BX5133.M3 S4 1880 
 
 Vlaarice, Fiederick Denison, 1805-1872. 
 
 Sermons preached in country churches / 
 
Digitized by tlie Internet Arcliive 
 in 2015 
 
 littps://arcliive.org/details/sermonspreachediOOmaur 
 
SEHMOI^-S 
 
 PREACHED m COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
SERMONS 
 
 PEEACHED m COUNTRY CHURCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 rEEDERICK DENISON 'MAURICE 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 Ronton 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 1880 
 
 The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved 
 
CHABLES DICKEX'3 AXD EVilfS, 
 CBYSIAL PALACE 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The title of these Sermons exactly expresses what 
 they are. Mr. Maurice frequently took duty in some 
 quiet village during the summer vacation. He found 
 more rest in ministering to the poor and in speaking 
 to them, than in visits to English watering-places or 
 in foreign travel. The poor " heard him gladly.^' 
 They understood his teaching, and crowded to hear 
 him. It is thought that words which went home to 
 the hearts of many simple and ignorant people may 
 he blessed to others, though unaccompanied by tho 
 voice and the face which made them so precious to 
 those who heard them spoken. 
 
 GEORGINA F. MAURICE. 
 
COIsTTENTS. 
 
 I. — The Pool of Bethesda 1 
 
 II. — The Gift of Hearing 10 
 
 III. — The Spieit of Love 18 
 
 IV. — Waiting for Christ 29 
 
 V. — St. Peter's Conversion 40 
 
 VI. — The Sick of the Palsy 50 
 
 VII. — The Marriage Feast of ti:e King'.s Son . . C2 
 VIII. — The Eedemftion of the Body 72 
 
 IX. — The Spirit the Help to Prayer . . . . 80 » 
 
 X. — The Law of Inheritance 88 
 
 XI. — The Deliverer from Crime 98 
 
 XII. — St. John Baptist's Day 110 
 
 XIII. — The Transfiguration 121 
 
 XIV. — The Pcblican 131 
 
 XV. — The Spirit and the Flesh 139 » 
 
 XVI. — Man's Dominion 148 
 
 XVII. — God and Mammon 157 
 
 XVIII.— The Glory of the Cross 105 
 
 XIX. — The Widow of Kain's Son 172 
 
 XX — Justification ] 79 
 
 XXI.— Truth ] 90 
 
 XXII. — Ministers of Christ 197 
 
 / 
 
 'XXJII. — The Light of the World 20G 
 
 XXIV. — The Lord of the Winds and Sea .... 21t 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 SEUMOX PAGE 
 
 XXV.— The Man of Sorrows 222 
 
 XXVI.— St. Matthew's Day 229 
 
 XXVII. — Michaelmas Day 236 
 
 XXVIII.— God's Visitations 243 
 
 XXIX. — The Eternal Weight of Glory .... 250 
 
 XXX.— The Grace of God 258 
 
 XXXI.— The New Covenant 269 
 
 XXXIL— The Last Supper 277 
 
 XXXm.— The Law of Liberty 284 
 
 XXXIV.— The Sure and Certain Hope .... 291 
 
 — . XXXV. — The Baptism of Eepentance .... 297 
 
 XXXVI. — God's Covenant with the Nations . . . 305 
 
 XXXVII.— Life and Eaiment 313 
 
 XXXVIII.— The House of God 320 
 
 XXXIX. — St. John the Evangelist's Bay .... 333 
 
 XL. — Suffering and Glory 342 
 
 XLI. — Eepentance and Conversion .... 350 
 
SERMO^sTS 
 
 PREACHED IN COUNTRY CHURCHES. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 
 
 Preached at Chjro, Sth Bunday after Trinibj, July 17, 1853. 
 
 "Jeaus Baith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." 
 St. John v. 8. 
 
 You have heard iii the second lesson this morning 
 where our Lord spoke these words. There was a 
 pool near the sheep-market in the city of Jerusalem. 
 The people of the city believed that the water of this 
 pool could heal sick people. They did not think it 
 could heal at all times, but only when there was some 
 stir in it. They thought, that an angel or messenger 
 ■of God caused it to stir. They, therefore, who had any- 
 thing ailing them lay in crowds about this pool waiting 
 for the moving of the water. It was so one Sabbath 
 day when Jesus was walking in Jerusalem. We are 
 not told that He spoke to the sick people generally ; 
 
2 THE POOL OF BETHESDA. [sesj*. 
 
 but He fixed His eyes on one who liad been ill for 
 thirty-eiglit years. He said to him, Wilt thou be 
 made whole ? " The man said he could not reach the 
 pool in time to get any good from it. ^VTien it began 
 to move numbere pushed forward and bathed. He was 
 very weak, and others were quicker than he was, and 
 there was no one to lift him in. Jesus saith unto him, 
 Eise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the 
 man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked." 
 
 I have said that the people of -Jerusalem thought 
 that there was some advantage to be gained from bathing 
 in this pool. Xo doubt they had reason for thinking so. 
 St. John speaks as if they had. One and another had 
 found good from the water, and therefore all of them 
 thought that they might. They were just such men as 
 we are. One tells another of some medicine that has 
 been serviceable to him. Those that are ill and long to 
 be well, desire to try whether it may not serve them 
 also. And if they observe that the benefit comes at one 
 season rather than another, then they wish to seize the 
 veiy moment, and if they fail, they often fancy they 
 should have been quite cured, if it had not been for 
 some unfortunate accident, or some person who was in 
 the way, and hindered them. The people of Jerusalem 
 believed also that the good which was in the pool did 
 not come from the pool itself; but that it was Grod's 
 gift. His angel stirred it. He put the healing power 
 into it. This belief, too, was on the whole a right one. 
 They might have foolish fancies that they saw the 
 
I.] THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 3 
 
 angel going down into the pool at certain moments ; 
 just as people in our country have had, and may have 
 still. But they were not wrong that everything which 
 is healthful comes from the Giver of all good, they 
 were not wrong in saying. It must be some power from 
 Him which makes any one well who has been sick ; able 
 to walk, who has been fixed to his bed and helpless. 
 
 Jesus did not come to the couch of that poor man 
 who had been ill for thirty-eight years, to tell him that 
 this was not so. He wished him to believe it more than 
 he had ever believed it before. And yet, you see. He 
 did not assist to put him into the pool ; He did not say. 
 Wait a little, and the angel will stir it again, then 
 you may profit by it as others have done. But He said 
 at once, "Rise up and walk.^^ The poor cripple must 
 have wondered. He who spake these words looked like 
 another man. He spoke with a voice like his voice ; 
 He had not any signs of being greater than those about 
 Him. The rulers of the Jews thought nothing of Him. 
 And yet He took upon Him to do what the Angel could 
 not do. He addressed the man as if He were his 
 master; as if He knew him thoroughly; as if He 
 understood exactly what his weakness was ; as if the 
 power to make him a healthy living man was in Him. 
 And we are told that the impotent man felt it was iu 
 Him. The word did not fall dead upon his ears. It 
 gave him what he wanted. He rose, took up his bed, 
 and walked. 
 
 It was a good thing for that poor cripple, doubtless, 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE POOL OF BETHESDA. [sekh. 
 
 that, after thirtj-eiglit years' illness, lie should be able 
 to feel his limbs again, ,and do his work fi-eely and use- 
 f ally. But what is it to us ? TThy should it be put 
 down in this Gospel of St. John ? "Why should it be a 
 Gospel or good news to us who live eighteen hundred 
 years since this man has been dead, in a country thou- 
 sands of miles from his ? It could not be good news to 
 us to teU us that there was at that time in Jerusalem a 
 pool which had now and then some healing power ; for 
 Jerusalem is altogether changed, and we hear of no 
 such pool now ; and, if there were such, what could it 
 concern the poor and sick people of England and Wales? 
 It could not help us much to hear reports of other 
 waters nearer to us that might sometimes be useful to 
 one or another. For they misrht not do us sfood in our 
 •diseases ; or we might not be able to reach them at the 
 right time, as this poor man was not, though he was so 
 close to the spot, and took so much pains. And it 
 could be no great good news to us that there were kind 
 angels who sometimes took an interest in poor mortals, 
 and sent them aid ; for we should say to ourselves. What 
 are they agaiust the multitudes of dangers and evils 
 that are besetting us continually ? But if we could be 
 told of one who is always alive and always at hand, who 
 is the same to us as He was to the people of Jerusalem, 
 or to any one of those people ; one who is not here 
 to-day and gone to-morrow, strong now and weak at 
 another time, kind for a little while, and then hard or 
 indifferent ; but who is at hand when we think least or 
 
I.] THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 5 
 
 Him_, and is miglity wlieu we are least able to help our- 
 selves ; and^ best of all^ who has the same mind to us, 
 however changeable our minds may be ; if we could be 
 told of such, an one, and tbat He has tried His sti'ength. 
 with our enemies and has prevailed against them, this 
 would be good news ; this would be news that every one 
 everywhere might care to hear. 
 
 And it is just this news which the lesson to-day 
 preaches to us. It does not tell us that J esus Christ had 
 a special regard for that man who had been ill thirty- 
 eight years, and was lying beside the Pool of Bethesda, 
 and that therefore He cured him. But it gives us this 
 instance, and a number of other instances, that we may 
 know who it is that is the Lord and Master over our 
 bodies and our spirits, and the bodies and spirits of all 
 men that are living now, and that have ever lived, whio 
 it is from whom we get strength when we are strong, who 
 it is that restores strength to us when we are weak, who 
 gives wisdom to every physician, and virtue to every 
 spring and to every medicine, who it is that raises every 
 sick man from his couch, and enables him to do his work 
 again after lie has been tied hand and foot. This lesson 
 says to us. You arc not to depend upon one place or 
 another; upon this favourite remedy or another ; no, 
 nor upon the gifts of God^s angels. All gifts come from 
 your Lord, all angels are His servants ; and therefore 
 it is to Him, and not to thiem, you are to look in all 
 hours of weakness and suffering. What you want in 
 these hours is not merely some one to cure you, but 
 
6 THE POOL OF BETHESDA. [serm. 
 
 some one to understand wliat you feel, and to feel vnth 
 you. If you find a fellow-creature, a sister or a "wife, 
 ■who can do tliat, you arq more glad than even of some 
 relief from the pain. It is a relief from the pain to have 
 some one who can enter into it. Now, the great Lord 
 of aU is He who has borne our weaknesses and carried 
 our sicknesses ; who knows what they are, not by 
 report, but by experience ; and those secret troubles 
 which you cannot tell to the nearest and dearest com- 
 panion, that which makes you sufier what other people, 
 perhaps, would not suffer, though they had the same 
 sickness and pain : these He knows of. You can be 
 sure that there is One who has the most entire acquaint- 
 ance with all your bodily sufferings, and with all that 
 is in your hearts too, with all the weakness, and folly, 
 and sin that is there. 
 
 Yes, but that is what we shrink from ! We might 
 be glad of a healing pool, glad of a kind physician, or 
 a kind sister, or a kind angel. But should we like one 
 who knew all that we were doing, and wishing, and 
 thinking : all the strange things that are going on in 
 our hearts ; all that ever has gone on in them ever 
 since we were born ? Should not we say. Oh, hide me 
 from that look ! Do not let all the dark desires I have 
 had, and all the bad words I have spoken, and the acts 
 I have committed — -do not let my dearest friend know 
 them. I could not bear it ; he would certainly turn 
 away from me. Brethren, it is a most natural feeling; 
 it is one which we all of us have had. 
 
I.] THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 7 
 
 And wlien people have told us how righteous Jesus 
 Christ is, and how hateful all evil is to Him, we have 
 thought that He was the very last person before whom 
 we should like to be laid open. But let us remember 
 it well, brethren. He who is to heal us must be ac- 
 quainted with all that has made us sick ; and He can- 
 not do that if He does not know us, our own selves, and 
 all that we have done, and all that we have been. Be 
 assured, too, that there is such an one. You know that 
 there is. Your consciences speak of Him. When words 
 you have spoken, and deeds you have done, and thoughts 
 jou have thought years ago, come out clear and fresh 
 before you, as they often do ; that is a proof that there 
 is some one near you who is acquainted with you, 
 not only with what has happened to you — with what 
 other people have said to you, or done to you — but 
 Tvith all that has ever been in you, right or wrong, fair 
 or foul, good or evil. I know it is a thought that 
 frightens us at first very much indeed, and it ought 
 to frighten us ; but we must face it, because it is true. 
 We cannot shrink from this searcher of hearts. We 
 •cannot get out of His way. When we try to forget 
 Him, He shows that He remembers us. When we 
 have lost ourselves in all kinds of nonsense and vanity. 
 He comes to us aud shows us to ourselves, and makes 
 us tremble. 
 
 But who is He ? I have told you, it is that Lord 
 Jesus Christ who said to the man who had been sick 
 thirty-eight years, " Rise up and walk." It is He of 
 
8 THE POOL OF BETHESDA. [serm. 
 
 whom we read in all tlie Gospels tliat He went about 
 doing good, liealing the sickj and casting out devils. 
 We know, too, what nvanner of being He is, for He has 
 made Himself known. We know what He would do to 
 each of us. We know certainly that He is the healer ; 
 and that He would heal us of our infirmities, and that 
 He can do it. We cannot tell, indeed, that He will 
 cure the bodily ailments of any particular man at once. 
 Of all that were round the Pool of Bethesda at that 
 time, this is the only one who rose up and walked. 
 But we know for certain that His purpose to every 
 man is to make them right, and to reverse whatever 
 makes them wrong. We know for certain that if He 
 lets a man remain sick, it is because there is something 
 else in him that needs to be cured besides, something- 
 which must be cured if he is to be a sound man. And 
 this, brethren, is the cure of those most secret evils o£ 
 our hearts, of that which puts everything else in us out 
 of order. When we find out that we have this friend, 
 this healer, this life-giver, so close to us, and that we 
 may turn to Him and confess all that is oppressing us 
 — all the evil of other men, yes, and all our own — all 
 that we are most ashamed of in the past part of our 
 lives — all that we are most ashamed of in ourselves- 
 now ; — when we believe that He is such an one, and 
 that He can understand us, and that He can heal us, 
 then our lives become altogether different; then we can 
 become simple, honest, brave men, who do not want 
 to hide anything from our Maker ; then we can come 
 
I.] THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 9 
 
 boldly to Him every day to ask Hiui to make us true 
 when we feel false, and brave when we feel cowardly, 
 and sti'ong to act when we feel as if we could do 
 nothing". So this is a lesson for us who are going about 
 the world, as much as for those who are on sick beds. 
 We want healing — continual healing — just as they do. 
 We want strength as much as they do ; strength to be 
 right and to do right ; strength for the work that we 
 have to do each day. 
 
 And this is part of the lesson which we ought to 
 remember. It was the Sabbath-day on which our Lord 
 healed the impotent man. The Jewish rulers were 
 angry ; they thought our Lord ought not to have 
 healed on the Sabbath-day. But He declared that the 
 Sabbath-day was the very day for healing : that God 
 means it to be a day of healing and blessing to all His 
 creatures. We come here on Sundays because it is so. 
 We come to Church not to say a few prayers, or to 
 hear a few words from the pulpit, but to learn who the 
 great healer is, and how we are to be healed. We 
 come that we may get strength to walk during the 
 week, to go through the business of it truly and 
 heartily ; as if we were God^s children, sent into the 
 world by Him to till the earth and subdue it, and to be 
 like Him, loving and just, and lowly, as His well- 
 beloved Son Jesus Christ was on earth and is in heaven. 
 May He enable us to be so this week by His good Spirit, 
 and then we shall feel that Christ heals on the Sabbath 
 as He did of old. 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 THE GIFT OF HEARING. 
 Preached at Cl'jro, 12th Sunday after Trinity, August 14, 1853. 
 
 ■"And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done 
 all things well ; He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dnmb 
 to speak." — St. Makk vii. 37. 
 
 In tL.e Epistle to-day St. Paul tells us that lie was 
 a minister of tlie Xew Testament, or of God's new 
 Covenant. At first we may not understand what that 
 means ; but he explains it to us himself. He says that 
 the children of Israel in the old time had a law given 
 them which was written on stones. It was a good law, 
 a blessed law. God gave it to them. It declared His 
 will to them. But, though it declared His will, it could 
 not make them do His will. It was said on the stone 
 that men were not to worship idols, or kill, or steal. 
 But they did worship idols, and kill, and steal. They 
 did it though the law said it was death to do so. How" 
 was this ? Could not God's law, then, be obeyed ? 
 Was it only given to torment men and make them 
 
SEEM. II.] THE GIFT OF HEARING. 11 
 
 know what a bad state tliey were in, and what misery 
 was in store for tliem ? 
 
 So many men thought; at one time St. Paul himself 
 thought so. He had tried hard to keep the law, he 
 fancied he had kept it. But he found that he did not 
 love it, that his mind was against it ; that, if he did 
 not break it, he wished to break it. He found that, 
 though the law said, " Thou shalt not covet," he did 
 covet ; nay, it seemed to him as if he coveted more 
 because he was forbidden to do it. He found, therefore, 
 that his mind and God's mind were at variance. 
 
 This made him very miserable. He saw that God's 
 law was good, very good, and yet he felt as if he must 
 hate it. He honoured it, and yet he would have been 
 glad if he had never heard of it. Then it was shown 
 him that God does not merely give a law upon stones, 
 but that He promises to write this law on our hearts, to 
 put the love of it into them ; to make our minds like 
 His. This he learnt was God's new covenant or Testa- 
 ment. This was what He promised He would do for 
 men when His Son came into the world. And this He 
 had done. For Jesus, the Son of God, loved His 
 Father's law, and delighted to do it. This law was in 
 His heart. He fulfilled it altogether, and bore all 
 that it laid upon Him. 
 
 And now that God has given His Son to take our 
 flesh and to die for us. He deals with us as sons. He 
 says, I will send the* Spirit of my Son into your hearts, 
 that you may be like Him. I make a New Testament 
 
12 THE GIFT OF HEARING. [seem. 
 
 or covenant with, you in His lolood. And it is tliis — 
 You sliall love tlie things which I love, and hate what 
 I hate. 
 
 Now, St. Paul says that he was a preacher of this 
 New Testament or covenant. He is very thankful, and 
 proud of that oflS.ce. He thinks it the most glorious 
 that a man could have. For lie says, I am not sent to 
 tell men of what they must do, but to tell them how 
 they can do it. I am not sent to say, you will die if 
 you do not keep these commandments. But I am sent 
 to say, God gives you His own life, His own Spirit, that 
 you may be able to keep His commandments. I am a 
 minister of Righteousness, not of condemnation ; of 
 the Spirit, not of the letter ; of the law in the heart, 
 not of the law on stones. 
 
 He might well rejoice and wonder that he had such 
 a trust. And yet he knew also, and he tells us in this 
 Epistle, that there were people to whom his Gospel was 
 hid, who did not heed it at all. It is not, he says, that 
 there is any veil over God.^s countenance, Christ has 
 taken that away. But it is that there is a veil over 
 them, over their own hearts, and that they will not 
 turn to God that this veil may be taken away. It is 
 in vain I tell them of His love ; of His sending His Son 
 to make them one with Him ; of His sending His Spirit 
 to write His laws in them. They do not know what 
 such words signify ; they do not acknowledge there is 
 anything in them that wants to be made right ; they 
 are content to be as they are. 
 
II.] THE GIFT OP HEAUING. 13 
 
 Bretlircn, tliis same New Testament ministry exists 
 in the world now. God sends His message to you as 
 mucli as He did to tlie people of Corintli or Ephesus, 
 to whom St. Paul preached. He tells you, every one 
 of you, that He is your Father, and that He has sent 
 His Son to die for you, and that He has reconciled you 
 to Himself, and that His Spirit is ready to come and 
 dwell with you, that His laws may be written in your 
 hearts, and you may keep them. And you come here 
 ■every Sunday because it is so, and you pray these 
 prayers, and hear the Lessons and the Epistle and 
 Gospel read, because it is so. All these are ministers 
 to you of the New Testament. They tell you what God 
 has done for you, and is doing for you ; how He has 
 taken the veil off His face, and is showing it to you in 
 His Son — full of grace, and beauty, and love; and how 
 He would make you after His own image, gracious and 
 loving as He is. 
 
 But, if this is so, how comes it that so few people 
 hear this Word ? that it goes so little way with them ? 
 that it seems to be caught away and vanish almost as 
 soon as it has been spoken ? Oh ! brethren ! that we 
 would ask ourselves how this comes to pass ! Because, 
 if we did, this great and terrible disease might be 
 cured ; this deafness might be taken away from us ; we 
 might be enabled to receive God's words into our 
 inmost souls, and His words might bring forth fruit 
 there unto life eternal. 
 
 And that is the reason, I think, why this Gospel 
 
14 THE GIFT OF HEARING. [serm. 
 
 about Christ's curing the deaf and dumb man is joined 
 to the Epistle about the ministry o£ the New Testa- 
 ment. It says very plainly to those who feel how hard 
 it is for them to take in the New Testament message^ 
 how dull, and deaf, and stupid, they are. Yes, but that 
 need not continue. There is a Physician at hand. 
 There is one who doeth all things well, who maketh 
 both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. 
 
 I have told you before that the stories of Christ in 
 the Gospel, whether they be of His healing the man at 
 the Pool of Bethesda, or of His promising to draw men 
 to Him on His Cross, or of His being shown to the 
 Jews as their King, are all written for us. I have said 
 that He is just as much among us as He was among 
 the Jews in the city of Jerusalem, and that these 
 words are to tell us what He is doing for some, and 
 would be doing for us all. 
 
 First, then, I say that it is Christ who enables any 
 one of us to hear any of the common sounds that enter 
 into our ears as we walk out on an August day like 
 this. If you have heard the singing of the birds or the 
 running of the stream, or the voices of children as you 
 came to church, then recollect it was Christ who caused 
 you to hear them. He fills the earth and air with all 
 melodies, and He gives to men the power of taking 
 them in. By giving back hearing to this man who 
 had lost it, He declared this ; He said, I am the giver 
 of hearing ; the power comes from me. Think how 
 wonderful that is. I suppose none of ua have thought 
 
II.] THE GIFT OF HEAEING. 15 
 
 of it seriously till we have been reminded by seeing 
 deaf people^ or by becoming more or less deaf our- 
 selves, what the blessing of sounds is ; what it is to 
 have them shut out. 
 
 But I say again : if this trial comes to anyone of 
 you in any degree, and then the power of hearing has 
 been restored to you again, be sure that that was as 
 much Christ's blessing to you, as it was His to the man 
 we have read of this morning, over whom He sighed 
 and said, " Ephphatha, be opened." It is not less His 
 because you do not see Him before you, or because 
 these words are not spoken. Whatever any physician 
 does for you, is done by His power : it is His work. 
 Be sure you confess that it is ; and then you will love 
 all that act as His servants to your bodies or your 
 spirits, for His sake. 
 
 And now, then, I come back to what I spoke of 
 before. I say that there is another kind of deafness 
 besides that which cannot take in sounds. We may 
 hear sounds, and yet the words that are within the 
 sounds may never reach us. They may float about us,, 
 and seem as if they were coming unto us. And then 
 we may feel just the same as if they had never been 
 uttered ; as far as we are concerned, we might as well 
 have been a hundred miles away. But if they are 
 words of health and life, words that come from the good 
 God ; words that are to make us right and true men ; 
 words that are to make all that is past fresh and new 
 to us ; and what is now going on around us good and 
 
16 THE GIFT OF HEAEIXG. [sersi. 
 
 not evil ; and what is to be liereafter tlirougli all ages 
 blessed ; it is a very sad thing, is it not, that they 
 should be all lost upon us ? A very sad thing that we 
 cannot stop them, and hold them fast; a very sad 
 thing that a man should have to remember some other 
 day, on a death-bed, ' They were proclaimed to me ; 
 I was told they were intended for me, but I did not 
 mind them ; and now it seems as if I and they had 
 nothing to do with each other any more.' But must 
 it be so ; shall it be so with any of us ? What, when 
 it is written, " He maketh the deaf to hear ! " When 
 we can say. Lord, Thou hast sent us these words ; they 
 are Thine. Thou didst come from heaven, and live 
 and die on earth, that they might be ours. And Thou 
 who dost give the ear to hear, and the heart to under- 
 stand — and Thou who dost desire that we should hear 
 and should understand — wilt not Thou heal us ; wilt 
 not Thou help us ? Thou didst not care more for that 
 poor deaf man, on the coast of Tyre and Sidon, than 
 Thou dost care for me. Thou didst not die for him 
 more than for me. And my ears are even more 
 stopped, and stopped in a worse way than his were. 
 Oh, once more say Ephphatha ! be opened, to me and 
 to all who have not received the good news of Thy 
 New Testament into their hearts. 
 
 It is said, moreover, that the string of this man's 
 tongue was loosed, for like most people who are born 
 deaf, he was dumb also. So Christ declared Himself to 
 be the Lord of speech as well as of hearing. He does 
 
II.] THE GIFT OF HEARING. 17 
 
 not ouly fill the world witli svsreet sounds, and give us 
 the power to enjoy tliem. He also enables us to tell 
 what we enjoy, and what we have seen and heard, and 
 what is going on within us, to our fellow-men. Mighty 
 power of speech ! who can tell what that is ? Why, 
 what treasures of silver and gold are like that treasure ? 
 The greatest gift which the richest man in the world 
 has, is that which the poorest has likewise. Words 
 can do more than all the money and all the swords in 
 the universe ; money and swords are only their ser- 
 vants'. But what mischief can they do as well as good ! 
 What curses can they spread abroad ! How they can 
 make neighbourhoods miserable ; how they can over- 
 turn whole countries ! Oh, what need have we of 
 some one to rule over our tongues, to guide them, and 
 to make them sources of health and not of pain ! 
 
 Dear brethren, Christ is the master of them ; he is 
 called the Word in Holy Scripture; it is He who 
 alone can command our words, so that they shall be 
 good as He would have them be ; so that they shall 
 be mighty for His purpose. May He ever command 
 yours and mine. And may the words of His New 
 Testament break through all barriers that hinder them 
 from entering into us, and be to us instruments of 
 God's righteousness, of God's own Spirit. 
 
 c 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 THE SPIEIT OF LOVE. 
 
 Preached at Chjro, 13th SiinJ.an after Trinity, August 21, 1853. 
 
 " Which now of these three, thinkest thon, was neighbour to him 
 that fell among the thieves ? And he said. He that shewed 
 mercy upon him. Then said Jesus, Go, and do thou likewise." — 
 St. Luke x. 36, 37. 
 
 I SPOKE to you last week of tlie law that was written 
 on stones, and of the law that is written on men's 
 hearts. There is more to be said about this matter yet. 
 I think the Gospel to-day may make it clearer to us. 
 Be sure that you remember who it is that causes the 
 deafest ear to hear, and then you will ask Him that 
 you may take in His own wonderful words. 
 
 On a certain day, St. Luke says, Jesus was telling 
 His apostles that their eyes and ears were blessed, for 
 that they saw things which prophets and kings had 
 desired to see and had not seen, and to hear and had 
 not heard. 
 
 The apostles, you know, were fishermen, poor men. 
 "What could it mean that they were better off than all 
 the great men of their own country and of other 
 
SERii. III.] THE SPIRIT OF LOVE. 19 
 
 countries wlio had. lived before them ? They must 
 have been pondering this thought in their minds, when 
 one o£ the learned men of the Jews came up to Jesus, 
 and said, " Master ! what shall I do that I may inherit 
 eternal life ? " This lawyer thought he had kept the 
 commandments ; he did not remember that he had 
 ever committed any great offence. But he supposed 
 that was not enough to get eternal life ; he must do 
 something very special to please God, if he was to win 
 such a prize as that. He had heard that Christ spoke 
 of eternal life, and' told His disciples that they might 
 possess it. The lawyer asked Him, How can I get this 
 life ? What shall I do to please God, and obtain a 
 reward which other men have not ? 
 
 Our Lord did not answer him as he expected. He 
 ■did not say, I know a secret which men in general do 
 not know. I can tell you a new way of gaining this 
 life which you have never heard. But He said, " What 
 is written in the Law V ' You are a lawyer ; you are read- 
 ing in the law continually. Has that told you nothing 
 about eternal life ? ' Then the lawyer bethought him of 
 some words in the book of Deuteronomy, where it is 
 written, Thou slialt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind : 
 and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." He had 
 often read these words, and it came into his mind that 
 perhaps the answer to his question might be there. 
 If he loved God and loved his neighbour, he might 
 have the reward he wanted ; all that any man could 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE SPIEIT OF LOTE. [seem. 
 
 have. Our Lord told Mm he Tvas right; if he did that, 
 he would live. 
 
 But the lawyer was not satisfied ; I suppose that he 
 was never less satisfied. 
 
 For the thought struck him, Have I ever done this ? 
 Can I do this ? If I had been bidden to bear some 
 heavy burden ; to torture myself in some strange way ; 
 even to kill myself, I could have done that. But when 
 I am commanded to love — that is another thinsr alto- 
 gether. Am I more loving because I have been told that 
 it is right to be so ? If I can only obtain eternal life at 
 this price, shall I ever obtain it ? I fancy these thoughts 
 must have been in his mind first, but then came another. 
 Was the law clear enough ? It talked about his neigh- 
 bour, but it did not say who his neighbour was. St. 
 Luke says he was wishing to justify himself ; not that 
 anybody had found fault with him, but that some one 
 was saying to him in his heart, ' Learned lawyer as 
 thou art, thou hast not kept the law ; ' and he wanted 
 to silence that voice, it tormented him. 
 
 But he had asked Jesus, Who is my neighbour ? 
 and he was to have his answer. The Lord told him 
 a story. Again it was not what he supposed it would 
 be. It was the story of a poor man — a Jew — who went 
 down from the chief city of Judsea to Jericho. That 
 was a very dangerous road, and the man fell among 
 thieves. He was stripped of his raiment, and he was 
 left half dead. A priest — the most holy man among 
 the Jews — one who ofiered sacrifices to God for the 
 
in.] THE SPIRIT OF LOVE. 21 
 
 people^ one wlio blessed the people in God's name, came 
 travelling that way. The wounded man was there — 
 one of his own countrymen — one of those for whom he 
 presented prayers and sacrifices, and whom he was to 
 bless. But the priest did not thint this man was his 
 neighbour. He went on and left him. Then came a 
 Levite, one of the same tribe of the Jews with the 
 priest. His business was especially to interpret the law 
 to the people — that law which said, " Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbour as thyself." He looked at the wounded 
 man, but he did not think that he was his neighbour ; 
 he passed by on the other side. Not long after a 
 Samaritan rode by. The man was not his countryman ; 
 he was not one of his friends ; he belonged to a people 
 with whom his people had no dealings. Moreover, the 
 Samaritan was not considered a holy or religious man 
 by the Jews at all ; quite the contrary : they thought 
 him a man whom God abhorred ; one who could not 
 possibly have eternal life. But this Samaritan did 
 look upon the wounded man as his neighbour ; he 
 stopped his journey to help him. He poured oil and 
 wine into his wounds ; he set him on his own beast ; 
 he took him to an inn, and bade the landlord take care 
 ■of him ; and he said, as he went away, that whatever 
 more was spent upon the poor traveller, when he came 
 again he would repay. 
 
 The lawyer had to listen to this tale. And then 
 he was asked — 
 
 "Which now of these three — the priest, the Levite, 
 
22 THE SPIRIT OF LOVE. [seem. 
 
 or the Samaritan, was neiglibour to him that fell among 
 thieves ? " He did not quite like to say the Samaritan; 
 that would have been too hard a word for him to speak. 
 But he said, " He that shewed mercy on him ; " and 
 then our Lord bade him go and do like the man whom 
 he thought most meanly of, and whom he regarded as. 
 God's enemy. 
 
 Now let us think of this story. You see that the 
 priest and the Levite knew the law, which was written 
 in a book, perfectly. They had nothing to learn about 
 that. The words of it rose at once to their lips ; they 
 could confound any one who disputed it. And yet when 
 they were called to fulfil this law — when their neigh- 
 bour lay on the ground needing their help, they did 
 not remember it at all. It was a long way from them. 
 They were to love their neighbour as themselves, no 
 doubt. But who was their neighbour ? Not this poor 
 creature, though he was a Jew, a son of Abraham,, 
 an heir of the covenant. They owed him nothing ; 
 they were going on their own errands ; what was ha 
 to them ? That is to say, they had the law of love 
 upon tables, but they had it not written on their hearts. 
 They were serving God for hire ; they could do things 
 which they thought would profit them, and avoid things 
 T7hich they thought would injure them, but they did 
 nothing because they had God's mind; they did nothing 
 because they felt to men as He feels towards them. 
 
 But this Samaritan, though he had never studied the 
 words of the law as they had ; though he had not a 
 
III.] THE SPIKIT OP LOVE. 23 
 
 hundredth, part of the blessings which belonged to 
 them ; though ho had probably a great many mistakes 
 and confusions in his head, from which they were free, 
 had this law of love in his heart, and showed that he 
 had ; God had written it there. And, therefore, he 
 did not ask whether this poor half-dead traveller by 
 the roadside belonged to his village, or his town, or his 
 country, or his religion. He had nothing to do with 
 any of these questions, supposing there was any one 
 able to answer them. This was his neighbour, for he 
 was a man. That was quite enough, and therefore he 
 at once did what his neighbour wanted, what he would 
 have had another do to him. 
 
 Here was a lesson for the lawyer ; one which he 
 might be learning day by day, which would last him as 
 long as he remained on earth, and long after that. If 
 he would keep God's commandments, he must give up 
 his pride as a lawyer, his pride as a Jew ; he must 
 become simply a man, just like this poor despised 
 Samaritan. He must understand that God cared for 
 men, and therefore he must care for them. He must 
 ask God continually to show him how He cared for 
 them, and to give to him that will, that spirit, which is 
 in Himself, otherwise he would continue hard as the 
 stones on which the commandments were written ; 
 otherwise he might have the highest reputation among 
 men, and yet be abominable in the sight of God ; 
 otherwise he might be trying to win eternal life, and 
 really be sinking deeper and deeper into death. 
 
24 THE SPIEIT OF LOVE. [seem. 
 
 And now you will understand, I think, why the eyes 
 and ears of the disciples, fishermen as they were, had a 
 blessing which did not belong to all the great men and 
 wise men that had been in the world before them. 
 Some of those great and wise men had had this law 
 proclaimed to them in direct words, and had seen it 
 written in letters. But that was not enough for them. 
 They knew it was to be obeyed ; they felt they could 
 not obey it while it was outside of them. They wanted 
 to have it in them, and to be governed by it altogether. 
 But the more they wanted this, the more they felt how 
 unlike their mind was to God's mind; how short they 
 fell of the love which was in Him, and which He wished 
 to be in them. There were others who had never heard 
 the law in words, or seen it in letters, yet God had 
 written it in their hearts, and it had come forth in such 
 acts as this of the good Samaritan; but they cried 
 and sighed like the others over the selfishness which 
 they found in themselves and in the world ; they asked, 
 'When will God's will be done on earth as it is in 
 heaven ? when wiU there be one to do it perfectly ? ' 
 
 Both, therefore, those to whom the law came out- 
 wardly, and those to whom it came only within, cried 
 for the same person. They cried for a Son of God who 
 should show them what God's truth and charity is ; 
 they cried for a son of man who should show them how 
 a man may be the perfect image of God ; they cried 
 for a king who should reign over their hearts, and make 
 them like Himself. And now, says our Lord to His 
 
■III.] THE SPIRIT OF LOVE. 25 
 
 disciples, 'Blessed, are your eyes, for they see tliafc Son 
 of God who can show you what the Father is ; that 
 Son of Man who perfectly delights to do His Father^s 
 will, and to finish His work ; that King who can govern 
 you according to His pleasure. Blessed are your ears, 
 for He is speaking to you, and commanding you.^ Long 
 afterwards they will have recollected how the lawyer's 
 question, and our Lord's parable, came in just when 
 they had been considering what their blessing was. And 
 they will have said to themselves, ' Yes, truly, blessed 
 are our eyes, for we have seen Him who has met with 
 us all lying sick and wounded and half dead ; who has 
 gone about healing men and restoring them without 
 asking whether they were His friends or His enemies, 
 but caring for them all as His brethren. Blessed are 
 our eyes, for we have seen Him who was called a 
 Samaritan by the J ews ; whom they despised, because 
 He mixed with publicans and.sinners ; whom they cast 
 out as a blasphemer. Blessed are our ears, for we 
 have heard Him speak God's words ; we have heard 
 Him bid us go and do as He has done ; and suffer 
 as He has suffered. He has made us content to be 
 called Samaritans, or worse names than that, if we can 
 but pour oil and wine into the wounds of men that are 
 perishing. Blessed are we, for we know what eternal 
 life is now, since we have seen Jesus Christ, and have 
 perceived what life there was in Him. This was the 
 life which He received from the Father. This was the 
 life which He has bestowed upon us. We are not to do 
 
26 THE SPIRIT OF LOVE. [serm. 
 
 sometliing greats that we may obtain it. He gives it 
 us witliout money and witliout price. But when He 
 has given it us, when He has poured His own Spirit 
 upon us, it works within us. It stirs us up to act as if 
 men were our own neighbours, our brethren as well as 
 His.^ 
 
 This was what the disciples thought long after- 
 wards ; but they did not think these things — they 
 scarcely knew what our Lord meant — they never got 
 the blessing which He said was theirs till He was gone 
 out of their sight. Then it was, when He had ascended 
 on high, that they began to feel who had been with 
 them, and who was with them still ; then they began 
 to preach to all men, ' He is your king as well as ours. 
 He is with you as well as with us ; He has given us 
 His Spirit, His life of love. He will give it to you.' 
 Then they began to treat all men — Jews, Samaritans, 
 heathen — as brethren; then they could say boldly to 
 their hearers, " Go, and do you likewise. And, there- 
 fore, brethren, I say, you and I have all the blessing 
 they had, and the only question is whether we will use 
 it or cast it away. That is a very serious question 
 indeed for us, one and all. It is a very serious one for 
 us who are, like the Levites of the Jews, called to 
 teach you about God's laws, and, like the priests, to lead 
 you in your prayers, and to present the perfect sacrifice 
 of Christ for you to God, and to direct you unto the 
 witnesses of His love, and to bless you in Christ's 
 name. For we may become just as tough and hard- 
 
in.] THE SPIRIT OF LOVE. 27 
 
 hearted as tliese Jewish priests and Levites became. 
 If we are left to ourselves we shall be harder aud 
 colder than all people, because those who are in the 
 habit of using holy words and doing holy acts, are more 
 in danger of losing the sense of them, and becoming 
 stupid and indifferent, as if they meant nothing, than 
 those who are less famiUar with them. It is a terrible 
 fact but it is a fact. And, therefore, we must pray to 
 God that He will not leave us. to ourselves; that He 
 will not let us sink down into hardness and carelessness 
 about our fellow-creatures ; that He will stir us up to 
 think of them ; that He will quicken us with His own 
 Divine love ; that He will make us true witnesses for 
 Him by our acts as well as our words, and then what 
 we say and what we do will not only be for ourselves, 
 but for you. If we want to get eternal life for our- 
 selves as the lawyer did, we shall not get it ; if we arc 
 willing to receive it from Christ that others may share 
 it with us, He will give it us abundantly, and then the 
 very humblest of us will be able to go and do like the 
 man whom we have heard of to-day. He was merely 
 an ordinary person with very few advantages, as I have 
 told you; people who thought highly of themselves 
 thought meanly of him. But, because he had been 
 taught to think of men as his brethren, the sons of one 
 Father, he did an act which Christ owned. Christ 
 said, ' That was my act ; God himself inspired it.' 
 And let each one of us say to himself, ' Christ the Son 
 of God died and rose again for me, and for all who 
 
28 THE SPIRIT OP LOVE, [seem. in. 
 
 dwell about me, for all my neighbours and kinsfolk, 
 for every stranger tliat comes in my way, and for all 
 sick and wounded people, and for all sinful people ; 
 Christ died and rose again for them, and He is their 
 Lord and their brother as well as mine. And His will 
 is to do them good ; and His will is that we should 
 work with Him to do them good, to raise them out of 
 the dust, to heal their wounds, to give them rest. He 
 commits them to us, and He will come again to see 
 whether we have fulfilled our trust or not. And when 
 He comes He will say — for he has told us so — "Inas- 
 much as ye did it to one of the least of my brethren, 
 ye did it unto me." ' 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 WAITING FOR CHEIST. 
 
 Preached at Clyro, 18th Sunday after Trinity, Seiytember 25, 1853. 
 
 " Waiting for tho coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also 
 confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ." — 1 Cobixthians i. 7, 8. 
 
 You have heard of people out on the hills at night 
 who have been overtaken by a snowstorm and have 
 lost the track by which they went up. You have heard 
 of people — perhaps it may have happened to yourselves 
 — who have been tossing all night on their beds in a 
 fever. What do you think was the chief thought in 
 the minds of both of them ? It was surely this, ' Oh, 
 that the sun would come forth ! Oh, that he would not 
 remain so long hidden from us! We know he is there. 
 The morning must come ; but oh, that it would break 
 out now — that it would scatter this terrible darkness.'' 
 These men know what it is to expect the coming 
 forth of the sun, — what it is to long that he would lift 
 up the veil that hides him from them. But we all do 
 expect him, and wait for his rising. We should all bo 
 
30 WAITIKG FOR CHEIST. [seem. 
 
 miserable if we were told by some one we believed, 
 ' He wUl not appear to-morrow.' That would not be a 
 message of grief and borror only to people on tbe bills 
 and to tbe sick. It would be a message of grief and 
 borror to tbe wbole eartb. Notbing else could make 
 up for it. Tbere may be ten tbousand beautiful tbings 
 on tbe eartb, but tbat would be gone wbicb enables us 
 to see tbeir beauty. In a little time tbe beauty itself 
 would all be withered and dead, Eacb man miffbt 
 bave boarded treasures of bis own ; but wben tbe 
 common sun was withdrawn, all his particular blessings 
 would be worth nothing to him. He would find tbat 
 be and bis poorest neighbours were on a level, alike in 
 misery and desolation. 
 
 ^Ybat has this to do with the words of St. Paul ? 
 Much, I bebeve. He speaks to the Corinthians, one 
 and all, as to men waiting for the coming or the un- 
 veiling of Christ. They bore Christ's name, they were 
 signed with the sign of His cross ; they believed Him 
 to be the Source of Light, Peace, Healing, to them 
 and to tbe whole world. Must they not then desire 
 that He should be fully revealed to them and to the 
 world ? Must not tbat be the great hope of their 
 hearts ? Those who felt what confusion there was in 
 their minds for want of His clear bght, might long for 
 it more than others ; those that were sick at heart 
 might long for His heabng more than others. But 
 would it not be a miserable thing to tell any man, 
 ' He will not appear ; ' ' He will never be revealed ' ? 
 
IV.] WAITING FOR CHEIST. 31 
 
 Brethren, I am sure tliis would be tlie most horrible 
 news that any one could have brought to the Corin- 
 thians. I am sure it would be the most horrible news 
 that I could bring to you. I will tell you first why I 
 :say this about them, then I will tell you why I say the 
 same about you. 
 
 St. Paul had found the Corinthians in great dark- 
 ness of mind, worshipping many different gods, of 
 whom they had different fancies and notions, worship- 
 3)ing the Goddess of Pleasure above all. They had a 
 ■dream of some God, some Father, some Friend; at times 
 they fancied these gods to whom they were doing homage 
 •were likenesses of Him, His children to whom He had 
 ^iven power in various places and over various things. 
 
 But then it seemed to them that there was more 
 evil than good in the world, and that these powers 
 must oftener mean evil to them than good, and that 
 He from whom they got their powers must be harder 
 ^nd sterner than they were, and must design worse and 
 more terrible mischiefs to the creatures He had formed. 
 
 They knew that they had done wrong ; they felt as 
 if He who had the government of the world must mean 
 to punish them for the wrong; they thought they must 
 try hard to persuade Him not to punish them ; the 
 more they tried, the more hopeless they were of 
 escaping. 
 
 St. Paul came to these men, saying, ' God, who 
 •created all things, hath sent forth His only begotten 
 Son, the express image of His person, into this world 
 
32 "WAITING FOE CHRIST. [serm. 
 
 of ours, to deliver it, and them wlio dwell upon it, from 
 tlie enemies wliicli are tormenting it. You are not 
 mistaken ; the evils of the world are as great as you 
 take them to be. They are about you, tormenting- 
 you every hour. You do need to be set free from 
 them. And you are not mistaken that these evils, the 
 very worst of them, come from yourselves. You have 
 committed evil, the desires which led to this evil are 
 in your hearts. And you are not mistaken that God 
 is a righteous Being, and that all these evils are sins 
 against Him. But because that is so. He hath sent 
 His Son to set you free from these plagues above all 
 others. While He was on earth He was freeing men 
 from plagues of body, hunger, leprosy, palsy, fever,, 
 and their minds from plagues of rage and madness, 
 and confusion.-' All these, he said, were proofs that 
 an evil spirit, a tyrant, had got dominion over men, 
 and that they were acknowledging his dominion. 
 
 These things were not the will of His Father, they 
 were contrary to His will. He came to do His Father's 
 will by making His creatures straight and well, by 
 breaking the yoke of the oppressor. And now, 
 St. Paul said. He has proved Himself the conqueror. 
 He died the death of the Cross. His love showed 
 itself stronger than death. He rose from the dead, 
 He ascended on high. He ascended, not because He 
 was going to leave men or forget them, but that He 
 might do good to the whole universe. Not merely to 
 one here and one there ; that He might be the king 
 
IV.] "WAITING FOE CHRIST. 33 
 
 over all ; that He miglit send His Spirit into tlie hearts 
 of men, to teach, them of Him and of His Father ; 
 to make men who had hated each other brethren 
 in Him : to reconcile all to His Father : to fill up the 
 gulf that separated the world after death from the 
 world before death ; to bring all things into one. 
 
 The Corinthians had believed the Apostle^s gospel; 
 they had renounced their idols. They had been bap- 
 tized into the name of the Father^ and the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost ; they met together to eat that bread 
 and drink that wine which declared that they were 
 members of one body in Christ, and that Love had 
 triumphed over sin and death and hell. The more 
 earnestly they believed this to be true, the more they 
 found it true. They found that there was a love 
 stronger than the evil that was in them, stronger than 
 the evil that was in their brethren — one which could 
 convert the most rebellious to itself. But still the 
 world was full of misery. There was this tyranny of 
 the Roman Empire established over the greatest part 
 of it ; in each particular country and neighbourhood 
 there were crimes, divisions, oppressions. 
 
 Besides believing, then, the Corinthians had need 
 to hope and to wait. What had they to hope and 
 wait for ? That He who had been declared to be the 
 deliverer of the world — who had proved Himself so by 
 - dying for it — who was proving himself so in their 
 hearts — would come forth, would declare Himself to be 
 the King of kings and Lord of lords, would put down 
 
 D 
 
34 WAITING FOR CHRIST. [sersi. 
 
 the wrong, would establish the right. To work for 
 this, to wait for this, the Apostle tells them, was the 
 best thing possible for them, one and all. This kept 
 their heads above water, when they had the strongest 
 current against them, and they found it hardest to 
 strive against it; this helped them to strive against 
 the sin that most easily beset them; against their 
 pride, and their divisions, and their distrusts. This 
 kept them together, because one was not looking for 
 this end, and another for that ; but all had the same- 
 end before them. Christ was He whom all alike were 
 expecting. 
 
 Now I compared this expectation to the looking out 
 for the sun, which I said would certainly shine out in 
 due time, however long the night might seem. But is 
 not there a great difference ? The Corinthians waited 
 for Christ — were they not disappointed ? Did He come 
 as the sun comes, out of the dark night ? After 
 eighteen hundred years has He ever yet appeared ? 
 Brethren, the Corinthians were not disappointed? They 
 found more, not less, than they looked for. He whom 
 they believed to be the King of the world proved Him- 
 self to be the King of the world. The Jewish nation, 
 which had said, " We will not have this man to reign 
 over us,^^ was broken in pieces. He who was rejected 
 by it was He who had held it together, without Him 
 it had no life. That breaking up of the nation was an 
 unveiling of Jesus Christ — a clear manifestation of His 
 dominion over men, of His presence in the midst of 
 
IV.] WAITING FOR CHRIST. 35 
 
 them. It liad been no cunningly-devised fable tliey 
 had believed. He who was called the carpenter's son. 
 He who suffered under Pontius Pilate as a malefactor, 
 was the head of all principalities and powers. He was 
 ruling amidst the powers of heaven and amidst the 
 inhabitants of the earth. 
 
 But what, you may say, were the Corinthians the 
 better for this ? Did this knowledge save them from 
 dying ? Had they not to suffer just what their fathers 
 had suffered before them ? Had not some of them to 
 bear even harder and more intolerable deaths than 
 their fathers ? Even so ! Their threescore and ten 
 years came to an end. Some of them breathed out 
 their souls on their beds, some on crosses, some in 
 the fire. They did not escape what the only-begotten 
 Son had endured. And what then ? They had learned 
 who it is that governs in both worlds. They had 
 learned that Christ is there as He is here. They 
 had learned that as He is veiled from men here, there 
 He is unveiled. They had learned that death is not a 
 barrier which separates from Him, for He has borne it. 
 They had learned all these lessons ; and therefore could 
 wait for the sun with perfect confidence that it would 
 appear. They could be sure that if it shone on them, 
 it would shine on multitudes besides. They could bid 
 all people look for this universal sun. They could tell 
 them that it was a miserable thing not to be expecting 
 the light, and a miserable thing to be loving darkness, 
 rather than light. They could encourage all to come 
 
36 WAITING FOE CHEIST. [serm. 
 
 to tlie light, to walk in it, aud live in it, that wlien it 
 broke out in its full glory tliey miglit rejoice tliat now 
 they had all which they had dreamed of, aud waited 
 for; all that was needful to make them thoroughly 
 blessed. 
 
 II. So was it with the Corinthians. Why is it to be 
 different with us ? We are baptized, as they were, into 
 the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost. We have heard, as they heard, that Christ is 
 the great deliverer and king. We have had more 
 proofs than they had that He is actually reigning in 
 this country of ours. AYe have proofs of it in our own 
 consciences. Every sin of which our heart condemns 
 us, is a witness of a righteous Lord who is the enemy 
 of sin. We have the witness of it in the world about 
 us. Every event that has happened in any nation of 
 the earth; any great judgment that has befallen it ; 
 any great deliverance that has been wrought for it, has 
 been a day of the Lord, an appearing of Ckrist ; a proof 
 that He is in deed and not in name only our sovereign. 
 If we do not receive it as such, the reason is that our 
 eyes are darkened, that we do not see things as they 
 are. The saints in light, who must perceive in what- 
 ever befell them on earth, in whatever befalls the 
 kinsfolk and friends whom they have left behind, sure 
 tokens that He is in the midst of us teaching, guiding, 
 reproving, blessing us ; they must wonder at their 
 own blindness, that they did not confess this to be so 
 always. And they must expect with confidence the f uU 
 
IV.] WAITING FOR CHEIST. 37 
 
 revelation of tlie Son of God, to finish, all that He has 
 begun, to establish peace where there is war, and free- 
 dom where there is tyranny, and order where there 
 is injustice and confusion. They are sure that He will 
 work out all His purposes, that He will accomplish all 
 His Father's will. ' How long, 0 Lord,' they cry; ' bow 
 long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and 
 avenge our blood ? How long dost Thou wait before 
 thus making the eartb a place where men may dwell 
 together in love, and where God may dwell with them, 
 and be their God ? ' 
 
 And, oh, brethren, we sinners upon earth may join 
 in that cry of theirs ; we may join our hopes and long- 
 ings with those of the men who have washed their robes 
 and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and 
 are for ever before the Throne. ' What/ some of you 
 may say, ' must not I who have so many dark thoughts 
 in me, must not I tremble to meet my Lord ? Can I 
 desire to see Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire — 
 who looketh into the thoughts and intents of the hearts 
 — must not I shrink and quail, when He appears ? ' It is 
 a good question. Would to God any of you are asking 
 it in your hearts ; then I could give you the answer, and 
 it is this : — Be sure, brethren, that Christ will appear, 
 and that every eye shall see Him ; and that the thoughts 
 of every heart will be made manifest before Him. 
 There is no more doubt of that than there is that the 
 sun will rise out of this coming night, and will make 
 all things clear and "^lain that are hidden in the dark- 
 
38 WAinXG FOR CHPJST. [serm. 
 
 DesSj or confused in tlie twilight. And if you have 
 hidden thoughts that you do not wish to be revealed, 
 seeing that they must be laid bare then, oh, let them 
 be laid bare now ! Christ^s light is about you at this 
 moment ; you need not wait for that till another day ; 
 you may come to it,'you may ask Him to scatter the 
 darkness that is in you now. It is a miserable thing 
 to have that within us which we are ashamed of ; it 
 becomes worse when Christ says, ' I will dehver you 
 from it, I will take it out of you, I will give you a 
 clean heart and aright spii'it.' Well, then, I say: if you 
 seek for this day by day ; if you beg Christ to separate 
 you from the evil that is in you, and to make you 
 right, you are expecting Him ; yon are waiting for 
 Him. And instead of looking at it as a thing to be 
 dreaded that He should appear at last in His full 
 glory, and put out this darkness in you altogether, 
 that is the very thing of all others you must wish for ; 
 you can be content with nothing short of that. And 
 let not any of us, dear brethren, be content with less 
 than that, for Christ promises us no less ; and our folly 
 and our misery is, that we do not ask Him and trust 
 Him to fulfil His promises. They exceed all that we 
 can ask or can think. He is willing to make us pure ; 
 He is wilhng to make this earth pure. In a little 
 time, when this world and its fashion have passed away 
 from before our eyes, we shall find that it is so. "We 
 shall find that we had Him with us all through our 
 pilgrimage ; that He was every moment speaking to 
 
IV.] WAITING FOR CHRIST. 39 
 
 US, and moving us to do right ; every moment warning 
 us of tlie wrong. We shall find that we erred in 
 hoping not too much, but far, far too little ! If we had 
 loped more, we should have been freer, and purer, and 
 more loving. "We have despaired of God's goodness, 
 therefore it has been far from us. 
 
 But let us despair no longer. For the will of our 
 Father in heaven is to do us good, to save us, to bring 
 us to the knowledge of His truth. His will is that we 
 should receive the blessings He has given us, and wait 
 for the blessings He has in store for us. 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 ST. PETER'S CONVERSION. 
 
 Preached at Clyro, 1853. 
 
 " The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged 
 upon a tree ; Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a 
 Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and for- 
 giveness of sins." — Acts v. 30, 31. 
 
 These are the words of St. Peter. Do you remember 
 some other words of his, when he was sitting with 
 our Lord the night before His crucifixion ? He said 
 then, "Lord, I will go with thee to prison and to 
 death," And Jesus answered, " Verily, I say unto thee, 
 the cock shall not crow twice till thou hast denied me 
 thrice." As He spoke, so it came to pass. Jesus was 
 standing before the judgment-seat. One and another 
 person said to Peter, " Thou wast one of His disciples." 
 " Did I not see thee in the garden with Him ? " " Thou 
 art a Galilean ; thy speech betray eth thee." But he 
 said to each, " I know not what thou sayest," or, " I 
 know not the man."* 
 
 Some three or four months had passed away since 
 
SEEM, v.] ST. PETER'S CONVERSION. 41 
 
 that time, and liere is the same Peter. Those people 
 before whom he was afraid to confess that he knew 
 Christ were men-servants and maid-servants. Now he 
 was before the rulers and elders of the Jews, the men 
 whom he had been taught to fear as the greatest in his 
 country, ever since he was a child. He had not often 
 seen them, for they lived in the chief city of Judaea, 
 and he had been brought up in the upper part of the 
 land. Those who came from his country were despised 
 by the South people, and he had passed his life as 
 a fisherman on the lakes; yet hear how he answers 
 a council of the most learned and powerful men in 
 Jerusalem : "We ought to obey God rather than men. 
 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew 
 and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted at His 
 own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give 
 repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we 
 are His witnesses of these things. So also is the Holy 
 Ghost, which God hath given to them that obey Him." 
 
 You see the coward has become the bravest of men : 
 he who could not acknowledge his dearest friend, when 
 he had just been sitting and eating with Him, is ready 
 indeed to go to prison and death for Him, now that he 
 sees Him no more. How has this happened ? What 
 is the cause of this mighty change which has since 
 come over him ? 
 
 I believe it concerns us much to know, brethren ; 
 for we may find out secrets which have as much to do 
 with us as with Simon Pster. 
 
42 ST. PETER'S CONVERSION. [seem. 
 
 While St. Peter and tlie Apostles were walking day 
 by day with Christ, seeing the wonders that He did, 
 hearing Him utter parables to the people, asking Him 
 in private to explain them, receiving power from Him 
 to go and heal the sick themselves — while all this 
 was going on, they felt as if they were His especial 
 favourites, those whom He had chosen to receive bless- 
 ings which other people had not. And He did not 
 tell them they were wrong. On the contrary. He said 
 He had chosen them to be His ministers, to sit and rule 
 and judge with Him in His kingdom : and that king- 
 dom. He said, was the kingdom of heaven, the one to 
 which all others must bow. But He explained to them 
 also, that He who was the chief in this kingdom had 
 come to be the servant of all ; and that if they reigned 
 with Him, they must be servants too. They could not 
 understand this. If they were the chosen companions 
 of a king, must not they some day or other be ad- 
 mitted into a palace, and have servants to wait on 
 them ? Must they not look down upon those, who had 
 looked down upon them ? They thought it must be 
 so ; they often questioned among themselves which of 
 them should have the choicest place — which of them 
 should be the greatest, and sit nearest to the king. 
 That dispute they were busy with even at the Last 
 Supper, when He was saying, " One of you shall betray 
 me;" and when His soul was troubled "even unto 
 death.'' You will think, then, how they must have been 
 upset and bewildered when they saw Him who was to 
 
v.] ST. PETER'S CONVERSION. 43 
 
 be a king Himself, and who was to make tliera kings, 
 led out to be tried, and mocked, and crucified. You will 
 thiuk liow their hopes must have withered up ; they 
 must have felt like men who had tumbled from a great 
 height, and had not yet reached the bottom. It seemed 
 as if they had been in a sleep ever since they left their 
 father's ship, and had been dreaming a long dream, 
 which had passed away when the morning came. No 
 doubt Christ had told them often that He should be 
 rejected by the chief priests and elders, and given up 
 to the Romans and put to death. But they could not 
 believe Him ; they thought it was impossible, and they 
 felt as little prepared for these events as if the words 
 had never been spoken. They were not the least false 
 men when they said they were sure they loved Him, 
 and would cling to Him in life and death. They 
 thought so in their very hearts ; but they became 
 utterly helpless and stupefied. Their strength was 
 gone from them, so they all forsook Him ; and he that 
 was boldest, denied Him. 
 
 What could raise him out of this depth ? First, we 
 are told, " Peter went out and wept bitterly'' for what 
 he had done. Then he began to know more of Christ 
 and of His power than he had ever known all the three 
 years he had been with Him before. His heart had 
 been fast bound ; now it was loosened, and all the 
 streams poured forth from it. Who had caused them 
 to flow ? When the cock crew " the Lord turned and 
 looked upon him Peter felt how mighty He was then 
 
44 ST. PETEE'S COXTERSION. [seem. 
 
 when they were binding and scourging Him. Yes, h& 
 felt Him to be more mighty than when He was feeding 
 five thousand, and saying to the winds, "Peace, be 
 still ! " 
 
 This, then, was the first step in Peter's change. He 
 had had many good gifts before, but this one thing he 
 had not had — a broken and contrite heart. He had 
 thought highly of his Master, but he had thought more 
 highly still of himself ; that is to say, he thought of his 
 Master chiefly for himself. He thought of what He 
 would give him and do for him. How great a thing it 
 was to be called by Him, and to be set above others, 
 and to have such blessings in store for him afterwards. 
 Now, he knew that he was good for nothing; all his 
 proud fancies of what he was, and of what he might be, 
 melted away together. He saw that as the earth is 
 very warm and bright because the sun shines upon it, 
 so his goodness had all come from Christ, and not 
 from himself, and that if he was separated from Him 
 he was the poorest wretch alive. 
 
 If this time of sorrow and darkness had not come 
 first, the news which he heard afterwards from the 
 women who went to the sepulchre on the third day — 
 "Jesus Christ is risen — would not have been the 
 wonderful news it was. And, even when he heard it, and 
 when he went himself to the tomb and saw the linen 
 clothes and the napkin, he could not believe it. That 
 Christ should die was amazing and terrible ; but that 
 He should rise — how could that be ? "Who could think 
 
v.] ST. PETER'S CONVERSION". 45 
 
 tliat sometliiug liad taken place in tlieir day wliicli had 
 never taken place since tlie creation of the world? The 
 ■women must be mistaken. But Jesus himself stood 
 among them, and said, " Peace be unto you.'' And it was 
 not merely that He wished them peace ; the peace really 
 ■came to them. They felt that He was the giver of it. 
 And when He showed them His hands and His side, 
 they were sure that these were the signs and pledges 
 of peace with God, and peace with each other. They 
 were sure that He was the same now as He had been 
 before His crucifixion, the same as He had been before 
 He took flesh and dwelt amongst men. 
 
 They saw Him only now and then during the forty 
 days after He rose from the dead. And when He had 
 appeared to them for a little time. He again vanished 
 away. It was a strange intercourse. Did not they some- 
 times long for the time to come back again when He 
 was with them, journeying with them whole days and 
 weeks ? No ; they were beginning to have such high 
 thoughts of Him, that it was impossible for them to 
 wish to recover that time. 
 
 He had known death ; He had been in the dark 
 world. They wondered that He could converse with 
 them at all ; that they could touch Him and eat with 
 Him. They looked at Him, and touched Him, and yet 
 doubted. He ascended on high out of their sight. 
 How was it then ? Was He not gone quite away from 
 them ? They did as He commanded. They waited in 
 an upper room near the Temple at Jerusalem. There 
 
46 ST. PETER'S CONYEESIOX. [seem. 
 
 they found He was nearer than He had ever been ; and 
 they were sure that He had some great work for them 
 to do, and that in due time they should have power to 
 do it. 
 
 The power came. The Spirit of God descended upon 
 them as they were gathered together at a great feast 
 of the Jews. They felt that this Spirit was master of 
 their words and their thoughts. They spake with other 
 tongues, as He gave them utterance. St. Peter stood 
 forth before the multitude, and said that this Spirit 
 was given as a sign and proof that Jesus whom they 
 crucified was raised up to be a Prince and Saviour, and 
 that by His strength they were to tell those who had 
 rejected Him that He was their King. Those who 
 heard were pricked in their hearts, and said, " Men and 
 brethren, what shall we do ! " And three thousand were 
 baptized in the name of Christ, as the Son of the 
 Living God, and the Spirit of the Father and the Son 
 came upon them. 
 
 Here, then, was the cause of the mighty change 
 which came on Peter in those two or three months. He 
 had thought of Jesus of Nazareth as his mighty friend 
 and teacher; now he knew Him to be & prince, in the 
 full meaning of the word. Not a person seated on a 
 high throne, or in a great palace, that people could gaze 
 at ; but One who could rule and govern the thoughts 
 of men's hearts ; whose throne was over them ; whose 
 palace was in them. He knew that this was the way 
 in which Christ had proved Himself a king over him. 
 
v.] ST. PETER'S CONYEKSIOX. 47 
 
 wten he had feared to confess Him, and when his heart 
 had been tied and chained by his pride. He had laid 
 him low ; He had given him repentance ; and now 
 that He had left the world, and was exalted to His 
 Father's right hand, it was that He might do for others 
 what He had done for him. For now, instead of dream- 
 ing of Christ as one who favoured him more than 
 others, he delighted to think that He was the Friend 
 and Saviour of men ; that he had taken their flesh and 
 died their death. He entered into the mind of Christ. 
 He began to see that it was His joy to do His Father\s 
 will, by breaking the bonds which held His creatures in 
 slavery ; that it was His joy not to exalt Himself, but to 
 be abased ; not to be the chief of all, but the servant 
 of all. St. Peter understood that he was sitting and 
 reigning with Christ when he was witnessing to men of 
 His love for them and His dominion over them — when 
 he was showing them by his own example what forgive- 
 ness there was in Him, and how He could turn those 
 who had erred most, and grieved Him most, to Himself. 
 
 Why, then, should he fear chief priests and rulers ? 
 He was sent to tell them of One who was their king as 
 well as his. He was sent to tell them of One who was 
 their Saviour as well as his. He could not fear them, 
 for he knew how much stronger Christ was than they 
 were. He could not hate them, for he knew that Christ 
 had died, and risen, and ascended on high, because He 
 cared for His enemies. St. Peter had learnt that ho 
 was the most contemptible of all in himself ; he had 
 
48 ST. PETER'S CONVERSION. [skrm. 
 
 learnt that lie had the same evil nature with those chief 
 priests and rulers who had put Christ to death ; he had 
 learnt that there was One who could subdue that evil 
 nature in them and in him^ who could rescue both from 
 the evil spirit who had held them captive. 
 
