BX 
 
 7233 
 
 .H695 
 
 T86 
 
 1884 
 
wo SERMONS 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 EV. JAMES HOYLE 
 
BX 7233 .H695 T86 1884 
 Hoyle, James. 
 Two sermons 
 
 APR n 2000 
 
These two sermons, preached on the last Sabbath mornings 
 of my father's earthly ministry, are published in response 
 to the expressed wish of many friends. Still I feel that 
 some apology for their appearance is necessary. 
 
 In preparing them for the press I have felt very strongly 
 how inadequate the printed sermon is to convey the im- 
 pression produced by the spoken words of the preacher ; 
 particularly is this the case with the discourses of my 
 father, for in their manuscript form they partake rather 
 of the nature of notes than of complete sermons, and in 
 many instances a word or two is all that is left in the place 
 of a great deal that it is now impossible to reproduce. 
 
 Still with all its imperfections I put this small memento 
 into the hands of the publisher with every confidence, for 
 I know there are many here and across the water who 
 will value it for the sake of him whom they knew and 
 loved on earth, whom they know to be now enjoying that 
 perfect rest and that crown of glory which are the por- 
 tion and reward of every good and faithful servant of 
 the Master he so devotedly served. 
 
 J. JOHNSON HOYLE. 
 
 " Lydbrook House," 
 
 Cape Town, July loth, 1884. 
 
I. REST. 
 
 " Rest in the Lord." Psalm xxxvii. 7. 
 
 You may take this verse as an instance of the rule that 
 <jOi1 does nothing by halves. In this priceless Psalm the 
 Lord, in the first verse, finds His servant disposed to 
 fretfulness and envy and exhorts him to cease therefrom ; 
 in the third verse He teaches him to trust ; in verse four 
 leads him on to delight ; in verses five and six conducts 
 him into a peaceful committing of his way unto God, and 
 He does not stay until He has perfected that which concerns 
 him and brought him up to the elevated point of our text 
 — '* Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." God 
 not only removes our ills but also confers on us unspeakable 
 good ; not only does He take away the disfiguring wound 
 but imparts comeliness and. beauty. He abounds towards 
 us in all wisdom and prudence, lifts us from the depths of 
 the troubled sea, and gives us assurance and rest. 
 
 Rest is a blessing which properly belongs to the child 
 of God ; it is his spiritual birthright. The idea glimmers, 
 like some distant nebula, through every page of the Holy 
 Scriptures. You see it in the ordinance of the Sabbath ; 
 in the law relating to the tilling of the soil, which 
 provided that the land was to lie fallow, to rest, every 
 seventh year ; the year of Jubilee too was a time of 
 peculiar and emphatic rest ; the idea was symbolised in 
 the Conquest of Canaan. Then as if to show us even 
 
still more clearly how this idea of rest enters into the 
 Divine plan of human life, God is spoken of as resting j 
 it is of course inconceivable that He should actually be 
 fatigued, it vi^ere profanity to suppose that He who "fainteth 
 not, neither is weary," of whose understanding there is no 
 searching, can ever be in a condition to render rest needful, 
 and yet when He had finished all the work from His 
 hands in the six days' creation we are told " He rested on 
 the seventh day " and " sanctified it." There is then a 
 rest of God, and " there remaineth therefore a rest to the 
 people of God " ; it is of this rest, not in its highest 
 development in heaven but in its present enjoyment, that 
 we are about to speak this morning, — this rest in the Lord. 
 
 I. We will consider for a few minutes zvbat this rest is. 
 It is a rest of mind, an equipoise of feeling, a harmony of 
 the inner with the outer life, the peace of desire, the 
 repose of the consciousness of truth. 
 
 (i.) Perhaps the most prominent ingredient in this rest 
 is a sense of securit'^ and fixedness^ — a settled beliei" in the 
 teachings of the Divine Spirit in the Gospel we have 
 received, a sense of having grasped the blessings which 
 that Gospel holds out to us, and therefore a sense of our 
 acceptance with God and of our eternal security in Christ 
 Jesus, This hallowed state of mind cannot exist in the 
 man who is always in a state of unsettled doubt, who 
 changes his creed almost every day of his life ; the sacred 
 dove-like spirit quits the regions of uncertainty and dwells 
 with those who know whom they have believed. There 
 is no real rest till you are sure ; a little " if" is like a 
 small stone in one's shoe, which soon blisters the foot and 
 
prevents anything like restful progress. " We which have 
 believed do enter into rest." *' My presence shall go with 
 thee and I will give thee rest.'' He only truly rests who 
 turns from the false and changing, the troubled and vexed, 
 from all the arguments and controversies, the schisms and 
 cavils, the perpetual questionings, the rush and the dis- 
 cord of the Church and the world, to the haven of that 
 one grand stillness, — the Lord. 
 
