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REESE LIBRARY 
 
 OF THK 
 
 ^*i. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Received + 
 
 (7 
 
 Accessions No. . /^.A^ i _ Shelf No. T . 
 
THE K 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 J 
 
 ETH 
 
 
 AND OTHER 
 SERMONS ON NATIONAL SUBJECTS 
 
 PREACHED IN A VILLAGE CHURCH 
 
 CHARLES KHSTGSLEY 
 
 RECTOR OP EVERSLEY AND CA.NON OP CHESTER 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1872. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SEKMON I. (p. 1.) 
 THE KING OF THE EARTH. 
 
 Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. MATTHEW xxi. 4. 
 
 SEKMON II. (p. 12.) 
 HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our 
 example, that we, through patience, and comfort of the Scriptures, 
 might have hope. ROMANS xv. 4. 
 
 SERMON III. (p. 22.) 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, 
 he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that 
 should come, or do we look for another ? Jesus answered and said 
 unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do see 
 and hear : The hlind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the 
 lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and 
 the poor have the gospel preached to them. MATTHEW xi. 2, 3, 4, 5. 
 
 SERMON IV. (p. 40.) 
 A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 
 
 Rejoice in the Lord always. PHILIPPIANS iv. 4. 
 
 SERMON V. (p. 50,) 
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form 
 of a slave. PHILIPPIANS ii. 7. 
 
 SERMON VI. (p. 60.) 
 TRUE ABSTINENCE. 
 
 I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection. i COBIN- 
 THIANS ix. 27. 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON VII. (p. 76.) 
 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His 
 presence saved them. In His love and in His pity He redeemed 
 them ; and He bare them and carried them all the days of old. 
 ISAIAH Ixiii. 9. 
 
 SERMON VIII. (p. 87.) 
 EASTER-DAY. 
 
 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are 
 above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. COLOS- 
 SIANS iii. i. 
 
 SERMON IX. (p. 99.) 
 THE COMFORTER. 
 
 If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but 
 if I depart, I will send Him unto you. JOHN xvi. 7. 
 
 SERMON X. (p. 111.) 
 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentle- 
 ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such there 
 is no law. GALATIANS v. 22, 23. 
 
 SERMON XI. (p. 130.) 
 ASCENSION-DAY. 
 
 And Jesus led them out as far as to Bethany ; and he lifted 
 up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass while he 
 blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into 
 heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem, 
 with great joy; and were continually in the temple, praising and 
 blessing God. LUKE xxiv. 50 53 
 
 SERMON XII. (p. 142.) 
 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and 
 received gifts for men, yea, even for his enemies, that the Lord 
 God might dwell among them. PSALM Ixviii. 18, and EPHE- 
 
 8IAN8 IV. 8. 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 SERMON XIII. (p. 177.) 
 FIRST SEEMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 God's judgments are from above, out of the sight of the wicked. 
 PSALM x. 5 . 
 
 SERMON XIV. (p. 190.) 
 SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children. EXO- 
 DUS xx. 5. 
 
 SERMON XV. (p. 203.) 
 THIRD SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 1 the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of 
 the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth genera- 
 tion of them that hate me. EXODUS xx. 5. 
 
 SERMON XVI. (p. 217.) 
 ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 
 
 God hath visited his people. LUKE vii. 16. 
 
 SERMON XVII. (p. 231.) 
 THE COVENANT. 
 
 The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his 
 own possession. For I know that the Lord is great, and that our 
 Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did 
 he in heaven and earth, and in the sea, and in all deep places. 
 PSALM cxxxv. 4, 5, 6. 
 
 SERMON XVIII. (p. 244.) 
 NATIONAL REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all ; that 
 ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, 
 to serve wood and stone. As I live, saith the Lord God, surely 
 with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury 
 
 Foured out, will I rule over you And ye shall know that 
 am the Lord. EZEKIEL xx. 32, 33, 38. 
 
Till CONTENTS. 
 
 SEEMON XIX. (p. 254) 
 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord 
 went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred 
 and eighty-five thousand ; and when they arose in the morning, 
 behold, they were all dead corpses. 2 KINGS xix. 35. 
 
 SERMON XX. (p. 265.) 
 PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 
 
 Though they say, l The Lord liveth,' surely they swear falsely. 
 JEREMIAH v. 2. 
 
 SEEMON XXI. (p. 279.) 
 THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 
 
 But and if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth 
 His coming ; and shall begin to beat the men servants and the 
 maid servants, and tp eat and drink and to be drunken ; the Lord 
 of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for Him, 
 and in an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him asunder, 
 and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers LUKE xii. 
 45, 46- 
 
 SEEMON XXII. (p. 294) 
 THE WAY TO WEALTH. 
 
 Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him 
 while He is near : Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un- 
 righteous man his thoughts : arid let him return unto the Lord, 
 arid He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will 
 abundantly pardon. ISAIAH Iv. 6, 7. 
 
 SEEMON XXIII. (p. 305.) 
 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 
 
 For the love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, 
 that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that He died 
 i'or all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto 
 themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. 
 2 CORINTHIANS v. 14, 15. 
 
"> 
 
 / '4" 
 
 '-'/ '^'S *' 
 THE KING OF THE EAKTH. C{ 
 
 FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 
 
 MATTHEW xxi. 4. 
 
 Behold, thy King cometh unto thee. 
 [Preached in 1849.] 
 
 Sunday is the first of the four Sundays in 
 - Advent. During those four Sundays, our fore- 
 fathers have advised us to think seriously of the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ not that we 
 should neglect to think of it at all times. As some 
 of you know, I have preached to you about it often 
 lately. Perhaps before the end of Advent, you will 
 all of you, more or less, understand what all that I 
 have said about the cholera, and public distress, and 
 the sins of this nation, and the sins of the labouring 
 people, has to do with the coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. But I intend, especially in my next 
 four sermons, to speak my whole mind to you about 
 this matter as far as God has shown it to me; 
 taking the Collect, Epistle, and Gospels, for each 
 
2 THE KING OF THE EARTH. 
 
 Sunday in Advent, and explaining them. I am 
 sure I cannot do better ; for the more I see of 
 those Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, and the way 
 in which they are arranged, the more I am 
 astonished and delighted at the wisdom with 
 which they are chosen, the wise order in which 
 they follow each other, and fit into each other. It 
 is very fit, too, that we should think of our Lord's 
 coming at this season of the year above all others ; 
 because it is the hardest season the season of 
 most want, and misery, and discontent, when wages 
 are low, and work is scarce, and fuel is dear, and 
 frosts are bitter, and farmers and tradesmen, and 
 gentlemen, too, are at their wits' end to square 
 their accounts, and pay their way. Then is the 
 time that the evils of society come home to us 
 that our sins, and our sorrows, which, after all, are 
 the punishment of our sins, stare us in the face. 
 Then is the time, if ever, for men's hearts to 
 cry out for a Saviour, who will deliver them out 
 of their miseries and their sins ; for a Heavenly 
 King who will rule them in righteousness, and 
 do justice and judgment on the earth, and see that 
 those who are in need and necessity have right ; 
 for a Heavenly Counsellor who will guide them 
 into all truth who will teach them what they 
 are, and whither they are going, and what the 
 Lord requires of them. I say the hard days of 
 
THE KING OF THE EARTH. 3 
 
 winter are a fit time to turn men's hearts to Christ 
 their King the fittest of all times for a clergyman 
 to get up in his pulpit, as I do now, and tell his 
 people, as I tell you, that Jesus Christ your King 
 has not forgotten you that he is coming speedily 
 to judge the world ? and execute justice and judg- 
 ment for the meek of the earth. 
 
 Now do not be in a hurry, and fancy from what 
 I have just said, that I am one of those who think 
 the end of the world is at hand. It may be, for 
 aught I know. ' Of that day and that hour knoweth 
 no man, not even the angels of God, nor the Son, 
 but the Father only/ If you wish for my own 
 opinion, I believe that what people commonly call 
 the end of the world, that is, the end of the earth 
 and of mankind on it, is not at hand at all. 
 As far as I can judge from Scripture, and from the 
 history of all nations, the earth is yet young, and 
 mankind in its infancy. Five thousand years 
 hence, our descendants may be looking back on us 
 as foolish barbarians, in comparison with what they 
 know : just as we look back upon the ignorance of 
 people a thousand years ago. And yet I believe 
 that the end of this world, in the real Scripture 
 sense of the word c world/ is coming very quickly 
 and very truly The end of this system of society, 
 of these present ways in religion, and money- 
 making, and conducting ourselves in all the affairs 
 B 2 
 
4 THE KING OF THE EARTH. 
 
 of life, which we English people have got into now- 
 a-days. The end of it is coming. It cannot last 
 much longer ; for it is destroying itself. It will 
 not last much longer; for Christ and not the 
 devil is the King of the earth. As St. Paul said 
 to his people, so say I to you, * The night is far 
 spent, the day is at hand/ 
 
 These may seem strange words, but almost every 
 one is saying them, in his own way. One large 
 party among religious people in these days is 
 complaining that Christ has left His Church, and 
 that the cause of Christianity will be ruined and 
 lost, unless some great change takes place. Another 
 large party of religious people say, that the pro- 
 phecies are on the point of being all fulfilled ; that 
 the 1260 days, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, 
 are just coming to an end; and that Christ is 
 coming with His saints, to reign openly upon earth 
 for a thousand years. The wisest philosophers 
 and historians of late years have been all fore- 
 telling a great and tremendous change in Eng- 
 land, and throughout all Europe; and in the 
 mean time, manufacturers and landlords, trades- 
 men and farmers, artisans and labourers, all 
 say, that there must be a change and will be 
 a change. I believe they are all right, every one 
 of them. They put it in their words ; I think it 
 better to put it in the Scripture words, and say 
 
THE KING OF THE EARTH. 5 
 
 boldly, ' Jesus Christ, the King of the earth, is 
 coming/ 
 
 But you will ask, 'What right have you to 
 stand up and say anything so surprising?' My 
 friends, the world is full of surprising things, and 
 this age above all ages. It was not sixty years 
 ago, that a nobleman was laughed at in the House 
 of Lords, for saying that he believed that we should 
 one day see ships go by steam ; and now there are 
 steamers on every sea and ocean in the world. 
 Who expected twenty years ago to see the whole 
 face of England covered with these wonderful rail- 
 roads? Who expected on the 2 2nd of February 
 last year, that, within a single month, half the 
 nations of Europe, which looked so quiet and se- 
 cure, would be shaken from top to bottom with 
 revolution and bloodshed kings and princes va- 
 nishing one after the other like a dream poor 
 men sitting for a day as rulers of kingdoms, and 
 then hurled down again to make room for other 
 rulers as unexpected as themselves ? Can any one 
 consider the last fifty years ? can any one consider 
 that one last year, 1848, and then not feel that we 
 do live in a most strange and awful time ? a time 
 for which nothing is too surprising a time in 
 which we all ought to be prepared, from the least 
 to the greatest, to see the greatest horrors and the 
 greatest blessings come suddenly upon us, like a 
 
6 THE KING OF THE EARTH. 
 
 thief in the night ? So much for Christ's coming 
 being too wonderful a thing to happen just now* 
 Still you are right to ask, ' What do you mean by 
 Christ's being our King ? what do you mean by 
 His coming to us ? What reason have you for sup- 
 posing that He is coming now, rather than at any 
 other time ? And if He be coming, what are we 
 to do? What is there we ought to repent of? 
 what is there we ought to amend ? 
 
 Well, my friends it is just these very questions 
 which I hope and trust God will help me to answer 
 to you, in my next few sermons I am perfectly 
 convinced that we must get them answered and 
 act upon them speedily. I am perfectly con- 
 vinced that if we go on as most of us are going 
 in England now, the Lord of us all will come 
 in an hour when we are not aware, and cut us 
 asunder in the deepest and most real sense, as 
 He came and cut asunder France, Germany, and 
 Austria only last year, and appoint us our portion 
 with the unbelievers. And I believe that our 
 punishment will be seven times as severe as that 
 of either France, Germany, or Austria, because we 
 have had seven times their privileges and blessings, 
 seven times their Gospel light and Christian know- 
 ledge, seven times their freedom and justice in laws 
 and constitution ; seven times their wealth, and 
 prosperity, and means of employing our population.; 
 
THE KING OF THE EARTH. 7 
 
 Much has been given to England, and of her much 
 will be required. And if you could only see the 
 state of mankind over the greatest part of the 
 globe, how infinitely fewer opportunities they have 
 of knowing God's will than you have, you would 
 feel that to you, poor and struggling as some of 
 you are to you much has been given, and of you 
 much will be required. 
 