 And now you see why I said the secret which con- 
 cerned Peter, and which was made known to him, 
 concerns us, and is declared to us in his words. He was a 
 fisherman, as poor a man as any of you ; he was a sinner, 
 like each of us ; he was an apostle — a herald of Christ's 
 kingdom to all men. He speaks of Christ being raised 
 up to give repentance to Israel, because he was address- 
 ing Israelites, rulers of Israel, those who had committed 
 the heaviest of all crimes ; and, therefore, there is not 
 one syllable or letter of that message of his which is 
 not intended for any man, everywhere. It was for the 
 publicans, and harlots, and outcasts of the J ews ; it was 
 for the rich men, and scholars, and doctors. All wanted 
 repentance ; all wanted to have a right and true heart 
 given to them, to have their proud and selfish heart 
 broken down in them. St. Peter says, Christ is raised 
 up on high that He may do this for them all ; that 
 He may give them repentance ; and that He may send 
 away their sins ; may relieve them from that heavy 
 burden. He does not say, ' If you will repent,' ' If 
 you will put away your sins,' then such and such good 
 things will come to you. But he says, the Son of God 
 and Son of Man has died and risen and ascended, that 
 you may be able to repent ; that your sins and you 
 
v.] ST. PETER'S CONVERSION. 49 
 
 may be put asunder ; that you may know they are your 
 enemies, and that they have been vanquished. 
 
 And that is the good news which St. Peter preached, 
 and which we are to preach to you. Repentance is far too 
 hard a thing for man to accomplish ; any man who has 
 tried to repent knows that. But Christ is revealed as a 
 prince over our hearts, to turn them according to God's 
 good and gracious will. Our sins cling too close to us 
 for you and me to tear them off. But Christ has claimed 
 us for members of His body, that He may do that for us 
 which we cannot do. Christ gives us His spirit that He 
 may make us free, in spite of all our inclination to con- 
 tinue slaves of a cruel tyrant. Let us beheve this, 
 brethren. And then you will desire that same Holy 
 Spirit, who, when He had converted Simon Peter, made 
 him a witness to his brethren, and a strengthener of 
 them, to give you power by your lips to declare to all 
 you meet, that Christ is their prince and Saviour; 
 that He has been raised from the dead to give them 
 repentance and remission of sins. 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 THE SICK OF THE PALSY. 
 
 Preached at Welsh Hampton, 19f/i Sunday after Trinity, 
 September 2S, 1856. 
 
 *' That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon earth to 
 forgive sins ; then saith He to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take 
 up thy bed, and go to thine house." — St. ^Iatthew ix. 6. 
 
 Tou know to wkom these words were spoken, and 
 who spoke them. In the town o£ Capernaum there 
 was a man whose limbs were palsied. He could not 
 go himself to see if there was any one who could cure 
 him. He was fixed to his bed. But his friends heard 
 that Jesus, who had been absent, had returned to this 
 town, and that He had healed many people who were 
 sick of different diseases. They thought He would do 
 something for this poor man, who belonged to His 
 own neighbourhood. Four of them brought him on 
 his bed. St. Luke says that there was such a crowd 
 about the house that they could not come through the 
 door, and therefore they let him down by the roof. 
 They must have had great trust in the power of Jesus 
 to do that. They must have had great trust that He 
 
SERM. VI.] THE SICK OF THE PALSY. 51 
 
 was willing to use His power for the good of a suffering 
 man. 
 
 At first it appeared as if they had not gained their 
 end. Jesus saw the bed. He took notice of the man 
 who was stretched upon it. He spoke to him in a 
 kindly affectionate voice. He called him " Son." But 
 He said nothing about the palsy. He must have seen 
 that the man could not move ; that he was in pain ; 
 that he had no use of his limbs. Instead of setting 
 this right, He said, " Son, thy sins be forgiven 
 thee.'' 
 
 The friends who had brought him must have been 
 surprised. That was not at all what they had looked 
 for. There were some present — learned men who had 
 come from the city of Jerusalem — who were not only 
 surprised but shocked. This, they said, is a strange 
 power, indeed, for a man to take to himself ! Sins are 
 offences against God. He only can forgive them and 
 put them a;Way. For any one who has a mortal 
 body, who speaks with a human voice, to do that is 
 blasphemy. 
 
 Well, this was the judgment of the bystanders. But 
 what do you think the poor man felt about it himself ? 
 I suppose he wanted to recover his strength, and to be 
 able to do as he had been used to do, as much as his 
 friends. Do you think, then, he was disappointed, as 
 most likely they were ? No ; he found that this person 
 who spoke to him knew thoroughly what was the matter 
 with him ; that He saw into the veiy heart of him. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE SICK OP THE PALSY. [serm. 
 
 There was sometliing in him which he could not tell 
 any one of; which he could not explain to any doctor. 
 There was a palsy upon him^ upon his own very self, 
 which was harder to bear than the palsy upon his limbs. 
 He could not have described it, I am sure ; he had felt 
 it, but perhaps he had never thought about it till then. 
 But Jesus had discovered it. He understood the man 
 better than he understood himself. And when He said 
 to him, " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee," the man 
 became a free man. A secret chain which had been 
 binding him was taken off from him ; he could look up 
 into the face of Jesus and be certain that He was the 
 Deliverer. 
 
 But he lay on his bed still, apparently he was as 
 helpless as before. But when the learned men from 
 Jerusalem began to murmur that Jesus had taken God's 
 power to Himself, Jesus spoke again. He said, " That 
 ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth 
 to forgive sins, I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy bed 
 and walk.'' And the man found that the Deliverer had 
 not done a half work. He had had power over him 
 altogether. The palsy was gone from his limbs as 
 well as from his heart. He could do what he was 
 bidden. He rose up in the presence of them aU. 
 And the people marvelled that God had given such 
 power to a man. 
 
 And that is the point I want to speak to you of. 
 We have gone through the story. Now let us consider 
 the reason that Jesus gives ns for what He did. I will 
 
VI.] THE SICK OF THE PALSY. 53 
 
 take eacli part of it separately, foi* it is tlie way to 
 understand His words. 
 
 1st. You see He says that He healed the man " That 
 you may know." It was not done only for his sake, 
 though it was done for his sake. It was done for those 
 who were sitting around, for those who were believing 
 in Him, and for those who were disbelieving. All of 
 them wanted to know whether the Son of Man had this 
 power or no ; whether he was a blasphemer, as the 
 Scribes said, or whether he was speaking truth and 
 acting truth. It was even for our sakes who are reading 
 it here in this church to-day. You and I now just as 
 much want to know whether the Son of Man has this 
 power, as this palsied man did, or his friends, or the 
 Scribes, or the people generally. If He had it not then 
 He has it not now. If He had it then. He has it now. 
 If they wanted that He should use it for them, we want 
 that He should use it for us. So let us give heed. 
 
 He speaks of Himself, you see, as the Son of Man. 
 What does that mean ? Jesus was actually standing in 
 that room in Capernaum in a body such as the people 
 about him had ; He spoke with such a voice as theirs. 
 He looked in all respects like them. He was verily 
 and indeed a man. And He showed that He was by 
 knowing what was in man. He felt for this particular 
 man. He understood what was going on in him. He 
 knew the sin that was in him. 
 
 You will say, ' But was not He a man in some other 
 "way than we are men ? ' If you mean were there not 
 
54 THE SICK OF THE PALSY. [seem, 
 
 some tilings wliicli belong to man tliat He had not, 
 were there not some things in men which He did not 
 enter into ? I answer no ; absolutely, no. He has 
 everything which belongs to a man. He enters into 
 everything which there is in every man. And that is 
 the reason He is called the Son of Man. He is TJie 
 Man j the Head Man, the King of Men. But if you go 
 on to say, 'What ! was there, indeed, siu in Him, then ?' 
 I answer, no, verily ; for He would not have been able 
 to understand every man, He would not be truly and 
 perfectly a man if there had been. Sin is what sepa- 
 rates us from each other. Sin is what prevents us from 
 understanding each other. Sin is what every man 
 hugs in himself, and which keeps him away from other 
 people. The Son of Man had no siu, and therefore He 
 felt for all, and cared for all. The Son of Man has no 
 sin, therefore He feels for all and cares for all. But, as 
 you see by the story I have read to you, the Son of 
 Man can feel for men that have sin in them, all the 
 more because He is without it; He knows what a 
 burden it is, as we that have so much of it do not 
 know. He cares to set men free from it, as we do not 
 care. 
 
 Now, brethren, the great and blessed thing of all is 
 to know and believe assuredly that He is such a Son 
 of Man as this. 
 
 That was the message which Jesus brought to the 
 poor people of Galilee and Judaea, to the fishermen and 
 the publicans. He made them feel and imderstand 
 
Ti.] THE SICK OF THE PALSY. 55 
 
 that there was a King of Men, a Lord of Men, who 
 cared for them, for every one of them ; who loved them, 
 every one of them ; who would deliver them, every one 
 of them, from that which was separating him from his 
 neighbour, and making him at war with himself. The 
 Scribes and learned men did not believe this. They 
 could not make it out. They had a notion of a God, 
 a Being very far off from man, who punished their 
 offences against Him, and sometimes, perhaps, might 
 be persuaded to forgive them. But they did not know 
 what was meant by a Son of Man. They did not think 
 there was such a person. What was the consequence ? 
 They knew nothing of God, though they talked of Him 
 and pretended to fear Him ; they merely dreamed of 
 Him ; they made a God out of their own dark fancies 
 and wicked thoughts. Jesus, the Son of Man, came to 
 show us who the true God is. He came, as He said, 
 from God, to do the works of God. He said that God 
 was not a tyrant, but a Father ; and that in Him they 
 might see the Father. And it is in Him, brethren, 
 that you and I must see the Father, and only in Him. 
 If we try to think of God without thinking of the Son 
 of Man, we shall get all astray, and suppose Him to be 
 another Being altogether from what He is. But if we 
 think what this Jesus, the Son of Man and the Sou of 
 God was, if we think that He is now what He was 
 always, then we shall begin to know what God is ; then 
 we shall begin to know something of His goodness, and 
 truth, and love ; then we shall desire to be like Him, 
 
56 THE SICK OF THE PALSY. [serm. 
 
 and we shall believe that He would have us to be like 
 Him. So take in well this thought of Jesus the Son of 
 Man, and feed upon it, then you will understand what 
 follows. 
 
 2. The Son of Man has power even to forgive sins. 
 What power that must be ! Think how it worked with 
 this poor palsied man. He had been out, I daresay, in 
 great storms. He had seen the lightning and heard 
 the thunder. Was not there power there ? Yes, but 
 it had never come nigh to him. He had never felt 
 that the thunder or the lightning were his lords, or 
 that they could make him another man. But this Son 
 of Man said, " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee," and 
 these words went down into the very heart of him. He 
 was sure, ' These do come from my Lord and Master. 
 He has found me. He is speaking to me now.' And 
 remember, dear brethren, that is the power we need 
 for ourselves. It is a power that can speak to us ; that 
 can get the mastery over our own selves. No other 
 will do for us. And remember there is such a power 
 near you and near me at every moment ; it is the power 
 of this Son of Man. It is the power of Him who is the 
 true Lord of each one of us. The Son of Man did not 
 exercise power over the palsied man by looking at him 
 or touching him ; He spoke to the heart within him. 
 And every time that there comes any twinge in our 
 consciences, every time that any one of us wakes up 
 and says, ' I have been doing wrong,' His voice has 
 been speaking to us ; and every time that any one of 
 
VI.] THE SICK OF THE PALSY. 57 
 
 US has said, ' I will try to be a better and truer man,' 
 His power lias been used over us. 
 
 3. He goes on, " The Son of Man has power on 
 earth to forgive sius.'^ The Scribes thought that 
 perhaps God would forgive men's sins after they left the 
 earth, if they tried to please Him and make up with 
 Him here. Many of us thus think. But our Lord speaks 
 a different language ; He does not speak of what is to 
 be done hereafter, but of what is to be done here. It 
 is on earth that our sins plague us and torment us, and 
 plague and torment our neighbours ; it is on earth we 
 want to get quit of them. And, therefore, Christ's 
 first word to this palsied man was, " Son, thy sins be 
 forgiven thee now." And that is a sign and pledge of 
 what He had power to do, and will to do, for those 
 who were on earth then, and for those who are on 
 earth now. 
 
 4. But, then, mind what this word Forgive means. 
 Does it mean less than the Scribes thought it meant ? 
 
 less than men commonly think it means ? No, verily, 
 but a great deal more. The Scribes thought that if a 
 man had committed a great many sins, God would 
 perhaps pass them by, and not punish them, if certain 
 sacrifices and offerings were made to Him. People 
 now often say, ' Well, I am a little given to drinking ; 
 I am a little more covetous than I ought to be ; I am 
 not quite just and fair in all my dealings, but I do hope 
 <jrod will forgive me.' Yes ! He is ready to do that. 
 The Son of Man came from His Father to tell us so. 
 
58 THE SICK OF THE PALSY. [serm. 
 
 But He is not so liard and cruel a King and Friend as 
 to forgive a man for being a drunkard, and to leave 
 liim a drunkard ; to forgive a man for being covetous, 
 and to leave bim covetous. Wby, is not a sot the 
 most miserable wretcb and slave ? Is not bis drink bis 
 lord and master ? Does it not make bim into tbe 
 vilest tbing ? Is not tbe covetous man sold to bis 
 money ? Does it not bold bim in prison and put bim 
 to tortures every day ? Do you tbink tbe Son of Man 
 would leave us in sucb accursed bondage as tbat ? No, 
 to forgive means to sejid aivay. Sometimes we talk, 
 you knowj of remission of sins ; tbat is just tbe same, 
 is used in tbe same sense. 
 
 Tbe Son of Man bas power on eartb, power over our 
 spirits to remit or send away tbe sins wbicb bave made 
 us captive. Tbat is wbat He did for tbe man sick of 
 tbe palsy. Tbat is wby we call Him a Redeemer. 
 
 5. Once more ; He bas power on eartb to forgive 
 sins. Wbat sins ? I can give but one answer — mine 
 and yours. You do not know wbat evil babits I am 
 most prone to, I do not know wbat you are most prone 
 to. But wliatever tbey are, tbe Son of Man bas 
 power on eartb to break tbese babits in pieces — to 
 send tbese sins away. 
 
 And, tberef ore, wben it comes into tbe beart of any 
 one of us to say, ' Well, I daresay I am bad, but I 
 do not lie as tbat man, or cbeat as tbat man does,' 
 let us answer tbe devil wbo puts us upon tbat tbougbt 
 in tbis way : ' Tbis evil of mine is my enemy, my 
 
VI,] THE SICK OF THE PALSY. 59 
 
 tyrant ; so I will ask the Son of Man, wlio is near me 
 at all times and all places, to set me free from that ; 
 then I will go and say to my neighbour, " Thou, too, 
 hast a great Friend and Deliverer, who is able to send 
 away thy sins from thee." For He is the Son of Man, 
 the common Lord and Saviour of us all ; and He is 
 also with each one of us, and can say to each one of us 
 as He said to the sick of the .palsy, " Son, thy sins bo 
 sent away from thee." ' 
 
 Perhaps you think, ' But it came all at once to him, 
 and for me to get rid of my bad habits is very slow 
 work indeed.'' No, brethren, it did not come all at 
 once to him in the way you fancy. The discovery that 
 he had a Friend who cared for him, who wished to do 
 him good, in whom he might trust, that did come to 
 him with a wonderful joy, that was the greatest deliver- 
 ance he had ever known, that took the palsy from his 
 heart. Bat all the time he lived afterwards he will 
 have had a battle to fight with his sins ; much more of 
 a battle than he had ever fought before, and oftentimes 
 I daresay he lost the recollection of his Friend — it 
 seemed as if the Son of Man were gone. Then his old 
 sins would become his masters again ; he would feel 
 that they were always at hand to overawe him. Never- 
 theless, the thing was true and certain ; the Son of 
 Man had been with him before he knew Him, and was 
 with him when he forgot Him. And so it is with us. 
 We are members of Christ's body. He is with every 
 one of us. To believe that He is ; to believe that we 
 
60 THE SICK OF THE PALSY. [serm. 
 
 have Him as our Helper and Deliverer; to believe 
 tliat He is stronger than all tlie enemies tliat are 
 miglitiest ■witliin us, tllis is infinite comfort and joy; 
 this assures us that the sin which seems so near us 
 is really divided from us ; that it is not our master ; 
 that "we shall be able to trample it under foot. But, 
 with us as with the palsied man, it must be a daily, 
 hourly fight, to remember that Christ, the Son of Man, 
 is our Master, and that the world, and the flesh, and 
 the devil, are not our masters. 
 
 You will say, perhaps, ' But we have no tokens such 
 as our Lord gave when He was on earth, that He for- 
 gives our sins.' Yes, brethren, we have all these 
 tokens and very many besides. We have all these 
 tokens ; for when you read to-day how Christ healed 
 the sick of the palsy eighteen hundred years ago, you 
 may say boldly, 'That is a token to me of what He 
 was, and is, and is to be always.' If that showed that 
 He had power to send away sins from the Galileans, it 
 shows the same just as much for the people of Shrop- 
 shire. But you have other tokens. Every one that 
 gets rid of any disease in your parish is raised out of 
 it by the Son of Man. Every such recovery is a token 
 that He has the power to put away sins as well as to 
 put away diseases. And remember the sins which each 
 of us commits affect our parish and our whole nation. 
 "We speak of national sins because sins destroy the 
 nation. Now does not Christ give us tokens that He 
 has power to put them away ? I have asked you to 
 
VI.] THE SICK OF THE PALSY. 61 
 
 come and meet me here to-morrow to give tlianks for 
 the harvest. Do not you think that is such a token ? 
 Does it not say to us, ' The Son of Man who makes the 
 seed to grow, and bring forth, and bud, can make all 
 good seed spring up and grow, and bring forth fruit in 
 our hearts — can destroy the weeds that choke and 
 stifle them.' Again, I have asked you to come next 
 Sunday to receive the bread and the wine which Christ 
 blesses and feeds us with. Is not that a token that the 
 Son of Man is with us ; each of us and all of us ? What 
 is that but the feast of Forgiveness ; the feast when we 
 come confessing our sins against each other and against 
 God, asking Him that we may forgive each other as 
 He in Christ forgives us ? Does not the Son of Man say 
 to each of us there, ' These are the signs that I have 
 power on earth to forgive sins. Go, therefore, in the 
 strength of my body and blood which I have given for 
 you, to serve with pure and humble hearts your Father 
 and your brethren,' 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE FEAST OP THE KING'S SON. 
 
 Preached at Welsh Hampton, 20th Sunday after Trinity, October 5, 1856. 
 
 " The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a certain king whicli made a 
 marriage for his son." — St. Matthew xxii. 2. 
 
 If I searched ever so far, I could find notHng fitter 
 tlian tlie Gospel for to-day to tell us wliat the sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper means, and why you should 
 receive it. 
 
 It is a marriage feast ; it is the feast which the 
 great King of earth and heaven makes to celebrate 
 the marriage of His Son. 
 
 It is a feast to which most of those who were first 
 bidden would not come. It is a feast to which God 
 bids all from the highways and the hedges, ignorant 
 people, sinful people. 
 
 It is a feast at which some present themselves with- 
 out a marriage garment, who therefore are cast out. 
 
 Let us think of each of these things for a few 
 minutes, brethren, and may God Himself enable us to 
 understand His words. 
 
 First, then, it is a marriage feast. Men were 
 scattered up and down this world. They spoke 
 different languages ; they had different customs ; they 
 
SERM. VII.] THE MAERIAGE FEAST. 63 
 
 had rivalries and enmities witli eacli other ; it seemed 
 as if tliey liad come upon the earth to fight with each 
 other. Yet they felt a continual drawing to each other, 
 they could not live without each other, they must sell 
 and buy from each other ; some of them yearned to be 
 friends. Men and women bound themselves to each 
 other in wedlock. All found that they were sons and 
 daughters, if they were not brothers and sisters. Men 
 must have been made to be one. How comes it that 
 they are so divided ? Their consciences said there 
 would not be this separation unless there were a deeper 
 separation besides. We should not be quarrelling 
 among ourselves, if we had not quarrelled with One 
 who rules over us. I say men's consciences told them 
 this, or rather God told it them through their con- 
 sciences. And therefore they worked hard to bring 
 about a reconciliation, a union, between themselves 
 and the Being whom they felt they were at war with. 
 They offered sacrifices ; they were ready to give up 
 their goods and their offspring too, if they could but 
 make peace with Him. But they did not know with 
 whom they were to make peace. They thought He 
 was like themselves, and was to be won over as they 
 won over those whom they had made their enemies. 
 They did not know that it was a God of perfect love 
 from whom they had separated themselves. They did 
 not know that He was their Father. They did not 
 know that He was seeking after them to bring them 
 into reconciliation. They did not know that all their 
 
64 THE 5[AREIAGE FEAST [serm. 
 
 yearning after Him was awakened by Himself. They 
 did not know that He had kept them in fellowship 
 with each other, that He had made them into families 
 and nations. They did not know that all their discords 
 came from resistance to Him. They did not know that 
 He meant to gather them all into one. 
 
 This was the message which Jesus brought into the 
 world. He said, ' He who rules over you is my Father. 
 He has formed you in me. He has made you one in 
 me. And now I am come to unite you all to myself. 
 I have married your flesh and blood to myself; and 
 that is that I may marry the spirits of you who have 
 this flesh and blood to myself. For I tell you, you 
 cannot live apart from me ; your life flows into you 
 from me.' And when He was going away. He gave 
 bread to His disciples and said, " Take, eat, this is my 
 flesh." He gave wine and said, " Drink, this is my 
 blood. Do this in remembrance of me." That is to 
 say, ' Do this in remembrance that I have married myself 
 to your flesh and blood. Do this in remembrance that 
 your spirits are united to me. Do this in remembrance 
 that all your life flows into you from me. Do this 
 because ye are married to me, and are one in me.' 
 
 2. Therefore you see that it is the feast of a marriage 
 which God has made for His Son. When each of us 
 said just now, " I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, 
 our Lord ; " each of us said, I believe that the Son of 
 God is our husband ,• that God hath united Him to us. 
 Thus I affirm that what He told the disciples about 
 
Til.] OF THE KING'S SON. 65 
 
 themselves, is true about us. It must needs be so ; for 
 He did not take tlie flesli of St. Peter and St. John 
 more than He took the flesh o£ you and me. He took 
 the flesh and blood of man. He gave up that flesh 
 and that blood upon the Cross. Therefore there is the 
 same bond between Him and us, the same marriage 
 between Him and us, that there was between Him and 
 the disciples who sat with Him the night before He 
 suffered. They were the witnesses whom He sent to 
 tell us of it. And we have not more hfe in our spirits 
 than they had ; our life flows out of His life just as 
 much as theirs did. 
 
 That is the reason we go on keeping the Lord's 
 Supper in every parish of England. We know that 
 none of us can live, that we cannot live for one hour 
 apart from Christ, the Son of God. We know that He 
 it is, and He only, who unites us to God, and unites us 
 to each other. We know that if we forget Him, we 
 forget that we are united to God, and are united to our 
 brethren. We know that we are liable now, as much 
 as we ever were, to be at strife. We know that when 
 we have been at strife with each other, and have been 
 doing wrong, there comes into our minds a sense of 
 God's being our enemy, and that we act as if He were. 
 We know that we shall then try, by all superstitious 
 and wicked acts, to bring Him over to us just as the 
 heathen did. We know that the only way to escape 
 from doing that, is to remember the words He said, 
 that He has reconciled us to Himself, that He may 
 
66 THE :jrARRIAGE FEAST [seem. 
 
 make a marriage for us witli His Son ; tliat He lias 
 made peace with us in tlie flesli and blood wliicli He 
 took of tlie Virgin, ■wkicli He offered on the cross. 
 And liow shall we own that message to be true ? 
 This, He says, is the simple way : Receive these tokens 
 that the marriage is not to be made, but that it is 
 made. Claim to be united to Me and to each other in 
 Christ, as I declare that you are. 
 
 But those who were first called would not come. 
 Why was that ? Because they felt it was their glory 
 to be separate from other men ; because they had no 
 real wish to be at one with God. The Jews had been 
 called out by God, that in them all the families of the 
 earth might be blessed; that by them God might 
 testify to all of His goodness and truth. They thought 
 that He had called them out to be a curse to all the 
 families of the earth ; they thought they were to tell 
 all the families of the earth, God cares for us and not 
 for you : the only chance for you is to adopt our 
 customs, and become like us. Therefore their minds 
 were wholly alienated from God ; they did not enter 
 into His purpose ; they were doing all they could to 
 defeat it. And when the Apostles of Christ testified 
 to them, saying, ' What God said to your fathers by the 
 prophets He would do. He has actually done. He has 
 made a marriage with men in His Son. Come and rejoice 
 with us that He has made peace with all. Come and 
 bear this message with us unto all tribes and kindreds ' 
 — some of them said, ' Nonsense, what have we to do 
 
Tii.] OF THE KING'S SON. 67 
 
 ■with that ; we liave our farms and merchandise to look 
 after ; what do we want to be told of a Father of our 
 spirits, and of our being reconciled to Him ?' Others 
 did not take it so easily ; they did not laugh, but were 
 f ariously angry. They said, This is robbing us of our 
 privileges ; this is putting us on a level with other 
 men.'' So they brought the Apostles who bare these 
 tidings before kings and rulers ; they imprisoned them, 
 stoned them, crucified them. 
 
 What came of it ? These Jews had decried Him 
 who bound them together. They had set at nought 
 their king. Nothing could keep them at one. They 
 became more and more divided. They tore each other 
 in pieces. At last the day which had been foretold 
 arrived. The Romans, so the Lord of all had ap- 
 pointed, destroyed them and their city. They became 
 vagabonds on the face of the eai'th. So it was proved 
 that the message was a true message. The King of 
 Kings had made a marriage for His Son. It was a 
 real feast which they had refused to partake of. 
 
 It is a feast to which God bids all sorts of people. 
 That was the chief reason, as I told you, why the 
 Jews spurned the invitation. They did not like it to 
 be thought that all were the better for this marriage. 
 They did not like to keep a feast at which publicans 
 and sinners, yes, and heathen, were asked to sit down. 
 In other words, they did not believe in the marriage 
 at all. For if the Son of God has taken man's flesh 
 and blood ; if he is the Lord of men's spirits, there 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE MARRIAGE FEAST [serm. 
 
 is not a single human creature of any tribe or kindred 
 who has not a share in the blessings of it. There is 
 not one to whom we njay not say, ' Your Lord and ours 
 calls upon you to remember that He has taken your 
 flesh and died for you. Come and give Him thanks 
 that He has done so. Come and have fellowship with 
 His Father and your Father.' If you say, ' But was 
 not this marriage then made for the sake of righteous 
 and holy people ? Was it not with them that Christ 
 united Himself?' I say, no, brethren. It is by claim- 
 ing to be united with Christ that a man becomes 
 righteous. Whilst he tries to be righteous in himself, 
 whilst he wishes to be separate from his true Lord, he 
 cannot be righteous. 
 
 If a son goes away from his father's house, and 
 says he will have nothing more to do with his father 
 or his mother, or with any of his brothers and sisters, 
 and if his father or one of his brothers went to per- 
 suade him to come back, do you think the man ought 
 to say, ' By-and-by, when I am very righteous and good, 
 i will come back and make it up with you and live 
 with you again.' How could he do that ? How could 
 he become right while he denied his birthright and 
 his parents ? Do you not see that the proof of his 
 being better would be, to do what he was urged to do, 
 to confess that he had a father, and that he was alto- 
 gether wrong ever to have broken away from him ? 
 Well, the case is exactly the same here. No one can 
 make himself right while he stands apart from his 
 
Til.] OF THE KING'S SON. 69 
 
 Father in Heaven and his Elder Brotlier. The way 
 to be right is to turn round to his Father and say, 
 ' I have forgotten Thee, my heart has been far from 
 Thee. And I should never have remembered Thee, 
 or have wished to find Thee, or to be at peace with 
 Thee at all, if Thou hadst not sent me word by Thy 
 Son that I am Thy child, and that Thou wouldst 
 have me call Thee my Father in Him. But as 
 Thou hast sent me this word, as Thou hast said 
 that He has come down and taken my flesh, and 
 died on the cross in it, on purpose that He might 
 bring me to Thee, I yield myself ; I will fight with 
 Thee no more ; I will not be the fool I have been in 
 setting up my bad will against Thy good will. I desire 
 that Thou shouldest rule me henceforth, and shouldest 
 take away all my ignorance and wilfulness from me.' 
 That is what a person says who heeds this message, 
 * Come to the wedding-feast.' He does not the least 
 pretend that he has any goodness of his own. It is 
 because he feels that he has not, and that he cannot 
 "have, that he wants to be thoroughly joined to Him, 
 in whom all goodness dwells. And since he cannot, 
 poor creature and beggar as he is, join himself to the 
 Great Prince of the whole earth; he is greatly 
 astonished and rejoiced to hear that this great Prince 
 has joined Himself to him ; that He has stooped to 
 the state of the very lowest of us, on purpose that 
 the very lowest of us might receive forgiveness, and 
 strength, and life, and all that he wants from Him. 
 
'70 THE MAEEIAGE FEAST [seem. 
 
 So you see wliy our Lord speaks o£ sending out into 
 tlie highway s and hedges, and getting in all manner of 
 guests. You see He' could not say otherwise. For 
 all these people are human beings, and Christ has not 
 been ashamed to call them brethren, and he has 
 proved that He is their Brother by dying their death ; 
 and it is a sin for anyone to cut himself off from 
 God's great family in heaven and earth, and to remain 
 at strife with those who belong to the same race with 
 him ; so surely all may be told that they need not and 
 must not commit this sin, but may come and join with 
 all the rest of their family in keeping the Marriage 
 Supper of their Lord. 
 
 But, lastly, we hear of some coming there without a 
 marriage garment, and being, therefore, thrust out. I 
 have told you already what this wedding garment is not. 
 It is not a man's own goodness, that God does not expect 
 him to bring. What is it then ? It is the goodness, 
 and mercy, and love of God Himself. When He made 
 that great marriage for His Son, when He united Him 
 to our flesh and blood. He showed forth in Him all His 
 own goodness, and love, and truth ; as St. John wrote, 
 we saw His glory as of the only begotten Son of God, 
 full of grace and truth. He showed it forth in Him, 
 that we might say. This is what we want ; this is what 
 we have not in ourselves. ^Vhen we say this in our 
 hearts we begin to believe in God's love and righteous- 
 ness, or, as the Scripture says, to put our trust in Him, 
 So we become partakers of all these good things of 
 
-VII.] OF THE KING'S SON. 71 
 
 God, just as we take in the meres and the distant hills 
 with our eyes, though they are so much greater than 
 we are. But if a man will not trust in God's love and 
 righteousness ; i£ he does not think that God is loving 
 and righteous ; if he does not wish to be like God in 
 His love and righteousness ; if he had rather be just 
 what he is in himself, then he will not put on the 
 wedding garment which God has provided him, and 
 God, who sees all of us that come to that feast, and. 
 reads the heart of each one of us, sees that we do not 
 come there to seek Him ; that we come there for some 
 other end than that ; for some low miserable end of 
 our own ; and so His light does not shine in on us ; 
 He leaves us in the darkness we have chosen ; and we 
 grow worse and worse, darker and darker, for having 
 mocked Him and trifled with Him. 
 
 You say, ' That is very dreadful.' Surely it is. It is 
 dreadful to distrust God who is all good, and to trust 
 in ourselves in whom apart from God there is no good 
 at all. It is dreadful to think highly of ourselves. If 
 you think that, come to this feast that you may con- 
 fess God's infinite goodness, which is manifested in His 
 Son, His goodness in marrying that Son to our nature, 
 that we might be clothed with His spotless garment of 
 Justice and Love, come and own how empty you are 
 that He may feed you with the food of eternal life. 
 Depend upon it. He will send none away who desire 
 that food. He will cast none into outer darkness who 
 seek for His light. 
 
SEilMON YIII. 
 
 THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 
 
 Preached at Welsh Hampton, 23rd Sunday after Trinity, 
 October 26, 1856. 
 
 " For onr conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the 
 Saviour Jesns Christ. TTho shall change our vile body that it 
 may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the 
 working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto 
 Himself."— Philippiaxs iii. 20, 21. 
 
 Once upon a time St. Paul was imprisoned in the city 
 of Philippi. He was thrown into prison because 
 lie had spoilt the gains of some enchanters by his 
 preaching. They complained to the magistrates that 
 he was exceedingly troubling their city, and teaching 
 them customs which were not lawful for them to 
 observe being Romans. 
 
 For Philippi was a Roman colony, and these people 
 liked to be thought Romans. Now it so happened that 
 St. Paul, too, was bom in a Roman colony, and that his 
 father, or some ancestor of his, had been made a citizen 
 of Rome, and he succeeded to the honours. The magis- 
 trates of Philippi did not know this, or they would not 
 have dared to seize him and put him into an inner 
 dungeon, and set his feet in the stocks, as they did. 
 
 In the night, while St. Paul and his companions were 
 singing praises to God, there was an earthquake, and 
 the prison doors were burst open, and the jailer cried 
 
SERM. VIII.] THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 73 
 
 out in fear, " What shall I do to be saved ? " The next 
 morning the magistrates were affrighted. They sent 
 word to St. Paul that he might go out of the city 
 quietly. But he refused to go. " They have beaten us 
 openly," he said, " uncondemned, being Romans ; and 
 now do they thrust us out privily ? Nay, verily, but 
 let them come themselves and fetch us out." And the 
 magistrates did come. They became suitors to their 
 own prisoners. When they knew that St. Paul was a 
 Roman citizen, they were most anxious that he should 
 not stand upon his rights and accuse them. 
 
 You see that the Apostle valued his privilege of 
 being a citizen of the greatest city upon earth. The 
 Philippians had reason to know that he valued it. He 
 had made them understand by his conduct that citizen- 
 ship is a great and honourable thing. Men are bound 
 together as citizens of a city, as members of a nation, 
 by God himself. 
 
 The heathens believed that every city had a God, who 
 watched over it and saved it from going to ruin. They 
 believed rightly ; only they did not know that it is the 
 same God of righteousness who watches over every city, 
 and prevents its inhabitants from tearing each other to 
 pieces by their selfishness and their enmities. 
 
 To be a citizen of Rome was a good thing, as it is 
 a good thing to be a citizen of any English town or 
 city, and a still better to be an Englishman. 
 
 But St. Paul tells the Philippians, in the words I 
 have just read you, that he was the citizen of another 
 
74 THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. [serm. 
 
 country too. " Our conversation," lie says — that is the 
 same thing as our citizenship — "is in heaven." What 
 did he mean by that ? He did not mean as I have 
 showed you, that he was not a citizen on earth; he did 
 not mean that he set little store by that citizenship ; 
 but he meant, ' J ust as I belong to a very great society, 
 consisting of all who have a right to call themselves 
 citizens of Rome now, and of all who have called them- 
 selves citizens of Rome since it was built, just so do I 
 belong to a still larger society than that, consisting of 
 members which no man can number, out of every 
 kindred, and tribe, and nation.' He described this 
 society in another epistle as the family in heaven and 
 earth of which God is the Father. He speaks of it as 
 being all named with His name. Sometimes he calls 
 this society " the body of Christ ; " and he speaks of 
 himself and his brethren as members of this body, as 
 each having a separate work to do, just as our hands 
 and feet have separate works to do ; as all suffering 
 together, just as we feel through our whole body a 
 pain or wound in any part of it. 
 
 But you will say, he does not speak of heaven and 
 earth; he only speaks of heaven. You are right, and 
 this is the reason. He had been complaining of some 
 persons in the Philippian Church, whose God was their 
 belly, whose glory was their shame, who minded earthly 
 things. Now, though these persons were members of 
 that great society of which St. Paul speaks, they were 
 not behaving as i£ they were members of it. They 
 
VIII.] THE EEDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 75 
 
 were not thinking of otlierSj they were thinking only 
 of themselves. They were not looking up to God their 
 Father, who had called them to be His children, or to 
 Christ their elder brother, who had come to deliver 
 them from their slavery to those things they saw and 
 handled, and to give them His free spirit. They were 
 bowing down to the things which they were meant to 
 use and rule. They were becoming the slaves of those 
 things ; they were making gods of them ; they were 
 forgetting who had redeemed them to be true men ; 
 they were becoming like animals. ' Wherefore,' cries 
 St. Paul, ' our citizenship, or conversation, is in heaven. 
 We have friends and fellow-sufferers upon earth, our 
 work is on earth ; we live to do good to the earth. But 
 our home is with God. He has bought us at a great 
 price that we might be freemen of His kingdom, and 
 might always fly to Him, and plead our cause before 
 Him. He has made for us a new and living way into 
 His presence through the flesh and blood of His Son, 
 and we have a right to walk in that way, and not to be 
 taking the downward way — the way of death.' 
 
 You will see what he says of the upward way in 
 the other part of these verses. 
 
 What were these men who made gods of their bellies 
 looking for ? Perhaps on the next day for some rich 
 food or some choice wines. But the day after ? For the 
 same, with less appetite to enjoy it. But the year 
 following ? For sickness and surfeiting ; and then — for 
 the grave ! All this time they had been preparing food 
 
76 THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. [seem. 
 
 for the worms. They had been fattening themselves for 
 their nourishment. A hopeless kind of existence this, 
 surely! No thought of anything bright, or good, or free, 
 to come hereafter ; no power of lifting themselves above 
 the pleasures of the beasts — even the power of enjoying 
 those pleasures growing less and less, and bitter pains 
 always mixing with them and following them. 
 
 Meantime, what was St. Paul, the citizen of heaven, 
 looking for ? " We look/' he says, " for the Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 1 spoke to you of this expectation last Sunday. I 
 told you that just as St. Paul expected the sun to come 
 out after each dark night, and to scatter the darkness, 
 and to shine out clear and bright upon himself and 
 upon the world, and to show everything as it is, so he 
 expected the Saviour Jesus Christ to come forth in the 
 glory of His Father and the holy angels. He believed 
 that he should stand in the open presence of his Lord, 
 and that every man on the earth would stand in the 
 same presence. 
 
 This he looked for and waited for ; this was the 
 salvation he desired ; for he was certain that there 
 could be no other salvation for men but in the 
 appearing of their true king and deliverer. 
 
 And St. Paul desired nothing for himself whicb he 
 did not desire for all human beings ; he did not think 
 there could be a blessing for him which was not a 
 blessing for them. The sight and knowledge of Jesus 
 Christ is the blessedness of all men, and no man is able 
 
VIII.] THE REDEMPTION OP THE BODY. 77 
 
 to be satisfied with any blessedness which is lowei' than 
 that. You will say, perhaps^ ' All this is very well if 
 we were angels, or if we had only got souls ; but we 
 have bodies ; these men who made gods of their bellies 
 might go too far in their respect for their bodies ; but 
 they did need something for them too ; else why did 
 God crea/te bodies at all?' Now hearken, brethren. 
 These men did not pay too much respect to their 
 bodies ; they paid too little. They did not know what 
 mighty, glorious gifts these bodies were ; if they had, 
 they would not have destroyed their bodies by indulging 
 them. 
 
 St. Paul had the greatest reverence for his own 
 body, and for the bodies of his fellow-creatures, that 
 any man could have. For he believed that the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the Saviour, had taken a body such as 
 ours, and had eaten earthly food, and had drunk of 
 earthly water and wine ; and had given that body to 
 die upon the cross, and had raised it out of the grave, 
 and had ascended with it to the right hand of His 
 Father. Therefore when St. Paul recollected his 
 citizenship in Heaven, when he claimed to be a 
 member of Christ's body, and prayed in His name to 
 His Father and our Father, he could not but think 
 how this body, which is so curiously and wonderfully 
 made, has a hidden glory in it, which, when Christ 
 appears in His glory, shall be fully made manifest. 
 Yes, he said to himself, this poor, vile body of mine, 
 which is subjected to aches and pains of all kinds, 
 
78 THE EEDBMPTION OF THE BODY. [serm. 
 
 •whicli is liable to accidents of -weather, which may be 
 set ajar by want of food, or by overmuch of it, this body 
 which may be racked with fever or rheumatism, or palsy 
 or consumption; this body upon the dust and corrup- 
 tion of which the worms must feed, shall be made like 
 to that glorious body which my Lord has redeemed from 
 the grave, and has gone up with into Heaven. Every- 
 thing seems to be threatening it with death, but Christ, 
 in whom is the fulness of life, has overcome death, and 
 is stronger than death. He has raised up my spirit that 
 was sinking lower and lower, to trust in Him and hope 
 in Him. He will raise up this body too. Nothing shall 
 be lost of all that God has given us, for Christ has re- 
 deemed it. Only death and corruption shall perish; 
 for they have assaulted God's glorious handy works. 
 What God has created, God will preserve. 
 
 Fathers and mothers, could you bear to look upon 
 the children whom you have brought into this world, 
 who will be exposed to such innumerable accidents and 
 sicknesses, if you did not believe this ? Do you not 
 know that when you bring them to Holy Baptism, when 
 you put them into Christ's hands, you ask Him to take 
 care of their bodies as well as their spirits, to raise up 
 both, to make both after His image ? And do you 
 think He is deceiving you ? Do you think He will 
 ever betray His trust ? No. Commit them and commit 
 yourselves to Him. In the darkest hours that come to 
 you or to them, still look up to Him ; still ask Him 
 to strengthen you to wait for Him, to long for His 
 appearing. If you do long for it, you who are poor 
 
VIII.] THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY. 79 
 
 will be able to bear your poverty; you who have enough 
 to eat and to enjoy will not make Gods of your bellies, 
 or mind earthly things. You will be sure that there 
 are better things than these which God has for us. In 
 the assurance that there are, you will resist the tempta- 
 tion to make your bodies the slaves of lust. In the 
 assurance that there are, you will not destroy bodies 
 and souls both with drunkenness. You will remember 
 that your bodies as well as your spirits have been bought 
 with Christ's blood. You will remember that your bodies 
 as well as your spirits are intended to be like His. 
 
 Are you determined that they shall not be like His? 
 Are you determined to give them up to everything 
 that is vile, and low, and accursed ? Are you deter- 
 mined to give away to the devil what Christ, at such a 
 price, has taken from him ? Oh ! do not so ! Swear 
 upon God's altar that you will not ! Ask His strength 
 hour by hour that you may not ! 
 
 And then, whatever slow disease or sudden shock 
 may show you that your bodies were made out of the 
 earth, and must return to the earth, you may say boldly 
 He is able to subdue all things to Himself. 
 
 As He raised His body out of the grave, He will 
 raise mine. As He ascended with his body to Heaven, 
 He will give mine power to use all the energies which 
 He has given it, with no hindrance from earth or from 
 death. As He will appear in the glory of His Father, 
 He will enable me to shine forth with all His redeemed 
 children in His Father's kingdom. 
 
SEEMON IX. 
 
 THE SPIRIT THE HELP TO PKAYEE. 
 Preached at Ockham, 9th Sv,nday after Trinity, August 21, 1859. 
 
 " Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities ; for we know not 
 what we should pray for as we ought : but the Spirit itself maketh 
 intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." — 
 Romans viii. 26. 
 
 You have been praying this prayer to-day : " Grant 
 to us, Lord, "we beseech, thee, the spirit to think and to 
 do always such things as be rightful ; that we who 
 cannot do anything that is good without thee, may by 
 thee be enabled to live according to thy will ; through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord," 
 
 Did you consider what you were asking for when 
 you said these words ? You were not asking for sun- 
 shine or rain, for food or raiment, to be stronger in body, 
 or to have more money. You were asking the God of 
 Heaven and Earth to give you His own Spirit; to give 
 you the Spirit which dwelt in our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 the Spirit which urged Him to go about doing good 
 
SERM. IX.] THE SPIEIT THE HELP TO PKAYER. 81 
 
 ■when He was upon eartli ; the Spirit by wliicli He 
 offered Himself to God upon the cross; tlie Spirit who 
 raised Him from the dead; the Spirit in whom He and 
 the Father have been united before the worlds were, 
 and will be united for ever. 
 
 It was a mighty petition. How did we dare to offer 
 it ? God Himself can give us no greater gift. What 
 have we done to deserve it ? Look at the Collect again 
 and see : " We who cannot do anything that is good 
 without Thee." We confess that we cannot stand before 
 God and say we have done any good things which can 
 entitle us to this blessing, or to any blessing at Thy 
 Hands. We say plainly, if we are to be good, Thou 
 must make us good ; if we are to do any right thing, 
 Thou must enable us to do that right thing. Without 
 Thee we shall do wrong things. Nay, without Thee we 
 cannot even think right things. These thoughts of ours 
 will all go awry. They will be vain and silly ; they 
 will be full of mischief. We shall have bad devices in 
 -our hearts, and the bad devices will turn into bad deeds. 
 And because we have had so many of these bad thoughts, 
 and because we have done so many bad deeds — because 
 we are helpless and sinful — because we feel that we are, 
 and every day makes us feel it more, therefore we ask 
 this of Thee, which is more than food and raiment, 
 than sun and rain, than health and wealth ; therefore 
 we ask Thee to grant us this Divine Spirit — Thine own 
 Spirit. 
 
 The more we look into this prayer, the more won- 
 
 G 
 
82 THE SPIEIT THE HELP TO PRAYEE. [sebm. 
 
 derful it seems. TVhat could an angel in Heaven wish 
 for more than that he should be like God — that he 
 should have the very heart and mind of God in Heaven ? 
 And yet here we are asking it because "sve are so little 
 like angels — because we are continually tempted to 
 break God's commandments — because we have broken 
 them — because all sorts of vile desires come into our 
 minds — because we find it so very hard to get any better 
 desires into them. 
 
 Yes ! that is the way we are taught and trained to 
 say this prayer. We find out how inclined we are to 
 be unkind, unclean, unjust, untrue; we look hither and 
 thither for help. We try if no one can tell us what 
 we ought to do, and how we are to do it. 
 
 Many are ready with their advice, and often we 
 would give the world to follow it. But they cannot 
 make us follow it; they cannot get down into the heart 
 of us and mould and fashion that. Our thoughts go on 
 taking their own course; whatever good words we hear, 
 the words seem as if they could not catch these thoughts 
 — thev run so fast, and in all stransre ziorzaof wavs. TTe 
 want some one who can overlook them — who knows 
 them all, yours and mine ; and the man's who is at the 
 other side of the globe. And He who is able to do 
 that — who can enter into all the thoughts of men 
 everywhere, who knows them, who can guide them, 
 who can turn them from bad to good, from darkness to 
 light, from false to true. He must be the Spirit of the 
 living God. For that Spirit we dare to ask, because we 
 
IX.] THE SPIRIT THE HELP TO PRAYER. 83 
 
 are sure that God does not wish us to be disorderly, 
 miserable, evil creatures, and yet we are sure it will 
 come to tliat if He does not take tlie government over 
 us and enable us to live according to His will. 
 
 But tbougb. we find out bow much we need this 
 Spirit, and how little any other can help us in our straits, 
 we might still think it was only a few people here and 
 there who could ever hope to win such a blessing. 
 People have had that belief, and they have it still. 
 They have said to themselves, ' These ministers, who 
 preach to us and give us Grod's sacraments, they may 
 receive this Spirit of God, or men who have got some 
 new and rare wisdom or can tell us about some better 
 way of being religious than our fathers have told us, 
 they may have it ; all we poor, common people can do, 
 is to listen to what these ministers or these wise people 
 say, and to get some crumbs that fall from their tables.' 
 It would be very natural for you to say these words, 
 and I am afraid that we should be wicked enough to 
 be pleased with you for saying them, and to boast that 
 we were greater favourites with the Father of all than 
 you are. But mark how the last words of the prayer 
 mock this insolence and vanity of ours ; how they teach 
 us that the Spirit is for you as much as for us, " through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord" — through Him, who took upon 
 Him the nature of us all — through Him, who was called 
 the carpenter's son — through Him, who ate and drank 
 with publicans and sinners— through Him,who preached 
 the Gospel to the poor — through Him, who died for all 
 
 a 2 
 
84 THE SPIEIT THE HELP TO PEAYEK. [serm. 
 
 men — tlirougli Him who rose again for all men — 
 through Him, who ascended on high, to be the Advocate 
 of all before His Father — through Him who sent His 
 Apostles to tell all that they are the children of God in 
 Him — through Him, who came into the world that He 
 might baptize men with His Spirit. Do you not see 
 that this language would be a mockery and a lie if we 
 dared to set up any pretension for ourselves which would 
 separate us from any one of you ? What we are sent 
 to testify is, that the highest gift of God is that which 
 is for all alike. We need the Spirit of God for the 
 works we have to do. We can speak no true, honest, 
 sound word, unless we ask Him to teach us what we 
 shall say, and how we shall say it. But, most of all, 
 we need His help to take the conceit and self-sufficiency 
 out of us — to make us understand that we can of our- 
 selves make you do no right deed, and think no right 
 thought ; that we cannot of ourselves do any right deed, 
 or think any right thought; that we are all on a level — 
 all feeble, and paltry, and sinful, without God; all 
 redeemed and purchased by Him ; all able to live ac- 
 cording to His will, if His own Spirit, as He promises, 
 worketh in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. 
 
 I have been speaking to you so far about the Collect 
 because I wished you to use it as if its words were true, 
 mighty, blessed words, such as I take them to be, and 
 that you should not merely repeat them as if they 
 meant nothing. But I should not have spoken to you 
 of anything in the Prayer Book, if I did not think its 
 
IX.] THE SPIRIT THE HELP TO PRAYER. 85 
 
 lessons were in the Bible^ and if they did not send you 
 back to the Bible, where you will find them more 
 bright, clear, and full. The passage I have taken out 
 of the Epistle to the Romans tells us something more 
 even than the Collect. We need to hiow it, if this 
 Collect, or any of the Collects, is to do us real lasting 
 good. We often say in our hearts — I have said it to 
 myself a thousand times — yes ! we might have this 
 Spirit of God, if we could pray for such a gift. But I 
 do not feel that I can. My tongue seems tied, or what 
 is worse, I speak readily enough ; but there is nothing 
 in my heart that answers to the speech, as a poor 
 miserable king, who had murdered his brother, said, 
 after he had tried to say a prayer : 
 
 "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below, 
 Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go." 
 
 Now, brethren, what is the way out of this perplexity 
 for you, and me, and all of us ? What are we to do 
 when we feel as if we could not pray ? as if that were 
 the greatest difficulty of all. Hear what St. Paul says, 
 for he had suffered in this way, as in most other ways — 
 that was his training to be an Apostle : — " Likewise the 
 Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what 
 we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself 
 maketh intercession for us, with groanings that cannot 
 be uttered." So you see it is the Spirit who helps us 
 not only to think and to do, but also to pray — who 
 draws out our desires towards God, who speaks more 
 
86 THE SPIRIT THE HELP TO PEAYER. [seem. 
 
 for us and in us than we know. It is very wonderfal^ 
 but yet it must be so. We could not pray if God 
 Himself were not stirring up prayer in us. It is not we 
 wbo seek first for fellowship with Him, He seeks to have 
 fellowship with us. The children begin to ask for their 
 Father, because the Father has been first seeking for 
 His children. That is what our Lord is teaching us in 
 such a number of passages. It was, as I may say, the 
 ground of all His teaching. The Pharisees complained 
 of His keeping company with sinners. Nay, He said, 
 but what does a shepherd do who has lost a sheep out 
 of his fold ? What does a woman do who has lost a 
 piece of money ? What does a father do whose child 
 has wandered away from him ? Whatever these do. He 
 said, that your Father in Heaven is doing for His sheep 
 that are running into the pits and falling over preci- 
 pices — for the hearts that He has lost — for the children 
 that are forgetting themselves and Him. And He said 
 that He was come to do His Father's will, which was, 
 that all should come to the knowledge of their true state 
 and should live. Be sure, then, brethren, that when 
 we are able to ask for God's Spirit to help us, it is 
 because He is seeking after us, and prompting that wish 
 of ours, and stirring us up that it may not be a lazy 
 half -wish, but a real, strong, earnest cry. Be sure that 
 when we feel as if we needed to pray, but cannot, God's 
 Spirit is teaching us our weakness, and His strength ; 
 how much more He cares for us than we care for Him ; 
 how impossible it is for us to be right, or to be at peace. 
 
IX.] THE SPIEIT THE HELP TO PRAYER. 87 
 
 till we believe in Him and yield to Him. Be sare that 
 these deep longings, which there are in all of us, even 
 in those who are going most wrong, are the groanings 
 of that Spirit whom we have grieved and resisted. Be 
 sure that He speaks to our true, better mind ; that the 
 other mind, which is contrary to His, is a false, accursed, 
 devilish one, which we may ask Him to cast out. And 
 oh ! is it not a blessed thought that this Spirit is uttering 
 His groans for the deliverance of this world of ours from 
 all its sin and slavery and wretchedness ? Should not 
 we rejoice that God knows what is the mind of this 
 Spirit ; for it is His own mind ? Should not we confess 
 that all the evil that there is in us, and in all men, 
 <5omes from our fighting against that gracious mind of 
 the Father and of the Son ? Should not we trust, with, 
 all our hearts, that His will should at last be done on 
 earth as it is in Heaven ? And do not think that those 
 who have prayed that prayer here on earth, pray it less 
 fervently when they leave the earth. Then their tongues 
 ^re loosed ; then they can pray for us and all their 
 friends fighting here below, as God's Spirit would have 
 them pray ; then they begin to know that no prayer, or 
 groan, that has been uttered in the lowliest chamber, 
 or in the darkest dungeon, shall be in vain. God's 
 Spirit inspired those prayers and groans, and His new 
 Heaven and new Earth will be the answer to them. 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 THE LAW OF INHERITANCE. 
 
 Preached at Ochhavi, 10th Sunday after Trinity, August 28, 1859. 
 
 "Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon 
 the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." — Exodus xx. 12. 
 
 I AM going to speak to you this afternoon of one of the 
 Commandments. Some people tell us that the Com- 
 mandments generally do not concern us, they belonged 
 to the Old Dispensation. Some say that it is a great 
 hondage to impose them upon Englishmen who live 
 under the Grospel. Some say that this Commandment, 
 especially, is not meant for us, however good it may 
 he in itself, because it speaks of a land which the 
 Lord gave the Jews, and we are not dwellers in that 
 land. I shall not argue against these opinions. I wish 
 to try what they are worth in one instance. 
 
 The Israelites were travelling from the land of Egypt, 
 in which they had been bondsmen, to a land which had 
 been promised them. They were told that the Canaanites 
 who occupied that land had become filthy and brutal — 
 the cup of their iniquity was full. They had fancied 
 that the land was their own, to do what they liked with 
 
SEKM. X.] THE LAW OF INHERITANCE. 89 
 
 it. They did not acknowledge tlaat they were set in it 
 to till it and dress it. They did not acknowledge that 
 there was any one who would call them to account if 
 they misused it, and became plagues to each other and 
 to mankind. The Israelites were taught that men 
 were only tenants of the soil on which they dwell. It 
 was bestowed on them for certain uses. If they forget 
 these uses they will be turned out of it. The Canaanites 
 were to be cast out of this land because the true owner 
 of it had found them mischievous and corrupt. The 
 Israelites were to succeed them. These Israelites were 
 never to fancy, as the Canaanites had done, that it was 
 their land. They were always to recollect that they 
 were only husbandmen, set by the Great Landlord to 
 watch over it for Him. They were to count it as a 
 great blessing to have this stewardship entrusted to 
 them. And they were to ask very earnestly. What was 
 it that caused these people not to live longer in the 
 land ? The same wrong doings would lead to the same 
 result. There was no favouritism. They were there to 
 be witnesses of a truth — to do a work. If they were not 
 witnesses of this truth, if they failed to do this work, 
 they would perish off the land ; others would dispossess 
 them. What was it, then, this people had done which 
 had taken the land from them ? The great answer to 
 the question is given in the first and second Command- 
 ments. " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God who 
 brought thee out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt 
 not worship the likeness of anything in heaven or earth 
 
90 THE LAW OF IXHERITAXCE. [seem, 
 
 or uuder the eartli." The Canaanites had not -svor- 
 shipped a God who makes free. They had worshipped 
 gods who are tyrants/ who make slaves. They had 
 worshipped gods whom they dreaded and hated. They 
 had supposed these gods to bear the likenesses of things 
 in heaven and earth and under the earth. They had 
 stooped and crouched to these things. Some of the 
 objects were noble and glorious ; but worship had 
 degraded them. For men thought of them only as they 
 ministered to their wants, or awakened their fears ; so 
 they became different in each land. It was impossible to 
 think of them as blessings common to the whole earth. 
 And if they were thought of only as ministering to men's 
 wants, men would glorify all things whatever which 
 ministered to their wants. The lowest animal might 
 be as much an object of reverence as the sun or moon. 
 
 And here was the mighty contradiction. The men 
 felt they were greater than the greatest of these things, 
 whilst they were bowing down to them. They could 
 not help thinking so. They wanted a God to govern 
 them ; to tell them what they should be and what they 
 should do ; to hold them in fellowship with each other. 
 The sun and moon could not do this, nor the animals. 
 They could not teach them to keep their oaths ; they 
 could not teach them to work or to rest ; they could not 
 tell them when they should make their children or 
 their servants work and rest. Here were some of the 
 causes why these Canaanites were living in slavery, and 
 why they were to be driven from the land. 
 
i.] THE LAW OF INHERITANCE. 91 
 
 The fifth Commandment gives another reason. 
 When Ham exposed his father's nakedness, it was said, 
 "Servants of servants shall his children be." That is to 
 say, Ham's own sin of not honouring his father will be 
 the curse not only of him, but of future generations. 
 Wherever there is a race of people who do not honour 
 their parents, there will be a race of slavish people ; this 
 cannot be otherwise. And this, I have no doubt, was a 
 main cause of the brutality and slavery of these Canaan- 
 ites, inseparable from that of which I have just spoken. 
 They did not revere the father who had begotten them, 
 or the mother who had brought them forth. The child 
 had no thought of its parents ; perhaps scarcely knew 
 who they were. The parents had no thought of their 
 children. When it came to this in that or any country 
 of the old world, the inhabitants of that country were 
 becoming curses to themselves and to all about them. 
 The land was taken from them. If we believe the 
 Bible, we shall believe that God took it from them. 
 
 You see, then, why it is said here, " Honour thy 
 father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in 
 the land which the Lord thy God giveththee." That is 
 as much as to say, ' You Israelites must not fancy that 
 your days in that land which I am about to give you 
 will be longer than those of the Canaanites, if you do 
 not honour your fathers and mothers ; for it cannot be 
 so. By my everlasting law it cannot. I have placed 
 you in families. I have given you fathers and mothers. 
 And I have created you sous and daughters to look up 
 
92 THE LAW OF IXHERITAXCE. [serm. 
 
 to tliem and pay them reverence. And if that reverence 
 departs from you, if you do not care for tlie family to 
 "wliicli you belong, then you will not care for the land 
 to which you belong. You will not love it and fight 
 for it. You will not think it a sacred place because it 
 has the tombs of those who Avent before you in it. You 
 "will not call it your home, and wish to come back to it 
 whenever you wander. You will not believe that you 
 have anything to do with the generations that lived 
 here of old, and with those that shall be born when you 
 are in your graves. You will be mere miserable crea- 
 tures, thinking only of the present hour, how much you 
 can get to eat and to drink, or how much you can scrape 
 together. And then, be sure, there will creep over you 
 idleness and cowardice, and any invader that comes upon 
 you will be too mighty for you and will eat you up.^ 
 
 And this, which was said to the whole people, was, 
 you see, said to each one of them. Each man there 
 had his own father and mother. Each was to honour 
 his father and his mother ; otherwise he would become 
 a poor vagabond. Either he would run away from 
 his land, just because he was tired of it, or, if he 
 stayed in it, he would be a useless sot or gambler, 
 caring for no one but himself ; always trying to please 
 himself — ^his own enemy and his country's enemy. 
 
 And yet how many temptations did the Israelite find 
 when he came into the land which the Lord God gave 
 him, not to honour his father and mother ! How often 
 the evil spirit will have whispered to him, ' How they 
 
i-.] THE LAW OF INHERITANCE. 93 
 
 grudge you tliis or tliat tiling, liow unfair they are to 
 you ! How mucli wiser you are than they are ! How 
 can you be such a feeble creature as to care for what 
 they say to you ? Surely you know best what you 
 have need of ? ' All these things they heard, and some 
 of them were partly true. The fathers and mothers 
 might be often unfair and foolish ; they might neglect 
 their children ; very likely they might, in their youth, 
 have not reverenced tlicir parents. So that the young 
 man would frequently persuade himself that he had 
 the right on his side. And except he believed that the 
 Lord his God had said amongst thunders and lightnings 
 to his fathers, and was saying then to him, " Honour 
 thy father and thy mother," and unless he believed 
 that the Lord who spoke these words was indeed his 
 God as well as his father's God, and unless He beheved 
 that this God knew what was good for him and for all 
 men, and was commanding the thing that was right 
 and true ; and unless he believed that this God would 
 give him strength to obey that which He commanded, 
 he would yield continually to his evil nature ; no fear 
 of what was coming upon him would keep him from 
 doing so, his anger and his self-will would be too 
 strong for that. But the words would be fulfilled to 
 him. His days would not be long in the land which 
 the Lord his God gave him. And if there were a great 
 multitude like him, they would hasten the time when 
 the whole land should be desolate. 
 
 My friends ! do these things belong to the history 
 
94, THE LAW OF INHERITANCE. [serm. 
 
 of tlie old worldj to what people call a former dis- 
 pensation ? I hold that they belong to us, I hold it to 
 be just as true of England as it was of Judgea, that it 
 is a land which the Lord our God has given us. It is 
 not ours, any more than the land of Canaan was the 
 Israelites'. We are tenants of it, just as they were. 
 Our forefathers understood that they were to till it and 
 subdue it for God, and to drive wild beasts out of it, 
 and to root out the thorns and thistles, and to hand it 
 down better than they found it, to their children and 
 their children's children. 
 
 Whilst we remember this, every one of us, if he has 
 not a foot of land that he calls his own, may yet say, 
 ' I hold this land of God ; I have a share of it ; yes, 
 and in all the good things that have been done, and in 
 all the brave and good men that have dwelt upon it.' 
 It is not more the rich man's than the poor man's. All 
 who walk upon it, and breathe the air, and look up to 
 the sun may say, ' It is my inheritance.' And this is 
 the tie by which the Lord our God has bound us 
 to it, and given us a property in it. Our fathers 
 and mothers belonged to it, as their fathers and 
 mothers did, and while we reverence them, while we 
 count it a great and wonderful thing to have had them 
 to watch over us, and a great and wonderful thing that 
 we should be allowed to care for them, then every one 
 of us may feel that his days are indeed very long in 
 this country. Yes, for they are not bounded by our 
 birth nor by our death either. The country had 
 
X.] THE LAW OP INHERITANCE. 95 
 
 people in it who belonged to us before we came into it ; 
 it will have those belonging to us when we have gone 
 out of it. And that is a pledge and assurance that our 
 ancestors are concerned in all its blessings and sorrows 
 wherever they are, and that we shall be concerned in 
 its blessings and sorrows wherever we go. For it is 
 the Lord God who is, and was, and is to come ; who 
 has watched over our family, and will watch over those 
 who shall come hereafter. 
 
 But then, dear friends, we, too, have the very same 
 temptations which the Jews had. Some are tempted 
 not to honour their fathers on one ground, some on 
 another ; some have tolei'able excuses for their sin ; 
 some have very poor excuses. Some honour their 
 fathers and not their mothers, or their mothers and not 
 their fathers. Some scarcely know what honouring 
 means ; they can only think of themselves and their 
 own importance. And oh ! brethren, how bitter is the 
 anguish of recollecting that the honour has not been 
 rendered, and that the time for it is gone ; their gray 
 hairs are in the dust ; they want no more the services 
 that Avere withheld, the reverence and the love which 
 were refused them. It is an awful thought, and yet 
 God may use it for bringing us to deep repentance 
 before Him, for leading us to arise and go to that 
 Father whose Spirit we have grieved whenever we have 
 grieved our parents upon earth. And that is what 
 Christ bids us remember. It is this Father, the Lord 
 our God, the Father who gave up His only begotten 
 
96 THE LAW OF I^"HEEITANCE. [serm. 
 
 Son for us all ; tlie Fatlier avIio loves and honours that 
 Son, and is loved and honoured by Him, world vrithout 
 end, for one Spirit of- love binds them for ever and 
 ever ; it is He "who says to us, in that still small voice 
 which made the prophet tremble more than the 
 thunder, and the earthquake, and the fire, " Honour 
 thy father and thy mother." He has set over thee a 
 father to remind thee of His justice and truth, a 
 mother to remind thee of His mercy and gentleness. 
 Oh, ask for His Spirit, that thou mayest honour thy 
 father and mother as He would have thee honour Him. 
 Do not let their waywardness, their weakness, or even 
 their sins towards thee, check this, which He who has 
 no waywardness, or weakness, or sin, asks of thee, and 
 would put within thee. Eeceive it and cherish it as 
 His own gift, which it is the highest good to have, and 
 the greatest calamity to want ! Count the command- 
 ment which He gives thee to be thy life. So out of 
 the earthly honour there will spring one that is 
 eternal. The vision of the perfect Father, and the joy 
 and blessedness of being His child, will dawn upon thee 
 more and more. And with the higher blessing will 
 come a greater enjoyment and appreciation of the lower. 
 Thou wilt know more of the mystery and wonder of 
 belonging to a family, more of the mystery and 
 wonder of belonging to a nation. Thou wilt see how 
 the prosperity of England is linked to the prosperity 
 of every English hearth and home, how one will be 
 sound and safe as long as the other is sound and safe. 
 