 (2.) But this rest is in another aspect contentment^ per- 
 fect satisfaction with our earthly lot. That life is a great 
 mystery is a truism. Many things come to us in 
 strange garbs ; we often feel how difficult, how well-nigh 
 impossible, it is to see the reason for many experiences we 
 are called to pass through, and in our innermost hearts we 
 say, " Is this right ?" " Can this be a tender Father ?" 
 *' Can this be love, infinite, unerring love ?" And so the 
 murmuring spirit finds its way to the throne of the heart. 
 Better would it be for us could we live so high above the 
 events of life that from our higher atmosphere we could look 
 down and say, " None of these things move me." Remem- 
 ber too, that though God is revealed, His providences 
 are not revealed ; in this respect it is easier to read the in- 
 visible than the visible, we can read God when we cannot 
 read His doings. He is a God that hideth Himself. His 
 path is in the great waters. His footsteps are not known. 
 But He is our own precious God, working in His own 
 way, in His own time, His own purposes of love. The 
 contented spirit leaves all to him and tarries his leisure, — 
 it rests in the Lord. 
 
 (3.) Then this rest consists in submission. The text 
 
according to the Hebrew is " Be silent to the Lord "; one 
 of the old versions has it '* Hold thou still before God/*" 
 This is illustrated by what we read of Aaron ; when his 
 sons died before the Lord, Aaron held his peace. In like 
 manner let your tongue be quiet ; do not murmur, do not 
 argue, be quite still, leave all to God and bow in silence. 
 ** My soul," said David, *' is even as a weaned child "; he 
 no longer cried for the warm breasts of comfort ; the 
 Lord's will was his will. It had been a sharp lesson, but 
 he had learnt it at last ; once he had struggled, now he 
 acquiesced ; once he had resisted, now he sweetly yielded. 
 " Let it be as Thou pleasest, Thy will is mine," — that is 
 
 rest. 
 
 There is a holier, sweeter rest 
 
 Than the lulling rest from pain, 
 
 And a deeper calm than that which sleep 
 
 Sheds over heart and brain. 
 
 It is the soul's surrendered choice, 
 
 The settling of the will, 
 
 Lying down gently at the cross 
 
 God's purpose to fulfil. 
 
 (4.) Then there is in this rest a patient waiting. '' Rest 
 in the Lord," says the text, " wait patiently for Him.'* 
 That is, whilst you have and must have desires, feel that 
 you can waive them and wait the Lord's time ; whilst you 
 have and must have wishes, keep them tethered ; whilst you 
 have a will, keep it in subservience to a wiser and kinder 
 will that rules above. God never sent you yet upon a sea 
 of tribulation without bringing you safe home again ; He 
 never sent you to battle at your own charges ; He never 
 bade you work without giving you the needed strength ; 
 
He never called you to suffer without sustaining you under 
 the pain. Oh ! it is a blessed thing to be quite confident 
 that God cannot err, cannot forsake, cannot cease to love, 
 and that everything that comes from Him comes at the 
 right time, in the right way and in the right measure, — 
 that all is well and will end well. Yes, though all the 
 tempests should come forth from their caverns to howl at 
 once across the angry sea, though every hurricane and 
 cyclone that ever blew should come back again and swell 
 the storm so that one's whole life is apparently wrecked 
 by reason of its relentless fury, all is well; wait God's time, 
 and if only on a plank or broken spar you will come safe 
 to land. Rest in the Lord. 
 
 (5.) There is just one other feature of this rest that we 
 may allude to before we pass on, and that is expectation 
 especially with regard to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The greatest fret that some of us ever have is 
 about the cause of God ; personal and domestic troubles 
 sit very lightly on some of us, but Church troubles perplex 
 us and harass us greatly. For my own part I would fain 
 believe that none of you ever intentionally cause me dis- 
 tress of mind, but there are some of you who grieve and 
 trouble me, for you seem little if any bettered bv what 
 you hear, and resolutely refuse to give yourselves to Christ. 
 Many of you, too, lack the enthusiam, the steadfast earnest 
 continuance in the work of Christ and in the attendance 
 on the means of grace which in my judgment is so neces- 
 sary to make a truly prosperous and powerful Church. And 
 if one looks outside the Church one sees everywhere dark 
 clouds looming ominously. There is a great deal of loose- 
 
lO 
 
 ness and disjointedness ; many of the old landmarks have 
 been pulled up, the hedges broken down. The old saying 
 is still true : — " They break down the carved work . . . 
 with axes and hammers ; they have cast fire into Thy 
 sanctuary ; they have defiled by casting down the dwelling- 
 place of Thy name to the ground." Still even in these 
 things we are to rest in the Lord. " Go thy way," says He, 
 " till the end be ; for thou shall rest and stand in thy lot at 
 the end of the days." Christ will take care of His own ; 
 against them the gates of hell shall not prevail, and we may 
 therefore rest in the Lord with the certain expectation that 
 He will overrule the evil and will Himself surely come to 
 end it all and " reign amongst His ancients gloriously." 
 