 .Now first, what do I mean by Christ being our 
 king ? I dare say there are some among you who 
 are inclined to think that, when we talk of Christ 
 being a king, that the word king means something 
 very different from its common meaning and, God 
 knows, that that is true enough. Our blessed 
 Lord took care to make people understand that 
 -how He was not like one of the kings of the 
 nations, how His kingdom was not of this world. 
 But yet the Bible tells us again and again that 
 all good kings, all real kings, are patterns of 
 Christ; and, therefore, that when we talk of 
 Christ being a king, we mean that He is a king 
 in everything that a king ought to be ; that He 
 fulfils perfectly all the duties of a king ; that He 
 is the pattern which all kings ought to copy. 
 Kings have been in all ages too apt to forget that, 
 and, indeed, so have the people too. We English 
 have forgotten most thoroughly in these days, that 
 Christ is our king, or even a king at all. We talk 
 
8 THE KING OF THE EARTH. 
 
 of Christ being a ' spiritual' king, and then we say 
 that that merely means that He is king of Chris- 
 tians' hearts. And when any one asks what that 
 means, it comes out, that all we mean is, that 
 Christ has a very great influence over the hearts 
 of believing Christians when He can obtain it ; 
 or else that it means that He is king of a very 
 small number of people called the elect, whom He 
 has chosen out, but that He has absolutely no- 
 thing to do with the whole rest of the world. 
 And then, when any one stands up with the Bible 
 in his hand, and says, in the plain words of Scrip- 
 ture, * Christ is not only the king of believers, He 
 is the king of the whole earth ; the king of the 
 clouds and the thunder, the king of the land and 
 the cattle, and the trees, and the corn, and to 
 whomsoever He will He giveth them. Christ is 
 not only the king of believers He is the king of 
 all the king of the wicked, of the heathen, of 
 those who do not believe Him, who never heard 
 of Him. Christ is not only the king of a few 
 individual persons, one here and one there in every 
 parish, but He is the king of every nation. He 
 is the king of England, by the grace of God, just 
 as much as Queen Victoria is, and ten thousand 
 times more/ If any man talks in this way, people 
 stare -think him an enthusiast ask him what 
 new doctrine this is, and call his words unscrip- 
 
THE KING OF THE EARTH. 
 
 tural, just because they come out of Scripture and 
 not out of men's perversions and twistings of 
 Scripture. Nevertheless Christ is King ; really 
 and truly King of Kings and Lord of Lords ; and 
 He will make men know it. What He was, that 
 He is and ever will be ; there is no change in 
 Him ; His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 
 and His dominion endureth throughout all ages, 
 and woe unto those, small or great, who rebel 
 against Him ! 
 
 But what sort of a king is He ? He is a king 
 of law, and order, and justice. He is not selfish, 
 fanciful, self-willed. He said himself that He 
 came not to do His own will, but His Father's, 
 He is a king of gentleness and meekness too : but 
 do not mistake that. There is no weak indulgence 
 in Him, A man may be very meek, and yet stern 
 enough and strong enough. Moses was the meek- 
 est of men, we read, and yet He made those who 
 rebelled against him feel that he was not to be 
 trifled with. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram found 
 that to their cost. He would not even spare his 
 own brother Aaron, his own sister Miriam, when 
 they rebelled. And he was right. He showed 
 his love by it ; indulgence is not love. It is no 
 sign of meekness, but only of cowardice and care- 
 lessness, to be afraid to rebuke sin. Moses knew 
 that he was doing God's work, that he was ap- 
 
10 THE KING OF THE EARTH. 
 
 pointed to make a great nation of those slavish 
 besotted Jews, his countrymen ; that he was sent 
 by God with boundless blessings to them ; and 
 woe to whoever hindered him from that. Because 
 he loved the Jews, therefore he dared punish those 
 who tempted them to forget the promised land of 
 Canaan, or break God's covenant, in which lay all 
 their hope. 
 
 And such a one is our King, my friends ; Jesus 
 Christ the Son of God. Like Moses, says St. Paul, 
 He is faithful in all His office. Therefore He is 
 severe as well as gentle. He was so when on 
 earth. With the poor, the outcast, the neglected, 
 those on whom men trampled, who was gentler 
 than the Lord Jesus? To the proud Pharisee, 
 the canting Scribe, the cunning Herodian, who 
 was sterner than the Lord Jesus? Read that 
 awful 23rd chapter of St. Matthew, and then see 
 how the Saviour, the lamb dumb before his 
 shearers, He of whom it was said ' He shall not 
 strive nor cry, nor shall his voice be heard in the 
 streets' how he could speak when he had occa- 
 sion. . . . ' Woe unto you Scribes and Phari- 
 sees, hypocrites !' ' Ye serpents, ye generation of 
 vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell ?' 
 
 My friends, those were the words of our King ; 
 of Him in whom was neither passion nor selfish- 
 ness ; who loved us even to the death, and endured 
 
THE KING OF THE EARTH. 11 
 
 for us the scourge, the cross, the grave. And 
 believe me, such are His words now ; though we 
 do not hear Him, the heaven and the earth hear 
 Him and obey Him. His message is pardon, 
 mercy, deliverance, to the sorrowful and the op- 
 pressed, and the neglected ; and to the proud, the 
 tyrannical, the self-righteous, the hypocritical, tri- 
 bulation, and anguish, shame and woe. 
 
 Because He is the Saviour, therefore He is a 
 consuming fire to all those who try to hinder Him 
 from saving men. Because He is the Son of God, 
 He will sweep out of his Father's kingdom all 
 who offend, and whosoever maketh and loveth a 
 lie. Because He is boundless mercy and love, 
 therefore He will show no mercy to those who try 
 to stop his purposes of love. Because He is the 
 King of men, the enemies of mankind are his 
 enemies ; and He will reign till He has put them 
 all under his feet. 
 
II. 
 
 HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 
 
 KOMANS XV. 4. 
 
 Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our 
 example, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scrip- 
 tures, might have hope. 
 
 i. ' YTTHATSOEVEK was written aforetime/ 
 There is no doubt, I think, that by 
 these words St. Paul means the Bible ; that is, 
 the Old Testament, which was the only part of 
 the Bible already written in his time. For it 
 is of the Psalms which he is speaking. He 
 mentions a verse out of the 69th Psalm, 'The 
 reproaches of Him that reproached thee fell on 
 me ;' which, he says, applies to Christ just as 
 much as it did to David, who wrote it. Christ, 
 he says, pleased not himself any more than David, 
 but suffered willingly and joyfully for God's 
 sake, because he knew that he was doing God's 
 work. And we, he goes on to say, must do the 
 same do as Christ did ; we must not please our- 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE. 13 
 
 selves, but every one of us please our brother for 
 his good and edification ; that is, in order to build 
 him up, strengthen him, make him wiser, better, 
 more comfortable. For, he says, Christ pleased not 
 himself, but like David, lived only to help others ; 
 and therefore this verse out of David's Psalms, 
 6 The reproaches of them that reproached thee 
 fell on me/ is a lesson to us ; a pattern of what 
 we ought to feel, and do, and suffer. ' For whatso- 
 ever waswritten aforetime/ all these ancient psalms 
 and prophets, and histories of men and nations who 
 trusted in God, e were written for our example, that 
 we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, 
 might have hope/ 
 
 Yes, my friends, this is true ; and the longer you 
 live a life of faith and godliness, the longer you 
 read and study that precious Book of books which 
 God has put so freely into your hands in these 
 days, the more true you will find it. And if it was 
 true of the Old Testament, written before The 
 Lord came down and dwelt among men, how much 
 more must it be true of the New Testament, which 
 was written after His coming by apostles and 
 evangelists, who had far fuller light and know- 
 ledge of the Lord than ever David or the old 
 prophets, even in their happiest moments, had. 
 Ah, what a treasure you have, every one of you, 
 in those Bibles of yours, which too many of 
 
14 HOLY SCRIPTURE* 
 
 you read so little ! From the first chapter of 
 Genesis to the last of Revelations, it is all 
 written for our example, all profitable for teach- 
 ing, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
 in righteousness, that the man of God may be 
 perfect, thoroughly furnished for all good works. 
 Ah ! friends, friends, is not this the reason why so 
 many of you do not read your Bibles, that you do 
 not wish to be furnished for good works ? -do not 
 wish to be men of God, godly and godlike men, 
 but only to be men of the world, caring only for 
 money and pleasure ? some of you, alas ! not wish- 
 ing to be men and women at all, but only a sort of 
 brute beasts with clothes on, given up to filth and 
 folly, like the animals that perish, or rather worse 
 than the animals, for they could be no better if 
 they tried, but you might be. Oh ! what might you 
 not be, what are you not already, if you but knew 
 it ! Members of Christ, children of God, heirs of 
 the kingdom of heaven, heirs of a hope undying, 
 pure, that will never fade away, having a right 
 given you by the promise and oath of Almighty God 
 himself, to hope for yourselves, for your neighbours, 
 for this poor distracted world, for ever and ever; 
 a right to believe that there is an everlasting day 
 of justice, and peace, and happiness in store for 
 the whole world, and that you, if you will, may have 
 your share in that glorious sunrise which shall never 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE. 15 
 
 set again. You may have your share in it, each and 
 every one of you; and if you ask why, go to the 
 Scriptures, and there read the promises of God, 
 the grounds of your just hope, for all heaven and 
 earth. 
 
 First, of hope for yourselves. I say first for 
 yourselves, not because a man is right in being 
 selfish, and caring only for his own soul, but be- 
 cause a man must care for his own soul first, if he 
 ever intends to care for others ; a man must have 
 hope for himself first, if he is to have hope for 
 others. He may stop there, and turn his religion 
 into a selfish superstition, and spend his life in 
 asking all day long, ' Shall I be saved, shall I be 
 damned V or worse still, in chuckling over his own 
 good fortune, and saying to himself, * I shall be 
 saved, whoever else is damned \ but whether he 
 ends there or not, he must begin there ; begin by 
 trying to get himself saved. For if he does not 
 know what is right and good for himself, how can 
 he tell what is right and good for others ? If he 
 wishes to bring his neighbours out of their sins, he 
 must surely first have been brought out of his own 
 sins, and so know what forgiveness and sanctifi ca- 
 tion means. If he wishes to make others at peace 
 with God, he must first be at peace with God him- 
 self, to know what God's peace is. If he wants to 
 teach others their duty, he must first know his 
 
16 HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 own duty, for all men's duty is one and the same. 
 If he wishes to have hope for the world, he must 
 first have hope for himself, for he is in the world, 
 a part of it, and he must learn what blessings God 
 intends for him, and they will teach him what 
 blessings God has in store for the earth. Faith 
 and hope, like charity, must begin at home. By 
 learning the corruption of our own hearts, we learn 
 the corruption of human nature. By learning 
 what is the only medicine which can cure our own 
 sick hearts, we learn what is the only medicine 
 which can cure human nature. We learn by our 
 own experience, that God is all-forgiving love ; 
 that his peace shines bright upon the soul which 
 casts itself utterly on Jesus Christ the Lord for 
 pardon, strength, and safety ; that God's spirit is 
 ready and able to raise us out of all our sin, and 
 sottishness, and weakness, and wilfulness, and self- 
 ishness, arid renew us into quite new men, diffe- 
 rent characters from what we used to be ; and 
 so, by having hope for ourselves, we learn step 
 by step and year by year to have hope for our 
 friends, for our neighbours, and for the whole 
 world. 
 