X.] THE LAW OF INHERITANCE. 97 
 
 My friends ! this may be obsolete teacliiug in the 
 opinion of wise peo]3le. The writers of our Catechism 
 did not think it so. Those who wrote the Communion 
 Service did not think so. They beheved that the God 
 of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is our God ; that the 
 God who delivered the Israelites and gave them their 
 land is our God. They believed that He has promised 
 in His new covenant to write His laws in our hearts by 
 His Spirit. And I believe that thunders and lightnings 
 as terrible as those which confirmed the commandment 
 on Sinai, will show us that they were not mistaken. We 
 may talk of refinement and civilisation as much as we 
 will, but if these old words do not stand as the words 
 of a living God, we shall sink back into barbarism. 
 We may talk of national prosperity as we will, but if 
 children do not honour their parents, no contrivances 
 of statesmen, no commercial successes, no religious 
 profession, will keep us on the land which God has 
 given us. We may talk of free institutions as we will, 
 but if the ground of freedom be cut from under our 
 feet, the oldest of all curses will be fulfilled in us. 
 Servants of servants shall they be.'' 
 
 H 
 
SERMOX XI. 
 
 THE DELIVERER FROM CRIilE. 
 
 Preached at Ockham, 11th Sunday after Trinity, September 4, 1859. 
 
 " Thou slialt not kill. Thon shalt not commit adultery." 
 Exodus xx. 13, 14. 
 
 Let me remind you once more how tliese command- 
 ments begin. " I am the Lord thy God which brought 
 thee out of the house of bondage.'' The Israelite 
 was to hear those words spoken in his ears before 
 each of these sentences : — I, the Lord thy Grod, 
 thy Deliverer, say to thee, thou shalt not kill ; 1, 
 the Lord thy God, thy DeHverer, say to thee, thou 
 shalt not commit adultery. 
 
 And let me remind you also once again, that the 
 self-same God, who is, and was, and is to come — He 
 who is our God, and has chosen us to be His people — 
 He who has redeemed us from the service of evil and 
 cruel gods — He who is our Father, and has made us 
 His children — is speaking to us just what He spoke to 
 the Israelites. 
 
SERM. XI.] THE DELIVERER FROM CRIME. 99 
 
 The commaudments are written in a book, but He 
 is saying tbem to the heart and soul of every man and 
 woman and child, who cannot even read the letters of 
 the book. 
 
 Consider that. Every Englishman knows that it is 
 against the laws of his country to commit murder. He 
 knows that if he does commit it and is found out, he 
 shall be put to death, or be shut up in prison and set 
 to hard labour. And yet murders are committed — 
 dark, foul murders — in our land, by men born and 
 brought up like ourselves, breathing this air, nursed 
 upon the knees of mothers who have had good 
 thoughts in them, who perhaps have done kind deeds. 
 The fear of the law is not enough to stop them ; for 
 they say, we shall not be found out. The deed can be 
 done in some out-of-the-way field or wood. The body 
 can be hidden in the ground, or we may choose a secret 
 way of murder, we can use slow poison that even wise 
 people may not understand the working of. Being 
 punished hereafter may sometimes come into their 
 minds ; but that hereafter seems a long way off, and 
 who can tell what may happen in the mean time ? 
 And so the man broods over this thought of a murder, 
 and at last it gets ripe in his mind, and he does it, and 
 the papers are filled with the news of it. And people 
 read of it, and talk of it, and are not generally much 
 the better for what they read and what they talk. But 
 now, supposing that murderer had believed what the 
 Bible says to us. Suppose he had understood that 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE DELIVEEER FROM CBIALE. [seejt. 
 
 the Lord Ms God was saying to him tlien — just wlieu 
 the deed was going to be done, just when he was pur- 
 posing it and plotting, just when he was tiying the 
 knife or the poison — ' Thou shalt not do it ! Xo one 
 else knows what thou art after, but I know it. !No one 
 else may follow thee in all thy contrivances, but I 
 shall follow thee. No one else may be able to teU 
 where the body has been buried, or how the drugs have 
 been mixed, but I shall see it all.' Would that have 
 made no difference ? Would it have been nothing to 
 him that he was going to pai't from a friend, to separate 
 from one who had been with him, and watching over 
 him in all his doings ? I ask you. if the man had 
 believed this, would it not have stopped him ; though 
 the fear of being hanged would not stoD him : thoucrh 
 the fear of what should happen to him after death 
 could not stop him ? Yes, brethren, that was just what 
 he wanted; that was just what he did not believe, 
 what very likely he never believed. He comes to 
 know afterwards that it is so. There is a blankness 
 and dreariness and dread in his heart, as if he had lost 
 something ; not an enemy — not the man he had taken 
 so much paius to get rid of — ^but a well-wisher. One 
 who cai'ed for him, One who had kept him from a 
 thousand wrong deeds before. He is at war, and he 
 sometimes feels that he is at war with the Lord his 
 God. He wishes that he could kill that thought, ay, 
 that he could kill Gcd. It is that he has been trying 
 to do, and a man may come to the state when he shall 
 
XI.] THE DELIVERER FROM CRIME. 101 
 
 think that he has done it ; and this state is more 
 miserable and horrible than any other. 
 
 But what is the use of troubling ourselves about 
 what unhappy murderers might have believed, and 
 did not believe ? This is the use of it, brethren, you 
 and I may believe it. You and I may think this com- 
 mandment is true and not a lie. The Lord our God, 
 our Father, is always with us; knowing our acts, 
 knowing our thoughts and wishes, knowing all the 
 secret influences that may be working in us to do any 
 evil deed. And He has the will to keep us from it. 
 And He has the will to take away the dark, horrible 
 imaginations that lead to it. He has the will to drive 
 them clean and clear out of us, and to put right and 
 blessed and loving thoughts and purposes in the place 
 of them. As our Lord was telling us in the lesson we 
 read this morning, in the Sermon He preached on the 
 Mount, He is calling us to account for the first rising 
 of anger in our heart ; He calls us into judgment for 
 the bitter curse that goes out of our lips. He makes 
 us feel what a hell-fire we have kindled in our hearts, 
 when we begin to scorn our brother and caU him fool ! 
 Yes, all that is verily so. Christ is Himself speaking 
 in our consciences, and accusing us of bad thoughts 
 and words, long before they start into bad deeds. He 
 begins at the beginning. Is not that good for us to 
 remember, for us who have the same nature with the 
 murderer, for us who may be tempted sometimes as ho 
 is tempted ; for us who may be cherishing a cruel and 
 
102 THE DELIVERER FROil CRIIIE. [seem. 
 
 savage Hatred of some fellow-creature, even if we are 
 kept from laurtiug liis-body ? 
 
 And what I have said of this commandment, is just 
 as true of the next. In the Sermon on the Mount, our 
 Lord speaks of that as well as of the words, Thou 
 shalt not kill.'' He speaks of the secret lusts which 
 work in a man's heart before he dares to defy the law, 
 and defile his neighbour's wife. He says to erery one 
 of us : thou canst not hide from me the deed of dark- 
 ness, though no mortal may be acquainted with it — 
 thou canst not hide from me all the secret desires that 
 are leading thee to ruin another and thyself — thou 
 canst not make excuses with me. I know thy tempta- 
 tions, but I can give thee the victory over them. I 
 can save thee from destroying the soul of one thou 
 pretendest to love, the peace of a family, thy own 
 truth. The dread of being detected and exposed may 
 not hold thee back in thy evil way ; but I can. Here, 
 again, I say, the adulterer and adulteress sin, because 
 they do not believe this. It seems to them an idle 
 tale. But they know afterwards that it is not an. 
 idle tale. There comes to them, as there does to the 
 murderer, the certainty that they have lost something 
 that was infinitely precious. They have set themselves 
 at war, not with the world and with men, but with the 
 living and true and loving God. The misery that 
 awaits them is not when people are looking on and 
 scorning them; they might bear that; they might 
 comfort themselves with the thought, ' perhaps if they 
 
XI.] THE DELIVERER FROM CRIME. 103 
 
 had been in our circumstances they would not have 
 been better/ 
 
 But it is in lonely hours, when no one is condemning 
 them, when they are trying to find comfort in each 
 other, or to look back upon the days of their childhood, 
 or to hope for better hours — it is then that some voice 
 speaks to them, and says : you have sold your birth- 
 right ; you would not have a Father. You did not let 
 His Spirit govern you; you have given yourselves to an 
 evil spirit. 
 
 Brethren, there are very sad and fearful thoughts 
 connected with these commandments. But there are 
 also very blessed thoughts connected with them. Is 
 it nothing to remember that the Lord Grod Himself 
 watches over the life of every one of us, poor creatures 
 as we are ? that He has declared and does declare how 
 precious it is in his eyes ? ' I say to thee, poor man 
 and rich man, beggar and king, " Thou shalt not kiU." 
 I say to the man with the strongest arm, with the 
 greatest dominion over his fellow-creatures — that 
 strength is mine; that dominion is lent thee by me, 
 to defend life not to take it away. And if thou usest 
 it for the wrong purpose instead of the right one ; if 
 thy strength become a plague and a destruction to 
 thy fellow-meu, though none of them may call thee 
 to account for it, I shall call thee to account for it. 
 Thou wilt answer to me for every drop of this sacred 
 life which thou spillest ; of every man's brother will 
 I require the life of man.' And thus, too, we come to 
 
104 THE DELIVEEER FROM CRIIIE. [seem. 
 
 understand better wliat God's promises are concerning 
 this life of ours. It is subject to a tbousand accidents. 
 All things seem to conspire against it. Death seems 
 to get the mastery over it at last. But no. He has said, 
 ' Death, I will be thy plague.' As every plant and tree 
 seems to die in winter and to revive in spring, so He 
 says to this more wonderful life in our bodies : ' It shaU 
 go on, and this is the pledge and witness that it shall. 
 The head of you all, the Son of Man, the only-begotten 
 heavenly Son of God, died Himself and rose again. 
 God's conflict with death is accomplished. The grave 
 shall not kill.' 
 
 And so again, the Lord thy God is the God over 
 thy household. He watches over the marriage bond. 
 He does not, in his care for the whole universe, forget 
 thee and thy wife. He has uttered His decree that you 
 shall live together in holy wedlock, and that no man 
 shall break that covenant betwixt you made, and that 
 you shall not break it to each other. His curse goes 
 forth against that sin. 
 
 Yes, against sin. For, recollect, that there is no more 
 precious life than this of wife, of husband. The life of 
 trust and affection ; the life of friendship and wedded 
 love ; the life of doing good to men ; the life of rever- 
 ence and worship. This is the true life of a man ; 
 not the life that is sustained by eating and drinking. 
 And, therefore, God who cares much for that bodily 
 life, cares more for this better life which He has be- 
 stowed upon His human creatures. And He encourages 
 
XI.] THE DELIVERER FROM CRIME. 105 
 
 and wishes them to give up one for the sake of the 
 other. Brave men have been ready — are ready — to 
 give up the life of their bodies, that their households 
 may be safe from pollution, that their country may be 
 governed by righteous laws ; that they may save it from 
 falling under wicked tyrants; that they may worship the 
 true God in spirit and in truth. He who says thou 
 shalt not kill, bids us understand that it is well to pour 
 out blood as if it were water, rather than to become 
 base and foul creatures — beasts, instead of His servants 
 and children. That was the reason he sent the Israelites 
 to drive out the Canaanites. They were corrupting and 
 defiling the earth with their murders and adulteries and 
 abominations. It was time that the earth should be 
 cleared of them. It was time that a God of righteous- 
 ness, who watches over life and marriage, and does not 
 leave men to followtheir own lusts, should be proclaimed 
 among them. And as I said to you last Sunday about 
 the commandment, "Honour thy father and thy mother 
 that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord 
 thy God giveth thee," that a nation in which the 
 reverence for parents is gone, will not stay long on the 
 land which the Lord its God has given it ; so, I say, 
 now, about the crimes of which I have spoken to-day. 
 A land is defiled with blood, whether we think it or 
 not; a land is defiled by breaches of the marriage vow 
 in the high or the low. And when these crimes spread 
 far and wide, when they are spoken lightly of, when 
 they are thought only to concern those who commit 
 
106 THE DELIVERER FROM CRIME. [serm. 
 
 them, and not to concern us at all; when we are amused 
 by reading about them, instead of being ashamed for 
 the sake of our people ; then let us look well that that 
 does not come upon us which has come upon other 
 people before us. Let us recollect that the God who 
 gave these commandments is King now, as He was 
 when they were heard on Sinai, and that there is no 
 respect of persons with Him, and that He has sworn 
 that He will set righteousness and trath. on His earth, 
 whoever shall prefer unrighteousness and falsehood. 
 
 But there is a question which you may very well 
 ask me about this matter, which I will try to answer. 
 
 I have spoken as if murder and adultery were crimes 
 which would certainly bring down God's righteous 
 punishments upon the men who commit them, and upon 
 the land which suffers them. Bat am I not sent to 
 preach forgiveness to those who have sinned ? ought I 
 then to have spoken as if these judgments were sure ; 
 as if there were no escaping them ? Brethren, I am 
 sent to preach the largest and freest forgiveness that 
 God can give, or man can receive. I am sent to tell you 
 that God gave His Son to reconcile the world to Him- 
 self, and that Christ is the Lamb of God who took away 
 the sin of the world. And this message we are to 
 proclaim without stint or measure to all manner of 
 people; and those who proclaim it in hulks, and prisons, 
 and penitentiaries, and convict settlements, to the worst 
 and most guilty people, are true servants and handmaids 
 of God, and are blessings to their country. But they 
 
XI.] THE DELIVERER FROM CRIME. 107 
 
 are so if they give this message as God gives it, not as 
 man changes it. Christ died to take away the sin 
 of men ; He died to unite men to the righteous and 
 sinless God. The Lord our God who has redeemed 
 us out of the house of bondage will always deliver 
 us from sin ; will always give us a new and riglit and 
 clean heart. He did that for David, the Jewish, king, 
 who had committed adultery and murder. He will do 
 it for the poorest Englishman who has been guilty of 
 the same sins. But He did not free David from punish- 
 ment ; He punished him all his life long. He made 
 him feel all his life long that to seduce the wife of a 
 poor soldier, and to get him slain, was a horrible 
 offence in the eyes of the King of Kings, which He would 
 visit not with some pretty little punishment, such as 
 David might have invented for himself, but with sore 
 and tremendous punishment, with the ingratitude 
 of his children, and the rebellion of his people. It 
 would have been very bad for this king if it had been 
 otherwise. He would then never have known what 
 God's righteousness is. He would never have sought 
 for himself righteousness, or a deliverance from his own 
 folly and sin. He would never have been righteous in 
 his execution of God's laws, and yet tender to sinners 
 who were not so bad as he had been. And so it is still. 
 He who says, "Thou shalt not kill ; thou shalt not com- 
 mit adultery " — because He is the Lord our God, our 
 Redeemer, our Father — will take away the murderous 
 spirit out of the murderer, and give him a loving and 
 
103 THE DELIVERER FROM CRIME. [serm. 
 
 gentle spirit, even His own ; will drive the foul spirit 
 out of tlie adulterer^s heart, and give him a holy and 
 pure spirit, even His own. But He will not suffer either 
 the one or the other to escape punishment. And I am 
 well convinced that the murderer and adulterer to whom 
 He has given repentance would be very sorry if they did 
 escape it. They would feel that He was not the great God 
 such as they believe Him to be. They would feel that 
 He was not the Saviour such as they believe Him to be, 
 seeing that He did not keep them in mind of the evil 
 which had separated them from Him, and did not compel 
 them to turn away from themselves and seek Him. 
 Whenever the thought gets into the mind of any people 
 that God can be persuaded by any prayers or interces- 
 sions of one sort or another, in earth or heaven, to release 
 particular people from the punishment that He has 
 thought good for them, that people will go further and 
 further from righteousness ; adulterers and assassins will 
 both abound amongst them. And as they go further 
 into evil they will become more superstitious, and will 
 practise more arts to keep God at a distance from them. 
 Therefore, brethren, drive all such thoughts from you. 
 Understand that a man cannot have any curse so terrible 
 as to be left in his sin, or to be allowed to go on without 
 punishment ; and that he cannot have any such great 
 blessing as to be raised out of his sin, and to have it 
 treated as his blackest and bitterest enemy. For this 
 end Christ died and revived — not that He might save 
 us from our Father in heaven, but that He might bring 
 
XI.] THE DELIVERER FROJI CRIME. 109 
 
 US nigli to Him, and make us sliarers of His goodness 
 and truth, wliicli are the everlasting foes of all that is 
 not good and true in us, and in the whole universe. 
 
 I beseech you to recollect this, you who are bringing 
 your children to be baptized, promising in their name 
 that they should keep God's will and commandments, 
 and walk in the same. I beseech you to think of it 
 who are learning these commandments at school, and 
 you who are old and who have learned what it is to 
 break them. To all of you God speaks words of mercy 
 and deliverance. He loves you all too much to leave 
 you easy when yon are disobeying and forgetting 
 Him. And especially I beseech you who have eaten 
 the bread and drunk the wine to-day at our Lord's 
 table, to remember that these were the witness and 
 assurance that He is with us everywhere, wherever we 
 are, and whatever we are doing, and that He can make 
 us obey what St. Paul calls the royal law — what St. 
 James calls the law of liberty — thou shalt love thy 
 neighbour as thyself — and if this is written in our 
 hearts, there is no fear that we shall do any wrong to 
 our neighbour or to our country. 
 
SERMOX xn. 
 
 ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY. 
 
 Preached at Lilleshall, Sunday after St. John Baptist's Day, 1860. 
 
 " In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness, 
 and saying, Eepent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." — 
 St. Matthew iii. 1, 2. 
 
 The 24th of June (the day before yesterday). 
 
 call, you know, Midsummer Day; we call it also 
 St. John the Baptist's day. You can easily find 
 out why it is ^lidsummer Day, but what is St. John 
 the Baptist to us ? why should we care to remember 
 him ? 
 
 I am going to speak of him — what he was, to whom 
 he spoke, what he spoke, why he was called the 
 Baptist, what he told of One greater than himself. 
 You have heard it all before, but it may not be bad 
 for any of us to hear it again ; for the seasons come 
 round again — the summer comes each year, bringing 
 its flowers and fruits; they are new, though we seem 
 to have seen the like every June. And we ourselves, 
 though we change very much, yet we are the same. 
 
SERM. XII.] ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY. 1H 
 
 We miss many faces that we used to see ; young faces 
 tliat we have not seen come to cheer us; but there are 
 the old sorrows and trials which we cannot leave 
 behind us, and which stand up in different shapes ; 
 there are old thoughts that appear again in our minds, 
 though new ones may be with them. We are tempted 
 to do wrong now as we used to be, and we do not 
 forget the old temptations, they come back ; old 
 deeds that we did years ago return and look us in 
 the face. The friends that we knew are there also, 
 and that is the reason why I believe John the Baptist 
 has something to tell us still — why his day may be 
 as good for us as it was for our forefathers. 
 
 First, what was he ? A very plain man, with a 
 leathern girdle about his loins, caring little for what he 
 ate, getting his food anywhere that he could — and his 
 chance of getting anything was not great, for he was 
 not seen in cities, he was chiefly in a desert. 
 
 Then this strange rough man was preaching, and 
 the people came to him from all quarters, from the 
 city of Jerusalem, we are told, and from all the 
 country places round about ; men who dwelt near the 
 sea and far from it, men and women, rich and poor, 
 people of all trades, and people without any trade, all 
 came to hear what this man had to say. What could it 
 mean ? What did they want of him ? What message 
 could he bring them which could be meant for them all ? 
 
 These people were all looking out for a King. They 
 had heard that God one day would send them a King, 
 
112 ST. JOHX BAPTIST'S DAT. [seem. 
 
 a righteous King. Their country was subject to 
 foreigners ; these foreigners had set iip princes over 
 them; these princes had been tyrants, and had not 
 cared for them. They wanted One who did care for 
 them ; they wanted One who would set their country 
 free ; they wanted One who would set them free. For 
 each one had a burden and a slavery of his own ; each 
 one said in his heart, ' When the true King comes He 
 will be able to take away my burden ; He will break 
 the yoke that is on my neck ! ' 
 
 Well, this preacher said, " The Kingdom of Heaven 
 is at hand ! " That was a message that concerned all. 
 If the news were true, it was just the news they needed 
 to hear. The King you are looking for is coming. 
 He is not far from you. He is going to establish His 
 Kingdom amongst you. 
 
 But what did this mean ? The kingdom of "Heaven" 
 is at hand ! Was it not to be a kingdom on earth, 
 then ? How could it reach them if it were not ? How 
 could it be governed by a native prince, one of them- 
 selves, if it were not ? Such thoughts were in the 
 minds of the people, you may be sure. And yet there 
 were other thoughts in their minds too. If this king- 
 dom was not from Heaven, could it be what they were 
 seeking after ? Did they not wish for one that should 
 be all just ? And could there be a kingdom that was 
 quite just if it was not from Heaven, if it was not 
 God's kingdom ? Did not they want one in which 
 poor and rich should be cared for equally ? Would 
 
xn.] ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY. 113 
 
 that be, i£ it was only a kingdom, set up by men ? 
 Even if the king was one of themselves, might he not 
 lord it over them all the more for that ? Might he not 
 be the prouder because he had risen to such a height 
 above them ? But if it were the King of Heaven that 
 was coming among them, would they like to meet 
 Him ? Another king might not know what they had 
 been doing, but He would ; another might speak to 
 the crowd of people and not notice this man or that 
 man in the crowd. The King of Heaven would look 
 straight into each man's heart ; He would understand 
 what he had donCj and what he had wished or purposed. 
 Supposing each man knew that he had been doing 
 wrong things, and wishing and purposing wrong things, 
 would he like to stand before this Kingr ? 
 
 Each man in those crowds of people who went to 
 hear John the Baptist preaching, did know this ; and 
 yet that did not keep them from going ; it was that 
 which urged them to go ; it was that which convinced 
 them that the rough man with his camePs hair was no 
 deceiver, but a true prophet. He spoke of a Kingdom 
 of Heaven being near ; and the heart of a man or a 
 woman said, ' Yes, He must be near mo, or how should 
 I have remembered how I cheated my neighbour years 
 ago, or plotted to cheat him ? Who told me of it ? I 
 did not tell myself. John the Baptist could not tell 
 me ; it must be this King of Heaven who has told me. 
 He cannot be far off. How shall I prepare for Him ?' 
 
 Now John said that this was his business; he was 
 
114 ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY. [sERsr. 
 
 sent to prepare tlie way of tlie Lord ! lie was sent to 
 tell men liow tliey miglit meet tlieir King ! and, there- 
 fore, lie joined the message, " The Kingdom of Heaven 
 is at hand," with ' Repent ; your King* is near you ! 
 Turn round to Him ; He has found out your secrets ! 
 Confess them to Him ; you cannot see Him ; but if 
 you do this, there will be a way between your heart 
 and Him. Your bad doings and bad thoughts have 
 stopped up that way ; He wishes to get rid of the 
 rubbish, and to open the way again.' 
 
 And that brings me to the next part — what John's 
 baptism had to do with his preaching. He preached, 
 it is said, the baptism of repentance for the remission 
 of sins. Remission means sending away. Their sins 
 had choked their hearts. Their sins had been the 
 rubbish which closed the way between them and God. 
 Could they clear away the rubbish ? Could John ? 
 I think not. Could He who created their minds and 
 hearts ? Surely He could. Surely He could turn 
 their minds to Himself, if they found it ever so hard to 
 do so. Well, this baptism was the simplest token 
 which could be given them that God did this for them. 
 Just as the water cleanses your bodies, so does He 
 cleanse you — you, your own selves. He sends away 
 that which you have been confessing to Him ; that 
 which is oppressing you, that which you cannot rid 
 yourselves of. So the baptism was part of the preach- 
 ing, it was as good as saying, ' It is not I who am 
 preaching to you, it is God who is preaching to you ! 
 
XII.] ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY. 115 
 
 He is preaching to you, one and all. It is He who is 
 giving you, one and all, Avhat you need, if you will 
 have it.'' 
 
 And, therefore, John joined other words to these, 
 which were to show more clearly still that it was not 
 he who was doing them any good, or who could do 
 them good, except as he was God's minister, and that 
 the water could do them no good except as it told 
 them what God's mind to them was, and what He 
 would work for them. 
 
 " I, indeed," he said, "baptize you with water, but 
 there cometh One after me who is mightier than I ; He 
 shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." 
 'He shall give you of God's own good Spirit to call 
 out your spix'its ; He shall burn up all that is foul and 
 false in you.' 
 
 But before you can fully enter into the next words, 
 I must speak to you of those who came to John to be 
 baptized. There came the crowds of which I spoke, 
 •each with his own weight upon his own heart. Each 
 told what was in him ; and each found that the remission 
 was not lessforhimbecause it was alsoforhis neighbours. 
 Each had sinned ; each might turn and say, I have 
 sinned ; each might go away with this assurance, ' God 
 hath given thee this pledge that He puts away thy sins.' 
 But there came some, we are told, whom John rebuked, 
 whom he called by a very hard name. He said to some 
 Pharisees and Sadducees who came to him, " 0 generation 
 -of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath 
 
 I 2 
 
116 . ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAT. [serm. 
 
 to come ? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repent- 
 ance ; and think not to say within yourselves we have 
 Abraham to our father. ; for I say unto you that God is 
 able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." 
 Why did he speak thus ? Might not these men repent 
 as well as the others ? "Would not God put away their 
 sins, and make a way for them to draw nigh to Him ? 
 Surely He would ; John had come to say so to one and 
 all. But these men thought themselves better and 
 wiser than others; they supposed the way was quite 
 open between them and God. Why then did they come 
 to have their sins put away ? If they were better and 
 wiser than others, how could they want a blessing which 
 put them on a level with all others ? They thought 
 they were the best of all the descendants of Abraham. 
 * You must find out/ said John, ' that you are not 
 better than those who are not descendants of Abraham 
 at all. God cares for all. If you do not wish to be 
 like the rest of men, it will go badly with you. When 
 the King comes. He will burn up all that is mere chaff, 
 all that is foul and worthless in one man or another. 
 He will gather in all that is wheat, all that is good and 
 true, all that, trust Him who is good, whether in one 
 man or another.' 
 
 And so we are prepared for the next tidings. There 
 came one to John the Baptist who was humbler than 
 all who had come there yet. John did not see why He 
 should come. " I have need," he said, " to be baptized 
 of Thee ! " But Jesus answered, " Thus it becometh us 
 
XII.] ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY. 117 
 
 to fulfil all righteousness." And as He went up out of 
 the water, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit 
 descended upon Him like a dove ; and lo ! a voice which 
 said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased." 
 
 Thus the word of John the Baptist was fulfilled — 
 the kingdom of heaven had appeared. He had received 
 the Holy Spirit, who was to baptize with the Holy 
 Spirit and with fire ; He was come who was to gather 
 all nations into one ; He was come who was to bring 
 remission of sins to all ; He was come who was to give 
 repentance to each. 
 
 All this happened in the country of Palestine, far 
 away from us, eighteen hundred years ago. But about 
 twelve hundred years ago, people came into the towns 
 and villages of England and said, 'This kingdom of 
 heaven of which John the Baptist spoke is fairly set up 
 in the world. The King who was baptized in that Eiver 
 Jordan, is the only true King over men. He has said 
 that His Father is our Father. He has said that He will 
 give us, the people who dwell in the villages and towns 
 of England, His Spirit, that we may be right and true 
 men, and that we may turn from bad ways to good 
 Avays. Come, therefore,' they said, ' and be baptized 
 into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost. Come and claim this King as your king 
 and your elder brother. Come and claim His Father 
 as your Father; claim Him as your children's as well 
 as your own. Ask that you and they may not merely 
 
118 ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY. [sekit. 
 
 be baptized in water, for the sending away of your sins, 
 and the witness of God's forgiveness, but that you may 
 have His Spirit of truth and love to guide you every 
 day and hour, and to teach you what His kingdom 
 is, and to prepare you for dwelling in it when you 
 leave this earth, and when your place here knows you 
 no more.' 
 
 These were strange tidings for our forefathers to 
 hear, for they were worshipping all kinds of gods. They 
 fancied their gods were theii' enemies, who wanted to be 
 pacified and brought to forgive them by all kinds of 
 offerings which they made. And now to be told this 
 news — the God who made the heavens and earth is your 
 Father and your friend ; He seeks to turn your hearts 
 to Him ; He desires to put away all the wrong that is 
 in yon, and to make you right ; He has sent His Son 
 to bind you all together — men of all different callings, 
 men of all different countries, men of all different lan- 
 guages — into one. He would have no one think himself 
 better than another. He would have all feel that they 
 are His children, and members one of another. To hear 
 this news, I say, was very strange to these men, wha 
 had fancied it was all so different in this world, and in 
 the world they coidd not see ; but somehow or other 
 they did accept these tidings ; they were baptized into 
 this Name, and their children were, and their children's 
 children. And England became a Christian land — that 
 is, it confessed the Christ of whom John spoke, to be 
 its King. And boys and girls were brought up in 
 
xn.] ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY. 119 
 
 scliools to believe tliat it was even sOj and that His 
 Spirit was given them that they might understand the 
 things on earth and the things in heaven, that they 
 might do their work as fathers and husbands, and 
 brothers and sisters, as squires and farmers and labourers 
 here, and might know the truth and righteousness and 
 love, that are to last for ever and ever. 
 
 But now my friends, if all this is true, we need to be 
 reminded of it year by year, and day by day, for it can- 
 not be a thing written of in a book merely ; it must be 
 about our bed and our board ; it must concern us in 
 all our common business. For you see the message of 
 John the Baptist concerns the God who liveth for ever, 
 what He is, whether He is altogether good and righteous 
 and true, one who hates all evil and pride, or whether 
 He is what men often take Him to be — unmerciful and 
 cruel, and like themselves. And it concerns us men, 
 whatever we are, whether we are bound together in one 
 dear Lord, who took the nature of all and died the 
 death of all, or whether we are, as we often take our- 
 selves to be, each with a separate interest from the 
 other, sent into the world to trip one another up and 
 destroy one another. And it concerns the question 
 whether we have a good and loving Spirit to bring us 
 right and to keep us from wrong, or whether we are left 
 to ourselves and all the bad influences that are about us, 
 and all the wild thoughtsthat spring up in us. Itconcerns 
 the question whether, when we have gone out of the 
 good way, there is anyone who cares to bring us back 
 
120 ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S DAY. [seem. xii. 
 
 into the good way. It concerns tlie question whetlier 
 Tve are separated from tlie friends that have gone away 
 out of our sight, or wJiether we are part of the same 
 kingdom with them, and whether we may all come to 
 serve our King better and more truly through ages upon 
 ages. So, then, you will not wonder that we keep John 
 the Baptist's day. And you will not think it out of 
 place in the bright summer days ; for surely if we heed 
 the message which it brings, every summer day may be 
 more beautiful to us, and no winter day need be dark. 
 Midsummer and Christmas may rejoice together, for the 
 first says, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand;" and the second says, " Unto us a child is born, 
 unto us a son is given, and the government shall be 
 upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called 
 Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting 
 Father, the Prince of Peace." 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 THE TKANSFIGUEATION. 
 
 Preached at LilleshaU, 1860. 
 
 " And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, 
 and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was trans- 
 figured before them." — St. Matthew xvii. 1, 2. 
 
 We liave heard strange things in the second lesson. 
 Let me try to recall them to you, and let us then think 
 what they have to do with us, who are met in this 
 church to-day. 
 
 Three fishermen, who are called here Peter, James, 
 and John, had left their father^s ship and their nets. 
 A Person had said to them, " Follow me, and I will 
 make you fishers of men.'^ They had felt that they 
 must follow Him. He had a right to call them. Their 
 business was to obey. They had gone with Him 
 wherever He went. He had explained to them the 
 world in which they were dwelling. It seemed as if 
 they had never known the commonest thing before. 
 Yet He spoke of very common things — of sowers 
 sowing corn ; of husbandmen hiring themselves out 
 
122 THE TRANSFIGURATION. [serm. 
 
 for tlie day ; of fisliermeu getting good and bad fisli 
 into their nets. These old things became new to them, 
 when He spoke of them. And what was more, through 
 these things He enabled them to understand what was 
 passing in themselves. He showed them what a wonder- 
 ful world was within them. And He spoke to them of 
 a Father who had created the world which they saw 
 with their eyes, and who ruled over that inner world 
 which they could not see. He called that especially 
 Grod's kingdom. His Father watched over the ravens 
 and the lilies ; but their hearts were His own dearest 
 treasure. 
 
 These poor men had listened to these discourses of 
 Jesus, and they had seen His acts. They had been 
 with Him when He healed the sick, and raised the 
 dead, and cast out devils. They had these proofs that 
 He was a King; and moreover He had given them 
 power to do as He did. They were sent to preach the 
 Kingdom of Grod, and to heal the sick. So their 
 countrymen were to find out what kind of kingdom 
 that was ; so they were to see that their King was 
 their friend and deliverer. 
 
 But there was nothing in the appearance of their 
 teacher which marked Him out from other men. He 
 was not clothed more gorgeously. He stood aloof from 
 none, even the poorest. They were not the wise nor 
 the great who were His chosen companions. He 
 hungered and was weary, as they were. He seemed 
 to feel the sicknesses which He took away. He had 
 
xm.] THE TRANSFIGURATION. 123 
 
 told them that He should die, and die by a shocking' 
 death, the death of slaves and criminals. 
 
 On a certain day, St. Matthew says. He led these 
 fishermen to a lonely place in a high mountain; and 
 then a sudden change came over Him. His garments 
 became white. His face became bright and glorious, 
 like no face they had ever looked upon ; and presently 
 there were companions with Him, who had not com© 
 up the mountain. They were men who had dwelt on 
 the earth ages before. One was the old lawgiver and 
 deliverer of the Israelites, that Moses who had brought 
 them out of Egypt, and had died before they entered 
 the promised land. The other was Elijah the prophet, 
 who bore witness for the Lord God, when the king and 
 the people had forsaken Him. The fishermen were 
 not left in doubt who they Avere. They talked with 
 Jesus. They spoke not of the law, nor of the wander- 
 ing of the Israelites, nor of Eli]ah\s chariot of fire ; 
 they spoke of the death that Jesus should die in Jeru- 
 salem — that they seemed to care for more, and account 
 more wonderful than all that they had known while 
 they walked the earth, and all they had known since 
 they left the earth. 
 
 It was a marvellous vision ; the eyes of the Apostles 
 were dazzled. Peter wanted to stay always on the 
 mountain, and to build tabernacles for his Master, and 
 for Moses, and for Elijah. But he knew not what he 
 said. While he was speaking, a cloud overshadowed 
 them ; a voice was heard, saying to them, " This is my 
 
124 THE TRANSFIGURATION. [seem. 
 
 Beloved Son, in wliom I am well pleased : hear ye 
 Him." They fell on their faces, and were sore afraid, 
 till another voice said' to them, "Arise, and be not 
 afraid." It was their Master. He was with them still. 
 But the sti'angers were gone. The brightness had 
 passed away. 
 
 We find them next coming down from the Mount. 
 They are wondering as you may suppose. He, with 
 whom they spoke so freely, so familiarly, is then a very 
 awful Being. Moses and Elijah do Him homage. The 
 voice spoke of Him as a Son. Are they to proclaim 
 Him by that name ? Not yet ! the time will come. 
 But He must first die and rise again ; till then they 
 are to tell the vision to no man. Must they not now 
 ask questions of their Master, as they did before ? 
 They cannot help asking Him questions ; the sight 
 they have seen obliges them to ask Him. Who else 
 can give them an answer ? They had been always 
 told that some divine Person was to come. But their 
 teachers had said that Elijah would come first to 
 prepare His way. They had seen Elijah on the 
 Mount. Was he coming into the world again ? Their 
 Master tells them that one had come in the spirit and 
 power of Elijah, to prepare His way. In John the 
 Baptist, clad in camel's hair and with a leathern girdle, 
 they had seen God's prophet. But he had been be- 
 headed ; and the Son of God would not have better, 
 but worse treatment. 
 
 So they converse as they come down the slope of the 
 
xiii.] THE TRANSFIGURATION. 125 
 
 hill. At the bottom of it they fiud a great crowd j 
 some of their companions are in it. There is loud 
 disputing. In the midst of it is a boy, tossed about 
 in a fit, foaming at the mouth, not to be held; his 
 father has been begging Christ's Apostles to cure him. 
 They have tried and failed. Here is a change from 
 that still mountain, with the white garments, and the 
 glorious face, and the holy men of the old woi-ld. 
 Nothing but clamour and anguish and helplessness ; 
 at first it seems as if the boy's case were indeed hope- 
 less. The voice of Christ only increases his raving, 
 but at last he becomes quiet ; the spirit that tormented 
 him departs ; he is cured from that hour. 
 
 All this history is contained in a few verses. You 
 can read it over in two or three minutes. But for 
 eighteen centuries it has had hold of people's hearts. 
 It has been written of, spoken of, turned into 
 beautiful pictures. Every man who has thought 
 about it seriously has felt that it was a message 
 for him and for all men, and not only for Peter, 
 James, and John, for the disciples below the moun- 
 tain, for the boy, and his father. . Why have they 
 thought so ? What message has it for us ? 
 
 I have told you that Jesus called these poor fisher- 
 men, and that He walked with them, and opened their 
 minds to truths that had been hidden from them. 
 Was not that a special privilege of theirs ? No, 
 brethren; Jesus called Himself the Son of Man. He 
 selected these disciples from the humblest class of 
 
126 THE TRIXSFIGUEATIOX. [serm. 
 
 men, that tliey might be specimens to all men of what 
 He is doing for them. It was not because the dis- 
 ciples saw Christ with their eyes, that they were able 
 to receive His instruction. He spoke to something 
 within them which could not see it. He spoke to their 
 hearts ; they understood Him better after they had 
 ceased to see Him than when they could look into 
 His face, and when His Hps moved to answer their 
 questions. And therefore do not doubt me when I 
 say He is teaching you and me, even as He taught 
 them. He is walking with us as He walked with 
 them. Every one of us may believe that. As you 
 sow, or reap, or go leasing, you may be sure there is 
 an eye upon you, and that eye is the eye of the Son 
 of Man ; you may be sure that a teacher is with you, 
 and that teacher is the Son of Man ; you may be sure 
 that there are parables in your fields, as there were 
 in the fields of Galilee through which He walked, 
 parables in all your doings as servants or masters, 
 which He can draw out of them, as He drew them 
 out of the common tasks which His disciples were 
 engaged in. 
 
 Whatever we are busy about, God has set us that 
 business. And there is a way of doing it which is the 
 right way, which is His way; and the Son of Man 
 would open our hearts to understand that right way, 
 and to shun the wrong way ; and when we learn the 
 right way from Him, then He shows us more. He 
 enables us to see that God governs us, and governs 
 
Mil.] THE TRAXSFIGURATIOX. 127 
 
 the world according to that right and true way which 
 He has marked for us in our little pursuits and toils. 
 
 My friends^ if we did think that we have this secret 
 friend and teacher with us at all times, and that He 
 is the secret friend and teacher of our neighbours too, 
 it would be a mighty help to us. And then we should 
 understand that, if we ourselves or our friends fall sick 
 :and we recover, it is Christ who raises up, as He raised 
 up the palsied man and the lepers in the cities of 
 Galilee ; that when a man who was possessed with all 
 bad thoughts and was running on in a bad way, a 
 drunkard and a fornicator, a man full of spite and 
 malice, comes to his right mind, it is because Christ 
 drives the devil out of him. And then we beafin to 
 believe that when men go out of the world. He does 
 not leave them, but raises them again, as truly as He 
 raised Lazarus in this world. We are dull in our 
 faith just as the disciples were. But Christ can kindle 
 it in us all by His Spirit, and we should ask that He 
 will. 
 
 And sometimes it comes to pass that he makes men 
 now-a-days, as He made Peter and James and John, 
 feel that He who has been speaking to them in their 
 private walks, and teaching them things they would 
 never have learned but for Him, and curing their sick- 
 nesses, is indeed the King of glory, the Prince of all 
 the earth. Sometimes men have felt, perhaps when 
 they were kneeling at the Lord's Supper, eating the 
 bread and drinking the wine — perhaps when they were 
 
128 THE TEANSFIGURATIOIT. [seem. 
 
 in lonely chambers, or in prisons foi' righteousness' 
 sake — that they were not with Him only, but with 
 His saints, with those w^o had left the world, with the 
 noble men of other days, with the friends whom they 
 had lost out of their sight. All these have been drawn 
 together by His cross ; all have owned Him as their 
 common Lord, who has died, and who lives. 
 
 Only three of the disciples were on the Mount. And 
 only two or three, just at rare times, may feel as if 
 they were carried into a brighter world, and as if they 
 beheld things as they are, not hidden by the mists of 
 our earth. I do not know to whom God grants such 
 manifestations ; but I have no doubt from what I have 
 read that there are some, probably those who have some 
 special work or suffering to go through — humble people, 
 I dare to say, of whom the world takes no note. But 
 this also we should remember, these bright visions soon 
 pass away. A cloud comes over those who have en- 
 joyed them ; and to them, too, there comes a voice out 
 of the cloud, ' This is my Son, hear Him.' That is to 
 Bay, what you are to learn from the vision is to be more 
 meek and gentle, as the Son of Man is ; to observe 
 more what He is saying to you in all common things ; 
 to be more thoughtful about other people, because He 
 is thoughtful about them. Hear His commandment to 
 be true and faithful in all your transactions with your 
 fellow-men ; hear Him warning you, when you are 
 tempted to be vain and greedy ; hear His voice check- 
 ing you when you are exalted, and bidding you arise 
 
XIII.] THE TKANSFIGUEATION. 129 
 
 and be not afraid when you are downcast. You know 
 it is the voice of tlie Son of God. And He tells you 
 not to speak mucli of anything that merely concerns 
 yourself, if you have ever so much reason to be thank- 
 ful for it. Speak of His resurrection from the dead, 
 which concerns all persons living as well as you. 
 
 And now you see how the remaining part of the 
 story also belongs to us. Men who have had hours of 
 quietness and peace and bright visions, do not like the 
 noise and clatter of the crowd. They find it very dis- 
 tracting. They would rather forget that people are 
 disputing, and that ministers of God are proving their 
 weakness, and that men are tormented with all kinds 
 of plagues and sorrows. But God does not let them 
 forget it. In this world they are to live and work. If 
 they are Christ's disciples, these are the sights they 
 must witness continually, not those on the Mount. 
 They must be continually taught, which is harder still, 
 their own folly, and ignorance, and incapacity ; and if 
 they will get these lessons by heart, there are others 
 and more cheering ones for them. Christ is in the 
 crowd, as He was in the Mount. He is showing His 
 power in the midst of noisy, disputatious men. He is 
 doing what His disciples cannot do. He is at work to 
 help fathers and children to whom no mortal can bring 
 help. The disciples got at least a diviner teaching, 
 they knew more of Christ, from Avhat they saw below 
 the mountain, than from what they saw upon it. They 
 learnt more fully that Christ was the Son of Man, and 
 
 K 
 
130 THE TEANSFIGURATION. [serm. xiii. 
 
 that He cares for all men ; tliey learnt more that He 
 was the Son of God, and that He had come into the 
 world to do His Father's work. And so may all of us 
 learn more of the Son of Man and the Son of God from 
 our own sufferings and from the sufferings of others, 
 than we could learn if we were carried out of the world 
 and saw His countenance shining like the light, and 
 Moses and Elias talking with Him. 
 
 But that vision was not gi-anted to the disciples for 
 nothing; and it is not for nothing that we are per- 
 mitted to read of it in this distant land, so long after it 
 has departed. It was to tell the disciples, and to tell 
 us, that one day He who appeared on earth as a poor 
 man, walking* with poor men, and dying the death of a 
 slave, would appear in the glory of His Father and of 
 His holy angels ; that Moses and Elijah, and every one 
 of those who had done His work on earth, would be 
 with Him. It was to tell them, and to tell us, that 
 every human creature shall see Him when He is mani- 
 fested in His glory; that all the mists which have 
 hidden Him from us shall be scattered ; that the quick 
 and the dead shall alike hear His voice. It was to 
 tell them and us that this glory will only confound us 
 and overwhelm us if we are not listening to Him now, 
 living for Him now; that if we are, if we are asking 
 Him to purge us from our sins and make us true men, 
 we shall long for His appearing to end the conflict and 
 anguish of the world, and to set all things right. 
 
SEEMON XIV. 
 
 THE PUBLICAN. 
 
 Preached at Redmarley, 11th Sunday after Trinity, August 11, 1861. 
 
 "I tell you, this man went down to his honse justified rather than the 
 other: for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and every 
 one that humbleth himself shall be exalted." — St. Luke xviii. 14. 
 
 Two men, it is said in tlie Gospel we have just read, 
 went up into the temple to pray. They went to 
 the same place : they went for the same end. They 
 were both Jews and they went to the place in which 
 the Lord God had told the Jews that He would meet 
 with them and hear them. They went to ask that He 
 would do what He had promised. 
 
 Our Lord says one of these men went back to his 
 house justified rather than the other. He returned 
 with a lighter, freer heart. He had got the thing he 
 sought for ; our Lord tells us this ; and he knows it. 
 The hearts of these men are open to Him. He under- 
 stands what they desire. He understands why one 
 obtains what he desires and the other misses it. 
 
 And He wishes us to understand the secret also ; for 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE PUBLICAN. [serm. 
 
 we are all interested in it. Tliis story of tlie publican 
 and tlie Pharisee is called a parable. That is to say, it 
 is an example of what is going on in a thousand different 
 places, in times thousands of years apart. It happened 
 in the temple of Jerusalem. It happens in every 
 English church. It happened when our Lord was 
 upon earth ; it happens in the year 1861. 
 
 What, then, was the difference between these two 
 men — the Pharisee and the publican ? Had the one who 
 went down to his house justified, some great advantage 
 over his neighbour ? No ; he had, to all appearances, 
 great disadvantages. He was a man in bad repute. He 
 belonged to a class of men who did many evil things. 
 People charged him with sharing in them. You see 
 what the Pharisee thought of him. He thanked God 
 that he was not like that publican or tax-gatherer. He 
 thought that the man who was praying a little way from 
 him was very likely an unjust man or an extortioner; 
 he knew that he had a bad name. 
 
 The Pharisee himself had a very good name. He 
 was one of a class to whom the people looked up. He 
 had a character to preserve. And he says — and for 
 aught we know he says truly — that he had preserved 
 it. He could not be accused of any crime against his 
 fellow-creatures. He could not be accused of neglecting 
 the service of his Creator. 
 
 So far all seems in his favour; all seems to go against 
 the publican: and what is more, the publican thinks so 
 himself. He does not try to prove that he has done his 
 
XIV.] THE PUBLICAN. 133 
 
 duty to God or his duty to his neighbour. He does not 
 believe that he has. Nay, he is sure that he has not. 
 He does not venture to raise his eyes to heaven. He 
 smites upon his breast. He says, "God be merciful to 
 me a sinner." 
 
 And what comes of this ? That comes of it which 
 God had said should come. He had bidden men who 
 had any load upon their hearts to come into His temple 
 and lay it bare before Him. He had bidden those who 
 had broken His law to own that they had broken it. He 
 had invited those who were not serving Him as they 
 wished to serve Him, frankly to tell Him that they were 
 not. He had invited those who were not loving their 
 neighbours as they wished to love them, not to keep 
 that wrong to themselves, but to ask deliverance from 
 it of Him. The publican had done this. He was not 
 satisfied with himself; he said that he was not. He 
 could not say much about his trouble or his need. Per- 
 haps he did not know precisely what it was, just as we 
 often feel a pain or a sickness without knowing where 
 it is. But he had come into the presence of One who 
 understood what he did not understand. His muttered 
 words even would be interpreted rightly. He was seek- 
 ing the God of mercy ; he was seeking the Deliverer 
 from sin. " Be merciful to me a sinner," was enough 
 for him. 
 
 Therefore he went down to his house justified. He 
 could not justify himself. God had justified him. He 
 had given him a clean conscience and a right heart. 
 
134 THE PUBLICAN. [seem. 
 
 His sin did not cleave to him any longer, did not press 
 liim down, did not take the strength out of him. He 
 could say, 'Grod counts ^it as His enemy even as I count 
 it mine. He is my Lord; this sin is not my Lord, and 
 shall not be. In His strength I will defy it.' 
 
 Now the Pharisee did not get this justification, for 
 he did not desire it. He justified himself. He was 
 content with his own thoughts and doings. He wanted 
 nothing. He had prayed in the temple because he 
 believed it was a proper and right thing to pray. He 
 had not prayed because there was any divine blessing 
 which he could not do without, any great curse from 
 which he must be set free. 
 
 And so it will be, so it must be, our Lord says, 
 always. Is it not reasonable? The God of grace and 
 mercy gives to each that which he craves for ; if we 
 think all is well with us, He will leave us to try whether 
 all is well. If we find that there is something not well, 
 something that must be set right in us. He will set it 
 right. 
 
 And yet, brethren, this is not all. God does not 
 justify those who justify themselves, who trust in them- 
 selves that they are righteous, and despise others. But 
 Hedoes — like amerciful Father — showus thatwe cannot 
 trust in ourselves, and that we are not righteous, and 
 that we have no excuse for despising others. He laysbare 
 the secret wrong that is in us. He make us see that 
 we are just as likely to fall into sin, that we have just 
 as little strength of our own to do what is right as any 
 
XIV.] THE PUBLICAN. 135 
 
 of oui' neiglibours whom we liave been looking down 
 upon. He sliows us that all our strength is in Him. 
 He humbles us when we are exalted in our own conceit, 
 just that He may exalt us when He has humbled us. 
 That is the course of His wise and gracious government 
 with every one of us. Let every one of us try to under- 
 stand it, and then we shall profit by all the things that 
 befall us. We shall profit by the foolish and wrong 
 doings that we have committed in time past. We shall 
 profit, above all, by the prayers that we offer when we 
 are alone, and when we come to this house. 
 
 1. We shall profit by all that befalls us. If it is 
 good and necessary for most of us to be humbled — if 
 we cannot be anything or do anything right till we are 
 humbled, then be sure God means all that He sends us 
 for this purpose. Sometimes it may be a great trouble, 
 sometimes it may be a little vexing trouble which over- 
 takes us. One may do the work as well as the other. 
 One may bring down our self-confidence as well as the 
 other. God knows which will do it best for each of us. 
 Or He may send us good and bright days. They may 
 tend to our humiliation as much as the others. We may 
 wonder what right we have to them ; how such people 
 as we should have blessings that we have done so little 
 for. Anything may turn to the increase of our pride 
 if we receive it without asking for God's Spirit to make 
 it good. Anything may help to take the pride out of 
 us if His Spirit comes with it. 
 
 2. Yes, and therefore I say a man's past transgres- 
 
136 THE PUBLICAN. [serm. 
 
 sions and his most easily-besetting sin may be used, if 
 he will use them, for this end. Sometimes a person is 
 inclined to forget all the things he has done amiss in 
 past times, and would fain think they have nothing to 
 do with him now. Then up starts the recollection of 
 some one of them. It flashes aci'oss him as he lies on 
 a sick bed : he cannot throw it off. Or it comes to him 
 in another way. He thought he had got rid of some 
 bad habit — of drinking perhaps. He supposes he is 
 quite safe ; but he meets an old companion. The old 
 sin catches him and throttles him again. It was lying 
 hid ; but it was not gone. He said he had not that 
 sin still ; he deceived himself. Is that to make him 
 despair ? Is it to lead him to say, ' I must be the slave 
 of this wicked power. I must confess the devil for my 
 ruler.^ No ; it is to make him cry, ' God be merciful 
 to me a sinner. I am worse and weaker than I knew. 
 I find I cannot trust myself for an hour. The past evil 
 comes back to me. It seems always present. But Thou, 
 0 God, canst raise me out of it. It drives me to Thee. 
 Be merciful to me, not in sparing my sin, for that is my 
 foe and my curse, but in separating me from it as far as 
 the East is from the West. And I am separate from it 
 as far as the East is from the West, when I am finding 
 my refuge and my home in Thee.' 
 
 And so you will see what I meant when I said that 
 our Lord is teaching us to-day what all our prayers at 
 church are for, and what all our prayers at home 
 are for. 
 
XIV.] THE PUBLICAN. 137 
 
 The first words you hear in church are a call to 
 confess your sins. The first act you join in with the 
 minister is that of owning to the Almighty and most 
 merciful Father that you have erred and strayed from 
 His way like lost sheep. That is to say, we are all 
 treated alike. No one is allowed to trust in himself 
 that he is righteous, and to despise others. Each brings 
 his own burden. Bach says, " Be merciful to me a 
 sinner." Each cries against his own wrong ; each asks 
 for help against his own guilt. And yet we all come 
 together. There is a common salvation for us. We 
 call upon God as the Father of us all. We call on 
 Him in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who has 
 redeemed us all ; in whom there is no sin ; in whom 
 He loves all, and is satisfied with all. While each is 
 trying to stand on his own ground, while each is pleased 
 and satisfied with himself, there is nothing but discon- 
 tent, envying, and backbiting. When each one gives 
 up his own pretension to be good, and trusts in the good 
 God, and believes that that God has given up His Son 
 for his neighbours as well as for himself, and asks for 
 the loving Spirit to dwell with us all and keep us one, 
 then do we indeed become Christ's family on earth, part 
 of that great family in heaven and earth, of which He 
 is the head and elder brother. And we may be sure 
 that as we kneel by our bedsides, or as we cry when we 
 are out in the field or at our work, ' God be merciful to 
 us sinners ; keep us from doing this wrong thing ; help 
 ua not to neglect this act of duty or of kindness,' He 
 
138 THE PUBLICAN. [seem. xiv. 
 
 will present that prayer before God. It will be joined 
 to tbe prayer of that publican in the temple^ and to all 
 the good prayers that h^ve been offered since the world 
 began. And the man who has poured it out will go to 
 his home with a clean heart and right spirit, humbled 
 in himself, exalted in God ; waiting for the day when 
 He who was humble, and lowly, and merciful, shall be 
 revealed in the glory of His Father and the holy angels, 
 and when all pride, and vanity, and sin shall be banished 
 out of His universe. 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 THE SPIKIT AND THE FLESH. 
 
 Preached at Redmarley, Morning of the IMh Sunday after Trinity, 
 September 1, 1861. 
 
 " I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of 
 the flesh." — Galatians v. 16. 
 
 The Galatians, to whom St. Paul wrote these words, 
 were a warm-hearted people, but they were very 
 changeable. At one time they were exceedingly fond 
 of St. Paul. They would have plucked out their own 
 eyes, he says, to give them to him, if that would 
 have done him any good. But within a short time 
 they began to suspect him ; they listened to people 
 who said that he had deceived them, and that he was 
 no true apostle. They counted him an enemy, and 
 many of them became his enemies. How had this 
 come to pass ? It had come to pass thus : St. Paul 
 had brought them a good message. He said that the 
 Eternal God had sent His Son into the world to adopt 
 them into His family, to make them His own sons 
 and daughters. He said that through His Son God 
 
140 THE SPIEIT AND THE FLESH. [seem. 
 
 had sent His Spirit to dwell witli tliem, tliat they 
 might know Him and love Him, and that they might 
 love one another. Th^ Galatians had listened to these 
 words ; they had never heard any that were like them 
 before. They had thought the powers above looked 
 very enviously at them, and wanted a great many 
 things of them ; they thought they had done wrong, 
 and offended these powers ; they thought if there was 
 one power greater than all, they must have offended 
 Him most, and He must be the most angry with them. 
 How wonderful it was to be told that the Lord of all — 
 He who had created them — loved them ; that He felt 
 to them as a father feels to children who have for- 
 gotten him and gone away from his house ; that He 
 was Himself fetching them back ; that they were not 
 to turn away from Him because they had done bad 
 things, but might turn to Him, and He would put the 
 evil from them, and blot it out. And how wonderful 
 to hear that they had the Spirit of the Father near 
 them at all times to help them and strengthen them ; 
 how wonderful to have all this sealed and assured to 
 them by this token, that they were baptized into the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost. And yet the hearts of these Galatians said 
 this good news must be true ; and they would have 
 been glad to put out their own eyes for his sake who 
 had brought them the news. 
 
 But as time went on, they began to feel bad thoughts 
 rising in them ; and they yielded to these bad thoughts. 
 
XV.] THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. 141 
 
 and bad acts came out of them ; tliey were bitter and 
 cruel to one another ; tliey cheated each other ; they 
 fell into wantonness and drunkenness, just as they had 
 done when they were heathens — ^just as the heathen 
 people around them did. ' Well/ they began to say to 
 themselves, 'but how can this be if St. Paul was 
 right in what he said to us at first ; did he not speak 
 of our being cleansed from our sins ? did he not speak 
 of our being made new men ? But our sins are "with 
 us still ; we are just the same now that we were before.' 
 Then came people who said to them, ' Yes, Paul has 
 indeed led you wrong. This baptism into the name of 
 Christ does not mean what he would persuade you that 
 it means. You are not really taken to be children 
 of God. If you would get any advantage from Chi'ist's 
 coming, you must become like us Jews. You must 
 come under our law ; then perhaps God may give you 
 some blessings hereafter. But you must not begin 
 with thinking that you are already delivered and 
 brought into God's family.' The Galatians gave heed 
 to -what these men said, and so they counted St. Paul 
 for their enemy. 
 
 St. Paul was very much grieved ; but the pain they 
 caused him was nothing. He knew that he had told 
 them the truth, and that these people who had come 
 among them and slandered him were not telling them 
 the truth. He knew that they wanted the truth which 
 he had told them ; that they could not be right and 
 good men without it. But how then could he account 
 
142 THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. [serm. 
 
 for tlieh' having fallen into these bad ways ? How 
 could he justify what he had said to them about their 
 being children of God and members of Christ, and of 
 their having the Spirit of God with them to help and 
 teach them ? Could he have meant that really ? Must he 
 not have meant it for some of them and not for others ? 
 
 No ! what St. Paul said to all, he intended all to 
 receive. If it was true about one, it was true about 
 another. If any who were baptized could say, ' God 
 has given us the sign that we are His children/ all 
 who were baptized could say, ' God has given us the 
 sign that we are His children.^ And if they believed 
 that, they would soon find what enemies they had who 
 were trying to hinder them from acting as if they were 
 His children. They would soon find that they had a 
 "flesh in them that was leading them to think all 
 manner of wrong things, and to do all manner of 
 wrong things. And if they gave way to that flesh of 
 theirs, it would be a very cruel master to them, and 
 would drive them very hard. What then ? Were 
 they not to count themselves God's children because 
 this was so ? That would be just as if any sou or 
 daughter on earth were to say, ' I have no father or 
 mother,' because he had been rebellious against his 
 father and mother, and had not chosen to do the things 
 they commanded. That would be to shrink from con- 
 fessing how much they had offended, and what a 
 gracious loving God they had grieved. That would be 
 saying that He had changed because they had changed. 
 
XV.] THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. 143 
 
 That would be cutting themselves off from the ouly 
 way of being set free from the evil and being made 
 right. And St. Paul told them plainly that if they 
 tried to keep God's law when they had ceased to 
 believe in this covenant that He had made with them 
 as His sons and daughters, they would not be able to 
 keep it ; they would fight against it ; they would do 
 the things which it told them not to do. 
 
 But he says in the Epistle we have read to-day, 
 " Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust 
 of the flesh." 
 
 What does that mean, " Walk in the Spirit ? " It 
 means : Live as if this were true which I have told you, 
 and as if you were God's children, and God were looking 
 upon you as a Father, and as if He were wishing you to do 
 right, and were helping you to do right, and were giving 
 you His own good and right Spirit, that you might do 
 right. And then you " shall not fulfil the lusts of the 
 flesh." They will rise up in you; they will tell you that 
 you must obey them. But you can say, ' No, we are God's 
 children; we will not yield to them. They may be very 
 strong, but His Spirit is stronger, we will yield to that.' 
 For he goes on, "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, 
 and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are 
 contrary " to each other. He does not say that about 
 other men more than, about himself. He could tell 
 other men that it was so with them, because he found 
 out that it was so with him. It was a continued battle 
 in him. He had something in him which was looking 
 
144 THE SPIEIT AND THE FLESH. [serm. 
 
 up, desiring what was good, and wanting to know wliat 
 was good, and asking to be good. He liad something 
 in him which was looking down, and wishing for 
 things that were not good, and not caring to find out 
 what was good and what was evil ; and choosing to 
 have its own way, and not to ask to be guided into 
 the right way. It was so with St. Paul ; he could con- 
 fidently say to each of the Galatians, ' It is so with 
 you, and it is so with me.' " And, therefore," he says, 
 "we do not the things that we would.'' The bad man 
 does not do all the bad things that he thinks of ; there 
 is a right spirit checking him. The good man does not 
 do all the good things that he thinks of, there is a 
 flesh checking him. ' But yet,'" he says, ' you may be 
 led by the Spirit. The weakest of you may ; those 
 who feel yourselves weak, and desire to be led by such 
 a gi'acious and loving Lord. And then yon will not 
 be under the law.' That he says in answer to those- 
 people who told the Galatians that they must not 
 think that God was their Father; that they must 
 come under the law which God gave men before He 
 sent His Son to claim them as His children. He 
 reminds them always that that is their state and their 
 glory ; they must not give that up if they wish to get 
 the better of their bad inclinations. ' You are led by 
 the Spirit,' he tells them, 'because you are God's 
 children ; you are not servants but sons, and, therefore,. 
 He sends His Spirit into your hearts, that you may 
 say, Abba, Father ! ' 
 
XV.] THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. 145 
 
 Then lie goes on to tell them, in very plain lan- 
 guage, what kind of things they would do if they 
 were left to themselves and did just the things which 
 their flesh stirred them up to do. "Now the works 
 of the flesh are manifest, which are these — adultery, 
 fornication, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, 
 seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, 
 revelling, and such like." As much as to say — 
 If you look at the world and see what things are going 
 on in it — how wives are separated from their husbands, 
 how men and women live to ruin each other, how 
 nations fight with each other, what strifes there are 
 in neighbourhoods and families, how men quarrel 
 about the least things and the greatest, even about 
 the religion which should unite them together, how 
 thousands and ten thousands become beasts instead 
 of men through drunkenness, how they give them- 
 selves to revelling, and out of that comes hatred and 
 often murder — if you look at all these things, you will 
 understand what there is working in us all, and what 
 we should become if we were our own masters. And 
 he says of these things, ''I tell you now, as I told you 
 in times past, that they which do such things shall 
 not inherit the kingdom of God." That is as much as 
 to say, 'I have not changed my mind in the least. I 
 always said to you that these things are the curse and 
 damnation of all people who give way to them. It 
 does not signify who they are, whether they call them- 
 selves Christians or heathens, they who do such things 
 
 L 
 
146 THE SPIRIT A^D THE FLESH. [serm. 
 
 choose the devil for their king, and ask him to rule 
 over them.' But then he goes on, ' there are other 
 works doing on this earth, thanks be to God its King. 
 There is love in this world, there is joy in the earth, 
 there is peace on the earth ; you see parents who are 
 caring about their children ; you see men and women 
 who are doing kind, and gentle, and good acts ; you 
 see people in sickness and poverty who are full of faith 
 and trust ; you see people who are bearing injuries 
 meekly ; you see people who are restraining them- 
 selves when they ax'e tempted to di'unkenness.' 
 
 Where do all these good fruits come from ? They 
 come, as I told you before, from the Spirit of God. 
 They are the things which God Himself is working in 
 US to do. Well, if you beheve that, you can take your 
 choice. You may walk in the Spirit, and claim your 
 place as God's children, as baptized men ; or you may 
 follow the flesh, and then you will always be ready for 
 some of those dark and devilish works of which I 
 spoke to you just now. If you take the first course, 
 you will never find God's law against you ; it will 
 always be on your side. In you will be crucified, in 
 Christ's name and in His strength, those things which 
 God hates and which make men miserable. 
 
 Now, brethren, remember that all this is spoken to 
 us. Just as St. Paul and the Galatians had this flesh 
 and this Spirit fighting in them, so have you and I. 
 Just as the flesh was drawing them down to low, vile 
 things, to those things that ruin the body and soul and 
 
XV.] THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH. 147 
 
 set US at war witli each otliei', so it is with you and 
 me. We are not different^ so far, from other men. 
 Christians have not a whit better natures than Jews 
 or heathen. Oftentimes thej seem to be much worse; 
 oftentimes Jews and heathen do good things which 
 should make us ashamed. And why is this ? If we 
 beheved in baptism we should have obeyed its teaching. 
 We should knowthat all the good which is in them would 
 come from God's dear and loving Spirit; that whatever 
 kindness, gentleness, truth, there is in any, comes from 
 the goodness and gentleness and truth of God. And 
 then we should say, ' Oh, God ! Thou hast made us 
 Thy children : Thou hast told us Thou art our Father 
 in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hold us fast to Thee. Fulfil 
 Thy promise of writing Thy law in our hearts by the 
 Spirit. Never let us go out of this bond. Our god- 
 fathers and godmothers renounced for us the service 
 of the world and the flesh and the devil. They said 
 they were not our masters and should not be our 
 masters. Help us to say the same every day and every 
 hour. Help us to fight the good fight of faith. For it 
 is only by faith in Thee that we can do anything that 
 is right, or avoid anything that is wrong ; only while 
 we believe that Thou art altogether good^ and that 
 Thou art our Father, and that Thou hast delivered us 
 from our sins, and that Thou art always on our side; it 
 is only then we put to death our lusts and our hatred 
 and our revelling, only then we can be meek and 
 gentle and brave and true, as Thou hast made ub to be.' 
 
