u s ed to describe this yearning

(évroxapaSoxfa ) impl ies the head and neck strainedeagerly forward to catch sight ofsome approaching chario t Their watchword wa s Maranatha,“ The Lord is at hand They thought thatany morning might witness the flaming adventof their King . They never knew whether thescarlet cloud s of sunrise might not herald someworld-catastrophe . Misunderstanding some of

the reported sayings of Christ, mistaking, likethe disciples

,sometimes the spiritual for the

l iteral,sometimes the lit eral for the spiritual,

they were tempted into the feverish and unpractical restlessness against which St. Paul soearnestly warned his Thessalonian converts .And when the Second Advent on the clouds ofheaven was s o long delayed, the

.

natural resultwas first disappointment and then in someminds unbelief. “Where, they asked,

“ is theprom ise of His coming ? And all that thewriter of this Epistle can say in answer, is to reassert to them that as certainly as there hadonce been a d eluge ofwater which drowned theold world

,so certainly shall there be a deluge of

fire to destroy the world which now is. Theearth, he tells them, is stored with fire .

” Theday shall come when her volcanoes

,bursting the

seals which repress the impatient earthquake,

shall bellow destruction fromtheir fiery cones,and the world, with it s elements melted by fer

H EAVEN 1 IV EARTH L Y H OJIES.

vent heat, shall become but a burnt-up cinderlike her attendant moon . So too say the otherApostles. This world ,

”

s ays St Paul, pas sethaway, and the fashion thereof. I s aw,

”

s aysSt. John

, a new heaven, and a new earth ; forthe first heaven and the first earth are pas s edaway.

”

And we may still retain that hope of, nay,that sure belief in , a new heaven and a new earthin the eternity which is to be. But now, at the

beginning of this new year, the ques tion is,whether it need be a lwpe only ? whether evenhere and now the new heaven may not spreadover us it s soft empyreal azure, and the ne w

earth may not at least begin to rejoice forusand to blossom as the rose ?Is this poss ible ?I . My friends, let us have no illusions. Illu

sions,self-deceiving dreams, beliefs into which

we have wilfully persuaded ourselves , can g ivebut a base and pitiable happines s ; the happine ss ofthe maniac who takes the twisted s trawsof his ce ll for a royal crown . If anything betrus tworthy, truth is . Let us above all be true.Let us

,before proceeding any farther, look at

thing s as they are . The duty of courage, theduty of sincerity requires us to face realities, notto dwell in an atmosphere of rosy Optimism .

When we have s een things as they are, we can

b etter judge ofthings as they might be.

16 EVERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE.

Look first at this material world,

“ our poorhome, our transitory dwelling .

” It is filled undoubtedly with beauty and goodness . Thewonder and the power of the visible thingsreveal indisputably the Invisible Creator. Ifwe

have faith even as a grain ofmustard-seed,

The world’s no blank forus ,No blot ; itmeans intens ely, and means good .

I know no surer refutation of atheism , no surerproofthat God is, and that God is good, thanthe fact that He has created in us an instinct for,and a love of beauty

,and has also abundantly

gratified that instinct in every common sightand sound . By the greatness and beauty of

the creatures proportionably the Maker of themis seen .

” All common things are lovely so faras man leaves them s o ; and in their lovelinesswe read the very autograph of God . Througheve ry gateway of the senses flow pure andde lightful impres s ions to the healthy soul .There are de licious fruits of autumn, there arefragrant odours of spring. For the ear there isthe song of birds, and the murmur of the sea

,

and the warbling of the vernal breeze,and

“ angelical soft trembling voices, and silvers ongs and solemn instruments . And for theeye what wealth and worlds of beauty, fire ,

and the swift air, and the circle of the stars, andthe violent water, and the lights of heaven .

H EAVEN I .

'

V EARTH L Y H OJIES.

We look upwards and there is the overhangingvault fretted with the golden fire of its sunri s eand sunset

,and silvery clouds, and

“the floor of

heaven inlaid with patine s ofbright gold .

” Welook d ownward s and there is the green grasswith its daily miracle of humble flowers . TheAlpine summits, the ros e upon their flushings now,

the blue distant hills,the yellow wealth of

harvest, the trees in their green plenitude of

May,

” the dewdrop sparkling like a diamond inthe bosom of the rose, the gorgeous conflagration ofautumn lending beauty even to decaythe laugh of summer waters, the colourings of

the shell upon the shore, the iridescence of thepeacock ’s wing— are not these signs that God isLove ? Since the days of Job, mankind hasseen that it is only a Father of mercies whocould have endowed with all this glory andmelody the hearing ear and seeing eye of love .

When we think of these things only, we mightalmost s ay that a new earth is not to be desired .

Alas ! the dream is soon broken. We soonrecogn ize that there is a crack in everythingthat there is not beauty only but fearfulness .Year by year there is death on the mountainslopes , and ruthlessness in fire

,and shipwreck

on the s ea. The more terrible aspect s ofNatureare less common than the love ly ones, but theyexist. The storm blackens the s ky, and bufl

'

et s

the tormented waves the great winds of GodB

1 8 EVERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

howl over devastated lands ; the all-s ha tteringlightning smites like an ange l

’s sword of flame .

I need not quote once more the terrib le ind ictment of Nature in the posthumous essays of

John Stuart Mill, who describes her a s beingmore cruel and refined in torture than a Nabisor a Dom itian . But take the spontaneous te stimony ofour greatest living write r of prose, andof our poet-laureate in verse. “ Besides thefearfulness of immed iately dangerous phenomena

,

” says Mr. Ruskin,“ there is an occult and

subtle horror in many aspect s of the creationaround us

,calculated to fill us with s erious

thought even in our times of quietness and

peace Wrath and threatening are in

variab ly mingled with love The blastedtrunk

,the barren rock, the moan ing of the bleak

winds,the roar of the black, perilous, merciless

Whirlpools ofthe mountain streams, the cont inualfading of all beauty into darkness and of all

strength into dust— have these no language forus ? ” And in “ The Cup

,by Lord Tennyson ,

after the invocation to the Divinity, “ whosebreath is balmy wind to robe our h ills withgrass, youmay read the tremendous counterinvocation to the same power.

0 Thouthat slay’s t the babe wi th in the womb

Or in the being born , or after slaye s t himAs boy orman . 0 Thouwhos e s tormy voiceUns ockets the great oak, and rears hi s root

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20 EVERVDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

noble, how clear does it become once more that

human nature also ha s a crack in it. In history,even ifwe search no farthe r t han the Bible, whata scene is presented to us ! The epitaph onthe antediluvian world is that “The wickednessof man was great in the earth, and that everyimagination of the thoughts of his heart wasonly evil continually. And no sooner had theFlood ceased to rebaptize the world than mankind is smitten once more with the curses of

drunkenness , and apostasy, and lust. Whathorrible devil-worship, what merciless ferocityreigned in the old world-empires ofAssyria andBabylon, and Egypt ! What passions of dishonour cankered the fair civilizations of Greeceand Rome ! What a deep hypocrisy— bred inthe vain idolatry of forms and traditions andthe servility of the human intellect— corruptedinto complacent Pharisa ism the religious profes sions of the Chosen PeOple ! Then Christcame. But even amid the dawning light, whatgrievous wolves leapt in among the flock of

God ! Will-wors hip, the heretical vanity of

systems, the pride of priestly rule,the blind

fals ehoods oftradition, thematerializing ofsacraments, how soon did they overshadow the ChurchofChrist !Then look at all the long centuries of theMiddle Ages, with their unnatural self-tortures ,their usurping Papacy, their d eep-seated cor-o

HEAVEN IN EARTHL Y H OMES. 2 1

ruption, their horrible enginery of persecutionand intolerance. Look at the state of nat ionseven now— these petty wars with poor savagesthese distracted confusions of party politics ;these race hatreds, s o fierce and so blind ; thisdesire to repudiate all national profession of

religion ; this indifference of the great mass ofthe laity to the gen eral alienation from God thiseagerness for a purely secular education ; thischoosing ofmen without religion for repres entat ive s of Christian, or what once were Christian ,communities ; this worship of materia l thingseven in religion ; these godless ma s ses ; thi sdaily increasing leprosy ofdepraved, mal ignant,and vulgar lite rature this vast national patronage ofthe drink

,which brings blight and madness

and murder into so many thousand homes ; thisglaring contrast between fierce poverty and thes elfish luxury of wealth ! Is all this tole rable ?Does it in any way represent Christianity ? Isit to last for ever ? Is there nothing in theworld of man, even more than in the world of

Nature, to make us yearn for the new heavenand the new earthDoe s not this glance at the world of manalmos t make us s ay with Cardinal Newman, “ If

I looked into a mirror and did not s ee myface I should have the sort of feeling whichactually comes upon me when I look into theliving

,busy world and s ee no reflex ion of its

2 E VERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

Creator ; or confess with the blameless KingOfthe Idyls :

I s aw God in the s hining of the s tars ,

I s aw H imin the flowering ofthe fields ,But in H is ways withman I found H imnot

I I I. And s o again with our little individuallives. The Christian may, like St . Paul, bequite content to stay here as long as God placeshimhere

,to serve (if he may haply serve) his

brethren ; but are there many Christians whocan help feeling that to depart and to be withChrist, to enter that new heaven and that new

earth, would be xp e’

i a a ov, far, far

better For life, too, at its best, has a crack init. Somehow,

the tra ilof the serpent is all overit. The most perfect man is imperfect, themost innocent man ha s his weak point. Theinfant Achilles in the Greek legend is dipped inthe waters of the Styx, and the touch of thewave makes him invulnerable but the waterhas not touched the heel by which his motherheld him, and to that vulnerable heel the deathful arrow finds it s way. Siegfried

,in the

“Nibe lungen Lied ,” bathes in the dragon’s

blood,and it has made him, too, invulnerable ;

but,unknown to him, a lime-tree leaf has flut

t ered down upon his back, and into the vitalspot

,where the blood has not touched his skin

,

the murde rer’s dagger smites . Everything in

the Iceland ic Saga has sworn not to injure

HEAVEN IN EARTHL Y H OMES. 23

Ba lder, the brightest and most beloved of allthe Northern gods, but the insignificant mistletoeha s not been asked to take the oath, and by themistletoe he dies. Thes e are the dim, sadallegories by which the world indicates thateven the happiest man cannot be all happy, northe most invincible altogether safe

,nor the

best altogether good . Whatever may be thebles s ings which God has given to us in life—andto the poorest ofus He has given , if not morethan we desire , far, far more than we deserveyet is there one among us all who must notyearn for the new heaven and the new earth ; forthe treasures which neither moth nor rust corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal ; for,

theinheritance incorruptible and undefiled , andthat fadeth not away ?

IV. But now, after this necessary survey,afte r seeing and admitting that every earthlyblessing has a flaw in it

,I return to my first

question. While we cherish no illusions as tothe presence ofwickednes s and sorrow and peril

,

we still ask, Is it wholly impossible for us, hereand now, to spread over our heads some of theazure of that new heaven, and to make the new

earth beg in at least to blossom as the rose ? andI answer, Yes, it is possible ; it is in our power,if through the o

’

er-arching azure we can gazeinto clear openings of the empyrean, and thereby the eye offaith see Jesus standing at the right


hand of God. I answer,Yes, it is possible to

the sincere, the humble, and the faithful ; to allwho feel and have experienced that love andduty can make a little heaven even on this s ad

earth.

i . For what is our concept ion of the new

heaven and the new earth which we des ire ?

Is it a mere absence of annoyances ? Is it anegotism expanded to infin itude ? Is it a sensual Mohammedan Paradise ? Is it a selfishPalace ofArt ? Is it a city paved with gold, ora pagoda of jewels like the New Jerusalem of

St. John in its mere external aspect ? Childishmust we be indeed if we have not got beyondthese symbols ; ifwe do not know that man i sin his es sence a spiritual being

,and that for a

spiritual being there can be no felicity save inSpiritual conditions—in communion with God

,

in serenity of mind, in purity of heart. We,according to His promise, look for new heavensand a new earth, w/zerez

'

n dwelleth rzgfiteous fz es s .

Shall we ever enjoy that heaven hereafter ? Yea,ifwe truly seek it now. But “ are your mind ss et upon righteousne ss, O ye congregation ?and do ye judge the thing that is right, 0 yesons ofmen ?ii. It is not possible for me here, at this t ime,

to show more fully how, if righteousnes s be theone characteri s tic of the new heavens and thenew earth, it is possible forus , in this new year,

HEAVEN IN EARTH LY H OMES. 25

to further the reign of righteousness, and s o toforetaste the heaven which is so near us all, ifwe would but enter it. But it is perhaps pos siblefor me, in conclusion, to give one illustration ,to show to how large an extent the happines sof heaven is in our own power even upon a s ad

and guilty earth, because that earth has been redeemed by Christ . Let this my one illus trationof the truth be taken from the one fa ires t andsweetest Sphere ofall life— our homes.If there can be any place upon earth su

premely blessed, it is, it ought to be, an Engl ishhome. Ifthere be one fie ld of asphodel on thi sside of the grave, if there be any place overwhich God

’

s angels of peace may rest for amoment on their messages of mercy and wavetheir purple wings

,it must surely be in Christian

home s in homes around which cluster the sweetmemories ofchildhood , trained in love and duty ;“ where youth shines like a star ;

”

where theremay always be an ark of refuge and a haven of

res t amid the storm of troub les and injus tice ;where so many voices speak to the car in music,and the quiet peacefulness of old age is almostas beaut iful as the glad enthusiasmof youngerdays .Now here is the point which I want to illus

trate : our homes exactly resemble our lives inthis

,that they are indeed l iable to trouble s and

calamities which are wholly beyond our power,


and yet that if righteousness dwell therein, ifthey be enriched with the beauty of holiness

, if

Christ be there a neve r-exiled guest, they wi ll,in their measure, partake, here and now, of theblessedness of the new heaven and the new

earth. Alas ! we admit that, as in the world, s oeven in our mos t cherished homes, there mustbe a flaw in the jewel of any earthly happiness.Even in Paradise there wa s the snake. Do whatwe willwe cannot shut out care, or sorrow,

or misfortune, or even calamity. Even in an Englishhome there may be a prod igal a warped slip ofwilderness even among the trees of God . Andcare may enter, and bitter poverty. Nor fromany home, as this dark shadow shows, can wekeep out the step of death . The dart of thelas t enemy can pierce even through the holyatmosphere of love, and s ooner or later in the .

desolate hou s e, which was once s o happy,must

flow the tears of the widow and the fatherles s .For every one ofus

,as well as for those who

mourn in this church to-day, is waiting thatShadow with the keys. We all, in turn , mustface our forlorn hours of bereavement. For us

,

too,soon e

’

r or later,our house must be left unto

us desolate . H ow, then, in such a world a s thi s ,can we do otherwise than yearn for that new

heaven and new earth,where God shall wipe all

t ears fromofl'

allfaces,and whence sorrow and

sighing shall flee away ? But mark, my friends

28 EVERYDAY CH RISTIAN LIFE.

to the happines s of any home . But these can

be avoided . The misery which these induce isa s elf-chosen misery. Where these are, thereindeed the wed ded calm ofhomes is disastrouslyruined . Self-assertion, self-will , selfishness, theinability to bear and forbear, the refusal to bearone another’s burdens

,and s o fulfil the law of

Christ,the absence of healing, holy, self-abne

gating tenderness— these are indeed the beginn ing of troubles. Too many know it by bitterexperience. They see the fires of hell reddenupon their hearth, and coldness succeed to love,and cruelty to coldness and if drink comes in

,

as it Often does, in such cases, brutalism s ucceedsto cruelty. But even short of these immea surab le calamities

Alas how light a caus emaymoveDis s ens ion between hearts that love lHearts that the world in vain had triedAnd s orrow but more clos ely t ied ;That s tood the s tormwhen waves we re rough,Yet, in a sunny hour, fall off,Like ships that have gone down at s ea

When heaven was alltranquillity.

Better, says Solomon, “ is a dinner of herbswhere love is , than a sta lled ox and hatredtherewith .

”

What then,in brief

,is the one best

,surest

secret ofa happy home ? It is that it should bea home where in dwe lleth righteousness

,whe re in

dwelleth the fear ofGod ,wherein dwelleth love .

H EAVEN IN EARTHLY H OMES. 29

And since this is in our power, therefore thebles s ednes s which is deeper and more enduringthan happiness is also within our own reach.And so it is with the world . Ifwe make of thisworld, s o far a s we are concerned, a world wherein dwelleth righteousness, s o far do we anticipatethe fruit ion ofthe new world, the new Jerusalem.

Le t us aim at this tranquil, this sober happiness of quiet and confidence and peace in God.

This is no chimaera. The possibility of win

ning this is no illusion . In our patience let uspossess

,let us acquire our souls . The world

will still be the world. There will still be thepestilence which walketh in darkness and thearrow that fl ieth in the noon-day. The animalismofbrutal passions will sti ll crowd our streetswith the infamy of its victims and the wretchedness which dogs their heels. There will still beenvy and hatred and malice, and lie s, andsickness, and poverty, and death ; but theworld in which our inmost souls shall live andmove and have their being wi ll even in thislife become an anticipated fruition of the new

heaven and the new earth.! The outer world

may s till continue for many a long year, it

may be for many a long century, to gropein Egyptian darkness , in darkness which maybe felt ; but our souls, like the children of

Israel in Goshen , may have light in their dwellings. For God is l ight

,and he who dwelleth in


God dwelleth in light ; and whe re God’s light

is there is wisdom and safety, and a peacewhich the world does not even attempt togive ; and which

,happily

,neither its malice,

nor it s wickedness, nor its misfortunes can evertake away.

b ow tomake Barth like h eaven.

Wherein dwelleth righteous nes s .—2 PETER iii . 13.

AST Sunday we began the New Yearby considering our hopes of the NewHeaven and the New Earth, and by

asking ourselves the question whether, even hereand now,

we might not enjoy at least a foretas teof the fruition of that realm of God . We didnot hide from ourselves that everything earthlyis transitory and imperfect ; that alike the

material world, and the whole estate of man,and our individual lives

, groan and travail inpa in togethen even until now, awai t ing the re

demption of the body. But we inquiredwhether we may not hasten the blessed restitut ion of all things to their idea l beauty andhappiness, even a s in the previous verse St.Peter speaks of Christ ians as expecting andhastening the Advent— the Day of the Lord .

And we took from the Sphere of home life ones ing le illustration of the certainty that we can

32 EVERYDA y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

ourse lves make unspeakable differences in the

blessedness or misery of the conditions whichsurround us . It ha s been said of marriage bya wise writer that

I t locally contains or hell or heaven,There is no third place in i t .

S ince an English home may be to us, a s wemake it, a heaven or a hell, clearly no smallpart of life depends upon our own choice of

good or evil ; and if, in a sphere sowide, we can ina measure ant icipate

,even here and even now,

the new heavens and the new earth, there isreason to believe that we could do so in stilllarger measure— that we could thus, as it were,anted ate the coming of Christ ’s kingdom, andlead on the lingering years .There are two great spheres ofpublic activity,politics and business ; and for each of us privately there is the domestic, the social, theindividual life . Let me try to s how this evening , how, not in our homes only, but through allour lives

,l iving as children of the kingdom, we

may anticipate something of its final blessedness . I shall not attempt to exhaust the sub

ject , but only to illustrate it . Yet if you willgrasp the general thought with all the vastresponsibility which pertains to it— if you willregard the elements of the highest bless edness

to which man’s fiplt

‘ it can reach as things not

MAKE EARTH LIKE H EAVEN. 33

distant, not Utopian , but perfectly attainableyou will soon see that God has not mocked uswith a dream

,or dazzled us with a mirage of

the wilderness, but that H e places within ourreach the happiness which is our being’s endand aim

,that H e has told us the secret which

unlocks the eternal treasure-hous e of Spiritua lpeace.2 .

“We,brethren, according to His promise,

look for new heavens and a new earth, whereindwelleth righteousness .” You see St . Peter’sconception of the new univers e . Its one characteris t ic to him is righteousness . Is righteousne ss attainable by man ? If it be

,then the

e ssence ofGod ’s kingdom is not beyond man ’sreach . Ifrighteou s ne ss be attainab le here andnow

,then here and now we may at least enter

into the k ingdom of heaven . Is our conceptionof happiness identified with righteousness ? Isthat the thing which we desire ? Is that ourideal ? I s that the one goal to which we arestretching forward in the heavenly race If s o,

then for us,even here and now,

“ the path toheaven lies through heaven

,and all the way to

heaven is heaven. What sort of a conditionanswers to the heaven of which you dream

,for

which you sigh ? Is it a state of things whichyou vaguely call glory ? Is it a starry crownthe symbol of supreme se lf-aggrandisement ?I s it a golden throne

,the summit of individual

0

34 EVERYDAY CHRISTIAN LIFE.

exaltation ? Is it the res t of an untroubledindolence ? Ifso our heaven may prove to beindeed a chimaera both now a nd hereafter.Such notions of heaven betray the unsuspectedfact that

,after all

,our high spiritual hopes

resolve themselves into mere earthliness— intoan ill-concealed amalgam of vanity and s elfis h

ness.The true conception ofheaven is hol iness . It

is the elimination ofbaseness and ofs in . So saysDavid.

“Who shall ascend into the hill of theLord, or who shall rise up in His Holy Place ?Even he that hath clean hands and a pureheart, and that hath not lift up his mind untovanity, nor sworn to deceive his neighbour. Heshall receive the blessing from the Lord

,and

righteousness from the God of his salvation .

This is the generation of them that seek Him,

even of them that seek thy face, 0 Jacob .

So,too, says St. Paul .

“ I have fought thegood fight, I have finished the course

,I have

kept the faith henceforth there is laid up forme the crown of the crown of what ? Ninepers ons out of ten will fi l l up the word withglory the crown ofglory ; but that is notwhat St. Paul says : what he says is “ henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteous ne s s

,which the Lord, the righteous Judge,

s hall give me at that day, and not only to me,but also to all them that have loved H is appear


do you pray for, when you pray for heaven ?What wa s the reward for which the saintshave looked ? A white robe ? a golden harp ?a house of gems ? to be praised by allmen tobe avenged on their enemies No but when thevision said to St . Thomas Aquinas

,Thou hast

written well of me, 0 Thomas ; what rewarddost thou desire ? ” Non aliam,m

’

s t'

te, Domina

No other reward than Thyself, O Lord wa s

the meek and rapt reply. Did not David s aythe s ame ? Thou

,O God, art the thing that

I long for.

” Whom have I in heaven but Thee ;and there is none upon earth that I desire incomparison of Thee ? ” Are our s ouls thusath irst for God ? Amid the eager competitionof business, amid the mad desire for pleasureand for gold, how many of you are seeking firstthe kingdom of God and H is righteousness ?Ah ! my friends, if God and His righteousnessbe our conception of heaven, we may attainthereto— ay, without money, without price.If righteousness be the one characteristic of

the new heaven and the new earth, it is here

within reach. If God be the one object of ourdesire

,and oneness with Christ our single aim

,

why may not the best of heaven lie about usnow ? As the hart pante th after the waterbrooks

,so longeth my soul after Thee, O

God ! ” Which of us can honestly say that ?If we can, happy are we . Blessed are they

MAKE EARTH LIKE HEAVEN . 37

that hunger and thirst after righteousness, forthey shallbe filled .

Modern science has shown us why the deeps ky is blue ; and here in a London lecture-roomyou may see the azure of the firmament enclosedfor you in a tube of common glass. Oh, myfriends

, would that we could see how possible itis for us to make our lives l ike that tube ofglass,and to fillthem with the spiritual azure of thenew heaven ! And ifeach ofour lives were fullofheaven

,how widely would it diffuse it s lovely

radiance,how soon would that new heaven glow

over all the darkened world

3 . But I can only give you some passingillustrations of this poss ibility

,taken from

various sphe re s or elemen ts of our private andpublic life.i . M ill ions ofmen are engaged in one form or

other of trade and commerce, and every one of

us is more or less occupied in affa irs with whichmoney is concerned . Now one main elementof righteousness is stainles s honesty

,i nflexible

integrity. Have you ever thought how immense an amelioration would be introduced intothe conditions of life ifperfect integrity

,if stain

less honesty were , as it might be, the invariablerule ? H ow keenly does the Book of Prove rbsexpress the world ’s experience of the commonness of cheating, and quackery

,and s elfi s h

struggling competition, and the incessant a im

EVERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE.

to over-reach and to defraud,to make unjust

gain s , to win all we legally or illegally can, notthe fair and honest profit and proportion ! Butthe Christian must ever pray

,

“Let integrity anduprightness preserve me, for I wait on Thee .

”

Eliminate from all money concerns the elements offraud and immoral custom, ofscrambleand selfi s hness, of puff and push, of the dishonesty which postpones or will not pay justdebts

,of the counter-dishonesty which wrings

from the fair payments of the honest the baddebts ofthe dishonest : eliminate the robbing ofthe hireling of his wages, and the gri nd ing thefaces of the poor, and the mak ing gain of theappetites

,or the wants, or the miseries, or of

the guileless inexpe rience of others ; eliminatethe fraudulent dealing with trusts, the playingtricks with money, the forgeries, the bubblecompanies , the gambling s peculations, the ringsofmiddlemen, the cooking ofaccounts , the tam

pering s with marke ts—g e t rid of all this ne t

work of the base and evilspirit of Mammon,this manifold eng inery of temptation whichSatan puts into the hands of those who, makinghaste to be rich , shall not be innocent— and canyou estimate the greater heavenliness whichwould then be introduced into human society ?

Truly the love of money is a root of all evil ;only the fewes t know how to win it wisely, tospend it nobly. Men try in vain to serve God

MAKE EARTH LIKE HEAVEN . 39

and Mammon. They do not disbelieve in Christ,but, like Judas, they sell H im .

” They palterwithGod for gold . If we would pour but one rayof heaven into the s hut house of life

,the firs t

essential for each and for all of us is absolute,perfect, inflex ible integrity. He that walkethin his uprightnes s feareth the Lord .

i i. Nor less essential to our new earth hereis perfect Purity. Can you —can any mindshort ofthe Infinite—at all measure the depthand the width ofshame and misery with whichlife is flooded by the violation of God’s lawofchastity ? Who shall tell how many millionsare the lives in which, because of uncleanness ,their root has been as rottenness and theirblossom has gone up as dust ? H e who sinsagainst this high inexorable eternal law doesso verily with h is eyes open—he goes like a

bird to the snare of the fowler, like an ox tothe slaughter, like a fool to the correction of

the stocks— he goes knowing ly to the banquetwhere the dead are, and the guests in thedepths of hell. Immeasurable is the cursewhich impurity introduces into human life ;immeasurable the wrongs which it infl icts uponthe innocent ; immeasurable the certain andawful retribution which it drags down uponthe guilty. Alas ! we need go no farther thanthe shameful streets and agonizing hos pitals of

great cities to know the horrors of disea s e and

40 EVERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

wretchedness which follow in the wake of God ’sinsulted and violated laws ! And yet they donot reveal one thousandth part of the desperateevil. Let us not speak of it : but look andpass. But to every young person here pres entmost earnestly would I say, Be seech Alm ightyGod that He may teach you how benevolentand how inexorable is the law of purity.

Cherish the unsullied ‘ crystal of that heavenlyinnocence . When the serpent creeps in, theblis s ofGod ’s Paradise i s gone. You can neverknow what heaven i s—you can never know theserenity of perfect peace— unti l youkeep yourmorta l bodies in tempe rance

,soberness

,and

chastity. Know ye not that your bodies aretemples of the Holy Ghost who dwe lleth inyou— except— (oh ! what a fearful

“ except ”

— except ye b e reprobates ? Blessed — ourSaviour’s own lips said it blessed are thepure in heart, for they sha ll s ee God .

”

i ii . Once more— (for, a s I s a id , I desire onlyto illustrate the subject, not to exhaust it) —withpe rfect integrity, and pe rfe ct purity, there mustalso be perfect love in the new heaven and thattender charitable truthfulnes s which is a part of

it . We need a new heaven and a new earth,

most of all, because s o many men by hatred

and by untruthfulness, as we ll as by dishonestyand uncleanness, . turn earth from a pos sibleheaven into an anticipated hell. Of all piti

MAKE EARTH LIKE HEAVEN . 4 1

able lives the most pitiable is that of thosewho make money by pandering to the envya nd malice, which are the mos t s nake-like of

human infirmit ie s . I know that the worldalike the fashionable world and the vulgar world— does not think so . Alike in the back s treetand the luxurious drawing-room, men thinkthat scanda l is amusing, and take lies for wit .Other vices ally men to brutes, but ofmale

.volent falsehood man has the sad and degrading monopoly. It is , I say again , impossibleto estimate the extent to which bad men, andbad women

,for their own interests, add to the

misery of life, when their throat is an opensepulchre and “ the poison ofasps is under theirlips.” Enough of thi s als o . Earth would be acomparat ive Paradise if men loved each other,as now they envy, hate, and belie each other,till even the sphere of religion rings wi th thebitternes s ofunscrupulous and intriguing faction .

She thought to herse lf,”

writes a mode rnnove list

,how delightful it would b e to live in

a house where eve rybody understood , and loved,and thought about eve ry one els e . She did notknow that her wish was jus t for the kingdomofHeaven .

Now I appeal to every one among you to te llme whether you do not clearly s ee that lifewould be utterly different ifmen would makeit d ifferent ; unu tterably more blessed if men


sought or cared for the elements of blessedness .Oh ! that men would but be true men

,and that

women would be the holy and gracious thingswhich God meant women to be ; for when theyindulge themselves in these sins they cease to betruemen or true women . The man whose heartis ever burning with envy

,and hatred

,and sullen

jealousy, and mad ferocity— is he a man, or ajackal, or a tiger ? The man who has enslavedhimself to lust and drunkenness ; the man who,smitten with the wand of the foul enchantress,rolls with pleasure in a sensual s ty—is he still aman, or has he become akin to the ape or theswine ? The man who i s given over to lies andmalignities , has he not sunk into a serpent, ashe hears the serpent’s curse ? Expel from thehuman heart the ape ’s vileness

,the serpent’s hi s s,

the tiger’s fury

,the vulture wings which hasten

to carrion ; and then indeed man will becomebut l ittle lower than the angels

,crowned with

glory and honour ! M an may be like the brutesor like the angels, a s he will. A society of

men as God meant themto be, a true Churchof Christ— ah ! it would be a place whichangels themselves might love. And we mighthelp

,each one of us, to make earth s o. And

the more heartily we do this, each for ourselves

,the more surely wi llothers do it

,for “ it

i s aston i s hing how much good goodnes s makes .

4 . And, in conclusion, be it small or be it

44 EVERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE,

or of the Church,or of our individual lives ;

however ominous the clouds that may seem toloom upon our future

,that horizon is not halfso

black, those clouds are not half s o lurid, a s inthe days of Claudius and Nero ; and yet evenin those days, when Jews loathed the Gos pel andGentiles were striving to s tamp it under theirfeet

,when intellect spat upon it and philosophy

spurned it, and armies smote it and malignity.

insulted it with shameful lies ; even in those daysthe writer of the Epi s tle to the Hebrews fearlessly spoke of it to poor slaves and artisans asa kingdom that could not be moved . Upon itspresent certainty he founded its future permanence ; and that hi s brethren m igh t feel itsblessedness now, and enter on its future heritagetogether, he adds the exhortation which Iwould fain leave with you : “Whe refore wereceiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken

,let

us — let us , at any rate, no matter how muchevi l is around us

,no matter how vehemently

the world still goes on its own evil way,

with its companions the flesh and the devil ;no matter how much the nominal Church i stainted by the faction

,the materialism

,and the

base methods of the world let us have graceto serve God acceptably

,with reverence and

godly fear . Let us do this, and we shall havebegun already to enter in to that new heaven andthat new earth wherein dwe lleth righteousness .

IIIAKE EARTH LIKE HEAVEN . 45

Addis on tells us how he once ta lked with a

Rosicrucian about the great secret . He talkedof it as a spirit that lived in an emerald, andconve rted everything that was near it to thehighest perfect ion it was capable of. It givesa lustre

,

’ said he,

‘ to the sun and water to thed iamond . It irradiates eve ry metal, and enricheslead with all the properties ofgold. It heightenssmoke into flame, flame into light, and light intoglory.

’ He further added that a single ray diss ipa te s care, and pain, and melancholy fromtheperson on whom it falls. In short,

’ said he,‘ it s

presence naturally changes every place into akind ofheaven .

’ At length I found, says Addis on,

“ that his great secre t wa s nothing else butcontent.”—But to make a heaven requires s omething more than content ; it requires righteousness— new heavens and a new earth whereindwelleth righteous nes s .

W hat to (think about.

Finally, brethren, whats oever things are true, whats oeverthings are honourable, whats oever things are jus t, whats oeverthings are pure , wha ts oever thing s are lovely, whats oever thing sare of good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be anypra is e , think on thes e things . —PH IL IPPIANS iv. 8.

T . PAUL seems as if he could notbreak off h is glad

,humble

,grateful

letter to the beloved Philippians,whose

generosity to him while he wa s a prisoner hadtouched his lonely heart . Several times heseems to be on the point of ending it, butcannot res ist the desire to give one more solemnand hopeful message. He has a lready toldthem to rejoice in the Lord to let their gentleness be known unto all men ; to lay aside allnervous anxiety about their future

,secure in

faith and prayer ; and so, he says, the peace of

God, better than any device of man,shall

stand sentry ove r their hearts. Then followsthis vers e . He tells them what to think of,

what to value and make of great account, what

WH AT To TH INK ABOUT. 47

to practise in the ir lives . And if they do th ishe says that the God of Peace will certainlybe with them .

s

2. The things which he suggests to theirmed itation and practice fall into three groups .He bids them think of things which, absolutely,are things rea l, and things awful ; to thinkof whatsoever things, relatively to man, arejust and ofwhatsoever things are, relatively tothemse lves

,chaste and pure. Then he sums up

all these things with reference to the moralappreciation of them,

as being lovely and of

good report ; as making up the sum total ofvirtue, as being the sole things worthy of

praise . These things, he te lls them, should betheir absorbing meditation—their lifelong care .