 For that is another great lesson which the Bible 
 teaches us hope for the world. Men say to us, 
 c This world has always gone on ill, and will 
 always go on so. Tyrants and knaves and hypo- 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE. 17 
 
 crites have always had the power in it ; idlers have 
 always had the enjoyment of it ; while the humble, 
 and industrious, and godly, who would not foul 
 their hands with the wicked ways of the world, 
 have been always laughed at, neglected, oppressed, 
 persecuted. The world/ they say, ' is very bad, 
 and we cannot live in it without giving way a 
 little to its badness, and going the old road/ 
 
 But he who, through patience and comfort of 
 the Scriptures, has hope, can answer c Yes and 
 yet no/ ( Yes we agree that the world has 
 gone on badly enough : perhaps we think the 
 world worse than it thinks itself ; for God's Spirit 
 has taught us to see sin, and shame, and ruin, in 
 many a thing which the world thinks right and 
 reasonable. And yet/ says the true Christian man, 
 * although we think the world worse than any one 
 else thinks it, and are more unhappy than any one 
 else about all the sin, and injustice, and misery we 
 see in it, we have the very strongest faith we are 
 perfectly certain we are as sure as if we saw it 
 coming to pass here before us, that the world will 
 come right at last. For the Bible tells us that the 
 Son of God is the king of the world ; that He has 
 been the master and ruler of it from the beginning. 
 He, the Bible tells us, condescended to come down 
 on earth and be born in the likeness of a poor 
 man, and die on the cross for this poor world of 
 I C 
 
18 HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 His, that He might take away the sins of it/ 
 ' Behold the Lamb of God/ said John the Baptist, 
 ' who takes away the sin of the world/ How 
 dare we, who call ourselves Christians, we who 
 have been baptized into His name,' we who have 
 tasted of His mercy, we who know the might of 
 His love, the converting and renewing power of 
 His Spirit how dare we doubt but that He will 
 take away the sins of the world ? Ay ; step by 
 step, nation by nation, year by year, the Lord 
 shall conquer ; love and justice, and wisdom shall 
 spread and grow ; for He must reign till He has 
 put all enemies under His feet. He has promised 
 to take away the sins of the world, and He is God, 
 and cannot lie. There is the Christian's hope : 
 let him leave infidels to say ( The world always 
 was bad, and it must remain so to the end / the 
 Christian ought to be able to answer, ' The world 
 was bad, and is bad ; but for that very reason it 
 will not remain so to the end : for the Lord and 
 king of the earth is boundless love, justice, good- 
 ness itself, and He will thoroughly purge His 
 floor, and cast out of His kingdom all things that 
 offend, and make in His good time the kingdoms 
 of this world, the kingdoms of God and of His 
 Christ/ 
 
 1 Ah but/ some one may say, ' that, if it ever 
 happens at all, will not happen till we are dead, 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE. 19 
 
 and what part or lot shall we have in it ? we who 
 die in the midst of all this sin, and injustice, and 
 distress V There again the Bible gives us hope : 
 ( I believe/ says the Creed, ' in the resurrection 
 of the flesh. The Bible teaches us to believe, that 
 we, each of us, as human beings, men and women, 
 shall have a share in that glorious day ; not merely 
 as ghosts, and disembodied spirits of which the 
 Bible, thanks be to God, says little or nothing, but 
 as real live human beings, with new bodies of our 
 own, on a new earth, under a new heaven. * There- 
 fore/ says David, ' my flesh shall rest in hope / 
 not merely my soul, my ghost, but my flesh. For 
 the Lord, who not only died, but rose again with 
 His body, shall raise our bodies, according to the 
 mighty working by which He subdues all things 
 to Himself; and then the whole manhood of each 
 of us, body, soul, and spirit, shall have one perfect 
 consummation and bliss, in His eternal and ever- 
 lasting glory. That is our hope. If that is not a 
 gospel, and good news from heaven to poor dis- 
 tressed creatures in hovels, and on sick beds, to 
 people racked with life -long pain and disease, to 
 people in crowded cities, who never from week's 
 end to week's end look on the green fields and 
 bright sky if that is not good news, and a day- 
 spring of boundless hope from on high for them, 
 what news can be ? 
 
 c2 
 
20 HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 But how are we to get this hope ? The text 
 tells us; through comfort of the Scriptures; through 
 the strengthening and comforting promises, and 
 examples, and rules of God's gracious dealings 
 which we find therein. Through comfort of the 
 Scriptures, but also through patience. Ah, my 
 friends, of that too we must think ; we must, as 
 St. James says, ; let patience have her perfect 
 work/ or else we shall not be perfect ourselves. 
 If we are hasty, self-conceited, covetous, ready to 
 help ourselves by the first means that come to 
 hand ; if we are full of hard judgments about our 
 neighbours, and doubts about God's good purpose 
 toward the world ; in short, if we are not patient, 
 the Bible will teach us little or nothing. It may 
 make us superstitious, bigoted, fanatical, conceited, 
 pharisaical, but like Jesus Christ the Lord it will 
 not make us, unless we have patience. 
 
 And where are we to get patience ? God knows 
 it is hard in such a world as this for poor creatures 
 to be patient always. But faith can breed patience, 
 though patience cannot breed itself ; and faith in 
 whom ? Faith in our Father in heaven, even in the 
 Almighty God Himself. He calls Himself ' the 
 God of Patience and Consolation/ Pray for His 
 Holy Spirit, and He will make you patient ; pray 
 for His Holy Spirit, and He will console and com- 
 fort you. He has promised That Spirit of His, 
 
HOLY SCRIPTURE. 21 
 
 The Spirit of love, trust, and patience The Com- 
 forter to as many as ask Him. Ask Him now, 
 this day corne to His holy table this day, and ask 
 Him to make you patient ; ask Him to take all 
 the hastiness, and pride, and ill-temper, and self- 
 will, and greediness out of you, and to change your 
 wills into the likeness of His will. Then your eyes 
 will be opened to understand His law. Then you 
 will see in the Scriptures a sure promise of hope 
 and glory and redemption for yourself and all the 
 world. Then you will see in the blessed sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's body and blood, a sure sign 
 and warrant, handed down from land to land, and 
 age to age, from year to year, and from father to 
 son, that these promises shall come true ; that hope 
 shall become fact ; that not one of the Lord's words 
 shall fail, or pass away, till all be fulfilled. 
 
III. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT, 
 
 ISAIAH Ixi. i. 
 
 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me : because the Lord has anointed 
 me to preach good tidings to the meek ; he has sent me to bind 
 up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and 
 the opening of the prison to them that are bound. 
 
 MY friends, I do entreat those of you who wish to 
 get any real good from this sermon, to listen 
 to me carefully all through it. Not that I have to 
 complain of you in general for not attending to 
 me. I thank God, and thank you, that you do 
 listen to what is said in this pulpit. But there are 
 many people who have a bad trick of minding the 
 preacher carefully enough for a minute or two, 
 and then letting their wits wander, and think about 
 something else ; and then if any word in the sermon 
 strikes them, waking up suddenly, and thinking 
 again for a little, and then letting their thoughts 
 run wild again ; and so on. Whereby it happens 
 that they only recollect a few scraps of the sermon, 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 23 
 
 a word here, and a sentence there, and get into 
 their heads all sorts of mistakes and false notions 
 about the preacher's meaning. 
 
 That is not right ; that is not worthy of reason- 
 able grown men : that is only pardonable in little 
 scatterbrained children. Men and women should 
 listen steadily, reverently throughout ; so, and so 
 only, will they be able to judge of the message 
 which the preacher brings them. Listen to me, 
 therefore, all through this sermon, and may God 
 give you grace to understand it and lay it to heart, 
 for it is the good news of the kingdom of God. 
 
 You recollect, I hope, that I have often told 
 you, that the Lord Jesus Christ's words would 
 never pass away ; that His prophecies are con- 
 tinually coming true, and being fulfilled over and 
 over again. Now this text is not one of His pro- 
 phecies, but it is a prophecy about Him ; one 
 which He fulfilled, and which He has been ful- 
 filling again and again. He is fulfilling it, as I 
 believe, more than ever, now in these very days. 
 
 If you will look at the sixty-first chapter of 
 Isaiah, you will find this prophecy ; and you will 
 find, too, what will surprise you at first, that Isaiah 
 was speaking of himself. He says, ' that the 
 Spirit of the Lord was upon him' Isaiah ' be- 
 cause the Lord had appointed him to preach good 
 tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, 
 
24 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 and deliverance to the captives, to preach the ac- 
 ceptable year of the Lord/ Isaiah must have 
 spoken truly about himself. He could not have 
 meant to tell a falsehood, to say a thing was true 
 of himself which was only true of Jesus, who did 
 not come till 800 years afterwards. And he did 
 speak the truth ; you cannot read his prophecies 
 without seeing that the Spirit of the Lord was 
 indeed upon him ; that the words which he spoke 
 must have comforted all those who were sorrowing 
 for their sins and the sins of the nation in their 
 time. We know, for a fact, that his prophecies 
 came true ; that the Jewish captives were deli- 
 vered and brought back out of Judaea to Jerusalem 
 again, and that Jerusalem was rebuilt as Isaiah 
 prophesied, and the Jewish nation raised to far 
 greater holiness, and prosperity, and happiness, 
 than it had ever been in before. And yet 800 
 years afterwards the Lord took those very same 
 words to Himself and said, that He fulfilled them. 
 He read them aloud once in a Jewish synagogue, 
 out of the book of the prophet Isaiah ; and then 
 told the congregation, ' This day is this Scripture 
 fulfilled in your ears/ And again, as we read in 
 the Gospel for this day, when John the Baptist 
 sent to ask Him if He was really the Christ, He 
 made use of another prophecy of Isaiah, and told 
 John's disciples that He was the Christ, because 
 
r-- 
 Ll 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF 
 
 VNl y 
 
 He was fulfilling that prophe< 
 making the deaf* heirj^rjd rtha blind see, ar 
 preaching the gospel to the poor. \N"ow/ feijpw 
 that ? Could Isaiah be right in applying those 
 words to himself, and yet Christ be right in apply- 
 ing them to Himself? Can a prophecy be ful- 
 filled twice over ? 
 
 No doubt it can, my friends, and two hundred 
 times over. No prophecy of Scripture is of private 
 interpretation, says St. Peter. That is, it does 
 not apply to any one private, particular thing that 
 is to happen. Every prophecy of Scripture goes 
 on fulfilling itself more and more, as time rolls 
 on and the world grows older. St. Peter tells us 
 the reason why. No prophecy of Scripture is of 
 private interpretation ; because it does not come 
 from the will of man, from any invention or dis- 
 covery of poor short-sighted human beings, who 
 can only judge by what they see around them in 
 their own times : but holy men of old spoke as 
 they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And who 
 is the Holy Spirit ? The Spirit of God ; the ever- 
 lasting Spirit ; the Spirit who cannot change, for 
 He is God. The Spirit who searcheth the deep 
 things of God, and teaches them to men. And 
 what are the deep things of God ? They are 
 eternal as God is. Eternal laws ; everlasting rules 
 which cannot alter. That is the meaning .of it all. 
 
26 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 The Spirit of God is the spirit which teaches men 
 the laws of God ; the unchangeable rules and 
 ordinances by which He governs all heaven and 
 earth, and men, and nations ; the laws which come 
 into force, not once only, but always ; the laws of 
 God which are working round us now, just as 
 much as they were eighteen hundred years ago, 
 just as much as they were in Isaiah's time. There- 
 fore it is, that I said that these old Jewish pro- 
 phecies, which were inspired by the Holy Spirit, 
 are coming true now, and will keep on coming 
 true, time after time, in their proper place and 
 order, and whensoever the times are fit for them, 
 even to the end of the world. 
 
 But again, we read that the Spirit of God takes 
 of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us. 
 And what are the things of Christ ? They must 
 be eternal things, unchangeable things, for Christ 
 is unchangeable Jesus Christ, the same yester- 
 day, to-day, and for ever. He is over all, God 
 blessed for ever. To Him all power is given in 
 heaven and earth. He reigns, and He will 
 reign. Do you think He is less a Saviour now, 
 than He was when he spoke those things to 
 John's disciples ? Do you think He is less able 
 to hear and to help than He was in John's time ? 
 Do you think He used to care about people's 
 bodies then, but that He only cares about their souls 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 27 
 
 now ? Do you think that He is less compassionate, 
 and less merciful, as well as less powerful, than 
 He was when He made the blind see, and the 
 lame walk, and the deaf hear, in Judaea of old ? 
 
 Less powerful ! less compassionate ! One would 
 have expected that Christ was more powerful, more 
 compassionate, if that were possible. At least one 
 would expect that His power and compassion would 
 show itself more and more, and make itself felt 
 more and more, year by year, and age by age ; 
 more and more healing disease ; more and more 
 comforting sorrow ; more and still more casting out 
 cunning and evil spirits, till He had put all under 
 His feet. He Himself said it should be so. He 
 always spoke of His own kingdom, as a thing which 
 was to grow and increase by laws of its own, men 
 knew not how, but He knew. Like seed cast into 
 the ground, His kingdom was, He said, at first the 
 smallest of all seeds ; but it was to grow, and take 
 root, and spread into a mighty tree, He said, till the 
 very birds in the air lodged in the branches of it ; 
 and David's words should be fulfilled, ' Thou, Lord, 
 shalt save both man and beast/ And does not 
 St. Paul speak of His kingdom in the same way, 
 as a kingdom which should grow ? that He was to 
 reign till He had put all enemies under His feet ? 
 that He would deliver at last the whole creation ? 
 the earth on which we stand, the dumb animals 
 
28 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 around us ? For, as St. Paul says, the whole 
 creation is groaning in labour-pangs, waiting to be 
 raised into a higher state. And it shall be raised. 
 The whole creation shall be set free into the glorious 
 liberty of the children of God. 
 
 What does that mean ? How can I tell you ? 
 
 This I can tell you, that it cannot mean that 
 Jesus Christ was merciful enough to heal people's 
 bodies at first, but that He has given up doing it 
 now, and will never do it again. 'Well, but/ some 
 would say, ' what does all this come to ? You are 
 merely telling us what we knew before that if 
 any of us are cured from disease, or raised up 
 from a sick bed, it is all the Lord's doing/ If 
 you do believe that, really, my friends, happy are 
 you ! Many of you, I think, do believe it. The 
 poor are more inclined to believe it, I think, than 
 the rich. But even in the mouths of the poor 
 one often hears words which make one suspect 
 that they do not believe it. I am very much afraid 
 that a great many have got into the trick of saying, 
 that it was God's mercy that they were cured, and 
 that it pleased the Lord to raise them up from a 
 sick bed, very much as a piece of cant. They 
 say the words by rote, because they have been 
 accustomed to hear them said by others, without 
 thinking of the meaning of them ; just as, on the 
 other hand, a great many people curse and swear 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 29 
 
 without thinking of the awful oaths they use. 
 Ay, and often enough the very same persons will 
 say that it was the Lord's mercy they were cured 
 of their sickness ; and then, if they get into a 
 passion, pray the very same Lord to do that to 
 the bodies and souls of their neighbours which it 
 is a shame to speak of here. Out of the same 
 mouth proceed blessings and cursings : showing 
 that whether or not they are in earnest in cursing, 
 they are not earnest in blessing. 
 