 L 2 
 
SERMON XVI. 
 
 MAN'S DOMINION. 
 
 Preached at Redmarley, Afternoon of the 14th Sunday after Trinity, 
 Septeniber 1, 1861. 
 
 "Oh, Lord, our Governor, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth." 
 Psalm viii. 
 
 We have been reading ttis Psalm togetlier this after- 
 noon. Let us try if we cannot get some good out 
 of it that will go through the week — that will make us 
 rejoice more together in the bright skies, and the 
 harvest, and in aU other good things that we receive at 
 God^s hands. 
 
 I suppose the person who wrote it was out on some 
 evening or night when the moon and the stars were 
 shining very clearly. Perhaps he was out on the hills 
 with his flock of sheep; for you know that a shepherd 
 sang a great number of these psalms ; one who, the 
 Scriptures say, was taken fi'om following the ewes great 
 with young, that he might be a leader and shepherd of 
 the people. 
 
 That shepherd must have seen many beautiful nights 
 
SERM. XVI.] MAN'S DOMINION. 149 
 
 and mornings whilst he was about his work. But I 
 doubt if merely seeing them would have done much for 
 him. Many of us have such sights often before us, and 
 yet we do not mind them at all ; they are not much 
 more to us than they would be to a blind man. But 
 David had believed that He who created the heavens, 
 and stretched them out, was the Lord God of his fathers 
 and of him ; that He had cared for his fathers, and 
 that He cared for him ; that He had desired them to 
 trust Him and know Him and worship Him. He sang 
 songs to God because he believed in Him as a helper 
 and as a friend ; as One from whom every good thing, 
 and every good thought and good work, must come. 
 
 Well, that was what was most in his mind on the 
 evening that I spoke of. " Oh Lord," he says, " our 
 Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth. ; 
 Thou that hast set Thy glory above the heavens." 
 " Oh Lord, our Governor," that is, the governor of us — 
 Thy people Israel, whom Thou hast watched over and 
 brought out of the house of bondage, and to whom Thou 
 hast given a good and righteous law ; and whom Thou 
 defendest against our enemies. Surely Thy great name 
 is not confined to us. It is "excellent in all the earth." 
 Thou rulest over all this wide world, however far it may 
 spread, though there may be countries in it that I have 
 never heard of, or dreamed of. Yea, Thou canst not be 
 confined to this earth. These heavens over my head 
 speak of a glory that goes further than I can think or 
 dream of. This moon, and these stars, what are they ? 
 
150 MAX'S DOillNION. [seem. 
 
 Who can tell me ? I only know tliey show forth Thy 
 glory ; Thou that art our King and our Deliverer. 
 
 Then a thought comes to him of his own littleness. 
 He is venturing to think of God, and to pray to Him ; 
 he, a mere child ! Yes, he says. Thou hast ordained me 
 to do so: Thou hast put these thoughts and praises 
 into my heart and my lips. Thou choosest babes 
 and sucklings to praise Thee; Thou showest them what 
 beauty and joy there is in Thy universe. When the 
 enemy and the darkness say, I have spoiled it all ; I 
 have brought death and sin and misery into it j I am 
 the lord of it — No, cry these babes and sucklings, Thou 
 art not the lord of it. Evil and death have not con- 
 quered the Lord, our Governor. See how these glorious 
 heavens, that last over from generation to generation, 
 bear witness of Him ; see how they tell of a living and 
 unchangeable God. 
 
 Yes, he goes on — " I will consider the heavens the 
 ■work of Thy hands, the moon and the stars which 
 Thou hast ordained." It is a great strength and com- 
 fort and wonder to consider them, and to be sure that 
 they are Thine, and that Thou art our God. 
 
 But then, when I consider them, I cannot help think- 
 ing again what poor beggarly creatures we are. Can 
 it be that Thou who madest these heavens carest for 
 such worms ? "What is man that Thou art mindful of 
 him ; and the son of man that Thou visitest him ? " 
 he stops for a moment at that question; it staggers 
 him. These glorious heavens, and then the little 
 
XVI.] MAN'S DOMINION. 151 
 
 creature who lasts at the best but three-score years and 
 ten, and who may be cut off in an instant; who is weaker 
 than any of the animals about him ; whom an insect 
 may kill; who spends his time in such trifles — what 
 is this man, that Thou the creator of the heavens and 
 earth, should think about him, should even want him ? 
 But he recollects himself — He does not speak meanly 
 of man, for all he looks so poor and contemptible. 
 ''Thou madest him lower than the angels, to crown 
 him with glory and worship." 
 
 This poor creature — man — may be very weak, the 
 weakest of Thy creatures; but there is a spirit in 
 him. He is more like an angel than all these beau- 
 tiful and glorious things which I look at. Yea, and 
 though he is lower than the angels ; though he suffers 
 sorrow and death ; I believe that Thou hast permitted 
 these only that thou mayest crown him with glory and 
 worship. I believe Thou hast made him to show forth 
 Thy glory and worship more than angels even can show 
 it forth. I may not be able to see how that should be, 
 but I cannot doubt it. For I see that " Thou makest 
 him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands. 
 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. 
 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the 
 fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, and whatsoever 
 walketh through the paths of the sea." Very wonderful 
 indeed that that should be so, and yet David knew that 
 it was so. Flocks of sheep, droves of oxen, obeyed him, 
 a feeble man; they did the things which he bade them 
 
152 MAX'S DOMIXIOX. [seem, 
 
 do. He was able to direct tliem, not by tbe strength of 
 his arms, but by the power of his words. He was able 
 to direct them best when he was most gentle with them. 
 With the wild beasts of the field — those that preyed 
 upon other creatures — it was different ; these he had 
 power to kill if he could not tame them. David told 
 King Saul how when a bear and a lion came out against 
 his flock might was given him to slay them ; that assured 
 him that he should have might to slay the huge Philis- 
 tine who was defying the armies of his country. In 
 all these ways he was taught that it is the spirit that 
 is in a creature — not its size or its fierceness — which 
 makes it victorious, and that this spirit is what God 
 put into man when He made Him after His own image. 
 Therefore, He did not doubt that some day or other it 
 would be shown him how glorious man is ; how truly 
 God had put all things under his feet. It was hard to 
 expect that when he saw how mean human beings 
 made themselves ; how they stooped to all the animals 
 and even worshipped them; how they seemed to prize 
 the food which the fowls of the air, and the fishes of 
 the sea, supplied them with, more than their own bodies 
 and souls ; how wicked they were, while the birds and 
 beasts and fishes were innocent — it was hard to think 
 that one day men should be shown to be indeed what 
 God had made them to be, in spite of their own wilful- 
 ness. And yet he who wrote this psalm could not 
 believe in God and not believe that what He had said 
 must come to pass. It must be shown that neither the 
 
XVI.] MAN'S DOMINION. 153 
 
 moon nor the stars were so great and divine as the 
 lowest human being that they shine upon. He was 
 sure of this, and therefore he could say again, " Oh 
 Lord, our Grovernor, how excellent is Thy name in all 
 the world." Thy purpose will prevail, however we may 
 try to set it at nought. Thou wilt make Thy name 
 glorious, and men shall be glorified in Thee. 
 
 Was the psalmist mistaken ? We were reading a 
 few Sundays ago the Epistle to the Hebrews. That 
 letter was written to the Jews who heard the Psalms 
 full a thousand years after David's death. It was written 
 forty or fifty years after the death of Him whom we 
 call the Son of David and the Son of God — Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. And the writer says in it, We do not yet see 
 all things put under now, as the psalmist says they are 
 meant to be ; " but we see Jesus, who for the suffering 
 of death was made a little lower than the angels, crowned 
 with glory and honour." What has that to do with what 
 we have been speaking of this afternoon ? Everything. 
 " When we consider the heavens and the earth the work 
 of God's hands, the moon and the stars which He hath 
 ordained," we must needs begin to think, as the psalmist 
 does, " What is man ? " — this poor, wretched, sinful, 
 dying creature — "that Thou art mindful of him." And 
 then we who believe in God the Father Almighty, 
 Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His 
 only Son our Lord, can make answer and say, 'Yea, 
 verily, but the Son of God, by whom the world was 
 made, and all the host of them, was born of a woman, 
 
154 MAN'S DOMINION. [serm. 
 
 became a poor man upon this eartli of ours ; and He, 
 while He was upon earth, showed that the winds and 
 the waves and all creatures were subject to Him. And 
 then He suffered the (Jeath of the Cross, and was 
 buried and went into hell, and rose again from the dead, 
 and sitteth at the right hand of His Father. And, 
 therefore, no people shall frighten us and crush us with 
 talking about the heavens and all the host of them. 
 We verily believe that a Man is above all these. We 
 verily believe that One who is of our nature, and who 
 bore our sins and died our death, is the King who was 
 before all ages, and so He shall live on through, ages 
 upon ages. And, therefore, we are sure that God has 
 not created all things in vain; and that it is a truth, 
 and no lie, that He has created man in His own image ; 
 and that every little baby just born has a glory upon 
 it which does not belong to all works of God's hands, 
 let them be as great and glorious as they may. And 
 we believe, moreover, that He who has exalted His own 
 Son to be our King, has sent His Spirit to raise up our 
 spirits, that we may not be poor crawling creatures, 
 meaner than all the things we see and handle, but that 
 we may look up to Him where He is, and may call His 
 Father our Father, and may join with Angels and 
 Archangels in blessing Him for all the works of His 
 hands.' 
 
 And, my friends, this is what we have desired for that 
 little infant whom we have just received into the con- 
 gregation of Christ's flock, and signed with the sign of 
 
XVI.] MAN'S DOMINION. 155 
 
 the cross. We said tliat that child was one of the 
 race for which Christ died ; we said that that child 
 was one of that family of which He is the elder 
 Brother and the Head ; we said that this child is 
 a spirit child^ and is therefore greater and diviner, 
 not only than the sheep and the oxen, the fowls 
 of the air, and the fishes of the sea, but than the 
 earth and the air and the sky about us. Do not 
 forget that, you that are parents. Do not forget what 
 treasures God has put into your hands. And since 
 you know that you cannot take care of them yourselves, 
 do not forget that you have committed them to God ; 
 that He has promised them greater blessings than you 
 can ask for or dream of, and that that promise He for 
 His part will most surely keep and perform. 
 
 Take every autumn as it comes round and brings 
 you in the fruits of the tiny seeds that you sowed last 
 autumn, or last spring, as a witness and pledge that 
 He does not neglect any, the least things, and that He 
 does not merely give you rain to nourish them, and 
 sun to ripen them, but that He gives you what is much 
 better — power to work, and wisdom to know how you 
 should work in the right way. Thank Him for not 
 scattering the fruits in your path without your labour; 
 you would soon become miserable heartless creatures if 
 He did. Thank Him for caring more to make you 
 brave and true than to make you easy and weak and 
 self-indulgent. Thank Him for having set you over the 
 sheep and the oxen, and the fowls of the air, and the 
 
156 ilAX'S DOMINION. [seem. xvi. 
 
 fishes of tlie sea. TJiank Him for liaving given you 
 tlie moon and stars, not only to direct you in your 
 patli, but to make you wonder and ask after Him. 
 Thank Him that He has given you all these lesson- 
 books for your children as well as you. Thank Him 
 because He has said there will be a day in which He 
 will gather up all things unto Christ, both things in 
 heaven and things on earth, unto Him who is the Head 
 over all His universe; and when every child, and every 
 star, and every animal, and every flower, shall be seen 
 to have been created by infi.nite love for His infinite 
 glory. 
 
SERMON XVII. 
 
 GOD AND MAMMON. 
 
 Preached at Redmarley, Horning of the 15th Simday after Trinity, 
 September 8, 1861. 
 
 " No man can serve two Masters, for either lie will hate the one and 
 love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the 
 • other — ye cannot serve God and Mammon." — St. Matthew vi. 24. 
 
 OuB Lord Jesus Christ knew what was in man. He 
 knew what the people in Judgea were thinking and 
 were trying to do eighteen hundred and sixty years 
 ago. He knew what the people in England would 
 be thinking and trying to do in our day. The people 
 of Jud^a professed to worship one God — the Lord God 
 of their fathers ; the Lord God who had delivered their 
 fathers out of bondagCj who had given them bread and 
 water as they came through the wilderness ; who had 
 promised them a good land in which they should dwell ; 
 who had been with them and with their seed after 
 them. That was the God to whom the temple was 
 built. That was the God to whom the priests offered 
 sacrifices. But when they were not in the temple they 
 were about their farms and their merchandise. It was 
 their duty to be about their farms and their merchan- 
 dise. They were set in the world to till the laud. The 
 
158 GOD AND MAMMON. [serm. 
 
 sea was given them that they might send their ships 
 across it, and might send their good things to other 
 lands, and receive the good things of those lands in 
 exchange. God had appointed the sea and the land ; 
 God had set them their work to do. How cheerfully 
 they would have done these works if they had believed 
 that ! With what glad hearts they would have risen 
 in the morning if they had been sure that the good 
 God, their deliverer and their friend, was rousing them 
 to their day's labour, and would be with them all through 
 it ! How pleasantly they would have laid themselves 
 down at night if they had remembered that He who 
 never slumbers nor sleeps was watching over them 
 while they slept ! How comfortable it would have 
 been to remember all the day, ' He is our God and our 
 neighbours' God. He helps them to work as He helps 
 us ; He cares for them as He cares for us.' 
 
 But it was not so. These Jews, when they were at 
 their farms and their merchandise, did not remember 
 the God whom they had worshipped in the temple. 
 They thought chiefly of what they were to get by their 
 labour ; how much money would come of it. Each 
 thought, ' How much more money can I get than my 
 neighbour ? How can I hinder him from having the 
 profits that I want for myself ? ' What came of that ? 
 Were they without a God, while they were thinking 
 and plotting this way ? No, my friends ; men cannot 
 shake off the thought of sovie God, try as hard as they 
 will. They may forget the good God, the true God, the 
 
XVII.] GOD AND MAMMON. 159 
 
 Maker of heaven and earth. — their deliverer and friend. 
 But then they will Tnake to themselves a god ; they 
 will make him out of their own hard cruel fancies ; 
 they will make him like themselves. So it was with the 
 Jews. They loved money, and money became their god. 
 They did not know it ; they would not have confessed 
 it — but so it was. And a very hard savage god it was 
 which they set up for themselves. Not a helper, not a 
 deliverer at all — but a bitter tyrant ; not one who cared 
 for all, but one who set up this man and scorned that ; 
 not a god who made the people better that served him, 
 but one who made them meaner and baser. This is the 
 god whom our Lord calls mammon — a false god, a god 
 that men had formed for themselves, but all the worse 
 and more mischievous for that. 
 
 Now, what our Lord tells the Jews here is, that they 
 could not have these two gods — the gracious loving God 
 of their fathers ; the God who sets captives free ; who 
 gives liberally to all ; who seeks the good of all — and 
 this selfish hard-hearted mammon-god — "Ye cannot 
 serve God and mammon." If you will love mammon, 
 you will hate the good God ; if you hold to God, yoa 
 will despise mammon. You cannot worship one god 
 on the Sabbath days, and the other thi'ough the week ; 
 you must have the same on the Sabbath days and in 
 the week. If you worship mammon in the week, it 
 will be to him you bring your prayers and offerings on 
 the Sabbaths. You will each come to get him to do 
 something for you, not for your neighbours ; you will 
 
160 GOD AND MAMMON. [serm. 
 
 each of you come to persuade him not to be your enemy. 
 And again, if you worship the true living God on the Sab- 
 bath days, you will have Him with you on all other days. 
 
 So He goes on — "'Therefore, I say unto you, take 
 no thought for your life what ye shall eat, nor yet for 
 your body what ye shall put on." How is that ? Did 
 He mean that His disciples were to be idlers ; that they 
 were to trust in God to give them food for their bodies, 
 and clothing for their bodies, without working for it ? 
 No, my friends ; His disciples were to be hard workers ; 
 they were to hate begging. St. Paul said to some 
 of those who had got this notion into their heads of 
 being idle and trusting God, " Those of you that will 
 not work shall not eat." But our Lord knew that it 
 does not make men work better to be anxious and 
 miserable about what should come of their work. He 
 knew that makes bad workers ; He knew that turned 
 workers into beggars. They despised getting food and 
 clothing by the labour of their hands, so they ruined 
 themselves and their children by telling stories and 
 asking other people for food or money. So he says — 
 ' Do not you act so. Believe you have not a cruel hard 
 mammon-god over you, but a gracious, loving, tender 
 Father, the very same that you pray to in the temple. 
 And, therefore, do not be anxious about what shall 
 come of your labour ; trust that to Him. Does He 
 not give you life every day, and is not that more 
 than the meat by which you support life ? Did He 
 not give you these curious wonderful bodies of yours ? 
 
XVII.] GOD AND MAMMON. 161 
 
 And is not that more than the dress that you put on 
 your bodies ? Look/ He says, ' at these birds that are 
 flying about in the air ; does your Father in heaven let 
 them starve ? Does not He find food for them ? And 
 do -not you think that you men whom He has made in 
 His own likeness, whom He so loves that He has sent 
 His Son to take your flesh upon Him, do not you think 
 that you are better than the birds ? Suppose you were 
 ever so anxious to be tall men ; could you become tall 
 men by being anxious about it ? Would that add one 
 inch to your stature ? So you see it must be God who 
 is providing for you every minute, every hour. It miist 
 be He who is causing your babies to grow. It must be 
 He who is giving you all that you want. Cannot you 
 trust Him ? ' 
 
 And then about your dress. Look at the flowers that 
 grow about the fields and the hedgerows. Do you think 
 any king had ever such beautiful raiment as these have ? 
 Do not you know that all the kings of the earth can do 
 is to imitate the beauty of these flowers ; to get some 
 robes that look a little like them ? And yet these 
 flowers in the fields will be soon mown down. You cast 
 them away; you count them for nothing. Well, do 
 you not think that the God who thinks of these will 
 think of you ? Oh, ye of little faith ! 
 
 ' Therefore,' He says, * do not be anxious and 
 miserable about what you shall eat and what you shall 
 drink. It is all very well for the heathen to do so, 
 for they do not know that they have a Father. They 
 
 M 
 
162 GOD AND :MAMM0N'. [seem. 
 
 fancy their gods liave a grudge against them, and 
 want them to buy their favour with a great many gifts. 
 But you are told that you have a Father, who knows 
 just what you want, jtfst what strength you require for 
 each day. Be remembering Him. Say to yourselves, 
 " He is the King of all the earth, and we are His own 
 children." He wants us to be right, good children. Let 
 us ask Him to make us so ; right in all our acts ; right 
 in all our thoughts ; and then He will take care to send 
 us whatever besides He knows is good for us.' 
 
 "Take, therefore," He says, "no thought for the 
 morrow;^' that is, do not be fidgety and restless 
 about what shall come to-morrow. You have enough 
 to do each dav : enough of evil to bear each dav. You 
 need not make youi-selves so many trials by fancying 
 what you may have another day. Let that alone ; only 
 trust God, the good God who is the same yesterday, 
 to-dav, and for ever. And so you will have the true 
 life, the life which will not pass away for ever and ever. 
 
 Now, my friends, I said when I began, that our Lord 
 Jesus Christ knew what the Jews were tempted to think 
 and to do at that time ; and that He knew what we 
 stould be tempted to think and to do at this time. Our 
 temptation is the same as theirs was, the very same. 
 We come here to church on Sunday. ^Ye call God our 
 Almighty and most merciful Father. We say that we 
 believe He gave His only begotten Son for us all, to die 
 for us, and that He ever lives for us at His Father's 
 rio-ht hand. We say that we believe He so cared for us 
 
XYii.] GOD AND MAMMON. 163 
 
 as to send His own Holy and Loving Spirit to dwell 
 witli us, that He might teacli us the things we want to 
 know, and help us to do the things we want to do. 
 That is our Sunday doctrine. Then we go out to our 
 different works during the week ; and we forget that 
 the God we have heard of in church is the God who 
 rules over our houses and our fields ; who gives us 
 children ; who enables us to woi'k ; who supports our 
 lives. A man who has money, thinks, 'How can I 
 get a little more of this, and a little more still, and a 
 little more still ? ' A poor man thinks, ' How can I 
 keep myself from starving ? for surely all things are 
 against me; the Ruler of the world is against me.' 
 And so, brethren, all of us come by one way or other to 
 get these thoughts into our hearts, that mammon, the 
 money-god, is somehow our master; that he has the 
 upper hand ; that our main business is to serve him. 
 I say we are all tempted to this faith. I know that I 
 am. And I know that if I am tempted to it in the 
 week, I must be tempted to it on Sundays. I cannot 
 have two Gods — one for the world and one for the 
 church. I shall have mammon in both if I have him 
 in either. And I know not, brethren, how we should 
 escape having him in both, if it were not for these 
 dear words of our Lord Christ, and for the dear acts 
 which He has done to make them good. I know we 
 should set up a tyrant and worship him, even the 
 cruel, brutal tyrant — this money-god — if He had not 
 come down from heaven to show us what our Father 
 
 II 2 
 
164 GOD AND MAMMON. [seem. xvii. 
 
 is, and liow He cares for us, and seeks after us, if 
 He had not become a poor man, and had not died 
 upon tlie cross and risen again and ascended on high. 
 All this bears witness to every clergyman and to 
 every one of his hearers, to every rich man and to 
 every poor man, that there is a Father over all, upon 
 whom they may all depend in all times of their 
 tribulation, and in all times of their wealth, and in 
 the hour of death and in the day of judgment ; One 
 to whom they may give up themselves and their 
 children, their bodies and their souls, as to a faithful 
 and loving Creator who has so loved them that He 
 gave up His own Son for them all. Yes, verily, 
 brethren, and it is not I only who preach to you 
 of this Father. The birds of the air preach of Him, 
 the flowers of the field preach of Him ; all these say : 
 ' The mammon-god did not create us ; the Father of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ created us. His love has called 
 us into existence. His love watches over the life of 
 every man and woman and child.' 
 
 Therefore, do you men and women and children 
 trust in Him, and give your hearts to Him, and ask 
 Him to make you right and true, and to make you love 
 each other as He loves you. 
 
 And ask Him to deliver you from the worship of 
 the mammon-god ; for in very deed he is the false 
 evil spirit, the devil who is seeking to destroy those 
 bodies and souls in hell which the Son of God died to 
 save, and to make heirs of Eternal Life. 
 
SERMON XVIII. 
 
 THE GLORY OP THE CROSS. 
 
 Preached at Redmarley, Afternoon of the 15th Sunday after Trinity, 
 Septemher 8, 1861. 
 
 " But God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Christ 
 Jesus my Lord, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I 
 unto the world." — Galatiass vi. 14. 
 
 I EXPLAINED to yoa last Sunday liow the Gralatians 
 had been drawn away to think St. Paul their enemy, 
 though they had once counted him their best friend. 
 He had written them a letter with his own hand 
 (commonly he employed some of his companions to 
 write for him), to tell them how they had mistaken 
 him, and how much they h-ad injured themselves by 
 listening to the people who slandered him. The words 
 we read in the Epistle for this morning are the end of 
 his letter. They are good for us to read and to think 
 of, because they show us what bound St. Paul to these 
 Galatians for all that they had used him so ill, and 
 what binds him to us, for all that we were born into 
 the world so many hundreds of years after he left it. 
 The Galatians had been persuaded that they must 
 
166 THE GLORY OP THE CROSS. [serm. 
 
 become like the Jews, and must liave the sign of the 
 covenant if they would have God's favour. St. Paul 
 was a Jew himself, a Hebrew of the Hebrews ; he says 
 he had once been very proud of his privileges as a Jew. 
 He had once despised all other nations and thought 
 that they were cut oS from God ; but he had cast 
 away that pride; he had found that he was not in him- 
 self a whit better than other people, let him have been 
 born where he might, let him have had ever so many 
 advantages, ever such a good law, ever such a holy 
 covenant. He could not, he would not, glory then on 
 this ground any more. And he made the Galatians 
 understand that if they tried to find this excuse for 
 glorying, they would be sadly disappointed. They 
 would not be able to keep God^s law any better than 
 they had kept it hitherto, if they made themselves 
 like the Jews ; they would not love one another or love 
 God better. But he had not given over glorying because 
 he did not glory in being unlike the rest of men. And 
 he would not have the Galatians cease from glorying, 
 though that was no good pretence for it. What could 
 he glory in then ? In that which did not separate him 
 from his neighbours, but united him to his neighbours. 
 In that which did not separate him from those who 
 quarrelled with him, but was as great a blessing to 
 them as to him. In that which did not belong to one 
 people or to one time, but to all people and all time. 
 
 " God forbid," he says, " that I should glory save 
 in the Cross of Christ Jesus my Lord." 
 
XVIII.] THE GLORY OF THE CROSS. 167 
 
 Now just think what that means. The Romaus had 
 many ways of putting men to death, but there was one 
 way which was the most shameful of all, one way 
 which they kept for slaves and for people who had 
 committed the greatest crimes, that was the death 
 of crucifixion, a death of hanging on a cross. When 
 St. Paul came preaching of Jesus as the Son of God; 
 people listened to him for a while. They saidj 'Yes; it is 
 just possible that some great ruler may have come upon 
 earth, or some very wise man who deserves that name.' 
 But when he said, ' He whom I say is the Son of God, 
 is Jesus of Nazareth, who was called a carpenter's son, 
 and who was crucified by Pontius Pilate, the Roman 
 governor ' — then they cried out, ' How monstrous ! 
 Can you expect us to believe that ? To think of the 
 God of Heaven making himself known to us in a man 
 who underwent such a death as this ! ' But St. Paul 
 said, ' I can proclaim to you no other. That is the 
 King to whom I bow. That is the Son of God in 
 whom I believe.' Yes, and that is the King, the Son of 
 God, whom you need, one and all of you. You want a 
 King who can stoop to the state of the lowest and 
 most wretched of His subjects. You want a Son of 
 God who shows that the love of God is stronger than 
 the wickedness of man, and than the ingratitude of 
 man. You want a Son of God who can show that love 
 is stronger than death. Any other will not avail you. 
 Any other is not a King and a Saviour and a Son of 
 God for sinful men. Any other is not a King and a 
 
168 THE GLORY OF THE CROSS. [seem. 
 
 Saviour, and a Son of God for dying men. Any 
 other is not a King, and a Saviour, and a Son 
 of God for all men, — for men of every kindred 
 and tribe ; for all times ; for the rich and poor ; 
 the "wise and the unwise ; for the man that is 
 highest in the world's esteem, and for the outcast 
 that is most trodden under foot. A crucified Lord is 
 for all of these and for each of them. If He is the 
 Son of God, the Image of His Father, then I can 
 know what God is ; what His character is ; what His 
 will to all human creatures is. If he is King of men, 
 then I can know what sort of government men are 
 under; what hope there is that they may overcome 
 their enemies. And so he says, ' Since I cannot glory 
 in myself, or in my descent, or in my difference from 
 other people, any longer, I will glory in this, I will 
 think of this, the cross of Christ, and I wUl boast of 
 that, and be proud of that ; I will say. He who hung 
 there is my Lord. He who hung there is the Christ 
 with whom God is well pleased. I will exult in Him 
 because I know that He has redeemed me who would 
 have been a poor slave of my own lusts and my own 
 vanity if I had been left to myself. I will exult in 
 Him, because He has redeemed all mankind as well as 
 me; because there is no creature in any corner of 
 God's wide universe whom He has been ashamed to 
 call His brother. That is my warrant for boasting in 
 this Cross, and nothing can take that right from me. 
 If it is said that I am good for nothings I confess it. 
 
XVIII.] THE GLORY OF THE CROSS, 169 
 
 therefore I glory in this Cross. If it is said that death 
 and the grave have set their mark upon me, I confess 
 it, therefore I glory in this Cross. If it is said that I 
 cannot make out any reason why God should care for 
 me any more than for any vagabond on the earth, I 
 confess it, therefore I glory in this Cross. If it is said 
 that the Cross itself was humiliating and degrading, I 
 confess it, therefore I glory in Him who submitted to 
 the Cross.' 
 
 And so he goes on. " By whom the world is cruci- 
 fied unto me, and I unto the world.'' That is as if he 
 had said, 'I know perfectly well that this seems to Jews 
 and Gentiles both — to those who call themselves God's 
 people, and to those who worship idols — very strange, 
 and ridiculous, and contemptible. It seemed to me as 
 strange, and ridiculous, and contemptible, as it could to 
 any one. But since I hold this to be the sign of my 
 deliverance and of the world's deliverance, since this is 
 what fastens me to all men and makes me care for all 
 men, I cannot much mind their opinion or even my 
 own opinion. The nails of this Cross go through the 
 world's opinions, and my own. I know very well how 
 one man glories against another, and one nation against 
 another, one religious society against another. I 
 know how I have gloried against my fellow-men, but 
 now I cannot do that any more.' The Son of God is 
 lifted up above all the conceit and arrogance of me 
 and of you, and of all the people in the earth, let 
 .them be who or what they may. That, I take it, is at 
 
170 THE GLORY OF THE CROSS. [seiim. 
 
 least a little part of the meaning of these words — ■ 
 " By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto 
 the world." It may be a very little part indeed, you 
 may find a great deal more of what it means hereafter ; 
 I hope you, and I hope I, shall. If we hold fast to 
 the first part of the sentence and determine we will live 
 upon that, we shall be sure to find out something more 
 of the length and depth and breadth of the latter part 
 every day. Yes ; each of you may do that ; for con- 
 sider, my friends, what is all I have been saying, all 
 that St. Paul has been saying, good for, if it does not 
 declare what every creature upon earth may delight in, 
 what may lift every creature upon earth above the 
 earth, yes, may lift them out of a deep beneath the 
 earth. Why should St. Paul glory in the Cross of 
 Christ, if not because " Christ being in the form of 
 God, took upon Him the form of a servant, and was 
 made subject to death, even the death of the cross. 
 Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him, giving Him 
 a name which is above every name.^' And if it be so, 
 each one of us who is furthest from St. Paul's stature of 
 holiness may begin to do just what he did. We may 
 swear that we will glory in nothing save the Cross of 
 Christ, not because we are strong, but because we are 
 weak ; not because we are great, but because we are 
 little ; not because we have deserved anything of God, 
 but because we have erred and strayed from Him. We 
 may glory in the Cross of Christ because He bore it 
 that He might claim fellowship with all of us, and 
 
xvin.] THE GLOKY OF THE CKOSS. 171 
 
 might raise us out of all our sins^ and migM make of 
 our crosses blessings^ and love-tokens to us. 
 
 And if we do glory in tlie Cross of Christ, we may- 
 be sure that we are doing what the angels in heaven 
 and the spirits of just men made perfect are doing. 
 We shall be entering into the song of triumph ; for it 
 is this, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to 
 receive glory, and dominion, and praise, and honour.'^ 
 And in that song, we are told, all that are on the 
 earth, and all that are under the earth, will surely 
 join. 
 
SERMON XrS. 
 
 THE WIDOW OF NAIN'S SON. 
 
 Preached at Bedmarley,lGth Sunday after Trinity , September 15th,1861. 
 
 " And it came to pass the day after, that He went into a city called 
 Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him and much 
 people. Now when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, 
 there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, 
 and she was a widow ; and much people of the city was with 
 her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, 
 and said unto her. Weep not. And He came and touched the 
 bier, and they that bare him stood still." — St. Luke vii. 11 — 14. 
 
 There are not many instances of our Lord raising 
 the dead told us in tlie Gospels. The daughter of 
 Jairus, and Lazarus, and this one of the widow of Nain's 
 son, are, I think, all : and I think it is good for us that 
 there should be no more. We are all ready enough to 
 fancy, as I said to you once before, that those who were 
 upon earth when our Lord was here in the flesh, were 
 treated better than we are.' If widows who are weeping 
 for their only sons in our day and our land were to think 
 that all the widows in Galilee and Judaea at that time 
 had their children given back to them, they might ask. 
 
SERM. XIX.] THE WIDOW OF NAIN'S SON. 173 
 
 ' Why were we not born there ? Why are we so far from 
 that blessed two years ? ' But if they only read of this 
 one widow of Nain — they may begin to consider that that 
 must have been intended as a sign to a multitude of 
 people beside her; to them amongst the rest. And then 
 they may ask, 'And what is it a sign of ? How are we 
 better for the sign? Will it give us any comfort in our 
 trouble 1' Let us look at the story and see. 
 
 It is a common story enough. Out of the gate of a 
 city a body is carried to be buried. That is all that 
 most would have said who saw the funeral passing, A 
 few may have asked, 'Whose is it ?' A few will have 
 known that it was the widow's son. A few will have 
 cared both for him and for her. But there is One who 
 meets the bier ; He is called in the Gospels the Son of 
 Man. He, it is said, saw the widow, and had compassion 
 upon her. He knew exactly what was passing in her 
 mind, all the thoughts that she had about her son ; ail 
 her recollections of him ; all that she could not tell to 
 any one else, or make any one else understand ; all her 
 anxiety about what he had been, and what he was then. 
 Her friends might say a great many words in her ear — 
 some good, some foolish. One or two of their words 
 might go down into her heart. But He had compassion 
 upon her — that is to say. He bore her pain with her ; 
 He felt it Himself in His own heart. He did not stand 
 aloof from any one of her pains and perplexities. He 
 went into them as she could not do. It is written, 
 "Himself took our infirmities;" and that thought must 
 
174 THE WIDOW OF XAIN'S SON. [seem. 
 
 mean more tliau I ov any one can imagine — it must mean 
 this, tliat He entered into the trials and infirmities of 
 all human beings. Well, then, the compassion of Jesus 
 the Son of Man, for this particular -woman, is a sign of 
 His compassion for all who are going through the trial 
 which she went through. Isayforo/L We are not told 
 that there was anything" peculiar in this widow of Nain. 
 She was a woman who had lost her husband and her 
 son ; that is all we know of her. No doubt she felt 
 her loss as if no one had felt the same before, and as 
 if no one could feel it after. Every one does; every one 
 feels the whole burden of death pressing upon herself. 
 And He bore that burden with her ; and He bears it 
 with all others who have the same laid upon them, in 
 that country or this, eighteen hundred years ago or now. 
 Eemember that. And when you read the words, ''Jesus 
 had compassion on her," do not take them for hght 
 words ; they are the mightiest words you can hear. It 
 is the compassion of the Son of God and the Son of 
 Man. It is compassion for all sorrowing people, and for 
 each sorrowing man or woman, for He is the Brother of 
 each, and He was Himself the great sorrower of all. 
 
 But next he said, " Young man, I say unto thee, 
 arise." Here, you say, the likeness ends. The first 
 words might be a sign to us; these cannot be. He does 
 not meet the biers that we crowd into our church- 
 yards. He does not say to those in them, " Ai'ise." My 
 friends, the Gospel calls these acts of our Lord sigiis, 
 and I am sure the Gospel speaks truly. I am not, 
 
XIX.] THE WIDOW OF NAIN'S SON. 175 
 
 therefore, going to give up the belief that these words 
 are a sign to widows, a sign to all of us, however at first 
 we may be inclined to think that they are not so, and 
 cannot be. I could not explain this to you, but Christ 
 can. Let us hear His words, as they are written in 
 the 25th verse of the 5th chapter of the Gospel of St. 
 John — -"A^erily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is 
 coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice 
 of the Son of God, and those that hear shall live." 
 Well, perhaps that applied to Lazarus, whom the people 
 to whom He was then speaking would afterwards see 
 coming out of the grave in which he had been laid 
 four days. But now hear how He proceeds in the 28t]i 
 verse — " Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in 
 which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice 
 and shall come forth." So that you see He tells them 
 it was not wonderful that even men in their graves 
 stould hear the voice of the Son of God, because all 
 that are in the graves shall hear His voice. Afterwards 
 He gave them a sign in one case of what was true 
 always. One man actually appeared before their eyes 
 in answer to His voice ; actually came back into this 
 •earth which he had left, that they might understand 
 how it would be with all. And this was to show that, 
 as He had told the Jews, He had life in Himself, 
 and gives that life to men. As He told this to 
 the Jews, so he told Martha — when she would not 
 beheve it, but spoke in a despairing way about the 
 resurrection, — that He was the resurrection and the 
 
176 THE WIDOW OF XAIX'S SON. [serm. 
 
 life^ and that whosoever believed in Him, thougli lie 
 were dead, yet should he live. So then I have a right 
 to tell you, that when He said to the widow's son, 
 " Young man, arise ! " He was as much giving a sign 
 to other widows, as He was when He had compassion 
 on her, and felt with her. He was saying to them all 
 — 'Your sons are all to arise.' You cannot see them 
 again for a few years more, as the widow of Nain may 
 have seen her son, and then had to part with him 
 again when he died, or when she died. But you may 
 be sure that they will hear the voice of the Son of Man; 
 you may be sure that that will go through them, and 
 will have power to quicken their mortal bodies. You 
 may be sure that as He raised up His own body out 
 of the gi'ave. He will raise up theirs. For He died 
 because He had taken our nature upon Him, and He 
 rose again because He had redeemed us from death 
 and the grave. Therefore, I say, we are to receive this 
 sign — all of us — and to lay it to heart, and to assure 
 ourselves that the Son of Man had not more power on 
 earth than He has now ; but that the power He used on 
 earth was only a pledge and a witness of that which 
 He has been putting forth ever since, and of that which 
 He will put forth for all whoni we know, and for every 
 one of us. 
 
 And I would not have you forget the next words. 
 " The young man sat up and began to speak." That 
 was a sign that he was really the same person he had 
 always been. He had the same power of speech as 
 
,xix.] THE WIDOW OF NAIN'S SON. 177 
 
 when his eyes closed, and he ceased to breathe. He 
 was a human being still in all respects. He was able 
 to know his mother, to care for her and comfort her 
 again. It was by Christ's power that he had been able 
 to speak, when he first called her by her name ; and 
 by Christ's power that that speech had been preserved 
 to him up to that hour ; and Christ's power preserved 
 it in him still. Do not think that it can be otherwise 
 with any that depart out of sight. We may be quite 
 wnable to hear their voices. We need not to hear 
 them, but we should not think that they have lost 
 any power they had while they were on earth; we 
 should not think they have less than when they lived 
 on earth ; perhaps they may have more. 
 
 And there is one more sign still. He delivered the 
 youth to his mother. Mothers ought to receive their 
 ■children at first as delivered to them by Christ, as 
 placed in their hands by Him. They should remember 
 that He is entrusting their children to them from hour 
 to hour, and then they may delight to receive them 
 back from His hands when they have passed out of 
 this world, and have gone where He is. 
 
 My friends, you must teach your children to know 
 the voice of the Son of Man whilst they are on earth. 
 You must teach them that that voice chose them in 
 their baptism, when we sealed them at the font as His. 
 You must teach them that that voice is speaking to 
 them in their consciences every moment, and is bidding 
 them turn from the wrong and do the right. You 
 
178 THE WIDOW OF NAIN'S SON. [seem. xrx. 
 
 must teacli tliem that tlie Son of God became a ctild 
 and a boy, and grew to be man, that He might claim 
 them as well as you f qr Himself. You must teach them 
 that He will never leave them nor forsake them. You 
 must show them by your acts that you know He is 
 speaking to you, and guiding and governing you. 
 You must show them that you may turn to Him in 
 weakness and in sorrow ; that you believe He died and 
 rose again for us. 
 
 And then you may deliver up your children into 
 His hands as to a merciful Saviour, to keep them His, 
 and to use them for His purposes in His kingdom on 
 earth, or in His kingdom in heaven; and then you 
 shall find that He owns you and them as part of that 
 great family which He has rescued from His enemies 
 and presented to His Father. 
 
SERMON XX. 
 
 JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 Preached at Charlcomhe, 1st Sunday after Easter, April 27, 1862. 
 
 *' It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is 
 Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen agaia." — Romans 
 viii. 33, 34. 
 
 We have been thanking the Almighty Father to-day 
 that He has given His only Son to die for our sins, 
 and to rise again for our justification. We have 
 been asking Him to grant that we may put away the 
 leaven of malice and wickedness, and serve Him in 
 pureness of living and truth. 
 
 What did we mean by our thanksgiving ? Is it 
 true that God has justified us — you and me ? How has 
 He done that ? What did we mean by our request ? 
 What is that leaven of malice and wickedness which 
 we want to get rid of ? Will God^s justification of us 
 help us to get rid of it ? 
 
 My friends ! these are great questions ; the greatest 
 that any one can ask. They concern every man and 
 woman and child in this world. And there is an answer 
 
 N 2 
 
180 JUSTIFICATION. [serm. 
 
 to tliem for every man and woman and cliild in this 
 world. Let us listen to it, and try to take it in. 
 
 St. Paul, you see, .has no doubt at all about this 
 point. He says boldly, "It is God tliat justifieth; who 
 is be that condemneth ? " That is as much as to say, 
 ' I know, verily, that God, the creator of heaven and 
 earth, is on our side ; that He takes our part. And, 
 therefore, I do not care who takes the other side; there 
 may be a host of enemies that seek to destroy us. But 
 there is one Friend whose will is to save us, and I 
 verily think He is stronger than they are.' 
 
 But of whom does the Apostle speak thus ? He is 
 telling us all through the Epistle of whom he speaks. 
 The Jews had fancied that they were God's favoured 
 people; that He hated all other people. It was a strange 
 fancy ; for God had said unto Abraham, " In thee and 
 dn thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." 
 He had chosen them out of all nations to do good to all 
 the nations. He had chosen them out of all nations 
 to tell all the nations, ' God is not the partial, changeable 
 being you have taken Him to be ; He is the righteous 
 God. He is determined to set up righteousness in the 
 earth, and to put down all unrighteousness.' But, in 
 spite of this, the Jews had said, ' He justifies us; He 
 counts us a good and true nation ; all besides us are 
 accursed and hateful to Him.'' 
 
 Now St. Paul, who was a Jew, and who had been at 
 one time as narrow and bitter as anyone of his country- 
 men, wrote this letter to answer this calumny against 
 
XX.] JUSTIFICATION. 181 
 
 Him who had made all men ; he wrote to say that Grod 
 had justified both Jews and Gentiles, one as much as 
 the other. And how had He justified them ? 
 
 It is Christ, he says, that has died. Whatever differ- 
 ence there was between Jews and the other people of 
 the earth, there was one thing that was common to them 
 — Death was common to them ; they all died. And 
 Death said to every man, ' I am coming to thee because 
 thou hast done wrong; if all were right with thee, thou 
 wouldst live and not die. I shall take thee away from 
 thy neigh.bours, and thy family, and from all thy plans 
 and purposes. Thou mayest have friends and helpers 
 above and below, but who will help thee against me ? 
 Who will take thee out of my hands ? And if I once get 
 thee, dost thou think that I shall ever lose hold of thee?^ 
 
 So Death spoke to each man; so Death claimed each 
 man as his prize and his slave. Who could answer him? 
 St. Paul says Christ has answered him. The Son of 
 God became a man. He conquered Death for other men. 
 He bade Death do his worst on Him. He did this not 
 in obedience to Death, for He was not Death's servant; 
 but in obedience to His Father, the everlasting God. 
 He said, Therefore doth my Father love me, because 
 I lay down my life that I might take it again.'' He 
 said on the cross, " Father, into Thy hands I commend 
 my spirit.^' 
 
 Christ died then. The perfectly holy Lord — the 
 Lord of Angels — the Head of every man — underwent 
 death, the worst kind of death, the death that only slaves 
 
182 JUSTIFICATION. [skrm. 
 
 and criminals had to bear. Death, had seemed to be 
 God's curse upon men, cutting them off from the 
 beautiful earth and ,all His mercies; Christ, who 
 was perfectly one with God, suffered this curse. 
 Death had seemed to be God's messenger, to tear men 
 from each other. Christ went under death because 
 He was the Head of all men; because He felt for 
 all men. 
 
 H St. Paul had stopped there, he might have said to 
 Jews and Gentiles, 'How can you dare to set yourselves 
 up one against the other ? Have you not a common 
 enemy — Death, who hates you all ? Have you not a 
 common friend — Jesus Christ, who cares for you all ? ' 
 But he could not stop there; He had said, " It is God 
 that justifieth," and he must show that God had 
 justified. So he goes on, " Yea, rather that is risen 
 again." 
 
 Christ took our flesh upon Him. He died the death 
 of men. He lay in such a grave as men's corpses are 
 put into, but the grave could not hold Him. God raised 
 Him out of the grave ; so He declared that this was 
 indeed His Son. But was that all He declared? 
 Christ had been His Son before the worlds were. 
 No ! He said that men whose nature Christ had taken, 
 whose death Christ had died, were His children. He 
 came to claim them for God. He came to tell Death 
 that he was not their master, not the master of any 
 man whatsoever, because they were Christ's brothers, 
 because they belonged to Him. 
 
xs.] JUSTIFICATION. 183 
 
 Thus you see what St. Paul means when he told, his 
 own countrymen the Jews, and the Gentiles who had 
 been worshipping false gods, that Christ had died for 
 their sins, and risen again for their justification. This 
 was the belief that would raise them out of their sins ; 
 this was the belief that would lead them to trust in the 
 true God, and to turn to Him, and fear Him, and love 
 Him. 
 
 And this is what our collect this morning has been 
 teaching us to do. It has put very bold language into 
 cur mouths. Almighty Father ! What a name that is 
 to address to Him who made the heaven and earth ! 
 Which of us can offer any reason why he should use it ? 
 Which of us has done anything or thought anything 
 that can make him worthy of such an honour ? But 
 we, all of us, young men and. maidens, old men and 
 children, have a right to use that name ; we have no 
 right to shrink from using it. For God of His own 
 free will has sent His own well-beloved Son to come 
 into our death on purpose that we might not remain 
 apart from Him, refusing to be a part of His family. 
 And He has raised up His Son to justify us from all 
 our accusers, who would keep us from Him. Therefore, 
 do we believe that He is our Father; the Father of us 
 who are here to-day, and of all those who are worship- 
 ping Him everywhere, and of all men who have not 
 yet learnt to worship Him. For, as St. Paul shows. He 
 has sent His Son for our nation, and every nation. He 
 has not justified men of one age, but men of every age. 
 
184 JUSTIFICATION. [serm 
 
 Wherever sin and death have reigned, there may we 
 declare that Christ is a greater King than they ; where- 
 ever men have chosen ,some god to worship who is not 
 their Redeemer and their Father but their enemy, 
 there we may declare that the God whom Christ has 
 declared to us is the true God, and that there is none 
 other but He. 
 
 But I said that we asked something of this Almighty 
 Father. What is it ? Do we ask Him to be more 
 gracious to us than He has shown Himself to be ? How 
 can He be that if He has given His only Son to die for 
 us; to rise again for us; to justify us ? How can He 
 be that if He has treated our enemies as His enemies ; 
 if He has himself declared war against death and the 
 grave and hell ; if He has redeemed us out of the 
 power of the evil spirit ? 
 
 What have we then to pray to Him for ? It is for 
 this, that He would enable us to put away the leaven of 
 malice and wickedness. 
 
 We do not beg Him to change His mind, but we 
 beg Him to change our minds. There are a number of 
 false, mean, malicious thoughts in them, which make 
 us suspicious of our neighbours; which make us untrue 
 to ourselves ; which keep us from worshipping God, as 
 if He were our Father, and we were His children. We 
 think ourselves better than our neighbours ; we try to 
 make out that we are better by hiding our own faults, 
 and by making the most of theirs. So we never become 
 humble as Christ would have us be ; so we never really 
 
XX.] JUSTIFICATION. 185 
 
 overcome our bad habits. And we suspect God of 
 having some evil designs against us ; we tliink He is 
 malicious because we are. We do not heartily believe 
 that it is His desire to bring us out of all bad ways into 
 the good and blessed way. This is the leaven which 
 defiles our prayers ; this is the leaven which defiles 
 all our actions. But how can we get rid of it ? The 
 more we try, the more we feel how it has worked itself 
 into our very selves ; how it is killing us like a slow 
 poison. Men have been driven to despair sometimes by 
 finding how insincere they were in all their best services, 
 how pride ruined them all. But what a help is here ! 
 We may turn to our Almighty Father ; we know what 
 His mind is. We know that He has given His Son to 
 die for our sinsj that we might be united to Him who 
 has cared for us all ; we know that he gave His Son to 
 be raised again for our justification, that we might draw 
 nigh to Him as His holy and redeemed children in 
 Christ; therefore we know that He is willing to cast 
 the bad leaven out of us ; all our malice and wicked- 
 ness; therefore we know that He wishes us to serve 
 Him in pureness of living and truth ; therefore we 
 know that His almighty power will be on our side 
 if we turn to Him, and ask Him to do for us what 
 we cannot do for ourselves. 
 
 Christ brought this great promise with Him into 
 the world : That He would baptize men with His Holy 
 Spirit. That is to say. He did not come to tell men 
 to be good, but He came to make them good. He did 
 
186 JirSTIFICATION. [seem. 
 
 not obIj say, 'Avoid this and tliat wrong thing ; ' but, ' I 
 ■will give you strengtli to avoid it, yes and to hate it.' 
 So when He had risen 'from the dead and ascended on 
 high, He sent His Spirit to dwell among men. And 
 those who believed in God's great love, and were bap- 
 tized, received power to do good deeds, and to speak 
 good words ; and men that had been cowards became 
 brave ; and men that had been quarrelsome and hate- 
 ful, loved one another ; and men that had been given 
 up to lust and filthiness became pure; for the Spirit of 
 God led them to trust in Christ who had died for them 
 and risen again, and to ask His Almighty Father to 
 deliver them from the leaven of malice and wickedness. 
 Now, brethren, that promise of Christ's has been ful- 
 filled to us. We are baptized into the Name of the 
 Almighty Father, and of His only Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost ; our children are baptized into that same Name; 
 and what was done in our infancy is confirmed or 
 assured to us in our manhood. The bishop came into 
 this neighbourhood the other day to confirm— that is, 
 to assure those who had grown into young men 
 and women, and were going out to their places 
 as servants or to sell in shops, or to be prepared 
 for being magistrates, and doctors, and lawyers, and 
 members of parliament, that they should have God's 
 Holy Spirit with them in all their temptations, to 
 keep them from going wrong, and to make them 
 true and righteous men and women in their different 
 callings. 
 
XX.] JUSTIFICATION. 187 
 
 Think only what that means. The Almighty Father 
 has given His Son to die for our sins and rise again for 
 our justification, that we might be His own children in 
 Christ. And because we are His children He has 
 given us this Holy Spirit who knows our hearts, and all 
 that is likely to corrupt and ruin them, and who desires 
 to plant in us good thoughts and desires, and right 
 counsels, and to make us do just works, that He may be 
 with us wherever we are, and guide us and strengthen 
 us in whatever we are doing. How shall we turn such 
 blessings to account ? 
 
 First of all, you are here in church to be assured 
 that you have this Almighty Father, and that He has 
 given His Son to die for your sins and to rise again for 
 your justification. That has been done already. Christ 
 said^of this work, " It is finished.'^ We are claimed 
 as God's children. He has justified us. 
 
 Next, when you go out of church remember that 
 this is ever so. It was not true just when you were on 
 your knees or hearing a sermon. It is true always. And 
 you want this truth for week-days just as much as for 
 Sundays. You want it in the fields, you want it in the 
 shops. Young men want it that they may be brave 
 and true, and not poor and base and sneaking creatures. 
 Girls want it in their places, that they may keep them- 
 selves from bad people who would lead them into sin, 
 and that they may be faithful to their masters and mis- 
 tresses when no eye but God's is on them. Masters and 
 mistresses want it that they may be just and equal 
 
188 JUSTIFICATION. [serm. 
 
 to their servants. Yes ! we all want to remember the 
 Almighty Father has justified us ; He verily loves us 
 and counts us His children. And, therefore, in all 
 troubles, in all temptations, we may arise and go to 
 Him, and He wdl certainly help us with His own 
 mighty arm, and make us more than conquerors 
 through Him who loved us. 
 
 And those want this belief who have fallen into bad 
 and evil practices and find they cannot raise themselves 
 out of them. A man who has become a sot finds the 
 sight of liquor too much for him. He says he will not 
 drink ; but the next time the opportunity offers he 
 gives way; his resolutions are gone, and no fear of what 
 people will say to him, or of what will come to his 
 family, or of his own health is enough. But if he will 
 think thus, 'The Almighty Father who sent His own 
 Son to die for me and for all men, and to be raised 
 again for our justification, He does not wish me to be 
 the slave of this accursed tyrant. He is stronger than 
 my enemy; He can dehver me from this leaven of 
 wickedness ' — that will be a different kind of help 
 altogether. He has God on his side, the Almighty 
 Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And he may defy 
 the world and the flesh and the devil to keep him 
 down and drag him to hell when it is the will of God 
 to raise him to Heaven, and to give him a place among 
 His sons and daughters for ever. 
 
 Next remember, that whatever your place in the 
 world, you are called by God, your Almighty Father, 
 
XX.] JUSTIFICATION. 189 
 
 to that place. He calls you to be farmers, labourers, 
 sclaoolmasters, magistrates, physicians, clergymen. They 
 are all His servants. They may all serve Him in pureness 
 of living and truth if they ask Him to be with them, and 
 cast the bad leaven out of them. And He will keep them 
 through their work here, and He will lead them to better 
 and nobler work when He has kept them here as long as 
 He sees fit. For Christ died and rose again, that He 
 might not be separated from those who sleep in Him, 
 but that we should all wait for the day when He shall 
 put death and all His enemies under His feet, and when 
 all shall be gathered together in Him. 
 
SERMON XXI. 
 
 TKUTH. 
 
 Freached, at Branvpton Ash, 8th Sunday after Trinity, August 10, 1862. 
 
 " But lo I Thou requirest truth in the inward parts, and shalt make 
 me to understand wisdom secretly." — Psalji li. 6. 
 
 We Lave read the Psalm from whicli these words are 
 taken to-day. It was written many thousands of 
 years ago ; it was written in a land thousands of 
 miles away; it was written most likely by a king. 
 Yet you and I have joined in singing it ; we have taken 
 it as ours. And that is not all ; the man — or the king, 
 if he was a king — who wrote it, had committed a great 
 crime ; there was the guilt of blood on his soul ; he had 
 broken the commandment, " Thou shalt not kill ; " to 
 all appearance, also, the commandment " Thou shalt 
 not commit adultery." 
 
 Now what brings us and this man who hved in other 
 days and so far away, together ? How can a king 
 speak for us humble people ? How can a man who had 
 done such horrible acts confess for us who cannot 
 charge ourselves with them ? 
 
SKRM. XXI.] TRUTH. 191 
 
 My friends, here is the reason. This king found he 
 had something upon the heart within him which he 
 could not get rid of ; which all his friends and kinsfolk 
 and subjects could not help him to get rid of. He tried 
 to forget it ; he tried what pleasure would do ; he tried 
 what business would do ; he tried what making prayers 
 could do ; but it was no use. Thei'e the burden was 
 still. He felt as if a hand was heavily laid upon him. 
 The moisture seemed to be dried up in him like the 
 fields in a drought. What was this ? The man that he 
 had killed could not speak and accuse him, his lips 
 were silent for ever ; the woman he had tempted did 
 not accuse him, he had made her a queen. But some 
 one accused him ; who was it ? He tried to escape 
 from the thought, but at last it came full and clear 
 upoii him. God is accusing thee ! God knew what 
 thou wast doing, if no one else knew it. God has 
 found thee out. The Judge of all the earth has taken 
 account of thy deeds. It is ho whose hand is upon 
 thee. It is He who is making the time that has 
 been, and that is, and that is coming, all very terrible 
 to thee. 
 
 Now at first this discovery must have added very 
 much to his pain and horror. ' What, God Himself is 
 fighting with me ! He who is just and pure has seen 
 that I am not just and pure. How can I escape from 
 Him ? If I go up to heaven He will be there. If I go 
 down to hell He will be there. And wherever I am He 
 will feel to me as He feels to me now. He will not 
 
192 TRUTH. [SERM. 
 
 change. He will not be less just and pure a tliousand 
 years hence. And I, what shall I be ? ^ 
 
 Then this thought came to him, ' Is he so just and 
 pure ? Why, then. He would have me just and pure. 
 What He would have me be, He can cause me to be. 
 He can take this foulness out of my heart ; He can 
 turn me into a right man again. Yes ! that is the 
 thing I want ; the only thing I want ! I have done 
 "wrong, and I must suffer for the wrong. But God can 
 give me a right heart and a clean conscience. He can 
 purify me ; he can restore me. Therefore, instead of 
 seeking to escape from Him, I will arise and go to 
 Him. I will tell Him how the case stands with me ; I 
 will tell him how this sin is corrupting me, and tor- 
 menting me, and destroying all the life in me. I will 
 ask him thoroughly to purge my heart and soul of it. 
 I believe He can do that. I believe He will do it.' 
 Well, that is what this Psalm is about from beginning 
 to end. If you read it over to yourselves again, you 
 will see that it is the cry of a man who knows that he 
 has been wrong, utterly wrong; he knows that his 
 wrong has been discovered, not by some mortal, but 
 by the God that never slumbers nor sleeps. The man 
 knows that he may ask Him, the God of all right, to 
 deliver him from his wrong and set him right. 
 
 And, therefore, my friends, this Psalm is for all 
 people whatsoever, in all countries, in all times, for 
 tings and for beggars ; for those who have committed 
 great sins, and for those who have committed little 
 
XXI.] TEUTH. 193 
 
 sins; for tHose who feel a burden upon tliem too 
 heavy to bear; for him who only hears some slight 
 whisper in his heart, saying, ' All is not with thee as 
 it should be. Thou oughtest to be a better man than 
 thou art/ Each of us may take this Psalm to him- 
 self ; each of us may pray it for himself. And I 
 say boldly, we who are here to-day can understand 
 it better, and turn it to better account, and join in it 
 more thoroughly than those could who lived in King 
 David's days, or than all the people could for whom 
 the book of Psalms was chiefly written ; for we can 
 call Him to whom David prayed, our Father. We 
 can use that word, because Jesus Christ, His Son, 
 who took our nature on Him, and died for our sins, 
 and rose again for our justification, has said, " I ascend 
 to my Father and your Father, to my God and your 
 God." We can do it, because He has sent forth His 
 Spirit into our hearts, that we may call Him "Abba 
 Father," and may arise and go to him, and may con- 
 fess all our evil to Him, and may receive a right heart 
 and a new spirit from Him. Therefore, let us try to 
 get the Psalm well into our hearts. I think we shall 
 do so best, if we consider that one verse which I read 
 to you as my text. If we take that in thoroughly, 
 all the rest will come home to us, and will be clear 
 to us. 
 
 There are two parts you see in the text. The first 
 is this, " Thou requirest truth in the inward parts;" the 
 second is this, " Thou shalt make me to understand 
 
 0 
 
194. TRUTH. [SERM. 
 
 ■wisdom secretly." I will speak to you a little of 
 each. 
 
 " Thou requirest truth in the inward parts.'' That 
 is to say, ' Thou, O God ! who knowest me altogether, 
 who knowest my downsitting and my uprising, who are 
 about my bed and about my path. Thou wantest me to 
 be a true man ; Thou wantest me to be true in my 
 dealings, true in my speech, true to those that are above 
 me and below me and my equals ; and that I may be so, 
 Thou requirest me to be true in my own self, true in all 
 that I plan and purpose. Thou requirest that I should 
 not deceive myself or persuade myself that I am better 
 than I am, or that I know what I do not know. Thou 
 requirest that I should be true when I come to kneel 
 before thee, that I should not mock thee with idle 
 vain words.' ' What,' you say, ' does God require all 
 that of me, a poor ignorant creature who have so 
 little strength V Yes, verily, God requires this of 
 thee and of me, because we are His children, and 
 because He is true, and because He would have us like 
 Him. God requires this of thee, because He would not 
 have thee be miserable and a cause of misery to other 
 people ; for all misery comes out of falsehood : there 
 would be no misery in the world if there was nothing 
 but truth in the world. Nevertheless this does sound 
 like a very great thing to ask of creatures who have so 
 much falsehood in them as we have ; who have done so 
 many untrue acts ; who catch ourselves continually in 
 untruths of word and deed. It does sound like a great 
 
XXI.] TEUTH. 195 
 
 thing to ask in. a world where so many cheats are 
 going on, and where they grow into customs before 
 we ai'e aware of it. 
 
 And, therefore, hear the sentence. "Thou shalt 
 make me to understand wisdom secretly." That is to 
 say, ' As I go about in the world and mix with other 
 men, I am very likely to get into false ways. They 
 may flatter me, and that may tempt me to be vain and 
 conceited. They may treat me hardly, and that may 
 tempt me to be cunning and treacherous. And I 
 cannot keep myself from yielding to these temptations. 
 I cannot hinder a number of false and evil thoughts 
 coming to me when I am alone. But Thou, O God, 
 who requirest me to be true in the inward parts, Thou 
 canst give me the wisdom which I want. Yes ! for I 
 can tell Thee of all my folly and weakness. I can ask 
 Thee to clear away my folly, and support my weakness; 
 I can lay bare all that I have done and all that I am 
 before Thee ; I can ask Thee to reform me, because I 
 cannot reform myself.' 
 
 Oh ! my friends, in how many thousand circum- 
 stances may we turn these words to our use and 
 blessing. Only let us remember these three things : 
 1st. What God is; that He is the all just and true. 
 2nd. What we are without Him, all unjust and untrue. 
 3rd. What He would have us be, and can enable us to 
 be, just and true, after the likeness of His dear Son. 
 For our Lord Jesus Christ showed us what God's truth 
 is. He came from the God of Truth that He might 
 
 0 2 
 
196 TKUTH, [seem, xxi, 
 
 deliver us from our lieSj and might enable us to walk 
 in His truth. And the Spirit who shows us our sins, 
 and awakens us to repentance is the Spirit of Truth of 
 whom Christ has said, " He will guide us into all 
 truth." So, every time you say, 'Almighty and most 
 merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Thy 
 ways hke lost sheep,^ you confess that God requires 
 truth in your inward parts, and that you have not 
 heen true. And every time the minister says, 'He 
 pardoneth and absolveth,^ he means, God would set you 
 free from your falsehood ; God would make you know 
 wisdom secretly. And when you say the Lord's 
 Prayer, you ask that God's name, which is truth, may 
 be ' hallowed, ' and that God's kingdom of truth may 
 come, and that God's will, which is the will of truth, 
 may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Only be sure 
 that what God requires is just what you require to 
 make you blessed, and then you will ask for that, and 
 He will give you more than you can ask or think. 
 
SERMON XXII. 
 
 MINISTERS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Preached at Brampton Ash, Morning of St. Bartholometo's Day, 
 August 24, 1862. 
 
 "And there was also a strife among them which of them should be 
 accounted the greatest." — St. Luke xxii. 24. 
 
 This is St. Bartholomew's Day. We do not know 
 much about St. Bartholomew. Some have thought 
 that he was the same with that Nathanael of whom our 
 Lord said, " Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no 
 guile I" If he was that Nathanael, we ought indeed to 
 remember him. For if He who knows the heart testifies 
 of a man that he is without guile, he is clear and honest, 
 he hates his own falsehood, and cleaves to the God of 
 Truth ; that is one to be reverenced above almost any. 
 But we cannot be sure that Bartholomew was the same 
 ■as Nathanael. All we can tell certainly about him 
 is that he was one of the twelve apostles. So the 
 passage I have read you from the Gospel does not 
 mean Nathanael, or anyone more especially, but it has 
 to do with all the apostles; and because it has to. do 
 with them, it has to do with us. 
 
19S MIXISTEES OF CHEIST. [sekh. 
 
 You might fancy tliat on a day like tMs, wliicli is 
 called after one of tliese apostles, we should hear some- 
 thing very good of 'them. It is not so ; we hear 
 something that is bad of them. They were met at the 
 last Supper they were ever to have with their Lord upon 
 earth ; that very night He was to be betrayed and seized 
 and taken from them. They did not know what was 
 coming upon them, but they knew that something was 
 coming. He had said that He had a great desire to eat 
 that passover with them before He suffered. What then 
 were they doing at this time ? Were they listening 
 quietly to all the words that fell from His lips ? Were 
 they asking Him to tell them what was at hand, and to 
 prepare them for it ? No ! " There was a strife among 
 them which should be accounted the greatest.'' They 
 had had such strifes before. Jesus had rebuked them 
 once by setting a little child among them, and saying 
 that he who was most like that child would be greatest 
 in His kingdom. But the wish in each of them to 
 be higher than the others was so strong that it burst 
 out again. Just when it seemed most utterly out of 
 place it burst out. They were eating of the same 
 bread, and drinking the same wine ; and they had one 
 Master among them who had guided them all, taught 
 them all, and to whom they all looked up ; yet there 
 was this strife among them, which of them should be 
 greatest. 
 
 Perhaps it was not so strange as it might seem that 
 they should be thinking of their own greatness, for our 
 
XXII.] MINISTERS OF CHRIST. 199 
 
 Lord had spoken to them of a kingdom which He had 
 come to establish ; He had chosen them out of all their 
 countrymen to be with Him. He had lately entered 
 into the city of Jerusalem, the chief city of the land, 
 and the people had brought branches of palm trees, and 
 had strewed them before Him, and had hailed Him as 
 the heir of the throne of David, the great King of the 
 Jews. So, in spite of the sorrow that seemed to be op- 
 pressing Him, and in spite of what He told them about 
 His sufferings, they thought He must be going to reign 
 gloriously ; and if He did, then was it wonderful that 
 they should be thinking, * And which of us shall be 
 nearest to Him ; which of us shall have the highest 
 honour in that kingdom of His ' ? 
 