Let us look at them a little more closely, ifso be that we may find grace to obey thesegolden counsels of the great apostle to usGentiles.

3.

“Whatsoever things are true . The wordhas a fuller and deepe r meaning in the Biblethan now it has . Truth with us means theOpposite of falsity in speeelz , but in Scripture itmeans the opposite of allunrea lity, all sham,

all semblance . St. Paul bids them to think habitually of all that is real; on the substance

,not

on the shadow ; on the eternal, not on the trans itory ; on God, not on the world . H e meansthe same a s David meant when he prayed, Turn

48 EVER YDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE.

away mine eyes from beholding vanity,

’

fromdwelling on what is hollow and emptybut quicken Thou me in Thy law.

”

H e meansthe same as our Lord meant when He said

,

“ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon theearth, where moth and rust doth consume andwhere thieves break through and stea l

,but lay up

for yourse lve s treasures in heaven .

”

In this,as

in all else that is valuable,the sacred authority

ofRevelation does but emphasize the universalexperience ofthe world . The van ity of humanwishes

, wishes that disappoint equa lly in the irfrustration and in the ir accomplis hment

,wis hes

which are almost more bitter in their fulfilmentthan in their unsuccess , i s a lesson commonalike to Solomon the d isenchanted king, and toJuvenal the heathen satirist ; it is the lessonalike of Paul the Apostle, and of Horace theEpicurean . What is the world, and what thethings of the world Scripture and experienceteach us that they are like a mirage in thewilderness— bright, enchanting, full of promise ,ending only in scorching drought and glaringsand . In the famous vision of Mirza ourmoralist de scribe s mankind chasing bubbles ona bridge of three score and ten arches

,which

spans the rolling waters of a prodigious tide, andsinking through hidden trapdoors into the abyssin the midst of the ir vain chase . Shaks peare

speaks ofthe soldier

WHAT TO TH INK ABOUT. 49

Seeking the bubble ReputationE

’

en in the cannon’s mouth.

Our Poet Laureate makes his weary queenexclaim

,

Oh, bubb le world,Whos e colours in a moment break and fly .

What is a bubble It is a thin globe ofwater euclosing air

,with which children play . It glitters

in the air like a ball of opal and emerald ; butleave it alone, and in a few seconds the blackspot will show itself amid the colours of theprism

,and nothing is left ofthe radiant phantom

but a pellicle ofimpure water. Man himself, apartfrom God, is but such a bubble . To appear

,

to gleam, to disappear— to be born, to suffer, to

die ; there is the resume ofour ephemeral lives.’

In youth,they “

s hine like a bubble,or the

colours on a dove’s neck, or the hues ofthe ra inbow,

whose very image is fantastical in a fewsecond s appear the dark spaces of manhood ’strouble

,of care, of sickness, and of age ; and

then— as hes to ashes, dust to dust ! And asis man, so, still more, are the things which manpurs ues. They look beautiful when they floatabove our reach ; but touch them,

and theyburst.

This world is alla fleeting s how,

Forman’s illus ion givenThe smiles ofjoy, the tears ofwoe ,Dece itful s hine , dece itful flowThere ’s nothing true but heaven .


And fals e the light on glory’s plume ,

As fad ing hue s ofeven ,And honour’s wreath , and beauty

’s bloom,

Are garlands given to the tomb,There ’s nothing true but heaven.

So sings the light gay poet ; s o al s o say s St . Paul .The fashion of this world passeth away.

Well then,if you would not be utterly dis

appointed— utterly and inevitably,and most

miserably Whatsoever things are real”

God, the Soul, Eternity, the Gospel of the LordJesus Christ think on these th ings.

4 . And “whatsoever things are honourable .

The word a enm‘

z means “ noble,” “ grave ,

“ reverend,

” “s eemly.

” It is an exhortation todignity of thought as opposite to meanness ofthought. It invites to the gravity of self-respect .Most of the many base things which men s ay

are said anonymously, or on fal s e pretexts, withthe pr etence ofaims more reputable than thoseby which they are really influenced . Men andwomen often deceive even themselves . Theyact and speak and write ignobly

,a nd persuade

themselves that they are actuated by sincereand lofty motives. A high sense of our dignitya s redeemed ennobled beings would render impossible nine-tenths of the small, mean, enviousbaseness of which the whole world is full.Almost every vice and sin i s , of its very nature,not only sinful, but also unseemly and degrading.


respect. From that moment they fall headlongfrom their true estate, and they are miserablyconscious of it. Why is this s ea of life strewnwith hopeless wrecks ? Why are these crowdedcities so full of ghosts ? Could that wretchedman hang about the ' public-hou s es and the

corners of the streets ; could he sink so lowas to live on the grinding toil of h is wife , andto squander on h is blight ing crave for drinkthe money which should go to feed and clothethe dirty, ragged , depraved children, whomheis training up to be as great a curse to the worldas himself? could he have sunk to this loathlyworthlessness ofdegradation if he ever thoughtofwhatsoever things are honourable ?Could that d raggled, miserable, unwomanly

woman live in the horror of drink and vilenessif the dignity of pure womanhood had not beeneaten away out ofher heart ?Could that foolish youth run greed ily with

open eyes into disease , and s hame, and deaths elfis h, blasphemous, improvident— if he hadever kept in his soul the truth that man wasmade to glorify God here , a nd live with Himfor ever in heaven hereafter ? Under the pureand infinite majesty ofthe midnight with all it sstars you may see scenes of infamy ; you mayhear words of leprous d efilement , or see two

women reel out of the gin-shop to tear eachother to pieces in the street, till it seems mar


vellous that the insulted heavens do not darkenthemselves with wrath, or gleam into avengingflame, to overwhelm in deserved destruction the

human be ings who have sunk themselves s o nuutt erably low. Ah ! may God preserve everysoul of every man and woman and boy herepresent from such a hell ! I know no advicemore deep-reaching to young men than thisRespect yourse lves honour and realize your immortal nature . Whatsoever things are s eemly,majestic, dignified , awful God

,judgment

,

eternity—whateve r e levates and ennobles you,and delivers you from the coarse seductions of

present temptation—think on these things.

5. And whatsoever things are jus t .” Jus tice

is one of the most elementary of human duties ;ay, and on e of the rarest . Men’s thoughts arecommonly swayed by their interests , tainted bytheir prejudices ; they judge by appearances ;they judge unrighteous judgment ; they arewarped by unreasonable antipathies ; they usefalse balances and unjust we ights in judging of

one another. I know few jus t men. One of

the ve ry purest and nobles t characters in Greekhistory was known a s

“Aristid e s the Just.Not long ago there died a clergyman who hadwon among his schoolfellows at Winches ter thehonourable n ickname of “ Aristides

'

the Just.”

He had borne that name for life. H e had neversullied it. He carried it with himto the grave.

54 EVERVDA y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

When a friend was asked to write his epitaphhis answer was , Carve him a monument withthree words on it,

‘Aristides the Just,’ and leave

him to sleep in Jesus .” Try to imitate him .

Try to be what s o very few are, habitually fairWhatsoever things are j ust

,think on these

things .”

6 . And “ whatsoever things are pure Ah !

that this warning might reach the heart ofeveryone of you

,and inspire you with the resolute

effort to banish from your minds everythingthat d efileth. As on the one hand there isnothing in this world more exquisite than a soulfromwhich the bloom and d ew of innocencehave not been swept away ; as there is nothingmore divine on earth than the indignant blushofmodesty on the pure young cheek ; s o thereis nothing more wretched than heWhose soul isa desecrated temple abounding in chambers ofunclean imagery, haunted by the spirits of

impure and polluted thoughts. Alas ! this unsullied loveliness ofsoul i s only possible to thosewho guard it like the golden apples of theHesperides . It is gone for those who dwellupon unha llowed thoughts ; who long for thepoisonous fru it of the tree of the knowledge of

evil who indulge in a base and morbid curiositywho have once given themselves over to workall uncleanness with greediness . Rememberthat thoughts are under our own control ; that it


is our own fault ifwe indulge in them ; that thethought ofwickedness is sin ; that God sees andknows our most secret thoughts ; that impurethoughts voluntarily encouraged lead inevitablyto fata l deeds and blighted l ives. There is nomore sure way to blast, as with the poisonousbreath of a sirocco, every green leaf and fairflowe r of youth than to subject it to the hotb reath of lewd imag inations . I can imagineno worse misfortune that could happen to anyyouth than wi lful and guilty indulgence in thepollution of debased and debasing thoughts .

He can ej ect,he can suppress, he can

“

refusethem a lodgment ifhe will ; and if he does not- oh, youth, thou art indeed unhappy

7. And whatsoever things are lovely —win

ning attractive thoughts that live and are

radiant in the light. Ifyou think ofsue/e things,the baser and viler t hings wi ll have no charmfor you . Try, then, above all,

“ the expulsivepower of good affections .” Empty by filling ;empty of what is mean and impure by fi llingwith what is noble and lovely. When theArgonauts sailed past the treacherous rocks ofthe Sirens they sailed in perfect safety, becauseOrpheus was one of them

,and the song of

Orpheus wa s swee ter,more de lightful, more full

of noble witchery than the Sirens’ vile,volup

tuous strains. Let your souls be filled with themusic of Him whom the early Chris t ians


delighted to repres ent as Orpheus charming thewild beasts ofbad passions by his harp .

Your souls are a picture-gallery. Cover thewalls of them with things serene, noble , beautiful, and the foul and fle s hly will only seemrevolting.

“ Hang this upon the wall of yourroom ,

” said a wise picture-dealer to an Oxfordundergraduate a s he handed to him the engrav

ng ofa Madonna ofRaphae l,“ and then all the

pictures of jockeys and ballet-girls will d is appear .” Try the same experiment within yoursouls. Let their walls be hung with all thingssweet and perfect— the thought of God

,the

image of Christ,the lives of God’s saints

,the

aspirations of good and great men, the memories of golden deeds

,noble passages of poetic

thought,scenes of mountain, and

'

suns e t , andocean . Oh, do this, and there shall b e no roomfor the thoughts of carnal ugliness, which deprave corrupted souls !8 . And “whatsoever things are of g ood

report.” Here is the d ifference between the

children of the world and the children of the

kingdom . The world delights in whatsoeverth ings are of ill report— base stories, vile innuendoes , evil surmis es, scandalous hints . Theworld revels in envy, hatred, malice, and all nucharitableness. It finds nothing piquant for itsbase and jaded appetite in the beauty of fairdeeds and noble purposes but tricks, and inge

IVHAT TO TH INK ABOUT. 57

n ious lies, and backbiting, and‘ stabbing reputations in the dark— these the world and the fleshand the d evil find amusing ; these things flatterthe ir innate ignobleness on these things theygloat and fe ed . Do not you b e conten t todegrade yourse lves into sponges saturatedfrom the stagnant goos epond of city gossip.

You,ifyou would be noble, if you would be a

Christian at all, have nothing to do with thesethings . Hear as little as you poss ibly can tothe prejudice of others ; b eliey e nothing of thek ind unless youare forced to be lieve it ; neve rcirculate, nor approve of those who c irculate

,

loose reports ; moderate as far as you can thecensure of others ; a lways believe that if theother side were heard a very different accountwould b e given of the matter ” that isthoroughly good advice. Above all rememberthyself, lest thou al s o be tempted . Whatsoeverthings are ofgood report, think of t/i es e th ings.

9. So,then

,if there be any virtue

,if there be

any praise, think on these things . The form of

expression does not imply the least doubt thatthere i s virtue, and that there i s praise, but itmeans “whatever virtue, wha tever praise therebe.” It involves an appeal even to paganmorals and sensibilit ies . Virtue is not a Christian word ; it occurs scarcely once in the Bible.Why ? Because it is a

'

word which belongsrather to heathen ethics than to the Gospel ,

58 EVERVDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

rather to Plato and Aristotle than to St. Paul .Not that it is not beautiful, more beautiful (asAristotle says) than even the morning or theevening star. But in Chri s tianity it is supers ed ed by something deeper, pufer, brighte r,higher. The morning and the evening starvanish into a sea of lustre when the sun hasris en and virtue is nothing in comparison withholiness. Ye t even ordinary heathen virtuemee ts with its own praise and even virtue andhuman praise bid us think of whats oever thingsare real, seemly, just, pure, winning, of goodreport . H ow much more then does the loftierstandard of God ’s praise, and of holines s , makethis demand upon us ! Think

, then, oh, youngmen and young women, above all think on, takea ccount of these things ! For these things, St .Paul te lls you , are the s ecret of the peace of

God . Thought passes into action. The thoughtbecomes the word, the word the deed , the deedthe habit, the habit the character, the characterthe eternal being ofour souls .

“ The evening airclad in the beauty of a thousand stars ” is notlove lier than the character of him whose wholebe ing is passed in the reg ion ofeternal realitieswho knows the awful reverence which is due fromeve ry man to hi s own s oul who loveth the thingthat is just, and doeth the thing that is lawfuland right in singleness ofheart who keeps thetemple of his soul pure and bright with the

Cbilb t‘

en, anb tbe Gbilb Ghris t.

Freez e/zed in Wes tmins ter Aobey , Innocents’D ay . I 886 .

And the child grew,and waxed s trong , filled with wis dom

and the grace ofGod wa s upon him.

”—LUKE i i. 40.

Y short sermon this afternoon,my chil

dren, will be addres s ed to you alone.I sha ll th ink ofyou

,and not of all the

other persons who are here present . A goodbishop

,who now for many years has gone to his

rest, told me that once , afte r he had beenpreaching in a London church

,he s aw a little

boy s tand ing by one of the pews with red andswolle n face , crying a s if his heart would b reak .

The kind wife of the bis hop stopped and said tothe child,

“What i s the matter with you, mylittle fe llow And he

,pointing to the bishop

,

said,

“ The man spoke to me ; the man spoketo me. The preacher had not been thinking ofch ildren at all ; but something in the sermonhad touched the l ittle boy’s heart, had sped likean arrow to it s mark in his conscience. Now it

CH ILDREN , AND THE CH ILD CRH IST. 6 1

will be very far from my object to trouble theheart of any one of you to-day ; but when you

go away I should like you to think, each one ofyou

,that the man spoke to me.”

I . It was only on Saturday that we kept thejoyou s festival of Christmas, and yet the threedays since then have been days sacred tomartyrs—that is

,to those who for Christ

’s sakewere cruelly slain — firs t , the young man , St .

Stephen, then the old man, St . John, and to-daythe little innocent children whom Herod murdered when he wished to slay the child Je sus.And the reason for this is to teach us that whileChrist came to make us happy, yet we must nottherefore think that we shall escape trouble. Itis to teach us that all Chris tians—young men,and old men , and even little children— mustlearn to deny themse lve s for Jesus’ sake. Thoseli ttle innocents at Bethlehem are not the onlychildren who have pe rished even in childhood.

In cruel wars, in the sieges of cit ies, in faminesand plagues and shipwrecks, many and many alittle child has peri s hed ; and sometimes whenmen hated and burnt each other for religiousopinions, even little children have had to die forChrist’s sake—martyrs, like those holy innocents,in deed though not in will . And though noneof you wi ll ever be ca lled to die in your childhood for Jesu s ’ sake, yet God, in His unseen

providence, may send you pain, or s ickness, or


accident, or even death or you may have toweep for the loss of the father or mother wholoved you so tenderly or He may cause you tosuffer, as thousands of poor little children haveto sufl

'

er, from poverty or hunger or unkindne ss.I know that to most ofyou God is so loving andtender that He spares you from all these trialsyet even then— and then, indeed, all the moreout of love and grati tude to Him—you mustlearn

,for Christ’s sake

,to be unse lfis h and to

give up many things and to do what others like,

not what you would like ; and to be obedient.when you would rather do something else ; andto go to lessons, when you would rather play ;and to go to bed

,when you would rather s it upand to get up, when youwould like to lie inbed ; and to be meek and gentle and forgivingwhen youare tempted to speak angry word s , orto be proud

,and wilful, and troubles ome. And

you should try to learn this all the more becauseGod has been very good to you, and because theLord Jesus Christ,be ing so rich, yet foryour sakesbecame poor . Shall I tell you what a princesswrote— the Princess Amelia,who wa s an aunt ofour good Queen Victoria, and who after long and

painful sickness and trial died at an early age

Unthinking, idle , wild, and young,I laughed and danced, I talked and sung,And proud ofhealth, offreedomvain

,

Dreamt not ofs orrow, care, or pain.

CH ILDREN , AND THE CH ILD CH RIST. 63

Oh ! then, in thos e bright hours ofglee,I thought the world was made forme .

But when the hour oftrial came ,And s icknes s s hookmy feeble frame ,And folly’s gay pursuits were o

’

er,

And I could s ing and dance nomoreOh then, I thought how s ad

’

twould b e ,Were only this worldmade forme .

You too,my children, must learn that the

world was not made for you, but that you mustthink ofothers

,and be obedient, and sweet, and

kind.

2. Now, whenever you are tempted to be rude

or wilful or unloving, think that your Lord andSaviour Jesus Christ, who loved you so, anddied for you, and is your Good Shepherd, andwould fain carry you like lambs in His bosom ,

wa s once a little child like you , and wants youto be good and holy as He was .

Was not our Lord a little child ,Taught by degrees to pray,

By father dear and mothermildIn s tructed day by day ?

Yes , He wa s once a little child , subject to H isparents at Nazareth, s o that He knows al l yourtemptations, all your little troubles. And itwas just such little children as you that He tookup in His arms, and laid H is hands upon, andbless ed . Is it not wonderful to think that He,the Lord ofTime and all the worlds, came to usonce as a little babe, and played as a child in


the shop of the carpenter at Nazareth ? Therewas once— s o Luther tells us— a pious, godlybishop who had often earnestly prayed that Godwould show h imwhat Jesus wa s like in Hisyouth. Now once the bishop had a dream, and

in his dream he s aw a poor carpenter working athis trade, and beside him a little boy gatheringup chips . Then came in a maiden, clothed i ngreen

,who called them both to come to the

meal, and set bread and milk before them. Allthis the bishop seemed to see in his dream

,

stand ing behind the door that he might not beseen . Then the little boy began and said,“Why does that man stand there ? Will he notcome in also and eat with us ? ” A nd this sofrightened the bishop that he woke . But heneed not have been frightened, for does not

J e s us s ay, Ifany man hear My voice, and openthe door

,I wi ll come in to him, and sup with

him,and he with Me.” And whether the dream

be true or not, we know that Jesus in His childhood and youth looked and acted like otherchildren

, in fashion like a man, yet withoutsm.

3. And there have been pure and sweet andholy ch ildren who have thought so much of thechild Jesus that they have seemed to s ee Him .

There was once a boy whose name was EdmundRich

,and who is called St. Edmund ofCante r

bury ; and his brother tells us that once, when,

CH ILDREN , AND TH E CH ILD CH RIST. 65

at the age of twelve , he had gone into the fieldsfromthe boisterous play of his companions , hethought that the child Jesus appeared to him,

and said , Hail, beloved one ! And he, wond ering at the beautiful child, said,

“Who artthou, for ce rtainly thou art unknown to me ?

"

And the child J esus said, H ow comes it that Iamunknown to thee

,seeing that I sit by thy

side at school, and wherever thou art , there do Igo with thee ? Look on my forehead, and s ee

what is there written . And Edmund looked,and s aw the name “ Jesus.” This i s my name ,

”

said the child ;“write it on thy heart, and it

s hall protect thee from evil.” Then He disappeared, on whom the angels desire to look,leaving the li ttle boy Edmund with passingsweetness in his heart.

4 . Now you, my children, may never see thechild Jesus even in vision as Edmund d id , andyet you may all see H im, every one of you

,by

the eye of faith. There lived, fifteen hundredyears ago, a saint whose name was Jerome, andhe loved so much the thought ofthe child Christ

,

that he left Rome, and went and lived for th irtylong years in a cave at Bethlehem, close by thecavern-stable in which Christ wa s born . Andwhen men wished to invite him by earthlyhonours to work elsewhere, he said,

“ Take menot away fromthe cradle where my Lord wa slaid . Nowhere can I be happier than there .

E


There do I often talk with the child Jesus , andsay to Him

,

‘Ah,Lord ! how can I repay Thee

And the Child answers,I need nothing. Only

sing thou Glory to God, and peace on earth .

And when I say Nay ! but I must yie ld Theesomething the Holy Child replies, Thy si lverand thy gold I

.

need not. Give them to the

poor. Give me only thy sins to b e forgiven.

’

And then do I begin to weep, and say,‘Oh ,

Thou ble ssed Child Jesus, take what is mine, andgive me what is Th ine ! ’

Now in this way ,by the eye of faith

,you

may all see the Child Jesus,and,

“ unseen yetever near

,

” you may fee l His presence, and Hemay s it by your side at school

,and be with you

all day to keep you from harm, and to driveaway bad thoughts and naughty tempers, andsend His ange ls to watch over you when yousleep.

5. But remembe r that the surest way not to

see Jesus, but to displease H im, is to do any

thing which you know to be wrong. Youmustalways remember

,when you think of Him

thatThemos t childis h s in thatman can do

Is yet a s in which Je sus never didWhen Jesus wa s a child, and yet a s in

Forwhich in lowlines s H e came to d ie .

So I hope that, morning and even ing, youfold your hands and lift up your hearts in


cold ; for Jes us had inde ed seen it, and heardthat mute prayer of the agony of that strayedlamb ofH is fold , and He had grasped the littlesoiled trembling hand of the sufl

'

erer, and hadtaken himaway to that bette r, happier home ,where He will love also to make roomfor youand me, if we seek H imwith all our hearts,and try to do His will .6 . I have only one word more to s ay to you,and that is to tellyou one other way in whichyou can see that dear Lord who died for you .

You may see Him in prayer, and you may s ee

H imby always trying to be good, and you mays ee H imalso in the poor whom He loves, andby being kind to them , and to one another, andto all . Youdon’t know what it is to be sent toschoolin the morning without a morse l ofbreakfast, and to come back to find no fire to s it byand nothing but a scanty crust of bread to eat.You don ’t know what it is to be sent out shive ring and in rags into the snow, and to be k icked ,beaten

,and starved by drunken fathers and

mothers . But these s ad and cruel things happento many little English children in these Londonstreets, who are not blest as you are. And Jesussays to you ,

“ In help ing these you help M e .

”

Would it not be a terrible thing if some day Hewere to s ay to you, I wa s hungry and ye gaveMe no meat I was thirsty, and ye gave Me nodrink ; I was naked, and ye clothed Me not ; I

CH ILDREN,AND TH E CH ILD CHRIST. 69

uas s ick and in pris on, and ye did not visitMe ” Ah no ! let H imrather shed on youtheblessing which He promises to those who giveeven a cup of cold water in H i s name to one of

His little ones ; and then He shalls ome day sayto you, before H is glittering angels, Inasmuchas ye did it unto one of the least of these Mybrethren, ye did it unto Me .

”

“uns een IRQfllltlQS.

The things which are s een are temporal, but the things whichare not s een are e ternal . ”—2 COR. iv. 1 8 .

Y friends, we have been living throughweeks which will be memorable inhistory , and amid the unique celebra

tions of an event which can hardly by anypossib ility recur in the lifetime of any personnow living. To most, perhaps to all of us, itha s been, in one way or another, a time of

excitement . Numbers have been much occupied about such mat ters as whether they hador had not received an invitation to this or thatceremon ial or why such a one had a ticket whenthey had not ; or whe ther the inch -broad realmof the ir supposed claims has been infr inged orwhether the inch-high grandeur of their imaginary dignity has been affronted . What vexationabout supposed slights ! What woundings of

i rritable sen s ibil ities ! Many of us have beenmoving through a world of the infini tely little

,in

which the exagge rated demands of clamorous

UNSEEN REAL! TIES. 7 1

egotism have run riot on every side. At s uchtimes it i s more than ever diffi cult to keep upour reverence for the true grandeur of humannature. We get a l ittle weary, and long for rest .But how, if we ourselve s have been vulgar

with the vulgar,little with the litt le, s elfish with

the selfis h ifwe , too, have allowed ourselves tobe d isturbed by trivial annoyances ; how,

ifwe ,

too, have been guilty of absorbing egotism,and

not risen above the eternal spirit of the multitude ? H ow strange it is that few, even of the

best ofus, attain to the estimate ofthings a t theirright value ! What is the outcome of the mereexternal pageantry of the Jub ilee , apart from the

les sons which here at least we have tried to drawfrom it We have seen two or three ceremonialsare we the wiser, are we the happier

,are we

the be tte r for them, except so far as we haveassociated them with thoughts of gratitude toGod

,with the good resolves ofprospect, with the

wise experience of retrospect ? At any rate, isit not time now at last to remind ourselve s, withMarcus Aurelius

,that, apart from our spiritual

life ,“ the idle business of shows, plays on the

s tage , a bone cast to little dog s, a bit of breadin fis hpond s , labourings of ants

,and burden

carrying runnings to and fro of frightened littlemice, puppets pulled by strings— this is whatlife resembles ” Shall a Pagan teach us to estimate things as they are ? Well, this is how that

72 EVER YDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE.

best and greatest Emperor of Rome thoughtabout his own grandeur This Fa lernian wine ,

”

he says,

“ i s only a little grape -j uice and thisimpe rial purple robe some s heep’s wool dyedwith the blood of a she ll-fi s h .

” Whenever weare tempted to be absorbed in worldly things weought to lay thembare and look at their intrinsicunreality. We have seen princes and greatoffi cialsresple ndent and purpurea l in gold, and pearls ,and broidered array ; but a man i s j ust a s greatas he is in the sight of God— no greate r. The

only true grandeur ofmen and women is to beg ood men and g ood women ; and wisely doesMilton sing of the father ofour race

In hims elfwas allhis s tate .

2. Since , then, we have been living, outwardlyat least, amid the display of things seen and t emporal

,fain would I recall your thoughts from

the ir thrice-doubled emptiness ."r They derivefrom the unseen eternal things all such smallreality as they possess. A person of distinctionpays us some small attention, and we are in aflutter of delight ; alas ! in the reality ofthingssome small unnoticed act of daily life , sometrivial unregarded kindness, some tiny effort toconquer a besetting vice , some little word spokenin due season, is of ten thousandfold moreimportance than if all the kings who were evercrowned smiled upon us in full assemblages of

Eccl. i. 2.

UNSEEN REAL! TIES. 73

the nobles, and made us peers and princes, and

hung gold chains around our necks.

3. In the Grosvenor Gallery this year there isa picture by a young painter, which is full ofsuggestiveness . It is called “ The Shadow of

the Saint .” After some glad and gorgeousrevel two young Pagan girls are returning home.They are richly dres s ed ; they are flushed withpleasure ; the world is all before them ; theyare beautiful in the roses of the ir youth . Sudd enly, on the moonlit wall, they are startled bycatching sight of the shadow of the gaunt weirdfigure of a man who is kneeling on the top ofa pillar with hands uplifted in an agony of

supplication . It is the shadow of St . Simeon,the Stylite or pillar-saint, who, in accordancewith the deepening superst itions of the fifthcentury, l ived for years on the narrow summitof a column

,the sun smiting him by day

,the

moon by night . Into the heart of those twoyoung girls is suddenly flashed the terrific contrast between the saint’s l ife and theirs. Tlzey

are living exclusive ly for the things seen andtemporal ; for the fashion of this world whichpasseth away for a pleasureless pleasure whichshall sicken sooner than the flowers aroundtheir hair. H e

, however crudely, yet with thesincerity of an awful self-s acrifice , is living forthe things unseen which are eternal . They are

l iving for youth,which vanishes like the shadow


ofa bird’s wing for a life which is i tself as thetrack of a boat ’s keel in glassy waves ; for aworld which

, with all it s kingdoms and the gloryofthem, is but as a bubblewhich a touch destroys ,H e is living for God, and for a life beyond life .They, living in pleasure, are dead while theylive ; he, dead to plea sure, dead to self, is aliveunto God . The form which his se lf-denialtake s is corrupted by a thousand pe rversions oferror and ignorance ; but ignorance and errorare but as motes in the heavenly sunbeam of

s incerity,and in a distracted and diss olving age

the Stylite was at least a witness to the menand women of his time that they had souls ;that a man’s life consisteth not in the abundanceof the things which he possesseth ; that the lifeis more than meat and the body than raiment ;that he who find e th hi s life shall lose it, andhe who loseth hi s life for Christ

’

s sake and theGospel’s

,the same s hall find it .

4 . Awakenment then to the truth that our livesare in s ubstance a s a wreath of foamupon thewater, and in durat ion a s but a moment in thebe ing of the eternal silence awakenment to theexistence of the e ternal unseen realities— howmuch l ies in those words Which is our condition at this moment ? Does it most resemblethat ofthe young girls or that ofthe awful saint ?Are we l iving for the shadow or for the substance ? for the reality or for the dream ?


been startled into reality. It is told ofRaymondLully, the Doctor illumina te“

,once known for

his valour and ga llantries, that hi s whole lifewas changed when a lady

,whom he had been

wooing, showed him that she wa s stricken with amortal and terrib le disease . It is told ofFrancisof Ass isi

,in his you thful gaiety

,that the ex

perience s of defeat and impr isonment turnedhim from a worldling into a saint. It istold of Ignatius Loyola

,the brave Spanish

cavalie r, that the agonies of a fractured limb,which b l ighted all his life , drove himto give uphi s soul to God . It is told ofFrancis Xavie r thathe wa s utterly di s enchanted of the world ’s pleasures by the ever-repeated quest ion of Ignat ius,“What s hall it profit a man if he shall gainthe whole world and lose his own soul ? ” It istold ofLuther that the sudden death ofa friendand fe llow-student by a flash of lightning brokeup within him the fountains of the grea t deep ofreligious emotion. It is told of De Rance, thereformer of the Monastery of La Trappe

,that,

when he wa s a d iss olute and worldly priest, hewa s shocked into soberness by coming unexpectedly upon the dead body of the lady whomhe loved . It is told ofColonel Gard iner that

,in

an hour of guilt and shame, he sudden ly s aw avision of Jesus on the Cross, and was startledinto true repentance . Why should I go on Nodoubt in buffetings of ca lamity, in prostrations

UNSEEN REALI TIES. 77

of illness,in rude shocks of divine intimation

—or again,in spasms of agonizing disenchant

ment, when the Dead Sea apples have crumbled into bitterness , and the world itself hasseemed at a touch to slip into dust, like the bodyofsome exhumed king—men have been brought,in one moment, to recognize the things which,though unseen, are alone eternal . Havingbeen blind, lo at the touch ofChrist they seeBut is it not s ad and strange that such penaldispens ations should be so often necessary ?Should not Reason and Cons cience

,and un ivers al

experience , suffice us for this end ? The myrrhdoes not yield its fragrance unless it be incensedand crushed ; the scented tree must be smittenby the axe before its perfume can flow forth ;but why should life be only rendered holy andserious by pain and retribution ? Ah ! myfriends, depend upon it that God does notwilling ly afflict us ; that H is afflictions aremeant in saving mercy, because other means ofa rousing us have failed . H ow often does Hes ay to us Be ye not like the horse and themule which have no understanding, whosemouths mus t be held with bit and bridle lestthey fall upon thee . H ow much more gladlywould He say to us,

“ I wi ll guide thee withm ine eye.”

7 . My friends, we cannot live lives worth living,or lives worth anything , until we live in the light

78 E VER YDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

of the unseen. One of the noblest of humansouls, in the grandest of visions

,tells us how

he wa s saved from wande ring blindly amongthe wild beasts in the dark and savage wood ;how he was enabled to climb the difficult hillinto the Paradise ofGod ’s sunshine, and to ga inforgiveness and strength through Christ ourLord . And how wa s he delivered ? By thecombined influences ofreason, and divine knowledge

,and heavenly grace

,leading him to see

the things that are and to see them as they a s e .

He wa s led by these great angels to face thee ternal realities . He trod first the ghas tlyabysses ofhell he s aw a s with his own eyes it sloathly fiends, its rage and suicidal agony, itsflakes of slow-raining fire, its pools of blightingice

,its rivers of boiling blood. And then

,

escaping like some half-drowned swimmer, with

difficult spent breath, he toiled pa infully up thesteep mountain of penitence, while ange l wingsever and anon brushed away from his brow itsfatal b rands. And then, at last, purified by theblood ofhis Saviour, he wa lked in l ight a s God

'

is in the light, and,mingling am id the l iving

rubies and topazes of heaven,he gazed on the

throne ofthe Almighty. It wa s a vision, but avision which may Chri s t open all our eyes tos ee ! Would that all our old men might s e e

such visions, and all our young me n d reamsuch dreams ! For such dreams are the sole

UNSEEN REALITIES. 79

realities . The uns een th ings are all aroundus ; they alone are eternal . Get rid a ltogether of the error of a n ignorant theologywhich confounds the eterna l with the future .

St. Paul does not say “ the things which are

future are eternal, but“the things which are

not s een are e te rnal . Unseen they may be tous , ye t they are neither distant nor future theyare here ; they are now ; they alone give anymeaning or grandeur to the beatings of theheart. Phras emongers des cribe an execution .

and say that the man wa s “ launched intoete rnity ; friend s speak ofa death-bed, and saythat the ir friend “ passed into e ternity.

” Suchtalk is mere confusion . No man can pass intoeternity, for he is already in it . The dead are

no more in e ternity now than they always were,or than every one of us is a t this moment. We

may ignore the things eternal ; shut our eyeshard to them ; live as though they had noexistence ; neverthe le ss Eternity is around ushhe re , now, at this moment, at all moments ; andit wi ll have been around us every day of our

ignorant,sinful

,se lfis h lives. Its s tars are ever

over our head,while we are so diligent in the

dust of ourworldliness, or in the tainted streamof our desires. The dull brute globe movesthrough its b lue ether, and knows it not ; evens o

'

our souls are bathed in eternity, and arenever conscious of it . As lit tle can we ge t rid


ofthe etherealair of Eternity as the world canget rid of the blue spaces ofether through whichit moves .8 . Le t us then strive—ere it be too late for

th is life—to see Him who is invisible, and thethings which are unseen . It i s only to the

earthly life,on ly to the sin-blinded eyes

,that

God is invisible, or that the Eternal is unseen .