 Again : If people really believed that it was 
 the Lord Jesus Christ who cured their sicknesses 
 for them, they would behave, when they got well, 
 more as the Lord Jesus Christ would wish them to 
 behave. They would show forth their thankful- 
 ness not only with their lips, but in their lives. 
 You who believe you who say that Christ has 
 cured your sicknesses, show your faith by your 
 works. Live like those who are alive again from 
 the dead ; who are not your own, but bought with 
 a price, and bound to work for God with your 
 bodies and your spirits, which are His then, and 
 then only, can either God or man believe you. 
 
 Again : There is a third reason which makes 
 one suspect that people do not mean what they 
 say about this matter. I think too many say, ( It 
 has pleased God/ merely as an empty form of 
 words, when all they mean is, ' What must be, 
 
30 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 must, and it cannot be helped/ Else, why do 
 they say, ' It has pleased the Lord to - send me 
 sickness ?' What is the use of saying, l It has 
 pleased the Lord to cure me/ when you say in the 
 same breath, c It has pleased the Lord to make me 
 ill ?' I know you will say that, ' Of course, what- 
 ever happens must be The Lord's will ; if it did 
 not please Him, it would not happen/ I do not 
 care for such words ; I will have nothing to do 
 with them. I will neither entangle you nor my- 
 self in those endless disputings and questions about 
 freewill and necessity, which never yet have come 
 to any conclusion, and never will, because they are 
 too deep for poor short-sighted human beings like 
 us. ' To the law and to the testimony/ say I. I 
 will hold to the words of the Bible ; what it says, 
 I will say ; what it does not say I will not say, to 
 please any man's system of doctrines. And I say 
 from the Bible that we have no more right to say, 
 ( It has pleased the Lord to make me sick/ than, 
 ' It has pleased the Lord to make me a sinner/ 
 Scripture everywhere speaks of sickness as a real 
 evil and a curse a breaking of the health, and 
 order, and strength, and harmony of God's crea- 
 tion. It speaks of madmen as possessed with evil 
 spirits ; did that please God ? The woman who 
 was bowed with a spirit of infirmity, and could not 
 lift herself up did our Lord say that it had 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 31 
 
 pleased God to make her a wretched cripple? 
 No; he spoke of*her as this daughter of Israel, 
 whom Satan had bound, and not God, this eighteen 
 years ; and that was His reason for healing her, 
 even on the sabbath-day, because her disease was 
 not the work of God, bat of the cruel, disordering, 
 destroying evil spirit which is at enmity with God. 
 That was why Christ cured her. And that for 
 this is the point I have been corning to, step by 
 step that was the reason why, when John the 
 Baptist sent to ask if Jesus was the Christ, our 
 Lord answered, ' Go and show John again those 
 things which ye do see and hear : the blind 
 receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers 
 are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are 
 raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached 
 to them/ 
 
 Do not be in a hurry, my friends, and suppose 
 that our Lord meant merely, 'Tell John what 
 wonderful miracles I am working/ If He had 
 meant that, why would He have put in as the last 
 proof that He was the Christ, that He was preach- 
 ing the Gospel to the poor? What wonderful 
 miracle was there in that ? No : it was as if He 
 had said, ' Go and tell John that I am the Christ, 
 because I am the great physician, the healer and 
 deliverer of body and soul ; one who will and can 
 cure the loathsome diseases, the uselessness, the 
 
32 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 misery, the ignorance of the poorest and meanest/ 
 He has proved Himself the Christ by showing not 
 only His boundless power, but His boundless love 
 and mercy ; and that, not only to men's souls, but 
 to their bodies also. To prove Himself the Christ 
 by wonderful and astonishing miracles was exactly 
 what He would not do. He refused, when the 
 Scribes and Pharisees came and asked of Him a 
 sign from heaven to prove that He was Christ 
 wanting Him, I suppose, to bring some apparition, 
 or fiery comet, or great voice out of the sky, to 
 astonish them with His power ; He told them pe- 
 remptorily that He would give them no such thing: 
 and yet He said that His mighty works did prove 
 Him to be Christ ; He pronounced woe against 
 Chorazin and Bethsaida for not believing Him on 
 account of His mighty works : He told the Scribes 
 and Pharisees that they ought to believe on Him 
 merely for His works' sake. And why would they 
 not believe on Him ? Just because they could not 
 see that God's power was shown more in healing 
 and delivering sufferers, than in astonishing and 
 destroying. They could not see that God's perfect 
 likeness shone out in Christ that He was the 
 express image of the Father, just because He 
 went about doing good, and healing all manner of 
 sicknesses and all manner of infirmities among the 
 people. But so it is, my friends ! Jesus is the 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 33 
 
 Saviour, the deliverer, the great physician, the 
 healer of soul and body. Not a pang is felt or a 
 tear shed on earth, but He sorrows over it. Not 
 a human being on earth dies young, but He, as I 
 believe, sorrows over it. What it is which prevents 
 Him healing every sickness, soothing every sorrow, 
 wiping away every tear now, we cannot tell. But 
 this we can tell, that it is His will that none should 
 perish. This we can tell ; that He is willing as ever 
 to heal the sick, to cleanse the leper, to cast out 
 devils, to teach the ignorant, to bind up the broken- 
 hearted. This we can tell ; that He will go on 
 doing so more and more, year by year, and age by 
 age. This we can tell ; from Scripture, that Christ 
 is stronger than the devil. This we can tell ; that 
 Christ, and all good men, the spirits of just men 
 made perfect, the wise and the great in God's 
 sight, who have left us their books, their sayings, 
 their writings, as precious health-giving heirlooms 
 have been fighting, and are fighting, and will 
 fight to the end against the devil, and sin, and op- 
 pression, and misery, and disease, and everything 
 which spoils and darkens the face of God's good 
 earth. And this we can tell ; that they will con- 
 quer at the last, because Christ is stronger than 
 the devil; good is stronger than evil; light is stronger 
 than darkness : God's Spirit, the giver of life, and 
 health, and order, is stronger than all the evil cus- 
 
 I D 
 
34 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 toms, and ignorance, and carelessness, and cruelty, 
 and superstition, which makes miserable the lives, 
 and, as far as we can see, destroys the souls, of 
 thousands. Yes, I say, Christ's kingdom is a 
 kingdom of health and deliverance for body and 
 soul ; and it will conquer ; and it will spread; and 
 it will grow, till the nations of the world have 
 become the kingdoms of God and of His Christ. 
 Christ reigns, and Christ will reign till He has put 
 all His enemies under His feet ; and the last of 
 His enemies which shall be destroyed is Death. 
 Death is His enemy. He has conquered death by 
 rising from the dead. And the day will come when 
 death will be no more when sickness and sorrow 
 shall be unknown, and God shall wipe away tears 
 from all eyes. I say it again never forget it 
 Christ is King, and His kingdom is a kingdom of 
 health, and life, and deliverance from all evil. It 
 always has been so, from the first time our Lord 
 cured the leper in Galilee : it will be so to the end 
 of the world. And, therefore to come back to 
 the very place from which I started at the begin- 
 ning of my sermon therefore, whenever one of 
 the days of the Lord is at hand, whenever God's 
 kingdom makes a great step forward, this same 
 prophecy in our text is fulfilled in some striking 
 and wonderful way. And I say it is fulfilled now 
 in these days more than it ever has been. Christ 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 35 
 
 is healing the sick, cleansing the leper, giving sight 
 to the blind, raising the dead, and preaching the 
 gospel to the poor, seven times more in these days 
 in which we live than He did when He walked 
 upon earth in Judaea. 
 
 Do you doubt my words? At all events you 
 confess that the cure of all diseases comes from 
 Christ. Then consider, I beseech you, how many ' 
 more diseases are cured now than were formerly. 
 One may say that the knowledge of medicine is 
 not one hundred years old. Nothing, my friends, 
 makes me feel more strongly what a wonderful 
 and blessed time we live in, and how Christ is 
 showing forth mighty works among us, than this 
 same sudden miraculous improvement in the art of 
 healing, which has taken place within the memory 
 of man. Any country doctor now knows more, 
 thank God, or ought to know, than the greatest 
 London physicians did two generations ago. New 
 cures for deafness, blindness, lameness, every 
 disease that flesh is heir to, are being discovered 
 year by year. Oh, my friends ! you little know 
 what Christ is doing among you, for your bodies 
 as well as for your souls. There is not a parish in 
 England now in which the poorest as well as the 
 richest are not cured yearly of diseases, which, if 
 they had lived a hundred years ago, would have 
 killed them without hope or help. And then, when 
 D2 
 
36 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 one looks at these great and blessed plans for what 
 is called sanitary reform, at the sickness and the 
 misery which has been done away with already by 
 attending to them, even though they have only 
 just begun to be put in practice, our hearts must 
 be hard indeed if we do not feel that Christ is 
 revealing to us the gifts of healing far more boun- 
 tifully and mercifully than even He did to the 
 first apostles. 
 
 But you will say, perhaps, the dead are not 
 raised in these days. Oh, my friends ! which 
 shows Christ's mercy most, to raise those who are 
 already dead, or to save those alive who are about 
 to die ? Those in this church who have read 
 history know as well as I, how in our forefathers' 
 time people died in England by thousands of dis- 
 eases which are scarcely ever deadly now ; ay, of 
 diseases which have now actually vanished out of 
 the land, before the new light of medicine and of 
 civilization which Christ has revealed to us in these 
 days. For one child who lived and grew up in old 
 times, two live and grow up now. In London 
 alone there are not half as many deaths in pro- 
 portion to the number of people as there were 
 a hundred years ago. And is not that a mightier 
 work of Christ's power and love than if He had 
 raised a few dead persons to life ? 
 
 And now for the last part of our Lord's witness 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 37 
 
 about Himself. To the poor the gospel is preached. 
 Oh ! my friends, is not that coming true in our 
 days as it never came true before ? Look back 
 only fifty years, and consider the difference between 
 the doctrines which were preached to the poor and 
 the doctrines which are preached to them now. 
 Look round you and see how everywhere earnest 
 and godly ministers have sprung up, of all sects and 
 opinions, as well as of the Church of England, not 
 only to preach the gospel in the pulpit, but to 
 carry it to the sick bedside of the lonely cottage, 
 to the prison, and to those fearful sties, worse than 
 prisons, where in our great cities the heathen poor 
 live crowded together. Look at the teaching 
 which the poor man can get now, compared to 
 what he used to the sermons, the Bibles, the 
 tracts, the lending libraries, the schools, -just con- 
 sider the hundreds of thousands of pounds which 
 are subscribed every year to educate the children 
 of the poor, and then say whether Christ is not 
 working a mighty work among us in these days. 
 I know that not half as much is done as ought to 
 be done in that way ; not half as much as will be 
 done ; and what is done will have to be done better 
 than it has been done yet ; but still can any one 
 in this church who is fifty years old deny that there 
 is a most enormous and blessed improvement which 
 is growing and spreading every year ? Can any 
 
38 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 
 
 one deny that the gospel is preached to the poor 
 now in a way that it never was before within the 
 memory of man ? 
 
 Now, recollect that this is an Advent sermon 
 a sermon which proclaims to you that Christ is 
 come ; yes, He is come come never to leave man- 
 kind again ! Christ reigns over the earth, and will 
 reign for ever. At certain great and important 
 times in the world's history, like this present time, 
 times which He himself calls ' days of the Lord/ 
 He shows forth His power, and the mightiness and 
 mercy of His kingdom, more than at others. But 
 still He is always with us ; we have no need to run 
 up and down to look for Christ : to say, Who shall 
 ascend into heaven to bring Him down ? Who 
 shall descend into the deep to bring Him up ? For 
 the kingdom of God, as He told us Himself, is 
 among us, and within us. Yes, within us. All 
 these wonderful improvements and discoveries, all 
 things beneficial to men which are found out year by 
 year, though they seem to be of men's invention, 
 are really of Christ's revealing, the fruits of the 
 kingdom of God within us, of the Spirit of God, 
 who is teaching men, though they too often will not 
 believe it ; though they disclaim God's Spirit and 
 take all the glory to themselves. Truly Christ is 
 among us ; and our eyes are held, and we see Him 
 not. That is our English sin the sin of unbelief, 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 39 
 
 the root of every other sin. Christ works among 
 us, and we will not own Him. Truly, Jesus Christ 
 may well say of us English at this day, There were 
 ten cleansed, but where are the nine ? How few 
 are there, who return to give glory to God ! Oh, 
 consider what I say ; the kingdom of God is among 
 us now ; its blessings are growing richer, fuller 
 among us every day. Beware, lest if we refuse to. 
 acknowledge that kingdom and Christ the King of 
 it, it be taken away from us, and given to some 
 other nation, who will bring forth the fruits of it, 
 fellow-help and brotherly kindness, purity and 
 sobriety, and all the fruits of the Spirit of God. 
 