 Our Lord knew this was what they were thinking 
 of, and therefore He said to them, " The kings of the 
 Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that 
 exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.'^ 
 That is as if He had said, ' It is very true that in the 
 kingdoms of the different nations of the earth people 
 try to get the highest places ; often they do it with a 
 right purpose. When they are exalted above their 
 neighbours they fancy they can do them good. And so 
 the name which these rulers go by is benefactors, or 
 doers of good.' 
 
 " But ye," He goes on, " But ye shall not be so." 
 What ! not doers of good ? not benefactors ? Can He 
 mean that ? No; but he is going to tell them how they 
 may do good. It would not be by being raised above 
 
200 MINISTERS OF CHRIST. [seem. 
 
 other men, by being in liigli places ; " but be tbat is 
 greatest among you let bim be as tbe younger, and be 
 tbat is cbief as be tbat dotb serve." 
 
 Now you see our Lord does not tell tbe apostles tbat 
 tbey were mistaken in supposing tbat He badcome to 
 set up a kingdom over men. If He bad, He would 
 bave contradicted all tbat He bad been preacbing, and 
 all tbat He bad sent tbem to preacb up to tbat time, 
 for He bad preacbed saying, " Repent, for tbe kingdom 
 of beaven is at band;" very near you; and He bad sent 
 tbem witb tbe same message ; and He did not tell tbem 
 tbat tbey were wrong in supposing tbat His kingdom 
 was about to be proclaimed very soon indeed, in spite 
 of all tbe suffering He bad to go tbrougb ; and He did 
 not tell tbem tbat tbey were wrong in supposing tbat 
 tbey were to be sbarers in His kingdom, and tbat tbey 
 were to belp in making men subjects of it. But tbis is 
 wbat He said. ' If you would be wbat you wisb to be, 
 bigb men, cbief men in tbis kingdom of mine, tben 
 you must be servants — servants not only of Me, but 
 servants of all people among wbom you go. So, instead 
 of quarrelling and disputing wbicb of you sball be most 
 above bis fellows, let tbis be your desire, " Lord, teacb 
 me bow I may be most a servant; tell me wbat persons 
 Tbou wouldst bave me wait upon." ' 
 
 "Forwbetber is greater,"He goes on, ''be tbatsittetb 
 at meat, or be tbat servetb ? But I bave been among 
 you as He tbat servetb.^^ ' You reckon tbat tbe master 
 wbo sits at tbe table is more tban tbe servant wbo 
 
XXII.] MINISTERS OF CHRIST. 201 
 
 hands him his food, but I, who am the Lord of all, 
 have waited upon you ; I have washed your feet ; I have 
 been in all ways working for you, doing the things for 
 you that you could not do for yourselves. All my life 
 has been a service. Remember that, and then consider 
 whether you wish to be like Me or unlike Me ; whether 
 you wish to exercise the kind of power I have exercised, 
 or some other kind of power. Because, if you wish to 
 be like Me, you must be ministers or servants ; if you 
 wish to exercise the kind of power I have exercised, 
 you must stoop and not rise ; you must be more lowly, 
 and not more lifted up.^ 
 
 Then He went on, " Ye are they which have continued 
 with Me in my temptations." ' You say I have called 
 you and chosen you out of the rest of your countrymen, 
 though you were but poor fishermen. Yes, truly, that 
 is so. I have allowed you to be with me in the trials 
 and temptations I have been passing through. They 
 have been very sore. All manner of people — my own 
 subjects — have been contending with me, priests and 
 rulers and lawyers. Nay, even one of you is to betray 
 me; and the devil has been contending with me, trying 
 to separate Me from my Father. Yet you have seen 
 that my Father has enabled me to heal sicknesses and 
 cast out devils. I have been ruling in the midst of my 
 temptations ; I have been delivering other men from 
 their troubles, whilst I have had harder troubles to go 
 through than any of them.' 
 
 "And I appoint unto you a kingdom as my Father 
 
202 MINISTERS OP CHRIST. [seem. 
 
 hath appointed unto me.^^ ' I am not going to cheat 
 you or disappoint you ; you ai'e to have places in my 
 kingdom ; you are to sit with Me on my throne. But 
 then see what a kingdom it is ! See what the King of it 
 has had to bear, and has still to bear ! See to what depths 
 He has sunk and will sink ! Eemember, if I appoint 
 you a kingdom as my Father has appointed Me, I ap- 
 point you suffering as my Father hath appointed me. 
 If I appoint you to rule over men, and to set them free 
 from their bondage to death and the evil spirit, as my 
 Father hath appointed me, I appoint you to be tried 
 and tempted as my Father hath appointed me.' 
 
 And so it will come to pass that you " shall eat and 
 drink at my table in my kingdom, and you shall sit 
 on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 
 
 What does this mean, " You shall eat and drink at 
 my table " ? They were eating and drinking then with 
 Him at the Passover, the Jewish feast. And whilst 
 they were eating He took bread and blessed it, and 
 said, " Take, eat, this is my body ; and then after 
 supper He took the cup and drank, and gave it to 
 them, and said, "This is my blood of the New Testament 
 which is shed for you and for many for the remission 
 of sins." Now as often as the apostles ate that bread 
 and drank that cup, according to the Lord^s command- 
 ment in remembrance of Him, they sat at His table 
 and ate and drank with him. That was the sign and 
 pledge that they were one with Him, though He was 
 gone out of their sight ! that was the sign that they 
 
XXII.] MINISTERS OF CHRIST. 20S 
 
 were one with all His saints in heaven and earth. 
 And they were never to forget that they were one with 
 Him and one with all His saints in heaven and earth ; 
 one with Him in his sorrow and in His temptation, 
 and His death ; one with Him in the glory that He 
 had with His Father ; one with all suffering people on 
 earth ; one with all that have passed out of the earth, 
 and are with Him where He is. This was to eat of His 
 table in His kingdom. 
 
 And what was it to " sit on thrones judging the 
 twelve tribes of Israel^'? The tribes of Israel were 
 called out of all the families of the earth, that they 
 might be a blessing to the families of the earth ; that 
 they might tell all the families of the earth of God's 
 truth and God's love. 
 
 Now these twelve Apostles, these poor fishermen, 
 did go about as Christ's ministers, blessing all the 
 families of the earth, telling them how God had sent 
 His Son to redeem them, and His Spirit to bind them 
 into one ; so they judged the twelve tribes of Israel, 
 who had failed to do their work, who had refused to 
 bless men, who thought they were to live to please 
 themselves. The twelve tribes of Israel lost their land 
 and their city. But these Apostles who did their work 
 still kept alive the remembrance of them ; still bore 
 witness of what they might have been ; still showed 
 that God would fulfil His purpose, however disobedient 
 His servants might be. And now then, my friends, we 
 have seen ourselves in these Apostles. They were men 
 
204 MIXISTEES OF CHEIST. [serm. 
 
 not riclier or more learned than any •who work in our 
 towns or villages. They were men of like passions as 
 we are, men who were easily puffed up with vanity, each 
 of whom thought it would he very pleasant to exalt 
 himself over the rest. But Christ, the Son of God, took 
 them under His guidance. He said that they were to 
 be ministers of His kingdom, and that in that kingdom 
 He who was the chief of all was the servant of all. 
 Let us understand then, my friends, that every one of 
 us is a servant or minister in this kingdom. Some 
 of us have the name of Ministers. That is not that we 
 may be separate from our fellows, but that we may 
 give them a sign what Christ would have them be. 
 All of us are ministers. Every father is a minister of 
 Christ to his children. Every mother is a minister 
 of Christ to her children. Every brother and sister 
 is a minister of Christ to his brothers and sisters. 
 Wherever we are going, whatever we are doing, in a 
 house or in a field, we are ministers of Christ. That 
 is our calling. We may be faithful or unfaithful 
 ministers ; but He is our Master, and He has sent us to 
 wait upon some or other, upon more or fewer. And we 
 must ask him to teach us how to wait on them. What 
 a wonder it is to think that He, the Lord of heaven 
 and earth, was the great Minister ; that He came down 
 from heaven, not to get the service of men, but to 
 serve them. So He proved Himself to be the King. 
 He stooped more than all, so they felt and knew that 
 He was higher than all. And for you, brethren, as 
 
XXII.] MINISTERS OF CHRIST, 205 
 
 much as for thenij He stooped. For youj as mucli as 
 for them, He took on Him the form of a servant. 
 You, as much as them, He would have to sit at His 
 table in His kingdom. You, as much as them. He 
 would have sharers of His throne by helping them 
 whom now, as much as ever. He cares for. 
 
 You need not strive which of you shall be the 
 greatest. Ask Him to make you lowly and meek, and 
 ready to help others ; that was His greatness, and you 
 would not wish to be different from Him. 
 
 And one thing more I must say. The Apostles were 
 to judge the twelve tribes of Israel ; but the twelve 
 tribes of Israel, those poor Jews who were cast out of 
 their city because they did not care to serve their 
 brethren, will judge us, if we, who call Jesus our Lord, 
 do not like to be what He was and to do as He did. 
 They refused Him and put Him to death, not knowing 
 what they did. We know far better. And we refuse 
 Him as our King; we act as if He had never come 
 down to save us and bring us into His kingdom, if we 
 are not willing to serve our brethren for His sake. 
 
SERMON XXIII. 
 
 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Preached at Brampton Ash, Afternoon of the 10th Sunday after Trinity, 
 August 24, 1862. 
 
 " If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth 
 is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to 
 forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
 1 St. John i. 8, 9. 
 
 Yoxi are used to these words. You hear them very 
 often at the beginning of our morning or our evening 
 prayers. This afternoon you heard them as they 
 come in the course of St. John's letter to his flock — 
 those whom he calls his little children — at Ephesus. 
 
 He had been telling them the message which he 
 said he had heard from his Master, Christ, and which 
 was meant for them as much as for him. It was this : 
 " God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." 
 St. John had been at that passover supper, of which I 
 spoke to you this morning ; he had been next to his 
 Master. He was called the beloved disciple. He had 
 lived many years since then. He had had visions of 
 Christ in His own glory. And this was the best thing 
 he could say when he was near the end of his pilgrimage 
 
SERM. XXIII.] THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 207 
 
 on earth. ; the best blessing he could bestow on those 
 whom he had known and loved ; the best legacy he 
 could leave to us — " I tell you God is lights and in Him 
 is no darkness at all." 
 
 What ! did not he know that before ? Some one 
 may ask, ' Did he fancy there was some darkness in 
 God ? ' I must answer yes to both questions, though, it 
 may seem as if they were just the contrary of each other. 
 He did know that God was light — that He was all clear 
 pure goodness, that and nothing else. He had been told 
 so from his youth, and he believed it. But yet he did 
 fancy there was darkness in God. When he grew up 
 and saw how much darkness there was in the world, 
 bow much evil there was in the world, the temptation 
 was very great to say Does not this come from God ? 
 Is not He the cause of it ? But recollect what things 
 St. John had been witness to. He had seen Jesus 
 Christ his Lord put to death by the hands of wicked 
 men ; and his own brother James had been slain by the 
 sword because he preached of Jesus Christ and of what 
 He had done for men. St. Peter and most of the friends 
 that were dearest to him had been cut ofE for the same 
 reason. The city of Jerusalem, in which he had walked 
 with his Master, was about to fall, if it had not already 
 fallen, for the wickedness of those who dwelt in it. 
 Bad men seemed to have the upper hand ; good men 
 seemed as if they had no chance of making them- 
 selves heard. Must not the thought have often come 
 to St. John, ' Well, God allows all this to be. I do 
 
208 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. [serji. 
 
 not know liow it is, but must there not be some 
 darkness in Him ? Must He not have some hard 
 thought towards us ? ^ Can He be altogether light, 
 that and that only ? ' 
 
 Yes, my friends, such thoughts do come to all men, 
 and you must see that St. John had as much excuse for 
 them as most men. And now let us consider how he 
 fought his way out of these thoughts ; how he came 
 verily and indeed to believe that there is no darkness 
 at all in God, let things look as dark as ever they may. 
 
 First, then, he stood firm on this ground. ' Christ 
 my Lord and Saviour has shown me what God is ; He 
 spoke of His Father ; He showed us of His Father ; we 
 saw in Him the grace and glory of the only begotten Son. 
 Now I know what sort of acts He did when He was upon 
 earth ; I know that he went about doing good — to men 
 — to all manner of men, good and bad. And I know 
 how it was with him when all looked very dark indeed 
 to Him ; when the chief priests and rulers hated Him ; 
 when Pilate and the Roman soldiers were mocking and 
 condemning Him ; when His disciples fled from Him ; 
 when it seemed as if God His Father had deserted Him. 
 I know that through all these things He held on ; that 
 He trusted, altogether trusted, in His Father's goodness 
 and truth; through all that darkness He trusted in Him 
 because He knew Him, because He knew what His 
 Will was, because He was sure it was the same Will 
 always, even when He could not see it, even when it 
 seemed to be crushing Him.' 
 
XXIII.] THE LIGHT OF THE WOELD. 209 
 
 The Apostle then could say boldly, ' I mean to get 
 my thoughts of the Eternal God from this Jesus 
 Christ who has made Him known to us; from Him and 
 fromno one else, and from nothing else. Things maylook 
 very dark and black, but I am sure the darkness and 
 blackness are not from God. What were all Christ's acts, 
 the works which He did in His Father's name, which. 
 His Father sent Him to do, but works to vanquish the 
 powers of darkness ? What was His death ? Death is 
 the great darkness ; all light seemed to be put out by 
 it. It never was so dark as when it closed over the Son 
 of Man, but He went through it ; He despised it. Hia 
 Father brought Him from the grave and hell. Therefor© 
 death and hell shall not be my teachers about God. I 
 will gather no thoughts of Him from them. Christ, 
 the conqueror of death and hell and the prince of dark- 
 ness, is the only teacher about Him to me and to all 
 people.' 
 
 But now I come to the Second point. Is there then 
 
 no darkness ? Do not I really find evil and death in the 
 
 world about me ? Yes, I cannot deceive myself about 
 
 that. It is true. I feel it, I know it, and, what is worse, 
 
 it is in me. If I say that I have no sin, I deceive 
 
 myself, and the truth is not in me. There is light about 
 
 me — God's own pure and blessed light — and that light 
 
 comes to me. It shows me everything that is worth 
 
 seeing ; all beautiful things, aU kind and gracious and 
 
 loving things. But it shows me also many ugly things; 
 
 many ungracious and unbelieving things. It shows me 
 
 p 
 
210 THE LIGHT OF THE WOKLD. [serm. 
 
 tlie bad that is in me. It makes me know laow 
 far I laave gone wrong ; how little I liave loved those 
 that are nearest to me ; how ungrateful I have been ; 
 how hardhearted I have been. And it shows me that 
 this unlovingness and ingratitude and hardness of heart 
 are always in me, always ready to spring out on me and 
 get the better of me. I cannot deny that. The truth 
 is not in me if I deny it ; for the truth that is in me 
 shows me the untruth that is in me; God^s light shows 
 me my darkness. 
 
 If He was not light, if He did not send His light in 
 me, I should not perceive the darkness ; it could not 
 torment me as it does. Christ, who is the perfect image 
 of God, the true light of the world, is making me under- 
 stand, what a dark creature I am without Him, what I 
 should become and what the world would become if He 
 withdrew His light. 
 
 3. But though there is much in this, St. John would 
 still have been very iU content if he had been obliged 
 to stop there. He goes on: "If we confess our sins,He 
 is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse 
 us from all unrighteousness." 
 
 That is to say, no doubt the light is here, and the 
 darkness is here, but which is stronger ? Which can 
 drive out the other ? I will try that. I will arise, and 
 go to Him who is light, and tell Him of my darkness. 
 I will ask Him if He cannot raise me out of it ; and I 
 find that He can. I tell Him of the sin that is in me, 
 and He forgives it ; He lifts me out of it; He owns me 
 
xxni.] THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 211 
 
 as His child. He not only puts away the sins that I 
 have committed, but He cleanses me from all un- 
 righteousness. So I know for myself that He is light, 
 and that there is no darkness in Him, and that He means 
 to scatter all darkness. 
 
 For observe, though I have told you truly that what 
 St. John says he says of himself, I should speak falsely 
 if I said he spoke it of himself more than of any 
 other man. He says we all deceive ourselves if we 
 say that we have no sin. He says the truth is not in 
 us if we will not own the testimony it bears to our 
 sin. And so he says of us all, " If we confess our sins. 
 He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
 cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I showed you 
 this morning how the apostles were cured of setting 
 themselves one above another or above any man. All 
 our Lord's lessons were to bring them down, to show 
 them that they were just like other people; that they 
 had the same evil as all others, and that they were to 
 proclaim to all the same deliverance from the evil 
 which they had found. So we are not wrong in reading 
 out these words in the morning and evening Service to 
 all men and women, though we know nothing of what 
 they have been thinking or doing. They must be true 
 for everyone if they were true for St. John and the 
 Ephesians. 
 
 And what words they are ! Let me repeat them to 
 you. " He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 
 to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now a man 
 
212 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. [sebm. 
 
 often says, ' Oh, I hope and trust God iivill be merciful 
 to me and forgive me my sins.' But can he ask God 
 because He is just to -forgive him? That depends on 
 the forgiveness which he is seeking. Suppose he desires 
 God to overlook his sins; to let him go on in them, not 
 to let him be punished for them, he certainly cannot 
 expect that God in His justice and faithfulness will do 
 that. This he ^vould expect from a judge who is not 
 just and faithful; but could that judge be merciful? I 
 think not. There is no mercy in letting a man go on 
 in a course of villanv: there is no mercv in letting him 
 get worse and worse, and therefore more and more 
 miserable — tliat is cruelty. A father who does that to 
 his children is a cruel father ; a ruler who does that to 
 his subjects is a cruel ruler. And, therefore, if we mean 
 "by forgiveness what God means by it; if we mean that 
 ie should put our sins as far from us as the east is 
 from the west; that He should give us clean hearts and 
 a right spirit; that He should bring us out of darkness 
 into His blessed and wonderful hght ; He is not only 
 merciful and just, He is faithful and just to do that for 
 us. He loves righteousness and hates iniquity, therefore 
 He is ready to deliver us from iniquity, and to make us 
 partakers of His righteousness. It was infinite mercy 
 of the Father to send His Son to save those who 
 regarded Him as their enemy ; it was infinite mercy 
 of the Son to take our nature upon Him, and to 
 die the death of those who slew Him. It is infinite 
 mercy of the Holy Spirit to come to strive with us 
 
XXIII.] THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 213 
 
 when we are most untrue and rebellious and ready to 
 give ourselves to the evil spirit. But all this mercy is 
 because it is the purpose of God the Father, the Son, 
 and the Spirit, to set righteousness and truth upon 
 the earth, and to drive all unrighteousness and untruth 
 out of it. It is because God is light, and in Him is no 
 darkness at all. Therefore, we may arise and say 
 boldly, * Oh God, I have walked in dark and evil 
 ways ; I confess to thee that I have. I shall go ou 
 walking in them if Thou dost not forgive me my sins, 
 and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. But I trust 
 and am sure Thou wilt because Thou art faithful and 
 just; because Thou hast manifested Thy righteousness 
 in Thy dear Son for the forgiveness of sins; because 
 Thou hast promised us strength to confess them, and 
 turn from them, and to walk in Thy own right way.' 
 
SERMON XXIV. 
 
 THE LORD OF THE WINDS AND SEA. 
 
 Preached at Brampton Ash, 12th Sunday after Trinity, 
 September 7, 1862. 
 
 But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this that 
 even the winds and the sea obey Him ! " — St. Matthew viii. 27. 
 
 In the lesson for this raorning you heard of a number 
 of the acts of our Lord Jesus Christ when He was 
 upon earth. First, you heard of His healing a leper. 
 That poor man had a disease, which kept him at a 
 distance from everybody. He might not go into the 
 Temple to pray ; he was to give warning to his neigh- 
 bours to avoid him, by crying ' I am unclean.' There 
 was fear that he might give his sickness to any who 
 approached him. But he had heard the voice of Jesus 
 speaking to the people. He thought with himself, 
 ' That is a great king ; He has authority to command 
 men. I believe He could heal me, and it seems to me 
 that He cares for the sick and the outcast. I will 
 try.* He said, " Lord, if Thou wilt. Thou canst make 
 me clean." The Son of Man answered, "I will; be 
 thou clean." And cleansed he was ; he became well 
 
SERM. XXIV.] THE LOED OF THE WINDS AND SEA. 215 
 
 ■within, aud now could go to the priest who had the 
 care of such complaints, and could show that the out- 
 ward signs of his disease — the marks on his body — were 
 gone. ^Next we were told of the servant of an officer 
 in the Roman army, who was sick. His master 
 besought Jesus to cure him. Jesus went towards the 
 house, but the officer said, "^Lord, I am not worthy 
 that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak 
 the word only, and my servant shall be healed." The 
 centurion knew the power of words; for he had a great 
 many soldiers under him, stout men, as strong as he 
 was. He did not rule them by terror. They obeyed 
 his word. They came and went when he told them to 
 come and go. So he had no doubt that Jesus could do 
 what he desired for his servant without touching him 
 or seeing him, only by uttering His word. 'That,' said 
 our Lord, ' is faith ; such faith as I have not found 
 among those Jews who have had so many more lessons 
 about God's word than the Romans. Some of them 
 suppose I can do something by my hands and eyes ; he 
 believes that it is God's word which works by me even 
 when I am out of sight.' /The third story we heard was 
 of Peter's mother-in-law, who had a fever. Jesus took 
 her by the hand, and the fever left her. /Then next we 
 heard that when the even was come, they brought unto 
 Him many that were possessed with devils ; poor mad- 
 men who had not the command of themselves, who 
 spoke all foul words, and did all wild acts which some 
 unclean and bad spirit put it into their hearts to speak 
 
216 THE LORD OF THE WINDS AND SEA. [serm. 
 
 and do. And Jesus set tliem free from this bondage; 
 He brought them to be reasonable men again. Then 
 we were told how he -was out one day with His dis- 
 ciples on a lake in a great storm. They were much 
 frightened, for their ship seemed to be going down. He 
 was asleep. They woke Him, saying, " Lord, save us ; 
 we perish." And He said unto them, " Wherefore did 
 ye doubt, oh ye of little faith ? And He rebuked the 
 winds and the waves, and there was a great calm.^* 
 Before the end of the chapter you have another story 
 of His dehvering two madmen whom no man had been 
 able to tame ; who ran about the tombs crying and 
 cutting themselves with stones, who were dangerous to 
 all that came near. At first the evil spirits who had 
 possession of them cried out, "What have we to do with 
 Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God?" But at His word the 
 evil spirits departed, and the men became as quiet and 
 obedient as the winds and waves had been. 
 
 The words I took for my text were those which the 
 people in the ship spoke, when the storm ceased. 
 "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and 
 the sea obey him ? " 
 
 That is the question I want you to ask yourselves 
 to-day. What manner of man is this we have been 
 reading of ? 
 
 Now I am afraid some of you would like me to 
 change the words a little, and to say, ' What manner 
 of man was He ? ' For many of us have a fancy that 
 He was there in Galilee and Judaea, but that He is not 
 
XXIV.] THE LORD OP THE WINDS AND SEA. 217 
 
 now in England and among us ; or that if He lives 
 still. He is not now what He was then. If it were so, 
 I do not know why we should read these lessons Sun- 
 day after Sunday in every church throughout Queen 
 Victoria's dominion, or what good they would do us. 
 Why should you and I care to know what happened in 
 a country thousands of miles away, 1800 years ago? 
 But if He who did these acts there in that country is, 
 as we say He is, our Lord now ; if He is ruling over 
 all of us just as much as He was over those people ia 
 Jud^a and Galilee ; if He is the same person in His 
 heart and His purpose and His power now that He was 
 then ; if that be so, why, my friends, it does signify 
 to us to be told what manner of person He showed 
 Himself to be then. 
 
 That is the reason why I would not change even a 
 letter of this question which the men in the ship asked, 
 " What manner of man is this ? " 
 
 Now consider the different parts of this morning's 
 lesson, as I have repeated them to you ; and you will 
 get the answer to this question, or at least a part of 
 the answer. 
 
 1. He is a giver of health. This Lord Jesus Christ, 
 by curing the leper and the servant with the palsy and 
 the woman with the fever, proved Himself to be that. 
 Not, observe you, a giver of health to those particular 
 persons; they were only specimens of what He is 
 doing every day and hour. When you awake in a 
 morning strong and fit to work, say 'It is this Lord from 
 
218 THE LOED OF THE WINDS AND SEA. [serm. 
 
 whom my strengtli and power to work come/ When 
 you have been lying sick of any kind of disorder, and 
 have risen again and feel the power coming back to 
 your limbs, and that you can breathe freely again and 
 eat your food gladly, then say, 'That Lord who healed 
 the paralytic man and the leper has sent me this restora- 
 tion. It is not someone else. He who dwelt among 
 men, and went about doing good among men at that 
 time I have read of. He it is who has been doing me 
 good ; He it is who has made this or that medicine of 
 the physician to work for my cure.'' And do not forget 
 this, my friends, it is written in the chapter we have 
 read to-day, ''Himself took our infirmities and bare our 
 sicknesses.'^ He did not merely regard them from a 
 distance. He did not merely send forth some com- 
 mand from Heaven about them. He became a man. 
 He suffered with them that were suffering. He came 
 into the very midst of all the troubles of all the poor 
 people who were tormented with different ailments. 
 He felt with them as no one else had felt with them. 
 That was the manner of man He was on earth. And I 
 must say again. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 for ever. He does not change as we change. The 
 mind and character which He had then He has now. 
 He is not confined to one land or to one set of people. 
 He is Lord of aU lands and of all the people who dwell 
 in them. But He does not the less understand each 
 sick man, and care for each. He is a healer and giver 
 of health now as always. 
 
XXIV.] THE LORD OF THE WINDS AND SEA. 219 
 
 2. He is the protector of those who are out at sea, 
 in such storms as His disciples were in, on the Lake of 
 Genesareth. You who live in an inland county may 
 not think so much of these troubles as men do upon 
 the coast, where they see ships so often dismasted and 
 so often wrecked. But you have many of you had 
 some son or kinsman on the ocean, about whom you 
 have thought at night, when the wind was blowing a 
 gale. At such times people often send up a hurried 
 prayer, not much thinking to whom they pray or 
 whether He is likely to hear them. But if they 
 thought, ' He who rose up so calmly, when His disciples 
 waked Him out of His sleep, and bade the winds and 
 the sea be calm. He is as much with those who are 
 going to America or Australia or New Zealand now, 
 as He was with those who were on the Lake of Galilee 
 then; He cares for them now as much as He cared for 
 them then;^ would not that make an amazing differ- 
 ence ? Might we not trust our friends to Him, as we 
 never could trust them to anyone of whom we had only 
 heard that he was very powerful, and that perhaps he 
 might be kind ? And supposing some calamity did 
 befall our friends, supposing they were drowned in the 
 ocean, or perished by any strange terrible accident, 
 might we not trust them to Him still ? Might we not 
 say, ' Lord, Thou Who didst bear men's infirmities and 
 carry their sicknesses, didst also go through their death. 
 Thou didst rise out of death. Thou didst conquer it 
 for us. We believe that Thou art the Lord of health 
 
220 THE LORD OF THE AVINDS AND SEA. [sebm. 
 
 everywhere. We believe that Thou wilt cure the sick- 
 nesses and diseases to which all Thy poor brethren 
 have been subject, and wilt raise up their bodies and 
 make them glorious bodies like Thine own. We are 
 sure Thy power is not less now than it was when 
 Thou didst call Lazarus out of the tomb. Yea, we 
 know that Thou hast power to subdue all things to 
 Thyself.^ 
 
 Once more : He delivers those who are under the 
 dominion of evil spirits from their power. 
 
 What, is there any comfort in that thought ? Do 
 we ever see people nowadays under the dominion of 
 evil spirits ? Was not that something which belonged 
 to the days when our Lord walked in Judeea ? 
 
 My friends, these stories of our Lord's delivering 
 men from evil spirits have been to me an unspeakable 
 comfort ; not for other days, but for this day. There 
 are enemies outside of us: what St. Paul calls enemies 
 of flesh and blood. Some have more of them, some 
 have fewer. But besides, there are enemies of our 
 spirits. These attack us all, A wicked desire springs 
 out upon us, and catches hold of us. We seem to like 
 it; we cherish it; and yet we know it is a very devil. 
 It will work in us and put us upon all kinds of wicked- 
 ness. Is it nothing to know Jesus Christ, my Lord, 
 is stronger than this devil ? I cannot see Him any 
 more than I can see it. But He is near me as it is 
 near to me ; I can cry to Him against it. There is 
 something in you that says, " What have I to do 
 
XXIV.] THE LORD OF THE WINDS AND SEA. 221 
 
 with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God ? But there 
 is something in you which will call Him to help 
 you and drive the devil back for you. Oh, my 
 friends, that is your own true self. Christ knows it. 
 Christ will hear your cry. Christ will do what He 
 did for the possessed with the devils in the city of the 
 Oadarenes. 
 
 For sometimes that is the only way we can describe 
 it. A man becomes possessed with some furious pas- 
 sion. He becomes possessed by some dreadful habit ; 
 for instance, he makes himself a sot. His pride cannot 
 keep him from it ; the fear of losing all his money, and 
 .yuining his wife and children, will not keep him from 
 it ; the fear of the law is not a chain strong enough for 
 tim. But Christ is there ; the Son of God is there ! 
 Yes, a man who is in this case finds out, indeed, what 
 manner of Man that was who rebuked the winds and 
 the waves. From His compassion and tenderness he 
 might suppose He was only the greatest, the most 
 loving of men. But in this battle with the evil spirits 
 that have been ruling him, he finds that this loving 
 Man is the Eternal Son of God ! There is nothing in 
 heaven or earth or hell but must at last bow to Him 
 ^ind obey Him. All, it is written, shall confess that 
 ■Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. 
 Oh, learn to confess Him now ! You need Him in 
 sickness and health, on the sea and the dry land ; when 
 you are crushed down by wicked enemies, and when 
 He has restored you to your right mind. 
 
SERMON XXV. 
 
 THE MAN OF SORROWS. 
 
 Preached at Brampton Ash, 13th Sunday after Trinity, Septemher 14, 
 
 1862. 
 
 "For even Christ pleased not Himself, bat as it is written, The 
 reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell on Me." — 
 Romans xv. 3. 
 
 OuE Lord Christ is called The Man of Sorrows, and 
 yet His life, even here on earth, was a life of joy. 
 How could that be ? St. Paul tells us how it was in 
 the vei'se I have just read to you. 
 
 1. Christ pleased not Himself. My friends, the 
 secret of most of our misery is that we are trying' 
 to please ourselves. We are continually craving for 
 something that we have not ; we are discontented with 
 what we have. If you find me a person, be he ever so 
 poor, be he in ever so much pain of body, who is not 
 restless, who is not impatient, I say that person has 
 more joy in him than one who has millions to spend, 
 who has health and ease and all comforts about him, 
 and is always contriving new ways of pleasing himself. 
 The poor suffering man is thinking about his wife or 
 
SEUM. XXV.] THE MAN OP SORROWS. 223 
 
 childj how kind they are, liow tliey watch him ; how 
 pretty the flowers which they place by his bedside, how 
 nice the food is which they cook for him. The rich 
 easy man is thinking what more things he can procure 
 for himself, what a number of inconveniences there are 
 in his house, how one and another is interfering with his 
 plans. One is satisfied, the other never is. 
 
 Well, but our Lord Jesus was the one person who 
 was never pleasing Himself. He was never thinking 
 of Himself. He delighted to do His Father's will, 
 and to finish His work. He delighted to think of 
 His Father and of all His infinite love, and of all His 
 purposes of good which He had devised for men, and 
 which He would accomplish for men. Every tree 
 which grew by the watercourse, every flower in the 
 hedgerows told Him something of His Father's deep, 
 wonderful, careful Love ; how He had made everything, 
 and lo, it was good ; how He was watching over every- 
 thing, to keep it good and beautiful, and bring out the 
 good and beauty of it fully at last. He delighted to 
 think that there was not a publican or sinner despised 
 by man, whom His Father did not look after and care 
 for, and seek to bring home to His family. He 
 delighted to think that His Father loved that His 
 children should be healthy, and free, and true. He 
 delighted that His Father had sent Him into the world 
 to give health to the sick, and freedom to those who 
 were in bondage, and to make them good who had been 
 under the power of the evil one. It was meat and drink 
 
22i THE MAN OP SORROWS. [serm. 
 
 to Him to "work for this end, meat and drink to be 
 sending lepers away well, to be restoring to palsied 
 people the use of their. limbs again, to be giving back 
 the dead child alive to its father and mother, the dead 
 man alive to his sisters. He was pleasing His Father 
 in all that He did. He was not seeking His own 
 pleasure in anything. That was joy. If that had been 
 all, Christ's life on earth would have been only one of 
 joy ; we should have no right to call Him the Man of 
 Sorrows. But we must call Him by that name, and 
 the second part of the verse tells us why we must. 
 
 2. "The reproaches of them that reproached Thee 
 fell on me." He delighted, I said, to do His Father's 
 will. He delighted in His Father's love. But all 
 around, men were reproaching His Father, were finding 
 fault with Him. It seemed to them as if there were 
 good reason for their reproaches. ' For how is it,' said 
 they, ' that things are going on so badly on this earth 
 of ours ? How is it that there is so much sickness and 
 pain ? How is it that there is so much oppression and 
 cruelty ? How is it that poor men cry and there is no 
 comforter ? How is it that good men often have a bad 
 time of it, and suffer much trouble, and go to prison, 
 and are burnt with fire, while the evil men are pros- 
 perous and seem to have everything their own way ? 
 How can this be if there is really a good God over all ? ' 
 Now all these reproaches fell on Christ. They were 
 anguish to Him. The more intensely He loved His 
 Father, the more intensely He believed in His Father's 
 
XXT.] THE MAN OF SOREOWS. 225 
 
 goodness and grace and truth, the more anguish, they 
 caused Him. And it was not only that. He did not 
 only feel as we might feel if anyone said hard words 
 of someone that we reverenced very much, and whom 
 we knew deserved our reverence. These sicknesses and 
 troubles of men actually burnt into Christ's very soul. 
 They grieved Him as they had never grieved anyone 
 else. He bore them as if they were His own. It could 
 not be otherwise ; for He knew about his Father's 
 beautiful oi-der, and here was disorder and confusion. 
 He loved men one and all as His Father loved men, 
 and here were men hating each other. He was the 
 Lord of life, and here was death working its way among 
 all human beings and separating them from each other, 
 and mocking all their plans and proclaiming himself to 
 be the great king. This was enough to make Christ a 
 Man of Sorrows, yea, the Man of Sorrows. These 
 reproaches against His Father did really break His 
 heart. He knew that they had come to men because 
 they had contradicted His Father's will, because 
 they had set up their wills against His. He knew 
 that His Father's will was to banish sickness and 
 restore life and put down injustice and wrong. But 
 here they were, and it seemed as if they had gotten 
 the day. 
 
 But there was another way, and perhaps a more 
 
 terrible way still, in which all the reproaches that men 
 
 cast upon God, fell upon Christ. He was the express 
 
 image of His Father. All the brightness and goodness 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE MAN OP SORROWS. [serm. 
 
 and loving-kindness of His Father came fortli in Him. 
 Every act of His showed fortli something of this bright- 
 ness and goodness andJoving-kindness. He went about, 
 as it is written, doing good. But it is written also — 
 He Himself spake the terrible words — ' They hated 
 both Me and my Father.' His goodness brought out 
 the evil and bitterness and cruelty of their hearts. He 
 was a continual reproach to them, so they cast all 
 reproaches upon Him. The worst of all was that they 
 called Him a blasphemer because He said God was His 
 Father, and that they blasphemed Him by saying, " He 
 casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the 
 devils." He who bore all this must have been indeed 
 a Man of Sorrows, The joy did not kill the sorrow ; it 
 made the sorrow keener, for the more He rejoiced in 
 His Father, the more it pained Him that men should 
 misunderstand His Father's purposes ; the more He 
 did the works of His Father, the more horrible it was 
 that they should take them for the acts of Satan. But 
 it is also true that the sorrow did not kill the joy — nay, 
 that it brought forth His joy. He set His face as a 
 flint. He gave Himself to show that His Father was 
 not the cause of the misery of the world, but that it was 
 miserable because it was at war with Him. He worked 
 to show that death and the grave and hell were His 
 Father's enemies, and that His Father could and would 
 vanquish them. So He went down into death and the 
 grave and hell Himself. They did all that they could 
 do to Him. And having endured all that unspeakable 
 
XXV.] THE MAN OF SORROWS. 227 
 
 sorrow and agony. He rose again the Conqueror of them, 
 all ; He rose, as it is written, in the glory of the Father. 
 He had triumphed over them in the name of His 
 Father, and through the power of His Father ; He 
 had triumphed over them for you and me, and for 
 the whole universe. He had shown that He was Lord 
 over them ; He had shown that His Father's will was 
 to give Life, Eternal Life, to those who had fancied 
 that He was their tyrant, and that He had doomed 
 them to death. 
 
 And so the Lord who pleased not Himself entered 
 into His Father's joy — the joy of saving and redeeming 
 men ; and in that joy He has dwelt ever since, and 
 dwells now. But still we are bound to think of Him 
 as the Man of Sorrows, as the man who bore all the 
 sorrows that men have borne and do bear. And His 
 Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, is with 
 us now, that we may enter both into His joy and His 
 sorrow. If we ask that Spirit to come and dwell with 
 us, we shall find that He is indeed a Comforter. For 
 He teaches us of God's infinite love, and Christ's 
 infinite sacrifice; He shows how the troubles which 
 men have are not proofs of God's hatred, seeing that 
 they all fell upon His beloved Son, but may be means 
 of drawing us to trust in Him, and give ourselves to 
 Him. His Spirit, the Comforter, will teach us not to 
 please ourselves as we are all trying to do, but to forget 
 ourselves, and live in Christ and for each other. The 
 Spirit will teach us to bear the reproaches in our own 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE MAN OF SOREOWS. [seem. xxv. 
 
 heart whicli men are putting upon our Father in 
 heaven, and to do what we can to overcome them by 
 proving that His will is to bless them, and deliver- 
 them, and do them good. His Spirit will teach 
 us to enter into the sorrows of our fellow-men, which 
 are the sorrows of Christ, and to look for a day when 
 the darkness shall pass, and the earth shall be set 
 free from its bondage, and the sons of God shall 
 shout for joy because their Father's face is shining^ 
 without a veil. 
 
SERMON XXVI. 
 
 ST. MATTHEW'S DAY. 
 
 Preached at Brampton Ash, 14:th S^mday after Trinity, 
 September 21, 1862. 
 
 ■"And as Jesus passed forth from thence He saw a man named 
 Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom, and He saith nnto him. 
 Follow Me." — St. Matthew ix. 9. 
 
 St. Matthew is telling us here tlie story of an event 
 "wliich happened to himself. That is not the business 
 of his Gospel generally. He does not care that we 
 should know him ; he wished that we should know his 
 Master. And this is his purpose in this passage as 
 much as any other. He only speaks of his own life 
 that he may lead us to Christ's life. 
 
 Matthew, or Levi as he is sometimes called, was a 
 tax-gatherer. He was sitting, it is said, at the receipt 
 of custom — that is to say, he was sitting at the place 
 where the taxes or tributes were collected. I have told 
 you before that men of his class were much disliked 
 among the Jews. The taxes went to foreign kings. 
 Every time that they saw a tax-gatherer they were 
 reminded that they were not their own masters, but 
 
230 ST. MATTHEW'S DAT. [serm. 
 
 had fallen under the power of a stranger. Moreover, 
 some of these people turned their occupation to a bad 
 use. They made the most of it, and got much for them- 
 selves by charging men more than they owed. I do not 
 know that Matthew had ever done that ; but he had got 
 money by his business; he was a rich man, therefore 
 his countrymen were likely to suspect him. 
 
 Well, as he sat one day at his office, he heard a voice 
 saying to him, "Follow me." I cannot teU whether 
 he had ever seen the person who spoke these words 
 before. Most likely he had, for Jesus was going about 
 continually in that region. One may suppose He must 
 have sometimes been near Matthew ; at all events he 
 must have heard of Him. But seeing His face, or getting 
 reports of Him from other people, did not make much 
 difference to the tax-gatherer, he sat at the receipt of 
 custom still. Perhaps he had sometimes heard Christ 
 deliver discourses to the multitude ; he might even have 
 wondered at them; but he went on with his work. 
 The discourses might be good; they did not seem 
 particularly to concern him. These words, "Follow me " 
 are altogether different. Why were they spoken ? WTio 
 spoke them ? He was apparently much poorer than 
 Matthew ; He was called a carpenter's son. What right 
 had He to command a man to rise from his place, to 
 lose the chance of increasing his gains, to come after 
 Him ? Matthew felt that this man had a right. Poor 
 as He looked, he felt ' That man is my king ; I must 
 do what He bids me ; I must go wherever He would 
 
XXVI.] ST. MATTHEW'S DAY. 231 
 
 have me go.' So he rose up and followed Jesus ; he 
 became a disciple of Jesus. By-and-by Jesus called 
 him to be an Apostle. He sent him forth to preach His 
 Gospel. In due time he was called to write one of 
 the Gospels which have lasted from that day to this ; 
 which have been read this morning in every parish, 
 church throughout England. 
 
 We may be thankful, you will say, that Matthew had 
 this call. We maybe glad that he did not always continue 
 a tax-gatherer. We should have been poorer if he had 
 gone on making himself richer in that way. We should 
 have been without those lessons which he has left for 
 poor men and rich men throughout the world. But still 
 you might think the call itself was something altogether 
 strange ; one which can never come to any of us ; one 
 which could only have been addressed to a man who 
 was in that part of the earth in which our Lord was 
 born, at that time when He was walking there. You 
 might fancy this, but this is not what the collect you 
 have joined in to-day teaches us. " Almighty God,^' it 
 says, " who by Thy blessed Son didst call Matthew from 
 the receipt of custom to be an Apostle and Evangelist, 
 give us grace to follow the same Thy Son Jesus 
 Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the 
 Holy Spirit, one God, world without end." Now there, 
 you see, we are told that the same Lord — the very same 
 who called Matthew — is calling us who have prayed 
 this prayer, and that we may follow Him just as 
 truly as Matthew did. This is the subject I want to 
 
232 ST. MATTHEW'S DAY. [sebm, 
 
 talk to you about. I want to find out liow it is that a 
 Lord whom we do not see can be calling us ; and if He 
 is, how we can follow 'Him. 
 
 How can He be calling us, though we do not see 
 Him ? You will remember what 1 have told you already. 
 Matthew might have seen Him a hundred or a thousand 
 times, and yet not have altered his way of life, or any 
 of his doings or thoughts the least. Multitudes of 
 people saw Him who went their way, and were just what 
 they had been before. Some who saw Him hated Him, 
 and went about to kill Him. It was then something 
 which Matthew did not see that had such mighty power. 
 
 You know what the Roman centurion said, of whom 
 I spoke to you a Sunday or two ago. He wanted our 
 Lord very much to heal his servant, but he said he was 
 not worthy that so great a person should come under 
 his roof, but if He spoke the word only his servant 
 would be well, for he knew what the power of words 
 was. He was an officer, and he found that his soldiers 
 came and went when he bade them, though he put no 
 force upon them. Well, then, there was a word speaking 
 to St. Matthew when he heard the sound " Follow me," 
 which he felt he must not fight against. He might not 
 have dared to say so at the moment, but he knew in his 
 heart that it was the Word of the living God. He knew 
 that he must go where that Word bade him go ; that he 
 must come when that Word bade him come. There 
 might be something in him which said, 'No, stay, you 
 are in a prosperous way; do not forsake it.' That 
 
XXVI.] ST. MATTHEW'S DAY. 233 
 
 voice he heard, I have no doubt, sounding in him 
 perhaps pretty loudly ; but the other, though it might 
 be only a whisper, was a royal whisper. He knew that 
 that was the one he ought to heed j the other he must 
 despise if he could not silence it. 
 
 Now, my friends, the writer of this collect for 
 St, Matthew's Day felt himself, and wished you and 
 me to feel, that it is just so with every one of us, whether 
 we are tax-gatherers, or labourers, or preachers. What- 
 ever we are, there is a righteous Lord who is saying to 
 us in our hearts, " Follow me," as there is an evil spirit 
 who is saying to us in our hearts, ' Follow me.' We 
 cannot be our own masters ; we must have some master, 
 a good or a bad one. There is always something for 
 us to do, and something for us not to do — a right way 
 and a wrong way ; and there is always One near us 
 who would guide us into the right way, and out of the 
 wrong way. It is well to remember that ; we are 
 all exceedingly ready to forget it. A man says to 
 himself, ' Yes, I should like to keep out of that bad 
 course into which I see other people running, but how 
 am I to keep from it ? these people tempt me ; I am 
 drawn along after them.' And again a man says, ' Yes, 
 if I could get over that accursed habit of mine — if I 
 could be a sober man, for instance — I should be so glad. 
 But how can I ? my inclinations are so strong ; some- 
 thing in me always gets the better of mo when I make 
 even the best resolutions.' Now all this would be 
 true if God had left us at the mercy of other people. 
 
234 ST. MATTHEW'S DAY. [seem. 
 
 or of our own inclinations. But He has not. The Word 
 of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is stronger than all the 
 bad people who can ever come near us ; stronger than 
 our own fancies and lusts. He is our King, as He was 
 Matthew^s King ; and He says to us as He said to 
 St. Matthew, ' Do not follow these men ; do not follow 
 the thoughts that come into your own hearts ; follow 
 Me.' 
 
 But then comes the second question, how can we 
 follow Christ ? What is meant by following Him ? Do 
 you recollect the text I was preaching to you on last 
 Sunday afternoon ? It was this — " For even our Lord 
 Jesus Christ pleased not Himself." I showed you that 
 that was what made His life so wonderful. He was the 
 King over men ; He commanded them ; He healed them; 
 He fed them ; He did them good in a thousand ways ; 
 but He " pleased not Himself." That was the thing 
 He was not thinking about. He was thinking of His 
 Father ; He was bearing the reproaches that fell on 
 His Father ; He was in all ways seeking to do His will. 
 Well, then, if I would follow Christ this is the way. 
 I must not be thinking of what would please myself, I 
 must be thinking of what I ought to do ; of what my 
 Father in heaven intends me to do. But is not that very 
 hard ? Is not the first thought that comes to me, 'How 
 should I like this thing or that ?' Yes, my friends, 
 that thought does come to me, and it comes to you. 
 And if I yield to my thoughts, I seek my pleasure, 
 though it may very much interfere with yours, though 
 
XXVI.] ST. MATTHEW'S DAY. 235 
 
 it may cause you a great deal of sorrow ; and you seek 
 yours though, it may interfere with mine, and cause m© 
 a great deal of misery. But now there is a Lord, your 
 Saviour and every man^s, who cares for all ; who would 
 not have one be striving against another ; who would 
 have us all be working together, and would have each 
 be helping the other, each ready to make sacrifices for 
 the other. He made the great sacrifice for us all ; He 
 gave Himself for us all. And now He says to us, 'Be my 
 disciples. I will lead you in the way in which I have 
 walked ; I will teach you how to behave to each other ; I 
 will teach you what you should do in all the difiiculties 
 you will meet with on earth ; I will guide you at last 
 to the house of my Father and your Father, and of my 
 God and your God.' That is what He did for Matthew 
 the Publican ; that is what He is willing to do for 
 every one of us poor sinful creatures who are here this, 
 morning. 
 
SERMON XXVIL 
 
 MICHAELMAS DAY. 
 
 Preached at Brampton Ash, 15th Sunday after Trinity, 
 September 28, 1862. 
 
 " Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say 
 xmto yon that in Heaven their Angels do always behold the face 
 of my Father which is in Heaven." — St. Matthew sviii. 10. 
 
 To-iioEEOW is tlie Festival of St. Michael and All 
 Angels, what we call Michaelmas Day. The passage 
 chosen for the epistle on that day speaks of a war 
 in heaven. Michael and his angels, it is said, fought 
 against the devil and his angels, and conquered them. 
 I believe that war in heaven has very much to do 
 with us on earth. More may be meant by it than I 
 know, but this I am sure is meant by it, that the devil 
 has done his utmost to overcome Christ, and has failed ; 
 that Christ has proved good to be stronger than evil, 
 light than darkness. He has done this for His whole 
 universe, for the spirits in every other world, and for 
 us poor men in this. The powers that are for us are 
 greater than the powers that are against us. God our 
 Father is for us ; Christ, His only begotten Son, the 
 
SERM. XXVII.] MICHAELMAS DAY. 237 
 
 express image of His person, is for us. A multitude of 
 good angels, who never disobeyed Him, but who liave 
 always delighted to do His commandments, are for us. 
 The spirits of just men made perfect, who were once on 
 earth tempted as we are tempted, by the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil, who sinned as we have sinned, but 
 have washed their robes and made them white in the 
 blood of the Lamb, these are for us. And they are not 
 idle ; it is written they are ministers of those who are 
 heirs of salvation. They are helping us in ways that 
 we cannot think of or dream of. When you read a good 
 book written by a good man, no longer among us, that 
 man is helping you. He knows more now than he 
 could put into his book. He can speak to us out of it, 
 and teU us what he meant in his book, and where he 
 blundered in trying to express his meaning. The words 
 of our parents, of dear friends that are gone, how they 
 start up sometimes in our minds ! how they come back 
 to us as if they were speaking these very words to us ! 
 And are they not speaking these words to us? Do not 
 they care for us far more than they did when they were 
 less good, less loving ? Cannot they teach us better 
 now than then ? 
 
 Yes, my friends, that battle in heaven is the begin- 
 ning of many battles on earth : that victory in heaven 
 is the assurance that we shall have a multitude of 
 unseen friends in our battles on earth, and that we 
 need never be overcome by the powers of wickedness, if 
 they be ever so fierce. But after we have read this 
 
238 MICHAELMAS DAY. [seem. 
 
 passage atout the lieavenly war, we pass on to a gospel 
 about little children. Is not that a great change ? 
 From Michael and his -archangels to infants ? From 
 those who could subdue evil spirits, to the weakest of 
 all creatures upon earth ! What can have brought 
 them together ? Our Lord Jesus Christ brings them 
 together. He had a little child beside Him, and He 
 said to His disciples, " Whosoever of you shall humble 
 himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the 
 kingdom of heaven ! " He spoke and He knew, for He 
 is the King of Heaven; He is the Lord of Angels. All 
 do Him homage. He spoke for He had humbled Him- 
 self to become a little child. He who was the Eternal 
 Son of God had become the Son of the Virgin Mary. 
 He had lain in a cradle. He had grown up to be a 
 boy. He had risen to the stature of a man. And 
 "when He was using all the powers of the Son of Man, 
 and of the Son of God : when He was healing the sick 
 and casting out devils. He was still the humblest of all. 
 ^' Come unto me," He said, " and take my yoke upon 
 you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of 
 heart." That was the way to be like the Lord and 
 King of Heaven; that was the way to have power over 
 evil spirits ; to become meek and lowly of heart. He 
 who could do that could enter into the victory of 
 Michael and the angels. 
 
 This is part of what our Lord tells us in that gospel 
 for St. Michael's Day. I beseech you to lay it to heart 
 and think well of it. We commonly suppose that our 
 
xxvii.J MICHAELMAS DAT. 239 
 
 gi'eat difference from the angels is that they are strong 
 and we are weak. No, brethren ! the great difference 
 between us and them is that they are obedient, and we 
 are disobedient ; that they are humble, and we are 
 proud. All other differences lie in that. Their 
 strength comes from their obedience. They have God's 
 strength because they depend upon Him and not upon 
 themselves. The victory in heaven was the victory 
 over spirits who think themselves strong, and therefore 
 will not be dependent upon God; who will not be 
 children ; who will not rely upon a Father and give 
 themselves to Him. 
 
 But our Lord, when He had begun to discourse 
 about the little children, went on to tell us more won- 
 derful things about them ; very wonderful and very 
 beautiful things ; but also very useful for you that are 
 parents, and for all people whatsoever, to take note of 
 and to remember. " Take heed," He says, " that ye 
 despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, 
 that in heaven their angels do always behold the face 
 of my Father which is in heaven." Now these words 
 were surely spoken by One who knew the temptations 
 of men upon earth — their temptations to despise or 
 think lightly of little children. 
 
 And they were spoken by One who knew the secrets 
 of the kingdom of heaven. They were spoken by One 
 who came to bind earth and heaven together. If we 
 could in any degree enter into them we should find 
 another reason why St. Michael's Day speaks first of 
 
240 MICHAELMAS DAT. [seem. 
 
 angels and then of children. Let us try to understand 
 them at least as far as it is needful for us^ that we may 
 not transgress our Lord's commandment. 
 
 I find a child very naughty, disagreeable, ill- 
 behaved ; well, I am tempted to dislike or despise the- 
 child ; I must dislike or despise it if I think only of 
 the child's naughtiness, disagreeableness, ill-behaviour. 
 I cannot help it. But that is not the child. That is 
 what disfigures the child; that is what makes it 
 different from what it is meant to be. That child — 
 every child on this earth — has a true life in it, as well 
 as this bad nature which leads it to show forth bad 
 tempers and do bad things. This true life is what our 
 Lord calls the child's angel. His Father in heaven. 
 He says, sees this angel in every child. This angel 
 looks up to Him through the eye of every child. It 
 beholds His face. These are good tidings. God sees 
 the true child, loves the true child, when we are most 
 finding fault with the false child. And our Lord would 
 have us recollect this, that we may always see the 
 true child underneath the false child, and speak tO' 
 the true child, to the angel in the child which can 
 hear us, instead of speaking to the false child which 
 cannot hear us. If I say to a child which has been 
 naughty, ' Now you know better than this; you have a 
 better mind in you; you have yielded to the bad mind 
 that is in you,' the child will understand why I punish 
 it, will confess in its heart that I am right to punish it, 
 will feel that I am showing my love to it by punishing^ 
 
XXVII.] MICHAELMAS DAY. 241 
 
 it. Bat if I see nothing but what is wrong in the 
 child, if I never do justice to the right that is in it, I 
 may punish it for ever but I shall never make it the least 
 better; I shall make it harder and worse, and I shall 
 make myself harder and worse too. All parents and 
 teachers that are wise and good learn this lesson by 
 degrees ; mothers especially find it out very soon, for 
 God teaches it them in their inmost souls. But all 
 ought to learn it ; and none will learn it thoroughly, 
 not even fathers and mothers, unless they believe the 
 words of our Lord Jesus, and really think that their 
 Heavenly Father does Himself what He bids them do ; 
 that there is not a single child on earth, however per- 
 verse it may be, in which He does not see a divine 
 and glorious and blessed creature made after His 
 image. 
 
 Our Lord spoke those mighty words, and He added 
 other words to explain them that are mightier still. 
 " For," He said, " the Son of Man is come to save that 
 which was lost." As much as to say — ' I have come 
 from heaven, my Father's house, to bring back His 
 children that have wandered from Him, to tell you that 
 in Me He loves you, that in Me He is well pleased with 
 you, that in Me He has restored you to your places in 
 His family. Do not, therefore,' He says, ' despise one of 
 these little ones, for I have taken their nature and 
 become one of them to save them from all their 
 enemies, and make them my brothers and sisters. Do 
 not despise them, for in heaven they are not despised, 
 
 R 
 
242 MICHAELMAS DAT, [serm. xxvii. 
 
 but loved and cared for. Do not despise them, since 
 I love and care for them. Do not despise them, 
 since they belong to the great family of the Angels, 
 and of those "who have been redeemed out of every 
 kindred and nation and tongue and clime by my 
 blood.^ 
 
 My friends, if St. Michael's Day teaches you to lay 
 these things to heart it -will be a festival indeed to you. 
 It "will tell you how to regard the little ones "whom 
 Christ has committed to your care below — the httle 
 ones of your parish and neighbourhood, as "well as of 
 your o"wn households. It "will tell you ho"w to expect 
 the day, -when all the Angel- children "who have been 
 taken hence to the home of their Father in heaven, 
 shall come to greet you, and to rejoice with you, and 
 that He "who became a little child, has f ouofht the ficrht 
 and "won the day for you and for them, and for His 
 "whole Family of men and Angels. 
 
SERMON XXVIII. 
 
 GOD'S VISITATIONS. 
 
 Preached at Brampton Ash, Morniruj of the IGth Sunday after Trinity, 
 October 5, 1862. 
 
 " And there came a fear oa all, and thoy glorified God, saying, That; 
 a great prophet is risen up among us, and that God hath visited 
 His people." — St. Luke vii. 16. 
 
 You remember, most of you, the cholera which came 
 upon this land eight years ago. Many of you will 
 remember another a few years before that, and another 
 still further back. That brought a great fear on many 
 neighbourhoods. They saw one and another who was 
 well one Sunday, carried off before the next. This 
 seat was empty and that. Whose seat might be 
 empty the next week ? This they called a visitation 
 ■ of God. ' It is very terrible,' they cried, ' He is indeed 
 visiting us. We must ask Him to stay His hand.' 
 They knew, indeed, that their own neglect had often 
 much to do with the spread of the disease. Houses 
 were not kept clean ; from mere idleness, or from their 
 own selfish plans, people put themselves and their 
 neighbours in danger. Many drank too much, and 
 
 R 2 
 
244 GOD'S VISITATIONS. [serm. 
 
 that made them weak wliea the disorder caught hold 
 of them. ' Still/ they said, 'this is God's doing. He 
 is visiting us.' 
 
 Now, my friends, 'in one way it was quite right to 
 use this language. God does remind us of His presence 
 by these things. Men recollected that there was One 
 over them who cared for their doings. One who com- 
 manded them to he clean and sober, and to think of 
 their neighbours as well as themselves. They start up 
 suddenly as if they had waked out of a long heavy 
 sleep, and say, ' He is there and we knew it not. We 
 have been taking our own way. We have fancied we 
 were left to do as we liked. And lo ! it is clear we 
 cannot take our own ways. We cannot do as we like. 
 There is One whom we see not that has fixed which is 
 the right course. There is One who is pointing to us 
 very clearly, ' That is the way, walk ye in it ; there is 
 terrible danger in going out of it.' 
 
 So far it is a right and useful thought that God 
 visits us in any plague, in any railway accident, in any 
 calamity of any kind that comes to one or another of 
 us. In many places, after the cholera, there was much 
 improvement. The houses and the streets were much 
 better. Nuisances were removed. Rich men saw that 
 they were deeply concerned in the state of the poor ; 
 the poor saw that they must bestir themselves and 
 correct their bad habits. A blessing came out of the 
 misery. It was clear that God had been working 
 among us, because that blessing came out of the 
 
xxvin.] GOD'S VISITATIONS. 243 
 
 misery. That is tlie sure token that neither man nor 
 the devil has the upper hand. The pain and anguish 
 are compelled to serve a good end. They work for a 
 Father, not for a tyrant. 
 
 That turns the fear which a cholera or any like 
 sorrow produces into a good fear. The fear alone is 
 not good. It makes men cowards. It makes them 
 more likely to catch the plague. It makes them shrink 
 from services to one another. As long as they think 
 that the plague has been sent by some cruel enemy 
 who has a spite against them and wants to take 
 vengeance on them, they do not exert themselves 
 manfully against it, they merely crouch under it. Their 
 fear very often renders them more careless and mad. 
 They think it is too late to set their houses right ; 
 they drink harder that they may forget themselves. 
 And as soon as they suppose the danger is over this 
 poor, miserable, beggarly fear is exchanged for indif- 
 ference. They remember nothing. They take their 
 chance till the next time. 
 
 The true fear — the only fear that is not bad, that is 
 not accursed — is that sort of fear which you are told of 
 in the Gospel of to-day. What caused that fear ? A 
 poor woman had lost her only son. She was going 
 out to bury him. A crowd of people were with her. 
 As they came near the gate of the city, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ met them. He said to the woman, "Weep not." 
 He touched the bier. Those who bare it stood still. 
 He said, " Young man, I say uuto thee arise.''' Ho 
 
246 GOD'S VISITATIONS. [serm. 
 
 that was dead sat up. Jesus delivered him to his 
 mother. 
 
 Now it is saidj a great fear came upon all, and they 
 said, "A great proj^het has risen among us, and God has 
 visited His people." That was what made the fear ! 
 'Why, there is a Deliverer among us ! There is 
 One who is stronger than Death among us. We have 
 feared Death. We have thought Death is the master 
 of us all. He must carry all before him. And now 
 there is One who can take a man out of his hands ; 
 who can compel him to give up his prey.' A great 
 fear came upon them of One who had such power. 
 
 But was it only His power which they thought of ? 
 See what the Gospel says. '^When Jesus saw the 
 woman He had compassion upon her.'' They had 
 never found any compassion in death. He had seized 
 hold of the youngest creatures, of the most beautiful 
 creatures. He had torn them away from mothers, not 
 heeding their cries in the least. But the Conqueror of 
 death is full of compassion. He feels not only for 
 people in general, but for this one woman. He under- 
 stands her grief. He enters into it. Can there be 
 such a Being ? Can there be One who cares, actually 
 cares, for each one — cares for the sorrow of each one ? 
 Who can He be ? 
 
 They could not doubt it. This must be a great 
 prophet of God. He must be speaking the words of 
 God. He must be doing the work of God. Only such 
 an one could have this might — only such an one could 
 
XXVIII.] GOD'S VISITATIONS. 247 
 
 Lave this pity ! Yes ! He who can mock death 
 must have come from the Living God. He who is 
 all good, cannot have learnt His goodness from 
 selfish people such as we are. God then must 
 have visited His people. This must be in truth His 
 visitation. 
 
 My dear friends ! I long exceedingly that we should 
 all feel as this people in Palestine felt at that moment 
 about God's visitations. I am sure we have more 
 right to the feeling than they had. For we not only 
 think as they thought, that Jesus is a great prophet 
 from God, One who speaks the words of God. We 
 believe, and say every Sunday, that He is the only 
 begotten Son of God ; that He came down from Heaven 
 to do His Father's will and to finish His work ; and 
 that He did His Father's will and finished His work, 
 by saving us men. We do not only believe he raised 
 up the son of the woman of Nain, or the daughter of 
 Jairus, or the brother of Mary and Martha. We believe 
 that He went down into death and the grave and hell, 
 and that He triumphed over them once for all, showing 
 that if they were strong. He was stronger. We believe 
 that He did this for them who, through fear of death, 
 had been in bondage all their lives long. We believe 
 that He overcame him who had the power of death — 
 that is the Devil. We believe that He ascended on 
 high to the right hand of His Father, and that all His 
 enemies will be made His footstool. We believe that 
 Death, the last enemy, will be destroyed. 
 
248 GOD'S YISITATIONS. [serm. 
 
 And, therefore, we have a right to say that this was 
 God's great visitation, and that by it we are to judge of 
 all His other visitations. He visited His people by 
 sending His Son to redeem one and another out of the 
 jaws of death, and then by giving up His Son to suffer 
 death for all mankind. He visited His people by 
 raising up His Son to be the King of the whole earth ; 
 the elder Brother of His whole family in Heaven and 
 earth. He visited His people by sending His Holy 
 Spirit to teach them to call Him Father, to comfort 
 them in their sorrows, to unite them to each other, to 
 bestow His Eternal Life on their spirits, at last to 
 raise their bodies out of death and corruption. These 
 are the great visitations which the Bible tells us of, and 
 explains to us. And if we believe, we shall think that 
 He visits us every morning, when He causes the light 
 to break out of the darkness, and when He rouses us out 
 of our sleep. We shall think that He visits us in the 
 gift of daily bread. We shall think that He visits us 
 in seed-time and harvest. 
 
 We shall think that He visits us in the lessons of 
 our fathers and mothers, in the kind words of every 
 friend. We shall think that He visits us when we 
 come to Church and hear His Holy Word and receive 
 the food of His Sacraments. We shall not think less 
 than before that He visits us when He sends sickness 
 into our families or our neighbourhoods, or when we 
 hear of strange accidents and sudden deaths. But we 
 shall remember that it is Christ, and not death, who is 
 
XXVIII.] GOD'S VISITATIONS. 249 
 
 God's prophet — Christy and not death, who tells us 
 what God is. Therefore we shall consider every such 
 visitation as a sign that He is among us who stopped 
 the bier at the gate of the city, who had compassion on 
 the widow woman, who said to the young man 'Arise.' 
 A great fear and awe will come upon us while we 
 remember how near He is to us, though we see Him 
 not. We shall ask him to strengthen us to bear what 
 ever we have to bear, to do what we have to do. We 
 shall ask that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, may visit 
 us and visit all the sorrowers of the earth, and may 
 give them that peace which the world cannot give. 
 We shaU ask that at last every one we have loved and 
 known may hear the voice which says 'Arise,' and that 
 children may be given to their mothers, and mothers to 
 their children, by His own loving hand who came 
 upon earth, who lives in Heaven, to heal the breaches 
 in His Father's family, and to gather all together 
 in one. 
 
SERMON XXIX. 
 
 THE ETERNAL WEIGHT OP GLOET. 
 
 Preached at Brampton Ash, Afternoon of theldth Sunday after Trinity, 
 Octoher 5, 1862. 
 