 II. We shall approach this subject more closely if we 
 consider where thh rest is to be found, 
 
 (i.) You will observe at the outset that it is rest in the 
 Lord Himself, Try, dear friends, for once to grasp this 
 truth, that the soul's rest is in God, — in God only. The 
 idea of God is too much associated with times and seasons, 
 too little connected with our daily life and our hourly 
 feelings, to retain that brightness which it once possessed^ 
 Our theories about God's essence (of which we can know 
 nothing), our parcelling His nature out into attributes,, 
 have been fatal to vital faith. God has ceased to be to 
 us the intensely personal Being He was to the Jews of 
 old ; He has degenerated into a force, a law, an assemblage 
 of attributes. From all mere philosophizing about God 
 let us pray to be delivered, for it removes Him from us,. 
 it prevents our feeling His presence. What God essen- 
 tially is we never shall know in this world, what He is. 
 
pleased to become towards us is all we require to Icnow. 
 This glorious Old Testament, with an anthropomorpnisni 
 in which I delight, is nowhere afraid to speak of God as a 
 Person ; it is as a Person that He has been pleased to 
 reveal Himself to us, and hence human relationships and 
 affections furnish the standard which should regulate our 
 feelings towards God. This fact I have tried for years to 
 exhibit and enforce ; God is as completely a person as the 
 mother to whose warm breast we were pressed in our infant 
 days. I believe there are thousands of men in this world 
 to-day who will only be led to a better life by seeing God 
 in human form. When duty is to be done God stands before 
 me like some stern and severe father whose tasks must be 
 fulfilled ; when my heart bleeds and my soul faints in 
 sorrjw He is gentle and loving, the tender Shepherd who 
 ** gathers the lambs with His arm, and carries them in 
 His bosom, and gently leads those that are with young." 
 Rest in the Lord ; He is '* thy shield and thy exceeding 
 great reward," thy rock, thy fortress, thy dwelling-place, 
 thy shepherd, thy preserver ; but best of all He is thy 
 Father, and as surely as a child may trust a parent and 
 rest securely in his love, so surely and safely may we trust 
 our Father and rest in Him. 
 
 (2.) Rest is found in trusty the belief that there is order 
 where we see only confusion, justice v/hcre there appears 
 to us to be inequality, symmetry and beauty where we see 
 only deformity and ugliness. This is not impossible ; all 
 Nature supplies analogies that justify us in asserting that 
 for the present we are in no condition to understand the 
 works of God as a whole. We are so small a part of 
 
this great world, so placed within the great whole, that 
 we can never see more than a portion at a time. The 
 orange appears to the child smooth, but the microscope 
 reveals on its surface peaks of relatively more than Alpine 
 height ; the circle may be so mighty that to the observer 
 on its circumference the portion visible on either side 
 appears to be a right line, just as to us dwellers on this 
 globe its surface appears a plane, and it is only from the 
 distant heavens that the perfection of its curvature can be 
 seen. Go close to the works of some of our great painters 
 and see what a chaotic assemblage of colours they appear ; 
 then retire to a proper distance, contemplate them thence 
 and see the perfection that is evolved out of apparent 
 chaos. liife has its points of view as well as art ; God, the 
 great painter, contemplates His pictures from His own 
 standpoint not from ours, and He requires from us that 
 we should work on, carry out His great design, and wait 
 resting in Him. 
 
 The feeling that makes us believe that the artist is 
 right before we have proved him so, that makes us content 
 till we have found his point of view, is just the feeling 
 we all want in religion. The mason chipping away in 
 the corner at his particular stone or giving the last touches 
 to the hewn block is troubled with no restless desire to 
 see the plan of the building ; sufficient for him that there 
 is a plan, that there is an architect by whom it is drawn. 
 For the finishing of the work, for the perfection of his 
 particular stone, he himself is answerable, and for nothing 
 more ; its place in the building will be determined by the 
 master by v^hom his work was assigned. Were we 
 
13 
 
 thorough believers in God, were we men ot true faith, it 
 were as easy for us to work on hopefully in the midst ot 
 apparent confusion as for the mason to toil on at his little 
 corner of the building, regardless of the disorder and 
 noise around him. 
 