A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 
 
 FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS iv, 4. 
 Rejoice in the Lord always. 
 
 is the beginning of the Epistle for to-day, 
 -*- the Sunday before Christmas. We will try to 
 find out why it was chosen for to-day, and what 
 lesson we may learn from it. 
 
 Now Christmas-time was always a time of re- 
 joicing among many heathen nations, and long 
 before the Lord Jesus Christ came. That was 
 natural and reasonable enough, if you will con- 
 sider it. For now the shortest day is past. The 
 sun is just beginning to climb higher and higher 
 in the sky each day, and bring back with him 
 longer sunshine, and shorter darkness, and spring 
 flowers, and summer crops, and a whole new year, 
 with new hopes, new work, new lessons, new bless- 
 ings. The old year, with all its labours and all 
 its pleasures, and all its sorrows and all its sins, 
 
A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 
 
 ' 
 
 is dying, all but gon-e: \I| }i|p4^Mnd \a, ntever to 
 return. The teSrs which we shed, we never can 
 shed again. The mistakes we made, we have a 
 chance of mending in the year to come. And so 
 the heathens felt, and rejoiced that another year 
 was dying, another year going to be born. 
 
 And Christmas was a time of rejoicing too, be- 
 cause the farming work was done. The last year's . 
 crop was housed ; the next year's wheat was sown ; 
 the cattle were safe in yard and stall ; and men 
 had time to rest, and draw round the fire in the 
 long winter nights, and make merry over the earn- 
 ings of the past year, and the hopes and plans of 
 the year to come. And so over all this northern 
 half of the world Christmas was a merry time. 
 
 But the poor heathens did not know the Lord. 
 They did not know whom to thank for all their 
 Christmas blessings. And so some used to thank 
 the earth for the crops, and the sun for coming 
 back again to lengthen the days, as if the earth 
 and sun moved of themselves. And some used to 
 thank false gods and ancient heroes, who, perhaps, 
 never really lived at all. And some, perhaps the 
 greater number, thanked nothing and no one, but 
 just enjoyed themselves, and took no thought, as 
 too many do now at Christmas-time. So the world 
 went on, Christmas after Christmas ; and the times 
 of that ignorance, as St. Paul says, God winked at. 
 
42 A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 
 
 But when the fulness of time was come, He sent 
 forth His Son, made of a woman, to be the judge 
 and ruler of the world ; and commanded all men 
 everywhere to repent, and turn from all their vani- 
 ties to serve the living God, who had made heaven 
 and earth, and all things in them. 
 
 He did not wish them to give up their Christmas 
 mirth. No : all along He had been trying to 
 teach them by it about His love to them. As 
 St. Paul told them once, God had not left Himself 
 without witness, in that He gave them rain and 
 fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with joy and 
 gladness. 
 
 God did not wish them, or us, to give up Christ- 
 mas mirth. The apostles did not wish it. The 
 great men, true followers of the apostles, who 
 shaped our Prayer-book for us, and sealed it with 
 their life-blood, did not wish it. They did not 
 wish farmers, labourers, servants, masters, to give 
 up one of the old Christmas customs ; but to re- 
 member who made Christmas, and its blessings ; 
 in short, to rejoice in The Lord. Our forefathers 
 had been thanking the wrong persons for Christ- 
 mas. Henceforward we were to thank the right 
 person, The Lord, and rejoice in Him. Our fore- 
 fathers had been rejoicing in the sun, and moon, 
 and earth; in wise and valiant kings who had 
 lived ages before ; in their own strength and in- 
 
A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 43 
 
 dustry, and cunning. Now they were to rejoice 
 in Him who made sun, and moon, and earth ; in 
 Him who sent wise and valiant kings and leaders ; 
 in Him who gives all strength, and industry, and 
 cunning ; by whose inspiration comes all knowledge 
 of agriculture, and manufacture, and all the arts 
 which raise men above the beasts that perish. So 
 their Christmas joys were to go on, year by year, 
 while the world lasted : but they were to go on 
 rightly, and not wrongly. Men were to rejoice 
 in The Lord, and then His blessing would be on 
 them, and the thanks and praise which they offered 
 Him, He would return with interest, in fresh bless- 
 ings for the coming year. 
 
 Therefore, I think, this Epistle was chosen for 
 to-day, the Sunday before Christmas, to show us 
 in whom we are to rejoice ; and, therefore, to show 
 us how we are to rejoice. For we must not take 
 the first verse of the Epistle and forget the rest. 
 That would neither be wise nor reverent toward 
 St. Paul, who wrote the whole, and meant the 
 whole to stand together as one discourse; or to 
 the blessed and holy men who chose it for our 
 lesson on this day. Let us go on, then, with the 
 Epistle, line by line, throughout. 
 
 ' Kejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, 
 rejoice/ As much as to say, you cannot rejoice 
 too much, you cannot overdo your happiness, thank- 
 
44 A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 
 
 fulness, merriment. You do not know half no, 
 not the thousandth part of God's love and mercy to 
 you, and you never will know. So do not be afraid 
 of being too happy, or think that you honour God 
 by wearing a sour face, when He is heaping bless- 
 ings on you, and calling on you to smile and sing. 
 But 'let your moderation be known unto all 
 men/ There is a right and wrong way of being 
 merry. There is a mirth, which is no mirth ; 
 whereof it is written, in the midst of that laughter 
 there is a heaviness, and the end thereof is death. 
 Drunkenness, gluttony, indecent words and jests 
 and actions, these are out of place on Christmas- 
 day, and in the merriment to which the pure and 
 holy Lord Jesus calls you all. They are rejoicing in 
 the flesh and the devil, and not in the Lord at all ; 
 and whosoever indulges in them, and fancies them 
 merriment, is keeping the devil's Christmas, and 
 not Jesus Christ's. So let your moderation be 
 known to all men. Be merry and wise. The 
 fool lets his mirth master him, and carry him 
 away, till he forgets himself, and says and does 
 things of which he is ashamed when he gets up 
 next morning, sick and sad at heart. The wise 
 man remembers that, let the occasion be as joyful 
 a one as it may, ' the Lord is at hand/ Christ's 
 eye is on him, while he is eating, and drinking, 
 and laughing. He is not afraid of Christ's eye, 
 
A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 45 
 
 because, though it is Divine, it is a human, loving, 
 smiling eye; rejoicing in the happiness of His 
 poor, hard-worked brothers here below. But he 
 remembers that it is a holy eye, too ; an eye which 
 looks with sadness and horror on anything which 
 is wrong; on all drunkenness, quarrelling, inde- 
 cency ; and so in all his merriment, he is still 
 master of himself. He remembers that his soul is . 
 nobler than his body; that his will must be stronger 
 than his appetite ; and so he keeps himself in 
 check; he keeps his tongue from evil, and his 
 stomach from sottishness, and though he may be, 
 and ought to be, the merriest of the whole party, 
 yet he takes care to let his moderation, his sobriety, 
 be known and plain to every one, remembering 
 that the Lord is at hand. 
 
 And that man I will stand surety for him 
 will be the one who will rise from his bed next 
 morning, best able to carry out the next verse of 
 the Epistle, and 'be careful for nothing/ 
 
 Now that is no easy matter here in England ; 
 to rich and poor, Christmas is the time for settling 
 accounts and paying debts. And therefore, in 
 England, where living is dear, and every one, more 
 or less, struggling to pay his way, Christmas is 
 often a very anxious, disturbing time of year. 
 Many a family, for all their economy, cannot clear 
 themselves at the year's end ; and though they 
 
46 A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 
 
 are able to forget that now and then, thank God, 
 through great part of the year, yet they cannot 
 forget it at Christmas. But, as I said, the man 
 who at Christmas-time will be most able to be 
 careful for nothing, will be the man whose mode- 
 ration has been known to every one ; for he will, if 
 he has lived the year through, in the same temper 
 in which he has spent Christmas, have been 
 moderate in his expenses; he will have kept 
 himself from empty show, and pretending to be 
 richer than he is. He will have kept himself from 
 throwing away his money in drink, and kept his 
 daughters from throwing away money in dress, 
 which is just what too many, in their foolish, god- 
 less, indecent hurry to get rid of their own chil- 
 dren off their hands, do not do. 
 
 And he will be the man who will be in the best 
 humour, and have the clearest brain, to kneel down 
 when he gets up to his daily work, and ' in every- 
 thing, by prayer and supplication, make his requests 
 known to God/ And then, whether he can make 
 both ends meet or not, whether he can begin next 
 year free from debt or not, still ' the peace of God 
 will keep his heart/ He may be unable to clear 
 himself, but still he will know, that he has a loving 
 and merciful Father in heaven, who has allowed 
 distress and difficulty to come on him, only as a 
 lesson and an education. That this distress came 
 
A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 47 
 
 because God chose, and that when God chooses, it 
 will go away and that till then considering that 
 the Lord God sent it it had better not go away. 
 He will believe that God's gracious promises stand 
 true that the Lord will never let those who trust 
 in him be confounded and brought to shame that 
 he will let none of us be tempted beyond what we 
 are able, but will always with the temptation make - 
 a way for us to escape, that we may be able to bear 
 it. And so the peace of God which passes under- 
 standing, will keep that man's mind. And in 
 whom ? ' In Jesus Christ/ Now what did St. 
 Paul mean by putting in the Lord Jesus Christ's 
 name there ? what is the meaning of ' in Jesus 
 Christ V This is what it means ; it means what 
 Christmas- day means. A man may say, c Your 
 sermon promises fine things, but I am miserable 
 and poor ; it promises a holy and noble rejoicing 
 to every one, but I am unholy and mean. It pro- 
 mises peace from God, and I am sure I am not at 
 peace : I am always fretting and quarrelling ; I 
 quarrel with my wife, my children, and my neigh- 
 bours, and they quarrel with me ; and worst of all/ 
 says the poor man, ' I quarrel with myself. I am 
 full of discontented, angry, sulky, anxious, unhappy 
 thoughts \ my heart is dark and sad and restless 
 within me would God I were peaceful, but I am 
 not : look in my face and see !' 
 
48 A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 
 
 True, my friend, but on Christmas -day the Son 
 of God was born into the world, a man like you. 
 
 e Well/ says the poor man, ' but what has that 
 to do with my anxiety and my ill temper V 
 
 It would take the whole year through, my friend, 
 to show you all that it has to do with you and your 
 unhappiness. All the Lessons, Epistles, and Gos- 
 pels of the year, are set out to show you what it 
 has to do with you. But in the meanwhile, before 
 Christmas-day comes, consider this one thing Why 
 are you anxious ? Because you do not know what 
 is to happen to you ? Then Christmas-day is a 
 witness to you, that whatsoever happens to you, 
 happens to you by the will and rule of Jesus 
 Christ, The perfect man ; think of that. The per- 
 fect man who understands men's hearts, and 
 wants, and all that is good for them, and has all 
 the wisdom and power to give us what is good, 
 which we want ourselves. And what makes you 
 unhappy, my friends ? Is it not at heart just this 
 one thing you are unhappy because you are not 
 pleased with yourselves ? And you are not pleased 
 with yourselves, because you know you ought not 
 to be pleased with yourselves ; and you know you 
 ought not to be pleased with yourselves, because 
 you know, in the bottom of your hearts, that God 
 is not pleased with you ? What cure, what com- 
 fort for such thoughts can we find ? This. 
 
A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS. 49 
 
 The child who was born in a manger on Christ- 
 mas-day, and grew up in poverty, and had not 
 where to lay His head, went through all shame and 
 sorrow to which man is heir. He, Jesus, the poor 
 child of Bethlehetn, is Lord and King of heaven 
 and earth. He will feel for us ; He will under- 
 stand our temptations ; He has been poor himself, 
 that He might feel for the poor ; He has been evil- 
 spoken of, that He might feel for those whose 
 tempers are sorely tried. He bore the sins, and 
 felt the miseries of the whole world, that He might 
 feel for us, when we are wearied with the burden 
 of life, and confounded by the remembrance of our 
 own sins. 
 
 Oh, my friends, consider only Who was born 
 into the world on Christmas-day ; and that thought 
 alone will be enough to fill you with rejoicing and 
 hope for yourselves and all the world, and with the 
 peace of God which passes understanding, the peace 
 which the angels proclaimed to the shepherds on 
 the first Christmas night 'On earth peace, and 
 good will toward men" and if God wills us good, 
 my friends, what matter who wishes us evil ? 
 