 *' For our light afHiction, •which is but for a moment, worketh for ns 
 a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we 
 look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which 
 are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal, bnt the 
 things which are not seen are eternal." — 2 Coeinthians iv. 17, 18. 
 
 Many of us have said to ourselves as we have read 
 these verses, ' Yes, it is no wonder that St. Paul 
 should say that he might well bear any afflictions, 
 if he could reckon upon an eternal weight of glory to 
 come after them in a few years. And he was so 
 unlike us, so unlike most people who have been upon 
 this earth, that he might fairly cheer himself with 
 this hope. But which of us can ? What afflictions of 
 ours can ever work for us an eternal weight of glory ? 
 How dare we ever dream of such a reward for any- 
 thing that we ever have suffered, or ever shall suffer 
 here?' 
 
 My friends, I have had this thought in my roind, as 
 some of you may have had it in your minds. But when 
 
SERM. XXIX.] THE ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY. 251 
 
 I read the chapter we have read this afternoon, the one 
 out of which these words are taken, I see that the 
 thought is not good for anything ; I see that St. Paul 
 was not separating himself from other men, or trying 
 to prove that he had better claims on God's goodness 
 and love than they had. I see that he was learning 
 all his life through to give up any claims of his own, 
 to put himself on the level of the most helpless and 
 the most ignorant. I see that that was the great 
 lesson which God was teaching him by his afflictions. 
 He was better than we are, because he had learnt it, 
 and we have not learnt it. If we would get it by 
 heart, if we would profit by God's schooling, and give 
 up boasting of ourselves as he did, we should share 
 the hopes which made even very sore trials look so 
 light to him. 
 
 You remember that he was once a very proud man. 
 He thought God favoured his nation and hated all other 
 nations. He thought God favoured his sect in that 
 nation, the sect of the Pharisees, and hated Sadducees 
 and all other sects. This pride led Saul of Tarsus to 
 abhor the disciples of the Lord Jesus. Their Master 
 had eaten and drunk with publicans and sinners. They 
 said that He had taken the nature of all men, and died 
 the death of all men, and risen again to be King of 
 all men. Though they had not yet preached this 
 Gospel to the heathen, Saul of Tarsus saw that they 
 would soon break down the barrier between them and 
 the Jews. So he wished to destroy them, and gave 
 
252 THE ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLOEY. [seem. 
 
 himself up heart and soul to the work of destroying- 
 them. 
 
 As he journeyed towards Damascus with this intent,, 
 there shone a light about him brighter than the light 
 of the sun. He fell on his face. He heard a voice 
 speaking to him. The Son of God made him under- 
 stand that he was going upon an evil errand. The 
 Son of God made him understand that He cared for 
 those whom Saul persecuted. And now it became 
 evident to Saul that this Lord was his Lord, that all 
 which was good and right in him came from this Lord ; 
 that in himself apart from Him there was nothing good. 
 And now he learnt that he must do the very things which 
 he had cursed the Apostles of Jesus for designing to do- 
 He must tell people who were not Jews, people who 
 had been worshipping idols, that God cared for them, 
 and had sent His only begotten Son to deliver them 
 from the tyrants to whom they had sold themselves, 
 and to adopt them into His family. " When," he says, 
 " it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that I might 
 preach Him among the Gentiles, I conferred not with 
 flesh and blood." That is to say, he felt that the Father 
 had made known His Son to him as the only root of 
 all good in him, as the only Saviour from evil, on 
 purpose that he might proclaim to all people every- 
 where, ' He is the root of all good in you. He is the 
 Saviour from all your evil.^ 
 
 That became hereafter his work. In performing- 
 that work he had to endure those afflictions of which 
 
XXIX.] .THE ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY. 253 
 
 lie spoke. His countrymen persecuted him for his 
 faith in the Sou of God, as he had persecuted the older 
 disciples. They told him that he did not care for 
 being a child of Abraham ; though he had been show- 
 ing forth the goodness of the covenant which God had 
 made with Abraham, by preaching that the seed of 
 Abraham was come, in Whom God had promised to 
 bless all the families of the earth. The Jews told him 
 that he did not care for the law of Moses ; though he 
 was certain that it had never been so dear to him as 
 since he knew that Jesus his Lord had kept it all, 
 and had sent His Spirit to write it on men's hearts. 
 The rulers and the priests of the Gentiles to whom he 
 preached, were as much inclined to persecute him as 
 the Jews ; for they found that he drove men away from 
 the worship of their gods, far more than the other J ews, 
 who said that none had any portion in the true God but 
 themselves. St. Paul had much to bear, he says, from 
 false brethren; from men who pretended to believe 
 in Christ, and did not really regard Him as a deliverer 
 from sin, but went on in sin as much as before they 
 confessed Him. Sometimes it seems as if the Apostle 
 suffered most from bodily torments. But I suspect 
 his worst afflictions were from battles with the enemies 
 of his spirit ; from the tempter who would have per- 
 suaded him to shrink from his duty and to distrust 
 God's love, and to fall back into the pride and bitter- 
 ness out of which Christ had raised him. " We wrestle," 
 he says in one place, "not against flesh and blood, but 
 
25i TEffi ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLOKT. [skrm_ 
 
 against principalities, against powers, against the 
 rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual 
 wickedness in high places." 
 
 All these tosrether one would have thought were not 
 light afflictions, and yet he calls them so ; when he 
 weighs them against the blessing to which they were 
 leading him. And what was that ? He had found out 
 that the Eternal God, He who is, and was, and is to 
 come, is not, as he had supposed, the enemy of the 
 human race, but its Redeemer and Father. ' He had 
 believed that the Father so loved the world, as to give 
 His only begotten Son to die for it. He had believed 
 that this Father was sending forth His own Holy Spirit, 
 to bring men's spirits from darkness to light, from 
 the power of Satan to Himself. He had believed, for 
 the Spirit had taught him, of a righteousness, and 
 truth, and love, which could not change, could not pass 
 away ; a righteousness, truth, and love which are in 
 God Himself, but which He has shown to men in the 
 life and death of our Lord. 
 
 ' Now, these,' he said to himself, 'are eternal things; 
 this truth and love and righteousness will be the same 
 always. I know but a little, a very little of them yet ; 
 ages upon ages must unfold them to me, but I am sure 
 they cannot grow less. The more glimpses I have had 
 of God's goodness, the more wonderful it has seemed 
 to me ; the more high and deep and wide. I see that 
 His love passes knowledge, and yet that we may every 
 day grow to know something more of it ; something 
 
XXIX.] THE ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY. 255 
 
 more of what it can do in overcoming' evil, and in 
 raising those out of evil who have yielded to it. What 
 a reward is that ! My afflictions have taught me to 
 enter into God ; to feel that the greatest delight I can 
 have is, to let His charity govern me and possess me, 
 and draw me on. The opposition of my countrymen, 
 the rage of the heathen mobs, my pains of body, the 
 temptations of the devil — all have forced me to take 
 refuge in God; in His wisdom which I cannot measure; 
 in His love which I cannot sound. Nothing' short of 
 this love can suffice forme; any love which has bounds 
 to it, which prohibits any sinner from approaching it, 
 would not have raised me out of my evil, would not 
 keep me out of it ; I must sink and be lost if I have 
 not that to rest upon.' 
 
 Here, then, was that eternal weight of glory which 
 the Apostle tells us of, and which he says his light 
 afflictions that were but for a moment were working out 
 for him. It was not a glory that belonged to him, or 
 which ever could belong to him. The sun rose in 
 great glory this morning — you in this parish may have 
 seen it — people in the furthest end of England, of 
 France, of Germany, may have seen it ; there was the 
 same glory about all; all might behold it and rejoice 
 in it. I have sometimes seen sunsets of which I could 
 only say — what a weight of glory is there ; one can 
 scarcely bear it ; one feels as if one should be crushed 
 by it! so St. Paul felt about that eternal sun and glory 
 of God. ' I cannot see it,' he says, ' it is not a thing' 
 
256 THE ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLOSY. [serm. 
 
 for my eyes to take in, as they take in the glory of the 
 sun. The eternal things are not seen. But it is all real. 
 It compasses the universe more than the light or heat 
 of the sun compasses the universe. It warms and 
 lightens the universe more than ten thousand suns 
 could. And this will one day burst upon ns. There 
 will be a complete unveiling of the Son of God, who 
 gave Himself a sacrifice for all men. Every eye shall 
 see Him, and those also — like me — who have pierced 
 Him.' 
 
 And so you will not wonder how that aU through this 
 chapter, St. Paul is speaking to the Corinthians as if 
 what he lived for was that they might share this weight 
 of glory along with him. They had given him much 
 trouble ; he had great cause to complain of them, but 
 his complaints are always that they are too much lifted 
 up in themselves, that each is seeking some prize or 
 glory for himself. He wants them to know that God 
 who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, is 
 now shining into their hearts to give them the Light of 
 the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He 
 wants them to feel that if any miss this light — if there 
 is a veil over the Gospel to any — it is because the god 
 of this world, the spirit of pride and vanity, blinds their 
 eyes that they may not see how God's glory is the 
 humiliation and passion and death of Jesus Christ. He 
 would have them understand that sufferings and sorrows 
 — all these afflictions which are but for a time — are 
 God's ways of delivering men fi-om this blindness, His 
 
XXIX.] THE ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY. 257 
 
 way of teacliing them to seek for tliat lovOj whicli is for 
 all and for ever. 
 
 Dear friends, that love of God, that glory of God — 
 which is for all and for ever — is for us English as much 
 as it was for the Corinthians; for us in the year 1862 as 
 much as it was for those to whom St. Paul preached. 
 Oh ! let us hear His voice speaking to each of us, 
 and saying, ' Brother, it is for thee ; for thee the 
 Son of God poured out His blood ! for thee He over- 
 came death ! for thee He lives and pleads at His 
 Father's right hand ! for thee He sent His Spirit that 
 thou mightest claim thy place as one of God's beloved 
 children ; that thou mightest possess the inheritance 
 which He has prepared for them that love Him. Take 
 thy portion of afflictions, whatever it be, that God sends 
 thee here. Receive them as a Father's love-tokens 
 to thee. Remember that He laid all first upon that 
 Son in whom He delights, the Son who was with Him 
 before the worlds were. Remember that He would use 
 them to bring thee out of death to His eternal life ; out 
 of darkness to His perfect light ; out of the vain glory 
 which we covet for ourselves to the weight of glory 
 which will be manifested to all creatures in the great 
 day of redemption, when He whose face was marred 
 more than any man's shall be revealed in the glory of 
 His Father and the holy angels.' 
 
 s 
 
SERMON YTX 
 
 THE GEACE OF GOD. 
 
 Preached at Budock, 1864. 
 
 " Simon Peter, a servant and an Apostle of Jesas Christ, to them 
 that hare obtained like precious faith with ns through the 
 righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ : Grace and 
 peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and 
 of Jesus our Lord." — 2 St. Peter i. 1, 2. 
 
 Tffls is all we know about tlie persons to whom 
 St. Peter's Epistle was written. They might be Jews, 
 like Simon Peter himself. Probably most of them 
 ■were, for his work was chiefly among Jews. But they 
 might be Gentiles, for he had been the first to tell the 
 Gentiles that God was no respecter of persons, and that 
 in every nation those who feared Him and wrought 
 righteousness should be accepted of Him. Whatever 
 they were, they had obtained that blessing which 
 St. Peter thought the most precious that he or any 
 man could obtain. 
 
 What was it ? They certainly had not obtained 
 ease or quietness. Neither they nor the Apostle were 
 leading more tranquil prosperous lives than their fellow- 
 
SBRM. XXX.] TUB GRACE OF GOD. 259 
 
 men. They liad many troubles which other men had 
 not. They were not to escape the troubles which other 
 men had. St. Peter writes this letter especially to 
 prepare them for great calamities which were coming 
 upon the world, and in which they would have their 
 full share. 
 
 And they had not obtained freedom from the 
 temptations to evil which beset their neighbours. If 
 they fancied they had that freedom, they would soon 
 find how terribly they had deluded themselves. 
 
 This Epistle will show you how carefully and 
 earnestly the Apostle warned his fellow-disciples that 
 they might have a deeper fall, and sink into worse 
 crimes than those who had never been sealed with the 
 name of Christ. St. Peter had thought that he could 
 go to prison and death for his Master. He had denied 
 Him thrice. He certainly had not obtained the privilege 
 of trusting himself. What he had obtained was the 
 privilege of distrusting himself ; the privilege of believ- 
 ing in God. That faith he calls precious ; that faith he, 
 as an apostle and servant of Jesus Christ, had invited 
 Jews and Gentiles to claim as their treasure, just as it 
 was his. He writes to those who had heard His Gospel, 
 who had confessed it to be true. He writes to remind 
 them what their confession meant ; to shovv them how 
 every event which befell them, every experience of 
 their lives, was a confirmation of it ; how they might 
 act upon it ; how they might bear witness of it to their 
 fellows. 
 
 s 2 
 
260 THE GRACE OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 The verses whicli I have read to you are the begin- 
 ning of what we call a general Epistle. Very general it 
 is, not limited by the circumstances and the character o£ 
 those to whom it was addressed ; very general it is, not 
 limited to the first ages, but carrying a message to this 
 age. And yet I think also it is very special. It speaks 
 to each man according to his own circumstances, 
 according to his own deepest necessities ; it tells each 
 of us what need he has and what right he has to claim 
 the like precious faith with the Apostle. Let us think 
 first of the need, then of the right ; afterwards we 
 may see how St. Peter binds them together in his 
 benediction. 
 
 I. How the Apostle found his need of faith I have 
 told you already. He had been full of self-conceit ; he 
 had been chosen by One whom he regarded as the Son 
 of David and the Son of God to be a minister in His 
 Kingdom. I do not know that he actually thought 
 himself the greatest of those ministers, as some in later 
 days have said for him that he was, but at least he wished 
 to be the greatest. He disputed, as his brother-disciples 
 disputed, whether when the kingdom was established he 
 should not have the highest place in it. He had been 
 often told by his Master that in that kingdom the chief 
 of all was the servant of all. A little child had been 
 set before Him. 'You must become,^ Jesus said, '^like 
 that child if you would be great in my Kingdom ! ' But 
 such words did not at the time he heard them carry 
 much meaning to his mind. Had he not been chosen 
 
XXX.] THE GRACE OF GOD. 261 
 
 — poor fislierman as he was — to be near tlie King ? Had 
 it not been said that be should sit on a tbrone judging 
 the twelve tribes of Israel ? Had it not been said that 
 lie should open the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven ? 
 These words were remembered, the others were for- 
 gotten. Then came the explanation of them. The 
 great man found how little he was, how contemptible 
 he was. What then did his grand calling mean ? How 
 could he be a minister of the King ? how could he reign 
 or judge ? how could he open the Kingdom of Heaven ? 
 He could be a minister of the King when he knew that 
 he was good for nothing ; he could judge the tribes of 
 Israel for their unbelief in the righteous God and for 
 their refusal to bless all the families of the earth with 
 the knowledge of Him, when he had cast away his own 
 unbelief and learned to trust Him altogether ; he could 
 open the Kingdom of Heaven to men by declaring Him 
 to them, by saying to them, ' Behold your God ; behold 
 Him in whom you may trust,'' 
 
 In this school St. Peter learnt his need of faith. 
 When he once found that he was not better than his 
 neighbours ; when his conscience accused him of sins 
 of which he could accuse no other, then he understood 
 that he must have faith in One who cared for him more 
 than he cared himself. And I say, my friends, we 
 are every one of us in this school ; we are all under a 
 ■discipline which is to make us feel after some one who 
 is looking after us when we are least able to look after 
 ourselves, who is upholding us when we stumble, who is 
 
263 THE GRACE OF GOD. [seem- 
 
 directing us when our own way would be most crooked. 
 All accidents and diseases are threatening my body^ yet 
 life is preserved in it. _ My mind becomes bewildered, 
 incapable of judging, thinking, remembering, yet some 
 one does put tliougbts and memories into it, does enable 
 it to exercise judgment. Often we seem unable to bear 
 the load we have to bear, the dread of what we may 
 have to bear. Whence comes the renewal of the mind, 
 of the courage ? Who is it that is near us in those 
 terrible moments when we are tempted, as St. Peter 
 was, to lie ; who in the more terrible moment when we 
 have fallen as he fell ? The faith that there is such a 
 One as this — an actual person — a living friend — it is 
 this which we have all need of ; no other will do for us. 
 A man says to himself sometimes, ' I blundered terribly, 
 but luck stood my friend ; I committed that crime, but 
 I was not found out ; I was a fool, but I had kinsmen 
 or parents who stood by me and pardoned my folly.* 
 They say these things, but they know all the while that 
 there is no ground of trust in any of these things. The 
 luck may save them once or twice ; it will desert them 
 some day. The crime will not always be hidden; the 
 folly will wear out the patience of kinsmen and parents. 
 Sad would it be if this were not so ! As long as we 
 confide in chances, what miserable beggarly creatures 
 we are. Every hour makes us feebler and baser. We 
 want something to trust in, in which there is no chance, 
 no variableness, not the shadow of a turning. We want 
 One to trust in who perfectly knows us, perfectly sym- 
 
XXX.] THE GKACE OP GOD. 263 
 
 patliises witli us, understands liow weak we are that 
 He may give us exactly the strength which answers 
 to that weakness, bear with our evil and so raise us 
 out of it. 
 
 II. Have we a right to this kind of trust ? Is there 
 any one in whom we may place it, any one who demands 
 it of us ? St. Peter speaks to us of the righteousness 
 of Grod and our Saviour Jesus Christ. He tells us of 
 One who is absolutely utterly right, right always* 
 right without change. He tells us that this righteous- 
 ness has been manifested to men in One who had their 
 nature, who entered into all their temptations, who 
 died their death, who conquered their death. Men 
 had dreamed of gods who had might ; of gods who 
 could do what they liked ; but they could never find 
 the might in such gods which they knew that they had 
 need of : the might of one contended against the 
 might of another. The might of this god seemed to 
 be exerted in their favour; the might of that one 
 seemed to be exerted against them. This prevailed 
 in one place, over one set of persons ; that prevailed 
 in another place, over another set of persons. They 
 could not trust such gods. They only could trust 
 them when they supposed they were better than 
 themselves ; when they supposed that they inspired 
 what was right and trustworthy in men, and fought 
 against whatever was wrong and treacherous. Simon 
 Peter said the God of our Fathers, the God who 
 revealed Himself to Abraham and called forth his 
 
264 THE GEACE OF GOD. [seem. 
 
 faith in the God of righteousness — He has been 
 asking in all ages for our trust. He has been com- 
 plaining in all ages of our want of trust. He has 
 been waging war with all unrighteousness ; He has 
 been raising us out of our unrighteousness. He has 
 been the God of salvation, because He has been the 
 righteous God. He has been delivering us from evil, 
 because He hates evil. And now He has shown 
 Himself as the God of all the families of the earth in 
 His Son. He is showing Himself mighty to save all 
 the families of the earth by that Son. The God of 
 righteousness is the Almighty God — the God who not 
 only rules in the armies of heaven and among the 
 inhabitants of earth, but who is able to convert the 
 inhabitants of the earth from unrighteousness to 
 righteousness, from darkness to light^ from the 
 ignorance of Him to the knowledge of Him. Here is 
 the true might — the might of the Father who created 
 man in His own image to show forth His righteousness 
 and glory; the might of the only begotten Son — the 
 might which came forth in the agony of the garden, 
 in the death on the cross ; the might which was 
 shown forth in the uttermost weakness ; the might 
 which could conquer hatred and enmity, and therefore 
 which could conquer death and hell ; the might in 
 which He ascended on high, leading captivity captive, 
 glorifying our humanity at the right hand of God. 
 Here is the might of that Spirit who triumphs over 
 rebellious wills ; who has come forth that God may 
 
XXX.] THE GRACE OF GOD. 265 
 
 dwell among men, and that they may testify of a day 
 when He shall subdue all things to Himself. 
 
 Here, then, is our right to the faith which St. 
 Peter claimed for himself and for his fellow-disciples. 
 It stands on no ground of superiority in us to other 
 men ; the moment we set up such a pretence, the 
 faith disappears. It stands on the name of God 
 Himself ; on His eternal righteousness ; on the 
 manifestation of that righteousness in Christ, on the 
 pui'pose of God and the power of God to make 
 righteousness victorious over evil, life over death. The 
 name of the righteous God was proclaimed in this far 
 island of the west, as it was proclaimed in the eastern 
 lands in which St. Peter preached. Here, as there, it 
 overcame the unrighteous gods to which men had 
 bowed down. Here, as there, the atonement of God 
 to mankind in Christ overcame the accursed and 
 hateful sacrifices by which men had sought to make 
 themselves acceptable to the tyrants whom they 
 served. Here, as there, the Spirit of truth and love 
 showed that He could overcome the spirit of falsehood 
 and evil that contended with Him. God called us 
 to the like precious faith with that which the Apostles 
 had preached to hard exclusive Jews and Greek 
 idolators. Our right to it is affirmed by every 
 lesson we read, by every prayer in which we join, by 
 every sacrament which declares our union to God and 
 to each other. The blessing of these lessons, these 
 prayers, these sacraments, is that they express our 
 
266 TKE GRACE OF GOD. [skrm. 
 
 own utter notMngness ; that they bring us all to a 
 level ; that they say to us, ' Trust not in your 
 righteousness, in your traditions, in your personal 
 faith ; if you do, your righteousness will be found 
 to be sinfulness, your traditions will contradict them- 
 selves, yotir personal faith will be changed to unbelief. 
 But trust in God's righteousness ; thank Him for 
 having called your fathers to trust in it, and for 
 having preserved the record of His Name to your own 
 day ; ask Him to restore your faith when it is feeblest 
 and nearest to death ; ask Him to make you witnesses 
 to all men of His will, that thev should believe in 
 Him — and your youth and your Xation's youth will be 
 renewed like the eagle's ; all personal circumstances, 
 all past history, will give hopes of the futtire, will 
 be quickened by Him who is, and who was, and who 
 is to come ; you will find that He has known us in aU 
 our struggles, and that He will give us that knowledge 
 of Him which is eternal life.' 
 
 in. And so we may feel in some little degree the 
 force of that wonderful blessing which we have heard 
 so often and felt so little. " Grace and peace be 
 mulriplied to you, through the knowledge of God and 
 of Jesus our Lord." If we only heard of such words 
 as having been spoken by an old and venerable man 
 eighteen hundred years ago, to a set of men some of 
 whom he had known, some of whom he had never 
 seen, they would be very striking. An echo of a 
 voice that must have been very sweet would reach us 
 
xsx.] THE GRACE OP GOD. 267 
 
 tlirough all these centuries of vicissitude and sorrow. 
 But now suppose the old man spoke truly; suppose 
 he did not only utter a feeble wish of his ; suppose ho 
 had a warrant to say, ' There is One whose graco 
 and peace are over you and about you ; there is 
 One whose grace and peace will be over all the 
 generations to come ; there is One who will be seeking 
 to bless them, as He is seeking to bless you; bestowing 
 grace and peace on them, as He bestows them on 
 you' — would that be a mere echo of a mortal voice? 
 would not Simon Peter, the Apostle and servant of 
 Jesus Christ, however good and venerable, be lost in 
 Him of whom he testifies as the same yesterday, 
 to-day, and for ever ? 
 
 And if the thought comes to us, 'Yes, but this grace 
 and peace are expressly for those who have like precious 
 faith with himself, that may indeed discourage and 
 almost crush us.' But when we consider what his faith 
 was, how it grew, who gave it him, in whom it rested — 
 when above all we read the words, "through the know- 
 ledge of God and Jesus our Lord" — our spirits are 
 carried into another region ; we shall cease to dwell on 
 what we are ; we shall remember what He is who gave 
 His Son for us; what that Son is who humbled Himself, 
 became of no reputation, and took upon Him the form 
 of a servant, and who is therefore exalted far above all 
 principalities and powers, that all things may be put 
 under His feet. We shall not doubt that there is a 
 grace coming forth from Him which can make even us 
 
268 THE GRACE OF GOD. [skkm. xxx. 
 
 mUing in the day of His power ; vre stall not doubt 
 ttat tliere is a peace in Him wldcli vre are meant to 
 inherit, and which no tribulations of the world, no con- 
 fusion in our minds ' can disturb. "Wliile we ti'ust in 
 that grace of God, in that peace in Jesus our Lord, we 
 shall have the like precious faith with the Apostle — 
 that faith of which he spoke in his first epistle, when 
 he says — " WTio by Him do believe in God, which 
 raised Him fi*om the dead, and gave Him glory, that 
 your faith and hope may be in God." 
 
 Here, then, my friends, let our faith and hope be. 
 Then it will be a hope not of some happiness for ouv- 
 selves, but of the revelation of God's glory which shall 
 fill the whole earth — that glory for which Apostles and 
 Martyrs in aU ages have longed, and for which they 
 counted not their lives dear. In the knowledge of God 
 and of Jesus our Lord they sought their heaven ; of 
 the grace and peace of God and Jesus our Lord they 
 spoke to then* brethren on earth. If we desire what 
 they desired, if we join in their testimony, we shall not 
 be disappointed ; every part of our discipline here will 
 prepare us for that heaven, because it wiU reveal to us 
 more of the righteousness and the forgiveness of God. 
 And the baptism of every child, the marriage of those 
 whose hearts are one, the grave of every friend who has 
 been separated from us, will repeat the benediction, 
 " Grace and peace be multiplied to you, from God our 
 Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
SEEM ON XXXI. 
 
 THE NEW COVENANT. 
 
 Preached at Burnham, 10th Sunday after Trinity, August 5, 1866. 
 
 " For this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel 
 after those days, saith the Lord : I will put my laws into their 
 mind and write them in their hearts : and I will be to them a 
 God and they shall be to me a people." — Hebrews viii. 10. 
 
 My brethreuj we have said to-day tliat we are under 
 this new covenant. When the Commandments were 
 read from the Altar, we prayed, "Lord have mercy upon 
 us, and write all these Thy laws in our hearts, we be- 
 seech Thee." The laws are written in the twentieth 
 chapter of Exodus ; they are said there to have been 
 written on tables of stone. We are not content that 
 they should be written in that chapter or on those 
 stones. We do not think they can help us much whilst 
 they are at a distance from us — whilst we only read 
 them out of a book. They were spoken to the people 
 of Israel. We want that they should be spoken to us. 
 We want that they should be spoken not only into our 
 ears but into our minds and hearts. We ask Him from 
 whom they came to put them into our minds — to fix 
 
270 THE NEW COVEXAXT. [serm. 
 
 them in our hearts. That is what vre believe He 
 promised to do for the people of Israel. That is what 
 we believe He promises to do for the people of England. 
 We are sure no one else can do it. Xo one else knows 
 the heart and mind of an Israelite or an Ensrlishman : 
 no one else knows what is scrawled there which has 
 need to be blotted out, or how any new and better 
 thing can be written in place of it. He does know. 
 He can blot out the scrawl. He can write the clear 
 letters which He wishes to be there. 
 
 Yes, my friends, this is the new covenant — what 
 we call the New Testament. It is the covenant of our 
 Baptism. When you bring your children to be chris- 
 tened, you claim this new covenant for them. Tou 
 believe that your Father has accepted them as His 
 children in His only begotten Son ; you present them 
 to Him that He may give them the Spirit who will 
 put His laws in their minds and write them in their 
 hearts. You are to rear them in the faith that what 
 He has promised on their behalf He will surely keep 
 and perform. You cannot make them obey your com- 
 mandments or His commandments. You wiU find 
 them inclined to disobey both. For their inclinations 
 are just like yours, and you are Inclined to choose 
 your own ways, to go out of what yon know and confess 
 to be the right way. Therefore you need a wisdom 
 and a power above your own to order yourselves as 
 well as your children. This covenant tells you that 
 the wisdom and power are always with you. The 
 
XXXI.] THE NEW COVENANT. 271 
 
 Father, tlie Son, aud the Holy Ghost, the one God 
 blessed for ever, has sealed you with that Name. We 
 are all living, moving, having our being in Him who 
 has put it upon us. We may all say assuredly, ' Thou 
 art our God, we are Thy people, therefore write Thy 
 laws in our hearts, we beseech Thee.' 
 
 My friends, these words become very familiar to us. 
 We repeat them as if they meant nothing. But they 
 do mean that which is more wonderful than all the 
 strangest things that we hear or read of in other days 
 or our own. That God Himself should be taking care 
 of your mind and heart and mine ; that He, and not 
 some mortal, should be teaching us what we are and 
 what we have to do ; that He should be curbing us 
 when we struggle to run wild ; that He should be urging 
 us on when we wish to stand still. Is not that won- 
 derful ? For rich and poor to be alike in such a cove- 
 nant as this ; for each one to be able to say, ' Yes, He 
 was giving me my lesson then and there ; I did not 
 take it in ; I needed the rod to make me heed it. 
 And the stroke of the rod came. I felt it. That was 
 His way of putting His law in my mind, of writing it 
 in my heart ! ' Yet this is even so. We are all to say 
 that and to think that. A sharp twinge of pain is not 
 merely a twinge of pain. It is the message from a 
 Father — ' I would put this law in thy mind, which thou 
 hast broken. I would write this law in thy heart 
 which thou hast forgotten, for I have said that I 
 would be your God and that you should be my people. 
 
272 THE NEW COVENANT. [serh. 
 
 I do not forget any of my people, and I would not 
 have any of tliem forget me.' 
 
 This seems to me very wonderful. And yet each 
 day and night may show us that it is necessary for us. 
 There is not one of us can do with any smaller blessing. 
 If the laws stay outside of us they terrify us, we are 
 sure we shall be punished for breaking them, but for 
 all that, we cannot keep them. We are like people in 
 a dream. There is a pit before us but we cannot help 
 running into it. There is a robber behind us, but we 
 cannot stir. And yet, as I said before, no man is able 
 to force the laws inside of us ; to make us love them 
 instead of hating them ; no man and no Angel ; only 
 God can do that for us. If He has not given us an 
 assurance that He will, it is aU over with us. We 
 shall go wrong if we are ever so persuaded that it will 
 lead to our ruin. Therefore I can imagine no better 
 tidings for a man to hear than these, ' God has given 
 this assurance. He has made this covenant with us 
 in His Son who took the nature of us all, and died for 
 us all, and rose again for us all, and is at the right 
 hand of God for us ah. " I will put my laws in your 
 hearts, and in your minds will I write them." •* That 
 is the Gospel or good news we have received. And 
 that is the Gospel Christ has bidden us preach to all 
 nations. You were told this morning of a society 
 which undertook, on behalf of us English, to spread 
 this Gospel in the lands in which our countrymen 
 settle ; to keep ahve the remembrance of it in those 
 
XXXI.] THE NEW COYENANT. 273 
 
 who have heard it and confessed it to be true, to make 
 it known to those who have not received it. I shall 
 say nothing of the countries in which the society is 
 at work. You have been told of them already. But I 
 will say to you a few words on the name which this 
 society bears, then you wiU see what kind of task it 
 has to perform. 
 
 It is a Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, or 
 good news concerning God, of the Gospel or good news 
 which God sends forth concerning Himself. What 
 that is you have been hearing out of the Lesson of this 
 afternoon. The nations of the earth have accepted 
 bad news concerning their Creator and Ruler. They 
 have supposed Him to be a Tyrant over men — governing 
 them according to His fancies. One from whom they 
 have need to seek deliverance. He proclaimed Himself 
 to the Israelites as their Deliverer out of the house of 
 bondage. He commanded them not to do the things 
 which would bring them into bondage. The Israelites 
 broke these commandments, made gods for themselves 
 who enslaved themj then they cried to the God of 
 their Fathers and He brake their bonds asunder. 
 These Israelites, as you heard in the Lesson this 
 morning, were to bless aU the families of the earth. 
 They were to tell all men, ' This Deliverer, whom we 
 worship, is your God j there is no otlier.^ But before 
 they could do that fully and perfectly, God gave a 
 higher sign of what He was than the signs which He 
 gave the Israelites when He brought them out of the 
 
 T 
 
274 THE KEW COVEKAXT. [serm. 
 
 land of Egypt. He sent His only begotten Son to 
 deliver those who had rebelled against Him from sin ; 
 to deliver them from death and from him who had the 
 power of death. The new covenant tells of this De- 
 liverer. And the new covenant declares that He who 
 is our Redeemer does not merely give men a good law 
 to warn them of the things which shall make them 
 slaves, but that He gives them His Spirit that they 
 may love His law and obey it and be free. 
 
 Here is the good news which this society engages to 
 tell first to English citizens and then to all other men 
 whom its voice can reach. First, English citizens ; for 
 though they have heard these things in their infancy, 
 and have been baptized into the Holy Name, they are 
 as prone as any men can be to forget what they have 
 been told, and to drop into dark thoughts of God, and 
 to live as if He were their enemy and not their Re- 
 deemer. Next, all other people ; for all have the 
 same right to the message which God has sent by His 
 Son to all. It cannot be true for us if it is not true 
 for them. If God would put His laws into our minds 
 He would put them into theirs. If He would write 
 them on our hearts He would write them on theirs. 
 
 And so we understand what is meant by the next 
 words : " And they shall not teach every man his 
 neighbour," "saying, Know the Loi*d." For a moment 
 you might say, ' Such language is inconsistent with 
 the command to preach the Gospel to every creature ; 
 if it is true we need no societies like that which we 
 
XXXI.] THE NEW COVENAXT. 275 
 
 have been asked to support to-day.' But i£ you think 
 what the Gospel is which we profess to preach or pro- 
 pagate, you will not hold that opinion. We do not 
 teach our Christian neighbour, or our Heathen neigh- 
 bour, Know the Lord." We say to him, ' We cannot 
 teach you to know Him; but He can teach you to 
 know Him. He knows your minds and hearts. He 
 bids you lay them open to Him with all their ignorance 
 and sin. He will make them sound minds and clean 
 hearts. He will write His laws in them.' That is a 
 very different message from the other ; much less pre- 
 sumptuous, much more consolatory. There is no man, 
 let him be ever so far fallen into evil, ever so little 
 able to raise himself out of it, who may not hearken to 
 that news and live. 
 
 And see, we are told that one day all shall know 
 Him from the least even to the greatest. The words 
 sound too amazing for our belief. Yet I do not suppose 
 any of us would dare to say, ' They are not Divine 
 words, I do not believe them.' We all of us have a 
 hope that they must come to pass, let them go ever so 
 far beyond our understanding. Yes, and let us cherish 
 that hope. It will not make us ashamed at the last. 
 And in the meantime it will strengthen us to be 
 patient in well-doing ; for we shall reap if we faint 
 not. There were no signs of a harvest when you cast 
 the seeds into the ground, nor for weeks and months 
 after that. But you believed it would come ; your 
 belief helped you to work and to wait, and you have 
 
 x 2 
 
276 THE NEW COVENANT. [seem. xxxi. 
 
 the fruit of it. So will it be with, every word of God 
 wliicli is cast into the hearts of men. He wlio is the 
 great Husbandman has long patience for the precious 
 fruit of His Son^s trayail and suffering. He calls you 
 to the high honour of being His fellow-workers and 
 fellow- waiters ; that you may enter into His joy when 
 He shall bring back his sheaves with Him. Do not 
 refuse that honour; there is none that can be compared 
 with it. 
 
SERMON XXXII. 
 
 THE LAST SUPPER. 
 
 Preached at Burnham, Morning of the 11th Sunday after Trinity, 
 Augtist 12, 1866. 
 
 " And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake 
 it, and gave it to the disciples, and said. Take, eat ; this is my 
 body. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to 
 them, saying. Drink ye all of it : for this is my blood of the New 
 Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." — 
 St. Matthew xxvi. 26-28. 
 
 You know why I have chosen these words to-day. 
 They speak of the Lord's Supper. They tell us when 
 that feast was first kept, and who first kept it ; what 
 it meant to them, what it means to us when we keep 
 it now. I shall speak to you on each of these points. 
 May God enable us to think of them ! 
 
 I. When it was first kept and who kept it. As He 
 was eating, Jesus took bread. He was eating un- 
 leavened bread and drinking wine at the Feast of the 
 Passover in the city of Jerusalem. The Jews held 
 that feast once every year. It reminded them that 
 their fathers had been slaves to the King of Egypt. 
 It reminded them that the Lord God of their fathers 
 had brought them out of theii' slavery. It reminded 
 
278 THE LAST SUPPER. [seem. 
 
 them tliat He was King over tlieni as He had been 
 over tlieir fathers- 
 Each, family slew a lamb and ate it with bitter 
 herbs. For each family was to recollect what the 
 misery was of being under a tyrant, and what the 
 blessing was of having the gracious God for their King. 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ had gone forth among the 
 Jews and preached the Kingdom of Heaven. He said 
 that in this Kingdom the greatest of all was the 
 servant of all. He made these words good by His 
 acts. His whole life was a service, a service to the 
 poorest people. He healed the sick among them. He 
 delivered them from evil spirits. He said that they, 
 as much as the rich, were citizens of His Kingdom. 
 He called out His twelve Apostles to tell men of the 
 Kingdom of Heaven, and to give the same proofs as 
 He had given, that it was a Kingdom of blessing and 
 deliverance to the sons of men. 
 
 He had come into Jerusalem just before the great 
 Feast. The people had cried, ' This is the Son of 
 David. This is the King who is come ia the name 
 of the Lord.' The rulers of the Jews heard these 
 words. They thought He was going to set Himself up 
 as King during the Passover. Numbers were gathered 
 together there ; they fancied it was just the time He 
 would choose for such a purpose. They determined 
 that it should not be. They must, if possible, seize 
 Him and give Him up to their masters the Romans. 
 They were afraid to do it, for they thought the people 
 were on His side. Just then one of His own Apostles 
 
XXXII.] THE LAST SUPPER. 279 
 
 came to tliem^ and said, ' Give me money and I will 
 betray Him to you.' No one else knew that lie had 
 done it. But our Lord Jesus knew it. He knew that 
 Judas would sell Him, that the priests would have 
 their way, that He should be delivered to the Romans, 
 that He should be condemned, that He should bear the 
 punishment of a slave. 
 
 This was on His mind on that night when He and 
 His Apostles were sitting at the Passover Supper. He 
 said He had greatly desired to eat it with them before 
 He suffered. As soon as they were seated. He said, 
 '^Verily I say unto you one of you shall betray me." 
 His words went home to each of them. Not one 
 said, 'Is it you who will do it ?' but each asked, ''Is it 
 I?" None could tell that the wicked thought might 
 not come to him ; that he might not do the deed. At 
 last Judas said, " Master, is it I ? " And the answer 
 came straight to his ear and his heart, "Thou hast 
 said." 
 
 And, while they were eating, Jesus took bread, and 
 blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to them, and said, 
 "Take, eat, this is my body.'' And He took the cup, 
 and gave it to them, saying, "Drink ye all of it ; for this 
 is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for 
 many for the remission of sins." That was the Lord's 
 Supper. It was first eaten at the Passover Supper of 
 the Jews. It was first eaten by Jesus and his twelve 
 Apostles the night that He was betrayed. 
 
 11. But now, secondly, what did these words mean 
 to those who first heard them ? The Apostles did not 
 
280 THE LAST SUPPEK. [seem. 
 
 know what tliey meant. Jesus was witli tliem at the 
 feast. They could see His body, touch it. His blood 
 was not poured out. But they knew that He spoke no 
 words in vain. The bread was a token from Him. 
 They could but eat it as He bade them. The wine was 
 a token from Him. They could but drink it as He 
 bade them. 
 
 But He went forth from that feast. The officers of the 
 chief priests seized Him. The High Priest condemned 
 Him as worthy of death because He said He was the 
 Son of God. He was delivered to wear the purple 
 robe and the crown of thorns, and then to be crucified 
 for speaking of His Kingdom. All had turned out as 
 He said it would. He was actually buried. The 
 women anointed Him and wept over Him. It seemed 
 as if He had been proved to be no prince or Saviour, as 
 if death had swallowed up all their hopes. Then, on 
 the third day. One stood among the Apostles, and said, 
 " Peace be unto you.-'^ He showed them His Hands 
 and His Side. They believed that death had not 
 conquered Him, that He had conquered death. He 
 said that He was going to His Father and their Father; 
 but that He wonld send His Spirit that they might be 
 able to tell Jews and Gentiles of this Lord who had 
 risen and ascended, and that in His name they might 
 preach remission of sins to all, beginning at Jerusalem. 
 
 Then the Apostles began to know a little what was 
 meant by the words which were spoken at the feast. 
 Then they understood that in the body of the Lord 
 
.XXXII.] THE LAST SUPPER. 281 
 
 Jesus Christ, God was united to men and men to God. 
 Then they understood that His blood was poured out, 
 not for a few disciples, but for all men in all lands. 
 That blood was the seal of a new covenant between 
 God and men that He would blot out their sins and 
 give them a new Life, the Life of Him who died unto 
 sin once, over whom death has no dominion. 
 
 The Apostles were to carry this good news of God's 
 Redemption and Reconciliation of the world every- 
 where. They were to say to men in all lands, ' Christ, 
 and not death, is your Lord. His Father has taken 
 you to be His children, and has given you His Spirit.' 
 But how were they to make people know that they 
 were not merely talking about a Redemption and 
 Reconciliation, that it was an actual real Reconciliation 
 and Redemption for men who could not understand 
 hard words, for men of all tongues and kindreds who 
 used different words ? They took the bread and the 
 wine. They said, ' These our Lord gave to us at 
 the Passover on the night on which He was betrayed. 
 He said to us then, " This is my body which is given 
 for you. This is the New Testament in my blood 
 which is given for many for the remission of sins." 
 Now that He has given up His body on the Cross ; 
 now that He has poured out His blood, now that He 
 has risen from the dead and ascended to His Father's 
 right hand, now that we are permitted to claim you 
 all as the children of His Kingdom, now we know how 
 mighty these words are, now we can bid you one and 
 
282 THE LAST SUPPER. [serm. 
 
 all receive tliese simple pledges and witnesses of Avliat 
 He is, and of wliat He has done for you all, and how 
 He is the elder brother and Head of the whole family 
 in Heaven and earth, _ how He delivers you from all 
 your Tyrants ; how He gives you His Spirit that you 
 may be His free servants/ 
 
 III. y ou see, then, that the Sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper meant very little to the Apostles when they 
 were sitting alone with our Lord at the feast, and His 
 body was visibly with them ; and that it meant every- 
 thing to them when He was gone to His Father, and 
 they could treat all men everywhere as His brethren 
 and their brethren. And this is what it means to us 
 who are invited to partake of it to-day. . It is the 
 assurance of the Redemption and Reconciliation which 
 God has made for us and all mankind in the body and 
 blood of His Son ; it is the assurance that we are very 
 members incorporate in the body of His Son ; it is the 
 assurance that He will give us His Spirit to enable us 
 to do the good works which He has prepared for us to 
 walk in. All this you are told in the Communion 
 Service. I can only repeat its words and say, ' Verily 
 they are true words ; ' we may all believe them and 
 act upon them, we may in the strength of God's Sacra- 
 ment defy the enemies that try to divide us from Him ; 
 our own lusts, aU mortal tempters, all evil spirits. We 
 may claim our place as the servants and children of 
 His Kingdom, we may ask Him to give us power each 
 day to do His will. And then it will be indeed a 
 
XXXII.] THE LAST SUPPER. 28a 
 
 higher and better feast to us than the Passover was to 
 the Jews ; a feast like that which tells us of a God 
 who has broken our bonds asunder ; a feast like that 
 which tells us that He is the King over us ; but a feast 
 which is not limited to one people but which is 
 intended for all, because our Loi'd Jesus Christ is, as 
 St. Paul said, the Head of every man, the Author and 
 giver of Salvation and Life to those who have been 
 most tied and bound by the chains of sin and death. 
 I am not afraid to bid you one and all to it. I know, 
 indeed — the Gospel tells us so — that there was at the 
 first of these Lord's Suppers a Traitor, one whose soul 
 was full of darkness^ and who went forth when he had 
 received the sop to do the darkest deed ever done. 
 But that sop was itself a token of Christ's love to him; 
 because he would not receive it as such a token, because 
 he would not trust that love, he first sold his Master 
 and then hanged himself. That is, indeed, a lesson to 
 us all. Every one may say, should say, " Lord, is it 
 I ? " But every one who does say so should say also, 
 ' Lord, if it is I, by Thy Cross and Thy precious blood, 
 by Thy own infinite Love, raise me out of my selfish- 
 ness and despair. I will not distrust Thee because 
 I distrust myself. I am one of that family for which 
 Thou didst offer Thyself. I claim no higher honour. 
 I covet no separate place. Thou didst give Thy body 
 and blood for the life of the world, let mo partake of 
 them as one of that world. Let me be united to Theo 
 now that I may have Thee as my portion for ever.'' 
 
SERMON XXXIII. 
 
 THE LAW OF LIBERTY, 
 
 Preached at Burnham, Afternoon of the Wth Sunday after Trinity, 
 August 12, 1866. 
 
 " So speak ye; and bo do, as they that shall be judged by the law of 
 liberty." — St. James ii. 12. 
 
 My friends, do you tliink it is liberty for a man to 
 be left to do what he likes ? I do not know any 
 slavery so hard as that, A drunkard does what he likes, 
 and so he becomes utterly unable to govern himself. 
 He does the maddest things. He ruins his wife and 
 children. That comes of a man having his own way. 
 He is di-agged along into courses that he knows to be 
 utterly vile. He says in his misery, 'I could not help it ; 
 my inclinations had the mastery over me.' That is to 
 say, he did what he liked to do, and his likings were 
 the cruellest tyrants over him. There are none so bad, 
 none that treat a man so unmercifully, that beat him 
 and trample upon him so terribly. 
 
 Do you wish to know how we may get the better of 
 these tyrants, let them be ever so savage, even when 
 they have brought us down ever so low ? I beheve the 
 
SERM. xxxui.] THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 285 
 
 Gospel wliicli St. Paul preached to us this morning teUs 
 us the secret. I believe we may learu it from what is 
 said about the law of liberty by St. James this afternoon. 
 
 St. Paul told us that he had a gospel or good news 
 to preach about our Lord's Resurrection. Christ, he 
 says, has risen from the dead ; He won the victory over 
 sin and over death ; He won it for us. If we trust in 
 Him, the battle may be a very sharp one, but we shall 
 prevail in it ; He will be found mightier than all our 
 enemies, yes, mightier than our own inclinations, 
 mightier than death, mightier than hell and the devil. 
 That was the good news which this apostle proclaimed 
 to the people of Corinth who lived in a very loose 
 corrupt city. That is his good news to all of us. 
 
 St. James has good news for us too, though he speaks 
 in a somewhat different way, though he seems as if he 
 were using harsher language. He tells us of a law — a 
 law which God has made for us, a law which it was 
 destruction to disobey. He puts the case very strongly. 
 He says that if we break one part of God's law, we 
 break it all. We cannot make a bargain that we will 
 keep the sixth commandment if we are only allowed to 
 break the seventh or the eighth. That plea, St. James 
 says, will not answer. The same God who bids us not 
 commit murder, bids us not commit adultery ; He will 
 have us submit to Him altogether if we submit at all. 
 But then St. James calls the law which God requires 
 us to obey a law of liberty. How is that ? Because 
 the God who commands us not to kill will enable us to 
 
2S6 THE LAW OF LIBERTY. [sekh. 
 
 overcome the desire to kill^ tlie brutal savage anger 
 tliat miglit set us on to plot against a neighbour's life. 
 Because the God who commands us not to commit 
 adultery or to steal WQuld break the desires that lead 
 us to ruin the character and peace of a neighbour or 
 the goods of a neighbour — that is to say, God -will 
 deliver us from the chains that are strongest upon us, 
 -and that bind us most closely, and that no man is able 
 to undo ; God would make us free. Has not St. James 
 then a right to call this law a law of liberty ? 
 
 " Now," he says, " so speak and so do, as those 
 who shall be judged by this law of liberty." Let us 
 consider how it is possible to follow that precept. 
 
 I. What does the apostle mean by saying that we 
 shall be judged by the law of liberty ? He means that 
 God will not say this to a man, ' Why hadst thou such 
 and such a bad desire/. but this, 'Why didst thou not 
 ask Me to set thee free from the desire, to give thee 
 power over it ? That is what I promised when I told 
 thee not to do this thing and that thing. I know 
 what evil tempers and inclinations are in thee. I 
 know thou canst not prevail against them by any 
 strength which is in thee. But I wanted thee to trust 
 in Me ; to seek My strength when thou wert weakest ; 
 to hope in My power of raising thee when thou wert 
 most utterly down. I did not give thee My law to 
 frighten thee away from Me, but to draw thee to Me, 
 that thou mightest find out what need My children 
 have of Me, that thou mightest understand how near 
 
xxxiii.] THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 287 
 
 I am to tliem all.' Then tliou wilt cry, as David cries 
 in the Psalms, " Judge me, Oh God, and plead my 
 cause against my enemies." ' Thou seest how these 
 bad desires press upon me, how this evil spirit tempts 
 me. Thou understandest my dangers much better 
 than I understand them. But I belong to Thee. Thou 
 hast created me ; Thou hast redeemed me by Thy Son; 
 Thou lovest me for His sake. Support me then against 
 those that rise up against me. Be upon my side, Thou 
 Judge of the whole earth, when I am ready to yield to 
 those oppressors of mine. They are not my lords ; 
 Thou art my Lord. Oh, put them down ! ' If we 
 pray thus, and believe thus, we shall find that we are 
 under a law of liberty ; we shall find that it is a great 
 and blessed thing to have Ond who sees into the 
 depths of our hearts, and judges righteously. 
 
 II. Then, secondly, St. James bids us sj^ealc as if 
 we were to be judged by this law of liberty. Speak to 
 your own hearts as if that were so. Speak to your 
 neighbour as if that were so. Do not say to your heart, 
 * There is no great harm in yielding to this bad habit ; 
 in making myself a beast ; in saying hard, cruel, 
 blasphemous words ; God is so merciful that He will not 
 mind it much.' But say, *God is so merciful, so good 
 to me, that He will not have me make myself a beast; 
 He will not have me use hard and cruel and blas- 
 phemous words. He loves me too well not to forbid my 
 doing that — not to punish me for doing it, not to give 
 me help that I may not do it.' And speak to your 
 
288 THE LAW OF LIBERTY. [seem. 
 
 neiglibour and your cliild in tlie same way. Do not 
 revile liim for tlie wrong tempers you see in Mm, for 
 the evil acts which you see him committing. Own to 
 him that there is in you the same evil which there is in 
 him. Own that you might do just as bad things as he 
 does. But say to him, ' My friend ! God wishes you and 
 me to be free from our evil tempers ; to prevail against 
 them. He has put us under a law of liberty ; He would 
 have us be true men. Let us turn to Him, and He will 
 make us true men. He will enable us to hate the 
 things which He hates, and which are for our ruin, and 
 to love the things which He loves, the things which are 
 for our peace and blessing.^ 
 
 That is spealcing as those who are to be judged by 
 the law of liberty. But St. James adds, " So do ■ as 
 those who are to be judged by it." That he tells us is 
 less easy. We may talk wonderfully well about the 
 goodness of God and our sinfulness, but when the 
 moment comes which shows us how sinful we are, we 
 may not be at all ready for it ; we may stumble miser- 
 ably, just as if there were no good God to hold us up. 
 We do not come here to the church that we may say a 
 great many prayers, but that we may find out what we 
 are to do in those sharp times when no mortal is near, to 
 put us in mind what we should do, when it would be 
 little aid to us if any mortal were near. We come to 
 be told of a very present Helper in our need ; of One 
 who knows our necessities before we ask, and our igno- 
 rance in asking ; of One who declares His almighty 
 
xxxiii.] THE LAW OF LIBERTY. 289 
 
 power most cliiefly in showing' mercy and pity. If 
 there is such an One, if He is the judge of the whole 
 earth and the judge of each of us, we may so do as if 
 there were. When we are not taught that God is our 
 Friend and our Deliverer, we are very apt to think of 
 Him as our enemy and our oppressor; we fancy it 
 would be a good thing to be out of His way ; a good 
 thing to be hidden from Him ; a good thing that He 
 should not be our judge. We learn in church what 
 kind of Being He is ; that He is one in whom we may 
 take refuge ; that we have got very cruel enemies, who 
 are bent upon destroying us, but that He is the God of 
 salvation ; that always ; that to all people. Instead 
 then of turning from Him, our wisdom at every moment 
 is to turn to Him. We may be sure that He does not 
 change, however we may change. We may be sure 
 that we never need a protector against Him ; that we 
 need His protection every moment against a spirit of 
 malice and cruelty that is seeking to devour us. St. 
 James in his first chapter — the one before that we read 
 this afternoon — says a very wonderful thing ; that we 
 are to count it all joy when we fall into different 
 temptations. And he gives the reason for that strange 
 sentence — that by these temptations we are taught 
 faith or trust in God; we find that He makes away 
 for us to escape from our temptations. In the lesson 
 we have heard this afternoon, he teaches us that by 
 this faith in God we are enabled to do what is right and 
 good ; he teaches us that our faith is not worth any- 
 
290 THE LAW OF LIBERTY. [serm. xxxiir. 
 
 thing, that it is not really faith, in the living God 
 unless it leads us to do those things which He works 
 in us to do. 
 
 So you understand -what he means hy bidding us 
 do as those who shall be judged by the law of liberty. 
 He bids us believe in a God who is without variable- 
 ness, or the least shadow of a turning ; a God from 
 whom all good and perfect things come ; a God who is 
 always ready to be our Deliverer in every dark hour. 
 He bids us ask what we have asked to-day in the 
 Litany, 'In the hour of death, in the day of judgment, 
 good Lord deliver us.' Xever doubt that when we 
 prayed so, we prayed according to the will of our 
 Father in heaven. "When we prayed so, we gave up 
 aU right to judge other men, we asked God to judge 
 us all ; we asked Him to give us grace that we might 
 be delivered from our own darkness and come into His 
 light. If we pray that prayer truly we shall not wish 
 that the Lord should not come forth to judge us, we 
 shall cry as the writer of the ninety-eighth Psalm — 
 which we often use in our afternoon service — cries, 
 " Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be 
 joyful together before the Lord; for He cometh to 
 judge the earth. With righteousness shall He judge^ 
 the world, and the people with equity." 
 
SERMON XXXIV. 
 
 THE SURE AND CERTAIN HOPE. 
 
 Preached at Barnham, 13th Sunday after Trinity, August 26, 1866. 
 
 " For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. 
 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death." — 1 Corinthians 
 zr. 25, 26. 
 
 Some of you liave heard these words already, perhaps 
 more than once, during this week. You have heard 
 them in a way that explains them, as no words 
 from a pulpit can explain them. You have seen the 
 cofl&n in the church. You have known that it contained 
 what was mortal of one whom you had seen lately 
 among you, who has exchanged kind greetings with 
 you, whom you have respected and cared for. You saw 
 those mortal remains put into the grave, and you heard 
 the words " earth to earth, dust to dust,^^ pronounced 
 over them. But these came first — " He must reign till 
 all His enemies are put under His feet. The last 
 eneniy that shall be destroyed is Death." 
 
 Yes ; they could not be mere words out of a book 
 when they were spoken then ; they must have concerned 
 actual things which you had to do with, actual persons 
 whom you had conversed with. They were human 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 THE SUBE AXD CEKTAIX HOPE. 
 
 [seem. 
 
 words, words about men and women ; they were Divine 
 words, words coming from tlie Living and Eternal God. 
 
 Thev were not less human words because tber were 
 Divine, not less Divine because they were human, for 
 they speak of Him who is one with God and one with 
 man ; of Him in whom God and man are reconciled. 
 It is said of Him, " He must reign tiU all His enemies 
 are put under His feet." It is said of Him that death is 
 one of those enemies. 
 
 My friends ! we often wish — each of us has wished 
 — that we could know what has happened to some one 
 whom we have loved ; where he or she is : what he or 
 she is doing or feeling when we cannot talk with them 
 any longer, when the veil has dropped between our eyes 
 and them. Would it not be comforting to have some 
 tidings of this person and that ? would it not strengthen 
 US for our work ? should we not be encouraged to follow 
 them ? should we not have some fellowship with them 
 which we have not now ? I do not know, but I think 
 not. I suspect that we have the best tidings about 
 them which we can have, when we hear the assurance 
 in this text ; the greatest strength for all work ; the 
 best encouragement to follow those who have been 
 better than we are ; the most real fellowship with them 
 and with all just men made perfect. 
 
 For I do not find that they fed themselves with 
 dreams of what might come to pass some time or 
 other. They lived upon realities. They liked to think 
 of what had come to pass. They got from the Gospel 
 
XXXIV.] THE SURE AND CEETAIN HOPE. 293 
 
 their most clear and briglit hopes of that which would 
 be, which must be, iu the days to come, ay, in the ages 
 to come. They lived upon the thoughts which St. Paul 
 sets before us in this chapter. " Christ has risen from the 
 dead; Christ is become the first-fruits of them that slept. 
 As ill Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. 
 Christ must reign till all enemies are put under Him." 
 
 Here was their consolation. It did not rest upon 
 guesses or chances, it rested upon One who is, and was, 
 and is to come ; it rested upon a work which He has 
 accomplished, upon a victory which He has won. It 
 grew up iu the hearts of those who were conscious of 
 great sins, of manifold weaknesses; who did not feel less 
 aware of their sins or of their weaknesses as they grew 
 older and nearer the end of their pilgrimage, but more 
 aware of them ; who were therefore obliged to depend 
 more upon the Deliverer from sin, more upon Him in 
 whom is perfect righteousness and strength. They felt 
 their enemies more cruel and harder to overcome every 
 day, but they believed more iu Him who was mightier 
 than their enemies, who would put them under His feet. 
 They learnt more and more that all their confidence 
 must be in Him who had trodden the winepress alone ; 
 that all their life was in Him who had tasted death for 
 all men, who had gone into the grave and had risen out 
 of it. 
 
 Therefore if we would be partakers of their fight, or 
 share in their victory, we should not be asking, 'Where 
 are they ? what are they doing ? ' but we should bo 
 
294 THE SURE AND CERTAIN HOPE. [seem. 
 
 remembering this. Wherever they are, whatever they 
 are doing, that which they believed when they were 
 with us, remains true now ; this must be their comfort 
 and ever increasing delight now that they have cast off 
 the burden of mortality. 
 
 So St. Paul thought ; for it is this he dwells upon 
 throughout this chapter, when he is telling us the source 
 of his own comfort, and when he is most trying to 
 comfort his feUow-men. He does not talk of any 
 special blessings that should come to him because he 
 was an apostle ; because he had laboured more abun- 
 dantly than all ; because he had been carried into the 
 third heaven. He talks of that which was common to 
 him with the Corinthians; common to him with all of us. 
 He speaks of Chi-ist's battle and Christ's victory. That 
 is more to him than anything which he could imagine 
 about himself, after aU his visions and revelations. 
 And yet that, he says expressly, is for the Corinthians, 
 though he complains bitterly of them; he reproves 
 them for not claiming this victory as theirs ; for not 
 assuring themselves that Christ's resurrection was their 
 resurrection, that by it they might rise out of their sins, 
 that by it they might set death at defiance. 
 
 We need not be afraid of following St. Paul, my 
 brethren; we need not suspect that he wUl betray us or 
 lead us into foolish confidence. If he encourages us to 
 trust in Christ, we may be sure that trust is safe, that 
 it will not disappoint us ; that it is what we want, to 
 make us right and true men. 
 
XXXIV.] THE SURE AND CERTAIN HOPE. 295 
 
 Believe tliat Christ wlio died and was buried, is reigii- 
 ino- over us and over the whole creation : believe that 
 He will put all His enemies under His feet; believe that 
 death — the death which we see sweeping away multi- 
 tudes at once, the death which takes away one and 
 another of those we have known, and which will take 
 you and me — will be destroyed by Him ; believe this, 
 I say, really, seriously, and you will find that you have 
 a bond to all those whom you see, and to those whom 
 you do not see, which nothing else can give ; you will 
 not indulge in sin because you have such a hope, but 
 the hope will purify you from sin ; you will not lose 
 your fear of God, you will change the fear of death, 
 which hath torment, for the fear of God, in which there 
 is rest and peace. 
 
 It is this belief, this sure and certain hope, which 
 the Church in its Burial Service seeks to cultivate in us. 
 When people try to rob us of those words which we 
 repeat at the grave of all whom we commit to the dust, 
 or when they would leave it to our poor misei-able 
 judgment, whether we should use them or not, they 
 know not what they are doing. It is not the wrong they 
 would cause to poor mourners which I complain of ; it 
 is not even the temptation they would cause us to break 
 our Lord's commandment, " Judge not that ye be not 
 judged." It is that we should teach you to disbelieve 
 St. Paul's words, to doubt that Christ has actually risen 
 and is actually reigning; to measure His victory by our 
 low and feeble standards. If we are wise we shall never 
 
206 THE SURE AXD CEETAIX HOPE. [serm. xxxiv. 
 
 do that. We shall believe that His work exceeds all 
 ■which we can ask or think ; we shall not shrink from 
 the strange and vronderf ul words, that these vile bodies 
 of ours shall be made like to His sflorious bodv, because 
 we shall know that there is a power in Him which can 
 subdue even all things to itself. Yes, if He can subdue 
 our stubborn wills to Himself ; if he can by His dis- 
 cipline bring our hard unbelieving hearts to trust in 
 Him, it is not too much to think that these frames 
 which are so curiously and marvellously made shall be 
 delivered from their disease and death ; that " this 
 corruptible shall put on incorruption/'' that this "mortal 
 shall put on immortality." But as St. Paul teaches us 
 so continually in this chapter, that which sustains all 
 these expectations is the recollection of Christ, of His 
 death and resurrection — His union with the Father — 
 His union with us His brethren upon earth. If we try 
 to fashion this world or the world to come without Him, 
 both will be very solitary and dreary ; if we look to 
 Him as our fellow-sufierer and our Lord, as our advocate 
 and forerunner, the earth which He has trodden, which 
 He has redeemed, will be full of delight and beauty 
 amidst all its sorrows. And the world unseen into 
 which He has entered will be filled with the brightness 
 of His presence, with the brightness of that innumer- 
 able company which cast their crowns at His feet, and 
 hail Him as the Lamb that was slain, and that has 
 brought them out of every kindred and tribe into His 
 Father's house. 
 
SERMON XXXV. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF KEPENTANCE. 
 
 Preached at Burnham, Morning of the l lth Sunday after Trinity, 
 September 2, 1866. 
 
 " Then went ont to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region 
 round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, con- 
 fessing their sins." — St. Matthew iii. 5, 6. 
 
 Our Lord once asked tlie Jews wliy it was tliat they 
 went in such multitudes into the desert. ' It could not 
 be/ He said, ' to see reeds shaking in the wind ; it 
 must have been to see or hear some man. But what 
 sort of man ? Was it/ He asked, ' one clothed in soft 
 raiment ? Such a man/ He said, ' you might have found 
 in kings' courts, but not in a wilderness. Was it then 
 a prophet,' He said, 'whom you looked for ? Did you 
 think that the man who was clothed in camel's hair and 
 with the leathern girdle about his loins was that ? If 
 you did,' our Lord said, ' you were not mistaken; he was 
 a prophet — he was more than a prophet ; of him it is 
 written — "I will send my messenger before my face ; he 
 shall prepare my way before me." ' 
 
 Let us try then to understand how this plain man 
 showed himself to be a prophet, and how he prepared 
 the way for a greater than he was. 
 
298 THE BAPTISM OF EEPEXTAXCE. [seem. 
 
 He did no strange or wonderful act. He had lived 
 alone in the deserts ; the people in the towns and in 
 the country knew nothing of him. His speech was 
 plain like his dress, and he did not change it to suit the 
 tastes of different people ; he did not speak in one way 
 to the rich, and in another to the poor; he had the 
 same message for all — " Repent, for the Kingdom of 
 Heaven is at hand." 
 
 What did he mean by saying "Repent" ? He meant, 
 * Turn round to a God whom you cannot see, but who 
 knows you ; who know-s what you have been doing ; 
 who knows all your bad ways. Turn to a righteous 
 God, for you have been unrighteous men.'' 
 
 Does that sound like a voice which men of aU kinds 
 and classes, in all different places, would like to hear ? 
 If John the Baptist had brought the tidings of some 
 wonderful thing which they might gaze at or handle, 
 they might have been curious to know what it was, if 
 they even half believed that it was worth seeing. If 
 they were told of a person who was very benevolent, 
 and would give them some treasures, each according to 
 his taste, that might have been a reason for crowds to 
 gather, and to go some distance ; but to hear of One 
 whom they could not see — of One who had not found 
 out some good in them which deserved rewards, but had 
 found out the evil that was with them all — would not 
 they be likely to shrink away from such words ; to go 
 as far as possible from the man who spoke them ? 
 
 But perhaps the other words which he spoke made 
 
XXXV.] THE BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE. 299 
 
 up for what was hard and painful in these. He said — 
 " The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." What did that 
 sentence mean ? It meant that the Bang of Heaven was 
 very near to them, that He was coming to them ; that 
 He would know all that they were thinking as well as 
 what they had been doing. " His fan/' said John the 
 Baptist, " is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge 
 His floor ; He will gather the wheat into His garner, 
 the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable fire." The 
 words — " The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," then, do 
 not sound more cheering than the command " Repent." 
 