And if we are indeed s o plunged in guilt andfolly that we cannot see them, let us pray toGod that He would reveal them to us at allcosts. The fearful youth in Dothan, when theProphet opened his eyes, s aw all the mountainaround him full of chariots of fire and horses offire. Oh ! ifwe were but awakened out of thetorpor and self-seeking of a life without God ;if but one ray of God’s light could stream intoour souls—how would that glory out-dazzlethe feeble and flickering tapers of earthhow would its aching, revealing, overpoweringsplendour show to us in one moment thedifferences between the death that we call life,and the life which we regard as death. Andsometimes

,as we have seen, it does happen that

thus suddenly God opens the eyes of men butit is not the normal way. He leaves us ordinarily to the common dispensations ofH is dailyProvidence

,and if we be not utte rly faithles s ,

and utterly absorbed in our own frivolities,

they are abundantly suffi cient to emphasize

UNSEEN REALITIES. 8 1

the less ons taught us by Christ’ s GospelChrist’s example.

Beneath our feet and o’er our head

Are equal warn ings g iven,Beneath us lie the coun tle s s dead,Above us is the Heaven .

Let these suffice us. Death is everywhere ;God is everywhere :will we not see them ? Thelesson which I have tried to impress upon you isthe lesson ofmany Scriptures. I t is Walk byfaith , not by sight.

” It is Set your affectionon things above, not on things on the earth ;for ye are dead

,and your life is hid with Christ

in God .

” It is I am crucified with Christ,nevertheless I live. It is The world pass ethaway, and the lust thereof; but he that doeththe will ofGod abideth for ever.

W herewith tomeasure life.According to the measure of a man , that is of an ange l.

Rev. xxi . 1 7.

HERE is a wonderful significance inthese words, a significance which

(as is so often the case in Scripture)is perhaps far beyond , and even outside of, theirimmediate application. The measure of a manis he re identified with the measure of an ange l .Here is a divine scale ofmeasurement, and one

which,ifwe would apply it to our lives, would

make themsublime indeed lI . Surs zemeom’

a l ift up your hearts - isthe ancient appeal of our liturgies which impsthe flagging wings of devotion , and stimulatesus in the midst of worship, more and evermore, to raise our aspirations heavenwards . InCicero’s famous “ Dreamof Scipio,

” the hero’sspirit passe s in vision to the region of stars

,

and since his eyes are ever turned to the smallearth which he has left, his guide says to himH ow long will you keep your eyes fixed

84 E'

VERVDAY CH RISTIAN LIFE.

objects to wh ich they direct their souls according to the scale with which they measure the irl ives. If they think on things pure, and true,and lovely

,they will reflect these qualities , even

as the angels reflect the glory of God on the irmany-coloured plumes . But if their ideal bedwarfed and miserable

, their lives too willbesmall and mean. It i s impossible to exagge

rate the importance of having worthy idea ls .Tell me whom youadmire and I will tel l youthe drift of your character. Show me what

your ideal is, and I will show youwhat youyet may be.2 . Youmay judge ofthis by large as well asby small examples. Take in your hands thegreat book of His tory, and see how grievouslynations have suffered when their multitudeshave been mis led by false admirations. Suchideals are like the wandering fires which flickeronly over the swamps of death. Athens wa sgreat while s he had such statesmen as an

Aristides and Perikles the sun of her glorys et when an immoral demagogue, l ike Kleon,became the idol ofher mobs. Republican Romewas great, when she wa s led by a Fabricius or aScipio ; she sank into abysses of degradationwhen her youths followed a Clod ius or a Catiline .Imperial Rome was never a worse sink of in i

quity than when a Ne ro was popular, thoughhe soiled the very name of humanity ; she was

WHEREWITH TO MEASURE LIFE. 85

never happier than when, in each honourablehome, wa s seen the noble bust of MarcusAurelius . Watch the certain degeneracy of

nations when they are demora lized by theignoble brilliancy of a b ad success ; when the

best leaders are too good for the days in whichthey live ; when the sensibi lity of honour isbranded as weakness

,and unscrupulous reck

lessness regarded as leadership . In what sortof state wa s Italy when Cae sar Borgia magne tiz ed her admiration ? Did France suffernothing from the sanctimonious

,sanguinary,

licentious pomposity of Louis XIV. or the unblushing depravity of the Regent Orleans ?Was there no difference between the moralnobleness of England when Puritans ruled andMilton sang, and when harlots toyed with thecrown of the Confessor and the few faithful menwe re shocked by the plays ofWycherley andthe orgie s ofWhitehall

3. But perhaps we may be misled if we makeour inductions too broad . Look then at s ec

tions and phases of society on ly . Considerhow any class of society is degraded when itacquiesces in

,much more when it admires, im

moral favourites. H ow many lives were shipwrecked, how many souls imperilled in Eng landwhen the drunkenness, the gambling, the adulterie s ofher ruling class were regarded as venia lpeccadilloes ; when men thought that they had


covered Wilberforce with ridicule if they calledhim“ Saint

,and when Pitt wa s openly sneered

at because his life was pure. What becomes of

classes to whom a drunken prize-fighter or aribald slanderer appears a consummate hero ?or to whom such a thing as Beau Brummelseems the summit of gentility ? or who rush toerect statues to a swindling speculator ? Orlook again at a Public School. Is its case evermore desperate than when the popular heroamong its boys is a boy of debased characterand corrupted habits ? If you want to see degradation spread with the rapidity of wi ld fire

,

rage with the fierce nes s of an epidemic,observe

what take s place in a school or a college whenadmiration for the Belial grace of some child ofthe devil confers prom inence upon everythingwhich is execrable and impure.

4 . To each of us then individually,and to

our nation, and to our Church, it is of supremeimportance that we lift our eyes to the galaxy ofgreat examples and reflect the luminous virtueof heavenly ideals. And that is what I meanby measuring l ife with the measure of a man ,that is of an angel. Oh ! if men would onlythink what it would b e, in just and natural retri

bution, to spend an eternity with the wretchesin whose steps they have secretly walked H ow

will the treacherous dealer, who has dealt treacherously with his friend, or his family, or his

WHEREWITH TO MEASURE LIFE. 87

country,like to be welcomed into Gehenna by

the face ofJudas and to writhe under the traitor’

skiss ? H ow will the unclean like to be cond emned to the companionship of those whomtheir sins have blighted— to be ind issolublybound to the corps e of dead desires in thatdarkness where there i s weeping and gnashingoftee th ?But bad men

,when they have become tho

roughly bad,get to hate and curse the silent

reproach of g reat ideals ; and if, like the devil,they stand abashed for one involuntary momentin the pre s ence ofv irtue

,the next moment they

are striving to corrupt its stainlessness withtemptation

,or to stain its memory with lies .

When you s ee bad men , stimulated by partyhatred , or steeped in social vice endeavouring todrag honoured names through the mire

,there

you s ee the very work ofhimwho is ca lled theAccuser of the brethren . The sole hope of

humanity is in it s good and holy men . Allearth’s purest and nobles t come and lay garlandsat the feet ofthese statues, but the crowd of thevulgar clamber up the pedestal with no otherobject than to injure and to deface.Hence one of the worst of signs in the present

seems to me to be the fondness ofmen ,and

above all of the young, to read and dwell onwhat is ignoble, not what is lofty ; what ispetty, not what is great. H ow can a man have


any light or sweetness left in him who delightsto feed himse lf on calumny and falsehood untilthe devil has drawn down his soul into incurablelittleness, as the worm “ draws in the witheredleaf

,and makes it earth ?

5. On the other hand, I have hope foryouth, Ihave faith in manhood, when I see men choosinglofty ideals, turning with scorn from all that isfrivolous, leaving things base to perish of theirown natural corruption, mak ing oftheir imaginat ions a picture-galle ry from which they excludeeverything that d efile th, claiming the ir affin itywith all things worthy, and measuring the ir liveswith the measure of a man, that is ofan angel.Such thoughts produce pure and high-souledmen . A great writer tell s us how once such a

youth came into his rooms, and taking up bychance Andrew Marvell’s poem of The Nymphcomplaining of the Death of her Fawn,

” readthe line s

H ad it l ived long , it would have beenLilies without , ros es within.

The young man died, and“ I felt, he says,

“ that I had entertained an angel visitant. Thefawn of Marvell’s imagination survives in mymemory as the fitting image to reca ll this beautiful youth ; a soul glowing like the rose of

morning with enthusiasm, a character white asthe lil ies in its purity.

”

WHEREWITH To MEASURE LIFE. 89

6 . Can one as k, without a sigh, whether it is acommon thing for men thus to measure theirlives with the measure of a man , that is of anangel ?i . The other day a new j ournal wa s started

,

and in the firs t sentence of its prospectus, I amtold

,it had thewords that undoubted ly a man ’s

first consideration in life is how tomake money.

”

It was meant quite seriously ; it wa s not in theleast intended as a satire . And to what mult itud e s among us is not the love of money a

root of all kinds of evils ? If all were to gohome and consider what proportion— shall I s ay,

rather,how insignificant a fract ion— of their

means they spare for the needs of the ir Church,

the glory of their God , and the good of theirfe llow-men

,I think that they would blush. Ah

let not our souls sink into Mammon-worship ,which is like a s ea of pitch, bubbling only withthe sighs of those who welte r the rein . Can youbury that dross with you in your graves ? Doyou know how soon it wi ll drop from yourrelaxing grasp ? Can you aver that it gives youany real happiness — But the worshipper of

Mammon— by what does he measure his life ? Isit not by the measure of the wre tchedest spiritthat fell — not by the measure ofa man, that isofan angel.i i. Or the man who has by slow degree sslipped into that most hapless, most abj ect


thing— a drunkard the helpless bondslave of adead poison

,for which he destroys himself by

moral and mental suicide sinking himse lflowerand lower into shame and ruin, into penury andrags becoming

,perhaps

,in some drunken orgy,

a fe lon,or even a murderer . Oh

,by what

measure does such a man measure His life Itis by the measure ofa fiend— not by the measureofa man, that is ofan angel .i i i . Or

,again

,they who, like natural brute

beasts made to b e taken and destroyed, corrupt ing themselves in those things which theyknow naturally, sell themselves to do evil , andto work all uncleanness with greediness ; theywho can dare for their own vilest selfishness topoison the blood and de

grade the morals of the

race,making it somet imes better for them s elves,

better for mankind, ifthey had not been bornby what measure do they measure life ? I s itnot with the measure of a beast— not with themeasure ofa man, that is ofan angel ?iv. Or, once more , the average, everyday,ordinary man, whom St . Paul calls the carnalor vulgarly selfi s h man

,whose whole life is the

common average of compromise the Mr. Anything

, the Mr. Facing-both-ways, who neverknew what it wa s , even as a boy, to be firedwith a grea t thought or to glow with a nobleenthusiasm who has done nothing for the worldbeyond con s uming its fruits in selfishness

,as


for which Christ died ? Ah he who ha s theseaims, he who measures his life by the measuringreed of these high purposes

,measures it as

angels measure it, and so measures it indeedwith the measure ofa man, that is ofan angelnay, rather of the King of the Angels. Forwhat are the angels themselves even, in respectof Christ ? What but “

Sparks from the unemptiable fountain ofhis glory ;

”

what but “ d ewdrops on the head ofthe bridegroom lost in thesplendour ofHis hair. They may help us ; thethought of them may ennoble us ; their glitteringfaces may look down upon us from the lucentcloud of witne sses, compassionate and pure .

They may be to us a s our high-born kinsmen ,”

we may s ee the ir waving robes in the flash of

the sunlight, we may hear their voices in themusic of the wind : but their glory is but aneffulgence of Christ’s glory ; they are butministering spirits of that Lord of whom it iswritten And let all the Angels ofGod worshipHim ! ”

CDC E s s ent ials Of P rayer.

Then answered they, and s a id before the Ki ng, That Dan ie lmaketh his petit ion three t imes a day.

-DANIEL vi . 1 3.

HE noble story of Daniel , and how,

prefe rr ing the peril of death to theabandonment of prayer, his windows

be ing open in his chamber towards Jerusalem ,

he kneeled upon his knees three times a d ay,and prayed and gave thanks before his God a s

he did aforet ime ,” natura l ly turns our thoughts

to the subject of prayer . But it i s , of course,impossible in one sermon to treat comprehens ively or exhau s tively of that great theme ; noris it at all my wish to do so. The object ofthis sermon will be what I desire the object ofall sermons to b e— namely

,a s simply a s I can

,to

he lp forward myse lf and youas we climb theuphillward path of the Chri s tian life . For thatChristian life no means ofgrace is s o absolutelyindispens ab le as prayer. The soul of man islike a k indled brand s o long as the air breatheson it, it will retain till the last its genial warmth


and crimson glow ; but le t the air s tagnatearound it

,and

,flake on flake

,the whi te ashes

will gather ove r it , and the fire wi ll d ie awaywithin it, and under those ashes it wil l be leftblack and charred, a cold and u s e less log .

What the breath of wind is on the glowingbrand, that prayer i s to the soul . Let a manor a woman live a prayerless life, and all thel ight and the fire and the glow

,all the wisdom

and generosity and love will die away, becausethese are the result of spiritual grace alone ;and covered with the dead, wh ite embers ofi t sown selfishness and pride , the soul will soonbecome cold and dead and hard—a useless thing

,

halfconsumed with impenitence and sin.

Or aga in (and I entreat you do not regardthese as figures of speech, or metaphors, but a sthe clearest way of bringing before you thedeepest real ities), the soul of man has beencompared to a field . Sometimes over the fieldsthere passes a wind which dries the plants

,and

then we s ee their withered stems droop to theearth ; but when the d ew falls they are refreshedand lift their fading flowers . So there are burning winds—ofpassion and ofavarice , of trial andof temptation—which pas s over the souls ofmenand wither them . Prayer is the d ew of God

,

which falls upon them and restores their lan

guis hing beauty.

And since that prayer is of s uch excellent

TH E ESSENTIALS OF FRA VER. 95

value, let us plainly and simply try to seefirst, what prayer is ; next, what it may do forus ; and thirdly, what is necessary to make ittrue prayer, and something more than the dumbmoan of the suffering animal, something morethan the scream of the hawk or the murmur ofthe gnat. Something more —alas ! is it not toooften something less — less Sincere, with le ss ofmeaning in it than the roar of the young lionswhen they suffer hunger, or the cry ofthe youngravens in their wind-rocked nest ?I . First, then, what is prayer ? Some of you

wi ll think at once ofthe words of that exquisitehymn

Prayer is the s oul’ s s incere des ire,U ttered , orunexpres s ed ;

The mot ion ofa hidden fireThat trembles in the breas t.

Prayer is the burthen ofa s igh ,The falling ofa tear,

The upward glancing ofthe eyeWhen none but God is near.

Prayer is the s imples t formofs peechThat infant lips can try

Prayer the sublimes t s tra ins that reachThe Majes ty on high .

Prayer is the contrite s inner’s voiceReturning fromhis ways ,

While angels in their s ongs rejoice ,And cry, Behold he prays l”

96 E VERYDAY CHRISTIAN LIFE.

Prayer is the Chris tian ’s vital breath,The Chris t ian ’

s nat ive a ir,H is watchword at the gates ofdeath,H e en ters heaven with prayer.

You could not,indeed

,think of a be tter

answer than this in general,but you may desire

something different and more specific . Prayer,then , according to the definition ofmany Christian writers

,is a lifting up ofa pure mind unto

God, whereby we a s k s omething of Him.

” Butthere are various kinds of prayer. “ I exhort ,

”

says St. Paul,

“ that, first of all, supplications,praye rs

,intercession s , and giving of thanks be

made for all men .

” He re the re are four kindsof prayer— supplzka t z

’

ofz s special petitionsto supply our need

,and because of our in

sufficiency ; g eneralprayers— the reverent adoration of God , the expression of our entiredevotion z

’

n terees s z’

ons— prayers both for othersand for ourselves

,urgent, intense, personal soli

citations,poured forth because ofour confidence

a s children towards the heavenly Father ofwhomwe as k ; t/z anksgr

’

w’

ug s — showing that we go toGod not only because of our hope, but becauseof our grat itude ; not only from our own selfinterest, but from . our love . Prayer, then, issomething more than the uplifting ofa pure soulto God, in which we as k something of H im . Iti s a lso “ a friendly talk ing with the Lord, from ahigh and kindled afl

'

ect ion. It i s the pouring

THE ESSENTIALS OF PRA YER. 97

out of a contrite heart, with a sure persuasionthat God will grant our requests . It is a Christian’s intercourse with God, his sanctuary introubles

,his remedy for sins, his cure of griefs

it is an abstract and summary of re ligion ; itcelebrates God’s attributes and confesses Hisglory and reve res His person , and implores Hisaid and gives thanks for His blessings ; and asregards our own state of mind when we arepraying

,

‘ it is the peace ofour spirit, the stillnessof our thoughts

,the rest of our cares, the calm

of our tempest, the issue of a quie t mind, thedaughter ofcharity, and the sister ofmeekness .

”

My brethren,let us fully unders tand this at the

outset— true prayer is much more than asking.

“ It i s pra i s e,it is congratulation

,it i s a colloquy

in which the soul engages with the All-wise andthe All-holy ; it is a basking in the sunshine,varied by ejaculat ions of thankfulness to the SunofRighteousness for His light and H is warmth .

It is nothing less than the whole spiritual actionof the soul turned towards God a s its true andadequate object

,and in this sense it is clear that,

as to much prayer,the question whether it is

answered or not (a que s tion which is by scepticsso often and s o coarsely urged) can never arise,for the simple reason that no answer is askedfor. For such prayer is

,to a very great extent

,

its own answer. Its blessedne s s requires nofurther fru ition than i tself. In such high hours

G

98 EVERYDAY CH RISTIAN LIFE .

thought dies away into rapture and beatitude .

As distinguished from the mere ejaculationsof our agony, or cries of our alarm,

or reiterations of our se lfishness, I would define prayeras the reverent intercourse and intense communion of the soul of the Chris tian with his

Father in Heaven .

I I . This, then, being what prayer is, do youa sk wha t praye r can do for us ? I answe r wi thout hesitation, More than one saintlike St. Francis, and like Wesley, has left behindhimthe record that God has never refused himanything for which he seriously prayed . It can

gain for us everything ; not, perhaps , everythingthat we wish— for, like the Israelites of old, wemay wis h what is very evil for us—but everything that we wan t . Chris t gave no limit toH is promi s e,

“A sk and ye shall receive.”

In

the old world prayer subdued kingdoms,it

stopped the mouths of lions, i t opened andclosed the doors of heaven, in the mid fires ofthe furnace it s et the angel of the dew. Do yous ay that it works no miracles now ? I amnot sosure of that . Ifwe had but fa ith enough I b elieve that we should still remove mountains

,still

dispel the clouds, still draw the rain from heaven,still raise the sick

,still open prisons

,st il l loose

the chains of the innocent,still find a n ano

dyne for the anguish ofthe distressed . And arethese the only miracles ? Are spiritual m i racle s

EVERYDAY CH RISTIAN LIFE .

immortality, and the golden keys ofthe treasuriesofheavenI I I . Butahaving thus touched briefly on what

prayer is,and what it can do forus , let us touch

with equal brevity on other points. And heredo not think that I shall stop to give you anyexternal or mechanical rules. All our Savioursays is

,As k

,

” Seek,” “ Knock . You can

pray as we ll on Gerizim as in Jeru s alem,and in

London as on Gerizim,and in a drawing-room or

a workshop as on Sinai, and in your own roomas in the holiest minster, and by the altar ofyour own bedsides as on the Slopes of Olivet.Dost thou wish to pray in a temple ? Praythen in thys e lf

,but first be thou a temple ofthe

Lord .

” It is right—common sense teaches us ,common experience teaches us

,the example of

our Saviour teaches us— that there should bealso special times of prayer, and solemn placesbut Scripture teaches us that there is no timeimproper, and no place unacceptable, be it thesubterranean prison, or the sick b ed

,or the

tossing ship, or the whale’s belly

,or the lion ’s

den . Nor doe s it teach us that prayer need belong or short. The seven words of the publican

,

“ God,b e merciful to me the sinner

,gained

him the inestimable boon of forgiveness. Thenine words of the dying thief,

“ Jesus,remember

me when thou comest in Thy kingdom,

” flung

wide open for him that very day the gates of

THE ESSEN TIALS OF PRAYER. t o :

Paradise. Nay, even the voice less prayer of theMagdalene

,the prayer that lay in d is hevellecl

tresses,in silent tears, won for her those precious

words, Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace.”

So that if you a s k when,where

,and how to

pray,I answer with a good archbishop of

former days, “When ? always without ceasing.

Where ? in all places, especially the house of

prayer. H ow ? from the heart, lifting up pureand clean hands

,that i s to s ay, in faith and

in love . Our prayer feathered with these twowings fl ieth straight into heaven .

”

And if you a s k me one question more, andsay

, Wiza t should we pray for ? ” I answer,

Everything which you need.” Do you inquirewhether you may pray for earthly b lessings ?I answer

,Certainly you may, both for yours elves

and for those whom youlove . Remember onlytwo things—one, that to ask only or ma inly forearthly blessings is a dreadful dwarfing and vul

gari z at ion of the grandeur and holiness of

prayer, as though youasked for a handful ofgras s when you might as k for a handful of

emeralds ; the other that you must a lways as kfor earthly des ires with absolute submis s ion of

your own will to God’s, lest God should grantyou your own bane, and ruin you at your owndesire, giving it you, and sending leanness intoyour bones . Seek firs t the k ingdom ofGod and

H is righteousness, and all othe r things shall be


added unto you . That prayer of an unhappyqueen,

“ Oh , keep me innocent ; make othersgreat —that prayer ofa great saint, Give me,O Lord , a noble heart, which nothing earthlymay drag down ! ” —that prayer of a sinful ye ts a in tly

'

king ,“ Teach me to do the thing that

pleaseth Thee, for Thouart my God ; let Thyloving s pirit lead me into the land of righteousness — those are amongs t the best prayers Iknow,

because they are most in accordance withthat prayer which Christ Himselfhas taught us

,

which, out of seven petitions, has but one for anyearthly blessing

,and that only for daily bread

,

and ofwh ich the keynote is , Our Father, whichart in heaven .

IV. But remember, lastly, that prayer wil lnot be heard unless it has certain qualities

,

without which prayer is not prayer at all .What

,then

,is necessary to all prayer in order

that it may b e true prayer ? I can mentionbut one or two ofthe main essentials and thosebut briefly ; and yet suffi ciently, if you w ill testthem for yourse lves .i . The firs t requisite

,then, is felt/t . A true

prayer must be animated by faith ; faith in theGod to whom i t i s addressed faith that He wi llhear

,and if it be a right petition will truly

answer it . He that cometh to God must believethat He is , and that He is a rewarde r of themthat diligently seek H im . Christ, when He


can he pray, Forg ive us our tres passes, whoses oul is full ofmal ice, envy, and hate H ow canthe drunkard pray,

“Lead us not into temptation,”

who means that very day to go to the publichouse ? H ow can the tradesman pray to bejust and honest who has no intent ion to mendhis false balance, or improve his adulteratedgoods ? Therefore cleanse your hand s , ye sinners

,and purify your hearts, ye double-minded .

Ah,my brethren l the very worst and deadliest

of all hindrance s to sincerity of prayer is a

bosom sin . It is like an evi l spirit seated onthe temple-roof

,mocking at every hollow utter

ance,and scattering the unhallowed incense

with the beating of his wings . Ah no, mybrethren ! we cannot be both pardoned and

retain the offence. If we pray with a secretdetermination to continue in sin we pray falseprayers

,and cannot be heard . It is as ifa man

prayed to be healed, while shrinking from thenecessary pain and the necessary effort of

healing, he determined to leave the shaft-headrankling in his wound . Oh ! try to make yourprayers sincere ! It is said that in Japan thereis a praye r called the “Mirror-praye r ”— theworshipper holds up a mirror or looking-glas s

,

and on beholding his image in it says, O God,look into my heart as I s ee my face in thisglass.” Does it not imply the same thought asDavid did, when he said, Try me, oh God, and

TH E ESSEN TIALS OF FRA VER. 105

s eek the ground of my heart ; prove me andexamine my thoughtsiii. Then, thirdly, our prayers must be offered

wi th earnes tnes s . Jacob ’s prayer wa s trulyca lled a wrestling with God . I t is thus that thekingdomof heaven suffereth violence, and theviolent take it by force . Prayer is a s an arrow ;if it be drawn up but a l ittle it goes not far, butif it be pulled up to the head flies strongly, andpierces deep ; if it be but dribbled forth of

careless lips it falls down at our foot . Thestrength of an ejaculation sends it up intoheaven and fetches down a blessing. Heartlessmotions do but teach us to deny ; fervent suitsoffer violence both to earth and heaven .

” Willyou le t our great poet teach you ? Will youremember what the wicked king says in thesplendid tragedy

My words flyup, my thoughts remain below ;Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

iv. Again, true prayer must be sustained by

pers everance . We must pray without ceasing.

We ought always to pray, and not to faint.If we pray often we shall pray oftener. H ow

i s it (is it not a shame to our Christianity ?)that the votaries of false re ligions are

,not

rare ly, far more frequent and far more ferventin their prayers than we Christians are ? More


than once are we told that our blessed Lordprayed all night long, and what He taught usby example He taught a l s o by precept. “ Thefriend , who is at rest with h is family, will rise atlast to give a loaf to the hungry appl icant .The unjust judge yield s in the end to the

resistless eagerness of the widow’s cry . OurLord ’s blessing on the Syro-t nician womanis the consecration of importunity with God .

”

Let, then, our prayers be the key that opensthe day, and the lock that Shuts the night,

”

and als o from morning to night our staff andstay in all our labours

,enabling us to go cheer

fully up to the mount ofGod .

v. And , las tly, prayer in its highest effortshould be free fromd is traction . It requires a“ holy vacuity of thought

,a “ denudation of

the mind ”

from the vanity and the uncleannessof earthly images . And so true prayer requirespreparation. When thou prayest

,

” says ourSaviour, enter into thy chamber, and when thouhast Shut thy door

,pray to thy Father which

is in secret.” She who is cumbered with muchServing cannot s it duly at her Saviour

’s feet, norcan they be guests at the King’s banquet whosehearts are with their land or their oxen, withtheir pleasures or in their purse. “ Beforepraying

,

” says the Book ofWisdom , preparethe heart, and b e not as a man who temptsGod . The soul that tries to soar up to God

EVERYDAY CH RISTIAN LIFE.

be side her knee . But, ah ! to say our prayers isone thing ; to pray is quite another. It wa s nolanguid formula learnt by heart— it was nodrowsy and mechanical petition— it was noearthly reques t for some selfish end— it was nocry of a Baal worshipper on Carme l striving toarouse h is idol into impossible animation

,that

Saul wa s uttering when the Lord said of him toAnanias

,Arise , and go into the street which is

called Straight and inquire for one called Saul ofTarsus

,for behold he prayeth.

” No,but it wa s

an impassioned pouring forth ofall the heart ; itwas an awful wrestling of the soul with God itwa s the resis tless cry of determined agony

,

“ Iwill not let the e go except thou bless me .” Ahif there were more prayer there would be lesss in , for it has been truly said that either sinningmakes us leave off praying, or praying wouldmake us leave off all wilful s inning. Myb rethen ! young and old, rich and poor, Phariseeor Publican, will you now make this sermon whatGod means it to b e , a direct and immediatemessage to your soul by doing one thing

,

namely,by pray ing— not s ay ing your pray ers ,

but pray ing—really praying to God, praying,perhaps, for the first time in your lives

,one

real prayer, for yourselves, for me , for thisland , for all mankind ? If you cannot getfarther, will you pray for yours e lves, for yourown souls ? Will you wrestle with God for

TH E ESSEN TIALS OF FRA VER. 199

peace and purity, for pardon and change of

heart ?

Oh Thouby whomwe come to God ,The life , the truth, the way,

The pa th ofprayer Thys elfhath trod ,Lord , teach us how to pray

VIII .

t he Sanctitp of principle.

A perfect and an uprigh tman, one that feareth God .

’

Jon ii . 3.

MID the minutiae of controversial theology ; amid the multiplication of ceremonies, rites, and forms ; amid the

ceas e less e laboration of systems ; amid theambitious se lf-assertion ofparties, their intrigues ,the ir j ealousies, their struggles, their ignoblewarfare— it is most desirable that not onlythose of us who are weary of all this wordystrife

,but that all of us alike should constantly

look back to the simplest and most primaryelements of the revealed will of God. That iswhat I shall try to do this afternoon . Ishall not indeed a s k you to rest there. Theexperience of mankind proves suffi ciently thatsomething more is needed. But s ince we , a s

Christians,do through God ’s mercy presumably

posses s that something more,even for us it

may prove a searching test , and a blessedstimulus, to cast a backward glance at the

1 12 E VERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE.

other have been stripped away . But what wesee in general is the great mass of mankind, living faithfully indeed to this or thatrequ irement of the moral law,

but each ignoringit, despising it, trampling on it, thinking thatthey wi ll e scape 'lt s pena lties in some one part icular direction of besetting sin : and when wecons ider the lives of those who specially regardthem s elves a s the Church— of men who holdthems elves to be re ligious persons—we cons tantly observe how they weaken the moral lawin theory, and show themselves indiffere nt toi t in practice. They lay much g reater s tress onoutward ob servances and on orthodox be lief. Butex temalismand orthodoxy, both together, arelighter than vanity itself, if they are d issociatedfrom moral rectitude . A man may b e a s techn ically orthodox as Torquemada, as rub rica llyscrupulous as Charles V . , and ye t may dese rvethé condemnation ofmen and the most heavywrath of God . They who profess to be long tothe re ligious world would not indeed murder,or commit adultery

,or steal ; but they too

often forget that there are other things in theTen Commandments besides these .

“ He whokeepeth the whole law,

” says St. James, withprofound insight

,

“ and ye t offend e th in onepoint is guilty of all .” Why ? Because hebreaks the principle of obed ience ; because heviolates the maj esty of law as law. Most ofus

THE SANCTI TY OF PRINCIPLE. rl3

belong, I suppose, nomigally to the religiousworld. Ought it neverAStartle us to observethat some of the most overwhelming denunciations of the Saviour and of H is Apostle s areaimed at the re lig ious world ? that Jesus toldthe Pharisees that the publicans and harlotswere being more freely admitted into His kingdom than they ? The members of the re ligiousworld do not often commit flagrant crimes ;but have they never s o much as read in theCommandments : Thou shalt not bear falsewitness agains t thy neighbour and do theynever break that Commandment ? Have theyever noticed that Christ and His Apostlesagain and again place Charity at the verysummit ofall the virtues, and sumup the wholelaw in love ? And do they not constantly display

'

that spirit of hatred which brands the irChristianity as essentially anti-Christian

,and

the ir gospel of love as the bad spell of hate ?When they do this let them be warned that theman who strives to be faithful to the moral law,

be he even a heathen or a heretic,may be

nearer to the kingdom of God than they . ThePhari s ees were conspicuous for orthodoxy andscrupulosity, and yet Christ

’s words to themwere charged with eternal lightnings . TheGood Samaritan was a heretic, and yet Christchose him as a type of the noblest self-denialnot (observe) not because s crupulous ob s er

H

EVERYDAY CH RISTIAN LIFE.

vances are a sin,or because heresy is not an

evil, but because holy living is transcendentlydearer to God and more nece ssary for man thantheoretic orthodoxy and outward conformit ies .“ By their fruits ye shall know them .

” St .Jerome and others have dared to alter thatverse into “ By the ir '

doctrine s ye shall knowthem .

” It is a di s graceful perversion of thewords of Christ. He that doeth the will Shallknow of the doctrine. He that does but repeatthe formula of the doctrine, were he even tocompose the whole summa tlteolog iae may stillbe in the gall of bitte rness and the bond of

iniquity . I think then that, alike for religiousand for irreligious men, it i s most necessary toturn our thoughts often to what is called “meremorality. The wi ll of God towards us is ours antificat ion—that i s , that we should live holylives— that is, that we should obey H i s law.

Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord,

and who shall stand in His holy place ? Theman who most insists on rigid practices andanathematizing creeds ? No, but he that hathclean hands and a pure heart, that hath not liftup his m ind unto van ity, nor sworn to deceivehis neighbour .” O man, what doth the Lordrequire ofthee ? To be able to repeat correctlythe innumerable propositions of dogmatictheology ? To build seven altars, and offe r onevery altar a bullock and a ram? Nay

, but to

1 16 E VERYDAY CHRISTIAN LIFE.

that men should walk soberly, righteously, andgodly in this present world ? Look to H imWho is the truth, and in Whom alone is no error,and when the multitudes were gathered den s earound H im, and H e opened H is mouth and

taught them,saying—what did He say ? Not

one word about orthodoxy, not one word aboutceremonies, but,

“ Blessed are the meek, andthe merciful, and the pure in heart.