V. 
 CHRISTMAS-DAY. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS ii. 7. 
 
 He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form 
 of a slave. 
 
 ON Christmas-day, 1 85 1 years ago, if we had been 
 at Rome, the great capital city, and mistress of 
 the whole world, we should have seen a strange sight 
 strange, and yet pleasant. All the courts of law 
 were shut ; no war was allowed to be proclaimed, 
 and no criminals punished. The sorrow and the 
 strife of that great city had stopped, in great part, 
 for three days, and all people were giving them- 
 selves up to merriment and good cheer making 
 up quarrels, and giving and receiving presents 
 from house to house. And we should have seen, 
 too, a pleasanter sight even than that. For those 
 three days of Christmas-time were days of safety 
 and merriment for the poor slaves tens of thou- 
 sands of whom, men, women, and children, the 
 Romans had brought out of all the countries in the 
 world many of our forefathers and mothers among 
 them and kept them there in cruel bondage and 
 
CHRISTMAS-DAY. 51 
 
 shame, worked and fed, bought and sold, like 
 beasts, and not like human beings, not able to call 
 their lives or their bodies their own, forced to en- 
 dure any shame or sin which their tyrants required 
 of them, and liable any moment to be beaten, tor- 
 tured, or crucified at the mercy of cruel and foul 
 masters and mistresses. But on that Christmas- 
 day, according to an old custom, they were allowed ' 
 for once in the whole year to play at being free, to 
 dress in their masters' and mistresses' clothes, to 
 say what they thought of them boldly, without 
 fear of punishment, and to eat and drink at their 
 masters' tables, while their masters and mistresses 
 waited on them. It was an old custom, that, 
 among the heathen Romans, which their forefathers, 
 who were wiser and better than they, had handed 
 down to them. They had forgotten, perhaps, what 
 it meant : but still we may see what it must have 
 meant That the old forefathers of the Romans 
 had intended to remind their children every year 
 by that custom, that their poor hard-worked slaves 
 were, after all,, men and women as much as their 
 masters ; that they had hearts and consciences, 
 and sense in them, and a right to speak what they 
 thought, as much as their masters; that they, as 
 much as their masters, could enjoy the good things 
 of God's earth, from which man's tyranny had shut 
 them out ; and to remind those cruel masters, by 
 E2 
 
52 CHRISTMAS-DAY. 
 
 making them once every year wait on their own 
 slaves at table, that they were, after all, equal in 
 the sight of God, and that it was more noble for 
 those who were rich, and called themselves gentle- 
 men, to help others, than to make others slave for 
 them. 
 
 I do not mean, of course, that those old heathens 
 understood all this clearly. You will see, by the 
 latter part of my sermon, why they could not under- 
 stand it clearly. But there must have been some 
 sort of dim, confused suspicion in their minds 
 that it was wrong and cruel to treat human beings 
 like brute beasts, which made them set up that 
 strange old custom of letting their slaves play at 
 being free, once every Christmas-tide. 
 
 But if on this same day, 1851 years ago, instead 
 of being in the great city of Rome, we had been in 
 the little village of Bethlehem in Judaea, we might 
 have seen a sight stranger still ; a sight which we 
 could not have fancied had anything to do with 
 that merry-making of the slaves at Rome, and yet 
 which had everything to do with it. 
 
 We should have seen, in a mean stable, among 
 the oxen and the asses, a poor maiden, with her 
 new-born baby laid in the manger, for want of any 
 better cradle, and by her her husband, a poor car- 
 penter, whom all men thought to be the father of 
 her child. . . There, in the stable, amid the 
 
CHRISTMAS-DAY. 53 
 
 straw, through the cold winter days and nights, in 
 want of many a comfort which the poorest woman, 
 and the poorest woman's child would need, they 
 stayed there, that young maiden and her new-born 
 babe. . . . That young maiden was the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary, and that poor baby was the Son of 
 God. The Son of God, in whose likeness all men 
 were made at the beginning ; the Son of God, who- 
 had been ruling the whole world all along; who 
 brought the Jews out of slavery, a thousand years 
 before, and destroyed their cruel tyrants in the 
 Ked Sea ; the Son of God, who had been all along 
 punishing cruel tyrants and oppressors, and help- 
 ing the poor out of misery, whenever they called 
 on him. The Light which lightens every man 
 who comes into the world, was that poor babe. It 
 was He who gives men reason, and conscience, and 
 a tender heart, and delight in what is good, and 
 shame and uneasiness of mind when they do wrong. 
 It was He who had been stirring up, year by year, 
 in those cruel Romans' hearts, the feeling that 
 there was something wrong in grinding down their 
 slaves, and put into their minds the notion of 
 giving them their Christmas rest and freedom. He 
 had been keeping up that good old custom for a 
 witness and a warning that all men were equal in 
 His sight ; that all men had a right to liberty of 
 speech and conscience ; a right to some fair share 
 
54 CHRISTMAS-DAY. 
 
 in the good things of the earth, which God had 
 given to all men freely to enjoy. But those old 
 Romans would not take the warning. They kept 
 up the custom, but they shut their eyes to the 
 lesson of it. They went on conquering and op- 
 pressing all the nations of the earth, and making 
 them their slaves, And now He was come He 
 Himself, the true Lord of the earth, the true pat- 
 tern of men. He was come to show men to whom 
 this world belonged : He was come to show men 
 in what true power, true nobleness consisted not 
 in making others minister to us, but in ministering 
 to them : He was come to set a pattern of what a 
 man should be; He was the Son of Man THE 
 MAN of all men and therefore He had come with 
 good news to all poor slaves, and neglected, hard- 
 worked creatures : He had come to tell them that 
 He cared for them ; that He could and would de- 
 liver them ; that they were God's children, and 
 His brothers, just as much as their Roman masters ; 
 and that He was going to bring a terrible time 
 upon the earth " days of the Son of Man/' when 
 He would judge all men, and show who were true 
 men and who were not such a time as had never 
 been before, or would be again ; when that great 
 Roman empire, in spite of all its armies, and its 
 cunning, and its riches, plundered from every 
 nation under heaven, would crumble away and 
 
CHRISTMAS-DAY. 55 
 
 perisli shamefully and miserably off the face of 
 the earth, before tribes of poor, untaught, savage 
 men, the brothers and countrymen of those very 
 slaves whom the Romans fancied were so much 
 below them, that they had a right to treat them 
 like the beasts which perish. 
 
 That was the message which that little child 
 lying in the manger there at Bethlehem, had been 
 sent out from God to preach. Do you not see 
 now what it had to do with that strange merry- 
 making of the poor slaves in Rome, which I showed 
 you at the beginning of my sermon ? 
 
 If you do not, I must remind you of the song, 
 which, St. Luke says, the shepherds in Judaea heard 
 the angels sing, on this night 1851 years ago. 
 That song tells us the meaning of that babe's 
 coming. That song tells us what that babe's 
 coming had to do with the poor slaves of Rome, 
 and with all poor creatures who have suffered and 
 sorrowed on this earth, before or since. 
 
 ' Glory to God in the highest/ they sang, ' and 
 on earth peace, good will to men/ 
 
 Glory to God in the highest. That little babe, 
 lying in the manger among the cattle, was showing 
 what was the very highest glory of the great 
 God who had made heaven and earth. Not to 
 show His power and His majesty, but to show His 
 condescension and His love. To stoop, to con- 
 
56 CHRISTMAS-DAY. 
 
 descend, to have mercy, to forgive, that is the 
 highest glory of God. That is the noblest, the 
 most Godlike thing for God or man. And God 
 showed that when he sent down his only-begotten 
 Son not to strike the world to atoms with a touch, 
 not to hurl sinners into everlasting flame, but to be 
 born of a village maiden, to take on Himself all 
 the shame and weakness and sorrow, to which man 
 is heir, even to death itself ; to make Himself of 
 no reputation, and take on Himself the form of a 
 slave, and forgive sinners, and heal the sick, and 
 comfort the outcast and despised, that He might 
 show what God was like show forth to men, as a 
 poor maiden's son, the brightness of God's glory, 
 and the express likeness of His person. 
 
 c And on earth peace ' they sang. Men had 
 been quarrelling and fighting then, and men are 
 quarrelling and fighting now. That little babe in 
 the manger was come to show them how and why 
 they were all to be at peace with each other. For 
 what causes all the war and quarrelling in the 
 world, but selfishness ? Selfishness breeds pride, 
 passion, spite, revenge, covetousness, oppression. 
 The strong care for themselves, and try to help 
 themselves at the expense of the weak, by force 
 and tyranny; the weak care for themselves in 
 their turn, and try to help themselves at the ex- 
 pense of the strong, by cunning and cheating. No 
 
Li BBAR.-r 
 
 will condescend, give way, sacrifice his, p 
 st for his neighbour's, and hence come w 
 
 one 
 
 terest for his neighbour's, and ence come wars 
 tween nations, quarrels in families, spite and 
 grudges between neighbours. But in the example 
 of that little child of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ the 
 Lord, God was saying to men, 'Acquaint your- 
 selves with Me, and be at peace/ God is not 
 selfish ; it is our selfishness which has made us un- 
 i like God. God so loved the sinful world, that He 
 gave His only-begotten Son for it. Is that an 
 action like ours ? The Son of God so obeyed His 
 Father, and so loved this world, that He made 
 Himself of no reputation, and took on Him the 
 likeness of a slave, and became obedient to death, 
 even to the most fearful and shameful of all deaths, 
 the death of the cross ; not for Himself, but for 
 those who did not know Him, hated Him, killed 
 Him. In short, He sacrificed Himself for us. 
 That is God's likeness. Self-sacrifice. Jesus Christ, 
 the babe of Bethlehem, proved Himself the Son of 
 God, and the express likeness of the Father, by 
 sacrificing Himself for us. Sacrifice yourselves 
 then for each other ! Give up your own pride, 
 your own selfishness, your own interest for each 
 other, and you will be all at peace at once. 
 
 But the angels sang, ( Good will toward men/ 
 Without that their song would not have been com- 
 plete. For we are all ready to say, at such words 
 
58 CHRISTMAS-DAY. 
 
 as I have been speaking, ' Ah ! pleasant enough, 
 and pretty enough, if they were but possible ; but 
 they are not possible. It is in the nature of man 
 to be selfish. Men have gone on warring, grudg- 
 ing, struggling, competing, oppressing, cheating 
 from the beginning, and they will do so to the 
 end/ 
 
 Yes, it is not in the nature of man to do other- 
 wise. In as far as man yields to his nature, and 
 is like the selfish brute beasts, it is not possible for 
 him to do anything but go on quarrelling, and 
 competing, and cheating to the last. But what 
 man's nature cannot do, God's grace can. God's 
 good will is toward you. He loves you, He wills 
 and if He wills, what is too hard for him ? He 
 wills to raise you out of this selfish, quarrelsome 
 life of sin, into a loving, brotherly, peaceful life of 
 righteousness. His spirit, the spirit of love by 
 which He made and guides all heaven and earth, 
 the spirit of love in which He gave His only Son 
 for you, the spirit of love in which His Son Jesus 
 Christ sacrificed Himself for you, and took on 
 Himself a meaner state than any of you can ever 
 have the likeness of a slave that spirit is pro- 
 mised to you, and ready for you. That little baby 
 in the manger at Bethlehem God sacrificing 
 Himself for you in the spirit of love is a sign 
 that that spirit of love is the spirit of God, and 
 
CHRISTMAS-DAY. 59 
 
 therefore the only right spirit for you and me, 
 who are men and women made in the image of 
 God. That babe in the manger at Bethlehem is 
 a sign to you and me, that God will freely give us 
 that spirit of love if we ask for it. For He would 
 not have set us that example, if He had not meant 
 us to follow it, and He would not ask us to follow 
 it, if He did not intend to give us the means of 
 following it. Therefore, my friends, it is written, 
 Ask and ye shall receive. If your heavenly Father 
 spared not His own Son, but freely gave Him for 
 you, will He not with Him likewise freely give 
 you all things ? Oh ! ask, and you shall receive. 
 However poor, ignorant, sinful you may be, God's 
 promises are ready for you, signed and sealed by 
 the bread and wine on that table, the memorial of 
 Jesus, the babe of Bethlehem. Ask, and you 
 shall receive ! Comfort from sorrow, peaceful as- 
 surance of God's good will toward you, deliverance 
 from your sins, and a share in the likeness of Him 
 who on this day made himself of no reputation, 
 and took on him the form of a slave. 
 
VI. 
 TRUE ABSTINENCE. 
 
 FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 
 
 i CORINTHIANS ix. 27. 
 I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection. 
 
 IN the Collect for this day we have just been pray- 
 ing to God, to give us grace to use such absti- 
 nence, that our flesh being subdued to our spirit, 
 we may follow his godly motions. 
 