 Talk of working by faith as impossible ! Why there is, 
 as you know, a kind of tapestry the very condition of 
 which is working in the dark ; the workman stands at 
 the back and works on the underside ; he works without 
 even asking to see. Why cannot we do the same in our 
 lives? "Christ," the Apostle tells us, is " the Captain of 
 our salvation" ; how much does the private soldier on 
 entering the battle field know beyond this, that he goes 
 there to fight ? What general ever thinks of showing to a 
 soldier the plan of campaign? That is the general's busi- 
 ness, to fight is the soldier's work. God is the great 
 architect who plans the building, assigns us our different 
 corners to work in, and Himself places the keystone when 
 the edifice is reared. God is the designer of the tapestry 
 who stnnds as it were on the right side, and out of our 
 stitches made in the dark calls a beautiful pattern fonh. 
 God is the general under whose banner we enlist, who 
 will arrange the plan of battle and secure victory on our 
 side so we fight bravely where He appoints. 
 
 (3.) To rest in the Lord is to feel Him always near, to 
 say with David, '* Thou hast beset me behind and before 
 and laid Thine hand upon me." We are told of the 
 ** mesmeric eye" that is to effect a reformation in morals, 
 and asked how we shall feel when we know that a friend 
 at a distance is watching all we do. The idea is foolish. 
 
H 
 
 Will you get men to quail at the human eye when they 
 fear not the Divine eye, the eye that never sleeps? No, 
 the old doctrine is the vital one and must have fresh life 
 infused into it. It is in the power of each one of us to 
 make the thought of God as real to us as is the mother's 
 face seen by the child on waking from a troubled slumber ; 
 there is the mother so all must be well, the head drops 
 upon the pillow and the little one sinks calmly to rest. 
 We can fancy how those French soldiers of Napoleon slept 
 knowing that their general would visit them sleeping and 
 watch them as they slumbered. To believe in God as 
 the infant believes in the mother, as the soldier believes 
 in the general, — this is the secret of resting in the Lord. 
 
 (4.) The last and surest way of finding rest in the Lord 
 is to seek to rest in Him through Christ, Every day I 
 live I become increasingly less Theist and more Christian. 
 God is high above us, He cannot always be brought near, 
 and so came down and dwelt among us. To me Christ 
 is to the soul what a guide through a difficult country is 
 to the traveller : he not merely supplies map and road- 
 book but himself goes before and leaves his footprints for 
 our guidance. What the sight of footprints on the snow 
 of the Alps is to the lonely wanderer, that does the life of 
 Christ become to me : no suffering or sorrow, no danger » 
 or peril, through which He has not passed before me, and 
 I know that however narrow or difficult the path, there is 
 an issue beyond. There are mountain passes so dangerous 
 that it is only by placing one foot into the liand of the 
 guide we can be safely carried through them ; if the guide 
 be trustworthy, if we know that he is familiar with the 
 
15 
 
 road and has already led many in safety over it, we hesi- 
 tate not to encounter the difficulties of the way. Christ 
 is the leader ; trust Him as you trust an earthly guide, and 
 He will lead you safely through all the perils of the way 
 and through the last dark pass of the grave into the region 
 of everlasting glory. 
 
 Rest in the Lord, — not idly, not insensibly, but lovingly 
 and devotedly. Follow Christ with a calm yet brave and 
 noble valour, ready to bear, ready to forbear, ready to en- 
 dure all things, with the hope that maketh not ashamed. 
 Rest in the Lord, — this is man's first, man's last, man's 
 sweetest, truest rest, the rest of the sinner coming to the 
 Saviour, the rest of the soul abiding in Him, the only real 
 rest that can be found in earth or heaven, — rest in the 
 Lord. May God grant to each and all of us to know this 
 rest through faith in His only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 II, THE CROWN. 
 
 • And cast their crowns before the throne," Revelation iv. lo. 
 
 It is seldom we venture to speak on any portion of the 
 remarkable book from which our text is taken, because we 
 are painfully conscious of the little there is in it that we 
 can with any degree of certainty explain. Whether we 
 regard it as a record of fulfilled or of unfulfilled prophecy, 
 the gorgeous symbolism which clothes all its utterances is 
 such that he who should succeed in comprehending its true 
 intent and mighty sweep must be endowed with preter- 
 
i6 
 
 natural discernment. The Divine plan which the book 
 sets forth is given only in outline such as an artist might 
 make with charcoal — it lacks the filling up and the bright 
 colours. Still there are here and there throughout the 
 book fragments which, like stars shining out of the dark- 
 ness, so far reveal themselves by the light of their own fire 
 that we have no misgivings as to their meaning. 
 