”

And yet with strange perverseness,alike in

their religion as in their irreligion, men set aside,and have constantly s et aside, the plainestt eachings of this moral law. In theory theolog ian s and Jesuits have often taught that menmay do evil that good may come ; and inpractice Popes and priests have not only sanct ioned despotic tyrannies, and immoral in s t itutions

,and exterminating wars—but have given

licence to murder,and to tricke ry, and to false

hood, and have again and again adoptedme thods untruthful, unjust, and unscrupulous,if they did but furthe r their party ends. Thesum and substance of the moral law

,as Christ

set it forth, is truth and love and the sumandsubstance of the religious life

,as the religious

world sets it forth,has very often been nothing

less than pure delusion and bitter hate.The Simple fact is that only the fewest men

only the truest and purest and loftiest of thes aints of God—are

,in the h ighest s ense

,men of

TH E SANCTI TV OF PRINCIPLE . 1 17

principle. Principle is de rived from a Latinword

,and means properly a beginning ; it is the

absolute major premis s of a practical syllogisman univers al

,exceptionles s affirmation that we

ought to do, or not to do, some thing or somekind of thing. And “ a man of principle ” is aman who is guided by this conception

,not only

as the main but as the sole spring of allhis

actions,and whom therefore you can absolutely

trust. Now many men, even who call themselves religious, are not men ofprinciple. Theyare Je s uitical ; they are time serving ; they are

double-tongued ; they are not to be trusted :The magnet of their compa ss has been tampered with, has been deflected by alien in

fluences . Truth is a part of God ’s eternal law ;yet there are subjects respecting which the

smallest temptat ion will make them swerve fromthe truth . They will easily and frequently b esurprised by fear into mans laughter upon thetruth. They will suppress one whole side of thetruth to serve a purpose . They believe in truthgenera lly ; but they think it quite excusable tolie for God . Society perverts them into what itcalls white lies . Se lf-interest will make themgive a wrong return for the ir income-tax

,or

habitually us e the false conventional phrase,or

understate their real means that they may makean excuse for the niggardliness of their charities.Honesty again is a part ofGod’s moral law. Yet

1 1 8 EVERYDAY CH RISTIAN LIFE.

one man,even ifhe seemto be religious, will put

money to uses for which it was never meant ;or wi ll raise money on tru s t deeds, half d eceiving himse lf with the in tention to put it back ;or wi ll plunge into the idiotic folly of bettingand gambling, till his de licate honesty is gone ; orwill adopt dishonest profess ional tricks inmakinghis fortune ; or willdefraud others of their justdues ; or

,making haste to be rich

, will floodthe country with lying advertisements ; or willspeculate on the Stock Exchange ; or wi ll foste rbubble-companies

,heedless of the ruin and

misery which they cause. Such men may b edeemed respectable men ; they may even passfor re ligious men ; but they are not men of

principle : they have never learned to estimatearight the eternal grandeur ofthe moral law.

4 . A man of principle i s one of the noblestworks ofGod . You might trust him amid pove rtyw ith untold wealth, and he would not touch it.Ifhe has told you anything you may re ly on itabsolutely and totally, knowing that it is saidwith no subterfuges or s econd intent ions. Itmay b e said of such a man a s of the ancientFab ricius , that it would b e as easy to turn the sunfrom it s course as to turn himfrom the path ofduty. He is not pa le in virtue and faintly dyedin integrity the colours ofhis soul wi ll last, fdrthey are crimson in the grain. H is faith in themoral law is absolute. He has accepted it in


ask the poets, who are often more of prophetsthan our preachers

,to describe to us such a

man ? Here the n is one

Who wi th a toward, oruntoward lot,Pros perous or advers e, to his wish or not,

Plays , in the many games of life, that oneWhere what he mos t doth valuemus t b e won ;Whomne ither s hape ofdanger can dismay,Nor thought oftender happines s betray.This is the Happy Warrior this is b eThat everyman-at-arms should wish to b e .

here another

H e’

s a s lave who would not b eIn the right wi th two or three .

H e’s a slave who would not choos e

Hatred, s lander, and abus e,Rather than in s ilence shrinkFromthe truth he needs mus t think.

And here one more

Take thouno thought for ought but truth and righ t,Conten t, ifsuch thy fa te , to d ie obs cureWealth palls , and honours fame may not endureAnd loftier s ouls s oon weary ofdeligh t ;Keep innocence b e alla true man oughtLet neither pleasure s tempt , nor pains appalWho hath this , he hath allthings having nought,Who hath it not hath nothing having all.

5. Now is there any one in this congregations o ignoran t a s to think that s uch characte rs havenothing to do with religion ? I s ay that th ismoral integrity is re ligion this is principlethis is conduct this is the highest result offaith.

TH E SANCTITY OF PRINCIPLE. 1 2 1

To live thus is to have our wil l in accordancewith the Divine will ; it is to be crowned andmitred kings and priests over ourse lves ; it is theabsolute adoption of the dictate s of the DivineM ind by the individual soul ; it is the re sult ofthe will swaying the reason

,and love swaying

the wi ll ; it i s unity with God. The man of

principle has learnt the sacredne ss,the eternity

,

the awful axiomatic necessity of law. WithSophocles, he recognizes its ete rn ity—that ithad it s birth neither to-day, nor yesterday, butlives for ever

,and no man knoweth whence it

appeared that it wa s born in the empyreal air,and the mortal race ofmen did not beget it, nors halloblivion lull it into sleep. He says oflaw,

with Hooker, that“ her home is the bosom of

God,her voice the harmony of the world and

with Kant,that “ grander even than the starry

heaven above is the moral law within . Heknows further that God has con s igned theguardianship of the moral law to Duty and Cons cience, and into the hands of those strong angelshe places his right ha nd and his left hand to guidehim along the straight path of life. They fil lhis soul with the sanct ity of immeasurable obli

gat ion s . Offering him no delight, promising himno earthly reward, enjoining subm ission and demanding reverence

,yet neve r deigning the use

of force, Duty holds up before him the nakedrule

,before which allhis inclinations are dumb

,

r22 E VERYDA if CH RISTIAN L IFE .

and he uplifts his eyes to her until the count enance of this stern angel begins to wear themost benignant grace of Godhead . And Conscience enforces all the requirements to whichDuty points. Conscience, the blushing spiritwhich mutin ies within the offende r’s breastwhen he does wrong— Conscience

,

“ the aboriginal vicar ofChris t

,a prophet in its informa

tion, a priest in it s sanct ions, a monarch in itsperemptoriness .” And so highly does the trueman reverence these guardians of his life

,that

he would face fire and torture rathe r than facethe anguis h of s elf-reproach which comes uponhim when he has de served their frown .

And what can any man better follow thanthe guidance of Law, Duty, Conscience, thesecherubim of God ? Have not their few Simpleutterances every sanction which they can poss ibly rece ive from heaven above, and from theearth beneath, and fromthe waters under theearth ? He who lives thus

,in real not in con

vent ional obedience to the moral law,is in

accordance with the whole teaching ofScripture,

of which the very essence is Keep innocency,

and do the thing which is right, for that shallbring man peace at the las t ; and in accor

dance with the whole teaching of Christ, whichis, Ifye love M e

, keep My commandments.”

Could there then be a higher outcome of theeducat ion of life than that man should learn to

1 24 EVERYDAY CHRISTIAN LIFE.

rich in intellect then look at the orgies of s en

suality which swallowed up their glory andgrandeur as in the slime pits of Gomorrah !Look at the atheism of the Renaissance in thefifteenth century

,before the Reformation had

begun,and then read the unanimous testimony

to the abysses of its moral corruption , and theobliteration of virtue which followed the boastof its godless illuminism . Look at the witand learning ofthe eighteenth century, the periodofVoltaire and the Encyclopaedists

,in France,

and s ee how it ended in the Carmagnole and theGuillotine

,and the worship of a harlot on the

polluted altars of Notre Dame. Nay, look at

France in this day. When she eme rged fromthe burning fiery furnace of the Franco-GermanWar, afte r the catastrophe of Sedan and theconflagrat ion of Paris, men like Renan andAlexandre Dumas fils proclaimed in clear tonesthat her collapse wa s due to the moral failurebred of atheism. But now once more we haveheard her statesmen ridicule in their speechesthe ve ry existence of a God we have seen thename of God expelled from her schools anderased from her statute book ; and with whatre sults ? A society hon eycombed with vice ; a

literature reeking with impurity a nation whichalone in all Europe is stationary in numbers !And in one of his very latest writings we findthe high priest of her culture, the consummate

THE SANCTITY OF PRINCIPLE. 1 25

master ofher style, the foremost ofher scholars,he who wrote the “Vie de Jésus, openly arguingsuch detestable and nation-destroying theses asthat Nature is indifferent to chastity

,that

drunkenness is possibly commendable,and that

frivolous persons are perhaps in the right . Ayso ! When the God of Sinai is forgotten it isnever long before men begin to dance beforethe gilded calf

,and to proclaim

,These be thy

Gods, O Israel, that brought thee out of the landofEgypt.

”

6 . There are many youths among my hearers,and to each and all of them I say that theycannot s ee the face of God unless they keeptheir bodies in temperance

,soberness, and

chastity and they cannot keep their bodies intemperan ce , soberness, and chastity save bystriving ever for fellowship with God in Christ .It is not the grandeur of the moral law alonewhich can help you, unles s through the cloudand flame of Sinai you can s ee the face of

Christ. Only when youdo this can you utterwith Joseph, when

.

faced with sudden t emptation

,the eternal protest of innocence and faith

fulyouth . Beware of saying that you have notmade up your mind . H e who has not madeup his mind to

’

be on the side of purity andrighteousness, has made up his mind to be onthe s ide ofvice and sin . Once, in 1 750,French s oldiers were encamped at KIOSterkamp,

1 26 EVERYDA Y CIIRISTIAN LIFE.

and a young ofli cer, the Chevalier d’

As s is ,

advanced a lone into a wood to reconnoitre . Hewas instantly surrounded by an

,

ambush of theenemy, and , while the bayonets pricked hisbreast

,a s tern voicewhispered in his ear, Make

but the least noi s e, and you are a dead man .

”

Without one second ’s hesitation the young manshouted at the top of his voice,

“A moi, Auvergne ! The enemy are here ! ” Instantly hefell, piercedwith a score ofbayonet-points . Hefell, but the French army wa s saved from thesurprise. You s ee that, with that brave youth,military duty had become a habit and an ins t inct, to be instantly obeyed even on pain of

death . And s o, if you would be safe, must itbe with you . With you too

,as soldiers ofChrist,

the love ofGod must be an unerring l ight. Be

fore it i s too late faith must pass into purpose,and purpose into a dogged determined resolut ion .

In God’s army there can be no neutrals ; in theborders of God’s kingdom there are no debatable grounds. Lands of which the owne rs hipi s in the least uncertain belong to the Evil One .

He that allows himself to dally with anyvice does nothing in rea lity but entertain anevil demon . This is what Elijah meant, H ow

long halt ye between two opinions ? If theLord be God

,follow Him ; but if Baal, then

follow Him . This is what St. Paul meant,

when he asked,“What fellowship hath right

(the p os s ibility of (Boobnes s anb the

Example of the s aints .

Called to b e s ain ts . —1 Cor. i . 2.

INCE the seventh century one day oftheyear has been dedicated to the memoryof All Saints, and in many re ligious

communities, since the tenth century, anotherday i s set apart for the commemoration of AllSouls . This latter day has been dropped fromour calendar only because it wa s mixed up withRomish views about purgatory and masses forthe dead . Otherwise a clay devoted to meditation on AllSouls— in the stricte st sense of theword—in connect ion with a day of All Sa ints,suggests thoughts a s s olemn, and , I trust, asprofitable as almost any which could be presented to human contemplation .

1 . The great procession of mankind in itsunnumbered millions i s ever sweeping across thenarrow stage of life, issuing froma darkness inwhich they are not, passing into a darkness in

TH E POSSIBILITY OF GOODNESS. 1 29

which they are no more seen . We watch thatprocession as it winds through the long centuries of history, and we note its most strikingfigures. Some are Kings, who built pyramidsand subdued nations, and held absolute swayove r the destinies of their fellow-men some arePoets with their garlands and singing robesabout them some are great Discoverers

, who

enlarged the powers of man over the forces ofNature ; some are great Philosophers, who

widened the limits ofhuman thought . Here, atthe central spot of the life of a great people

, we

are surrounded on all sides by the tombs andcenotaphs of such famous men as these ; but it isnot of such as these that the great procession ismainly composed . The vast masses of it , likethe vast masses here gathered to-day

,cons ist of

a nameless throng— the poor,the ordinary, the

average, the undistinguished men whose littlelives gleamed for a moment out of the eternitiesand disappeared men who lie in earth’s millionsofnameless graves—the meaning, and even thebare fact of their existence as much obliteratedfromall human memory and from every humanrecord a s though it had been a speck offoam onthe immeasurable sea.To our eyes mankind is mainly divided into

the eminent and the obscure ; the known andthe unknown ; the great and the small ; therulers and the ruled the learned and the igno

1 30 E VER YDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE.

rant ; and it is to the latter classes—thos e whomtheworld call the unimportant, the in s ignificantthat the great multitude of every generationhave always belonged. Savag e a nd civilized, inevery age, in everyregion, the immense majorityofmen some with lives that came to nothing,some with deeds a s well undone - have vanishedlike a bubble, have sunk as lead in the mightywaters.” After a year or two they are forgottenin the grave for evermore. “The re the wickedcease from troubling, and there the weary be atrest ; there the prisoners are at ease , they hearnot the driver’s voice. The small and great arethere

,and the servant is free from his maste r.”

2. But to the eye Of God— to the eyes it maybe of all good and evil spirits—the aspect ofthat proces sion is very different . To themtheinch-high difference s of human rank have noexistence . For them the thistles of humanloftiness have no elevation, and the molehills cast no shadow. They, as they gaze onthi s marve llous procession of human life , knowonly the diffe rence between the good and theevil ; betwe en those who fear God and thosewho rej ect Him ; b etween those who love andthose who on ly hate and injure the ir neighboursbetween the holy and the unholy ; the forgivenand the impenitent ; the saved and the unsavedsouls.

3. In the fine gradations of human characte r

1 32 E VER VOA V CH RISTIAN LIFE.

feverish thirst for gold ; all those who haveheaped up for themselves riches as for a day ofslaughter by oppress ion, robbery, or wrong ; allwho by the unlawful indulgence of their lowestpassions have contributed to poison the lifeblood ofmankind ; all whose words or writingshave infected the stream of life with the leprousdistilment of polluted thoughts ; all those whoby the shameful perversion of art and literaturehave corrupted and inflamed the disease of

morbid imaginations ; all who have helped todegrade life from its sweet and serious sanctityinto vulgarism and frivolity ; all who have beenthe greedy and cruel d isseminators of gossip,slander

,and lies ; allwhose example has rendered

the actions ofmen viler, and their thoughts moretrivial ; all who have striven to hand on andto perpetuate evil traditions ; all who haveflourished by the causes of human misery andruin ; all who have delighted to hate, envy,revile

,or depreciate their fellow-men ; all the

idle cumberers of the ground whose root hasbeen as rottenness and the ir blossom gone up asdust ; all whose god is their belly, whose gloryis in their shame

,who mind earthly things—the

world may give them fortunes, or coronets, orloud applause, but these are bad men and badwomen. And ifall mankind had been a s thesehave been and are ifthere had been no salt ofthe earth amid its corruption , no twinkling

TH E POSSIBILI TY OF GOODNESS. 1 33

stars am id its midnight ; if, like the see thing of

the grape-bundles in the uncleansed wine-vat,earth had been nothing but a ferment of man ’svileness

,vanity

,and lus t ifthere had been none

on earth but thos e four classes whom God mosthates—mocke rs

,liars

,hypocrites, and slande rers

— then i ndeed,earth had been an anticipated

he ll. Without are dogs, and sorcere rs , andwhoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, andwhosoever loveth and maketh a lie .

”

5. But,oh

, with what unspeakable reliefdowe turn from these

'

works ofdarkness, and themwho de light therein

,to the saints of God ! In

themis the healing of the world .

Do not th ink of the mere title “ saints .That is at the best an imperfect and precarioustitle . It has been given to some , at least, oftheunworthy, and denied to many of the worthy.

On All Souls’ Day we may think not only ofallwhom the Church has called “

s a ints,

” but al s oof the long line of the heroes of faith in oldentime s ; of the patriarchs—Enoch the blame le s s .Noah the faithful

,Abraham the friend of God

of the sweet and meditative Isaac, the afflictedand wrestling Jacob. We may think of Moses

,

the meekes t ofmen ofbrave Judges ; ofgloriousProphets ofpatriotWarriors oftoilingApostles ;of the many Martyrs who would die rather thanl ie . We may think of the Hermits who, fromthe guilt and turmoil of l ife, fled into the soli

134 E VERVOA V CHRISTIAN LIFE.

tude of the wilderness ; of the Mis sionariesSt.Paul

,St . Columban , St . Benedict, St. Boniface ,

St . Francis Xavier, Schwart z, Eliot, HenryMartyn

,Coleridge Patteson ; of Reformers who

cleared the world of l ies like Savonarola, Huss,Luther

, Z wingli , Wesley, Whitfield of wiserulers like Alfred

,and St . Louis, and VVaShing

ton , and Lincoln ; of the writers of holy bookslike Thomas aKempis

,and Baxter

,and Bunyan,

and Jeremy Taylor ; of the Slayers ofmonstrousabuses like Howard and Wilberforce ; ofgoodbishops like Hugo of Ava lon, and Fenelon, andBerkeley of good pastors like Oberlin andFletcher of Madeley, and Adolphe Monod, andFe l ix Neff; ofall true poets, whether sweet andholy like George Herbe rt, and Cowper, andKeble, and Longfellow, or grand and mightylike Dante and Milton . These are but a few of

the many names of those who have reflected theglory of their Master, Christ ; and who walkwith Him in white robes

,for they are worthy.

My brethren,ifyou would comfort your hearts,

ifyou would strengthen your good resolutions,ifyou would retain that high estimate ofhumannature which so often threatens to succumbwhen we look at the sickening exhibitions of

moral revolt and disorder on every side ofus ,most earnestly would I urge you in an age likethis to make yourselves acquainted with Christ ianh istory and Christian biography

,as an antidote

1 36 EVERVOA V CHRISTIAN LIFE.

ces ee ntes of pure and possib le human goodness .They show us how,

through faith in Christ, andby the Spiri t of Christ, and becau s e of prayerto God through Chri s t

,men weak as we

are,tempted a s we are, yet did gloriously and

conspicuously triumph over s in , the world, theflesh

,and the devil, and the reby proved to us

that we can do the same . They refute theexcuse ofour feebleness they cut away the lieofour inability.

(ii .) It needs, for instance, but a short experience of life to s e e that the mas s of men are

greedy and selfish . Selfi s the allbut universa lidol— is for millions the sole law of existence .

Men jostle each other, and struggle in the pressand trample savagely on fallen rivals

,and show

the brutal spectacle ofthat perverted life whichlives and dies only for itself. And ye t it is possible formen to become—and thousands ofmenhave become—perfectly, beautifully unselfish ,caring honestly for the happ ines s ofothers morethan for their own . St. Macarius the herm itlived in the desert in a little commun i ty of solitaries. One d ay there wa s brought to him thatwhich in the hot desert is the mos t tempting andexquisite ofall luxuries

,a bunch offresh purple

grapes with the bloom and mist of the ir delicions ripeness upon them . Macarius hated thethought of taking them himse lf ; he preferredthat another should enjoy the boon

,and handed

TH E POSSIBILI TV OF GOODNESS. 1 37

it to one of the brothers ; but the same motivewa s strong in him , and he gave it to another.

But , again, this other preferred the enjoyment ofa companion to h is own and s o

,in the abs olute

uns elfis hne s s of that little community, the nutouched

,tempting grapes were handed from

one to another, none wishing to keep whatwould be pleasant to his fellow,

till at last theywere handed back to Macarius aga in . Un s elfi s h

ness,you s ee

,had become a s complete ly the

law of that little b rotherhood as selfishness isthe law of the common world . Oh, how in

finite ly lovel ier is the spectacle presented bythese saints of God and their love for oneanother, and the ir wish that others should b eblessed , than is daily presented in this hard,mean

,mode rn world

(iii .) Again , we need not look far to s ee thePride of men . It is so common that it seem sto be a s strong in the poorest and meanest a s inthe great . We s ee it, and its weak satellites,conceit and vanity, in the look of men ; it i sshown in the ir gait ; we hear i t in the ir veryaccent s . And never wa s the tendency strongerthan now to be se lf-assertive ; to be vain ; tosay to every one else, “ I am just a s good as

you to resent with fierce bitterne ss the notionthat They call this man as good as me.” Prideis the one Protean spirit , which takes manyforms in envy, hatred , backb iting, spuriou s


l iberty, false independence. And yet i t is quiteposs ible even for man

,proud man , to become

re s igned, humble, submissive, meek not to seekgreat th ings for himself; to take the lowestplace ; to think others bette r than himself. St.Thomas of Aquino was by far the greatest manof his ag e , of noble birth

, of ancient lineage , offine appearance , the most consummate theolog ian , supreme in learning a nd goodness

, the

friend ofPopes and K ings . In posit ion he wa sbut a humb le monk . One day at Bologna

,a

stranger arriving asked the Prior for some one tohe lp h imto get provisions and carry his basket .Tell the first brother you mee t,

” sa id the Prior .St . Thomas wa s walking in meditation in thecloister

,and

,not knowing him, the stranger said ,

“Your Prior bids you to follow me .” Without aword the great teacher— the Angel ofthe Schools,as he wa s called by the affection ofhis admirers—bowed his head, took the baske t, and followed .

But he was suffering from lameness, and since hewa s unable to keep up, the stranger rated himsound ly as a lazy, good-for-nothing fellow, who

ought to Show more zeal in religious obedience.The saint meekly bore the unjust reproaches

,

and answered never a word . Do you knowwhom you are speak ing to and treating in thisrude way said the indignant citizens who witn e s s ed the scene . That i s Brother Thomas ofAquino.

“ Brother Thomas of Aquino ! ” said

EVERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

let me rather point a second great lesson. If itbe an infinitely better and greater thing to be aChristian than to b e a King ; if the poorestLazarus who eve r lay at a rich man

’s gate maybe nobler and happier than the most gorgeousDives

,then how far highe r must it b e than every

human distinction to be a saint ofGod ! Yet, ifevery other avenue be closed to us

,this highest

of all ambitions is open to the humble st of usall. And what a true end and a imin l ife is this !If at any time we be inclined to despair amidthe waves of misfortune and the malice of ourfellow-men ifweary of injustice and discouragement we s ometimes fee l almos t driven to saywith Ehj ah,

“And now, 0 Lord, take away mylife, for I am not bette r than my fathers !

” isthere no comfort in the thought that God is notunjust and contemptuous like man ? Our earthlymisery or lowliness ; the poverty of our intellectual gifts ; our failing efforts ; our waningpowers ; our many feeblenes ses and imperfections, s o they be not stained with wilful Sin, donot make us any lower in the sight ofGod . Inspite of allsuch things, we may have atta inedby His grace the highest and best that life hasto offer . Even the Church ha s given her title of“s aint

,not only to great Popes like St. Leo or

St . Gregory, and Kings like the Confessor andSt . Louis, but to some of the very humblest ofthe low. Can you imagine a lowlier lot than

TH E POSSIBILITV OF GOODNESS. 1 4 1

that ofa servant-of-all-work Yet such , and nomore, wa s Santa Z ita . At the age oftwelve s heleft her little mountain village to become aservant to a family in Lucca, and in that poorservice she continued till, at the age of sixty,she died. Often reviled , often beaten, oftenforced to hard menial duties, without one murmur she served in singleness ofheart

,and out of

her poverty she fed the hungry and clothed thenaked with a garment. And yet even in such alot men s aw her happiness, and her sainthood ;and thirty years after her death Dante

,the

greatest of poets, speaks of a burgher of Z ita’s

proud pnd warlike city of Lucca simply as oneof Santa Z ita’s e lders. The warriors

,the

bishops,the nobles are designated only as

fellow-citizens with the servant-of-all-work .

What more would we have, my brethren, ifeventhrough so deep a valley of humiliation therestill l ies the path to heaven ? Let us set ouraffection on things above , not on things on theearth ; for, you see, a life spent in brushingclothes, and washing crockery, and sweepingfloors— a life which the proud of earth wouldhave treated as the dust under their feet ; a lifespent at the clerk’s desk ; a life spent in thenarrow shop ; a life spent in the labourer

’s hut,

may yet be a life so ennobled by God’s lovingmercy that for the sake of it a King might gladlyyield his crown.

142 E VERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE .

8 . And,in conclusion, thank God there have

been and are in the earth tens of thousandsholy and faithful, and therefore essentiallyhappy and full of inward peace, like that poorservant-girl. “After this I beheld , and lo ! agreat multitude which no man could number,of all nations, and kindred , and people, and

tongues,stood before the throne

,arrayed with

white robes and palms in their hands .” Oh !when in a moment youhear those words, s e t

to the mighty music of the anthem, wil l younot think of their solemn and glorious meaning ?Will you be of that great innumerable mul

t itude of the redeemed ? Amid the great procession of humanity will you make up yourminds that you wi ll be poor or rich

,low or

high,successful or unsuccessful, belauded or re

vi led as God shall please ; but that youwi ll notbe of the bad men and bad women, who bymean pass ions, and vile lusts, and bitter hatred ,and lying words have made the world worse

,

and all l ife darker for their fe llowship ? If notnow, when ? Ah ! seek even now the grace of

God ’s Holy Sp irit,that you may leave the base

ness of the malicious, the greed of the worldly,

the shame of the unclean, and be blessed forevermore !

E VERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE .

a s certain even of the heathen poets sai l, Forwe are also H is offspring.

”

1 . My purpose, then , is to speak to you atdiffe rent times of some of the great diversesources of revelat ion ; to treat ofthe Bible, and ofNature

,and of Poetry, and of Art, and of His

tory, and ofExperience, and of the Conscience,

a s the eternal teachers of mankind, and thus toshow from how many sources we may learnGod ’s will

,and how unanimous as well as how

s olemn are the lessons which they s et forth .

For ins p iration is a continuous energy of theprese nt , not a mere exhausted and isolatedspasmof the past . Pentecost wa s not a singleoutpouring. There are many Pentecos ts. TheHoly Ghost wa s not given once, or once only.

H e is constantly descending into all holy hearts .Our God is no sun that once shone and now

has set ; no, but He is always in the meridian .

He isNo ebbing t ide that left

Strewn with deadmiracle s thos e eldes t s horesFormen to dry, and dryly lecture on,H ims elfhenceforth incapable offlood .

No but our God is a living God, and our Christa living Christ

,and the Holy Spirit is with us.

Yea,except we be reprobates, He is in us now

and for evermore.I place the Bible first because it must ever

continue to be of the supremest importance to

TH E BIBLE . 145

the race ofman . It contains the record ofGod ’sspecial revelations to one chosen people, and ofthat final, all-inclusive revelation wherein Hehath spoken to us by His Son. The Bible isnot by any means His only revelation, but itcontains the words spoken by Him who was

the Word ofLife, and also the clearest, directestlessons which He has ever spoken to man throughthe mind and utterance ofhis brother man . Takebut one illustration of its unique s upremacyAfte r all these thousands ofyears ofthe world’sexistence, aft er all the splendours of literaturein all nations and in all age s, there is no bookin the whole world which can supersede it as aninstrument for the education of the young.

After all these millenniums it remains the mostuniquely glorious book in all the world . Aloneof all books it is circulated in hundreds of

millions of copies in every tongue. “ Its eclipsewould be the return of chaos, its extinction theepitaph of history .

” Its light is like the bodyof heaven in its clearness, its vastness like thebosom of the sea, its variety like scenes of

nature. The testimony on this subject, ofa manlike Professor Huxley, a leader of modernscience, wi ll not be suspected .

“ I have beens eriously perplexed to know,

” he says,“ how the

religious feeling which i s the essential bas e of

conduct can be kept.

up without the us e of theBible. The pagan moralists lack life and colour,

K


and even the noble Stoic,Marcus Aurelius, is

too high and refined for an ordinary child . Forthree centuries this book has been woven intothe life ofall that is best and noblest in Englishhistory. It forbids the veriest hind, who neverleft his village

,to be ignorant ofthe existence of

other countries and other civilizations, and of agreat past stretch ing back to the farthest limitsof the oldest nations in the world. By the studyof what other book could children be s o muchhumanized and made to fe e l that each figure inthat vast historical procession fills, l ike themse lves, but a momentary interspace in theinterval between two eternities, and earns thebless ings or the curses of all time according toits efforts to do good and hate evil, even a s theyalso are earning the payment for their work ? ”

2. Unhappily, however, in age after age, theBible has been liable to such boundless mis int erpretat ion s that it is not possible or honourableto speak of it as the most blessed among theteachers of mankind without admitting, a s St .Peter did eighteen hundred years ago

,that it is

l iable to terrible abuse. Century after centurymen, misled by their religious teachers, havefailed to see what the Bible is. They have madea fetish of it, and under plea of its s acrednesshave taken advantage of i ts many-sidedness toget rid of its most essential teaching. Theyhave made it like the fa ine

’

ant monarchs, who

148 EVERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE .

systems framed from it to mosaics of a dog orfox made by breaking up the fragments of themosaic of a king. Starting from the falseassumption that the Bible was verbally dictatedand homogeneously supernatural, men haveused this or that narrative

,this or that sentence

of it, to found systems utterly alien from itsgeneral purport

,a nd to defend atrocities entirely

abhorrent to the noblest spirit which it inculcates .Through the narrow wicket of a text they havele t in the crimes and tyrannies which weremeant to be excluded by every wall and buttressof its general structure . There is scarcely onesingle form of theological heresy

,or of political

outrage, or of social wrong, which has notpleaded Scripture in its defence. Christ denounced with burning indignation the wholesystem ofPharisaism,

yet Pharisaism pretendedto base itself on texts. The immense usurpations of the mediaeval papacy were built, likean inverted pyramid, on the needlepoint of oneperverted text. The odious ruthlessness of

Calvinism, which turned God into Moloch andman into mere fuel for endless flames

,pro

claimed itself as the only logical inference fromScripture texts . The slaveholder defended bytexts his hateful interests ; the Mormon defend sby texts h i s detestable polygamy ; the Englishclergy defended by texts the ir slavish tenet of

passive obedience the Romish priests defended

TH E BIBLE. 1 49

by texts alike the despotismof one tyrant andthe dagger-thrust of the assassin by whichanother fe ll . Nor were the Puritans any wiser.Preaching before Parliament in 1 646, I believein St . Margaret ’s Church, Stephen Ma rshallsaid

,

“ He i s a cursed man that withholds hishand from the shedding of blood, or who shalldo as San ! did , slay some and Save some,instead of slaying all. The Inquisition lit it sfires

,and turned its racks

,and plied its thumb

screws on the authority of texts . Texts havebeen used to crush freedom in her cradle , and tostrangle science at her birth . Because theScriptures are a most precious gift of God, thedevil ha s taken special pains to turn them intoa most potent instrument of evil . Disguisinghimself as an angel of light, he has persuadedmen to make Scripture an idol. Now God willhave no idols

,not even if they be sacred things .

Our greatest poe t ha s told us that “ The devilcan quote Scripture for his purpose. And allthis horrible abuse of God’s precious gift hassprung from the fal s e dogma that inspirationsupersedes the ordinary limitations of humanimperfection, and that every word and letterofScripture i s supernaturally dictated by God .

It i s time , i t i s high time, it is of infin ite importance to the whole future of

it wi ll be but a tardy reparation to the insultedmaj esty of truth—that this lying for God, this

EVERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

degrading and ruinous idolatory of the letter,

should b e for ever swept aside. The errorswhich have been built upon it, the crue lt ieswhich have been perpetrated in its name, are arecord which, more than any other, angels

Blush to record , and weep to give it in.

3. And as these false views of an un s cripturalbibliolatry must be repudiated, so must plainfacts of a divine history be constantly borne inmind . (i .) One is that the Bible is not a s inglebook

,but

,as Edmund Burke said,

“ an infinitevariety ofthe most venerable and mostmult ifarious literature.” It is not one book, but sixty-Sixbooks

,of which some are separated from others

by a space of fifteen hundred years. It i s notone homogeneous utterance, but a series offragmentary and manifold utterances, by writers ofvery different degrees ofgoodness and enlightenment. Some of it is H istory written at unknownepochs by unknown writers. Some of it isPoetry

,varying from the wailing cry of the

penitent to the triumphant war-song and the

glowing epithalamium. Some of it enshrinesthe shrewd experiences ofmundane wisdom andthe eager speculations of dawning philosophy.

Some of it is Prophecy—that i s , for the mostpart

,impa s s ioned moral preaching, the denun

ciat ion of national sins, the threat of doom to

guilty cities, and above all, the ever-brightening

EVERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE.

been a main source of peril and mischief. Letone ins tance suffice. When Réné, Duchess ofFerrara, daughte r ofLouis XII ., wrote to Calvinthat we were not to follow David ’s example inhating our enemies

,Calvin curtly and peremp

torily wrote back to her that such a gloss wouldupset the whole Bible — just as if Christ hadnever said the ve ry contrary ! Herein the greatReformer showed himself more ignorant thanthe humble minister in Old Mortality.

” “ Bywhat law can youjustify the atrocity you wouldcommit asks Henry Morton of Balfour of

Burley.

“ If thou art ignorant of it,” replied

Burley,“ thy companion is well aware of the

law which gave the men ofJ ericho to the swordofJoshua, the son ofNun.

” But we ,” answe red

the divine,

“ live under a better dispensation,which in s tructe th us to return good for evil, andto pray for them who despitefully use us andpersecute us.

5. The roots and fibres of errors like those onwhich I have touched are s o inte rtangled in thenetwork ofmodern religionism,

with a thousandother forms of the misuse ofScripture, and withdeep ignorance res pecting it s real nature, thatthese warnings have become most necessary.

The Infidel and the Secularist find their chiefallies in the bigoted blindness in which, even inthis nineteenth century

,the tim idity of re ligious

teachers suffers the mass ofChristians to remain.