 Now we ought to have meant something when 
 we said these words. What did we mean by them ? 
 Perhaps some of us did not understand them 
 They could not be expected to mean anything by 
 them. But it is a sad thing, a very sad thing, 
 that people will come to church Sunday after 
 Sunday, and repeat by rote words which they do 
 not understand, words by which they therefore 
 mean nothing, and yet never care or try to under- 
 stand them. 
 
 What are the words there for, except to be un- 
 derstood ? All of you call people foolish, who sub- 
 
TRUE ABSTINENCE. 61 
 
 mit to have prayers read in their churches in a 
 foreign language, which none, at least of the poor, 
 can understand. But what right have you to call 
 them foolish, if you, whose Prayer-books are written 
 in English, take no trouble to find out the meaning 
 of them ? Would to Heaven that you would try 
 to find out the meaning of the Prayer-book ! 
 "Would to Heaven that the day would come, when 
 any one in this parish who was puzzled by any 
 doctrine of religion, or by any text in the Bible, or 
 word in the Prayer-book, would come confidently 
 to me, and ask me to explain it to him ! God 
 knows, T should think it an honour and a pleasure, 
 as well as a duty. I should think no time better 
 spent than in answering your questions. I do 
 beseech you to ask me, every one of you, when and 
 where you like, any questions about religion which 
 come into your minds. Why am I put in this 
 parish, except to teach you ? and how can I teach 
 you better, than by answering your questions ? As 
 it is, I am disheartened, and all but hopeless, at 
 times, about the state of this parish, and the work 
 I am trying to do here ; because, though you will 
 come and hear me, thank God, willingly enough, 
 you do not seern yet to have gained confidence 
 enough in me, or to have learnt to care sufficiently 
 about the best things, to ask questions of me about 
 them. My dear friends, if you wanted to get in- 
 
62 TRUE ABSTINENCE. 
 
 formation about anything you really cared for, you 
 would ask questions enough. If you wanted to 
 know some way to a place on earth you would ask 
 it ; why not ask your way to things better than 
 this earth can give ? But whether or not you will 
 question me I must go on preaching to you, though 
 whether or not you care to listen is more, alas ! 
 than I can tell. 
 
 But listen to me, now, I beseech you, while I 
 try to explain to you the meaning of the words 
 which you have been just using in this collect. 
 You have asked God to give you grace to use 
 abstinence. Now what is the meaning of absti- 
 nence ? Abstinence means abstaining, refraining, 
 keeping back of your own will from doing some- 
 thing which you might do. Take an example. 
 When a man for his health's sake, or his purse's 
 sake, or any other good reason, drinks less liquor 
 than he might if he chose, he abstains from liquor. 
 He uses abstinence about liquor. There are other 
 things in which a man may abstain. Indeed, he 
 may abstain from doing anything he likes. He 
 may abstain from eating too much ; from lying in 
 .bed too long ; from reading too much ; from taking 
 too much pleasure ; from making money ; from 
 spending money ; from right things ; from wrong 
 things ; from things which are neither right nor 
 wrong ; on all these he may use abstinence. He 
 
TRUE ABSTINENCE. 63 
 
 may abstain for many reasons ; for good ones, or 
 for bad ones. A miser will abstain from all sorts 
 of comforts, to hoard up money. A superstitious 
 man may abstain from comforts, because he thinks 
 God grudges them to him, or because he thinks 
 God is pleased by the unhappiness of his creatures, 
 or because he has been taught, poor wretch, that 
 if he makes himself uncomfortable in this life, he 
 shall have more comfort, more honour, more reason 
 for pride and self-glorification, in the life to come. 
 Or a man may abstain from one pleasure, just to 
 be able to enjoy another all the more ; as some 
 great gamblers drink nothing but water, in order 
 to keep their heads clear for cheating. All these 
 are poor reasons ; some of them base, some of them 
 wicked reasons for abstaining from anything. 
 Therefore, abstinence is not a good thing in itself ; 
 for if a thing is good in itself, it can never be 
 wrong. Love is good in itself, and, therefore, you 
 cannot love any one for a bad reason. Justice is 
 good in itself, pity is good in itself, and, therefore, 
 you can never be wrong in being just or pitiful. 
 
 But abstinence is not a good thing in itself. If 
 it were, we should all be bound to abstain always 
 from everything pleasant, and make ourselves as 
 miserable and uncomfortable as possible, as some 
 superstitious persons used to do in old times. 
 Abstinence is only good when it is used for a good 
 
64 TRUE ABSTINENCE. 
 
 reason. If a man abstains from pleasure himself, 
 to save up for his children ; if he abstains from over 
 eating and over drinking, to keep his mind clear 
 and quiet ; if he abstains from sleep and ease, in 
 order to have time to see his business properly 
 done ; if he abstains from spending money on him- 
 self, in order to spend it for others ; if he abstains 
 from any habit, however harmless or pleasant, be- 
 cause he finds it lead him towards what is wrong, 
 and put him into temptation ; then he does right ; 
 then he is doing God's work ; then he may expect 
 God's blessing ; then he is trying to do what we all 
 prayed God to help us to do, when we said, ' Give 
 us grace to use such abstinence ;' then he is doing, 
 more or less, what St. Paul says he did, c Keeping 
 his body under, and bringing it into subjection/ 
 
 For, see, the Collect does not say, ' Give us grace 
 to use abstinence/ as if abstinence were a good 
 thing in itself, but f to use such abstinence, that' 
 to use a certain kind of abstinence, and that for a 
 certain purpose, and that purpose a good one ; such 
 abstinence that our flesh may be subdued to our 
 spirit ; that our flesh, the animal, bodily nature 
 which is in us, loving ease and pleasure, may not 
 be our master, but our servant ; so that we may 
 not follow blindly our own appetites, and do just 
 what we like, .as brute beasts which have no under- 
 standing. And our flesh is to be subdued to our 
 
TRUE ABSTINENCE. 65 
 
 spirit for a certain purpose ; not because our flesh 
 is bad, and our spirit good ; not in order that we 
 may puff ourselves up and admire ourselves, and 
 say, as the philosophers among the heathen used, 
 * What a strong-minded, sober, self-restraining man 
 I am ! How fine it is to be able to look down on 
 my neighbours, who cannot help being fond of en- 
 joying themselves, and cannot help caring for this 
 world's good things. I am above all that. I want 
 nothing, and I feel nothing, and nothing can make 
 me glad or sorry. I am master of my own mind, 
 and own no law but my own will/ The Collect 
 gives us the true and only reason, for which it is 
 right to subdue our appetites ; which is, that we 
 may keep our minds clear and strong enough to 
 listen to the voice of God within our hearts and 
 reasons ; to obey the motions of God's Spirit in us ; 
 not to make our bodies our masters, but to live as 
 God's servants. 
 
 This is St. Paul's meaning, when he speaks of 
 keeping under his body, and bringing it into sub- 
 jection. The exact word which he uses, however, 
 is a much stronger one than merely ' keeping 
 under ;' it means simply, to beat a man's face black 
 and blue; and his reason for using such a strong 
 word about the matter is, to show us that he 
 thought no labour too hard, no training too sharp, 
 which teaches us how to restrain ourselves, and 
 
 1 F 
 
66 TRUE ABSTINENCE. 
 
 keep our appetites and passions in manful and 
 godly control. 
 
 Now, a few verses before my text, St. Paul 
 takes an example from foot racers. ' These foot 
 racers/ he says, ' heathens though they are, and 
 only trying to win a worthless prize, the petty 
 honour of a crown of leaves, see what trouble they 
 take ; how they exercise their limbs ; how careful 
 and temperate they are in eating and drinking, 
 how much pain and fatigue they go through to get 
 themselves into perfect training for a race. How 
 much more trouble ought we take, to make our- 
 selves fit to do God's work ? For these foot racers 
 do all this only to gain a garland, which will 
 wither in a week ; but we, to gain a garland which 
 will never fade away; a garland of holiness, and 
 righteousness, and purity, and the likeness of Jesus 
 Christ/ 
 
 The next example of abstinence which St. Paul 
 takes, is from the prize-fighters, who were very 
 numerous and very famous, in the country in which 
 the Corinthians lived. ' I fight/ he says, ' not like 
 one who beats the air / that is, not like a man who 
 is only brandishing his hands, and sparring in jest, 
 but like a man who knows that he has a fight to 
 fight in hard earnest ; a terrible life long fight 
 against sin, the world, and the devil ; ' and, there- 
 fore/ he says, c I do as these fighters do/ They, 
 
TRUE ABSTINENCE. 67 
 
 poor savage and brutal heathens as they are, go 
 through a long and painful training. Their very 
 practice is not play ; it is grim earnest. They 
 stand up to strike, and be struck, and are bruised 
 and disfigured as a matter of course, in order that 
 they may learn not to flinch from pain, or lose 
 their tempers, or turn cowards, when they have to 
 ; fight. ' And so do I/ says St. Paul ; ' they, poor 
 -men, submit to painful and disagreeable things 
 I to make them brave in 'their paltry battles. I 
 [submit to painful and disagreeable things, to 
 make me brave in the great battle which I have 
 ito fight against sin, and ignorance, and heathen- 
 dom/ ' Therefore/ he says, in another place, 
 n< I take pleasure in afflictions, in persecutions, in 
 necessities, in distresses/ and that not because 
 ithose things were pleasant, they were just as un- 
 pleasant to him as to any one else ; but because 
 they taught him to bear, taught him to be brave ; 
 taught him, in short, to become a perfect man of 
 bod 
 
 This is St. Paul's account of his own training : 
 In the Epistle for to-day, we have another account 
 lof it ; a description of the life which he led, and 
 which he was content to lead ' in much suffering, 
 in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, 
 In watchings, in fastings' and an account, too, 
 Ipf the temper which he had learnt to show amid 
 F 2 
 
68 TRUE ABSTINENCE. 
 
 such a life of vexation, and suffering, and shame, 
 and danger c approving himself in all things the 
 minister of God, by pureness, by wisdom, by long 
 suffering, by kindness, by the spirit of holiness, 
 by love unfeigned ;' ' as dying, and behold we 
 live ; as chastened, and not killed ; as sorrowful, 
 yet always rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many 
 rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things/ 
 In all things proving himself a true messenger from 
 God, by being able to dare and to endure for God's 
 sake, what no man ever would have dared and en- 
 dured for his own sake. 
 
 'But' some one may say, c St. Paul was an 
 apostle ; he had a great work to do in the world ; 
 he had to turn the heathen to God ; and it is likely 
 enough that he required to train himself, and keep 
 strict watch over all his habits, and ways of think- 
 ing and behaving, lest he should grow selfish, lazy, 
 cowardly, covetous, fond of ease and amuse- 
 ment. He had, of course, to lead a life of strange 
 suffering and danger ; and he had therefore to i 
 train himself for it. But what need have we to do 
 as St. Paul did V 
 
 Just as much need, my good friends, if you could 
 see it. 
 
 Which of us has not to lead a life of suffering? 
 We shall each and all of us, have our full share of 
 trouble before we die, doubt it not. 
 
TRUE ABSTINENCE. 69 
 
 And which of us has not to lead a life of danger? 
 I do not mean bodily danger ; of that, there is 
 little enough perhaps too little in England now ; 
 but of danger to our hearts, minds, characters? 
 Oh, my friends, I pity those who do not think 
 themselves in danger every day of their lives, for 
 the less danger they see around them, the more 
 danger there is. There is not only the common 
 danger of temptation, but over and above it, the 
 worse danger of not knowing temptation when it 
 comes. Who will be most likely to walk into pits 
 and mires upon the moor the man who knows 
 that they are there around him, or the man who 
 goes on careless and light of heart, fancying that 
 it is all smooth ground? Woe to you, young peo- 
 ple, if you fancy that you are to have no woe ! 
 Danger to you, young people, if you fancy your- 
 selves in no danger ! 
 
 'This is sad and dreary news' some of you 
 may say. Ay, my friends, it would be sad and 
 dreary news indeed ; and this earth would be a 
 very sad and dreary place; and life with all its 
 troubles and temptations, would not be worth 
 having, if it were not for the blessed news which 
 the Gospel for this day brings us. That makes 
 up for all the sadness of the Epistle ; that gives us 
 hope ; that tells us of one who has been through 
 life, and through death too, yet without sin. That 
 
70 TRUE ABSTINENCE. 
 
 tells us of one who has endured a thousand times 
 more temptation than we ever shall, a thousand 
 times more trouble than we ever shall, and yet has 
 conquered it all ; and that He who has thus been 
 through all our temptations, borne all our weak- 
 nesses, is our King, our Saviour, who loves us, 
 who teaches us, who has promised us His Holy 
 Spirit, to make us like Himself, strong, brave, 
 and patient, to endure all that man or devil, or 
 our own low animal tempers and lusts, can do to 
 hurt us. The Gospel for this day tells us how 
 He went and was alone in the wilderness with the 
 wild beasts, and yet trusted in God, His Father 
 and ours, to keep Him safe. How He went with- 
 out food forty days and nights, and yet in His ex- 
 treme hunger, refused to do the least self-willed 
 or selfish thing to get Himself food. Is that no 
 lesson, no message of hope for the poor man who 
 is tempted by hunger to steal, or tempted by need 
 to do a mean and selfish thing, to hear that the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who bore need and hunger far 
 worse than his, understands all his temptations, and 
 feels for him, and pities him, and has promised 
 him God's Spirit, to make him strong, as He him- 
 self was ? 
 