 And yet both were cheering ; both were wliat men in 
 that day wanted to hear. ' What ? ' you say ; ' did 
 murderers, and adulterers, and false-swearers want to 
 hear of One who knew all their secrets ; from whom 
 they could not hide themselves any longer ? Yes, my 
 friends. It is a very intolerable thing for a man to 
 hide a bad secret in his heart, to feel that he is a liar. 
 It is the best news, and what you want, to hear you may 
 get rid of that burthen ; you may throw it off ; you 
 may make a clean breast ; you may become a straight 
 and honest man again. If people felt that they might 
 in very deed throw off the load which, is on their hearts 
 — the load of falsehood, the load of treachery — they 
 would be more glad to do it than to get much corn and 
 wine or stores of gold ; for what good do the corn and 
 the wine and the stores of money do a man if he carries 
 a heavy heart within him, if he cannot quit himself of 
 that ? If he can, these things may give much pleasure, 
 
300 THE BAPTISM OP REPENTANCE. [serm. 
 
 or he may go ou very well without them. The only 
 question is this — can any one take this burthen from 
 us ? Is there any one who is willing to take it ? 
 
 Now John the Baptist did not pretend that he could 
 take any single man's burthen from him, that he knew 
 the secret of any man's heart. If he had spoken in his 
 own name some might have heeded him ; but those who 
 did would have gone away disappointed, he would 
 have given them no relief ; they would have heard him 
 preach, and they would have admired him, perhaps, but 
 the preaching would have passed out of their minds ; 
 they would have been the same men as before. But he 
 spoke in the name of the Lord God. He believed Him 
 to be a real Being ; a real searcher of the hearts of the 
 children of men. He believed that God was able to 
 take away the burthen from men's hearts, and that He 
 was willing as well as able to take it away. When he 
 said " Repent," he did not doubt that God was saying 
 it ; that God was in very deed calling men to repent 
 and turn to Him ; that He desired to send away the sins 
 from them which were burthening them and hindering 
 them from being His true servants. John believed that 
 if God called men to repent. He would give them 
 repentance, that He would draw them to Himself. He 
 may have been astonished when he saw such crowds 
 swelling around a poor man like him. He may have 
 said — ' What have I done to move people whom I do 
 not know, whom I never heard of, like this ? ' He 
 may have been astonished, but he will have known very 
 
XXXV.] THE BAPTISM OP REPENTANCE. 301 
 
 well, ' I did uot bi'iug them ; I had no charm to make 
 them follow me. It is God's word that has entered 
 into them. Tlud has laid bare the secrets that they 
 kept hidden ; that has showed them that what they 
 want is light, not darkness, that they want God to be 
 near them, and not far from them. And now He has 
 taught them that He is near them, and not far from 
 them ; that He is not their enemy, but their friend ; 
 that He does not desire their death, but their life ; that 
 He does not wish to destroy them for their sins, but to 
 save them from their sins. He has taught them this, 
 and thei'efore they have come to my baptism.' Here, my 
 friends, are the signs of a prophet — a man who does not 
 speak his own words, but the words of the Lord. But 
 John not only spoke words, he baptized, we are told, 
 for the remission of sins. He gave them a clear sign, 
 a simple sign, that God actually sent away their sins ; 
 that when they turned to Him to make them clean. He 
 did make them clean. It was a sign. The water washed 
 their bodies, God washed their hearts within them ; 
 He took away that which was defiling their hearts, as 
 He had appointed water for taking away that which 
 defiled their bodies. If you ask me what it was that 
 most defiled their hearts, I should answer it was dis- 
 trust. They had not trusted God, therefore they 
 disobeyed Him. Now they trusted Him, they told Him 
 of their disobedience ; they asked Him to make them 
 • what He wished them to be. So they became different 
 men ; their whole mind was changed. The baptism 
 
302 THE BAPTISM OF REPEXTAJSXE. [seem. 
 
 was God's assurance to tliem that He designed to 
 purify them. "When they received it they said — ' That 
 is wliat we need ; we want that above all things/ 
 
 And so the news which John the Baptist brought 
 about the Kingdom of Heaven became good and comfort- 
 able news to them, though he spoke of One coming 
 after him who would purge His floor, and gather His 
 wheat into the gamer, and bum up the chaff. They had 
 begun to know that they needed this kind of winnowing 
 and threshing ; that they had chaff in them which 
 ought to be burnt up ; that if there was any wheat in 
 them, God Himself must nourish it and cause it to 
 grow. And, therefore, if there was One coming who 
 could do what John could not do ; who could baptize 
 them with His Holy Spirit ; who could make all that 
 was good in them to spring up and flourish, and with 
 a fire could destroy all that was bad in them — they 
 might indeed welcome Him as their Prince and Deliverer 
 — the Prince from Heaven — the only one who could set 
 things right on earth. 
 
 John^s message, ' You may repent and turn to God; 
 God calls you to repent and turn to Him;^ was a com- 
 fortable message. The assurance, ' He sends away your 
 sins,^ was a comfortable message. But the message, 
 " There is One coming who will baptize you with the 
 Spirit and with fire," was a more wonderful and divine 
 message still ; it took in both the former. It said — 
 * There is One at hand who will prove that He has come 
 from God, by raling your hearts and turning them to 
 
XXXV.] THE BAPTISM OF EEPENTANCE. 303 
 
 God. There is One coming who will show you how 
 thoroughly God sends away sins/ But it said also — • 
 ' There is One coming who by His Spirit will enable 
 you to love God and love your brethren ; to fight 
 against all that makes you turn from God and hate 
 yonr brethren; yea, to bring forth the fruit of good 
 works with which God will be well pleased.' 
 
 Thus it was that John the Baptist prepared the 
 way for the great Xing' — for the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 My friends, when our Lord had described John as 
 a prophet, yes, as greater than a prophet. He added — 
 "Nevertheless he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven 
 is greater than he." John had said to them, 'The King- 
 dom of Heaven is at hand. The King of Heaven is 
 coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.' 
 Those who lived after the King- of Heaven had appeared, 
 after He had begun to baptize with His Spirit and with 
 fire — would have blessings which John the Baptist had 
 not, which he only expected. And who are those that 
 lived after the King of Heaven had appeared, after He 
 had begun His baptism of the Spirit and of fire ? We 
 are of that number. We say that the Son of God has 
 appeared ; that He has walked and lived among men ; 
 that He has died for them. We say that He has 
 ascended on high ; that He has baptized with His Holy 
 Spirit. We are baptized ourselves, our children are 
 baptized, into the Name of the Father, and the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost. We ask in Christ's name that the Holy 
 Spirit may be renewed in us day by day, that God will 
 
301 THE BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE, [serm. xxxv. 
 
 not take His Spirit from us ; that His Spirit may in all 
 tilings direct and rule our hearts. We ask this for the 
 whole congregation, for the least and the greatest. We 
 live therefore under that wonderful sentence — " He that 
 is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John 
 the Baptist." We have a greater assurance that God 
 will give us repentance ; we have greater encourage- 
 ment to confess all our sins to Him. We have proofs 
 whick John the Baptist did not know, that He will put 
 them away and give us a clean heai't and a right mind. 
 But oh, my friends, what madmen shall we be if, with 
 all these pledges and encouragements to trust our Father 
 in heaven, we distrust; if, with the certainty that He 
 wills to take away our sins, we hug our sins and let 
 them eat into our soals and destroy them; if, when we 
 might have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and reigning 
 over us, we open our hearts to the Evil Spirit, and let 
 him be our master. We are all tempted to do that ; if 
 our blessings are greater than those of the men in the 
 old times our dangers are greater. The only deliver- 
 ance is in coming to God and asking Him to search us 
 and to try us, to see if there be any wicked way in us, 
 to guide us in the way everlasting. From every town 
 and village in England people may come and confess 
 their sins to God, and ask Him to make them right; 
 but if they choose their sins instead of His righteous- 
 ness and truth, they choose misery instead of peace, 
 death instead of life, the kingdom of hell instead of 
 the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
SERMON XXXVI. 
 
 GOD'S COVENANT WITH THE NATIONS. 
 
 Preached at Burnham, Afternoon of the Uth Sunday after Trinity, 
 Septemher 2, 1866. 
 
 " And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every 
 man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto 
 this great city ? Then they shall answer, Because they have 
 forsaken the Covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped 
 other gods, and served them." — Jeeemiah xxii. 8, 9. 
 
 We have read two ctapters of this prophet Jeremiah 
 to-day. You will have perceived that the man who 
 wrote them was a very sorrowful man ; one who was 
 full of grief for what he saw and for what he expected. 
 Why was he in grief for what he saw ? He was an 
 Israelite, one of the race of Abraham. He believed 
 that God had chosen his Nation to be a blessing to 
 all Nations. He believed that it was to tell all 
 Nations, ' There is a righteous Lord governing us and 
 you, and all the world. We cannot see Him, but He 
 has promised to be with us and with our children. 
 He delivered our Fathers out of bondage. He gave 
 them commandments to warn them against the bad 
 acts which would bring them into bondage again. He 
 
 X 
 
306 GOD'S COVENAKT WITH THE NATIONS. [seem. 
 
 is ruling over us and watcliing over us day by day, as 
 a husband watclies over liis wife. And we, wlio are 
 His people, have been forgetting Him ; we have loved 
 things that we can see, and taste and handle, better 
 than Him. We have broken His laws.' Jeremiah saw 
 signs all about him that men were breaking God's laws. 
 They were adulterers ; they were drunkards ; they were 
 false-swearers. And Jeremiah did not say, '^That is 
 nothing to me. I am not as other men are. I am not 
 an adulterer, a drunkard, a false-swearer.' He did 
 Bot say that. It was God's great mercy if he had 
 not yielded to all the temptations to which some of his 
 countrymen yielded. But he felt that his country, the 
 country which he loved, was polluted by the evil things 
 that were done in it. They were dragging it down. 
 They were separating it from God. They were dividing 
 the members of it from each other. So Jeremiah the 
 prophet, however pure he might be himself, felt that 
 these sins were his sins. He could not tear himself 
 from his nation. He was tearing himself from God if 
 he did. God's covenant was with Israel. He was in 
 God's covenant because he was an Israelite. Whatever 
 calamities befell Israel must befall him. 
 
 And what calamities did he expect would befall 
 Israel ? He might not know exactly what they would 
 "be. But he knew for certain such evil as Israelites 
 were committing, would bring their land into misery. 
 The heart was going out of his people. They were 
 losing their courage. They would not be able to face 
 
XXXVI.] GOD'S COVENANT WITH THE NATIONS. 307 
 
 auy enemies that came against them. They were 
 "become distrustf al of each other, for they did not trust 
 God. They were become lazy and restless. They 
 would soon not think it signified much whether they 
 worked or were idle. They were losing hope. So at 
 last they would not care to sow their ground ; for all 
 who sow must sow in hope of a harvest. They would 
 trust to chance to supply them with food. The land, 
 therefore, would go to decay. And, above all, they 
 were losing care for each other. Each felt as if he 
 liad an interest against his neighbour. The rich man 
 coveted his neighbour's wife. The poor man coveted 
 bis neighbour's ox or his ass. Children did not honour 
 their parents ; parents did not care for their children. 
 What would come of that ? Why, if that was so, they 
 were not a people any longer. And therefore when 
 some strong king came upon them with his armies, 
 they would become his prey. For his army would hold 
 together and do its work ; and his people did not hold 
 together, and would not do their work. This, then, 
 Tvas what Jeremiah expected. He knew there was a 
 very powerful king, the king of Babylon, who was 
 watching to swallow up the nations. He was sure that 
 lie would come down on the nation of Israel and would 
 :swallow it up. 
 
 The thought of what the children of Israel were 
 doing, pressed heavily on Jeremiah's mind when he 
 wrote the words which we read this morning ; the 
 thought of what they were about to suffer, pressed 
 
 X 2 
 
308 GOD'S COTENAXT WITH THE NATIONS. [seem. 
 
 heavily on liis mind when he wrote the words we have 
 read this afternoon. Much had happened between 
 these times. They vreve in danger from two great 
 monarchs. One of their kings had been carried into 
 Egypt. Very soon a large portion of the people as well 
 as their king would be taken to Babylon. At last the 
 city of Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed. 
 When all these things had come to pass, Jeremiah 
 supposes that people of other countries would walk 
 through the land of Israel, and see its capital city in 
 ruins, and would say, " Wherefore hath the Lord done 
 this to this great city ? " And this, he says, would be 
 the answer, " Because they have forsaken the Covenant 
 of the Lord, and have worshipped other gods and 
 served them."" The unseen God had bound them to 
 Him ; they had not believed Him, they had chosen 
 the gods they could see instead of Him. There was 
 no strength in these things to save them from their 
 enemies. He who was their true Lord would let them 
 learn by hard punishment what was the fruit of 
 their wilful ways, what comes of forgetting His 
 Commandments. 
 
 And now, my friends, let us ask ourselves why these 
 chapters have been read to us. They speak of things 
 that happened long ago ; they tell us about a people who 
 lived in quite a different part of the world from that in 
 which we live. Why should we in this country, poor 
 as well as rich, hear of what the people of Judaea and 
 Jerusalem did in the days of the prophet Jeremiah, 
 
XXXVI.] GOD'S COVENAKT WITH THE NATIONS. 309 
 
 and of what befell tliem ? It would be tlie idlest thing 
 in the world to read such chapters in this September, 
 1866, to dwellers in the county of Buckingham, if the 
 Lord God of Israel were not also the Lord God of 
 England ; if His commandments to Israelites in the old 
 time were not His commandments to Englishmen in 
 this time ; if He were not our King as He was their 
 Bang ; if He were not the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 for ever. It would be quite idle to read these chapters 
 to you, if you were not tempted to do just what the 
 Israelites did ; to forget the Lord your God, the righteous 
 God of your land ; to break His commandments which 
 they broke. It would be idle to read these things to 
 you if these transgressions of God's law did not threaten 
 to ruin the good laud which the Loi'd our God has given 
 us, as much as they threatened to destroy the good land 
 which the same Lord God gave to the children of Israel. 
 But if that is so, then we ought to give good heed to the 
 words of the prophet, and to consider whether we should 
 not do just what he bade them do ; just what — as you 
 heard this morning — John the Baptist bade them do 
 many hundred years after. 
 
 My friends, you will ask what covenant the Lord 
 our God has made with us in England which answers 
 to the covenant which He made with the Jews. I 
 told you what this was a few Suudays ago, or rather 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews told you. It is said that 
 this is God's new covenant, " I will put my laws in 
 your hearts, and in your mind will I write them, and 
 
310 GOD'S COVENANT WITH THE NATIONS. [szrm. 
 
 you sLall he my people, aud I -will be your God.^' It 
 is a new covenant ; a better covenant than that which 
 God made with the Jews, because God does not merely 
 say to us, ' Keep my commandments ; ' but He says, 
 ' I will give you my Holy Spirit that you may keep 
 them/ But the commandments which He bids us keep 
 are the veiy same. He bids us worship Him who is 
 the Deliverer out of bondage, and Him only. He bids 
 us set up no likenesses of things in heaven or earth, or 
 under the earth, but worship Him. He bids us not 
 take His Holy name in vain. He bids us keep His 
 days of rest and work. He bids us honour our fathers 
 and mothers. He bids us not kill, or commit adultery, 
 or steal, or bear false witness, or covet. The command- 
 ments are the same as ever. And every neglect of 
 these commandments by Englishmen defiles England, 
 makes the country weaker and more slavish ; separates 
 us from God, and separates us from each other. And 
 when people grow indifferent to these commandments ; 
 when they think, ' God is not really speaking* to us. 
 He does not care whether we obey Him or not. He does 
 not care whether we do light or wrong,' then it fares 
 with us as it fared with the Jews ; we cease to be a 
 strong people, a united people, a wise and understand- 
 ing people in the sight of the nations; we become 
 weak and divided and foolish. And though none of us 
 may know in what way God will bring us down, and 
 show us what the misery is of breaking His command- 
 ments and trampling upon His law, we may be sure 
 
XXXVI.] GOD'S COVENANT "WITH THE NATIONS. 311 
 
 He will take some way. And wliatever it is, we must 
 all sliai'e the suffering togetlier. It is very bad for 
 any of us wlio says, ' I am not my brother's keeper, I 
 am not a skarer in his wrong doing. My bands are 
 clean.' It is very bad, because if we understand that 
 we are all Englishmen, all God's people, all under 
 His righteous and gracious government, we should 
 feel that we could not divide ourselves from our 
 countrymen, that God has meant us to be one 
 people, and that we cannot be serving Him or doing 
 righteously when we do not bear each other's burdens, 
 and grieve for each other's sins, and feel that they 
 are in very deed our own. None of us feel that as 
 we ought j but the more we feel it the more we shall 
 have of the mind of Christ, the more we shall under- 
 stand what it means that He bore the sins of us all in 
 His own body on the tree ; the more we shall under- 
 stand that in Him we are united to all the members of 
 our Nation, and to all mankind. It is not a hard sen- 
 tence that we should bear other men's griefs and feel 
 their sins in a little measure, if that was what He did, 
 who is the Head and Brother of us all ; if so He did 
 His Father's will, and performed His Father's work. 
 But if we feel each other's sins, we ought to be desiring 
 to raise each man out of his sins ; to make him a true 
 Englishman and a true man. We ought to be telhng 
 him that he need not be a drunkard, need not be a liar, 
 need not let corrupt communications go out of his 
 mouth, that there is a Lord who died and rose again 
 
312 GOD'S COTEXAXT WITH THE XATIOXS. [szrm. xxxti. 
 
 to set liim. free from all liis sinSj and tliat there is a 
 Holy Spirit wlio Tvill lielp liim to conquer them all. 
 We should be asking for ourselves and all our people, 
 what we have asked to-day, that God will give us the 
 increase of faith, hope, and charity ; that is to say, 
 that He will teach us to believe in Him our righteous 
 Lord and Saviour, to hope in Him who has promised 
 to give us His righteousness and His Eternal Life ; to 
 be charitable with that infinite charity which His 
 Spirit is willing to shed abroad in om' hearts. Then 
 we shall ' love the things which God commands ; ' we 
 shall feel how good it is for us all to be under His 
 government ; how holy and wise His laws are ; then 
 we shall obtain that which He doth promise ; for He 
 promises that we shall know Him and be like Him. 
 
 That is the covenant which He has made with us 
 in Christ. If we hold fast to that covenant, it wiU go 
 well with us and with our seed after us. We shall be 
 true citizens of oui' land, and God wiU bless our land 
 and cause His face to shine upon it. But if we refuse 
 His covenant, if we will not let Him govern us, people 
 hereafter will say of this good and glorious land, 
 ' Wherefore has all this evil and misery and ruin 
 come upon it ? ' and then the answer will be, ' Because 
 they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord then- 
 God, because they have worshipped other gods, their 
 money, their pleasures, their malice, and served them." 
 
SERMON XXXVII. 
 
 LIFE AND RAIMENT. 
 
 Preached at Burnham, 15th Sunda]/ after Trinity, September 9, 1866. 
 
 " Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye 
 shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body what 
 ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body 
 than raiment ? " — St. Matthew vi. 25. 
 
 Our Lord spoke these words to His disciples who 
 were poor men, men that had to work for their liveli- 
 hood. Do you think He told them that they need not 
 work, that they might fold their hands and go to 
 sleep, that God would take care of them if they did ? 
 Do you think He meant to say, ' You need not provide 
 for your children ; may spend what you have got, just 
 as you like ' ? No, my friends. He meant nothing of 
 this kind. He wished these poor people to work more 
 diligently than before. He wished them to be less 
 hindered in their work. He wished them to think 
 more of their children than they had ever thought ; to 
 be wise men and not spendthrifts. Let us consider 
 what He had said just before. He spoke of their food 
 and their clothing, their lives and their bodies — you 
 heard me read it a few moments ago. 
 
314 LIFE AND RAIMENT. [seem. 
 
 "Ye cannot," He said, "serve two masters; " tlaat 
 is, two masters of opposite minds, two masters tliat 
 bid you do different things. And He tells them who 
 the two masters are that had two opposite minds, and 
 would bid them to do different things. " You cannot 
 serve God and Mammon." 
 
 He had been declaring to them the great message, 
 ' God is your Father.' When you pray to Him, say, 
 " Oar Father which art in Heaven.'' 
 
 He said they must trust Him for all that they 
 wanted. They might ask day by day for their daily 
 bread. They might ask Him to forgive them their 
 sins. They might ask Him not to lead them into 
 temptation. They might ask Him to deliver them 
 from evil. He was willing to do all these things for 
 them ; they should not doubt or fear that He was. 
 
 And what made them doubt or fear that He would 
 do these things ? They did not really believe Him to 
 be their Father. They did not give Him credit for 
 feeling to them as a Father feels to His children. 
 They thought He had a grudge against them. How 
 came they to have such a notion ? Because they were 
 in their hearts worshipping Mammon ; that is to say, 
 a covetous god ; a god who wants things for himself, 
 a god who seeks to get and not to give. What made 
 them dream of such a god as that and worship him ? 
 They dreamt of him because he was like themselves; 
 they were covetous ; they wanted to get and not to give. 
 So they made a god who was such an one as they 
 
XXXVII.] LIFE AND EAIMENT. 315. 
 
 were. Tliey miglit make no image nor picture of 
 him ; but they worsliippecl liim in tlieir liearts all tlie 
 same. 
 
 Now our Lord said, ' This you cannot do if you 
 worship your Father in Heaven. You cannot have 
 both these Gods for your masters. You will hate one 
 if you love the other ; if you will hold to the one you 
 will despise the other. You Avill hate the covetous 
 god if you love the good and gracious Father. If 
 you will hold to the covetous god you will despise the 
 true God.' 
 
 But what is it to serve the covetous god? It is 
 this. If I am fretful and anxious about what I shall 
 eat and drink, and how I shall be clothed, I fancy 
 that I am his subject. I act as if he, this grudging 
 covetous god, were my master. And what is it to serve 
 the Father in Heaven ? If I woi-k without fear or 
 anxiety, believing that there is One over me who knows 
 what I am doing, and takes an interest in it, and de- 
 sires that my work should be healthy and profitable, 
 then I am serving my Father in Heaven ; then I am 
 acting as if He were my Master. 
 
 Now, you all know very well that men do not work 
 better for being fretful and anxious ; they work much 
 worse ; after a time they are not able to work at all. 
 Then instead of being more decently clothed they be- 
 come ragged ; instead of having more tidy houses, and 
 more wholesome food, the houses become dirty and the 
 food bad; instead of providing more for their children. 
 
316 LIFE AND RAIMENT. [seem. 
 
 their cliildren starve. Oar Lord wished to save His 
 disciples from this. He wishes to save us from this. 
 And so He says to them and to us, ' Eemember AVho 
 your true Master is. Let no one persuade you that 
 you have any other than my Father in Heaven ; than 
 Him Who sent me on earth to deliver you from all bad 
 gods; than Him of Whom I — who go about doing 
 good — am the perfect likeness ; than Him Whose will 
 is at all times and in all places to do you good.' Assure 
 yourselves every morning when you wake, ' He 'and 
 He only is my master.' Say to yourselves, ' We will 
 not have the covetous god for our Lord. This is our 
 Lord. He will be our Lord for ever and ever. He is 
 our children's Lord. He will be their Lord for ever 
 and ever.' 
 
 That is the purpose of all oar Lord's teaching in 
 the Sermon on the Mount, of which you have heard a 
 part to-day. He made known to His disciples. He 
 makes known to us, what He is Who created us, what 
 He is Who governs us. They were apt to say, and we 
 are apt to say, ' Oh no, that cannot be our Master. 
 That is too good news to be true. It cannot be that 
 we have actually, at all times, a Father in Heaven Who 
 does not forget us. Who never becomes indifferent to 
 us. Who never ceases to desire our good, and to con- 
 trive good for us.' And our Lord answers, ' Yes, but 
 it is true, wonderful as it is ; true to the very letter, 
 more true than words can tell you or than you can 
 imagine.' But then you may say, ' Yesj- perhaps He 
 
xxxvii.] LIFE AND RAIMENT. 317 
 
 cares about great tilings, but uot about little. He may 
 care tliat we should be wise and good, but He will not 
 care whether we have food and raiment.' He does 
 care, no doubt, first of all, that you should be wise and 
 good. Doubt not that He does. And doubt not that 
 He will enable you to be what He wishes you to be. 
 Ask for that and you will have it ; seek and you will 
 find it. 'But why,' says our Lord, 'should you fancy 
 that He does not care about your food ? Look at these 
 birds that are flying in the air. Could they get food 
 if He did not provide them food ? if He did not give 
 them power to seek the food, and did not make them 
 fit to receive the food ? Why should you fancy He 
 does not care about your clothing ? Look at these 
 lilies in the gardens, or at any of the flowers in the 
 hedgerows. Would they, any of them, have their 
 beautiful clothing — so much more beautiful than any 
 that man ever weaves, or than any king has ever worn 
 — if He did not clothe them ? See what care He takes 
 of the commonest of His creatures. And do you 
 think He does not care more for men, whom He has 
 formed in His own likeness ; whom He has sent His 
 own Son to claim as his brethren?' 
 
 That will explain why He bids you take no thought 
 for your life. If we are fidgety and restless about it, 
 we shall do ourselves no good. But if we trust it with 
 God, then we shall go manfully forth to do all that we 
 have to do, knowing that we are safe in His hand. 
 Then we shall say to ourselves, ' Well, He has given us 
 
318 LIFE AND EAIilEXT. [seem. 
 
 this wonderful life -witliin us. How much more that 
 is than the food which nourishes it ! But since our life 
 wants food to support it^ He will surely let us have 
 that. He will give us strength to labour for it, which 
 is better than if it dropped into our mouths. He has 
 given us these curious bodies ; how much more curious 
 they are than the very finest clothes we can put on 
 them ! But since they want clothing, He will enable 
 •us to obtain that. He has greater designs for us than 
 for the birds and the lilies, so He will not treat us as 
 He treats them ; He will treat us more generously, more 
 considerately. He will call out a faith, and hope, and 
 love in us, which they cannot have. He will bring us 
 often in what seem very hard ways, by great sorrows, 
 to this trust and hope and love. It is worth while. 
 We shall find it so at last. The clothes and food will 
 have done their work and will perish. The faith and 
 hope and love will abide for ever. They will bind us 
 to those that have gone before us, and to those that 
 shall come after us. They will bind us to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and to God our Father through all ages.' 
 And it is, my friends, that God Who invites us this day 
 to eat of that food which sustains our spirits. He 
 wants them to live and not die. He wants them to be- 
 lieve Him and trust Him and love Him. And thus He 
 enables them to do it. He says, ' I have given My Son 
 to suffer and die for you aU, for the whole world. 
 Remember that love of Mine, that love which He 
 showed forth in His death.' Feed upon that in your 
 
xxxvii.] LIFE AND RAIMENT. 319 
 
 hearts. Tliere is notliing like it. Angels and Arcli- 
 angels feed upon it. Poor men and women may feed 
 upon it with them. It will never wear out. And you 
 need not take thought or be anxious about this food 
 more than the other. We cannot earn it. God gives 
 it. He sends you this simplest sign and token how real 
 it is, and that He would have all partake of it together. 
 He bestows it freely ; we receive when we give Him 
 thanks for it. 
 
SEEMOX XXXVIII. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF GOD. 
 
 Preached at Stoie Bishop. 
 
 " Make not My Fathei-'s house an house of merchandise." 
 St. John ii. 16. 
 
 Tou have heard these words in the lesson for this 
 moiTiing. If you understand them I think they will 
 tell you what this Church testifies of, why it has been 
 set apart from the buildings round about itj what it 
 may do for those who worship in it, and even for those 
 who see it as they pass. 
 
 Every Xation had its temples ; these temples spoke 
 to the Xation of a Being higher than themselves ; these 
 temples said that men might hope by prayers and 
 sacrifices to approach these Beings, to make them hear 
 their prayers and do what they desired. The Jewish 
 temple said to those who worshipped in it — ' The God 
 who made the heaven and earth; the God Avhom no 
 man hath seen or can see, has chosen your fathers to 
 know Him, and to bear witness of Him. Tou did not 
 seek for Him, He sought for you. He has desired you 
 
SERM. XXXVIII.] THE HOUSE OF GOD. 321 
 
 to know that He is uot like tlie things which you see 
 and handle ; that these are given you to rale and to 
 use ; that He is the Lord your God, the Lord of your 
 hearts and reins ; the guide of your thoughts, desires, 
 hopes ; He who shows you what is right and what is 
 wrong ; He who gives you hands to war and fingers to 
 fight ; He who puts down the oppressor and exalts the 
 oppressed. In that character above all others He 
 reveals Himself to you. He brought your fathers, 
 when they were a set of poor slaves, out of the land of 
 bondage. He led them through the wilderness. He 
 gave them the land in which they dwelt. And ever 
 since, when they have remembered Him, the unseen 
 God, and have trusted in Him as their Redeemer and 
 their King, they have been a brave, free, united 
 people ; though they have been insignificant in their 
 numbers and in outward power, they have been able 
 to teach the Nations round about them who the Lord 
 of the whole earth is, and to raise their thoughts above 
 those idols to which they were bowing down, and to 
 show them that Righteousness is supreme over all, 
 and that all unrighteousness must be put down at 
 last. 
 
 'And when, they have forgotten Him, when they 
 have thought that they were not His people and that 
 He was not their Redeemer and King, or that He was 
 only the Redeemer and King of their forefathers, and 
 had ceased to care for them, then they have become 
 weak, cowardly, divided, superstitious; then they have 
 
322 THE HOUSE OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 begun to bow down like the other people before the 
 works of their own hands, and to think they could 
 bribe the beings they worshipped to deal falsely, to let 
 transgressions go unpunished, to favour the ill-doers, 
 and to make good evil and evil good ; and so instead 
 of being teachers of the Nations, they have caused 
 God's name to be blasphemed among the Nations. 
 And the Nations have despised them, and trampled 
 upon them, and they have become slaves as they were 
 before in the land of Egypt.' 
 
 The temple had borne this testimony to past 
 generations of Jews. The testimony was all the 
 stronger to the Jews who were living in the days of 
 Herod, because that was not the temple which Solomon 
 had built. The unbelief and corruption of the people 
 had caused the destruction and overthrow of that. The 
 goodly building in which they were worshipping then, 
 reminded them that no building could do anything for 
 them if they did not understand the purposes for which 
 it existed, if they were insincere and heartless. They 
 thought they had learnt the lesson, for they were not 
 bowing to foreign idols as their ancestors had done. 
 They gloried in their separation from the other peoples 
 of the earth. They rejoiced that they knew the true 
 Ood, and the way of serving Him. But they did not 
 know the true God, and they were not serving Him. 
 
 There was an idol in that very temple — an idol 
 which they had with them in their houses and by the 
 wayside. They were worshipping their gold. That 
 
xxxviii.] THE HOUSE OF GOD. 323 
 
 was dearer to tliein than all things in heaven and 
 earth. And, therefore, they could not believe in an 
 unseen God who had redeemed them from the service 
 of visible thing's, and had made them His people. 
 Visible things had dominion over them — more com- 
 plete dominion than they had over any generation of 
 those who had gone before them — and the necessary 
 effect had followed. They were not instruments of 
 good to the heathen people, they were instruments of 
 evil. These people found them more grasping, more 
 covetous than themselves. They thought their religion 
 taught them to be grasping and covetous. The people 
 saw that their religion did not unite them, but set 
 them quarrelling with each other ; that they were 
 divided into sects and parties ; that they had no 
 strength to resist wrong or to do right. And so the 
 same consequences followed as of old. These Jews 
 had fallen into slavery. They had first become slaves 
 in their own hearts, then the Romans took from them 
 all their outward freedom. 
 
 The oxen and cattle and sheep, and the changers of 
 money who were sitting in the temple, were signs of 
 this state of things. They were tokens how the trade 
 spirit had got the mastery over them, and how little 
 they were able to get rid of it even when they came 
 into the building which they counted the most sacred 
 of all. But now One stood up in that building. One 
 whom they were told was a Galilean, who walked about 
 the streets with fishermen for His friends, who went 
 
 T 2 
 
324 THE HOUSE OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 among' publicans and sinners. And He made a scourge 
 of small cords, and drove the oxen, and the sheep, and 
 the changers of money out of the temple, saying — 
 " Take these things hence ; make not my Father's 
 house an house of merchandise." 
 
 " My Father's house ! " Think how these words 
 must have sounded in the ears of those who were 
 assembled there ! This man of Nazareth dares to call 
 the Maker of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, 
 and Isaac, and Jacob, His Father. But we do not 
 speculate about the way in which such language may 
 have afiected the Jewish people. We know how it did 
 affect them. The gospels — this gospel of St, John 
 especially — tell us that. They called Him a blasphemer. 
 This was what made what He did and said so dreadful 
 in their eyes. He declared that He had come down 
 from heaven to do a Father's Will. He was showing 
 them by His own acts and words what that Father 
 was ; what His mind was ; what His purposes to men 
 were. In every message to publicans and sinners, 
 in every warning to Scribes and Pharisees, in every 
 parable, in every miracle for the hungry or the sick, 
 this great pretension was involved. He had come to 
 claim men as His brethren. He had come to redeem 
 them from the service of the world and of their own 
 lusts, that they might be the children of the living and 
 righteous and eternal God. For this He was arraigned 
 before Caiaphas ; for this He was condemned to die. 
 The other charge, ' He has made Himself a King,' was 
 
XXXVIII.] THE HOUSE OF GOD. 325 
 
 the plea on wkicli He was delivered to the Romans. 
 That was the charge which caused him to be crucified 
 instead of being stoned. But] the chief priests and 
 scribes regarded the first as the real crime ; the other 
 as consequent upon ^t. 
 
 We believe that the Jewish temple fell again, fell 
 finally, because those who worshipped in it would not 
 acknowledge that there was One upon earth, born of a 
 woman, who had a right to say, ' This is my Father's 
 house. This house exists to testify that the God of 
 aU has sent me to redeem you into the state of 
 children.' We believe that when the Jewish priests 
 had refused this message for their nation, it went forth 
 to all nations ; that Greeks, Romans, Germans, Gauls, 
 Britons, were told, ' God has sent His Son, made of a 
 woman, made under the law, that you may receive the 
 adoption of sons.' We believe that when the temple 
 of their own nation had fallen, the churches in all the 
 different nations rose up to proclaim this as the great 
 gospel to mankind. And every new church that is 
 reared in any neighbourhood, carries this testimony 
 with it to that neighbourhood. It repeats Christ's own 
 proclamation. It says this is His Father's house ; the 
 Father of the Son of Man ; therefore, 0 sons of men, 
 it is the house of your Father ! In Him God looks 
 upon you as His children. In Him you may one and 
 all say, " Our Father." 
 
 My brethren, it is this witness and no other, which 
 this church is meant to bear unto you. For this work 
 
326 THE HOUSE OF GOD. [seem. 
 
 it Tvas consecrated, or set apart from ordinary housea. 
 It vras not that those liouses, the houses in which you 
 dwell, the houses in which your fathers dwelt, in which 
 your children may dwell after you, might be less dear 
 and sacred in your eyes. It was that they might be 
 more dear and sacred ; that you might understand 
 how blessed they are. The father of the family, the 
 hearth, and the household, receive a fresh consecration 
 where there is a house in which the gi'eat Father, the 
 Father of the whole family in heaven and earth is 
 woi^hipped. Each English household belonging to 
 the richest man and the poorest man, becomes then 
 not a mere isolated house ; but all its own holy memo- 
 ries, all its trials, and sorrows, and joys, all that binds 
 it to the past and to the future, become joined to 
 those of every other. The family relations and afEec- 
 tions which are so apt to become isolated, to cut us oS 
 from those who have been brought up in circumstances 
 and under an education different from our own, all 
 are so many ties of common citizenship and common 
 fellowship. 'SVe cannot spare one of them. Our 
 Heavenly Father has ordered each one of these human 
 relationships ; they are images of Has divine relation- 
 ship. He has inspired every one of these human 
 affections. They come forth out of His universal and 
 all-embracing love. So again, the consecration of 
 churches is the consecration of all that we caU our 
 national duties and obligations. I have shown you 
 how the Jewish nation fell into debasement and 
 
XXXVIII.] THE HOUSE OF GOD. 327 
 
 slavery. At one time, as much as at another, the 
 cause was the same. The visible things which were 
 given them to use as their servants, became their 
 masters. In the earlier ages of their commonwealth, 
 the temptation came through the sun and the stars 
 which showed them the seasons when they were to 
 sow and reap, through the animals which worked for 
 them. They supposed that God must be like some of 
 these. In the later times of the commonwealth, it 
 came from the trade spirit. Their buying and selling 
 absorbed their whole souls. To both periods the 
 description of their own prophet is equally applicahle 
 " They forgat God their Eedeemer." And in for- 
 getting Him they forgot their manhood. The noble- 
 ness and freedom which belongs to men cannot remain 
 when they are busy only about things that are beneath 
 them, things that they can hold and grasp, things that 
 are changing and perishing every hour, things that 
 one man has and another wants. When these things 
 get the mastery over us, when our thought is how we 
 can get the most of them, how we can best exchange 
 one of them for another, we do not lose our religion, 
 but it becomes a trading, bargaining religion; a 
 religion like that we read of in the Bible, of the 
 nations who worshipped at hill altars, who cried and 
 cut themselves with stones to make their gods hear. 
 It ceases to be the worship of a Deliverer and a 
 Father; it becomes the worship of superstitious 
 slaves, not of courageous men. Every church stands 
 
328 THE HOUSE OF GOD. [serm. 
 
 up to bear witness against sucli a religion as tliis. It 
 stands up to say to prince and peasant^ to him wlio 
 has no house and to him who has one, 'The Father 
 who is rich in grace and goodness, who so loved the 
 world that He sent His only begotten Son to save it, 
 has given this land to you all to keep it and till it 
 and impi'ove it for Him. All your works and toils as 
 professional men, tradesmen, or handicraftsmen, are 
 given you by Him. All are honourable and precious 
 in His sight. There is nothing so great, nothing so 
 mean, but that He cares for it, and will make it 
 minister for your good. Evil and misery and base- 
 ness come when your Father's house comes to be 
 regarded as a house of merchandise. Evil and misery 
 and baseness come when you forget that the God of 
 heaven and earth cares that you should be right and 
 true men, that you should know His name and show 
 forth His image.' 
 
 Brethren ! for the sake of the houses of merchan- 
 dise — for the sake of that trade and commerce with 
 which God has blessed this land, and which may be 
 unspeakable blessings to it — I rejoice to see these 
 houses rising up which are not houses of merchandise, 
 but witnesses of a Father. Our trade and commerce 
 have grown up through the toil and suffering of enter- 
 prising noble men, who have had courage to face 
 dangers and wisdom to guard against them. Do not 
 think that such courage and wisdom will remain to us 
 if we become mere money worshippers. That worship 
 
ixxviii.] THE HOUSE OF GOD. 329 
 
 makes us fear where no fear is. It gives men no nerve 
 in hours of peril. It takes away their foresight and 
 makes them reckless gamblers. But what can take 
 away fear and cowardice, but this behef that you cannot 
 go out of the reach of His government who walked the 
 waves, and healed sicknesses, and delivered from death ; 
 that death and the grave and hell have been visited 
 by Him who gave Himself for us, and that He came 
 back the conqueror of them all, to say, " I ascend to my 
 Father and your Father, to my God and your God " ? 
 What can be a motive and encouragement to men to 
 plant colonies in new lands, or to work as the servants 
 of the Queen in governing, educating, civilising any 
 races who have been committed to our sceptre, like 
 this, that wherever we go we may bear witness of a 
 Father who claims men of every tribe and colour as 
 His children, that wherever we go we may bear the good 
 news that the earth is His and the fulness thereof; and 
 that He is not a Destroyer but a Redeemer and Life- 
 giver ; not the favourer of any caste or nation but the 
 Righteous Judge of all ? Every act of mercy which 
 our higher science is able to accomplish for sufferers 
 from sickness, becomes a witness for God ; so the 
 work of every magistrate becomes a witness for 
 Him equally ; so commerce as it extends the bonds of 
 fellowship between lands, and shows how one can give 
 what another lacks, bears a witness no less mighty and 
 effectual. And those who have been doing works in 
 distant lands may return to their own, and find again 
 
330 THE HOUSE OF GOD. [seem. 
 
 that whicli lias told tliem in infancy of a Father, stil'I 
 telling of Him in their manhood or old age, reminding 
 them that they were signed with the sign of the Cross 
 and marked out as God's children and servants ; giving 
 sacredness to their early lives and their marriage vow, 
 giving them a sure and certain sign that there is a 
 resurrection to Eternal Life for them that have fallen 
 asleep, and whose places on earth know them no more. 
 So all the stages of our earthly life on to the last are 
 consecrated ; so every beautiful spot in nature as well 
 as all the forms of art share in the same consecration, 
 and have that one name of 'Father' illuminating 
 them all. 
 
 My brethren, I have not thought it necessary to 
 show you that the church in which we worship has any 
 distinctive claim to your affection, because I believe 
 that I am but recalling to your memories what has 
 made it dear to you, when I dwell on the great universal 
 characteristic. When you enter the church the first 
 words tell you of a Father to whom you arise and go ; 
 the next tell you that you may come to Him though 
 you have forgotten that you are His children, and 
 have erred and strayed from His ways ; the next how 
 He pardons and absolves you, to the intent that you 
 may join with His whole family in heaven and earth 
 in saying " Our Father." That Name meets you 
 everywhere, goes through every prayer and thanks- 
 giving and act of adoration. There is not a sentence 
 but declares to us the love of Him who sent His only 
 
XXXVIII.] THE HOUSE OF GOD. 331 
 
 begotten Son to take oui' nature, and tlirougli that Son 
 bestows on us His Spirit, that we may know and 
 worship the Father and the Son in the unity of that 
 Spirit, world without end. These are the signs that we 
 meet not to glorify our own opinions or our own sect, 
 but to claim all the citizens of the land, rich and poor, 
 as the children of one Father, heirs of one Hope ; to 
 warn them that all their misery now, all their misery 
 hereaftei*, will come from not trusting Him, from not 
 believing that He has reconciled them, from living as 
 exiles and strangers when He has brought them nigh ; 
 from selling themselves to be slaves when He has 
 redeemed them to be freemen. 
 
 I believe that this is a testimony which the great 
 merchant city that is so near us needs, which the whole 
 land needs, which mankind needs, which each of us 
 needs. Therefore, I beseech you that you will bring 
 some of the fruits of that merchandise which may else 
 turn to the injury of your civic life and your national 
 life, which may be a canker to eat up your nobler 
 inward life, which may make you less of Englishmen, 
 less of men, to the support of this house which speaks 
 of a Father who will make the gold and sUver, and the 
 stone and the iron and wood, all to serve for the good 
 and glory of His creatures, and who will make those 
 creatures themselves into a more glorious temple in 
 "which He Himself will dwell for ever and ever. 
 
SERMON XXXIX. 
 
 ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. 
 
 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear 
 we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His 
 coining." — 1 St. John ii. 28. 
 
 These words are fit for St. Jolin's Day if any in tlie 
 Bible are. They were written by St. Jonn ; they 
 were meant for those among whom St. John dwelt. 
 They show us the very mind and heart of St. John, and 
 they belong to Christmas time if any words in the Bible 
 belong to it. They tell us what the meaning of 
 Christmas day is ; how we have and may have the 
 blessing for which we ask in the collect that we repeated 
 on Friday, and have been repeating again this evening ; 
 and they are words for the last Sunday in the year if 
 any in the Bible are. They make known to us what 
 has been the error of one and of all of us in the year 
 that is going ; they make known to us what we want 
 and may have in the year that is coming, and in all the 
 years that we are to spend on earth, and when we have 
 left the earth. 
 
 St. John was a very old man when be wrote these 
 
SERM. XXXIX.] ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. 333 
 
 words. They sound like tlie words of a fatker, and no 
 doubt he felt like a father to all who were about him — 
 rich and poor — to all to whom he had spoken concern- 
 ing Christy to all who had been baptized into Christ's 
 Name. 
 
 Sometimes he says ' my little children/ but he does 
 not say so here. I am not sure that he meant it ; I 
 think it was far more in his mind that all to whom he 
 was speaking were God's children, redeemed by Him 
 from their enemies, owned by Him as His sons and 
 daughters. 
 
 St. John was soon to go out of this world ; most of 
 his friends had gone already. Those who had heard his 
 voice were to hear it no more ; those who had looked 
 up at his venerable face^ and loved to see him smile, 
 were to see him no more. But his words were to hve 
 on ; he himself was to live on. His words were to be 
 heard in distant parts of the earth, in countries which 
 he did not know, in languages very unlike that which 
 he spoke. And the words would not be mere words in 
 a book ; he himself would speak the words ; he, the 
 man who leaned on Christ's breast at supper ; he, the 
 man who heard Christ saying after he had ascended on 
 high, " I am the first and the last, the beginning and 
 the end." 
 
 Wherever in any part of the world there is a congre- 
 gation of Christian men met together on this day, he is 
 saying to them^ ' You are God's little children.' Some 
 of them may be grown men, some of them may be 
 
334 KT. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. [serm, 
 
 stepping into tlieir graves full o£ years. Still tlieyare 
 in the siglit of God little cliildren. How few the years 
 of the oldest of them have heen in comparison with 
 the ages in which the world has lasted, and how few in 
 comparison with the ages upon ages in which He has 
 lived. They would be little children just beginning a 
 life that was to go on through His ages. So it was with 
 those who saw St. John ; so it is with us who are here 
 to-day. God speaks to us all as little children, and we 
 ought all to like the name, and to desire, as our Lord 
 bids us, to become little children, that we may indeed 
 enter into His kingdom. 
 
 Well ! — that is the name by which we are addressed 
 — remember it when you see infants brought to the font 
 in this church, and signed with the Name of the Father, 
 and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Remember that 
 they are taken into the congregation of Christ's flock, 
 that they are members of His body. And recollect 
 that you are members of His body, one and all of you, 
 just as they are, and that you only live because you 
 are so. 
 
 We say this again and again. You listen to the 
 sounds. Oh, do not fancy them to be idle sounds 
 which mean nothing ; they mean everything. Let us 
 try and find out what they mean. Nothing will help 
 us to do so better than the sentence which I have 
 just read to you — " And now little children, abide in 
 Him, that when He shall appear we may have confi- 
 dence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." 
 
XXXIX.] ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. 335 
 
 I, A little cliild who is told by its father or mother 
 to abide or stay in a house where it has been left, 
 understands very well what the command means. Some 
 of its playfellows may ask it to come out into the 
 street, or to go into their house, but that is not to be. 
 The child may yield to them, but it knows if it yields 
 that it is doing wrong. But what is the house in which 
 St. John says we are to abide ? We want a home for 
 our hearts, just as much as we want a home for our 
 limbs. Every one of us is looking for such a home. 
 We need something, as we say, to set our hearts upon, 
 and we try a number of things. Some you know try 
 money. They set their hearts upon that ; they long for 
 it. When they succeed in getting it, their hearts be- 
 come shut up in it ; they seem as if they could never 
 get away from it ; they abide in it. But it is a poor 
 dwelling-place. They become uneasy and restless in it ; 
 they say it is not large enough ; they must have much 
 more money, or they have not room enough to breathe. 
 Young men sometimes complain of old men for 
 liking this money so much. They see other things 
 which they like better to abide in ; they try various 
 pleasures, some good, some bad, but none last long 
 enough, none will give a man space to rest in, and those 
 which suit one do not suit another. And some desire 
 to have some possession which they cannot enjoy to- 
 gether, so they have to struggle each one to drive out 
 the other. Could there not be a home for all ? Could 
 there not be something in which we might abide 
 
336 ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. [serm. 
 
 together ? Could not there be somethirig in -wliicli w© 
 might abide for ever ? What we are told at our baptism 
 is that there is such a home for us all. The home is a 
 Person, is a Friend. We are baptized into Jesus Christ; 
 we put on His Name j we claim Him as the Lord and 
 Friend and Brother of us all. We say that He took the 
 nature of us all ; that He died for us all. AVe say that 
 He has risen for us all, and is at the right hand of God 
 for us all. That is what we start from before we can 
 speak or think. ' And now/ says St. John, ' when you 
 can speak and think, act as if this were so ; act as if 
 you had this Friend; let your hearts stay in this 
 home ; do not go out of it ; when you have gone out of 
 it, return to it as quickly as possible.' 
 
 But how, you will say, have we not our different 
 works to see after ? Must we not each in his own place 
 be getting bread for ourselves and our children ? Can 
 the carpenter be neglecting his tools, and the shoemaker 
 his last, and the physician his patients, and the lawyer 
 his clients, that he may be seeking after this home ? 
 
 No, verily ; if the carpenter does neglect his tools, or 
 the shoemaker his last, or the physician his patients, or 
 the lawyer his clients, he will not find this home ; he 
 will not know what need he has of it ; he will not be 
 able to abide in it. The harder a man works, the more 
 he learns that he cannot let his thoughts go astray. 
 They must be fixed somewhere. They must be turned 
 to some one who will show him how he must pursue his 
 business heartily, not lazily ; honestly and not like a 
 
XXXIX.] ST. JOHX TEE EVANGELIST'S DAY. 337 
 
 rogue ; as a freeman, not as a slave. Abide in this Lord 
 of your hearts ; set your heart upon Him and you will 
 get this help. I am not speaking about coming to 
 church. That is a good and blessed thing to do, 
 because there you may get strengthened and may learn 
 what you have to do with each other, and who is with 
 you at your right hand that you may never be moved. 
 You may learn that in the Psalms, and in the prayers 
 and the Lessons; and sometimes our sermons may 
 teach you a little about it. But I am speaking about 
 our common week-day life, about that which comes to 
 us every hour. There come to us ten thousand Httle 
 trials continually. We are tempted to lose our temper; 
 to be very angry with that which happens to ourselves ; 
 to lay the blame upon our neighbours ; to cheat just a 
 little when no one can find it out ; to make ourselves 
 beasts instead of men. Kow whenever such base 
 thoughts and desires surprise any man, whether they 
 come to him from other people, or out of his own heart, 
 a man may say boldly, ' I belong to Christ ; I am a 
 member of His body ; I know He is on my side ; I 
 know the devil is against me ; but Christ has overcome 
 the devil ; therefore will I call upon Him. I will say, 
 ' Son of God, I am very weak, but thou art very strong. 
 Let not these enemies prevail over me. Thou hast said, 
 I shall be more than conqueror because thou lovest 
 me. Oh ! conquer for me now ; I need Thee now.' 
 That is abiding in Christ. That is what St. John bids 
 us do, because we are God's little children. And when 
 
338 ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. [serm. 
 
 we have not done tliis, wlien we liave forgotten Christ, 
 and let the devil prevail with us, then the message to 
 repent and turn is not a sad one, but is very cheering 
 and comfortable. " Mj little children," says St. John, 
 " these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And 
 if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father — 
 Jesus Christ the righteous ; and He is the propitiation 
 for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of 
 the whole world." I do not see how there can be 
 better tidings than these. They are the tidings which 
 were brought to us when we were invited to eat the 
 bread and drink the wine in remembrance of him who 
 had taken our nature upon Him, and had purified it 
 from all sin. We were taught that He has united us to 
 God our Father in Heaven, He does not change, 
 though we change ; He abides always the same. 
 Therefore we may abide in Him, if we are ever so weak, 
 if we have stumbled and fallen ever so many times. 
 
 II. And then the words go on — " That when He 
 shall appear we may have confidence in Him." When 
 He shaU appear ! You see he takes it for granted that 
 Christ will appear. The apostles never have the least 
 doubt upon that point. They tell those of their own. 
 day that he would be seen by every one of them ; they 
 tell us, who read their letters now, that He will be 
 seen by every one of us. Men had longed for One who 
 should come and show them what God was ; who should 
 •come and rule over them in his Name. We believe 
 that Christ did come in great humility ; that He was 
 
XXXIX.] ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. 339 
 
 laid in a manger ; that He did show what God His 
 Father is ; that He did show himself to be the ruler 
 over men. Therefore we believe that He will put His 
 enemies — Death, Sin, and Hell — under His feet ; that 
 He will claim the earth which He has redeemed. Do 
 you think it is hard to believe this ? Very hard indeed 
 it is for a sick person who is tossing on his bed and can 
 find no rest, for a lonely man who has lost himself on 
 the hills at night, to believe that the sun will ever rise. 
 But the sun does rise, and fill the world with his light. 
 So when we feel our own evils, and when we look on all 
 the wrongs and oppressions of the world, we cannot 
 help fancying that the Deliverer is very far away, and 
 has forgotten us. But He is not far away ; He has not 
 forgotten us. And St. John tells every sufferer, and 
 every man who feels the burden of his sins, how he 
 may find that out. Abide,' he says, ' in Christ. Hold 
 fast by Him, though he seems to be far away, that you 
 may have trust and confidence in Him when he does 
 appear; accustom yourselves to believe in this righteous 
 Lord and Friend ; get into the way of asking His help 
 in your troubles ; get into the way of asking Him to 
 keep you from doing wrong things, and to help you to 
 do what is right. When you are puzzled, ask Him to 
 teach you what is wrong and right. And then you 
 will be always wishing to know Him more ; you will 
 long for the day when He shall scatter all the dark- 
 ness away from the earth ; you will cherish the hope 
 of his appearing as the best of all hopes.' 
 
 z 2 
 
340 ST. JOHX THE EVA^'GELIST'S DAY. [serm. 
 
 III. But lie speaks also of "not being ashamed 
 before Him at His coming." You know how ashamed 
 we have sometimes been when a dear friend — someone 
 who cared for us, and for whom we had a great respect — 
 came suddenly and found us doing things that we ought 
 not to be doing, thinking thouc^hts that we ousrht not 
 to be thinking. It is not because this person is our 
 enemy that we are afraid of him ; it is not because he 
 is wont to be hard with us. We were afraid because he 
 was so good and so kind. We dared not let Him see how 
 hard and unkind and wicked we were. So the New 
 Testament speaks of our Lord's appearing. It says that 
 we may be ashamed before Him, just because He has 
 been so good and gracious to us, and we have cared so 
 little for His goodness and graciousness, because we 
 have had such cruel thoughts of Him, because we have 
 been so unlike Him in all our ways and works. A fearful 
 thing that is to think of, that because Christ is so gentle, 
 and cares for us all, and never forgets us for a moment, 
 and is always seeking to make us like the things which 
 He likes, we may be ashamed to meet Him. But then 
 this need not be. If you determine not to think of Him 
 as your enemy, but as your best friend, who has given 
 you all you have ; who renews His gifts day by day; who 
 gives you the power of enjoying what he sends you — if 
 you recollect that when He denies you anything, or 
 takes anything fi-om you, it is to prepare you for some- 
 thing better ; to prepare you for being with Him ; if you 
 are sure since He gave Himself for you He is always 
 
xxxix.] ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. 341 
 
 ready to do more for you tliau you can ask or -wisli — • 
 tlien you will wait for liis appearing and long for it, then 
 you will mourn tliat you have spent this old year so little 
 trusting in His help, so little hoping for more knowledge 
 of Him, so little trying that your fellow-men should 
 trust Him and know Him. Then you will ask that the 
 new year may find you claiming your rights as new-born 
 men, as God's own children. Then you will desire that 
 each day of the coming year you may grow more 
 to confide in Him, and to be like Him ; then you will 
 pray that whichever of us is taken this year out of the 
 sight of his brethren on earth, may not really be 
 removed from fellowship with them ; you will pray that 
 we may meet him, though we cannot see him, whenever 
 we are met here to pray and praise. Then you will 
 desire that when next Christmas comes we may be 
 really able to join with sufferers on earth, and with 
 Angels and Archangels round His throne, in that great 
 Christmas hymn which St. John has taught us — 
 " Glory to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the 
 Lamb for ever and ever.'' 
 
SERMON XL. 
 
 SUFFERING AND GLORY. 
 
 Preached at Eversley, 4th Sunday after Trinity, 
 July 10th, 1870. 
 
 " I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to 
 be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." — 
 Romans viii. 18. 
 
 The Epistle wliicli we have just lieard is very wonderful. 
 It sounds more wonderful to me every time I read it. 
 There are words and thoughts in it which baffle me ; 
 they point to things which I can hardly conceive of, 
 or ask for, and yet I am sure that it is all true — and 
 what is more, I am sure that it is written for all of us who 
 are here to-day. To us — not to some very wise people,, 
 not to some great saints — are these words about suffer- 
 ing and glory, about groans and redemption, addressed. 
 Our Father in heaven speaks them to us, and He has 
 given all of us the power of understanding them. 
 
 What do you think the apostle meant by the suffer- 
 ings of this present time ? He meant the pains which 
 he saw men and women suffering wherever he travelled. 
 He dwelt in a different country from ours ; he spoke a* 
 
SERM. xL.j SUFFERING AND GLORY. 343 
 
 different language from ours. But men suffered in his 
 country, and in his time, as they do here in this year 
 1870. They had palsies in their limbs, they had fevers, 
 they tossed on sick-beds; they often felt as if their bodies 
 were a torment to them of which they should like to 
 be rid. Then they had pains in their minds like ours ; 
 they lost dear friends ; they had hard words spoken 
 about them ; sometimes those whom they trusted most 
 proved false to them. And they had deeper cause for 
 groaning still. They knew that they had done wrong. 
 There was a voice which said to each of them, ' Thou 
 hast sinned.' It was with them, then, as it is with us. 
 St. Paul speaks of all these sufferings ; he knew them 
 all. He knew the pains of body ; he knew the pain of 
 losing friends and being hardly spoken of — even of 
 being cruelly treated by those whom he loved, and to 
 whom he had done good. He knew most of all the pain 
 of hearing a word saying in his heart, 'Thou hast sinned ; 
 thou hast rebelled against the righteous and true God.' 
 
 It was just this pain — the worst of all — which led 
 him to cry for a deliverer or redeemer. He had thought 
 very well of himself; he had fancied he was very 
 zealous for God. Then it was shown him that he was 
 doing just the thing which God would not have him do ; 
 that he was fierce and cruel, while God was full of 
 mercy and love. How was that ? He must have yielded 
 himself to a bad spirit ; the bad spirit must have got 
 the mastery over him. Who could deliver him from 
 this tyrant ? It was shown him that the Son of God 
 
344 SUFFEBIKG AND GLORY. [seem. 
 
 was not far from liim ; that He could break the yoke of 
 the Evil Spirit ; that He could give him His own 
 gracious and good Spirit. Was that discovery for him 
 only ? 'No, when this Spirit began to work in him he 
 felt that he was to gp forth into aU lands with these 
 tidings — " God in Christ has reconciled the world unto 
 Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; " 
 and these, ' God hath sent forth His Son, born of a 
 woman, that they might receive the adoption of sons ; 
 and because you are sons. He hath sent forth the Spirit 
 of His Son into your hearts, that you may call Him 
 Father ; " and these, ' He has delivered us from the 
 powers of darkness, and has translated us into the 
 kingdom of His dear Son.' 
 
 I have said that he who was sent with this message 
 to men was not more free from sufferings than they 
 were; few men ever suffered so much, and he 
 found that it was good for him to suffer. In former 
 days he had been inclined to think himself different 
 from other men, and better than other men. Now, he 
 rejoiced to know that he was one with them, for that 
 was what his Master had been. Jesus Christ, as it is 
 written, " took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." 
 And again, ' He tasted death for all men.^ Now if St. 
 Paul had said, ' I am not of the same flesh and blood 
 with these poor men and women about me, I have a 
 better lot than theirs,' that would have been like saying, 
 * The Lord Jesus Christ is not my Lord and my brother ; 
 His Father is not my Father.' But when he said 
 
XL.] ■ SUFFERING AND GLORY. 345 
 
 witliiii himself, ' What misery there is iu the world ! 
 how men, and not only men but all creatures, are 
 groaning under the burthen of death,' then he gave 
 thanks that the Son of God had borne this burthen^ 
 that He had given His flesh and blood for the life of 
 the world. When he believed in Christ, he could enter 
 into the sufferings of men ; he could feel with them as 
 he had never felt before. And yet he could see a hope 
 and a promise in their groans. They were, as he says 
 in the Epistle, travailing pangs ; they were the anguish 
 of death, but they were leading on to a glorious birth. 
 
 My friends, it is easy for any of us to talk about 
 the troubles and sorrows that men pass through in body 
 and mind and spirit. But we shall only sympathise 
 with them, as St. Paul did, when we have his faith and 
 his hope. But the troubles and sorrows remain, whether 
 I take heed of them or not. I look into any poor 
 man's cottage, and I know that pain and death have 
 been there, and will be there. I look into any prince's 
 palace, and I know that pain and death have been there, 
 and will be there. The face of the oldest and of the 
 youngest testify ' they will be with us.' The animals 
 feel them as well as men ; and the trees and the flowers, 
 though they do not suffer pain, yet wither and die, so 
 that we have all clear proofs that St. Paul is right in 
 half of what he tells us. But is it true that Death is 
 the lord of any man or woman or child ; of any beast 
 or any insect ; of any tree or flower ? No. Death 
 did not make them ; and He who did make them. He 
 
346 SUFFEEING AND GLOET. [skkm. 
 
 who gave tBem life. He by -wlioni their life has been 
 renewed every hour. He has proved that He is stronger 
 than Death. "WTien I say, ' I believe in Jesas Christ 
 the Son of God, our Lord, who was crucified, dead and 
 buried, who rose again from the dead/ I say, ' Xot 
 death, but the conqueror of death is my master ; not 
 death, but He that destroyed death — the Prince of Life/ 
 I say all things have been shown to be His ; all 
 His enemies will be put under His feet. I declare then 
 — you and I have declared to-day — that we claim for 
 ourselves that redemption which St. Paul says all God^s 
 creation is waiting for and expecting ; that glory with 
 which he says the sufferings of this present time are 
 not to be compared. When we say Christ is our 
 Saviour, or our Redeemer, we mean that He has died 
 and risen again to dehver our bodies from their slavery 
 as well as our spirits. Our spirits have fallen under 
 the power of sin; our bodies have fallen under the 
 power of death. Christ, our true king, has shown 
 that he is mightier than both ; that he is the Deliverer 
 from both. And if I turn to Him as the Deliverer out 
 of my slavery to sin, if I say to the Evil Spirit, ' Thou 
 art not my lord at all, Christ has claimed me as His 
 servant and His brother,' then I shall be able to say to 
 death also, ' I defy thee ; thou hast had power to rack 
 this body of mine which is so curiously and wonder- 
 fully made ; the breath will go out of it, as it went out 
 of the body of the Lord Jesus ; my dead body -svill be 
 put into the grave, as His was ; what is dust will return. 
 
iL.] SUFPEEING AND GLORY. 347 
 
 to dust; but He will take care of the life wtich He 
 has given me. I can commit that to Him. I know He 
 ■will accomplish the purpose for which He came upon 
 earth and submitted to death. I know He will not leave 
 any part of His work unfinished.^ That is the ground 
 for St. PauVs language about the redemption of the 
 body. We all groan together ; we say men^ women» 
 children — all God's creatures — are under the burden of 
 death. We who have felt the power of Grod's Spirit 
 in our spirit, do not groan less than others. We wait 
 for the Deliverer of these bodies from their aches and 
 torments ; we wait for the day when Christ shall set 
 them free from the bondage of death ; when He shall 
 make them like His glorious body. And as we hope 
 for ourselves, so we hope for all those creatures who 
 not for their own fault have been made subject to 
 misery and death, who are not sinful as we have been. 
 We hope that the curse of death shall be taken oif the 
 whole of this beautiful earth, that wherever there has 
 been woe and death, there shall be the triumph of 
 peace and life. 
 
 St. Paul hoped this because he believed that Jesus 
 Christ, the crucified, had ascended on high in the glory 
 of His Father. He hoped it because he believed that 
 His glory is to fill the earth. Just as the sun rises out of 
 the night, and brings everything that had been hidden 
 and dark into light, so he believed that Christ, the true 
 Lord of all, would be manifested, and that His light 
 would enter into every dark corner of the earth, that 
 
348 SUFFEEING AND GLORY. [serm. 
 
 notliing would be hidden from it. That is the glory 
 with which he thinks the sufferings of this present time 
 are not to be compared. It was not some glory of 
 his own. He had desired such glory once ; when he 
 began to trust in Christ he gave up the thought of it. 
 Then it was His glory which he desired to behold 
 hereafter, which he desired that all should behold. For 
 he welcomed it as the common glory, the glory that 
 had risen upon all men as well as upon him ; the glory 
 which had been coming forth through all man's own 
 darkness ; the glory that must at last shine out fully, 
 and which nothing should quench. 
 
 Now, I said before, and I say again, that these words 
 are quite beyond me, that there is a height and depth 
 and breadth in them which I cannot measure. I said 
 before, and I say a,gaiu, I believe them to be all true, 
 and I think that there are ways by which every one of 
 you may find them out to be true. The chief way 
 is this. Suppose any of us has fallen into some evil 
 habit — suppose a man has become a drunkard, or has 
 taken a great spite against any of his neighbours, or is 
 often giving way to bad temper, or feels very indifferent 
 about the good of the people around him — he says, 
 ' I cannot get out of this bad custom ; it is too strong 
 for me.' He is right ; it is too strong for him. He 
 has a master over him who will not let him go, but this 
 master is not too strong for Christ. Christ, when upon 
 earth, set men free from such masters ; He is not less 
 mighty now. Call upon Him as a Redeemer from this 
 
SI-.] SUFFERING AND GLORY. 349 
 
 evil spirit. Ask that tlie good Spirit may come and 
 dwell with you, and take possession of you, and then 
 you will begin to understand what the sufferings of the 
 body and the mind are for ; you will find that they have 
 been your schoolmasters to bring you to Christ the 
 Deliverer. Then you will all say, ' Surely He who has 
 broken my bands asunder is the king and Lord of the 
 whole earth. Surely it must be His will and His 
 Father's will that all His creatures should be brought 
 out of the bondage of corruption. Surely it is His 
 glory that we are all to long for and hope for. There 
 must be a day when that glory shall appear, and all 
 flesh shall see it, for the mouth of the Lord hath 
 spoken it.' 
 