 The passage chosen as our text is one of this class. 
 We do not require any knowledge of either prophecy or 
 mystery in order to understand its general scope and 
 meaning. The door is opened in Heaven, and the apostle 
 is invited to ascend and enter ; in the group of scenes 
 presented to his view are the four and twenty elders, who 
 are doubtless the representatives of the Church, sitting on 
 their thrones before the angust majesty of God, with 
 crowns upon their heads ; these crowns they lift from their 
 brows, and falling down in adoration, cast them before the 
 throne and give glory and honour and power to the 
 Almighty. The action is one of profound import, as it 
 teaches : — 
 
 I. 7 he great dignity which man has leached in Heaven. 
 The four and twenty elders represent all the members of 
 the glorified Church, and therefore every member of that 
 Church is crowned. "Thou hast redeemed us," say they/ 
 "out of every people and language and nation," so that 
 they represent all. It may be that there are degrees in 
 glory ; it may be there are none ; we do not attempt to 
 solve the question ; but if there are yet there is no degree 
 below a crowned head in heaven. All the saints have 
 their crowns ; ''a crown of life that fadeth not away" is- 
 
the very lowest portion of the very least saint admitted 
 into glory. 
 
 The crown was a head ornament much worn in the 
 East as a mark of dignity, dominion and power; it distin- 
 guished the chief rulers, civil and ecclesiastical. In the 
 earliest times it consisted simply of a wreath of flowers or 
 leaves, Worn as a chaplet round the head, but later this 
 gave way to crowns made of metal and ornamented with 
 precious stones. The crown of the high priest was a 
 golden diadem tied with a fillet of blue lace, and bearing 
 the inscription '* Holiness to the Lord." It appears from 
 I Chron. XX. 2, that the crown of a King was of pure 
 gold adorned with precious stones, and it is upon this last 
 kind of crown that the imagery of the text is based. 
 Those whom St. John saw in his sublime and seraphic 
 vision '' had on their heads crowns of gold," — not of course 
 metallic gold, for these, however pure the gold, however 
 rich in diamonds or other precious stones, are mere toys of 
 earth, and in reference to spiritual realities merely emblems 
 of highest honour and splendour. The world has nothing 
 higher to offer than a crown, and for that men have waded 
 through seas of blood and hazarded their lives, and it is 
 because men universally attach so much importance to a 
 crown that it is employed to represent the renown to 
 which the grace of God brings men in the heavenly 
 life. 
 
 Scripture is very rich in the figures it employs to set 
 forth the crown which the redeemed wear. In one place 
 it is styled " a Crown of Righteousness." The crowns 
 which earthly potentates wear are often associated with 
 
deeds of blackest villainy, their history is a record of 
 violence and wrong ; but the dignity of the redeemed in 
 heaven is a righteous one, is in harmony with universal 
 rectitude. Then in another place this crown is called 
 " a Crown of Life." The crown given to the champion 
 in the Grecian games soon withered, the woven garland 
 soon dissolved to dust, the crowns of earthly nionarchs 
 are corruptible ; but the crown of the redeemed is impe- 
 rishable, '' incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
 away." 
 
 II. But the text leads us to enquire how it is that the 
 elders come to be crowned. 
 
 They are crowned (l) because they are all Kings by the 
 grace of God ; it was His sovereign will alone that set them 
 apart, it was the Lord their heavenly Father who chose 
 them from among the sons of men that they should be His 
 sons and daughters. Grace came and enlightened their 
 understanding, grace influenced their wills, grace changed 
 their affections, grace kept them where it had brought them, 
 so that they did not begin in the spirit to be afterwards 
 made perfect in the flesh. The Spirit of God wrought in 
 them mightily, making them diligent in every good word 
 and work. Grace was the Alpha and the Omega, so that 
 there is not a King in heaven that has a crown on any 
 terms than this, — the sovereign Grace of God. 
 
 Then they are crowned (2) because they are Kings by 
 hereditary descent ; they have been ** begotten again," as 
 the Apostle expresses it, " unto a lively hope by the 
 resurrection of Christ from the dead." There are in 
 heaven none but God*s sons ; the angels it is true are 
 
19 
 
 there, and they are His ministering servants, but there 
 are none of the human race that are merely servants, they 
 are all sons ; some were prodigal sons, some at times were 
 influenced by the temper of the elder brother in the 
 parable, but they are all sons and are there because they 
 are sons. They have come to their crown by inheritance 
 just as much as any hereditary prince enthroned in the 
 royal splendour of this world ; there is born in the image 
 of God's son a new peculiar race, with heaven entailed 
 upon them, an entail which hell can never bar. 
 