TH E BIBLE. 3

Nay,our modern sceptics are themselves led

into terrible perplexity by their own ignoranceofwhat all the most competent teachers reallyhold. Suffice it now to s ay that the essentialBible to us is not everything which we find inthe four corners of the sixty-six books which webind up in one volume and call the Bible, but itis the message of God to ourselves, which everyheart and conscience may find in the whole tenorof its truest and noblest teachings. The Wordof God contained in Scripture becomes selfluminous when it has been once illuminated bythe teaching of Christ Himself. Young men,when the Infidel makes merry over this or thatstory, or impugns this or that sentiment of theOld Testament, if you do not know what is theproper and easy answer to give him

,tell himso

but tell him at the same time that you will consult those who do . And meanwhile you maymost safely assure him that by such criticismshe is no more shaking the foundation ofChristianity or diminishing the awful verity of religionthan he would be shaking We stminster Abbeyif he took out a loosened stone fromone of it s

pinnacles,or pointed to an outworn epitaph

upon its floor.6 . But, having eliminated these mistaken views

we may dwell without stint on the priceless valueof Scripture as a whole, of Scripture in its be stand final teach ing, to the heart ofman . It con

1 54 E VER VOA V CH RISTIAN LIFE.

tains in germ nine-tenths of all that i s best andnoblest in the literature of two m illenniums ofChrist ianity. Warriors have fought for it, andmartyrs bled . The Talmud and the Koran,nay , even the Books of the Buddhis ts have butstolen its brightest gems. It exercised the toilof Origen and Jerome, and fired the eloquenceof Chrysostom and Augustine . It dilated thesupreme and immortal songs of Dante and of

Milton. It woke the intrepid genius of Luther,and the burning zeal ofWhitefield, and the hallowed fancy ofBunyan . It inspired the picturesofFra Ange lico and Raphae l, and the music of

Handel and Mozart . “ There is scarcely anynoble part ofknowledge , says Hooker,

“worthyof the mind of man but fromScripture it mayhave some direction and light . The hundredbest books, the hundred best pictures , the hundred best pieces of music are all in it. Theliterature of Greece ,

” says Theodore Parker,“ which goes up like incense from that land of

temples,has not half the influence of this book

of a despised nation The sun never sets uponits gleaming page.” What a book exclaimedthe sceptic H e ine

,after a day spent in the un

wonted task of reading it. “Vast and wide asthe world , rooted in the abysses of creation, andtowering up beyond the blue secrets of heaven !Sunrise and sunse t

,promis e and fulfilment, birth

and death, the whole drama of humanity, all


the tes timony of the most eminent livingman of

science, and I wi ll quote one of the illustriou sdead. Once when Faraday wa s ill his arm wa sresting on a table upon which lay an open book.

I fear you are worse,

” said Dr. Latham . Iti s not that

,

” sa id Faraday with a sob, but whywill people go astray when they have this blessedbook to guide themAnd its words speak to the ear and to the

heart as no other music wi ll, even afte r wi ld andsinful lives. “Though I walk through the valleyof the shadow of death I will fear no evil, forThou art with me

,Thy rod

, and Thy staff, theycomfort me those words were repeated by hisphysician to Daniel Webster on his death-bedand the great man faltered out, That i s what Iwant Thy rod— Thy rod , Thy staff—Thy staff.They were the last words he spoke .8 . I would then urge you all to a constantand reverent— but at the same time a wise andspiritual— study of this sacred book .

“ Ifwe beignorant

,say the translators of 1 6 1 1 , the

Scriptures will instruct us ; if out of the way ,they will b ring ,

us home ; ifout of order, theywill reform us ; if in heaviness, comfort us ; ifdull

,quicken us ifcold

,inflame us . Tolle leg c;

Tolle leg e. But the B ible is not a charm or anamulet

,that it should do this of itself. The

blessing s which it can bestow depend on yourselves and on the grace of God which you seek

TH E BIBLE. 1 57

in prayer. Read as a scoffer, read as aPharisee, and it wi ll b e useless to you. Read i trightly

, and it will indeed be a light unto yourfeet and a lamp unto your path. Read it teachably

,read it devotionally. The knowledge of

Scripture “ is a science not of the intellect, butof the heart. Read it above all as Chris ttaught us to read it : not by entangling youtselves in the controversial and the dubious, butby going to the very heart of its central s ignificance. Have you no Reas on to guide you, noConscience lighted by ‘God and lighting to God ? ’

Have you no Spirit ofChrist to teach youthatyou must read its lessons—not conceitedly, notwith self-satisfaction, not through the lurid mistsof some anathematising theology

,not with the

blind and furious eyes of party suspicion or factious hate—but into the soul ’s vernacular ” andwith the eyes of love ? Treat it as a heap of

missiles to be hurled at your neighbour and hisopinions, and there will be no end to your folliesand errors. You wil l but distort it, as so manyhave done, to your own perdition . Read it inhumility and in love

, and then no Urimwhichthe High-priest wore has ever gleamed withsuch lessons as it will reveal to you. Howevermuch it be mingled with mysteries which we arenot required to unravel

,and difficulties which

we are not able to solve,it contains plain

teaching for men ofevery rank ofsoul and state

1 58 E VERVOA V CH RISTIAN LIFE.

in life, which, so far as they honestly and impli

ci tly obey, they will be happy and innocent tothe utmost powers of the ir nature, and capableofvictory over all adversities, whether of temptat ion or ofpain.

”

This Sermon is of cours e only a fragment. It was on lymeant to clear the way formany others on s eparate books of

11017 Writ.


and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters,and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie .

” Heteaches us in Nature . Nature says : “ I make noexceptions. I admit no compromises. I knowforg iveness of sins . If my word is disobeyed

,

my blow falls.” H e teaches us by Experience .Experience points, with her lean and palsiedfinger, to the earth wrinkled with the graves ofthe innumerable dead who have n ever lived .

He teaches us by the Living Voice of Christ.Christ says, quit e unmistakably,

“ If thouwiltenter into life, keep the commandments.

” Nay,even the enemy of souls himselfbears witness tothe sanctity ofmoral laws. When men wouldfain cast the blame of their vileness on him,

he says “Ask your own consciences honestlywhether I have ever deceived you ; whether Ihave ever tried to make you believe that a badaction was a good one. It is you who upholdthe kingdom of darkness

,which else would

tumble down . The sin and the vice are yourown choice. You give life to them,

and theyare your death . I do not deceive . I tempt.”

1 . But yet, though God has written His willin sunbeams and in flame, has uttered it inthunder and in music

,we have the awful fact,

that sin is universal . Some men are indeedincomparably viler

,and more villanous than

others, but all have s inned and come short ofthe glory of God . As race after race passes

TEA/P TATION . 16 1

across the stage ofhistory, we see their favourite

sins, whether of avarice, or lust, or blood . Asman after man makes his briefpassage betweenthe two e tern ities

,we s ee the traces

,or read the

story of his vices or failings . Men differ, as Ihave said

,in all degrees : some sin habitually ;

others fall but rarely,and only under sudden

overwhelming temptation . Some sin continuous ly from the cradle to the grave, and repentnot ; others have sinned indeed, but they arewashed, but they are justified, but they aresanctified . I do not need to prove this. It ise nough to appeal to your own consciences, toyour own experience . Look back over thefaultful pas t of your life—back to the days ofyour happy childhood . Remember your firs tconscious act of sin ; the first time you took sinconsciously by the hand ; think how infinitelybe tter it had been for you had you gained thatbattle.

'

Trace all the consequences of that firsttime that youdid violence to the majesty of

God’ s Law ; of that beginning of s in which is asthe letting out of water, and of which the

s tream s o rapidly became,first ankle-deep, then

knee-deep,then to the waist, then waters to

swimin, waters that could not be passed over ,Think of all that, at this moment , you mighthave been ; of allthat you are not ; of all thatyou are. H ow was it that you individuallydashed yourse lf aga inst that wall of adamant ?

162 EVERYDAY CHRISTIAN LIFE .

H ow was it that you,too

,braved that eternal

inexorable penalty ? Ye s ! You have moreor less met the awful problem in your own life—have you never seen it working in the l ive sof others ? Some of you are parents. H as nofather here watched, with aching heart, thedeparture ofhis prodigal into the far country, orseen him sitting in rags among the swine Hasno woman here had to echo the passionate cryof Lemuel’s mother “Whatmy son ? and whatthe son of my womb ? and what the s on of myvows ? ” Youtrained them well—have none ofthem proved false to the guide of their youthand the covenant of their God ? The sons of

the sweet Psalmist of Israel were Amnon andAbsalom . The sons of Eli were Hophni andPhinehas. Well, how is all this ? What is theexplanation of the tremendous problem—thatGod’s will is holiness and man ’s life is sin2. The whole explanation lies in one word of

mystery ; in one word oft errible omen for thehuman race—Temptation. Temptation indeedis not sin. We all must be tempted but not oneof us need yield to temptation . Life is of itsvery nature and necessity a mora l warfare . ToShirk it is impossible. It is a vain resistanceto God ’s will to try to fence any soul fromever incurring it. Sooner or later

,whether

we are prepared or unprepared, “ the temptingopportunity meets the s us ceptible disposition,

”

164 EVERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE .

remors e and fear— we have all gone through italldis obeyed the will of God ; all fallen fromperfect obedience The se ntence of death haspassed upon us ; and , unless we have repentedlong ago in dust and ashes, the flaming sword ofthe cherubim waves every way between us andthe Tree ofLife . Which ofus all shall cast thestone at our fallen father Adam, at our frai lmi s e rable mother Eve ? Have we made anywi s er choice ? If they did s o badly

,did not

G od put it afresh in our power to have donebetter ? After millenniums of experience haveproved that the crude apple which perve rtedEve wa s so ruinous and so bitter, have we notplucked it Have not we too been driven fromthe Eden of innocence ? Was it only in thatgarden by the Euphrates, or is i t also in theruined garden of eve ry human soul, that by theTre e of Life there grows also the Tree of theKnowledge ofgood and evil ?

4 . Man has fallen, and men fall, becausethe re is an influence of evil without us whichwe call Satan, the Accuser, the Tempter, theDestroyer ; and there are principles of weakne ss and corruption within us which we call afa llen nature, or an hereditary taint, or originalsin . The two work together. Satan secretlyco-operates with our evil tendencies. “Like apirate at sea he sets upon us with our owncolours .” He comes as a friend ; he comes in

TEMPTATION . 1 65

the disguise ofan angel of l ight he comes as afalse principle of religion quot ing a multitude of

texts he come s as freedom and pleasure , with asmile on the lip and light in the eye

,and finds

access to us , and makes our pass ion s strong andstrange. We y ie ld to him the reins of oursoul’s chariot , and he leaps into it, and then thedirection is certain, and the road is broad,and the course downwards, and the pace is mad,

”

and at the bottom is— the abyss. The Spirit ofGod lead s us gently . He guides us with hiseye ; but when, betrayed by our unrestrainedappet ites, we have once made a league withdeath , and a covenant with hell, then the devilsweeps us onward as with the breath of atempest . All the devils in hell cannotforce us to commit one Sin . The weake st ,youngest Christian, if he choos es, can laughthem allto scorn . We cannot charge our sinson them : over our free will they have nopowe r. But men betray to the enemy the

wicket-ga te of the fortress of their own souls.Until we do that the fortress i s impregnablewhen we betray but a pos tern to them it isterrible odds but they will become the masters— masters tyrannous and crue l ; and, sinceReason, and Conscience, and Innocence werethe strong garrison, one by one they will doomthat garrison to death .

5. Thus is it, then, that men s in . You may

166 EVER VDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

bind the passions as with cords , a s with fresh

green withes ; but when they have thus beenbetrayed to unholy guidance, they rise up intheir mad revolt

,and the bonds of reason and

conscience become but as tow which the flamehas touched ! And those bonds

,once broken

,

a re never so strong again . Nay, they are re

placed by other and fatal bonds, the thousandfold fetters of habit, in that dungeon of vicewhose bars are of iron and its gates of bras s .Hence you will see that the best way of con

quering sin is to disown it to have nothing todo with it ; never to parley with it ; never tolinge r in its precincts never to tamper with itsinstruments ; to spurn its whispered casuistry ;to s ay I cannot— I ought not—I will not .” If

you would not become the slave of Sin,allow it

no place in your imagination ; suffer it noadmittance into your thoughts. For directly youyield to it passion w il l produce in your mindthe fatal effect of a mirage in the desert ; andthen

,turning your face from the right road

,you

will gaze and gaze to madness on a vanishingdelusion

,which will make youforget all truth

and all duty, and afterwhose empty images youwi ll pant in vain til! a t last, lost, thirs ty,weary,fainting, disillu s ioned , despairing— bi tten byfiery serpents—the vulture beating over yourhead its fetid wings— youlie down, to leave onemore carca s e in the wilderness, whose s corched


regarded with abhorrence . And hence—s inceSatan tempts

,since s in deceives, since the will is

weak ; since, in the perversion of the reason andthe s ilencing of the conscience, the moral lawloses it s grandeur ; since vice grows in s eductivenes s, and temptation in intensity—for all thesereas ons the world is what it is, and God

’s education is frus trated, and men s ell themselves to thepowers ofevil.

7. But now, while we see, while we ought tos ee the numbers of the terribly wounded in thisbattle-field of life while we see, while weought to see the fearful power that lies intemptation— let us not for a moment s top at thispoint ; let us not for a momen t rest contentwith the callousness of immoral acquiescence

,

or the stupor offaithles s despair. It i s simply acrime again s t God to deny the strength and

freedom ofour will, to talk of destiny, to apologize for vice by statistics, to charge our sinsupon Satan, or upon God . To talk thus, tomake our strong passions an excuse for ourweak reason, is faithlessly to ignore the power ofgrace and the gift ofChris t . Listen to what St .James

,the Lord ’s brothe r, says :

“ Let no mansay

,when he is tempted,

‘ I am tempted ofGod,

”

for God has nothing to do with evil neithertempteth he any man but every man i s temptedwhen he is drawn away ofhis own lust and en

’

A1reipao"rés éa‘

rt xam'br.

TEMPTATION . 169

ti’ced. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringethforth sin ; and Sin, when it is full-grown, gend ereth death .

” Hear what St. Paul says Therehath no temptation taken you, but such as mancan bear, but God is faithful who will not sufferyou to be tempted above that ye are able, butwill with the temptation make also the way

ofescape . Notice two things in that most pregnant utterance . In the first place, St. Paul says ,Your temptation , be it what it may, i s but ahuman temptation)“ In other words, do not for amoment pretend that your case i s exceptiona l .That is half vanity and half a lying excu s e.H ow often have men and youths s aid to me

,

“ It

is s o diffi cult to be good D iffi cult,yes ! and

if you do not try with all your heart, not on lydifficult but impossib le . Diffi cult, yes ! but ye tso comple te ly possible to the very weakest of

you all, that, if you willus e the appointed meanswh ich God has placed in your powe r

,the d ifl‘i

culty should be a s lit tle a barrier in your heave nward path as the gossamer thread s of summerto one who stride s across the morning field s .

When you are tempted,instead ofbasely assum

ing that you cannot but yie ld , be sure of thi s,

that your temptations are not abnormal t emptations, that they are not excess ive temptations

,

that they are apportioned to your feeblenessthat they are but as your day ; that they

1 70 EVERYDAY CHRISTIAN LIFE.

are but such as thousands, no better, no

stronger, not placed amid less temptationsthan you are , have triumphantly overcome.And this is the blessed certainty which everytrue soul strengthens for us . This is theblessed example which every saint ofGod, however weak

,contributes to the redemption of all

the world . Every boy who has led a pure lifein an impure school ; every youth, who ,

in ashop or in an ofli ce

,where all around him bet

,or

gamble,or indulge in obscene talk, or add the

miserable quota of the ir personal sensuality, atonce to their own ruin, and to theworld

’s agonyand shame— every youth, I s ay, who in suchsurroundings wi ll not do as othe rs do ; everyyouth in such a school, or shop , or office, whoopenly refuses to bet

,or gamble

,or drink

,or

j oin in one word of foul talk, and who showsopen scorn and discountenance of impure live s ;every sa int of God, who has passed his wholelife it may be in the burning fiery furnace of

temptation,yet over whose garments not even

the smell of fire has passed ; yea , every good ,true man— eve ry man of principle— and theirname

,thank God, is legion ,

and I heard thenumber of them,

and it wa s ten thousand timest en thousand and thousands of thousands— allwho have either lived holy lives from childhoodupward

,or who, having erred, have repented in

dust and ashes,and given the ir l ives to God


deliverance . Temptations of the flesh and of

the senses can only be met and overcome byflight ; others must be met sword in hand .

Some can only be beaten down by ince ssan tblows ; others must be stabbed to the heart atonce with a single death-wound . Expe rie ncevery soon teaches youthis if you are in earnest .Each temptation has it s own special fortres sstorm and sack that fortress with a resolution a sof life and death. Each temptation entrenche sitself in its specia l time or place of vantage .

The day and the night have their own temptations . There is a pestilence that walketh in darkness, and there is a demon that des troyeth in thenoonday . Youth has its own temptations

, and

middle age , and grey ha i rs . M en have the i rown temptations, and women theirs. The hourof id leness and the hour of toil, the s choo l andthe holiday, the office and the home, the toil ofthe hand and the effort of the brain— the re isnot an age, there is not a temperament , there i snot a profession wh ich has not alike its own

special temptation and alike its own s pecialway of escape . What each separate way is i twould b e impos sible to tell you , nor is it needful ,for youcan easily learn it if you choos e . God

wi ll tell you your reason wi ll te ll you. In

eve ry sermon you hear, in eve ry true prayer youutte r, youwil l find it . Ah ! but have you these lf-knowledge, the s ince rity , the wil l to seek it

TEMP TATION .

‘

1 73

the will to us e it when d iscovered ? Willyouwatch and pray les t you enter into temptat ionor wi ll you too join the vas t ruined mul t itudewho have sinned

,and suffered

,and not repented

If s o, what will happen to you I will te ll you

Sin will grow worse every day. Temptationwi ll grow stronger every d ay . Res istance willgrow fainte r every d ay . Habit wi ll grow dayby d ay more tyrannous the wi ll day by d ayweaker ; God day by day more silent to you .

Punishment will day by day grow more inevitable and more seve re. So wi ll the river ofyourlife glide , it may be with fatal s moothness, tothe whirling rapids, and the rapids end in thewild leap of the cataract . And then ? Then

,

after death,Judgment ! Ah ! be warned in

time . We entreat you that ye receive not thegrace ofGod in vain , for he saith, I have heardthee in a time accepted in the day of salvationhave I s uccoured thee. Behold, now i s theacceptable time ; behold , now is the day of

s alvation .

”

Selling the JBirtbrigbt .

Who for one mors e l ofmea t s old his birthright .H EB. xii . 16.

HE words refer, as you know,to the

story ofEsau but on that story I donot now purpose to dwell . Youwil l

all remember the single fact, that the roughhunter came in tired and ravenous from his

fie ld sports , and seeing his brother Jacob wi th a

bowl of sodden lentils— the commonest kind offood—broke out with the eager words

,Feed

me I pray thee, with that red, red food.

" Youknow how the smooth, mean man, his brother,cunningly playing on this animal voracity, said“s ell me this day thy birthright ;

” and Esaureplied,

“ Behold I am at the point to d ie , andwha t profit shall the birthright do to me ? ” SoJacob made him swear, and gave himbread andpottage of lentils ; and then, as though thesacred historian

,with subtle and solemn irony

,

would lengthen out the fatuity of that oneat Gen. xxvi . 30. H eb . the red , M i: red .


what he had sold for a mess ofpottage wa s not

only the birthright, but the blessing, the glory,the dominion

,the pros perity, of years . H e

had sold his happiness he had sold the eternaljewel of his soul ; and that for naught . “Andwhen Esau heard the word s of his father, hecried with an exceeding great and bitter cry,

and said unto his father Bless me,even me

also, 0 my and again, “ Hast thounot reserved a blessing for me ? ” and again,“ Hast thou but one blessing, my fatherBless me , even me also, oh my father. And

Esau lifted up his voice,and wept. The s trong

man wa s broken down . The cry of remorseful,unavailing agony wa s wrung from that roughheart . He read his boyish sin unde r the terribleglare flung upon it by its consequences . “For

ye know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the ble ssing, he was rejected

(for he found no place of repentance) though.

he

sought it diligently with tears . Afterwa rd ,”

—ah ! how into that word afterward,” is

crushed the unutterable bitterness of manymyriad s of live s ! It is the word which menforce God to us e . Yet will I bring one moreplague upon Pharaoh ; afterward s he will let yougo . Afterwards -ah ! why not before thatlast, that fatal, irremed iable plague ?It is the epitome of retribution. The wi nemoveth itself aright in the cup— red

,luscious

,

SELLING TH E BIRTHRIGH T. 1 77

alluring but afterwards it biteth like a serpent.It is the death-knell in the ear of lifelong trans

gre s s ion . It is appointed unto all men once todie

,and afterwards— afte r death— the judgment.

Afterwards “ too late if thou hadstknown

,

” “ it might have been ” Ah ! thosea re to the sinner the saddest, the mos t terrib leofwords .Now I leave entirely on one Side the story of

Esau, full as it is of pathos and of warnings.I want to fix your minds not on him

,but on the

nature of hi s sin “ For one morsel of meat,

”

rim-i pfa g fipa'mewg , for one meal in one

moment, by one overpowering impulse— for thegratification of one fierce desire—he sold hi s

birthright. He sold it because he des pised it ;and he despised it because it wa s not a thingwhich he could s ee

,or eat

,or drink

,or grasp

with both hands ; because it wa s a glory and ablessing which pertained not to the body

,but to

the soul. That was his s in ; tha t is why he

the gay bright hunter, with his superficial virtuesdragged down by the mill-stone of his vicesstands in Scripture as the eternal type of the

sensual and the profane.2 . Alas ! my brethren is this sin—this con

tempt for the spiritual, this despising of thebirthright— i s it so rare ? Is it not the verycommonest of all sins ? Is it not distinctivelythe s in to which every one of us is tempted ;

M


of which, in greater or less d egree, in someform or other, nearly all of us are guilty ?And why ? Because all men have not faith ;and this sin is the absence of faith

,the

opposite of all faith. For faith is the powerto recognize the Spiritual, and to trampleon the carnal . It is the illuminated eye of

the heart,which makes the whole body full

of light. It is the spiritual insight which looksto the unseen from the seen ; to manhoodfrom youth ; to age from manhood ; to deathfrom life to God from death . And want offaithoften looks like the s in of a moment, but it i sthe abstract of a tendency, it is the habit of alife. It is that profane self-indulgence to wh ichan ideal blessing is as nothing compared to amomentary pleasure . It is the sin which

,se l ling

itse lf to do evil, sells itself always for naught.I t sells the distant for the near the true for thefalse the substance for the shadow the Eternalfor the temporal the peace of life for the folliesofboyhood the hopes of the years of the righthand of the Most High, for turbid, evanescent,and envenomed pleasures. It is as when a manamid the snow will yield to sleep, though heknows that sleep is death . It is as when thewrecked sailor will drink the brine, though heknows that to drink it is to die . For that sleepfor that drink they sell their lives. Even s o

men sell their souls for sin. For the indulgence

1 80 E VERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE.

redeemed “ shall clasp ins eparable hands in

joy and bliss in over-measure for ever.” It isto be Kings

,and Priests, and Prophets here

Kings, to whom is uttered the lordly wordDominamin i J—Rule ye over all that is vileand base ; Priests, in the white garments of

purity and holiness ; Prophets, to speak God’s

mes sages as from lips touched with hallowedfire. “ Brethren, now are we the children of

God, and it doth not yet appear what we shallb e ; but we know that when He Shall appearwe shall b e like H im, for we shall see Him asHe is .

” Children of God : it is an immensepretension ; yet this it is to be a man this i sthe birthright ofevery one ofyou !

4. Alas ! i s not all this a d ream ? Is it theentrance upon this birthright which we s ee inthe groaning and travailing creation, in ruinedearth and sinful man ? Men l—are these menthat we s ee on every side around us, or are

they hungers, thirs ts , fevers, appetites”

? Whatisman , if the chiefgood and market ofhis timebe but to sleep and feed —a beast , no moreYet what more are many men doing ? I wa slooking out

,not long ago, upon a very stormy

s ea . The winds howled ; the troubled waveswere da s hing

‘

thems elve s into spray upon therocks. Many vessels were in the bay ; theycould not move for the hurricane, but could onlytrust to some anchor in the sands

,and were

SELLING THE BIRTHRIGH T. 1 8 1

tossed wildly up and down. In the n ight theanchors of two of them slipped their hold, andthey were hurled helplessly in total wreck uponthe shore. There was no beauty or glory inthose poor ships ; it is the beauty and glory of

a ship when her helmis firmly grasped, and the

obedient wind swe lls her white sails, and thecleft wave bears her onwards towards her havena plume and a power .” And s o it is with man .

There is no glory or beauty in himwhen, on thelittle vessel ofhis life, he staggers to and fro l ikea drunken man , and is at his wit

’s end ; when,upon the s ea of life

,he is shattered upon the

sunken reef,or welters

,a dismantled hulk, upon

the watery waste. Again , I ask, do men keepthe ir birthright ? My friends

,our birthright

i s Innocence,Holiness

,Peace with God, Life,

Light, Immortality. Where i s the holiness ofthe liar

,the schemer, the blasphemer ? Where

the innocence of the drunka rd ? Where thepeace with God of the impure ? What fellowship hath light with darkness, and Christ withBe l ial

,and the temple of God with idols ? Are

these men fit to d ie ? A sk rather,are they fit

to live ? When we walk through great citiesand s ee the fearful lives of many the re— thebrutal coarseness, the hideous cunning, the imfathomable corruption— where is the birthrightof these ? When we mix among the middleclasses

,and note the moiling avarice, the vulgar

E VERVOAV CHRISTIANLIFE.

self-absorpt ion, the, mean hopes—where is thebirthright of these ? When we watch the livesofmany ofour youths of the upper classes— the

gilded youth,as men call them— the ir ignorance,

their irreverence,their libe rtinis m

,their gambling

and betting, and drinking, and uncleannesswhere is the birthright ofthese ?Nay, when one looks forth even on the general

spectacle ofmankind, and sees (as one has said)the evidences of “ insane religion, degraded art,merciless war, sullen toil, detestable pleasure,and vain or vile h0pe in which the nations of

the world have lived — oh ! if there were noother side of the story, might we not be temptedwith him to regard the race itself as “ halfserpent

,not yet extricat ed from its clay

”

? Itis not individuals only, it is the whole race ofman that must cry aloud,

“ The crown is fallenfrom our head s, for we have s inned

5. Thank God , there is , as I said, another aspectofhumanity. There are among these crowds somewho have not sold their birthright ; some who,even in Sardis, have not stained their raiment ;the holy

,and the brave

,and the merciful

,the

white souls who have toiled and fought andovercome ; souls

“ transparent a s crys tal,active

as fire,unselfish as the ministering spirits, sweet

and tender as grace ; strong, generous and en

during as the hearts ofmartyrs . But how comesit that all are not such -that far, far the most

1 84 E VERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE.

and to “ laugh at them as they strut to their confusion —he has a bitter

,lying proverb about

sowing wild oats first and growing good grainafte rward s. H e must indeed de spise those whoaccept the lie, against which even all bad menwitness, again s t which not Scripture only, butreason too

,and consc ience

,plead trumpet

tongued . Sow wild oats and you will reap whatyou s ow— wild oats

, which a re not food, whichare po is onou s , which starve the s oil. Sow to

the fle s h, and you will reap what yous ow— cor

rupt ion. Every act of yours is a seed plantedin heaven or hell ; and between the fruit andthe seed you will find an inevitable congruity.

Or again, to change the metaphor : the powersof evil hold out to you the bait of s in , andpers uade you that by a snatch at it you mayseize the glittering lure, and escape the lacerating hook . Well

,they may give the sinner

plenty of time,and let him play, and plunge,

and seem to escape but unle ss One hand breakthe l ine, St . James in two word s gives you whata lways must be the result at last—SakeaZduevocrealiEsAxva flelc enticed and drawn out ;

”

the

fis h i s dragged— torn,gasping

,dying—upon the

shore at last .6 . He found no place of repentance , though

he sought it carefully with tears .” H e did findplace of repentance if he sought it. The doorof repentance is never closed . None who have

SELLING TH E BIRTHRIGH T. 1 85

sought it have ever failed to find it . No matterhow bad or foolish they have been

,the Heavenly

Father rejoices to welcome back H is returningprod igals . The words s o tran s lated may meanthat he found no means to change his father’smind , or his own mind ; or no room for anychange of purpose in such a way as to repairthe earthly con s equences of his carnal folly. If

the text did not mean this,it would be contrary

to the te nor of all Scripture . But i t does meanthis. It means the irreparability of e arthly consequences. It means that even to be forgiven isnot the same thing as to be innocent and thateven to repent i s not to recover the perfectbirthright and the un impaired blessing. The s tainrema ins

,the s hame remains , the scar rema ins,

the memory remains ; and life is not , nor evercan it be, all it wa s , all it might have been .

The very best thing in all the world is never tohave sold the bi rthright the next best thing isto recover it, if not for this world, yet for thatwhich is to come.

7. We ll then, my friends, what I have beentrying to tell you all along

,is the one aim and

obj ect of all God’s education ofus in life . It isthe che ris hing, the preserving, the securing of

your birthright . Since life i s a magn ificent and

immortal birthright ; since many men lose orimpa ir it ; Since none who s o sell it can , in thisworld, wholly recover it ; since all sale of it leads

1 86 E VERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE .

to vain tears at last— the pang for what is lost,and the pang for what is done ; youwill seewhat is the highes t

, what should be the mainlesson which God would teach you . It is inyouth that the birthright is most often sold . A

man scarcely ever becomes a fe lon unless he hasbegun the career between t he ages of fourteenand twenty. The sway of life, the bias of

character, the deathful dipping of the scale tothe side ofevil, is mostly decided in early youth .

This,then, should be your aim,

the aim ofeveryman who would make something of his l ife— tokeep his birthright unimpaired ; not to s ellit fora mess of pottage, not to sell it for the carelesshour or the sensual snare. That youth is in thehighest sense well-educated who by God ’s gracepasses into the battle of life strong, self-denying ,pure ; scorning mean pleasures, scorning vulgarcomforts, scorning idle uselessness ; brave tomeet dange r

,brave to defy s in, brave to fight

in the cause of God ; strenuous to do and todare ready to spring to the front in every goodcause ; not following the multitude to do evil .To be thus is to have the birthright of a man ;and again I say

, (39 xapt t'

v écrr’it'

vflpw‘

lroc ij v

c’

ivflpwwoc wj— H ow gracious a thing is a man ,ifhe be but a man indeed !8 . But

,lastly, how are you to be th is ? H ow

are youto be profit able members ofthe Churchand Commonwealth, and hereafter partakers

1 88 E VERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE .

Bible is not a book of repres sions and prohib i

t ions ; it is a book ofkindling inspiration . Godwould not have you crouch, like a poor timidstartled creature, torturing yourself wi th aterrified watch over your lower desires . Hewould see you stand erect and manly, like avictor, in heroic confidence with thes e enemiesbeneath your feet. Do you love freedom? Youwould be base if youdid not ; well, and Christwi ll make you free: Would you have life ?You would not be a man if you did not desireit ; well, and Christ has come that you mayhave life

,and have it more abundantly. He

would make you run and not be weary, walkand not faint . Happy the youth who

,with no

inner shame or treachery to hide, can lift hiseye s to the white sunlit peak ofpurity

,and hear

fromit no stern voice pealing doom.

” And that ,and more than that, i s the happiness of allwhodo not sell man's sacred birthright. Foryears God has been trying to train such— suchhave been the best and noblest ofmen. Wouldyou

,too

,be worthy sons of your Heavenly

Father ? Then array yours elves under the banner of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ .Against s in and se lfishness ; aga inst wrong and

robbery ; again s t greed and Oppression againstslander and drunkenness ; against impurityand lies ; against socia l cynicism and politicalcorru ption ; against godless immorality and

SELLING THE BIRTH RIGH T. 1 89

Pharisaic religion, FIGHT ! Flash, if you can,the electric fire of nobleness into callous slumbering hearts. England has need ofyou ! Godhas need ofyouI speak unto you, young men , because ye are

and should be strong in the Lord . Ifyou wouldbe strong

,seek Him in daily prayer ; seek Him

by holy self-dedication and re s olute purpose ;seek Him i n hallowed Sundays and earnestcommunion . Prepare yourselves to do H is workin your own hearts and in the world, and it willnot be long ere

,stirring the blood like a trumpet

,

you shallhear H is voice sound forth it s clearcall to you . Be faithful unto H im ; be faithfulunto death, and He will give you a crown of

life.

XII I .

k nown by its fruits .

By theirfruits ye s hall know them. vu. 20.

HIS principle of our bles sed Lord iscapable alike of a univers al and of anindividual application . It is astonish

ing,when we think of the matter, how few and

how simple are the rules which alone arenecessary to guide the conduct of mankind .

Nor are those rules in the least degree doubtful.The witness borne to them by every voice of

nature,ofexperience, and of revelation in every

age of the h istory of the world is absolute lyunanimous. They are “ as universal as ourrace

,as individual as ourselves .” No people

has ever framed its laws in accordance withthem

, without finding their necessity andblessedness. No man, no woman has evermoulded life in obedience to them withoutsaving their life thereby fromfailure and shipwreck, and without brightening it with the sunlight of that best happiness, which, even in the

E VERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE .

with those philosophic and gifted Athenians ?Who would have guessed that, in Spite of her

aegis, and flaming helm, and threatening spear,the awful Pallas of the Acropolis should beforced to resign her Parthenon to the humbleVirgin of Nazareth ? Not many years afterwards that same suffering mi s s ionary who

had been ridiculed in Athens wa s dragged apri s oner to Rome. At that time her Cms arseemed omnipotent

,her iron arms unconquer

able. And Rome did not yield without adesperate struggle. She strove to crush andextirpate this “ execrable supe rsti t ion ”

(as hergreat writers called Christianity) with swordand flame ; she made Christianity a treason ;s he made her Coliseumswimwith the massacreof its martyrs . Yet it wa s all in va in ! Theworshippers of the Cap itol succumbed beforethe worshippers in the Catacombs. The thirtyleg ions, the white-robed senators, the ivorysceptre, the curule chair, were all defeated bythe Cross, which was the vilest emblem of aslave’s torture ; and the greatest of earthlyempires with her dom in ion yet unimpaired embraced the gospel preached by the unletteredpeasants of the race which she most despised .