SERMON XLI. 
 
 REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION. 
 
 Preached at Carisbroke. 
 
 " Repent ye therefore and be converted, that yonr sins may be 
 blotted out." — Acts iii. 19. 
 
 St. Peter tad been telling liis countrymen that the 
 Josus whom they had crucified was their Lord and 
 Christ. Strange words ! They expected a King, who 
 was to reign over them and to put down all other 
 people; they were doubting and debating how He 
 would show forth His glory to men; how He would 
 begin His conquests over the world. And now a poor 
 fisherman stood up in the midst of them and said, ' He 
 "has shown forth His glory to us, He/io.s begun His 
 conquest. And you have been yourselves helping to 
 bring forth that glory. You have been preparing the 
 way for His victory. For you have given Him up into 
 the hands of the Eomans, and they have hanged Him 
 upon a tree. There in His death upon that Cross He 
 has manifested the glory of God. And because He 
 could not be holden of death, because He was the Son 
 of God, He has risen from the dead, He has ascended 
 
SERM. XLi.] KEPENTANCE AND CONVERSIOIT. 351 
 
 on high. There is the beginning of His victory over 
 all nations.' 
 
 St. Peter said, ' This crucified Man is Lord,' that is 
 to say, ' He is the Ruler over men, over their spirits 
 and over their bodies. He is the Ruler over the earth 
 which He has given men to replenish and subdue.' 
 And St. Peter said further, ' He is Christ.' That is to 
 say, ' He is anointed with the Spirit of the Eternal 
 God. That Spirit dwelt in Him while He was upon 
 earth without measure. That Spirit, since He has 
 •ascended on high, He pours forth upon men, that 
 they may know Him and know His Father, and that 
 they may bear His image and His Father's image on 
 their hearts.' 
 
 I. On this ground the Apostle rests the exhortation 
 in the text, " Repent, therefore, and be converted ; " 
 these two words do not mean the same thing. But 
 they commonly are found together in the Scriptures ; 
 one is not perfect without the other. To Repent is to 
 •change our minds ; to think quite otherwise of some 
 matter or some person than we have been used to 
 think. St. Peter knew what the people he was speak- 
 ing to thought about God. He knew what he himself 
 had thought about God. They thought of Him as an 
 •enemy from whom they were to fly if they could, and 
 whom, if they could not escape, they -must persuade by 
 all arguments and bribes not to destroy them. Now it 
 was this mind of theirs which St. Peter desired that 
 they should change. These were the thoughts from 
 
352 EEPEXTAXCE AND COXTEESIOX. [seem. 
 
 wliicli lie wished to deliver them. But h o could not 
 •work this change or deliverance. He had not been 
 able to work it in himself; he certainly could not pro- 
 duce it in anroue else. If they merely listened to his 
 arguments, or to the .arguments of any man or any 
 Angel, they would go on suspecting God; they would 
 suspect Him more every day, because every day they 
 would be doing more wrong acts, speaking more wrong 
 words, thinking more wrong thoughts, which He must 
 hate. But St. Peter was not usinsr his own argruments 
 or the arguments of any Angel, he was using God's 
 arguments. He was speaking as His messenger. He 
 was declaring that Jesus Christ in dying and rising 
 from the dead bad shown forth God's mind to His 
 creatures. Christ had shown how God felt to those 
 who were feeling estranged from Him. Christ had 
 revealed Him as a Shepherd seeking after the sheep 
 who had wandered from Him ; as a Father watching 
 over the prodigal who had gone out of his Father's 
 house into a far country, and had wasted his substance 
 in riotous Hving. He had set forth this Father not 
 only in His words but in His deeds ; going about doing 
 good, healing the sick, casting out devils. He had set 
 Him forth most of aU in His own sufferings ; entering 
 into the death of all men, bearing their sorrow and 
 their sin. He had shown that there is a Living Power 
 proceeding from the Father and the Son which could 
 change the minds and hearts and wills of men, which 
 could turn them from evil to gocd. 
 
XLi.] REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION. 353 
 
 St. Peter, then, preacliing of this Lord and Christ, 
 affirming Him to be the Son of God, could say to these 
 Jews, ' Repent, change your minds about God. He is 
 not. He cannot be, such a One as you have taken Him 
 to be ; He must be just the opposite of this. All your 
 suspicions of Him must be wicked and false suspicions; 
 which an Evil Spirit, a slanderer, has sown in your 
 hearts. I bid you — because He bids you — cast them 
 aside. ^ 
 
 II. And if you do cast them aside, if you do repent 
 or change your minds about God, then you will turn or 
 be converted to Him. You have been turning away 
 from Him. He has been with you when you rose up, 
 when you lay down. He has been your Protector, the 
 Giver of your life, the Renewer of your life. He has 
 been speaking to you continually. Every tree and 
 flower ; every sunrise and sunset ; the voices of friends 
 who are with you and who are gone from you — all have 
 brought messages to you from Him. He has been con- 
 versing with you in lonely hours when there was none 
 else beside you. He has been bringing deeds you did, 
 thoughts you thought long ago, to your minds. He 
 has made you see how evil they were, though at the 
 time you might think nothing of them, or find them 
 pleasant. He has sent you blessed memories and 
 recollections of days gone by ; of lessons you learnt on 
 your mother's knee, or out of holy books, or through 
 the lives of good men. Yet you have turned away from 
 Him. You have been seeking treasures here and there, 
 
 2 A 
 
354 REPENTANCE AND CONVEESION. [serm, 
 
 in tlie earth at your feet, or at the end of some rainbow 
 which you could never reach. You have been always 
 in want of something, you could not exactly say what, 
 which would make you happy, which would perfectly 
 content you. And all the while the good you wanted, 
 the Being who would have satisfied yow, was close 
 to you, and you turned from Him. But now that you 
 know what He is, now that you know His face is turned 
 to you, turn yourselves to Him. Let Him who has not 
 spared His own Son, but given Him up for you all, 
 bind you to Him. Let Him hold you fast. Do not 
 struggle to separate yourselves from an Everlasting 
 Friend. Yield yourselves to Him. Suffer Him to 
 rule over you, for to be His servants is to be perfectly 
 free. 
 
 III. You will see that St. Peter could not call upon 
 his countrymen to repent without also calling on them 
 to be converted, to change their minds concerning God; 
 to act as if He were a Friend and not an enemy, to 
 trust Him instead of distrusting Him. This was in fact 
 to turn to Him. This was to recollect the Father who 
 had given all His creatures bread enough and to spare, 
 while His own children through their own fault and 
 folly were perishing of hunger. This was to arise and 
 go to Him, saying, ' Father, we have offended against 
 Thee and before Thee, and are not worthy to be called 
 Thy children.' For now first they would feel that they 
 had sinned. Before, they might have felt uncomfortable 
 in a thousand ways, restless, desponding. They might 
 
XLi.] EEPENTANCE AND CONVEESION. 355 
 
 have accused others of doing them great injuries ; they 
 might have accused themselves of great foolishness ; 
 they might have had both remorse and shame for acts 
 which had been done and could never be undone, 
 but they ■will not have said, We have sinned. No one 
 says that till he feels that he has been disbelieving, 
 distrusting, disobeying a Father; that he has been 
 fighting against One who was always caring for him 
 and doing him good. Then comes the sense of sin ; 
 then comes the confession of sin. And the confession, 
 though it may be full of sadness, is also full of joy ; 
 because it is throwing off a weight too heavy to be 
 borne, because it is to return to One who more wishes 
 to take the load from us than we wish to be rid of it. 
 
 IV. And so St. Peter might well add to the exhor- 
 tation, "Repent and be converted," those other words, 
 " that your sin may be blotted out." Remember, I 
 pray you, to whom he spoke these words. Many of 
 those who heard him will have joined in the shout 
 Crucify Him ! when Jesus was standing before the 
 Roman governor and Pilate wished to let Him go. 
 Some may have bowed the knee to him in mockery 
 when He wore the purple robe and the crown of thorns; 
 some may have imitated the priests who said, " Let Him 
 come down from the Cross ; He saved others. Himself 
 He cannot save." To one and all, whoever might be 
 there, whatever they might have been, St. Peter 
 addresses the same words, he holds out the same hope: 
 ^ Your sins may be blotted out. You may be made 
 
356 EEPESTA>s'CE AXD COXTERSIOX. [seem- 
 
 new and pure creatures.' Tte Jews were not unused 
 to this language. They knew that their great King 
 David, after he had committed his terrible sin, after he 
 had been an adulterer and mtirderer, had prayed, 
 " Make me a clean heart, Oh God! renew a right spirit 
 within me. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, 
 wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." They 
 were certain that what he prayed for was granted ; that 
 he was fearfully punished for his transgressions, but 
 that his heart and spirit did become right and true ; 
 that he did rise up a new man. This, blessing which 
 had been given to David, St. Peter said was bestowed 
 upon all men who would receive it. God owned them 
 in Christ as His children. He promised to put the 
 evil which had become part of themselves far from 
 them. He said that the new and pure and holy mind 
 of Chiist should be their mind. Thev miarht sink 
 lower and lower into the dark and selfish and separate 
 nature — the stagnant pool out of which all foul odours 
 had come, which had bred all fevers and pestilences. 
 They might continue selfish creatures, foes to God and 
 to each other. But they might claim to be members 
 of Jesus Christ, to have that true human nature which 
 is in Him who is one with the Father, and in whom 
 the Pather sees all and loves all. Thus their sins 
 could be blotted out. I do not say they would not be 
 haunted continually by the spectres of evil they had 
 done in past time. I do not say they would not be 
 continually reminded of a flesh and a world and a devil. 
 
XLi.] EEPENTANCE AND CONVERSION. 357 
 
 that would drive tliein into deeper evil still. But they 
 would have a ri^fht to sav, ' Jesus our Lord and Christ 
 has died to set us free fron those dark shadows of the 
 past, and from you our present seducers. He has risen 
 again, and lives to put you under His feet. Married to 
 Him, trusting in Him, we can defy you. We know 
 that He will overcome you altogether at last. In that 
 hope we can live and work with Him for your extirpa- 
 tion in ourselves and in our fellow-men.' 
 
 Brethren ! I said the first words of St. Peter — those 
 in which He declared a crucified Man to be both Lord 
 and Christ — were strange and startling words to those 
 men who heard them first. You cannot be surprised 
 that many of them cried, ' What ! Are we to believe 
 such tidings — such monstrous tidings — on the word of 
 an ignorant Galilean, a mender of nets ? ' The sur- 
 prising thing is not that so many rejected his word, but 
 that so many believed it. The surpi'ising thing is that 
 it made its way beyond the limits of Judea and 
 Palestine, that it reached Greece and Italy, that it 
 came over to Britain, that at last the most civilised and 
 powerful nations of the earth received it as the very 
 ground of their existence. You are here to-day, this 
 church stands in this village, because our fathers con- 
 fessed, because our nation confessed, that the Jesus who 
 was crucified on Calvary is both Lord and Christ, is 
 the Son of Man and the Son of God. 
 
 This is indeed marvellous. Others may account for 
 it as they can. I believe it came to pass because the 
 
358 EEPENTANCE AND CONVERSION. [seem. 
 
 message was a true message ; because it was what all 
 nations were craving for; because it was wliat Grod had 
 stirred them up to crave for ; because it was what 
 the Lord created them to receive. Therefore, though 
 they had a thousand ipotives without, and ten thousand 
 within, not to receive it, though it contradicted all the 
 feelings and notions respecting God which belong to 
 our evil nature — though it turned the policy of the 
 world upside down — yetpeoples and races andkingdoms 
 bowed before it; the Cross proved itself mightier than 
 all the powers in earth or hell. 
 
 Well ! But those words of St. Peter which follow 
 
 'these, what of them ? He said "Repent, therefore, and 
 be converted, and your sins shall be blotted out.''^ Is 
 tJiat sentence worn out ? Has that nothing to do with 
 Englishmen as well as with Jews ? Brethren, I do not 
 think we any of us know the least what it had to do 
 with the Jews, if we have not learnt by experience what 
 it has to do with ourselves. I do not think we could 
 tell how the Jews thought of the God who had made a 
 covenant with them and chosen them to be His people, 
 if we were not bitterly aware how we have- thought of 
 Him who ias made the better covenant with us, and 
 chosen us to be witnesses of His Truth and Love to all 
 
 ■ the families of the earth. Are you astonished when 
 you hear how stiff-necked the Israelites were, how they 
 refused to believe in the God who had led them 
 through the Red Sea, who had borne them as on 
 eagles' wings across the wilderness ? Does it not strike 
 
XLi.] EEPENTANCE AND CONVERSION. 359 
 
 you ? We have been the sharers iu a greater Redemp- 
 tion than that — wo have been borne, vre are borne day 
 by day, through greater perils. And do we believe the 
 more for that ? Do we trust Him who has taken us to 
 be His children, who has declared that we belong to 
 the body of His own Son, who has sealed us with His 
 Spirit ? Do we not continually believe this God, this 
 Father, this Deliverer, to be our foe; One whom it' 
 would be well if we could banish from us for ever ? 
 Do we not act as if we wished that there were no such 
 Being ; as if we only acknowledged Him because we 
 dare not deny Him ? Oh ! Brethren, must not the 
 message come to us also, ' Repent ! change your minds 
 altogether respecting Him whom it is Eternal Life to 
 know. Eternal Death to lose ? Do not maintain a per- 
 petual war with Him who has made peace with you in 
 the blood of His Son ! Do not treat that blood as if 
 it were a common unholy thing, not a witness and 
 pledge — as Apostles declared, as our fathers believed — 
 of His love to men, of His reconciliation of the world.' 
 All of us have need of this repentance — none more 
 than we who preach it to others. How continually da 
 our hearts accuse us of repeating the words which 
 record the greatest wonder in heaven and earth — of 
 arguing about them — of condemning those who do not 
 receive them — whilst the faith, the hope, the love, ■ 
 which they express is hidden from us, is as though it 
 were not. How often the message of the Angels — when 
 it is uttered from our lips — comes darkened by the 
 
360 EEPENTANCE AND CONVERSION. [serm. 
 
 thought that we have not given glory to God in the 
 highest, or helped the cause of peace on earth, or done 
 deeds o£ good mil towards men ! What a knell of 
 death rings in our ears, along with the promise of 
 Eternal Life. 
 
 What do such lessons teach us ? Is it that we 
 should doubt the might and eflScacy of God's Word ? 
 Is it not rather that we should always recollect our- 
 selves, always declare to you that this call to repent- 
 ance comes from Him and not from us; that as there 
 are none who do not need it, so there are none who 
 may not profit by it ; that it is addressed to the 
 drunkard and the harlot as well as to the most 
 religious ; that the sin of all is the same — unbelief in 
 God, distrust of His Goodness and Truth — that the 
 remedy for sin is the same for all, the Love of God 
 manifested in His only begotten Son, shed abroad in 
 our hearts by the Divine Spirit ? 
 
 And so the command, ' Convert or turn yourselves 
 to God,' is for us also inseparable from the command, 
 ' Repent or change your minds respecting God.' ' This 
 is the name,' said the Prophet, ' whereby the child of 
 the virgin shall be called — Emmanuel, that is to say, 
 God with us.' It is the promise of all the Scriptures^ 
 that God shall come nearer to men, that He shall 
 dwell among them. But it is our inclination to think 
 that instead of being nearer to us, in closer converse 
 and communion with men than He was in the old 
 times, He has gone further from us ; that then He 
 
xLi.] EEPENTANCE AND CONVERSION. 361 
 
 revealed Himself with open face, that we can only 
 behold him through a veil. Oh ! Brethren, it is our 
 wish that is father to this thought. We desire that 
 God should be at a distance from us — therefore we per- 
 suade ourselves that He is. We do not like to retain 
 Him in our knowledge ; therefore we do not think it is 
 possible for us to know Him. But the Light is about 
 us, however we may shut our eyes to it. And when we 
 believe that God is not the tyrant we have taken Him 
 to be — that He is that Father of whom Christ said : 
 " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father " — when 
 we believe this, we turn to the Light from which we 
 have been turning away ; we desire to come to it that 
 our deeds may be made manifest; if it is ever so 
 searching, we are sure that it is blessed ; if the dark- 
 ness invites us ever so much, we are sure it is deceitful, 
 bewildering, accursed. 
 
 Oh, let us cherish this belief more and more. Let 
 us act upon it more and more. For then we shall find 
 that the Apostle's last words are fulfilled to us, as much 
 as to the people of any former generation. We, too, 
 may have our sins blotted out. We, too, may have 
 clean, free, purified consciences. We, too, may know 
 how the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. When 
 we turn to God, not that we may obtain indulgence for 
 our sin, but that we may be delivered from it ; not 
 that we may gain some blessing for ourselves from 
 which others are excluded — but that we may partake 
 of that perfect sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, 
 
 2 B 
 
362 KEPENTAKCE AND CONVERSION. [serm. xh. 
 
 "wliicli was made for tlie wliole world ; we shall find 
 that every promise of God in Christ is Yea and Amen, 
 that the fulfilment does not fall short of the expec- 
 tation, but exceeds all that we can ask and think. 
 For then we shall look forward to that time of 
 refreshing fi*om the presence of the Lord, of which 
 the Apostle speaks at the end of this verse. We shall 
 expect the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, that 
 restitution of aU things which God hath promised by 
 the mouth of all His holy Prophets, since the world 
 began. We shall wait for this Revelation and hasten 
 towards it, because it is the Eevelation of Him who is 
 the perfect Light of the world : because before His 
 brightness all that is false and corrupt and evil must 
 for ever flee away. 
 
 GHABLEE SICEEIfS AITD ETAKS, CBY8TAL PALACB fBESS. 
 
A CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS 
 
 OF 
 
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 SEQUEL TO THE INQUIRY, 'WHAT IS REVE- 
 
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April, 1883. 
 
 A Catalogue of Theological Books, 
 
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 MACMILLAlSr AND CO. 
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 Abbott (Rev. E. A.) — Works by the Rev. E. A. Abbott, 
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 BIBLE LESSONS. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 45-. 6^/. 
 
 " Wise, suggestive, ami really profound initiation into religious thought." 
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 THE GOOD VOICES : A Child's Guide to the Bible. 
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 CAMBRIDGE SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE 
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 caricature in order to condemn Christianity." — Church Quarterly Review. 
 
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 " It British Quarterly says, " the Jresh unconventional talk of a 
 
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 Thoughtful men will be greatly charmed by this little volume." 
 
 i I 
 
 lO.CCO 
 
2 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 A Little Pilgrim : In the Unseen. Eightt Thousand. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 2j. i>d. 
 " This little prose poem." — Academy. " Ko 'i-riling of the land has 
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 to follow a gentle soul, which never ktinv doubt, into the Krju World, and 
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 Arnold. — Works by Matthew Arnold, D.C.L : 
 
 A BIBLE READING FOR SCHOOLS. The Gre.a.t 
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 COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF ISAIAH, Critical, 
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THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 3 
 
 B I R K S ( Pioi.)~co/!(!/!/teJ. 
 
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 SUPERNATURAL REVELATION ; or, First Principles 
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 Contents: (i) The Creation of the World, (2) The Je^iiish Sabbath and 
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 Ceremonialism, Formalism, and the Neio Creature ; with an Appendi.x 
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 welcome to English readers. The first sermon, which gives its title to the 
 '.lolunie, was delivered in Westminster Abbey, and was '.greatly admired by 
 Dean Stanley who was a personal friend of the preacher. 
 
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 The objects of the present work are to give a brief and popular sketch oj 
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 regarded as heretical and dangerous, but are noiu to be found in every 
 
4 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 BRUNTON (T. I..)— continued. 
 
 class-look, ami are taught in every school. The plan adopted has been to 
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 secondly, of the forms of life -which existed in the early ages of the world's 
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 present day. After this follo^us a discussion of the question, hmo these 
 various forms of life, past^ and present, came into existence, 'whether by 
 sudden creation or gradual er'olution. 
 
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 A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS. Edited by J. A. 
 
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THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 5 
 
 Calderwood. — Works by Henry Caldf.r\vood, LL.D., 
 
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 THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD, interpreted in view 
 
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 Cambridge Lent Sermons, 1864.— Sermons preached 
 
 during Lent, 1864, in Great St. Maiy's Church, Cambridge. By 
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 THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT AND ITS 
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 CHRIST THE BREAD OF LIFE. An Attempt to give 
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 " Deserves the most attentive study by all who interest themselves in the 
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 REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTIONS, referring to 
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 THOUGHTS ON REVELATION, with Special Reference 
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 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE GIFT OF ETERNAL 
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 Crown Svo. bs. 
 
6 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Canterbury.— BOY-LIFE : its Trial, its Strength, its 
 Fulness. Sundays in Wellington College, 1859 — 1873. Three 
 Books. By E. W. Benson, D.D., formerly Master, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury. New Edition, with Additions. Crown 8vo. 6j-. 
 " TTie sermons Ihiis reprinted are admirable specimens of luhat school 
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 THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE CHURCH OF 
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 SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DUTIES OF THE ES- 
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 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. Its Catholicity; 
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 Cellarius.— A NEW ANALOGY BETWEEN REVEAL- 
 ED RELIGION AND The Course and Constitution of 
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 ("Cellarius"). Crown 8vo. 6s. 
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 them, at least set us thinking. . . . His book should be read and studied, 
 f(>r it is the 'cork of a reverent, meditative, and subtle mind, which has 
 realised the truth so finely expressed in the author's oii'n zvords abotU 
 Nature and Rei elation. " 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 7 
 
 Cheyne.— Works by T. K. Cheyne, M.A., Fellow of Balliol 
 
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 THE BOOK OF ISAIAH CHRONOLOGICALLY AR- 
 RANGED. An Amended Version, with Historical and Critical 
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 NOTES AND CRITICISMS on the HEBREW TEXT 
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 NATIONAL CHARACTER. Three Lectures delivered in St. 
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 '■'Few books that we liave met 'cuith have given us keener pleasure than 
 
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 the limits of our space are inexorable. We hope the book will be botight." 
 — Literary Churchman. 
 
 THE SACRED POETRY OF EARLY RELIGIONS. 
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 ST. ANSELM. Second Edition. Crown Svo. 6s. 
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8 
 
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 Congreve. — HIGH HOPES, and Pleadings for a Rea- 
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 M.A. : 
 
 CHRISTIAN CIVILISATION. With special reference to 
 
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 Curteis.— DISSENT in its RELATION to the CHURCH 
 OF ENGLAND. Eight Lectures preached before the University 
 of Oxford, in the year 1S71, on the foundation of the late Rev. 
 John Bampton, M. A., Canon of .Salisbury. By George Herbert 
 CURTEis, M. A., late Fellow and Sub- Rector of Exeter College ; 
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 Dale.— THE SYNOD OF ELVIRA, AND CHRISTIAN 
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THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 9 
 
 DAVIES (Rev. J. Llewelyn)— <-(;«/;V/W. 
 
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 WARNINGS AGAINST SUPERSTITION. In FOUR 
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 THE CHRISTIAN CALLING. Sermons. Extra fcap. 
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 was spoken througli Jeremiah the Prophet, as quoted in Matthew 
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lO 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Elliot.— THE STATE AND THE CHURCH. By Hon. 
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 Arthur Faber, M.A., Head Master of Malvern College. 
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 THE FALL OF MAN, AND OTHER SERMONS. 
 
 Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. ds. 
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 THE WITNESS OF HISTORY TO CHRIST. Being 
 the Hulsean Lectures for 1870. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 5^. 
 
 Tlie follo^oing are the subjects of the Five Lectures : — I. " The Ante- 
 cedent Credibility of the Miraculous." II. " Tlie Adequacy of the Gospel 
 Records." III. The Victories of Christianity." IV. "Christianity and 
 the Indiindual." V. "Christianity and the Race." Tlie subjects of the 
 four Appendices are: — A. " The Diversity of Christian Ezndences." 
 B. "Confucius." C. "Buddha." D. " Comte." 
 
 SEEKERS AFTER GOD. The Lives of Seneca, Epictetus, 
 
 and Marcus Aurelius. Eighth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 "A very interesting and valuable book." — Saturday ReNnew. 
 
 THE SILENCE AND VOICES OF GOD : University 
 and other Sermons. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
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 ETERNAL HOPE. Five Sermons preached in Westminster 
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 of Sin. Twenty-second Thousand. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 II 
 
 FARRAR (Rev. F. .)— continued. 
 
 SAINTLY WORKERS. Lenten Lectures delivered in St. 
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 therefore, an indispensable companion to the previous volume. 
 
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 Ferrar.— A COLLATION OF FOUR IMPORTANT 
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12 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
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 Greek Testament.— THE NEW TESTAMENT IX 
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 Westcott, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity, Canon of Peter- 
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15 
 
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14 
 
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 Jennings and Lowe. — THE PSALMS, with Introduc- 
 tions and Critical Notes. By A. C. Jennings, B. A., Jesus Col- 
 lege, Cambridge, Tyrwhitt Scholar, Crosse Scholar, Hebrew 
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 in parts by W. H. Lowe, M. A., Hebrew Lecturer and late Scholar 
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 THE GOSPEL OF THE PENTATEUCH ; and David. 
 
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 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. A Re- 
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 luis given it an ai'ei~djhelining interest in recent theological controversy. 
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 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. A 
 
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i6 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
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 ON A FRESH REVISION OF THE ENGLISH NEW 
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 Lowe.— ZECHARIAH, HEBREW, AND LXX., THE 
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 Maclaren.— SERMONS PREACHED at MANCHESTER. 
 By Alexander Maclaren. Sixth Edition. Fcap. Svo. 4^. 6d. 
 These Sermons represent no special school, but deal zuith the broad prin- 
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THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 17 
 
 MACLAREN {K.)— continued. 
 
 ' ' Sermons more sober and yet more forcible, and with a certain ivise and 
 practical spirituality about them it would not be easy to find. " — Spectator. 
 
 WEEK-DAY EVENING ADDRESSES. Delivered in 
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 THE SECRET OF POWER, and Other Sermons. 
 Preached at Manchester. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4^. 6d. 
 
 Maclear.— Works by the Rev. G. F. MACLEAR, D.D., Warden 
 of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, late Head Master of King's College 
 School : 
 
 A CLASS-BOOK OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 
 With Four Maps. New Edition. i8mo. 4J-. 6d. 
 
 " The present volume," says the Preface, '■'■forms a Class-Book oj Old 
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 iitiah. In its preparation the most recent authorities have been consulted, 
 and wherever it has appeared useful, Azotes have been subjoined illustra- 
 tive of the Text, and, for the sake of more advanced students, refa-ences 
 added to larger works. The Index has been so arranged as to form cv 
 concise Dictionary of the Persons and Places ??ientioned in the course of the 
 Narrative.'''' The Maps, prepared by Stanford, matcriallv add to ihs 
 value and usefulness of the book. The British Quarterly Review calls if 
 "A careful and elaborate, though brief compendium of all that moda-n- 
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 A CLASS-BOOK OF NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. 
 Including the Connexion of the Old and New Testament. New- 
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 The present volume fortns a sequel to the Author's Class-Book of Old 
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 Gospel History. III. The Apostolic Histojy. In the Appendix are given 
 Chronological Tables. The Clerical Journal says, "It is not often that 
 such an amount of useful and interesting matter on biblical subjects is 
 found in so coni'enient ami small a compass as in this well-arranged 
 volume. " 
 
 A CLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF THE. 
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 l^. i>d. 
 
 The present zuork is intended as a sequel to the two preceding books: 
 "Like them, it is jurnished with notes and references to larger works, 
 <ind it is hoped that it may be found, especially in the higher forms of our 
 
 2 
 
i8 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 MACLEAR (Dr. G. continued. 
 
 Public Schools, to supply a suitable manual of instruction ii: the chief 
 doctrines of our Church, and a useful help in the preparation of Can- 
 didates for Confirmation." The Literarj- Churchman says, "It is indeed 
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 is also extrenuly instructii'e. Tlure are fezu clergy xuho would not find 
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 fciu who would find ii useful to themselves as well. " 
 
 A FIRST CLASS-BOOK OF THE CATECHISM OF 
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 larger look. 
 
 A SHILLIXG-BOOK of OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 
 New Edition. iSmo. 
 
 This .Manual bears the same relation to the larger Old Testament His- 
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 It consists of Ten Books, drinded into short chapters, and subdizided into 
 sections, each section treating of a single episode in the history, the title of 
 ■which is given in bold type. 
 
 A SHILLING-BOOK of NEW TESTAMENT HISTORY. 
 New Edition. i8mo. 
 
 A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION FOR CONFIRMA- 
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 This is an enlarged and impro-ved edition of ' The Order of Confirma- 
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 THE HOUR OF SORROW ; or. The Order for the Burial 
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 APOSTLES OF MEDLEVAL EUROPE. Cr. Svo. i^.bd. 
 
 ' ' Mr. Maclear will have done a great wcrk if his culmirable little volume 
 sJuill help to break up the dense ignorance which is still prevailing among 
 Jieople at large." — Literarj- Churchman. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 19 
 
 MACLEAR (Dr. G. Y .)— continued. 
 
 THE EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF THE HOLY EU- 
 CHARIST. Being the Boyle Lectures for 1879—80. Delivered 
 in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall. Crown 8vo. ds. 
 "T/iere is muck that is striking in this volume. . . . This valuable book 
 of Dr. Maclear's enters very carefully into Christ's prophecies of His oivn 
 sufferini^ and death. . . . All this Dr. Maclcar puts in a very clear and 
 forcible 'oay." — Spectator. 
 
 Macmillan. — Works by the Rev. Hugh Macmillan, LL.D., 
 F.R. S.E. (For other works by the same Author, see Catalogue 
 OF Travels and Scientific Catalogue.) 
 
 TWO WORLDS ARE OURS. Globe 8vo. 6s. 
 
 THE TRUE VINE ; or, the Analogies of our Lord's 
 Allegory. Fourth Edition. Globe 8vo. 6j'. 
 
 The Nonconformist says — "// abounds in exquisite bits of description, 
 and in striking facts clearly stated. " The British Quarterly says— ' ' A'eaders 
 and preachers who are unscientific will find many of his illustrations as 
 valuable as they are beautiful." 
 
 BIBLE TEACHINGS IN NATURE. Twelfth Edition. 
 Globe 8vo. ds. 
 
 "He has made the world more beautiful to us, and unsealed our ears to 
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 book which may be fitly described as one of the happiest efforts for enlisting 
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 THE SABBATH OF THE FIELDS. A Sequel to 'Bible 
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 THE MINISTRY OF NATURE. Fourth Edition. Globe 
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 " Whether the reader agree or not with his conclusioiis, he will ac- 
 knowledge he is in the presence of an original and thoughtful writer. " 
 
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 OUR LORD'S THREE RAISINGS FR0:M THE DEAD. 
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 THE MARRIAGE IN CANA. Globe 8vo. 6s. 
 
20 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 MahaflFy.— THE DECAY OF MODERN PREACHING. 
 By Rev. J. P. Mahaffy, M.A., Trinity College, Dublin. Crown 
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 "Clever and sensible in most of ils criticisms and suggestions.^^ — 
 Saturday Review. 'M^ excellent book." — Church of England Pulpit. 
 " Thoroughly xnorth reading." — Scotsman. 
 
 Materialism : Ancient and Modern. By a late Fellow 
 of Trinity College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo. 2s. 
 
 Maurice. — Works by the late Rev. F. Denison Maurice, 
 M.A., Professor of Sloral Philosophy in the University of Cam- 
 bridge : 
 
 The Spectator says — "Fetu of those of oiir own generation whose names 
 -c'ill live i?i English history or literature have exerted so profound and so 
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 THE PATRIARCHS AND LAWGIVERS OF THE 
 OLD TESTAMENT. Third and Cheaper Edition. Crn. 8vo. Sj. 
 The Xineteen Discourses contained in this i-olume were preached in the 
 chapel of Lincoln^ s Inn during the year 1851. 
 
 THE PROPHETS AND KINGS OF THE OLD TES- 
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 Mr. Maurice, i/t the spirit which animated the conpileis of tfte Church 
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 thinks, has been greatly overlooked in our day, and than which there is 
 none we have more need to contemplate. He has found that the Old 
 Testament Prophets, taken in their simple natural sense, clear up many 
 of the difficulties 'which beset us in the daily work of lije ; make the past 
 intelligible, the present endurable, and the future real and hopeful. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 A Series of Lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke. New Edition. 
 Crown Svo. QJ. 
 
 Mr. Maurice, in his Preface to these Twenty-eight Lectures, says — 
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 ing the life of Jesus by one of those Evangelists who p-oclaim Him to be 
 the Christ, who says that He did come from a Father, that He did baptize 
 'with the Holy Spirit, that He did rise from the dead. I have chosen the 
 one who is most directly connected with the lata- history oj the Church, 
 who was not an Apostle, who p7-ofessedly wrote for the use of a man 
 already instructed in the faith of the Apostles. I have follo'wed the course 
 of the 'writer'' s narrative, not changing it under any pretext. I have 
 adhered to his phraseology, sti'iz'ing to avoid the substitution of any other 
 for his," 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 21 
 
 MAURICE (Rev. F. 'D.)— continued. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. A Series of Discourses. 
 New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 The Literary Churcliman thus speaks of this volume: Thorough 
 honesty, reverence, and deep thought pervade the work, which is every 
 way solid and philosophical, as well as theological, and abounding with 
 suggestions zuhich the patient student may draw out more at length for 
 himself." 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. A Series of Lectures 
 on Christian Ethics. Second and Cheaper Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6^. 
 
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 are ?nost interested, the question zvhich most affects our studies and our daily 
 lives, is the question, whether there is a foundation for human morality, 
 or whether it is dependent upon the opinions and fashions of different ages 
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22 
 
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 23 
 
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 SOME MODERN DIFFICULTIES RESPECTING the 
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24 
 
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 Re-arranged and Supplemented by an Explanation of the Morning 
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THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 25 
 
 The Spectator calls it "one of the most instructive and valuable 
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 Mostly gems of the first water." — Clerical Journal. 
 
 Rendall.— THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS IN 
 GREEK AND ENGLISH. With Critical and Explanatory 
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 Trinity College, Cambridge, and Assistant Master of Harrow 
 School. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Reynolds.— NOTES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. A 
 
 Selection of Sermons by Henry Robert Reynolds, B.A., 
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 enlarged. 8vo. 16^. 
 
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 Crown 8vo. "js. 6d. 
 
26 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Romanes.— CHRISTIAN PRAYER AND GENERAL 
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 Rushbrooke.— SYNOPTICON : An Exposition of the 
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 In Six Parts and Appendices. 4to. Part I. y. 6ci. Parts II. and 
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 pendices, \os. 6d., or the complete work, in one vol. cloth, 35^. 
 
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 By George Salmox, D.D., Chancellor of St. Patrick's Cathe- 
 dral, and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Dublin. 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Scotch Sermons, 1880. — By Principal Caird ; Rev. J. 
 
 Cunningham, D.D. ; Rev. D. J. Ferguson, B.D. ; Professor 
 
 \Vm. Knight, LL.D. ; Rev. W. Mackintosh, D.D. ; Rev. 
 
 W. L. M'Farlan; Rev. Allan Menzies, B.D. ; Rev. T. 
 
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 Sermons, contributed by members of the Established Church, seems likely 
 to cause as much commotion in that body as ' Essays and Reviews ' did 
 in the Church of England." 
 
 Selborne.— THE BOOK OF PRAISE : From the Best 
 English Hymn Writers. Selected and arranged by the Right Hon. 
 the Earl of Selborne, Viscount Wol.mer. With Vignette by 
 T. WooLNER, R.A. i8mo. 4?. 6d. 
 
 It has been the Editoi's desire and aim to adhere strictly, in all cases i>i 
 ivhich it could be ascertained, to the genuine uncorruptcd text of the authors 
 themselves. The names of the authors and date of composition of the 
 hymns, when known, are affixed, while notes are added to the volume, 
 giving further details. The Hymns are arranged accordi>tg to subjects. 
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 — Guardian. Approaches as nearly as one can conceive to peifectivn." 
 — Nonconformist. 
 
 BOOK OF PRAISE HYMNAL. See end of this Catalogue. 
 
 Sermons out of Church. By the Author of "John 
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THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 27 
 
 Speaking of this volume the Reviezvers remark : ' ' We have read this 
 book with no stnall pleasure. The author is well entitled to speak on 
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 timely. ' — British Quarterly Review. " IVe may fairly advise young 
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 THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. Sermons preached 
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 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS AT ST. ANDREW'S 
 in 1872, 1875 and 1876. Crown Svo. 5^. 
 
28 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 STANLEY (Very Rev. A. V .)~conti,med. 
 
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 of RUGBY SCHOOL. ByF. Temple, D.D., Bishop of Exeter. 
 New and Cheaper Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4J. bd. 
 This volujne contains TJiirtyfive Sermons on topics more or less inti- 
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 "Great Men:" "Faith;" "Doubts;" "Scruples;" "Original Sin;" 
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 tlie Past." 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 29 
 
 TEMPLE (T>r.)— continued . 
 
 A SECOND SERIES OF SERMONS PREACHED IN 
 THE CHAPEL OF RUGBY SCHOOL. Second Edition. 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. 6^. 
 
 This Second Series of Forty-two brief, pointed, practical Sermons, on 
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 acceptable to all who are acquainted with the First Sen'es. The follviving 
 are a fexu of the subjects treated of: — Disobedience," "Almsgiving," 
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 Aims in Leaders," "Doing our Best," " The Use of Knozoledge," "Use 
 of Observances," "Martha and Mary," "fohn the Baptist," "Severity 
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 A THIRD SERIES OF SERMONS PREACHED IN 
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 Thornely.— THE ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ASPECT 
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 NOTES ON THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD. 
 Fourteenth Edition. Svo. I2s. 
 
3° 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 TRENCH (Archbishop)— 
 
 This work has taken its place as a standard exposition and interpreta- 
 tion of Ch list's Parables. The book is prefaced by an Introductory Essay 
 in four chapters : — /. 0« the definition of the Parable. II. On Teach- 
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 other Parables besides those in the Scriptures. The author then proceeds 
 to take up the Parables one by one, and by the aid of philology, history, 
 antiquities, and the researches of travellers, shews forth the significance, 
 beauty, and applicability of each, concluding tuith what he deems its true 
 moral interpretation. In the numerous Notes are many valuable references, 
 illustrative quotations, critical and philological annotations, etc., and ap- 
 pended to the volume is a classified list of fifty-six works on the Parables. 
 
 NOTES ON THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD. 
 Eleventh Edition, revised. 8vo. 12J. 
 
 In the 'Preliminary Essay' to this work, all the momentous and in- 
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 designated in the Neiij Testainent. II. The Miracles and A'aturc — What 
 is tlie diference between a Miracle and any event in the 07'dinary course 
 of Nature ? III. The Authority of Miracles — Is the Miracle to command 
 absolute obedience? IV. The Evangelical, compared with the other cycles 
 of Miracles. V. The Assaults on the Miracles — I. The Jewish. 2. The 
 Heathen ( Celstis, etc. ). 3. The Pantheistic (Spinosa, etc.). 4. The 
 Sceptical ( Hume). 5. The Miracles only relatively miraculous ( Schleier- 
 macher). 6. The Rationalistic (Paulus). 7. The Historico- Critical 
 (Woolston, Strauss). VI. The Apologetic Worth of the Miracles. The 
 author then treats the separate Mh-acles as he does the Parables. 
 
 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Ninth 
 Edition, enlarged. 8vo. \2s. 
 
 This Edition has been carefidly revised, and a considerable ftnmber oj 
 neiu Synonyms added. Appended is an Index to the Synonyms, and an 
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 'He is," the Athenceum says, " a guide in this department of knowledgt 
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 arbitrary hypotheses. " 
 
 ON THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT. Second Edition. 8vo. Js. 
 
 After soine Introductory Remarks, iti which the propriety of a revision 
 is briefly discussed, the whole question of the merits of the presetit version 
 is gone into in detail, in eleven chapters. Appended is a chronological list 
 of works bearing on the subject, an Index of the principal Texts con- 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 31 
 
 TRENCH (Archbishop)— <r(7«//««^a'. 
 
 sidered, an Index of Greek Words, and an Index 0/ other Words re- 
 ferred to tlirougJiout the book. 
 
 STUDIES IN THE GOSPELS. Fourth Edition, revised. 
 8vo. los. 6d. 
 
 This book is published under the conviction that the assertion often 
 made is iDttrue, — viz. that the Gospels are in the main plain and easy, 
 and that all the chief difficulties of the Neiu Testament are to be fonnd 
 in the Epistles. These 'Studies,'' sixteen in numboi; are the frnit of a 
 much larger scheme, and each Study deals with some important episode 
 mentioned in the Gospels, in a critical, philosophical, and practical man- 
 ner. Many references and quotations are added to the Notes. Among 
 the sulijects treated are: — The Temptation; Christ and the .Samaritan 
 Woman; The Three Aspirants ; The Trattsfigiiration ; Zacchmis ; The 
 True Vine; The Penitent Alalefactor; Christ and the Two Disciples on 
 the way to Emtnaus. 
 
 COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLES to the SEVEN 
 CHURCHES IN ASIA. Fourth Edition, revised. 8vo. Sj-. (id. 
 
 The present work consists of an Introduction, being a commentary on 
 Rev. i. 4 — 20, a detailed examination oj each of the Seven Epistles, in all 
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 tion of the Epistles. 
 
 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. An Exposition 
 drawn from tlie writings of St. Augustine, with an Essay on liis 
 merits as an Interpreter of Holy Scripture. Fourth Edition, en- 
 larged. 8vo. los. 6d. 
 
 The first half of the present work consists of a dissertation in eight 
 chapters on Atigscstine as an Interpreter of Scripture,'' the titles of the 
 several chapters being as follow : — /. Augustine's General Views of Scrip- 
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 tion of Scriptu7-e possessed by Augustine. III. Augustine's Priiui/les 
 and Canons of Interpretation. IV. Augustin^ s Allegorical Interp?-etalion 
 of Scripture. V. Illustrations of Augi4stini s Skill as an IrJopreler op 
 Scripture. VI. Augustine on John the Baptist and on .St. StcphcK. 
 VII. Augustine on the Epistle to the Romans. VIII. Miscellaneous 
 Examples of Augustine's Inteipretation of Scripture. The latter half of 
 the work consists of Augustine's Exposition of the Sermon on the Mou?tt, 
 not however a mere series of quotations from Augustine, but a connected 
 account of his sentiments on the various passages of that Sermon, inter- 
 spersed with criticisms by Archbishop Trench. 
 
 SHIPWRECKS OF FAITH. Three Sermons preached 
 before the University of Cambridge in May, 1S67. Fcap. 8vo. 2j. i>d. 
 
32 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 TRENCH (Archbishop)— 
 
 These Sermons are especially addressed to young nun. The subjects 
 are '■'Balaam," "Saul," and "yudas Iscariot," These lives are set 
 forth as deacon-lights, "to warn us off from perilous reefs and quick- 
 sands, which have been the destruction of many, and -which might only too 
 easily be ours." 77;? John "Bull says — "they are, like all he 'unites, af- 
 fectionate and earnest discourses. " 
 
 SER]\IONS Preached for the most part in Ireland. Svo. 
 los. 6d. 
 
 This volume consists of Thirty-two Sermons, the greater part of which 
 were preached in Iicland ; the subjects are as follo-w : — facob, a Priti^e 
 with God and with Jlen — Agrippa — The IVoman that was a Sinner- 
 Secret Faults — The Seven Worse Spirits — Freedom in the Truth — foseph 
 arid his Brelhi-en — Bearing one aiwther's Burdens — Chrisfs Challenge to 
 the World — The Loze of Money— The Salt of the Earth — The A rmour of 
 God — Light in the Lord — The Jailer of Philippi — The Tlwrn in the Fiesk 
 — Isaiah's Vision — Selfishtiess — Abraham iniei-ceding for Sodom — Vai-.i 
 Thoughts — Pontius Pilate — The Brazen Serpent — The Death and Burial 
 of Moses — A Word from the Cross — The Churches Worship in the 
 Beauty of Holiness — Every Good Gift from Abca-e — On the Hearitig of 
 Prayer— The JCingdom which cometh not vAth Observation — Pressing 
 towards the Mark — Saul — The Good Shepherd — The Valley of Dry Bones 
 — All Saints. 
 
 LECTURES ON MEDIEVAL CHURCH HISTORY. 
 Being the Substance of Lectures delivered in Queen's College, 
 London. Second Edition, revised. Svo. I2s. 
 
 Contents: — The Middle Ages Beginning — The Conversion of Film- 
 land — Islam — Ilie Conversion of Germany — The Iconoclasts — The 
 Crusades — The Papacy at its Height — The Sects of the Middle Ages — 
 The Mendicant Orders — The Waldenses — Tiie Rtt-ival of Learning — 
 Christian Art in the Middle Ages, &^c. &'c. 
 
 THE HULSEAN LECTURES, 1845-1846. Fifth Edition, 
 revised. Svo. "Js. 6d. 
 
 This volume consists of Sixteen Sermons, eight being on ' The Fitness 
 of Holy Scripture for unfolding the Spiritual Life of Men,'' the others 
 on ' Christ, the Desire of all Nations ; or, the unconscious Prophecies 
 of Heathendom J' 
 
 Tulloch.— THE CHRIST OF THE GOSPELS AND 
 THE CHRIST OF MODERN CRITICISM. Lectures on 
 M. Renan's 'Vie de Jesus.' By John Tulloch, D.D., 
 Principal of the College of St. Mar)', in the University of St. 
 Andre^\ 's. E.xtra fcap. Svo. 4J. 6</. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 33 
 
 Vaughan.— Works by theveryRev. Charles JOHN Vaughan, 
 
 D.D., Dean of Llandaff and Master of the Temple: 
 CHRIST SATISP'YING THE INSTINCTS OF HU- 
 MANITY. Eight Lectures deHvered in the Temple Church. 
 Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3^-. 6^/. 
 ' ' We are convinced that there are congregations, in number unmistakably 
 increasing, to ivhom such Essays as these, full of thought and learning, 
 are infinitely uiore beneficial, for they are more acceptable, than the recog- 
 nised type of sermons." — ^John Bull. 
 
 THE BOOK AND THE LIFE, and other Sermons, 
 preached before the University of Cambridge. Third Edition. 
 Fcap. 8vo. 4-f. dd. 
 TWELVE DISCOURSES on SUBJECTS CONNECTED 
 WITH THE LITURGY and WORSHIP of the CHURCH 
 OF ENGLAND. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 6^. 
 
 LESSONS OF LIFE AND GODLINESS. A Selection 
 of Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster. Fourth 
 and Cheaper Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3^. bd. 
 This volume consists of Nineteen Sermons, mostly on subjects connected 
 with the evei'y-day walk and conversation of Christians. The Spectator 
 styles them earnest and human. They are adapted to ez'ery class atid 
 order in the social system, and will be read with wakeful interest by all 
 who seek to amend whatever may be ajniss in their natural disposition 
 or in their acquired habits. " 
 
 WORDS FROM THE GOSPELS. A Second Selection 
 of Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Doncaster. Third 
 Edition. Fcap. Svo. 4s. 6d. 
 The Nonconformist characterises these Sermons as " of practical earnest- 
 ness, of a thoughtfuhiess that penetrates the common conditions and ex- 
 periences of life, and brings the tiuths a7id examples of Scripture to bear 
 on them zvith singular force, and of a style that 07ves its real elegance to 
 the simplicity and directness 7uhich have fine culture for their roots. " 
 
 LIFE'S WORK AND GOD'S DISCIPLINE. Three 
 Sermons. Third Edition. Fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 THE WHOLESOME WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge in 
 November, 1866. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3J-. 6d. 
 Dr. Vaughan uses the word Wholesome" here in its literal and 
 original sense, the sense in which St. Paul uses it, as meaning healthy, 
 sound, conducing to right living ; and in these Sermons he points out 
 and illustrates several of the "wholesome" characteristics of the Gospel, 
 — the Words of Christ. The John Bull says this volume is "replete with 
 all the author^ s well-known vigour of thought and richness of expression." 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 VAUGHAN (Dr. C. }.)—conHnued. 
 
 FOES OF FAITH. Sermons preached before the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge in November, 1868. Second Edition. Fcap. 
 8vo. y. (3d. 
 
 The '■^ Foes of Faith'" preached against in these Four Sermons are: — 
 /. Unreality." II. ^'Indolence." III. '■^Irreverence." IV. ^^Incon- 
 sistency." 
 
 LECTURES ON THE EPISTLE to the PHILIPPIANS. 
 Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. Ts. 6d. 
 
 Each Lecture is prefaced by a literal translation from the Greek of 
 the paragraph which forms its subject, contains first a minute explanation 
 of the passage on which it is based, and then a practical application of 
 the verse or clause selected as its text. 
 
 LECTURES ON THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN. 
 Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. \os. 6d. 
 
 In this Edition of these Lectures, the literal translations of the passages 
 expounded will be found interwoven in the body of the Lectures themselves. 
 '■'■Dr. Vaughan's Sermons," the Spectator says, "are the most prac- 
 tical discourses on the Apocalypse zviih which we are acquainted." Pre- 
 fixed is a Synopsis of the Book of Revelation, and appended is an Index 
 of passages illustrating the language of the Book. 
 
 EPIPHANY, LENT, AND EASTER. A Selection of 
 Expository Sermons. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. \0s. 6d. 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. For English Readers. 
 Part I., containing the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. 
 Second Edition. 8vo. i^. 6d. 
 It is the object of this work to enable English readers, unacquainted 
 with Greek, to enter with intelligence into the meaning, connexion, and 
 phraseology of the writings of the great Apostle. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. The Greek 
 Text, with English Notes. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. 7^. dd. 
 
 The Guardian says of the work — "For educated young men his com- 
 mentary seems to fill a gap hitherto unfilled. . . . As a whole. Dr. Vaughan 
 appears to us to have given to the world a valuable book of original and 
 careful and earnest thought besto^ued on the accomplishment of a work 
 which will be of much service and which is much needed." 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST DAYS. 
 Series I. The Church of Jerusalem. Third Edition. 
 ,, II. The Church of the Gentiles. Third Edition. 
 „ III. The Church of the World. Thurd Edition. 
 Fcap. 8vo. 4-r. 6d. each. 
 The British Quarterly says — " These Sermons are worthy of all praise, 
 and art modds of pulpit teaching." 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 35 
 
 VAUGHAN (Dr. I.)— continued. 
 
 COUNSELS for YOUNG STUDENTS. Three Sermons 
 
 preached before the University of Cambridge at the Opening of 
 the Academical Year 1870-71. Fcap. 8vo. 7.s. 6d. 
 
 NOTES FOR LECTURES ON CONFIRMATION, 
 with suitable Prayers. Eleventh Edition. Fcap. 8vo. is. ()d. 
 
 THE TWO GREAT TEMPTATIONS. The Tempta- 
 tion of Man, and the Temptation of Christ. Lectures delivered in 
 the Temple Church, Lent 1872. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 
 8vo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 WORDS FROM THE CROSS : Lent Lectures, 1875 ; and 
 Thoughts for these Times : University Sermons, 1874. Extra fcap. 
 8vo. 4^. 6d. 
 
 ADDRESSES TO YOUNG CLERGYMEN, delivered at 
 Salisbury in September and October, 1875. Extra fcap. 8vo. 4J. 6d. 
 
 HEROES OF FAITH : Lectures on Hebrews xi. Extra 
 fcap. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 THE YOUNG LIFE EQUIPPING ITSELF FOR GOD'S 
 
 SERVICE : Sermons before the University of Cambridge. Sixth 
 
 Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6d. 
 THE SOLIDITY OF TRUE RELIGION ; and other 
 
 Sermons. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. y. 6d. 
 MEMORIALS OF HARROW SUNDAYS. A Selectioti 
 
 of Sermons preached in the Chapel of Harrow School. Fifth 
 
 Edition. Crown 8vo. los. 6d. 
 SERMONS IN HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL (1847). 
 
 8vo. 10s. 6d. 
 
 NINE SERMONS IN HARROW SCHOOL CHAPEL 
 
 (1849). Fcap. Svo. 5^. 
 "MY SON, GIVE ME THINE HEART;" Sermons 
 
 preached before the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, I876 
 
 — 78. Fcap. 8vo. 5j. 
 THE- LORD'S PRAYER. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 
 
 Svo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 REST AWHILE : Addresses to Toilers in the Ministry. 
 
 Extra fcap. 8vo. ^s, 
 TEMPLE SERMONS. Crown Svo. icw. (xf. 
 
 This volume contains a selection of the Sermons preached by Dr. 
 Vaughan in the Temple Church during the tu'elve years that he has held 
 the dignity of Master. 
 
 AUTHORISED OR REVISED? Sermons on some of the 
 Texts in which the Revised Version differs from the Authorised. 
 Crown Svo. 7^. 6d. 
 
36 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Vaughan (E. T.)— SOME REASONS OF OUR CHRIST- 
 IAN HOPE. Hiilsean Lectures for 1875. By E. T. Vaughan, 
 M.A., Rector of Harpenden. Crown 8vo. 6^. bd. 
 
 Vaughan (D.J.) — Works by CANON Vaughan, of Leicester: 
 
 SERMONS PREACHED IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, 
 LEICESTER, during 'the Years 1855 and 1856. Cr. 8vo. 5^.6^/. 
 
 CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES AND THE BIBLE. New 
 Edition, revised and enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. 5j. (>d. 
 
 THE PRESENT TRIAL OF FAITH. Sermons preached 
 in St. Martin's Church, Leicester. Crown 8vo. gj. 
 
 Venn.— ON SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF 
 BELIEF, Scientific and Religious. Being the Hulsean Lectures 
 for 1869. By the Rev. J. Venn, M. A. 8vo. 6j. 6(/. 
 
 Vita.— LINKS AND CLUES. By Vita. Crown 8vo. 6j. 
 
 " // is a long time since 7C'e ha-t'e read a book so full of the life of a true 
 spirittial mind. , . . Indeed, it is not so much a booh to read through, as 
 to read and return to as you do to the Bible itself, p-om which its ivhole 
 significance is derived, in passages suited to the chief interest and difficulties 
 
 of the moment We cannot too cordially recommend a book which 
 
 axoakens the spirit, as hardly any book of the last fexv years has awakened 
 it, to thereat meaning of the Christian life." — Spectator. 
 
 Warington.— THE WEEK OF CREATION ; or, The 
 Cosmogony of Genesis considered in its Relation to Modem Sci- 
 ence. By George Warington, Author of 'The Historic 
 Character of the Pentateuch vindicated.' Crown 8vo. 4J-. (>d. 
 
 Westcott. — Works by Brooke Foss Westcott, D.D., 
 
 Regius Professor of Divinity in tlie University of Cambridge ; 
 Canon of Peterborough : 
 The London Quarterly, speaking of Dr. Westcott, says — " To a learn- 
 ing and accuracy which C07nma7id respect and confidence, he iinites what 
 are not always to be found in union with these qualities, the no less valuable 
 faculties of lucid arrangement and graceful and facile expression." 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE 
 
 GOSPELS. Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo. loj-. 6d. 
 The author's chief object in this work has been to shew that there is 
 a true mean betzaeen the idea of a formal harmonization of the Gospels 
 and the abandonment of their absolute truth. After an Inti-oduction on 
 the General Effects oj the course of Modern Philosophy on the popular 
 views of Christianity, he proceeds to determine in what way the principles 
 therein indicated may be applied to the study of the Gospels. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 37 
 
 WESTCOTT (Ht.)— continued. 
 
 A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE 
 CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT during the First Four 
 Centuries. Fifth Edition, revised, with a Preface on ' Super- 
 natural Religion.' Crown 8 vo. ios.6d. 
 The object of this treatise is to deal with the Nciu Testament as a whole, 
 and that on purely historical grounds. The separate books of which it is 
 composed are cotisidered not individually, but as claiming to be parts of the 
 apostolic heritage of Christians. ' ' The treatise," says the British Quarterly, 
 "m a scholarly performance, learned, dispassionate, discriminating, 
 worthy of his subject and of the present state of Christian literature in 
 relation to it." 
 
 THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH. A Popular Account 
 of the Collection and Reception of the Holy Scriptures in the 
 Christian Churches. Seventh Edition. i8mo. 4^. dd. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ENGLISH BIBLE. Second Edition. Crown Svo. los. 6d. 
 The Pall Mall Gazette calls the work "A brief, scholarly, and, to a 
 great extent, an original contribution to theological literature." 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, MANIFOLD AND ONE. 
 Six Sermons preached in Peterborough Cathedral. Crown 8vo. 
 2s. 6d. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF THE RESURRECTION. Thoughts 
 on its Relation to Reason and History. Fourth Edition, revised. 
 Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 ON THE RELIGIOUS OFFICE OF THE UNIVER- 
 SITIES. Crown Svo. 4^. 6d. 
 
 " There is zvisdom, and ti-uth, and thought enough. And a 
 
 harmony and mtitual connexion running through them all, which makes 
 the collection of more real value thait many aii ambitious treatise." — 
 Literary Churchman. 
 
 THE REVELATION OF THE RISEN LORD. Second 
 Edition, with a new Preface. Crown Svo. 6s. 
 
 THE HISTORIC FAITH : Short Lectures on the 
 Apostles' Creed. Crown Svo. 6j-. 
 
 Westcott— Hort.— THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE 
 ORIGINAL GREEK. The Text Revised by B. F. Westcott, 
 D. D., Regius Professor of Divinity, Canon of Peterborough, and 
 F. T- A. Hort, D.D., Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Fellow of 
 Emmanuel College, Cambridge ; late Fellows of Trinity College, 
 Cambridge. 2 vols. Crown Svo. lOs. 6d. each. 
 
 Vol. I. Text. Vol. II. Introduction and Appendix. 
 
38 
 
 THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 WESTCOTT— HORT— <r(;«rf««^(/. 
 
 " The Greek Testament as printed by the t^vo Professors must in future 
 rank as one oj the highest critical authorities amongst English scholars. " 
 — Guardian. 
 
 " It is probably the most important contribution to Biblical learning in 
 our generation. " — Saturday, Review. 
 
 " The object in vie^v is to present the original tvords of the Nem Testa- 
 ment as nearly as they can be determined at the present time, to arrive at 
 the texts of the autographs themselves so far as it is possible to obtain it by 
 
 the help of existing ??iaterials We attach much excellence to this 
 
 manual edition of the Greek Testament, because it is the best contribution 
 which England has made in modern times toiuards the production of a 
 pure text. . . . It bears on its face evidences of calm judgment and com- 
 mendable candour. The student may avail himself of its aid 'with nmch 
 confidence. The Introduction and Appendix specially deserve minute 
 attention. " — AtheriEeum. 
 
 Wilkins.— THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. An Essay, 
 by A. S. Wilkins, M.A., Professor of Latin in Owens College, 
 Manchester. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 3^. 6d. 
 It would be difficult to praise too highly the spirit, the burden, the 
 conclusions, or the scholarly finish of this beatitiful Essay." — British Quar- 
 terly Review. 
 
 Wilson.— THE BIBLE STUDENT'S GUIDE TO THE 
 MORE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING of the ENGLISH 
 TRANSLATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, by Reference 
 to the Original Hebrew. By William Wilson, D.D., Canon of 
 Winchester. Second Edition, carefully revised. 4to. 25^. 
 The author believes that the present tvork is the nearest a^bproach to 
 a complete Concordance of every word in the original that has yet been 
 viade; and as a Concordance it tnay be found of gi'eat use to the Bible 
 student, while at the same time it serves the important object of furnishing 
 the means of comparing synonymous words and of eliciting their precise 
 and distinctive meaning. The kno7vledge of the Hebrew language is not 
 absolutely ttecessary to the profitable use of the work. 
 
 Worship (The) of God and Fellowship among 
 
 Men. Sermons on Public Worship. By Professor Maurice, 
 and others. Fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6d. 
 
 Yonge (Charlotte M.)— Works by Charlotte M.Yonge, 
 
 Author of ' The Heir of Redclyffe ': 
 SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR SCHOOLS AND FA- 
 MILIES. 5 vols. Globe 8vo. is.6d. With Comments, 3^. 6i/. each. 
 First Series. Genesis to Deuteronomy. 
 Second Series. From Joshua to Solomon. 
 
THEOLOGICAL BOOKS. 
 
 39 
 
 YONGE (Charlotte tA.)—conti}tite(i. 
 
 Third Series. The Khigs and Prophets. 
 Fourth Series. The Gospel Times. 
 Fifth Series. Apostolic Times. 
 
 Actual tieed has led the author to endeavour to prepare a reading book 
 convenient for study isnth childreti, containing the very words of the 
 Bible, with only a few expedient omissions, and arranged in Lessons of 
 such length as by experience she has found to suit with children's ordinary 
 poiver of accurate attentive interest. The verse form has been retained be- 
 cause of its convenience for children reading in class, and as more re- 
 sembling their Bibles ; but the poetical poj-tions have been given in their 
 lines. Professor Huxley at a tneeting of the London School-board, par- 
 ticularly mentioned the Selection made by Miss Yonge, as an example of 
 how selections might be made for School reading. "He)' Comments are 
 models of their hind.'" — Literary Churchman. 
 
 THE PUPILS OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. New 
 Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 ' ' Young and old will be equally refreshed and tazight by these pages, 
 in 'uhich nothing is dull, and nothing is far-fetched. " — Churchman. 
 
 PIONEERS AND FOUNDERS; or, Recent Workers in 
 the Mission Field. With Frontispiece and Vignette Portrait of 
 Bishop Heber. Crown 8vo. 6^. 
 
 The missionaries whose biographies are here given, are—fohn Eliot, 
 the A postle of the Red Indians; David Brainerd, the Enthtisiast ; Christ- 
 tan F. Sch'wartz, the Councillor oj Tanjore ; Henry Martyn, the Scholar- 
 Missionary ; William Carey and foshua Marshman, the Serampore Mis- 
 sionaries ; the fudson Family; the Bishops of Calcutta — Thomas 
 Middleton, Reginald Heber, Daniel Wilson; Samuel Mar sden, the Aus- 
 tralian Chaplain and Friend of the Maori; John Williams, the Martyr 
 of Erromango ; Allen Gardener, the Sailor Martyr ; Charles Fredanck 
 Mackenzie, the Martyr of Zambesi. 
 
 Zechariah, Hebrew, and LXX., The Hebrew 
 
 Student's Commentary on. With Excursus on several Grammatical 
 Subjects. By W. H. Lowe, M.A., Hebrew Lecturer at Christ's 
 College, Cambridge. Demy 8vo. los. 6d. 
 " This is a useful and scholarly work. The notes are intended to in- 
 clude the ivants of comparative beginners in Hebrezc, Intt they contain much 
 also that will be of value to those who are more advanced ; they are always 
 sound, and direct the student's attention to just such points of importance 
 as he is likely to 07-erlook. The volume abounds 'oith suggestions and 
 cautions, for which every diligent reader of Hebrew will be grateful ; and 
 those who desire to strengthen and increase their knowledge of the language 
 cannot do bettei- than peruse it attoitively , . . Altos^ether 7ve welcome Mr. 
 Lvioe's volume as a real help to the study of Hebrasj in this country." — r 
 Academy. 
 
THE "BOOK OF PRAISE" HYMNAL, 
 
 COMriLED AND ARRANGED BY THE RIGHT HON. THE 
 
 EARL OF SELBORNE, VISCOUNT WOLMER. 
 
 In the following fcur forms : — 
 
 A. BeaatifoUy printed in Royal 32mo., limp cloth, price 6d. 
 
 B. ,, SmalllSmo., larger type, cloth limp, Is. 
 
 C. Same edition on fine paper, cloth, Is. 6d. 
 
 Also an edition with Music, selected, harmonized, and composed 
 by JOHN HTJT.T.AH, in square 18mo., cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 TJu large cueeplance 'djhich has been given to " The Book of Praise" 
 by all classes of Christian people encourages the Publishers in entertaining 
 the Iwpe that this Hymnal, which is tnainly selected from it, may be ex- 
 tensi-jely used in Congregations, and in some degree at least nuet the 
 desires of those who seek uniformity i?i common worship as a means 
 towards that unity which pious souls yearn after, and which our Lord 
 prayed for in behalf of Ids Church. "The office of a hymn is not to 
 teach controversial Theology, but to give the voice oj song to practical 
 religion. No doubt, to do this, it must embody sound doctrine ; but it 
 ought to do so, not after the manner of tJie scJwols, but with the breadth, 
 freedom, and simplicity of the Fountain-head." On this principle lias 
 Sir R. Painter proceeded in tJie preparation of this book. 
 
 The arrangement adopted b the following : — 
 Part I. consists of Hymns arranged according to the subjects of the 
 Creed— "God the Creator," "Christ Incarnate," "Christ Crucified," 
 "Christ Risen," "Christ Ascended," "Christ's Kingdom and Judg- 
 ment," etc. 
 
 Part II. compndses Hymns arranged according to the subjects of the 
 Lord's Prayer. 
 
 Part III. Hymns for natural atid sacred seasons. 
 
 There are 320 Hymns in all. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : FEINTED BY J. FAUCES. 
 
 1 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 
 
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