 Then they are crowned (3) because they are Kifigs by right 
 of conquest and of victory. A crown should signify, as it did 
 in the olden time, successful struggling, battling and 
 contending ; the first crowns ever worn were probably 
 given to those who had proved themselves strongest and 
 had fought best in the day of battle. We have said that 
 the crowns of heaven are all the gifts of grace, and yet at 
 the same time it is true that those who have the crowns 
 have fought for them. " These are they that came out 
 of great tribulation " ; it was not that tribulation procured 
 the crown, but it seems to be a rule of God's Church on 
 earth that those of His servants who are to be rewarded 
 shall work, and those who are to be crowned shall fight. 
 It is by God's grace that we shall get to heaven, but we 
 must go on our pilgrimage to arrive there. There is no 
 chariot to carry us all along the road ; we must often 
 tramp with sore and bleeding feet and aching limbs ; we 
 must climb the Hill Difiiculty, and go down into the 
 Valley of Humiliation. John Bunyan's picture of the 
 bright spirits on the top of the palace who sang " Come 
 
20 
 
 in ! Come in ! Eternal glory thou shalt win !" would not 
 have been complete if he had not pictured the armed men 
 at the bottom of the stairs who stood there to keep b'ack 
 any who sought to enter the house, — would not have been 
 complete without the description of the man of a grave 
 countenance, the man with the ink-horn to take the name 
 of him that should enter therein, to whom the valiant man 
 said " Set down my name, Sir," and when this had been 
 •done drew his sword and fought desperately until he seemed 
 to die, but at la?t he took his place on the top of the 
 palace, for he had won the day : — " We must through much 
 tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God." They are 
 Kings because they have fought with sin and with tempta- 
 tions ; they are not crowned without having contended 
 for the victory. Some have resisted even " unto blood, 
 striving against sin," and through sulrerings that cannot be 
 told have entered into rest. 
 
 But they are crowned also (4) because of the nobility of 
 their nature. If honours were fairly distributed amongst 
 men we should not so often see the meanest spirit in the 
 loftiest place ; this is ever one of the hard things of this 
 life. Of this the wise man complained (Eccles. x. 7) 
 that he had seen servants on horseback and masters walk- 
 ing in the mire ; folly in great dignity and wisdom in low 
 place J the mean spirits of the world clothed in scarlet and 
 the great spirits in rags ; the men that deserved ill clothed 
 in scarlet and fme linen, faring sumptuously every day, 
 and the men that deserved well lying at the gate, the dogs 
 licking their sores. Now it is not so in heaven \ there nobi- 
 lity is given to the noble, and to the upright in heart the 
 
21 
 
 reward of the righteous. The pure in heart see God, and 
 the undefiled in the way inherit the blessing. 
 
 Oh, how bright are those spirits that are crowned ! 
 They are without fault before the throne ! In the provi- 
 dences of life they learnt what God meant to teach them, 
 how to serve Him, how to turn everything to His glory,, 
 and now they are lifted up above the world and have car- 
 ried with them into another state, a state beautified with 
 all the holiness of God, the spirit that was in them here. 
 They have been made glorious by the work of the Spirit 
 of God within them, they are clothed with honour and 
 majesty not only outwardly but also inwardly, all things 
 are theirs, and they are rich in all the intensity of bliss. 
 
 Yes, dear friends, and you, if you believe in Jesus, will 
 soon sit with Him and be crowned. Be it yours to live 
 before the throne of God in spirit every day, and then when 
 the Lord shall come you will in body as well as in spirit 
 sit there raised from the dead and made perfect for ever, 
 enjoying the fulness of happiness of Kings and Priests unto 
 God. Can you conceive it ? Shall you indeed wear a 
 crown ? Can it be that you, now perhaps despised and 
 neglected of men, shall be made a King? Will the angels 
 be courtiers while you, raised and changed, shall sit as a 
 King in the midst of the courts of Heaven, there to abide 
 for ever r It will be even so. If the head aches this morn- 
 ing, let the reflection that it will soon be crowned console 
 you ; if you have had much to worry you through the week, 
 let the sweet thought that you will soon be where not a 
 wave of trouble shall ever cross your peaceful breast be a 
 rich consolation to you. There is a throne in Heaven that 
 
22 
 
 no one can occupy but you ; there is a crown in Heaven 
 that no head can wear but yours ; there is a part in the 
 •etvfrnal chorus of thanksgiving and praise that no voice 
 •can ever compass but yours ; there is a glory to God that 
 will be wanting if you are not there to render it ; there 
 is a part of infinite majesty and glory that will never be 
 reflected if you are not there to reflect it. O seek the 
 rights of conquest as warrior, the rights of sonship as a 
 child of God, and then the rights of possession will be 
 inviolable, for in these things you have all that goes to 
 constitute an unassailable right to the crown. 
 