Why wa s it ? It was because a tree is known byits fruits, and every tree that bringeth not forthgood fruit is hewn down and cas t into the fire .The fruits of heathendom had b een s elfishness,

KNOWN BY ITS FRUITS. 193

and cruelty, and corrupt ion ; the fruits of

Christianity were love, joy, peace, long-suffering, temperance

,goodness

,faith

,meekness

,

charity, and the leaves of that tree were forthe healing of the nations.We are naturally reminded at this time ofthe

dawn of Christianity, because during this year alittle newly discovered tract has been published

,

which wa s written by an unknown Christian inthe first century of our era. It is called “TheTeaching of the Twelve Apostles

,

” and wa s

written by a man who might have grasped infriendship the hand ofPaul or John nay

, whoseyoung eyes may possibly have gazed on theLord of Life. Most seasonably does it remindus ofwhat Christianity wa s in the golden dawnof its early purity. In a complicated age likeour own, in an age when Christianity is engagedin a death-struggle with various forms of nubelief, and is entangled in a thousand enfeeblingelements of conventionality and compromise, itis most deeply desirable for us to remind ours elves of what Christianity in its very essencewas and is to look once more at the rockwhence we were hewn, and the hole of the pitwhence we were digged .

I . The little book is not, indeed, a statementof Christian doctrines. They are assumed a s

known already. It is addressed to Catechumens—ia otherwords to converts fromheathen

N


dom, who had already learnt to believe in the

Father who made, in the Son who redeemed, inthe Holy Ghost who s anct ifieth . Starting fromth is basis, the instruction given to these candidates for baptism is not unlike the preparation

g iven to our own candidates for confirmation .

“The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,”

as

here represented,reduces itselfto this—the duty

and blessedness of a holy life ; the sustenanceand renewal of that life by sacramenta l communion with Him who is the Lord .

2 . Accordingly, the first section of the bookis purely moral . It is called the Two Waysthe Way of Life

,and the Way of Death. The

write r, like the Apostles, fe e ls that a Christian

profession without a holy life is but a soundingb rass and a tinkling cymbal . He therefore laysd own in the plainest manner that the way of

righteousness is life— that it is a way of healthand safe ty, of strength and joy ; and that theway of s in and vice is the way of shame, ofruin,and of death. The converts to whom theseinstructions are addressed came from amidst thed egradations ofPaganism . Their lot may haveb een cast in cities like Athens, wholly given to

gossip and idolatry ; or in marts like Corinththe head-quarters of a seething corruption ; oramid the meanness and misery of the neglectedmas ses in vile, slave-crowded capitals like Romeor Ephesus ; or in little provincial towns like

r96 E VERYDA y CHRISTIAIvLIFE .

lay with the writers of such humble littletreatises as this ? It was because they offeredto the world something intrinsically diviner, andinfinitely more needful, than eloquence or intellect—even a deep and living piety . Thes pirit which glows in these early Christianwriters is that of the warmest love to Godand the deepest interes t in man as man . The

pure, vigorous morality which sprang from thesefeelings was the one th ing most needed for aworld efl

'

ete with the decrepitude of vice. Bythe ir fruits ye shall know them .

” While theworks of every contemporary heathen authorreek with the sickening details offolly, vice, andcrime, these humble Christian pastors are everb urning with love to God andmen, exhorting toa life ofpurity in imitation of the life of Christ.Now here you have the secret of Chris tianity.Tertullian gives it when he says, You heathenslive wicked lives ; we only are innocent.

” Hermas gives it when he describes the tower of theChurch as upheld, not by its inherent strength,but by the fair

,flower-like hands of a choir of

virgins, who are Love, and Faith, and Purity,

and Temperance, and Peace .

4 . Some one, howeve r, may say that the betterheathens also preached morality, and preached itwith a passion and a g race

'

which, in these ea rlyChristian writers, are rare ly found . Yes ; but the

power of Christ ianity lay in this : it gave to

KNOWN B Y ITS FRUITS. 197

mora l laws which we re as old as the world itselfa new intensity ; it enforced them with divinersanctions ; it brightened them with fresh hopes ;it endowed men with spiritual life to realize theirobligations

,and uplifted themwith supernatural

assistance to fulfil these demands . The theoryofmorality is valueless unless it has powe r alsoto secure its practice . Why was it that truthswhich had failed to sway the conscience of

corrupted Greece when wrapped in the goldenhaze of Plato’s imag inative eloquence , or whenthey were published in the . busy haunts of

Athens by Socrates—why was i t that thosesame truths—which had failed though preachedby such great and mighty teachers to produce any adequate or general result—didreach, did reclaim

,did regenerate the world,

when first preached by the Rabbi of Tarsu sand the fisherman of Galilee ? Why didthe torch which had fa iled to illuminate theworld when it had been upheld by such stronghands a s thos e of the greatmen in Greece andRome, shed so sunl ike a splendour over a worldof s in when carried in the weak grasp of theearly Christians ? I wil l tell you why it wa s .

It wa s because behind the truths, behind thepreachers of Christianity, lived and moved,unseen yet ever present,

'the mighty force of

Christ . Why does the light ofday spre ad itselfover the earth ? Because it is drawn from the

x98 E VERYDA y CH RISTIAN LIFE .

inexhaustible fountains of the sun in heaven .

Why does the march of tidal waters flushthe rivers, and flood the great bays with itslustral wave ? Beca use the swing of the livingocean is behind the harbour bar !Yes ! the force of Christianity was Christ ;Christ, not preached in eloquent word s ofman

’

s

wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit andpower ; Christ not inurned in orthodox dogmabut felt in the inmost heart. The reason whythese poor early Christians subdued the world isbecause they were not good mere ly, but holynot moral merely, but full of the indwe ll ingSpirit of God . It wrought in them a mightyand inexplicable change . It presented to theworld the hitherto undreamed of spectacle of

men who had shifted the moral centre ofgravityfrom self to God . When Justin Martyr wa s ledforth to be scourged and beheaded, he wa sbidden by the s coffing heathen to explain tothem the mystery of Christ . I am too little,

”

he answered,“ to s ay anyt hing great of Him .

Yes ! but the force of the gospel rested, not inwhat its preachers said, but in how its childrenlived .

5.“ By their fruits ye shall know them .

When the Pagans asked how Chri s tians attainedto goodness they were told that it wa s by conversion— it wa s by being born again . WhileI languis hed in darkness and deep night,

” says

z oo E VERYDAY CHRISTIAN LIFE .

join hands over a gnupt ialaltar, and the Presbyter

utters the words, in Deo, May ye live inGod ! H ow caln I paint

,

” says Tertullian ,the happiness ofa marriage which the Churchratifies , the s acment confirms, the blessings eals, ange ls ann unce, and the Lord approves ?What a union of two be lievers —one hope, oneVOW. one discipline, one worship ! They gotogether to the church ofGod, to the table of theLord . They share each others

’ persecution andrevival. The to visit the sick, to supplythe needy. sing

,they pray toge ther.

Christ rejoi hear them. He give s themH is peace. Whet‘e two are together in His name ,there is He, and !where He is, there the evil onecannot come .” Behold

,

” says Tertullian in

another place, the heathen say, H ow theseChristians love one another ! ’ Yea

,verily this

must strike them, for th y hate each other.

And how ready 'the s e Christians are to die forone another Yea, verily ; for they are ratherready to kill one another.” When he witness edthe virtues ofArithus a, the mother of St. Chrys os tom, the Pagan Sophist, Liban ius , exclaimedWith envy, Bafiairofa t wapd Xpwn avoi

’

c yvvfiucfcelm: Heavens ! 'how noble the Christian womenareOnce more, the Christians of that day were

poor—yet how they he lped each other Whenthe deacon St. Lawrence was asked, in the

KNOWN B Y I TS FRUITS.

Decian perse'

cution,to show the Prefect the

mos t precious treasure s of the Church at Romehe showed him the sick, the lame, the blind .

“ It i s incredible,

” said Lucian,the Pagan

j eerer and sceptic,to see the ardourwith which

those Christians he lp each othe r in the ir wants.They spare nothing. Their first leg islator hasput i t into the ir heads that they are all brothers.”

These Galileans,” said Julian the Apostate,

nourish not only their own poor, but ours a swell.” Such were the testimonies which we rewon even from the heathen in that first age

7 . My friends, are we Christians ? Are we all

Christians ? I told you not long ago of how a

l iving s ceptic had spoken of a hundred millionPagans in the world

,masquerading as Chris

tians and a living clergyman has written a

book called “ Modern Christianity,a Civil ized

Heathendom . Now I wi ll not as k whether inthis city, in this nineteenth century, our societypresents these ideal pictures of the life of converted men, thes e pictures of high and puremorality, of large and ungrudging magnanimity,of sweet and perfect domestic love ; or whetherwe s ee a levity and a vileness

,a grasping and

a luxury, or a callous indifference and a hardselfishnes s, an intense and passionate mammonworship, a deep-seated hypocrisy, and a grievousrecrudescence of the spirit of falsehood . I willnot as k whether after nineteen centuries of

E VERVDAY CHRISTIAN LIFE .

Christianity we have an abundant supply of

honest, plain-sailing men , who will do toughwork and live pure lives

,and speak no slander,

no, nor listen to it. I will not as k these questions .

Ask them searchingly of yourselves. But lookat one fact. In the year 252 a plague ragedin Carthage. The heathens threw out theirdead and sick upon the streets, and ran awayfrom them for fear of the contagion

,and cursed

the Christians. St. Cyprian, on the contrary,assembled his congregation

,and

.

told them tolove those who cursed them ; and the richworking with their money, the poor with theirhands, never rested tillthe dead were buried,the sick cared for, and the city s aved fromdestruction .

Again, in the year 263, there wa s a plague inAlexandria .

“All things, wrote the Bishop ofAlexandria

,the great Dionysius, are filled with

tears and groans for the multitude of the dyingand dead . There is not a house in which thereis not one dead . But we rejoice in the peace ofChrist . Most ofour brethren by their exceedinglove, not s paring themselves and adhering to oneanother, were constantly ministering to the sickwithout fear and ces sation, and healing them inChrist.”

That was sixteen centuries ago . Well,in this

year, 1 884 , we have cholera in Europe ; and

Marseilles, and Toulon, and Arles, are Christian

E VERYDAY CHRISTIAN LIFE .

humility and penitence,in faith and love

,know

well the richness of the blessing which theythere receive ; they who turn away from it arealienating themselves from the brotherhood of

Chris tians who in all ages have felt it to b etheir duty and their joy to obey the loving command of their Lord “ Do this in remembranceofMe .

”

Death-bee Repentance.

Set thine hous e in order, for thous halt die and not live .

2 KINGSxx. 1 .

ESIRING to turn our thoughts fromthe clamorous and dazzling urgencyof the world, and to fix them on the

things not seen, I spoke, two Sundays ago, ofthe eternity

,amid which, whether we will or no,

we live and move and have our being. Whenshall we feel the existence of those unseenrealities ? There are some

,but perhaps not

many, who fix their hopes on the supposedpower of death to awaken them from the dreamof a sinful life. On the other hand , there areundoubtedly farmore who hope in a postponedrepentance

,and vainly trust to that shifting

and dragging anchor to hold the frail vessel oftheir soul amid the storm . Like the yet unconverted Augustine, they pray to God, it maybe, to d eliver them from their sins

,and hope

that He will not hear themjust yet. They


wish to b e pardoned, and yet to reta in the

offence and think that,on the bed of death at

any rate, or when old age has turned their

lives to ashes , and rendered impos s ible the

pleasures of sense and of the world, they wil lhave leisure, and desire, and opportun ity to turnto God . Now I wish to show you that of allhOpe s this, at any rate, is themost ab solutelyfutile.

I . In the firs t place, i t is a great mis take tos uppose that all persons, or even the majority,have anyth ing which can be called a death-bed.

They l ive in the full blossomof their sins andvan ities till in due time, one by one,

Some with lives that come to nothing, s ome with deeds as wellundone ,

Death comes suddenly and takes themwheremen never see the

Thous ands d ie by what we call accident. Theyare cut off as in a moment : as by a lightningflas h. Thousands more pass into the unseenworld, not down the lingering declivities of

diseas e,

‘

but by some swift and sudden departure. As I look back upon life’s memories,I recallmany an instance in which men andwomen have s eemed to be in their usual healthup to the very week, or even the very day, onwhich they died. They have had no mis giving,no intimat ion, no foreg leamof the awful event

208 E VERYDAY CHRISTIAN LIFE .

away. But no voice of exhortation can reachthemthen ; they can gather no thought intoconsecutive meaning ; they can breathe no

prayer to H im into whose awful presence theyare about to enter.ii. Again, even when men have a consc ious

death-bed , how often does it happen that theycannot summon up their energies to think orpray. When the flames of a fever have beguna lready to calcine the tablets of the memory

,

or confusion clouds the troubled soul, or agonyabsorbs the faculties, or the pressing needs of

earth are still terrifically urgent— ah ! it is noteasy then to set about the one task of life

,

which is, of all others, the most awfully important.i ii. Once more, in that dread hour, the very

capacity for repentance seems often to beparalyzed. Men see, they know, they confessthe waste and guilt of miserable lives ; butanything more seems to be too late, seems tobe beyond their power. Many who have beenrecovered from drowning have recorded thatat the moment when they sank for the lasttime

,and the dread struggle was over

,they

s aw,in one flash of light, and with remorse and

shame, every event of their past l ives vividlyportrayed

,backward, in reverse order, from the

moment of their death. Yet I cannot recall as ing le ins tance ofany one who has s aid that he

DEATH -BBD REPENTANCE . 299

was thereby moved to repentance. Remorseand repentance are two very different things.Repentance leads back to life ; but remorseends often in the painless apathy and fatalmort ificat ion ofdespair.iv. Experience on a large scale confirms all

that I have said . It happens not unfrequentlyon battlefields, in earthquakes

,in shipwrecks

that men are brought in large multitudes faceto face with death . On such occasions we

scarcely ever hear one whisper about repentance. It is indeed sadly notorious that

, whenvessels seem doomed to inevitable destruction

,

the first impulse of the sailors is to burst openthe spirit stores

,and drink to intox ication

,that

they may die like natural brute beasts made tobe taken and destroyed . A quarter of a century ago, a huge ves sel from California, named“ The Central America,

”foundered at sea by

night. A few survivors only were picked upby the crew of a vessel which

,sailing through

the darkness, wa s startled to hear voice s fromthe ocean waves. Those survivors told astrange tale The sailors when all hope wasgone had ru s hed to drink and die . The vesselhad on boardmany successful gold-diggers. Ofthese some in their despair flung their goldwildly about the deck, and some as wildlys crambled for it. Others loaded their beltsand pockets with all the gold that they could

0

2 10 E VERYDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE .

carry,and when the sh ip went down, they too

sank like lead amid the mighty waters.Another

,floating on a plank, was chilled to the

heart by the frightful loneliness of that midnight sea

,and rejoiced when in the struggling

starlight he s aw a plank carried near him towhich was lashed anothe r sufferer. The waveflung the plank beside him, and he gazed uponthe features of a corpse ! But the strangesttale wa s that of one who told that, as he floatedamid the darkness, expecting instant deathfrom the lashing surge, he heard the voice of

his mother,long since dead, say to himquite

distinctly “ Johnnie,did you eat sister’s grapes

And then he recalled, what for long years hehad wholly forgotten, that, as a little boy he hadbeen sent by his mother to buy some grapes

for a sister dying of consumption, and hadeaten them on the way, and told a lie about itand the sad reproachful question of his motherhad been written on those pages of memory

which are the Book of God, and its letters hadgleamed out fitfully under the weird lamp of

death. But not one of all these said one wordabout being moved to repentance at that dreadhour. Often indeed the memories of that hourare very partial. One little incident— one

childish error or boyish sin—flas hes into

prominence and deadlier and graver crimesare Wholly forgotten. The las t thoughts of


an instant more and it would be too late. It

was one of those instants on whose tremendousresolution depends our fate

,and whose blood

curdling agony in one moment turns the younghair white. There wa s no time to think. Hes prang

,and he was saved ; but the chances

were ten thousand to one that he would havefallen ; that, paralyzed with fright and agony,he would have found impossible the grimresolve. Would you like to leave all to thehorror of such a moment ? Will you risk allon that dangling rope of a death-bed repentancewhen you stand alone on the precipice of death,and have to leap the awful chasm which i scleft between this world and the world beyondthe grave

3. Earnestly then would I s ay to you trustnot in death ; trust not in death-beds ; deathcannot save you ; a death-bed you may neverhave ; and ifyou have a lingering death, i t maycome in circumstances which render penitenceimpossible. Trust not in death ; trust not indeath-beds— trust in life trust in God trust onChrist’s help in the living present which aloneis yours.Let your thought of death be rather the

present stimulus to repent of your sins, to seekyour Saviour. Remember how short your timeis. In the fourth century there lived a badPatriarch of Alexandria named TheOphictus .

DEATH -BED REPENTANCE . 2 1 3

He had lived for envy, and hatred , and rel igiou sintrigue

,and for money, and for the world .

He had never thought of death,and his last

words, just before he sank into the lethargywhich terminated many crimes

,were these :

Happy wert thou, Abbot Ars en ius , to havehad this hour constantly before thine eyes.”

Let the thought of death, so certain to comesoon

,so uncertain when, lead you to think of

the long-suffering of God . Lean on Him.

Lean on the love of your Saviour. Think of

the value ofyour soul for which He was nailedto the cross and if you fl ing yourselfnow,

ereit be too late

,on His compassion

,you will

Soon learn to regard death not as a terror butas a friend, knowing that

“ the souls of the righteons are in the hand of the Lord

,and there

shall no torment touch them . My friends, ifthe love of God lead you to repentance, thenfor you the great work of life is done. Letthe wicked forsake his way, and the unright eous man his thoughts, and turn unto Me andI will have mercy upon him, saith the Lord .

Only remember that even trust in God is butpresumption

,ifwe are making His love a cloak

for iniquity ; and that trust in Christ is itselfutterly vain while we are living in glaringopposition to His will . If ye love Mesaid Christ

,

“ keep My commandments If

youdo despite unto the Spirit of Grace, if you

m E VERYDA y CHRISTIAN LIFE .

crucify to yourselves the Son ofGod afresh, and

put H im to an open shame—while you are s til ldoing so, can you still claim His promises a s

yours ? Was His sacrifice a plenary indulgence,a free permission to commit all uncleanness wi th

g reediness ? Love Christ by doing the willofGod : seek Him ; surrender to Him yourworldly desires and ambitions ; slay for His sakeyour evil passions ; be sincere in your charity,in your truthfulness

,in your holiness ; l ive

above the base conventional standard of theworld

,and then all the banded powers of Hell

s hall be reduced to impotence before you.

And do not deceive yourself. Perhaps youprofess to belong to the s o-called religious worldThat will not save you . It i s as full of envy

,

malice, falsehood, hatred, as the secular world,only they take more specious forms . Do youfear God Do you

,in deed and truth, love your

fellow-men ? Are you keeping God ’s commandment s ? Then you are safe through Christ.Then

,but only then . I am amazed at the

levity with which men who are violating everycommandment of God , often, in the very nameof religion, boldly s ay, The blood of JesusChrist, His Son, cleanseth from all sin .

” Myfriends, there is no such text. H ow ? you wi llsay. Have we not heard it quoted a thous andtimes ? No such text ? And you will eagerlyturn to your Bibles to refute me. Well

,turn to


l ife, and the firmament of your souls glow withthe living sapphires of holy thoughts . Youmay never have a death-bed but imagine yourselfon a death-bed now. If you were, indeed,stretched on the bed from which you shouldarise no more, how would all your little in

trigue s , all your little frivolities, all your vices,and spites, and enmities, and hatreds, andworldly schemes seem to you then ? Wouldthey not shrivel into ins ign ificance ? Wouldthey not seemto you small, poverty-stricken,base

,as well as evil ? What alchemy has

death to transmute these into things of eternalvalue ? Two child ren are sent into the fieldsto glean among the reapers. The one comeshome laden with the ripe golden ears, happywith the results of toil and the sense of dutydone ; the other has played , and idled, andchased butterflies, all through the long summerday, and comes back, sick and shamed andfretful and afraid, with nothing in its hand buta few acrid, flaccid , poisonous, withered poppiesfaded from scarlet into lurid blackness

,which

have poisoned it s blood and stained its hands,

and are only fit to fling away as hateful,not

only valueless but vile. Which child wil l your

life resemble ? I am speaking to some of the

young. Rejoice , oh, young man in thy youth,and le t thy heart cheer thee in the days of thyyouth. I believe the advice was given seriously

DEATE -BED REPEN TANCE .

not cynically, and in a world wrapped roundwith sweet air, and full of sunshine, and abounding with knowledge,

”ifyou keep innocence you

will find much happiness. Only “remember

remember that the vernal hues of life’s sunshine gleam on the solemn and awful background of the eternal realities . Ah

, try how

to look at the world and its allurements asthey will seem in the last hour ; to look atunlawful pleasure as it shall then seem ,

not onlya disappointing, but a depraving and an en

venomed thing ; to look at the small aims'

of

ambition as they shall seem when they havedwindled into their true paltriness. Set youraffections on things above, not on things on theearth

,for the things which are seen are temporal

,

but the things which are not seen are eternal .”

Q t the 3mmfi WCt‘CllCC Of aman forhis OW"pers on.

Reverencemy s anctuary, I amthe Lord. —LEV. xix. 30.

HE application which I shall give to

thes e word s i s absolutely differentfrom that in which they were first

us ed , and yet it is absolutely scriptural. I

have preached on them once before to pointtheir primary lesson, which is reverence for theconsecrated places in which we worship God ;but , in our dispensation, while the primarylesson is emphasized , it is also strengthened bythe yet deeper secondary lesson, that the

s piritual habitation of the true God is the heartofthe Christian man, and that His Holy Spiritloveth “ before all temples the upright heartand pure.” Know ye not that your bodies aretemples of the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in

you, except ye:be reprobates We reverenceGod’s holiest sanctuary when we reverence ourselves.


s elves alone , saving their reputation, wi ll compound with other samples, and come to a closetreaty with their dearer vices. But he thatholds himself in reverence and due esteem,

bothfor the dignity of God ’s image upon him, and

for the price of his redemption, which he thinksis visibly marked upon his forehead

,thinks

himselfboth a fit person to do the noblest andgodliest deeds, and much better worth than todeject and defile, with such a debasement and

pollution as sin i s,himself, so highly ransomed

and ennobled to a new friendship and fi lialre lation with God. Nor can he fear so muchthe offence and reproach of others as he dreadsand would blush at the reflex ion of h is own

severe and modest eye upon himse lf, if it shoulds ee him doing or imagin ing that which is sinful,though in the deepes t secrecy.

” In that passage,

my friends , and in the truths on which it isbased, I s e e the inmost secret ofa nob le life.

3. Oh, if all men and women, in early youthespecia lly, could but draw in the full rich meaning

of this thought, and make it their own, whata safeguard m ight it be to them Myriads havehung round the ir necks what they thought to bethe relics of saints, or fragments of the truecross, just as the Mohammedan wears scraps ofthe Qur

’

an, and the Jew puts texts into his

phylacte ries. Use less and superstitious are allsuch prophylactics ; but the youth or the

OF INNER REVERENGE . 221

maiden,who has taken into the soul some en

nobli’

ng truth, ha s an amulet which is betterthan any ornament of grace , and shall enablethem to walk unscathed amid the fire of manya fierce temptation . Such an amulet would Ifa in hang around their necks to-day . LastSunday I held up before you a great principleofaction towards others, and asked you to gazewith me upon its lu s tre— the jewel of Honourall men to-day I would a s k you to acceptanother and no less precious amulet— the jewelofSelf-res pect.

4 . If youconsider, you will find that there isscarce ly a s in which does not concentrate intoitself the venom of many sins . In every s in

there is a triple taint : i t is sinfulness against God,whose law i t violates ; against our neighbour,whom it inevitably injures ; aga inst ourselves,whom it destroys . But the reason why everys in is thus a threefold cord of iniquity is becausethe Tabernacle of God is with men s o that

,in

every act of s in , we s in against Him by d efilingHis Temple ; against ourselves, by desecratingthe inner sanctity ofHis Be ing against others,because they too are His living sanctuaries.When the great American orator

,Daniel

Webster, wa s asked what thought impressedhimmost by its sublimity, he answered, “ The

thought of my immedia te accountability to

God . But it is a form ofthis thought yet more


impressive to feel that God is with us and inus ; that every sin against ourselves, that everys in against our brother-man, is also a sin commit ted in His very presence-chamber, and therefore also a s in committed against Him. In this

point of view every s in becomes a sacrilegewithin the very veil ofthe Holy ofHolies, whichis the s anctuary ofour inner being.

5. Among the many as pects in which sin maybe regarded

,I know none more solemnly pre

s ervat ive than this. Sin should be hateful tous ,should be impossible to us ; we should, if ourhearts were but right with God, shrink from itas a degradation . H ow can I do this greatwickedness, and s in against God ? ” asked thepure and lovely youth, who stands on the pageof Scripture as the eternal type of youth ’svictory over the deadly glamour of sensualtemptation . H ow can I ? ” Oh, that everyyouth would a sk the same H ow can I so sinkas to sin against God, even my God H ow canI s in against myself, against the majesty ofmyown convictions, against the dignity of my ownnature, against the sacredness of my own life,against God

’s great and holy angels of Reasonand Conscience, who hold me by the hand Insinning against myself, I s in not against a merehandful of dust, a mere creature of clay

, butagainst everything which is majestic, eternal,and divine ; agains t l ight, agains t the Holy


knows themnot, and true praise spurns them .

Measure life by themeasure ofa man , that is ofan angel, and you will find that the divinests ouls have been swayed, more than all

,by the

inner reverence for the ir own pers onality ; by theawful sanctity of the ir own being ; by the honourthey have felt, not for their own poor gifts or

acquisitions, but for themse lves as in Christ , a sb eing partakers of the Divine in the essentialnature which God gave them ; as being a littlelower than the ange ls, and a s souls for whichChrist died .

7. Now I might proceed to te l l you cate

gorically that this inner reverence of a man forhis own person produces this or that quality.

But— though I may be wrong— it seems to methat such truths may sometimes come moreclearly home to you in the concrete than in theabstract. Our Lord, when he spoke to themultitudes in parables

,wa s thus throwing

abstract truth into the concrete ; wa s embodying it in ta les wa s i llustrating it by the lives ofmen . One at leas t ofHis pa rables— that ofthepounds—was merely a leaf from the life andadventures of King Herod Archelaus and it

was the same probably with others of them .

To the Son of Man , and to Him alone, wa s itgiven to enshrine multitudes ofeternal truths in afew brief touches to move men’s hearts for ever.But, though we cannot invent parables, we too

OF INNER RE VERENCE . 225

may tear leaves from God’s great books of b io

g raphy and history, and get help fromthem tolearn the lessons of our Master

,Christ. And I

would thus show this morning how this highreverence for our own being lifts men abovetemptation— how the ab s ence of it

,or unfaithful

ness to it,plunges them in vice and s hame.

8 . For instance, se lf-reverence results in thepreservation of innocence , of perfect childlikeinnocence in men the heart ofchildhood takenup and glorified into the powers ofmanhood,

”

the young lamb ’s heart amid the full-grownflocks . This is one of the loveliest, if notalways the most instructive, forms of humancharacter. Let me give yousome instances ofmen in whose pure lives re igned this lovely selfrespect. You all know the “ soft, silent, pathe ticpictures ofFra Angelico the angel faces whichhe s aw in his visions the heavenly scenes whichhe reproduced in colours bathed in the sunlightof peace , delicate and radiant as the hues ofheaven. That dewy freshness could only comefrom inmost purity of heart in one who wa lkedwith God ; who in h is sweet humble cell heardthe me lodies of angels , who caught glimpses oftheir waving robes under the olive t rees of

Pes ole, and who in the splendours of suns ets aw their rushing wings. ! There have been

painters—alas ! not a few of them—who couldSee Ruskin ’

s Modern Painters , n . 1 32, and pas s z'm.

P


paint nothing good ; but only blood , and vice,and horror, and the guz z ling s of the tave rn .

This painter could not pa int evil . Set himtopaint devils

,or cruel men, or low scenes, or base

faces—his hand drops and fails ; such evil wasnot in him . The serpent had not slunk into hisEden

,nor the croucher at the door bounded

into his monastic cell . He would never p aintfor money— what wa s money to a poor monkwho lived in heaven ? He would not accept theArchbishopric of Florence—what were Archbishoprics to one who s aw God ’s face ? We hadsuch anothe r painte r in our English WilliamBlake

, with h is childlike innocent soul, and theind efinable purity and sweetness of his des ignsand ofhis songs . He wa s very poor— but whatwa s poverty to one who in the dawn s aw aninnumerable hos t of angels pra ising God

,and

whose pure abode wa s full ofheaven We hadyet another such a man in the poet Wordsworth .

In that sweet lowly cottage among its trees byRydal Lake , he envied no title, and no palace,and no riches : wa s it not a truer and loftierhappiness to commune with the sights and soundsof Nature in perfect peace, care less of personaltalk, b elieving in mankind,

“farfromthe maddingcrowd ’s ignoble strife ? ” And this it wa s whichenabled him to be ind ifl'erent to the ignorantbrutalities ofbas e criticism, secure in the b lessedconviction that his works would cc-operate with .


whelmed with shame at the mere momentarylittleness which made him take interest in suchvulgarities . A las ! we have sunk far belowDante ; and such vulgarities are to many menin these days as the breath of their nostrils. Itwas this scorn of meanness, this stateliness ofsoul

,this fastid ious refusa l to dwell on the record

ofthings foul and personal,which made Dante

a soul awful, ifthis world ha s ever held an awfuls oul .” Can you imagine Dante poring over themiserable details of a matrimonial d isgrace ormistaking for history the ribald ries of personaldispute ? or taking part in the unbridled exhi

bitions ofvulgar animosity Hewas as incapableofa coarse statesmanship as ofa base prurience.He breathed a more empyreal atmosphere

, and

Darker are the abodesOfKings , tho’ his be poor,While fancies like the gods ’

Pas s thro’ the door 1

Oh ! compare himwith the poets who, insteadof thi s inspiring sense of the supreme realities,have been content to pander to thevilest passions.Even great poets have flung unhallowed incenseupon the vestalflames of genius, and some of

them, l ike Chaucer and Burn s , have had toweepbitte r, burning, ineffectual tears of remorse asthey called to mind that it would remain theircurse for ever to have pandered to corruption ,and increased thereby the deg radation of man


kind . Dan te teaches us,as few have taught

us, that even in distress, and failure , and ruin,a man may sti ll be conscious that he was madein God

’

s image,after H is l ikeness .

1 0. I wil l take but one more illustration of

self-respect as the basis ofmoral nobleness— thatofhim who wrote the grand words with which Iintroduced this sermon . We have seen that itis the amulet of innocence ; we have seen that itis the crown of moral renovation it is also thecolumn of an unconquerable fortitude . Milton,like Dante, wa s a man from whomall the brave,and the pure and good may learn— a characterof virgina l purity and angelic strength, who,sitting, like Marius , amid the ruins of his life,could even there ove rawe his raging foes. Irejo ice greatly that he was closely connectedwith this church . His be st-loved wife and infantchild lie buried here ; hi s name is recorded on

our marriage regis ter. St . Margaret’s stands

very near the home of h is later years, and herehe mu s t have sometime s worshipped with Cromwell, and Vane, and Hampden . I rejoice thatthe well-counselled mun ificence of one of thegenerous and public-spirited sons of Americamy friend, Mr. George Childs , ofPhiladelphiai s about to give us a splend id window in thischurch to his memory. For he is amodelofmanlydignity ; and (as has well been said)

“his elevationi s connected with his pureness, since pureness


and kindness are the two signal virtue s, the twomighty wing s ofChristianity, with which it winnowed and renewed , and s t illwinnows and renews,theworld . Itwas from this noble chastity that camethe glowandmighty eloquence ofhis writings ;that something of indescribably heroic and magn ificent which always overflows from him, whichenabled h im

,as it were

,to wrap us in a fold of

his robe,and to carry us away with him to the

eternal region where is his home .

” It wa s fromthis se lf-reverence that comes hi s supreme noteof di s tinction and gravity, his constancy andperseverance

,his contempt of eve rything mean

and sordid , h is indiffe rence to celebrity, thegrandeur ofa poverty and a misfortune to whichkings might have bowed in reverence , the

energy kept in its high and spacious armoury untilthe signal ofaction sounded .

” These are abovethe comprehens ion of petty mind s they areabove the comprehen s ion ,

a s they are above the

gaze , of noisy drummers in the ir caps and

tassels but th ey teach the true glory of se lfrespect to those who to the we eds and bramblesof the wilderness prefer the palms and cedars ofParad ise . I cannot speak further of him now

than to say that,if Shakespeare surpassed him,

a s he surpassed all men in his myriad -mindedand oceanic genius

,yet Milton wa s the purer,

and the rarer,and the nobler in his stain less

manhood . Read the sonnets of Shakespeare,


day, too often a pleonasmof vanity and empt iness, needs such examples of pure aims andnoble lives .Thou s halt reverencemy sanctuary. Augus

tine gives the inmos t meaning of the exhortation, when he says “ Dost wish to wors hip in atemple ? Worship in thyself but first be thou atemple of the Lord .

” That is what these ourloftier brothers did

,and what they were. But

to e nd , my friends, you know that it is notDante or Milton , or any saint, who can in anyway otherwise than by silent far-off examplehelp or raise us . It cost more to redeem oursouls

,s o that they must let that alone for ever.

We gaze at them sometimes , just as some timeswe gaze at the reflex ion of the stars in the

water, or the refraction of the sunbeams throughthe evening clouds . But the source of all

earthly life is the sun ; and the source of all

s piritua l l ife i s the Sun of righteousness, risenupon us with healing in His wings. If we lookat even the noblest men it is but to see howthey reflected some one ray of His glory . If

they learnt that high respect for themselvesthat inwa rd reverence for their own personsir was because they had learnt that He waswith them and in them ; that He dwelt withthemand wa lked in them ; that H is awful yetgentle eye wa s on all their actions ; that theycould enter no darkness of s ecrecy s o deep as


should hide them from the light of His HolySpirit in their hearts . They es timated thegrandeur of their human nature— the duty of

respecting it in themselves and in others— fromthe triple fact that H e took our nature uponHim ; that He valued it at a price so awful asto die for it ; that He has enthroned it in theGodhead for ever a t the right hand of theMaj esty on High . That, and not the questionswhich fi ll the minds of Christians with mutualbitterness— that

,the triple faith in the Incar

nate,the Crucified , the Risen Christ— is the

Alpha and the Omega of all Christianity whichis in the least degree worth the name. It is thesecure foundation for the two rules, Reverencethyself,

” Honour allmen,”

ofwhich the first isthe bas is of all personal dignity, and the secondofall wise and holy conduct toward s our brothe rman .