 III. Further, the text teaches us the use to which the 
 crown is devoted. Though they all have crowns they all 
 cast them before the throne of the Lamb, Why do they 
 do so ? Several reasons may very properly be assigned. 
 
 (i.) They do it under the influence of solemn reverence. 
 Elevated to those sacred heights they see more of God 
 than we do, and are thrilled with admiration and filled 
 with awe. We know enough of God now to say, "Not 
 unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy and 
 Thy truth's sake "; but where God more gloriously reveals 
 Himselt, where His attributes are more clearly seen, no 
 •doubt there are intenser reverence and more overwhelming 
 emotion, so that the soul of its own spontaneity pays all 
 the homage that it can before the throne of God. Think 
 you that you could sit with crowned head in the presence 
 of the King of Kings ? When you see the head that once 
 was crowned with thorns adorned with a royal diadem 
 you will require no persuasion to lead you to cast your 
 crown at His feet. Reverence will fill you with a feeling 
 
23 
 
 of lowest self-abasement, and with a sacred passion that 
 cannot be restrained you will join with all the ransomed 
 throng " and crown Him Lord of all." 
 
 (2.) Then these crowns are cast before the throne 
 under the influe?ice of an intense affection. There is not one 
 spirit in all that countless throng whose heart does not 
 bound with warmest love to Christ ; they love their Lord, 
 and loving Him they will do anything to adore Him, and 
 their choicest trophy, their most cherished treasure, they 
 fling at His feet. Here our love is distracted and divided, 
 our hearts are stolen away by earthly objects, but there 
 love to God is without a flaw, and they cast everything 
 down before Him, they lay their crowns at His feet. 
 
 (3.) Further, they cast their crowns before the throne 
 because of their profound gratitude. They bless God that 
 they are where they are and what they are ; they trace 
 all their joy and all their happiness to that one infinite 
 source of good. There is not a single sparkle of any 
 precious gem in their coronet but they trace the flashing 
 gleam to the sovereign grace of God, and gratitude con- 
 strains them to lay their crowns at the feet of Him from 
 whom those crowns came. 
 
 (4). Finally, they cast their crowns at His feet to indicate 
 His wide dominion. His universal szvay. Banished to the 
 isle of Patmos, John might find it hard to realise the glory 
 and universality of Christ's dominion ; but this vision 
 would revive his dying hope, for in it he sa^v a prophecy 
 of what was yet certainly to come to pass, and the fulfil- 
 ment is even now being worked out. The cross will find 
 its counterpart in the crown ; Jesus will yet make His 
 
24 
 
 foes His footstool. It may be that if for a moment the 
 crust that conceals the seething fires of the volcano 
 beneath you be broken you will hear moanings and mutter- 
 ings, hissings and screechings, that suggest fearlessness of 
 man and defiance of God ; but the volcano will become 
 extinct, the Cross must prevail. In spite of many con- 
 trary seemings the eye of faith can see many glimpses of 
 morning glory, — the Lord Jesus is coming in His 
 Kingdom. Among the islands of the Pacific whole groups 
 are already Christianised ; in Melanesia the field is every 
 day being extended ; even the aborigines of Australia, as 
 if to prove that no race or tribe is too low for the power 
 of Christ to reach them, have come under the influence 
 of the Gospel ; Palestine is studded with mission churches 
 and schools ; the Western Coast of this dark continent has 
 stations stretching from Senegal to the Gaboon ; nearly 
 the whole of its southern border is already Christian, and 
 by the road which Livingstone travelled to the interior 
 the missionary is pushing his way into the heart of its 
 unknown regions ; in Japan fruit has already been gathered ; 
 China, too, has opened its gates, and hoary superstitions are 
 trembling throughout the whole of India. Max Miiller 
 only recently said, *' From what I know of the Hindoos 
 they seem to me riper for Christianity than any nation 
 that ever accepted the Gospel." Yes, the Lord is 
 coming. 
 
 The smitten earth already reels, 
 And not far off we seem to hear 
 The thunder of His chariot wheels. 
 
 He who testifieth these things saith, " Surely I come 
 
25 
 
 quickly, and My reward is with Me to give unto every 
 man according as his work shall be." 
 
 They cast their crowns before the throne. How many 
 of us are on the way to Heavxn ? How many of us have 
 already learnt to cast our crowns at the Saviour's feet I 
 This is the test by which we may know our state befora 
 God, for no man ever gees to Heaven to learn for the first 
 time heavenly things ; we must be scholars in Christ's 
 school here or we cannot be taken into the college above. 
 If you should walk into some great Cathedral where they 
 were singing a grand anthem and were to ask to be allowed 
 to sing in the choir, they would enquire if you had ever 
 learnt the music and would refuse your request unless you 
 had, and how then can you expect that untrained voices will 
 be admitted into the choir above ? If you refuse Christ in 
 this life you will be in no state to crown Him hereafter^ 
 O may every one of us see Him crowned with thorns and 
 trust Him here and now, so shall we come to see Him 
 crowned with a royal diadem, be crowned with Him, and 
 with the multitude that no man can number ca?t our 
 crowns before the throrc. May the Lord grant it for His 
 name's sake. 
 
ADDENDUM. 
 
 The Congregational Year Book after referring to the 
 circumstances of Mr. Hoyle's early life, his successful 
 ministry, and his sudden death by a carriage accident four 
 days after he had preached the second of the foregoing 
 sermons, a little more than twenty months after his arrival 
 in Cape Town from Yeovil, says : — 
 
 Thus early as it seems to us — at the close of his forty- 
 eighth year — was this devoted minister taken from the 
 service of the Church on earth. Mr. Hoyle was one of 
 those men whose disposition leads them to fix their atten- 
 tion on the practical side of every-day life, a man of quick 
 action, of energy and constant diligence. With him if a 
 thing had to be done *' 'twere well it were done quickly." 
 He was one who lived in and for the Ministry he had 
 undertaken. The Church over which he presided was the 
 centre of his interest. With constant watchfulness he 
 sought out those who attended its services and strove to 
 make himself the friend of each. Especially was he 
 solicitous to win the interest and regard of the young, and 
 while desirous of being well known in the homes of all 
 his flock he was more diligent in visiting those who 
 belonged to the working class or who were in humble 
 circumstances. In the cultivation from house to house of 
 such influence he was assiduous and unremitting. To him 
 the Church was a home, its services the gatherings of the 
 
27 
 
 family, and no words were more often on his lips when 
 receiving new members into its communion than those 
 which referred to it as a spiritual home. 
 
 He was keenly sensitive to the emotional atmosphere 
 around him, largely dependent on sympathy and the reci- 
 procation of his feelings by those with whom he had 
 intimately to do. Hence he was always anxious to avoid 
 anything which seemed likely to lead to friction, and any 
 strong expression of difference of opinion on the part of 
 those with whom he had to deal he always seemed to 
 deprecate. It was doubtless the emotional side of his 
 nature that gave the charm which his sermons had for 
 most of his hearers. The earnest appeal to feelings and 
 experience common to both preacher and listener coupled 
 with the frequent illustrations with which his sermons 
 were interpersed fixed the interest and touched the hearts 
 of men and women who widely differed in intellectual 
 power and training. 
 
 The removal of such a Pastor of the Church in what 
 seemed the maturity of his powers just at the time when, 
 in a new country, he was assuming a position for which 
 he appeared well suited, and which had every promise of 
 being one of great usefulness for many years, is one of 
 those mysteries of the Divine working before which there 
 is for us but silence and the unspoken prayer, 
 
 Speak, thou availing Christ ! and fill this pause. 
 
 \'V hen on the following Sunday his funeral sermon was 
 preached by the Rev. William Thompson from the text 
 *' And there shall be no night there," those who had 
 heard Mr. Hoyle's sermon of the previous Sunday could 
 
28: 
 
 not but recall how its subject had been the casting of the 
 crown before the throne. In that sermon he had taught 
 them that in the providence of life they learnt what God 
 meant to teach them, how to serve Him, how to turn 
 everything to His glory. He had dwelt on how the 
 crowns in heaven were cast before the throne under the 
 influence of solemn reverence and intense affection, and 
 on the heightened powers and possibilities of " those 
 sacred heights." In a wide survey of the '* glimpses of 
 the morning glory " he had sought to set forth how the Lord 
 Jesus is coming in His kingdom. With earnest appeal to 
 others he had said *' We must be scholars in Christ's school 
 here, or else we cannot be taken into His college above.'* 
 Friends told one another how, at the close of his last 
 Sabbath, he had complained to his wife of great weariness 
 and said, '* I feel as if it will be a long time before I shall 
 preach again." Perhaps all this that seemed so like pre- 
 monition was because even then the command had gone 
 forth that he should lay down the cross and take the 
 crown of life which he would cast before the throne. 
 Perhaps all unconsciously to him as to his people then it 
 was the eager straining forward of the spirit to catch a 
 glimpse of the celestial city, so near the gates of which 
 though all unwittingly, he was then standing. 
 
 SAUL SOLOMON AND CO., PRINTERS. ST, GEORGE S-STREET. 
 
%:.:■ 
 
Princeton TheoloQical Seminary Libraries 
 
 1 1012 
 
 01294 8180 
 
BX 7233 .H695 T86 1884 
 Hoyle, James. 
 Two sermons