Honour allmen .— 1 PETER, n . 1 7.

N the brief sermon of a CommunionSunday I cannot hope to bring beforeyou the depth and many-sided s ignifi

cance of this casual utterance of two words inthe Epistle for to day. Scripture has multitudesof such gems. I can but hold up this to youfor a fewmoments, though I despair of showingyouit s full depth of lustre.

1 . I hold that no rule could be put intohuman language which i s of more value thanthis in guiding the method of our dealings withour brother-men . It points to that principlewhich our Lord sa id wa s the Law and theProphets—was in other words the summary of

Scripture—namely,Whatsoever ye would that

men should do unto you, even s o do unto them .

”

Those who go to Christ, and not to custom fortheir view of that which is essential in relig ion,know the infinitesima l value of profession and


friends,lies the deepest meaning of the rule

their dishonour, their d epravity, their basenes swe honour not ; but we honour the majesty of

their nature even in its fall. As Michael Angelosees in the rough block ofmarble the wingedangel struggling to be free as Flaxman, walkingin the slums

,sees the beauties and possibilities

ofthe human face d ivine even under the d irtand squalor of the gutter-child, even s o withpity and reverence the true Christian sees even int he lowest the marred work ofHim who breathedinto man ’s nostrils the breath of l ife . In the mos tfallen of the children of men he still honoursthe immortality which seemed s o priceless tothe Lord of Glory, that, for the sake of it, Hed escended step by step to the lowest round ofthe infinite abyss , died for it upon the Cross,united it with the Godhead for ever, and tookit up to the right hand ofthe Majesty on H igh .

3 . Honour all me n Alas ! as life goes on ,i t is more and more our temptation to honourno man. I appealto every one ofyouwho hasmingled much wi th the world, whether all yourfaith in human nature has not often seemed tobe shaken to its foundations . H ow large a parti s played in the world by unfairness andintrigue ! By what hollow idols of the cave, theforum. and the theatre the Opinions of men areruled 1 how, in all but the few noblest souls, wedetect, behind the pompous sanctuaries of pro

H ONOUR ALL M EN . 237

fe s s ion and the assembly rooms of conventionalmorality, the little hidden chambers of meanness, where all the baser work of life is done insecret ! H ow rare is absolute truthfulness ! H ow

subtle the taint of selfishnes s ! H ow venomousthe claw with which the sick beas t of envystrikes ! And I would a s k every student ofhistory among you whether he, too , has not shuddered at the blood-stained and lust-pollutedannals ofmankind , wi th their innumerable talesofmisery and death .

4 . Nor can we be surprised, our human naturebeing what it is, if even good and great menhave succumbed at times to the fatal temptationofdespairing ofhumanity . Such has often beenthe judgment of practica l men of the world,whom experience has confirmed in di s belief ofgoodness. “ Every man ha s hi s price,

” sa id SirRobert Walpole , Prime Minister of Englandfor more than twenty years. It is not true

, buthe had seen enough of evil to make him thinkit true. “ There is something not wholly d ispleasing to us in the misfortunes of our bestfriend s, said La Rochefoucauld . It is nottrue, but he had seen enough to ju s t ifythe odious imputation . oi wka

’

ovs g xaxof Mostmen are bad there is the summary of theGreek philosopher, who deliberately left it asthe maxim of his wisdom . It is not true

, we

hope,but there is a dreadful amount of evidence

233 E VERYDA y CH RISTIAN LIFE .

to be urged for it. And many others haves poken similarly. There is the conclusion of

depravity— a Nero, a Heliogabalus avowingtheir distinct conviction that not one man ispure . There is the scorn ofCynicism— Diogenessearching Athens for a man, and beating awaythose who came to him as not men butappetites . Eve n in Scripture

,there is the

Psalmist saying, in his haste, that“ all men are

liars.” There is the heartrending cry of theProphet, that, in all Jerusalem,

he cannot findone who is righteous. There is the gloomypessimism and repe llent misogyny of Eccles ia s te s , that though in a thousand he mightfind one good man, he had not found one goodwoman . These sweeping genera lizations arenot true, some of them are hideously false ; yetthey do correspond to a large series of phenomena, and, if we have no fa ith to redress thebalance, man becomes indeed a thing of

naught. Miserable they, and not w ithout faultthemselves, who have me t with nothing wherebyto correct such experiences and yet there is somuch superficial evidence for them

,that more

than one of the noblest of our race ha s d iedwith the bitter declaration that men were notworth their immense self-s acrifice . Take thecase ofRoger Bacon, one ofthe finest of humanintellects. The greatest man by far of thethirteenth century, his genius anticipated the

240 E VERYDAY CH RISTIAN LIFE .

Christian and Faithful ? “ The man is a

heretic,” says Mr. Blindman .

“ Away withsuch a fellow,

says Mr. Nogood .

“Ay, saidMr. Malice, “ for I hate the very looks of h im.

Then said Mr. Lovelus t , I never could endureh im .

” Nor I,” said Mr. L iveloos e,

“ for hewould always be condemningmy way.

” Hanghim, hang him!

” sa id Mr. Ready.

“A sorrys crub

,said Mr. H ighmind .

“ My heart risethagainst him

,said Mr. Emn ity .

“ He is arogue

,

” said Mr. Liar. Then sa id Mr. Implacable

,

“ Let us.

forthwith bring him in guilty of

death. And all these sad and bitter ex

perience s are summed up in the De proflmd z'

s of

our greatest English intellect, shocked at man’s

perversions amid God’s holy ord er : Tired withallthese for restful death I cry.

”

5. And yet, my friends, in spite of this weightof authority and evidence, it would be fataltous ; fatal to the h0pe by which we are saved ,and which is as a vernal breeze amid poisonousfogs ; fatal to the glad enthusiasm which leapsup l ike a fountain amid the briny waves and

corrupted currents of the world ; fatal to theSpring and elasticity of all regenerative effortsfor mankind , if we should come to despis e ordespair of either ourselves or our brother man .

In spite of all these facts and th is evidence wewould say with a living writer : I trust in thenoblenes s of human nature, in the majes ty of

H ONOUR ALL MEN . 24 1

it s facul t ies , in the fulness of i ts mercy, in thej oy of its love.” The Roman Senate never d ida nobler act, than when, after the stupendousdefeat of Carmen , they went out to mee t andthank the d efeated general, because he had notdespaired of the Republic . Even so should allhuman ity thank the humble martyrs

,the

obscure benefactors , the unfamous faithful, who,amid toil and obloquy, defrauded of justice

,

hopeles s of reward, deluged with ingratitude,have ye t believed in the redeemab leness of theirbrother men . They teach us to look tohumanity in its ideal, not in its degradation ;in its angelhood , not in its pollution . Even inthe vilest they see, as Christian s aw,

the livingsoul . They judge ofmanhood by its saints andheroes, not at allby its men-slugs and humanserpentry.

” Surely we too have seen,and not

so rarely, the l ight of pure love on humanfaces, the bloom of modesty, the glow of

sympathy. If I want to know what a rose is,

I do not judge it by some withering andcankered specimen, with the aphides crawlingover its decay, and the worm gnawing at itsroot ; and , if I want to s ee what man is

,I do

not judge him by the pale and blighted victimof his own basest appetites, I do not look forhim in the squal id youths who loaf and smokeat the doors of the ginshop. I as little judgeof men by the liar and the debauchee, as of

Q

242 E VERYDA y CHRISTIAN LIFE .

women by the slattemor the harlot . Ah Godwhat could we think of humanity if we had no

s pecimens but these to judge by ? No ! but Ij udge of men and women in the ideal ofwhatthey might b e ; in the pure and good, when Is ee them walking in the light of the Lord — ye s ,and we may judge them by all that is purest

and best in our own hearts , if so be that there is

aught in them ofgood or pure.6 . Honour all men ! ” H as it never s truckyou how marvellous is the fact that word s s o

noble,so far-reaching, should be quite cas ually

uttered by this poor Jew— this Gali lean fi s her

man— unlearned , ignorant, new from his fi s hingboat

, and with his clothes all wringing we t,”

and

writing only to handfuls of s laves and artisans ?Strange that , in the most incidental way ,

heshould utter a rule which shows deeper wisdomthan that of the greatest philosophers and thekeenest nations of the world ! Look at thebrilliant Greeks : they despised all the rest of

the world but themselves as natural barbarians.Look at the Romans : it wa s regarded as a pieceof exceptional noblene ss when Seneca pleadedthat slaves after all were men like ourse lve s.Look at the Jews : they scornfully repudiatedthe whole Genti le world . Look at the classeswhich were regarded as most re ligious and en

lightened : the Priests and Pharisees,thinking

that all salvation lay in the ir rituals and phylae

E VER YDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE .

mit ted these crimes because they honoured ,not men

,but only their own boundless pride and

brutal selfishness. Ah ! how different hadhistory been ifPharisees , and Priests, and Kingshad recognized that “ mankind has a noblerdestiny than to b e made the footstool of a fewfamilies ; that “ we are one great brotherhoodwith one great object, the free development ofour sp iritual nature that “ mankind ha s butone single a im, mankind itself; and that aimbut one single instrument, mankind again .

”

And if St . Pe ter’

s rule were fo llowed now, how

different a world should we see in the present !Do we neve r break it Do we not see it brokenevery day and in every manner ? Walk intos ome shameful thoroughfare at n ight, and inthose pa le d iseased faces under the gaslight

,in

that awful heartbroken mult itude ofthe fallene s timate the d eadl iness of the crime of thosewho s in against God

’

s image and destroy Hisliving temples ! In

'

lowering the humanity of

others,and the ir own , to the level of the ir own

vilest appetites, do they not sin most grievouslyagainst the majestic sacredness of that naturefor which Christ died Look at the drunkardin hi s degradation— s o inexpressibly foolish inone phase of his se lf-destruct ion, in anothers o inexpressibly brutal. Look aga in at theb itterne s s of controversy, both political and

relig ious , which sticks at no falsity in the one

H ONOUR ALL MEN . 245

base desire to injure an opponent. What righthave men who know the holy dignity of manhood to disgrace it by using such weapons ?This sort of invective may have its charm for

base readers and base writers,but I would s ay

of it,H e had never kindly heart,Nor ever cared to be tter his own kind ,Who firs t wrote s at ire with no pity in it .

Men pity those who are subject to it. I ratherpity those who are guilty of it. Let me giveyou an instance. This age has seen no manmore courageously upright than Abraham Lincoln

,the martyred President of America

, who

saved that mighty nation from its worst stainof slavery . Yet he wa s assailed so savagelyby the blind and brutal malice of partisans

,

that, after reading one of the shameful attacksupon him, he is recorded to have saidWell

,Abraham Lincoln, are you a man, or

are you a dog ? ” Could men stab each othe rthus blindly and furiously in the dark, if theyhad admitted into their minds the leas t glimps eof those h igh truths which filled the soul ofSt . Peter, when he wrote to those poor and

humb le Christians— hated and persecuted a s

they were Honour all men ”

8 . I have no time to ente r further on thi s highrule

, which , as it precludes some ofthe deadlies tcrimes aga inst humanity, s o binds us to some of


our love liest duties . The spirit of the rulemight he lp us to renounce alike great sins an d

little vices . Only , in conclusion, let me beg younot merely to hear this rule , but to study it ;not only to walk away with trivial criticis ms ofa sermon

,but to wa lk away with deeper des ire

to be true to a divine law of life .

Honour all men l”— the ir inherent dign ity,

the infinite poss ibilities of their nature,thei r

freedom of conscience, the awful price of thei rredemption, the ir immed iate accountability toGod . While thi s honour leads us to deepreverence for all human goodness

,let it inspire

us also wi th such hope and compassion,as shall

feel none to b e too low, too fallen for ourp ity or our he lp.

“ Honour all men — and wecannot then be guilty of the contempt which isthe ill-humour of egotism ; the ill-manne rs whichspring from se lfishness the offensive patronagewhich is a mark of vanity ; the churlishnesswhich comes of savagery and pride . I knowmen—men of high distinction—whose mannerscould only be des cribed a s surly and churlish .

One might ca ll them ab le men ; but no one,without gross flatte ry, could call t hemgentlemen . For they know nothing whatever of

gentle deeds . And th is true honour for man ’snature would affect not our action only but ours pe ech . It wi ll s ave us from allthose thousandsof forms of s in against Christ ’s n ew command

XVII .

Gouns els to the Eefeateb .

Be not dece ived ; God is not mocked .—GAL. vi . 7.

Fear not.” ii . 10.

E have been dwelling for the last twoSundays on the subject of effortagainst s in— the struggle wi th the

lion-monsters of wickedness,both in the world

and in our own hearts. But the re are manywhose temptation it has become to s ay ,

It isuse less to talk to me of effort ; effort for me isvain . I have be en fight ing against s in all myl ife, and it has all been to no purpose. In spiteof the best that I could do, I am a defeatedman . If ever there wa s a time in innocentchildhood, in bright youth, when I might havestrangled the lion oftemptation

,that day i s past

for me. Now I am “ tied and bound with thechain ofmy s ins.” Now you might as well bidthe worm throw off the rock which is crushingit,a s bid me throw off my burden . Sin ha s

become a part ofmyself ; a law of my being.

COUNSELS T0 TH E DEFEATED . 249

The voice of conscience, which once spoke tome in thunder has died into a far off echo andthe voice of s in , once but a low soft seductivewhisper, now tyrannously promulgates, now in

d elibly writes upon my heart, the fatal decalogue of passion. If he who breaks one commandment is guilty of all, then to me, as toIsrael of old, the law of holiness, written withthe finger of God, lies shattered in a thousandfragments, like those granite tables which Mosesdas hed down on the mountain rock.

The common experience of life shows how s ad

i s the prevalence ofsuch moral despair. Unde rthe spell of s in, benumbed by it s torpedo-touch,men who began as Christians, end a s fatal ists.Their secret I will not,

” becomes an imaginaryI cannot .” Because they have not won thebattle oflife against eviltempers, against wickedhabits, against unholy thoughts, they lie stricken,helple ss, unstruggling, l ike the impotent manby the Pool of Bethe sda ; and year after year ,they make no effort more . And since theyhave made up the ir mind s that whenever thetemptation returns they sha llfall into the samesin— since they are sinking lower and lower, andknow that they are so sinking

,doing wrong and

hating themselves forit , and ye t doing it— theverypowers of evil, as though secure of their ruinedand wa s ted lives, are conten t to let them alone .

The hour to torment the victim has not yet

250 E VERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE .

come. The ange ls of our life turn from uswith weeping eyes, and excla im,

“ Ephraim i sturned to idols, let him alone !

”

1 . Now this common state of mind is a stateof the extremest peril, and is sure, sooner orlater, to become, by inevitable laws, a state of

the extremest mi s ery. If then there be anyas surely there are— in this condition he repres ent, wi ll they not naturally cry

,

“Whatmess age, what hope , what help, have you for

us ? 1:

2 . My friends, the chiefduty of the ministe rsof God is , that they should help their bre thre nto the best of their fallible knowledge andfeeb le power . When there is a spirit of repentance when men truly seek the means ofgracewhen they have ceased to be insolent and d efiantin sin ; when they do intend—were it but everso faintly—to lead a new l ife—then

Our commis s ion is to heal, not harm;We come not to condemn , but reconcileWe come not to compel, but callagain ;We come not to de s troy, but edify ;Nor yet to ques t ion thing s already done ;Thes e are forg iven mat ters ofthe pas t ;And range wi th jets am, and with offal, thrownInto the blind s ea offorgetfulnes s .

But yet, in trying to carry out this commission

, we mu s t have an awful care not tos ay unto you smooth things, or prophe s yd ece its—not to go beyond what is commanded

252 E VERVDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE .

were born into the world for a prearrang eddamnation— if sin be thus

,on the one ha n d ,

a mere theologic fiction,or, on the other, a

diabolical compulsion, then there is no more tobe said, save that life itselfbecomes of necess ityone huge misery: and lie .

But on these points I need do no more thanappeal to your own conscience and to yourown experience. You know that youare fre e ;youknow that you once could

,and that even

now you can , eschew the evil and choose t hegood . On these heads it can hardly be nece s

sary to s ay , at least to this congregation, Benot deceived .

i i . But it is I think far more probable thatmany of us may be dece iving ourselves withhalfeffort s , with sham efforts, with efforts whichwe have ourselves secretly predetermined to

failure, and that we are taking those halfefforts for real efforts, and hoping that we shallpersuade our God to s o regard them . And

if so I must s ay here ve ry solemnly,“ Be

not deceived .

” I cannot agree w ith what ha sbeen written by a d eeply religious poet

,who,

afte r des cribing just such a life of constantfailure , of habitual s in , as that to which we

have been alluding, addsThe man , who, though his fights be alldefeats ,St i ll fight s ,En ters a t la s t

The heavenlv Jerus alem'

s rejo icing s tree t s ,

COUNSELS TO THE DEFEATED . I)N!u

NVi th glorymore , and more triumphant rite s ,Than always -conquering Jos hua, uhen his blas tThe frighted walls ofJericho down-ca s tAnd lo the glad surpris eOfjoy beyond surmis eMore than ofcommon s aints for ever in his eyes .

It is indeed true that in our struggles againstthe powers of evil in the oute r world, a goodman may again and again seem to be defeated .

He may die on the scaffold or at the stake ; hemay be hounded into the grave w ith the execration ofhis wicked, ignorant, or hypocritical contemporaries his ve ry du s t

,like that ofWycli-ff,

may be exhumed and scattered to the winds.But in the struggle w ith s in w it/t in us— ia thecontest with our own personal temptations— ourfights, ifthey be fights, cannot all be defeats. Hethat committeth s in is the servant of s in Therecan be no communion of Christ with Belial, orparticipation of the Temple of God with idols.It is not enough when you have been guilty of

a s in mere ly to we t it with a tear and breatheupon it with a sigh,

” and then go and do thesame aga in . Unless a man has at least s o far

conque red s in that s in has ceased to have thedominion ove r him until his reason and his conscience , not his pride or his lus ts, have the upperhand in the governance of his life , he cannotbe saved . A man who i s wholly mastered by,who i s entirely helpless against the perpetualrecurrence of a besetting s in, is in a s tate of

E VERYDAY CH RISTIAN LIFE .

sin and be not deceived,a state of s in is not

and cannot be the same thing as a state ofgrace .

i ii. Nor, again, can I adopt a s a ground of

comfort the views of a late learned theologian,

who has laid vast stress on the possibilities of adeath-bed forgiveness. “ Take

,says Dr. Pusey,

the worst case that can be imagined,a soul

dying immediately upon the commiss ion of

some deadly s in . Take the case of one fallingin a duel, but repenting for the love ofGod afte rhe had been mortally wounded or of one whocommitted suicide and repented when the mean semployed began to work their effect and thenhe mentions a still s tranger and stronger case

,

which I dare not eve n repeat . No one,he

continues,“can s ay that Ahab did not repent

when ‘ stayed up in hi s chariot till even orAbsalom , when hanging between heaven and

earth ; or the disob edient prophet, ere the lionmet him; or Herod, after being stricken wi thworms ; or Ananias, a s he fell under Peter’swords ; or the Anti-christ Antiochus ; or criminals on the scaffold. What God does for thesoul

,

” he says,

“when the eye is turned up in

death and shrouded,the frame stiffened, every

limb motion less,every power ofexpres sion gone

,

i s one of the secrets of the divine compassion .

”

Certainly it is,and I am not likely to argue

against any suggestion which leans to the s ideofmercy, of love, ofhope.

255 EVERYDAy CHRISTIAN LIFE .

a death-bed repentance which we may ca l l s uch ,is hanging his whole weight upon the threa d of

a gossamer over a deep and dark abyss.iv. Nor, again, can I give you any h0pe i n a

d istinction which some have drawn between t he

desires ofthe flesh and of the mind . The wordsof our Lord,

“The spirit indeed is willing, butthe flesh is weak, are meant for a solemn wa rning

,but are used a s a specious excuse. If a ny

of you think that you may dis integrate yourown individuality, and profess to be a sain t inaspiration while you are a libertine in life, I canonly warn you against drugging your conscie n cewith the opiate of this fatal hypocrisy. Let usmake every allowance for the awful effects of

hab it long indulged t ill it has become a secondnature, habit which to the eye ofman it mayseem to b e as impos sib le to change as for t heEthiopian to change his skin or the leopard h iss pots. Let us admit that

,many times, s in ,

longafter it ha s ceased to wear even the ghastlie stsemblance ofpleasure, ass umes the hideous guiseof penal neces sity. But if there be any solacefor the agony of such thoughts

,it rests, not in

m inimizing the guilt of habitual sins, but inthe ve ry depth ofpity which they awaken in us,and in the conviction that our love and our pityand our sympathy can be but a s a drop of theocean compared wi th the infin ite compassion of

H imwho became man to d ie forus . We leave

COUNSELS TO THE DEFEATED. 257

all the victims of s in which has pass ed intopunishment

, yea , we leave our own se lve s whollyand sole ly to the mercy of the Merciful . Butwe cannot and dare not s ay that a man can beso wholly two men in one

,that with one part of

his be ing he is dis hone st or unclean and withthe other upright and pure . Indeed , I thinkthat such a view would tend to foste r some of

the most perilous form s of subtle self-deception,— that, for instance , wh ich, having begun w ithhorror at s in, ends with indiffe rence about itthat which

,having begun with “ only this once

,

endswith Tush ! Thou,God, carest not for it ;

— that whereby a man takes himself,not forwhat

he is, but for wha t he once meant to be, a s

though a d runkard he ree led out ofa public-houseshould poin t to a faded p iece of blue ribbon inproof of his character as a sober and temperateperson . We are what we are in the concentrationand sum total of our actions, and we shall bejudged always, not by the one faithless m inuteor the many faithle s s protestations

,but by the

long cours e and tendency of life .

3 . Against all s uch w ilful d elusions St. Paulutte rs his solemn Be not dece ived . God is

not mocked.

” The word for mocked impliesthe most unseemly and insulting gesture . And

God is mocked when we pretend to be H is whilewe cut our be ing in twain and give half to Satan ,

and whe n we d raw nigh unto Him with our lipsR


while our heart is far from Him . When we areexternally scrupulous, and inwardly fi lled withwilling corrupt ion ; when we at once fast ands mite wi th the fist ofwickednes s when we say,I go, s ir,

”

ye t go not when we try to combinethe vile pleasure of s in with the perfect allegiancewhich God require s ; when we s ay, Lord , Lord ,

”

and do evilcontinua lly what judgment have weany right to expect but “ Thou hypocrit e l

”

what doom but Depart from me, I never knewyou !

4 . But though we cannot comfort you e itherby te lling you that you are winning the victory,when ,

in fact, you are always defeated ; nor bybidd ing you rely on death-bed agonies and hopesnor by saying that you may serve sin with yourbody provided only that you serve righteousnesswith your spirit— have we, then, no h0pe , nocounsel

,no consolation for you Do we add res s

you in those utterly mi s interpreted words of

metaphor and irony,H e that is unjust

,le t him

be unjust still ; and he which is fi lthy,let him

be filthy still ? ” Not s o, my brethren ! But ,instead of lulling your souls to sleep by perilousopiates, we call to youas you lie on the obliviouspool ofacquiescence

Awake aris e ! or b e for ever fallen

i . For, first of all, if you really are fighting,

be sure your fights will not allb e defeats . If


from evil books, do you burn them, or fl ingthem away, with a s much remorse and horror asthose who burnt their bad books at Ephesusand at Florence ? Above all, do we— remembering that we are not a lone— that God see s us,that God i s with us—do we always

, in the hourof temptation , take refuge in prayer, calling aspassionately on God to save and help us a s

sa ilors call on H imfrom the sinking vesse l inthe raging storm Be sure that he who doeththes e things shall neve r greatly fall .i i i . Once again— tes t your sincerity by the

manner in which you con trol or resist your evilthoughts . Do you s uffe r your thoughts totamper with evil , to dally with wrongdoing If

so you are not sincere . If youwillingly sin inthought if you are base and guilty the re the

guilt and baseness will, s ooner or later,break

into the outle ts of word and deed . Fromthought to wish, from wish to purpos e, frompurpose to word , from word to act, from act tohabit ; from delight in the imagination to consent in the will ; from consent in the will toguilt in the deed from guilty deed to repeatedtransgress ion— such is the genesis of s in ; suchthe swift slope of the d e s cen t towards AvernusHe who in his thoughts parleys with s in, d elib

crates with it, indulges it, i s guilty of it alreadyin h i s heart and a hen out ofthe heart proceedevil thoughts,

” there burs t forth also the black

COUNSELS TO TH E DEFEATED. 26 1

stream ofmurde rs, adulteries, fornicat ions, thefts,malice, and all those other things ofwhich Jesusspake . The tyrant Ne ro tried to degrade s omeof the great Roman nobles to as low a leve l ash is own, by makmg them appear as actors inthe arena on the s tage . To d isobey wa s d eath .

Floru s wa s bidden thus to appear, and, doubtingwhether to obey

,consulted the virtuous and reso

lute Agrippinus . Go,by all means

,

” answeredAgrippinus .

“We ll, but ,” replied Florus w ith

aston ishment,you yourself refused to obey .

Ye s ,” answe red Agrippinus , becau s e I did not

de liberate about it.” The categorical imperative,the naked, absolute, prohib ition of duty mustb e implicitly

,unquestionably, instantly ob eyed.

To del ib erat e about it i s to be a secre t trai torand the l ine which separates the s ecret traitorfrom the ope n reb el i s thin a s the Spide r’ s web .

iv. Then take another test— do youput off res is tance , put offobedience , for even a little time ?“ The man who procrastinates

,

”

a s says theancient poet

,wrestles eve r with ruin . Ifyou

suffer yourse lf willingly to b e worsted now, you

wi llb e s o worsted aga in and aga in,until at last

you blunt the sense’

of wrongdoing,suppress

the blushing mutiny of conscience,and sink s o

low a s to defend your own guiltiness . Do notthink that you can put offwi th impunity, or tillt he end . The re is an awful truth

,if there b e

much quaintness, in the language ofonewho said


My lord , Heaven is not to be won by shorthard work at the last, as some of us take adegree at the univers ity afte r much irregularityand negligence I have known many old

playfellows of the devil s pring up suddenlyfromtheir death-beds and strike at him tres cherously ; while he, without return ing the cuff,only laughed and made grimaces in the corne rofthe room .

v . And , lastly, lest any be di s couraged ,le t me

s ay that to promi s e you the certain ultimatevictory is not the same thing a s saying thatyou will n ever fall. By reason of the fra ilty ofour morta l nature we cannot always stand upright ; but if we b e true fighters, when we fa l lwe shall not l ie in the mire , but instantlys hamed into greater watchfulne ss— we shallmake more sure of the next vi ctory ; and eachvictory wi ll lead to others , un t il our enemy isutterly routed . Do youdetermine , for instance ,to conquer anger ? Number, the n, the days inwhich you have not been in a rage ; I u s ed tobe angry every day, now it is only eve ry third orfourth d ay . But ifyous hould pass even thirtydays without a re laps e, and should restrainyourse lf under many provocation s , then sing aTe Deumunto God . For then the habit, whichis being loosened, will soon be eradicated,and you will be an Olymp ic victor, not ove rmi s erable boxers and athle te s , but ove r the dead

XVI I I .

t he Services of tbe Des pis eo.

One of H is dis ciple s , Andrew, Simon Peter’

s brother, s a ithunto H im, There is a lad here , who hath five barley loave s , andtwo small fis hes : but what are they among s o many —JOHNvi. 8 .

CU are all familiar with the passagefromwhich this ve rse is taken. Themultitudes flocked to Christ because

they heard from H im the words of life . Heflung to the winds the scrupulosities and tradit ionalism of a Church which wa s dying of re s

pectab ility ,of conven t ionality, of cons cious and

unconscious hypocrisy,and the people heard

H imglad ly be cause H e s pake with authority,

and not a s the Scri bes . They were in a des ertplace

,for He was und e r a ban ofexcommun ica

t ion ; they had come to Him from far, and

listened long, not knowing when they shouldhear again the words of life . He pit ied the i rhunge r, their thirs t, the ir weariness and Hisdi s ciples had nothing to sugge st but tha t theyshould b e sent home , till—with a glimmering of

TH E SERVICES OF TH E DESPISED . 265

faith—St . Andrew pointed out that the lad whoattended them had five barley loave s and two

s mall fishes ; but,” he added, halfdespa iring ly,

“what are they among s o many ? ” The answer

ofJesus wa s instantaneous. “ Make the men s itdown .

” Ve ry humble, a s well a s fearfully scanty,

was the sole apparent provision . Barley b readwa s so coarse that even the hardy Romansoldiers we re only required to eat it by way of

pun ishment, and fi s h wa s the commonest andcheapes t kind of food . But s o Jesus l ived , andHis apostle s

,and those among whom they

taught. He was poor among the poorest. Not

for H imwa s the purple and t he feast of Dives .He did not come to pamper the luxury or allurethe appetencies of idle men . Barley loave s andon ly two sma llfi s he s l- but it wa s e nough forthe Lord ofall ; and with that scant, poor food ,blessed and mult iplied, He fed the hungry, andrefreshed the weary, and spread a table in thewilderne s s

,and mad e them sit on the green

grass in the sunse t,and gave them that which,

to the ir hunge r,wa s swe e t as manna

,and sent

them rejoicing on the ir way .

2 . We are in the wilderness, the day i s farspent, the night is at hand, on every s ide of usare the hungry, and the thirsty, and the wearywe fe e l ours e lve s utterly he lple s s to he lp thes ehelpless ; we have not two hundred pennyworthof bread for them, and even that, if we had it,

266 E VER VDA Y CH RISTIAN LIFE .

would be in sufl’rcient that every on e of themmight take a l ittle . Ye s ! but have we tried t ous e the poor and scant store which we have ?Have we , l ike that lad, offered our barley loavesfor Christ to bless ? If not

,can we expect that

they should b e used Still less can we expe ctthat they should b e multiplied !

3 . The lesson I would draw fromthe scene is,on the one hand , the lesson of Christ ’s own

gospe l to poor,humble

,ill-endowed

,ungifted

pe rsons , and at the same t ime the encourag ement, the blessing, the multiplication which He

g ives to l ittle things . These ought not, I think,to b e fantas tic or meaningless le ssons for us.For the immense majority ofus are neither greatnor rich

,nor noble

, but j ust such humble, unknown pers ons ; and very few among us havemore than l ittle gifts to offe r— little, I mean ,not w i th refe re nce to God’s infin itud e , to whichit would b e no gift a t all if cedared Lebanonwere a flaming a lta r, a nd we could offer on itthe cattle ofa thousand hills— but little, I mean,even in comparison with what many of ourbrother-men can give.It is a bless ed th ing to offe r some consolation

to the despondent and the d isappointed, to theafflicted and bereaved . To-day, in Christ

’

s

name , I would give glad encouragement to thelowly, to the un important, to the ins ign ificant

,

to the commonplace , t o the great ma s s of ordi


the very badge of the world, the flesh, and th e

devil. The haughty beauty in her j ewel s curlsher lip at the plain , neglected girl ; the proudaristocrat is iron ically patronizing or openlycontumeliou s to all below his own caste ; the

conceitedly clever man wi ll revel in his powe rto humiliate and to wound the man of inferiorcapacity. Unless a man has God ’s grace in h i sheart, then, when he pushe s himse lf an inchhigher than his fellows, he looks down on themsuperciliously from his paltry altitude . Ye s ,

and thousands of time s the worst man, themeane r man

,the fal s er man wil l despise hi s

superior in worth and goodnes s fromthe wholehe ight ofhis own infe riority.

“ This mult itude that knoweth not the law,

is accursed ,” says the re lig ious world .

“Thesepersons are not in society,

” sneers the fashionable world .

“ Mankind is composed of one

thousand m ill ion persons, mostly fools,” sneers

the inte llectual world .

“ They are the vulgar,the unwashed, ciphers, mere nobodies ; let themknow the ir place,

” says the vanity of rank andriches. And all these forms ofpride are pitilessand se lfish

,and He who was Lord ofall declared

Him s elf utterly against them.

“ He hath putdown the mighty from their seat, and hathex alt -d the humble and the m .:ek Ah, mybre thren, b e s ure of this

,that scorn of anything

but vile and depraved wickedness is devilis h,

TH E SERVICES OF TH E DESPISED. 269

though there is nothing which the world moreadmires. See how Christ, in every word andaction

,s et H is face against it . Wa s Galilee

de spised ? Then Ga l ilee should b e His country .

Was Nazareth a byword ? Then Nazarethshould be H is home . Did the pupils of the

Rabbis look down on the untaught as mere dustbeneath their feet ? Then Christ would not bea pupil in the ir schools . Had the rich “ growninsolent in fooling ? ” Then the manger shouldbe His cradle

,the cros s H is b ed of death. Did

they that wore soft clothing l ive in kings’ houses ?

Then He would be a wanderer, and not havewhere to lay His head . Were women in theEast a s ad

,downtrodden sis terhood , s o that

when they approached himthe Phari s ee drew inh is floating robes ? Then , to the astonis hmenteven ofHis disciples, H e would ta lk to a womanat the noonday well . Were children neglected ?Then

,hallowing all infancy, He would take

themin H is arms, lay H is hands on them, andbless them . VJere lepers shunned like thepestilence ? Then, despite all Levitic ritualism ,

He would touch the lepe r into health. Did mantrample with p it ile ss ex ecration on the affl ictedand the fallen Then , unreproved, the womanwith the i s sue should gras p the tas se l of Hisrobe ; unreproved the harlot should wash H is

feet with her tears, and wipe them with the hairsofher head and to the pardoned adulte ress, as

270 E VER YDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE .

s he s obbed in the Temple,a disheve lled heap of

s hame and misery, H e would utter, in t he

accents of tender me rcy,“Woman, whe re a re

those thine accusers ? Ha th no man co n

d emned thee ? Ne ither do I condemn the e .

Go and s in no more .

”

5. Thus d id Christ brand prid e,and that cruel

indifference to the feelings ofothers which is thetwin-sister of pride , with

“the stigma of H i s

inde l ib le abhorrence .

” Surely,my friends, ifw e

miss the lesson which, by H is word s and H is

l ife,Christ would thus teach us

,we mu s t b e

blind indeed . It is not only the le sson of love ,i t i s not even the le s son that H e loved as manhad never loved before but it is that He lovedthose whom none had ever loved before. H e

made H is grave with the wicked . H e pardonedeven on the cross the dying malefactor . Hetook His example of virtue from the hated

,

heretical Samaritan . He came to the sick,not

to the whole ; to the sinners, not to thos e whothought them s e lve s righteous to the lost sheepof the house of Israe l . Amongst the diseased ,amongst the unlove ly, amongst the despised,amongst the powerless, amongst those whom allclasses united to insult and hate, He took Hisplace.He stopped beside

,He pitied

,He saved

, H e

tended the robbed and wounded wayfarer whomthe Priest passed with indiffe rent step, at whom


Easte rn village, staring at it with looks of loathing , pointing to it with d isgustful scorn, utteringabout it every word of ex ecration and of con

tempt, with s illy laughter. Then suddenly the rewa s a silence among them

,for they s aw Jesus

approaching, and some of them stepped a littleaside , and gazed and wondered . And the

Mas ter came up to the heartle ss loitere rs,and

looked for a moment at the carcase of the poordead creature which God had made , as it layin the dust unde r the blistering glare ; and Hewas silent. And then, amid the silence, Hesaid Its teeth are as white as pearls andso he pas sed on . Where all were j eering andexecrating

,He would utter the one word of

pi ty ; where all had eyes for nothing but whatwas disgust ing, He would s ee noth ing but theone redeeming touch .

Oh,world , such i s thy Saviour ; and oh, world ,

such art thou6 . I know not, my friends, whether you care

for this truth—the acceptance by Christ of thosewho morally, or intellectually, or spiritually, noles s than phys ica lly, are the blind, the halt, themaimed , even the lepers of our poor human ity.

I only know that I care for it immense ly. It isto me of the utmost comfort . In all limitationsof powe r, in all sense of weakness, in all thede s pair of fa i lure , in all tauntings about d eficiency,

in allcons ciousness ofnumbe rless imper

THE SERVICES OF THE DESPISED . 273

fect ion s ,— wheneve r I have to meet the proudman’s scorn

,and the bas e man’s s neer

,I think of

Him, I turn to H imwho took His place amongthe humble , among the ins ignificant, among thedefeated ; to H imwho loved mankind in spiteof all it s sins and all it s shame who honouredman

,not for the honours which were wi thout

him,not for the g ifts of Prov idence

,or for the

accidents of favour, or the little brief authorityofplace, but for this only and simply, becausehe wa s ma n, and because he wa s miserable, andbecause he needed help .

7 . And a s the love ofChrist for smallungifted,humble , faithfulpe rsons is a transcende nt comfort , no le s s comfort is the acceptance by Christof little things, the pity ofChris t for evil things ,the tenderne s s ofChrist for thing s despised . Heinstantly made us e of the poor lad ’s five barleyloaves and two s mall fishes . H is symbols forthe kingdom ofGod were the handfulof leavenwhich the woman took and h id in three meas ure sofmeal, and the

‘

grain ofmustard seed, which isthe sma llest ofall seed s.He is si tting in the Temple ; the rich areostentatiously casting into the treasury theirsplendid gifts ; the poor widow comes, and , infrightened shame, casts in her smallest of allcoins

,her leas t of possible offerings, the two

mite s, which make one farthing ; and Christ

joyous ly declare s that, becaus e s he wa s so poor,S


s he had cas t in more than they all . The thro n e sare s e t ; the Great Assize is Opened ; the d e a d ,small and great

,stand before the throne, and lo

they are j udged , not about Levitical observa n ce sor theolog ical orthodoxy, but about little d e e d sofkindness , by H imwho said that ifone shouldbut g ive in H is name a cup ofcold wat er to o n e

ofH is disc iples he should not lose ofhis rew a rd .

At a flower fest ival, not long ago, among ch o icefruits and exotic flowers

, one l ittle shrinkingchild laid on the altar step her tiny offering— ir

was but a s ingle daisy. The little one h a d

nothing else to give ; and with even such a n

offering, given with a single and a simple he a rt ,Chris t I th ink would have been we ll pleas ed .

8 . Are not the re s ultant less ons plain ? By

far the mosto

ofus have not ten talents to offerfor Christ’s us e , nor even five talents ; we haveat the best but one tale nt, and pe rhaps not e venthat . We ll

,the world despises us for our pove rty

of intellect, our dearth of gifts ; but God thin ksnothing of it. When the Master comes He w i l lnot a sk how great or how small were our endowment s and capab ilities, but only how we haveused them . If we have not neglected our onepoor ta lent

,or even fraction of a talent, we , no

less than the most richly gifted, shall be thrilledwith the words,

“Well done, good and faithfuls ervant ! which will atone for ever for allafflictions . He who has but one talent makes

276 EVER YDA Y CHRISTIAN LIFE .

strains still lift our souls heavenwards on th e

golden wings of music. \Ve can never b e a s

yonder immortal poets, who, in a world so l itt leand s o mean

,have g iven us noble r loves an d

nobler hopes. Well, be it so but, on the oth e rhand , we can be a s good as any poet, or mus ician , or cunning art ificer, or e loquent orator tha teve r wa s , in that which is best and greatest, an dmost dear in God ’s sight— in that

,indeed , which

is alone of any eternal significance ; and manyofthese whose statue s rise around us would laya s ide the ir wreath offame for the simple goodn ess which is possible to the very least amongus all .

9. Yea , the last may be first, and the first

la s t . Was it not s o with those whom Chris tchose a nd loved ? Pe te r

,what was he but a

poor Gal ilean fi s herman ? Andrew, what wa she but Simon Pe ter’s brothe r ? Simon, oncea hot-headed zealot ; Matthew, once a scornedand hated publ ican . Eve ry one of themdulland ordinary men , as the world thought ; unlearned and ignorant, on ly not iced a t all becausethey had bee n with Jesus .So wa s it with nearly allthose early Christians

who re newed and evange l ized the world . Not

many rich,not many noble , not many mighty

were called . They were for the most part slavesand artis a ns

,and feeble folk. Look even at

the ir writing s . The Chri s tian apolog is ts had

TH E SERVICES OF TH E DESPISED. 277

none of the keen, flashing inte llect or powe rfulability ofmen like Lucian or Ce lsus, who wroteagainst them, nor any of the haughty compress ioh or suppres sed fire of Roman s l ike Tacitusand Juvenal, who scornfully thought that the irdoctrines could be held by no sane man . H ow,

then , did they “ so get the s tart of the maj e s ticworld these lowes t of the low — these hedgersand ditche rs —thes e wretche s who wors h ippedin the catacomb and died in the amphitheatre ?—thes e s a rmen t z

'

t z’

z'

and Semax z z , a s they werecalled from the stakes to which they were tiedand the fagots with which they we re consumed ?The answer is eas y. It wa s by innocence ; itwas by virtue ; it was by goodness . Intellectdisowned them scorn spat on them malignitysearched them w ith candle s power trampledthem into the dust . Ye t these foolish th ings ofthe world confounded the wis e , and by the irres is t ible weakness of holy lives these men withnothing but barley loaves built up a bette r,stronger, purer world, while

Rome , whommighty kingdoms curts ied to,Like a forlorn and de s perate cas taway,Did s hameful execution on hers elf.

10. Why, then, should any one of us sorrowfor, or be ashamed of

,his earthly in s ign ificance ,

or care how much the world de s pises him?Ours

,as much as any man ’s, may be the most


inconceivable ofall blessings— the peace ofGo d

here which pa s seth all unders tanding, and hereafter a ble s sedness which eye hath not seen -no r

ear heard, ne ither hath i t entered into the hea rtofman to conce ive . But be we high or low, richor poor

,clever or stupid, for which God care s

nothing,it i s equally pos sible for the humble st o f

us all to do our duty. It is true that we have butour five coarse barley loaves and two small fishe s .

In themselves they are useless. Well, then , le tus g ive them to Christ. He can multiply them.

He can make themmore than enough to feedthe five thousand .

A cup of cold water ? We ll , wi llthe worldever forget the cup of cold water which Davidwould not drink, but poured upon the earth,becau s e hismen had risked their lives to fetchit him ? or the cup of cold water which SirPhil ip Sydney, athirst and dying, gave to theworse-wounded sold ie r, who eyed it eagerly onthe fie ld of Z utphen ? A grain ofmustard-seed ?We ll

,when Count Z inzendorf wa s a boy at

school he found ed among his companions a littleguild ,

of which the badge was a gold ring, andhe ca lled it The Orderof the Grain ofMustardseed,

” and thereafte r the seedling grew into thegrea t tree of the Moravian brotherhood, whoseboughs were a blessing to the world . Thewidow’

s mite We ll, when they laughed atSt. The resa because s he wanted to build a great


besides, the results are nothing , the work e verything ; nothing the g ift, eve rything th e w i lli n gheart . But have youeve r tried ? If you brin gno gift, how can God us e it ? The lad mus tbring his barley loaves before the five thousan dcan be fed . Have youever attempted to d o a s

he did ? Have you,

'

even in the sma lle s tmeasure, or with the least desire , tried to fo llowJohn \Ve slev ’

s gold en advice

Do allthe good youcan ,By allthe means youcan ,In allthe ways youcan ,

In allthe places youcan ,At allthe t imes youcan ,To allthe people youcan ,As long as ever youcan .

Or, if you . have not attained to that rule, a s k

your own consciences,not convent ionally

,but

honestly and sea rchingly,not a s before a self

dece iving s oul, but as b efore God, whether you

have done, or are doing, apart from a me reselfish or domestic rout ine, any good at all, atany time at all, to any human be ing what everTake but one instance— kind words. A kindword ofpra ise, of sympathy, of encouragement ;it would not cost youmuch, ye t how often doespride

,or envy, or indiffe rence prevent you from

s peaking it The cup ofcold wate r, the barleyloave s , the two farthings , how often are we toomean and too s e lf-absorbed to give even these

TH E SERVICES OF TH E DESPISED . 28 1

And are we not to give them because we cannotendow hospitals, or build cathedrals, or write

'

epics ? Ah ! if we be in the le ast sincere, inthe least earnes t

,let us be encouraged . The

l itt le gifts of our poverty, the small services of

our ins ignificance, the barley loaves of theGalilean boy on the desert plain, the one talentofpoor dull persons like ourselves, are desp isedby the world, but they are dear to, but they areaccepted of, but they willbe infinitely rewardedby Him who, though the conies are a feeblefolk, gives them their homes in the rocks ; without whom no sparrow falls ; who numbers thevery hairs of our heads ; who builds the vas tcontinents by the toil of the coralin s ect, and byH is gra ins ofsand stays the raging of the s ea .

XIX .

t he M arks of the lore s cans .

Fromhenceforth let noman trouble me : for I hear in mybody themarks ofthe Lord Je sus .

”—GAL. vi . 1 7 .

HE word which is rendered marks isin the original s tigma ta ,

or brands.”

In the popular usage of the RomishChurch it has come to mean the five woundsof the cruc ifixion on the hands

,feet

,and

side of Christ. In the thirteenth century,

the wealthiest and most ambitious epoch of

the Church ’s history,when the mighty Inno

cent I I I . s at on the Papal throne, the re liveda pre -eminently holy servant of God namedFrancesco Bernardone , generally known a s

St . Francis ofAssisi. Through the illuminatedmist of admiring records which gatheredaround his name

, we can still discern thefigure of one who

,with all the sweetness of a

pure and simple nature , and all the passionof an ardent and noble heart— bel ieving whathe professed

,and living up to what he be lieved


figure of inde s cribable beauty with arms outs tretched upon the cross . And while he gazedin overwhelming trance upon the solemn and

s plendid vision , there s eemed to occur to himon that lone ly hill a silent trans figura t ion of

his human s oul . Gradually,he knew not how,

there appeared, or seemed to appear, in hisown hands and feet the marks of nails

,and in

his side the broad wound as of a lance ; and ,when he came to himse lf, when the ecstas ywas over, when the aching glory ceased toovershadow him, he found that he bore on hisbody, whether uncon sciously s elf-inflict ed , or

in whatever other way they came, the s t igma ta ,

the marks , the five wounds of the Lord Jes u sChris t .

2 . Into the evidences of this story, into the

psychology of it, into its possible connexionwith morbid and dimly understood phenomena ,I shall not enter. St. Francis wa s very farfrom showing, or boasting of these marks

,these

stigmata,of the Lord Jesus. The deepest

fee lings of religion grow, l ike the lily of the

valley,in shadowy and lonely places. To any

one who knows, even afar off; the sens itivedelicacy of the s hrinking soul, and the imposs ib ility which it feels of revealing, or evenexpressing

,its deepest experiences

,i t will not

s e em strange that he concealed to the utmostthis dread visitation , whatever it may have

TH E MARHS OF TH E LORD j ESUS. 285

been . Hewould have shuddered at the thoughtof vulgarizing it, he kept it, to the very utmostofh is power

,as a holy and awful secret between

himself and God . Even those intimate friendswho knew and loved him

,and who

,within three

years of his death, narrate the story, dwell butlittle on the wonder. H ow was this ? Partlybecause in those ages such events were thoughtfar le s s extraordinary than now they would b ebut chiefly because the life

,the character, the

example of Francis,as the founder of their

great monastic order,seemed to the med ize val

church a thing more admirable than anymiracle . On the wild hills and plains ofUmbria,Francis

,according to his lights

,according to

the views ofhis day,showing hims elf absolute ly

faithful to the best he knew,tried to reproduce

the life of Jesus in Galilee. There were inthe character, in the heart, if not upon thehands and feet, of Francis of Assisi, marksmore miraculous

,stigmata more indisputable

,

traces of direct commun ion with God, andintimate connexion with his Saviour Christ

,

far more authentic— the toils,the sufferings,

the voluntary poverty,the stainless chastity

,

the entire ob edience,the active service, the

intense se lf-denial,of one of the saintliest and

loveliest souls of all those who,since He died

upon the cross, have walked in the steps of theirSaviour Christ .


3. Now the marks,the stigmata of Christ,

by which I mean the veritable,the spiritual

stigmata which should be visible on the life of

every Christian, are twofold the marks of selfden ial meekly borne in His service the marksofvictory over temptation won by His redeeminglove. Those are the stigmata referred to inthis text ; they were marks borne by one whowas incomparably greater in intellectual powerthan the humble enthusiast of Italy— e ven theApostle of the Gentiles . This letter of his tothe churches of Galatia was written amid astorm of deep fee l ing, and the agitation of the

writer is shown in the tumult of the s tyle .

Those rude converts,for whom Paul had toiled

s o long and whom he loved so tende rly,abandoning his teaching, slighting his authority,had succumbed to the malignant fascina tionof other teachers. Wounded in his tende re s tsensibilities by their ingratitude

,he once more

sketched for them,in burning outline, the

truths which he had taught, and then concludeshi s epistle with a few word s of affection See ,

”

he says,“ the large straggling letters m which

my infirmity has forced me to write to you.

”

Suffering from weak eyesight, perhaps theresult of the vision which had outdazzled the

noonday sun on the road to Damascus, he wa sgenerally obliged to as k the help of an amanuensis . But s ee

,

”

he says,

“ to youalone ofmy

288 E VERYDAY CH RISTIAN LIFE .

was it ? W'

as it some fresh paroxysm o f thethorn in the flesh ? some recent agony from the

bruises of Roman rods,or the lash of Jew is h

thongs ? some fracture from the stoning a t

Lystra ? some weakness from the triple s h ipwrecks ? some trace of the burning of S iriusor the fury of Euraquilo ? Whatever i t w a s ,

this new pang in the monotony of misery, t h isfresh martyr-wound in the martyr-life , how

does St. Paul bear it ?'

Poor sufferer, with h i s

passionate heart, his humiliated presence, h istrembling susceptibility,his stammering spee ch— s o far from murmuring at it, he accepts, h eeven glories in it as the seal of his embass y a n dcredential of his Apostolate, a stigma of h is

Lord . By that indisputable sign Christ is h isconqueror, his captain, his master ; he i s

Christ’s prisoner,H is slave

,His soldier now !

A slave in Rome or Ephesus might blush tobe called s t zgrna t zhs — the branded chatte l of a nearthly owner ; but Paul is proud of a servicewhich is perfect freedom ; and in his nex tep istle he calls himselffor the first time, SofikogInaoii xpwroii, a slave of Jesus Christ. Fromhenceforth let no man trouble me, for I hear

fia o'

ra'

Zw— I bear like a trophy,branded upon

my body,the marks of the Lord Jesus !

5. My brethren, let us humbly admit thatmany of St. Paul ’s expressions which havepas s ed into the current phras eology of Chris tian

TH E MARXS OF TH E LORD j ESUS. 289

life— to die daily,to “be crucified with Christ,

to carry about the dying,” to bear themarks

of the Lord Jesus— often as they are repeated,have become on our lips grievously conven

t ional. In the case of all but a very few, dowe not feel that they have a false ring aboutthem ? On the cross itself, which once causeda shudder in the hearts of men, the world haslaid its chilly and vulgarizing touch. It hasbeen degraded from a thrill ing symbol into apre tty ornament. On the forehead of everyone of us in infancy the cross wa s signed .

Alas ! how much of the meaning of that cross,except in the way of involuntary trials

,of

deserved punishments,does that symbol repre

sent to us How much in the way ofpenitence,in the way of devotion

,in the way of self

denial ? H ow much have we shown of the

sensibility of innocence,the enthusiasm of nu

s elfis hnes s , the passion of self-s acrifice ? H ow

often have we illustrated the noble desire to bepoor

,and to descend ? H ow often have we

displayed the glorious readiness to spend andto be spent in other causes than that of self?H ow many of us can say with the Apostles

,

Lo ! we have forsaken all and followedThee Ought the Christian l ife to be soeasily harmonized as we harmonize it withluxury, with eager worldliness, with murmuringambition, with greed, with malice, with lack of


charity, with love of s e lf? Ought the Christianwarfare to be , as it s o often is, little more thana comfortable profe ssion of languid virtue s ;a thin veneer of convent ional respectabilities a

hypocritical s emblance of dead, or at least ofinope rative, of ineffectual, of pas s ively rece ivedbe liefs Death

,judgment, etern ity—howmany

of us live with thes e habitually in view ? Toeat, and drink, and sleep, to accumulate , tolaugh

,to die, with no thought of a besetting

God,with no shame for our unworthiness

,no

bitter penitence for s in,no serious effort for

amendment, no thrill of gratitude to Christ, no

solemn looking forth to heaven — does thisdescribe the life of any of us ? and if it doesoh, is this the life on which ha s fallen the

shadow of the cross6 . Ah, my friends

,how very different our

lives, our a ims,our interests would look if

,

for one single hour,we could see themas we

shall see themwhen,a few years hence

,we lie

on the bed of death ! Which sha l l we thinkmost of then our successes, our accumulations,the bitter things we have written

,the sharp

things we have said , or any good deed, wereit ever s o humble

,which by God

’

s grace , wehaply may have tried to do ? “ 0 God, d ealnot with us after our sins, neither reward usaccording to our in iquities ! Oh, recognize usfor Thine own, even if it be but as the las t


many a deeply-troubled glance Th in k n o t ,

s ays the young Ange l in the Paradise L o s t ,” to

the fallen spirit whom he had failed to recog

n ize , because his old Archangelic lustre w a s

now visibly impaired

Think not, revol ted s pirit , thy s hape the s ameOrundimin is hed brightnes s , to be knownAs when thous tood ’s t in heaven, upright and pure ,That glory, then , when thounomore was t goodDeparted fromthee , and thoures embles t nowThy s in , and place ofdoom, obs cure and foul .So Spake the cherub, and his grave rebuke,

Severe in youthful beauty, added graceInvincible abas hed the Devil s toodAnd fe lt how awful goodnes s i s , and VirtueIn her own s hape how lovely — s aw and pinedH i s los s , but mos tly to find here obs ervedH is lus tre vis ibly impa ired.

It is the case with all s in that it mars tho semortal bodies which are the temples of the

Holy Ghost. Intemperance,envy, disconten t,

impurity do brand the souls of men, each withits own several mark, as bond slaves of the

powers of evil. And most of all is this thecase with all wi lling, with all habitual sins. And

think not that the marks of Satan can bealways

,can be effectually concealed. Con

cealed they cannot be from the all-seeing eyeofGod concealed they may b e for a time fromthe eyes of men

,but even that not certainly

,

and rare ly all the life long. Hark in your ear,

”

TH E IIIARKS OF THE LORD j ESUS. 293

s ays the strange character in a work of genius,

when the Black Man has put his mark upona ny one, and seest him s o shy of acknowledgingthe bond, he has an awkward way ofproducingtheir sign-manual, and making them confesseven before the eyes of men that they havesecretly belonged to him . When

,in the great

poem ofthe Middle Ages, Dante leaves the mirkof the abyss, and struggles upward to themountain of Purgatory, he has to pass up the

steps of sincerity, of contrition,and of self

sacrifice to the diamond threshold offorgiveness,

and as he enters the narrow wicket gate theAngel of Repentance marks the letter P (for

peeea tum, s in) seven times upon his forehead,one letter for each one of the seven deadly sins

,

and he cannot enter Paradise till each one ofthose fatal letters has been brushed away.

But whether there be on the sinner anyexternal signs of his s in or not, each man hashis own ekamoter that which, a s the veryword implies

,is engraved upon him—the image

which God sees upon the coin— the supers cription which God reads upon the soul . Oh

,

my brethren, le t us strive with all our energythat

,upon the souls of every one ofus, we may

hear the marks of the Lord Jesus, visible toHis tenderness

,however faint to the eye ofman .

He wi ll rejoice to deciphe r were it but thedimmest traces of His likeness

,be they never


s o marred and blurred . But every day wemay make themmore and more distinct.Wherever there is any form of s e lf-conquest

,

s tern ly achieved, for conscience s ake— there i sone of the marks of Jesus. Is there one here

,

who, being naturally proud, has s chooled hims elf to the sweet virtue of humility in love of

Christ ? I s there one here, who having been

prone to pas sion and sarcasm, has yet tutoredhis l ips to gentlenes s and his heart to calm ?I s there one who, be ing of a jealous and enviousspirit, has grown to rejoice honestly at the

success,not only of his rivals

,but even of his

inferiors ? Is there one who, being full of

earthly ambition , has learnt ofHim who refusedall the kingdoms of the world and the glory of

them,that there is no noble ambition save that

of eminently serving God Is there one who,

having been indolent and self-indulgent,has

learnt the dignity of work, the innocence of

work, the holiness of work, the happiness of

work,”

for God and man ? Is there one, the

fountain ofwhose life has been polluted by evilthoughts and evil words and evil deeds

,but

who, by earnest prayer for the grace of God,

and noble effort to mortify within him everycorrupting passion

,has striven to purify himself

even a s God is pure, and so once more to s ee

the face of H is Father,unobscured by the rank

mi s ts which reek upwards from the sin-polluted


Son of Man hath power even on e a rth toforg ive sinsIn this faith— ia this quietness of humble

but perfect confid ence—let us come to G od in

Christ, and let us say, Faint are Thy ma rkswhich we bear upon us. Punishment w e h aved eserved we deny it not. But oh ! we w i lltryto do our duty, try to leave the world a li ttlebetter than we found it. Accept

, O Lord ,s uch

imperfect service as Thou d idst in s pire, fo r the

sake of the one perfect self-s acrifice wh i chThou didst fulfil . Pardon our s ins ' out of

Thine own boundless pity. Read Thy ma rksupon us

,or if they be obliterated , do Thou of

Thy mercy renew them and may our namesbe found written in Thy Book of Life

,even

though we stand lowest and last upon its li s tOh ! with all the energies of an immortal

life,let us strive that ere we die we too

may bear on our souls at least t/zes e marks of

the Lord Jesus— bear them at least in virtueswon, in faults corrected, in sins repented of.

All sins committed leave their own scar onearth

,even after the wound is healed ; but

when, after prayer and penitence, sins havebeen forgiven through the atoning blood of

Christ,then the very scars they leave are—as

Bossuet said of the wounds of the immortalCondé Proofs of the protection of heaven .

”

If we can take with us no saintly self

TH E MARKS OF TH E LORD j ESUS. 297

denials,no noble services

,no rich spiritual gifts

,

when we stand before the judgment-seat of

Christ,le t us at least take the traces ofwounds

which His grace has closed proofs of recovery ;scars touched into healing by His hand of love.It was for this— it was for the forgiveness of

sins— that Christ died and rose again,and eve r

liveth to make intercession for us ; and thes e ,even these, shallbe marks of the Lord Jesus insuch as we .

‘

Cbe t rue Glory of humanity.

A CHRISTMAS MORNING SERMON.

The Word was made flesh.

”—J011N i. 1 4 .

N th is morning there can be but on e

subject for us,the birth ofChrist . Of

that birth there are two aspects. I t isan event in time it is a revelation of etern ity.

It is a fact of history ; it is a doctrine of

religion. As an event it is more stupendousthan any in history ; as a revelation it is moreblessed than any in Scripture.It is a fact pathetic beyond des cription ; a

faith rich in illimitable blessedness.1 . What is the fact ? The lessons of to-day

bring it home to us in manifold aspects. ARoman emperor had decreed that the Jewsshould enrol themselves . In obedience to thatdecree a poor carpenter ofNazareth

,ofthe fallen

line ofDavid, made his way to Bethlehem, withM ary, h is betrothed wife , then travailing with ad ivin e birth. Through the darkne s s of that

300 E VERYDA Y CH RISTIAN LI FE .

humble inn, there is the event. TheWo rd b ecameflesh

The Lord ofTime and allthe worldsCame tous once a naked new-born child

that l ittle babe laid in the mange r, H e i s the

King ofKings— there is the mystery. T o youI need not s top to prove it to you i t i s s e lf

attested you know it you believe it ; manyof you, I trust, have learnt the truth o f i t byblessed experience you have the wi tn e s s inyours elves .

3 . God became man . Is not that causeenough for Christmas gladness, for a joy a s of

the angels,for a joy ten t imes more glad a nd

living than we can ever feel ? H e took no t onH imthe nature of angel s

, ye t the angels thri l ledwith tumults of joy at the thoughts of mil l ionsof sinners who would repent. What would ourjoy be if

,with their larger other eyes

,we could

s ee all that wa s signified by the birth of Christ ?

The mystery,indeed

, we cannot fathom. Of

that we say,“ I wil l seek to believe rather than to

reason to adore rather than to explain to givethanks rather than to penetrate to love ratherthan to know to humble myself rathe r than tospeak.

” But believing it— and oh, that we mays trive to be lieve it, not with orthodox assent,but with personal realization —which of the

thous and les sons which it involves shall we tryto take to our hearts to -d ay

TH E TRUE GLOR Y OF H UMANITY. 30 1

4 . Through the fact, through the mystery ’

through all the life and teaching of our Lordthere is One lesson, which, ifwe could but graspit

, would b e a life long source of strength, of

purity,of ennobling peace. On that lesson I

w ill speak my few words to-day. It is thegrandeur of that human nature which God ha sgiven us the sacredness

, the maje sty, the loftyprivilege s , the immeasurable possibilities ofman .

5. It is a revelation altogether new. Looka t man in the light of Nature . We look upwards, and ,

see ing the galaxies of stars,the

myriads of planets and moons and sun s and

systems,our nothingness is burnt into us and we

are tempted to think of ourse lves as infinitesimalatoms

,the creatures of a passing moment

,the

prey of blind forces in the blinding whirl of

chance.We look downwards, and seeing the earth

wrinkled with her innumerable graves,dead

species,dead genera

,dead generations, dead

epochs,a universe of death — the very dust

of the world made of the decay of unnumbe redorganisms—we are tempted to believe thatnothing rema ins for us but dust to dust

,that

the grave is the universal end , and the worm theuniversal conqueror.We look around

,and see ing the vanity and

vileness ofmankind , seeing races wholly given upto various idolatries

,s eeing that the dark places


of the earth are the habitation s of crue lty, s e e ingman savage and man civilized alike abando nin ghimself to passions of d ishonour, and given ove r

to the lowest instincts we are tempted to de s pis eour being. We turn to communitie s nomin allyChristian

,and we s ee them tain ted by g reed ,

given over to lies, besotted by d rink, the b ondslaves of base and brutal appetites. We turnto biography

,and it is chiefly a record o f

human sorrows to history, and it te lls of age sof crime and error to the poets

,and the ir song s

are full of sadness and despondency.

And when we dwe llon all this,and look each

at the plague of our own hearts,we blush for

ourselves, we b lush for our race

,we s ay that ,

however we brazen it out,we men are a l ittle

breed .

” It is such thoughts that drive men in tothe devil ’s gospel of despair and materialism it

is from the exclusive contemplation of manin his lowest nature that many are led to s ay

s o wearily that life is not worth living ; that i t

A hfe ofnothings , nothing worthFromthat firs t nothing at our birthTo that las t nothing under earth.

6 . Now turn from the shadow,face the sun

Turn away your eyes from the phenomena of

evil and ruin , and look at the manger-cradle ofBe thlehem . Look at man in the l ight of theIncarnation , and s ee how all is changed The


trans figured with an illumination not of e ar th .

St. Anselm wrote a famous book with the title ,Cur Deus Homo ?” Why did God be come

Man And one answer at least to th atque stion is to teach us that we are grea te rthan we know. God became man that ma n

might become as God ; that he might be a little

higher than the angels, instead of a little lowerthan the brutes.And in the light of this truth we escape from

that snare of the devil which would lead us todespise our human nature. We say, I trustin the nobleness of human nature, in the maje styof its faculties, in the fulness of its mercy, in the

joy of its love.”

7 . And,

'ah ! my friends, do not regard thisas a mere vague trust, a mere abstract speculation. It is a beliefwhich may affect every dayof our lives, in the twofold bless edness of dutyand of love . It affects our estimate of ourselvesaffects our conduct to others . There is not onedegradation of our personal being

'

which doesnot spring from lack of self-reverence ,—of

reverence for ourselves as those whom Christhas redeemed , to whom He ha s given a right tob e child ren of God . The Incarnation teache sus that our part is in Christ

,our bodie s H is

temple, our nature His image, our hearts Hisshrine . H e that takes a mean estimate of hisown being, he who regards himselfas akin only

TH E TRUE GLORY OF H UMANI TY. 305

to the beasts that perish,and destined to no

higher end than they, will live as they d o. He

who looks on himself as immortal, as a child ofGod

,as partaker of the nature which Christ wore

and Christ redeemed, he wil l hold himself evermore and more bounden to aim at a noble andgodly life.Thus

,then

,the Incarnation

,rightly appre

hended,becomes the basis of all noble concep

tions of our human life.In the light ofthe Son ofGod becoming flesh,

we dare not degrade or disesteem ourselves. We

see how base an apostasy it is to abnegate thedivine prerogative of our being. The birth of

Christ becomes to us the pledge of immortality,the inspiration of glad , unerring, life-long dutyto ourselves . And no less does it bring hometo us the new commandment of love to ourbrethren . It becomes the main reas on why weshould love one another. If men were indeedwhat Satan makes them, and makes us try tobelieve that they solely are— hopelessly degraded , un imaginably vile if human life benothing at the best but the shadow ofa passingand miserable dream

,I know not how we could

love one another . We could only turn withloathing fromall the vice and canker

,the mortal

corruption,the manifold baseness of many

lives. H ow is all trans figured , how is the

poorest wretch earth ever bore tran s figured ,

U

306 E VERYDA r CHRISTIAN LIFE .

when we remember that for these Christ becameman , for thes e He died ! Shall we , ourselve s s o

weak, s o imperfect, so stained with evil, shal l w e

dare to d espise these whom Christ s o loved th atfor them— yea, for these blind and impot e n tmen ,

these publicans and sinners,the se rag g e d

prodigals of humanity still voluntarily ling e ring among their husks and swine— for the s e ,even for these

,He

,so pure

,so perfect

,took our

nature upon Him,and went

,step by step

,dow n

all that infinite descent Despise them A h

the revealing light of the God-man shows t oomuch darkness in ourselves to leave any pos s ib ility for pride. We take our own seats amongthe lepers on the Temple steps ; prostrate w i ththem we stretch blind hands offaith and praye rto God .

“We are all equally guilty, we are all

equally redeemed .

” Stand ing beside the crad leof the Lord all humanity becomes precious, b ecomes immortal . It becomes to us a sacredand blessed duty to pity the afllicted

,to feed th e

hungry, to clothe the naked, to comfort the sick,to bring home the wanderers, to undo the heavyburden and let the oppressed go free. If eve nChristian men s aw this duty they would not livea s s o many of themdo. But ifwe have learn tthe lesson of Christmas, the lesson ofBethlehem,

le t us live to counteract the works of the deville t it b e the on e a im of our lives to love and

n ot to hate to he lp, not to hinder ; to s uccour


l isten ing a ir there would rest the burden of thatangel carol

,Glory to God in the highest

,o n

earth peace, goodwi ll towards men, till ea rthitself

,and these dim, guilty cities, and our poor,

perplexed , distracted, dying, mortal life shouldbe glorified with a light ofGod while

To prouder folly we s hould s howEarth by divine lightmade divine .

Oh,may it be God ’s blessing to each ofus t o

enjoy a Christmas, to enjoy a New Year, happywith this happiness of heaven, happy with the

primal truth ofan ennobled nature rich in thehumble charities that heal and bless transfigured in the light which streams from themanger-cradle

,the light of redemption

,the light

ofduty, the light of l ife God grant to you andme and all of us thus to ente r here into the joyof our Lord, until at last we be made partakersof H is everlasting felicity in the tearless lifebeyond the grave.

TH E END.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.

LONDON AND EDINBURGH

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