 Is it no comfort to young people who are tempted 
 to vanity, and display, and self-willed conceited 
 longings, tempted to despise the advice of their 
 
TRUE ABSTINENCE. 71 
 
 parents and elders, and set up for themselves, and 
 choose their own way Is it no good news, I say, 
 for them to hear that their Lord and Saviour was 
 tempted to it also, and conquered it ? That He 
 will teach them to answer the temptation as He 
 did, when he refused even to let angels hold Him 
 over the temple, up between earth and heaven, for 
 a sign and a wonder to all the Jews, because God 
 His Father had not bidden Him to do it, and 
 therefore He would not tempt the Lord His God. 
 
 Is it no good news, again, to those who are 
 tempted to do perhaps one little outward wrong 
 thing, to yield on some small point to the ways of 
 the world, in order to help themselves on in life, 
 to hear that their Lord and Saviour conquered 
 that temptation too ? That He refused all the 
 kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, when 
 the devil offered them, because He knew that the 
 devil could not give them to Him ; that all wealth, 
 and power, and glory belonged to God, and was to 
 be got only by serving Him. 
 
 Oh do you all, young people especially, think of 
 this. As you grow up and go out into life, you will 
 be tempted in a hundred different ways, by things 
 which are pleasant every one knows that they 
 are pleasant enough but wrong. One will be 
 tempted to be vain of dress ; another to be self- 
 conceited : another to be lazy and idle ; another 
 
72 TRUE ABSTINENCE. 
 
 to be extravagant and roving ; another to be over 
 fond of amusement ; another to be over fond of 
 money ; another to be over fond of liquor ; another 
 to go wrong, as too many young men and young 
 women do, and bring themselves, and those with 
 whom they keep company, and whom they ought, 
 if they really love them, to respect and honour, 
 down into sin and shame. You will all be tempted, 
 and you will all be troubled ; one by poverty, one 
 by sickness, one by the burden of a family, one by 
 being laughed at for trying to do right. But 
 remember, oh, remember, whenever a temptation 
 comes upon you, that The blessed Jesus has been 
 through it all, and conquered all, and that His will 
 is, that you shall be holy and pure like Him, and 
 that, therefore, if you but ask Him, He will give 
 you strength to keep pure. When you are tempted, 
 pray to Him : the struggle in your own minds will, 
 no doubt, be very great ; it will be very hard work 
 for you sin looks so pleasant on the outside ! 
 Poor souls, it is a sad struggle for you ! Many a 
 poor young fellow, who goes wrong, deserves rather 
 to be pitied than to be punished. Well then, if 
 no man else will pity him, Jesus, the Man of all 
 men, will. Pray to Him ! Cry aloud to Him ! Ask 
 Him to make you stout-hearted, patient, really 
 manful, to fight against temptation. Ask Him to 
 give you strength of mind to fight against all bad 
 
TRUE ABSTINENCE. 73 
 
 habits. Ask Him to open your eyes to see when 
 you are in danger. Ask Him to help you to keep 
 out of the way of temptation. Ask Him, in short, 
 to give you grace to use such abstinence that your 
 flesh may be subdued to your spirit. And then 
 you will not follow, as the beasts do, just what 
 seems pleasant to your flesh ; no, you will be able 
 to obey Christ's godly motions, that is, to do, as 
 well as to love, the good desires which He puts 
 into your hearts. You will do not merely what is 
 pleasant, but what is right ; you will not be your 
 own slaves, you will be your own masters, and 
 God's loyal and obedient sons ; you will not be, as 
 too many are, mere animals going about in the 
 shape of men, but truly men at heart, who are not 
 afraid of pain, poverty, shame, trouble, or death 
 itself, when they are in the right path, about the 
 work to which God has called them. 
 
 But if you ask Christ to make true men and 
 women of you, you must believe that He will give 
 you what you ask ; if you ask Him to help you, 
 you must believe that He will and does help you 
 you must believe that it is He himself who has put 
 into your hearts the very desire of being holy and 
 strong at all ; and therefore you must believe that 
 you can help yourselves. Help yourselves, and He 
 will help you. If you ask for His help, He will 
 give it. But what is the use of His giving it, if 
 
74 TRUE ABSTINENCE, 
 
 you do not use it ? To him who has shall be given, 
 and he shall have more ; but from him who has 
 not shall be taken away even what he seems to 
 have. Therefore do not merely pray, but struggle 
 and try yourselves. Train yourselves as St. Paul 
 did ; train yourselves to keep your temper ; train 
 yourselves to bear unpleasant things for the sake 
 of your duty ; train yourselves to keep out of tempta- 
 tion; train yourselves to be forgiving, gentle, thrifty, 
 industrious, sober, temperate, cleanly, as modest 
 as little children in your words, and thoughts, and 
 conduct. And God, when He sees you trying to be 
 all this, will help you to be so. It may be hard to 
 educate yourselves. Life is a hard business at best 
 you will find it a thousand times harder, though, 
 if you are slaves to your own fleshly sins. But the 
 more you struggle against sin, the less hard you 
 will find it to fight ; the more you resist the devil, 
 the more he will flee from you ; the more you try 
 to conquer your own bad passions, the more God 
 will help you to conquer them ; it may be a hard 
 battle, but it is a sure one. No fear but that every 
 one can, if he will, work out his own salvation, for 
 it is God Himself who works in us to will and to 
 do of His good pleasure. All you have to do is to 
 give yourselves up to Him, to study His laws, to 
 labour as well as long to keep them, and He will 
 enable you to keep them ; He will teach you in a 
 
TRUE ABSTINENCE. 75 
 
 thousand unexpected ways ; He will daily renew 
 and strengthen your hearts by the working of His 
 Spirit, that you may more and more know, and 
 love, and do, what is right ; and you will go on 
 from strength to strength, to the height of perfect 
 men, to the likeness of Jesus Christ the Lord, who 
 conquered all human temptations for your sake, 
 that He might be a high-priest who can be touched 
 with the feeling of our infirmities, because He was 
 tempted in all points like as we are, yet without 
 sin. 
 
VII. 
 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 ISAIAH Ixiii. 9. 
 
 In all tlieir affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His pre- 
 sence saved them. In His love and in His pity He redeemed 
 them ; and He bare them and carried them all the days of old. 
 
 ON this very day, at this very hour, 1817 years 
 ago, hung one nailed to a cross ; bruised and 
 bleeding, pierced and naked, dying a felon's death 
 between two thieves ; in perfect misery, in utter 
 shame, mocked and insulted by all the great, the 
 rich, the learned of his nation ; one who had grown 
 up as a man of low birth, believed by all to be a 
 carpenter's son ; without scholarship, money, re- 
 spectability ; even without a home wherein to lay 
 His head and here was the end of His life ! True, 
 He had preached noble words, He had done noble 
 deeds: but what had they helped Him? They 
 had not made the rich, the learned, the respect- 
 able, the religious believe on Him ; they had not 
 saved Him from persecution, and insult, and death. 
 The only mourners who stood by to weep over His 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 77 
 
 dying agonies were His mother, a poor country- 
 woman ; a young fisherman ; and one who had 
 been a harlot and a sinner. There was an end ! 
 
 Do you know who that Man was ? He was your 
 King ; the King of rich and poor ; and He was 
 your King, not in spite of His suffering all that 
 shame and misery, but just because He suffered it ; 
 because He chose to be poor, and miserable, and 
 despised ; because He endured the cross, despising 
 the shame ; because He took upon Himself, to 
 fulfil His Father's will, all ills which flesh is heir 
 to therefore He is now your King, the Saviour 
 of the world, the poor man's friend, the Lord of 
 heaven and earth. Is He such a King as you 
 wish for ? 
 
 Is He the sort of King you want, my friends ? 
 Does He fulfil your notions of what the poor man's 
 friend should be ? Do you, in your hearts, wish 
 He had been somewhat richer, more glorious, more 
 successful in the world's eyes a wealthy and 
 prosperous man, like Solomon of old ? Are any 
 of you ready to say, as the money-blinded Jews 
 said, when they demanded their true King to be 
 crucified, ' We have no king but Caesar ? Pro- 
 vided the law-makers and the authorities take care 
 of our interests, and protect our property, and do 
 not make us pay too many rates and taxes, that is 
 enough for us/ Will you have no king but Caesar ? 
 
78 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 Alas ! those who say that, find that the law is but 
 a weak deliverer, too weak to protect them from 
 selfishness, and covetousness, and decent cruelty ; 
 and so Caesar and the law have to give place to 
 Mammon, the god of money. Do we not see it in 
 these very days ? And Mammon is weak, too. 
 This world is not a shop, men are not merely 
 money-makers and wages-earners. There are more 
 things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in 
 that sort of philosophy. Self-interest and covetous- 
 ness cannot keep society orderly and peaceful, let 
 sham philosophers say what they will. And then 
 comes tyranny, lawlessness, rich and poor staining 
 their hands in each other's blood, as we saw happen 
 in France two years ago ; and so, after all, Mam- 
 mon has to give place to Moloch, the fiend of 
 murder and cruelty ; and woe to rich and poor 
 when he reigns over them ! Ay, woe woe to rich 
 and poor when they choose any one for their king 
 but their real and rightful Lord and Master, Jesus, 
 the poor man, afflicted in all their afflictions, the 
 Man of sorrows, crucified on this day. 
 
 Is He the kind of King you like ? Make up 
 your minds, my friends make up your minds ! 
 For whether you like Him or not, your King He 
 was, your King He is, your King He will be, blessed 
 be God, for ever. Blessed be God, indeed ! If 
 He were not our King ; if any one in heaven or 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 79 
 
 earth was Lord of us, except the Man of sorrows, 
 the Prince of sufferers, what hope, what comfort 
 would there be ? What a horrible, black, fathom- 
 less riddle this sad, diseased, moaning world would 
 be ! No king will suit us but the Prince of 
 sufferers Jesus, who has borne all this world's 
 griefs, and carried all its sorrows Jesus, who has 
 Himself smarted under pain and hunger, oppression 
 and insult, treachery and desertion, who knows 
 them all, feels for them all, and will right them 
 all, in His own good time. 
 
 Believing in Jesus, we can travel on, through 
 one wild parish after another, upon English soil, 
 and see, as I have done, the labourer who tills the 
 land worse housed than the horse he drives, worse 
 clothed than the sheep he shears, worse nourished 
 than the hog he feeds and yet not despair : for 
 the Prince of Sufferers is the labourer's Saviour ; He 
 has tasted hunger, and thirst, and weariness, 
 poverty, oppression, and neglect ; the very tramp 
 who wanders houseless on the moor-side is His 
 brother ; in his sufferings the Saviour of the world 
 has shared, when the foxes had holes, and the birds 
 of the air had nests, while the Son of God had not 
 where to lay His head. He is the King of the poor, 
 firstborn among many brethren; His tenderness is 
 Almighty, and for the poor He has prepared 
 deliverance, perhaps in this world, surely in the 
 
80 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 world to come boundless deliverance, out of the 
 treasures of His boundless love. 
 
 Believing in Jesus, we can pass by mines, and 
 factories, and by dungeons darker and fouler still, 
 in the lanes and alleys of our great towns and 
 cities, where thousands and tens of thousands of 
 starving men, and wan women, and children grown 
 old before their youth, sit toiling and pining in 
 Mammon's prison-house, in worse than Egyptian 
 bondage, to earn such pay as just keeps the broken 
 heart within the worn-out body ; ay, we can go 
 through our great cities, even now, and see the 
 women, whom God intended to be Christian wives 
 and mothers, the slaves of the rich man's greed by 
 day, the playthings of his lust by night and yet 
 not despair : for we can cry, No ! thou proud 
 Mammon, money-making fiend ! These are not 
 thine, but Christ's ; they belong to Him who died 
 on the cross ; arid though thou heedest not their 
 sighs, He marks them all, for He has sighed like 
 them ; though there be no pity in thee, there is 
 in Him the pity of a man, ay, and the indignation 
 of a God ! He treasures up their tears ; He 
 understands their sorrows; His judgment of their 
 guilt is not like thine, thou Pharisee ! He is their 
 Lord, who said, that to those to whom little was 
 given, of them shall little be required. Generation 
 after generation, they are being made perfect by 
 
GOOD FRIDAY* 81 
 
 sufferings, as their Saviour was before them ; and 
 then, woe to thee ! For even as he led Israel out 
 of Egypt with a mighty hand, and a stretehed-out 
 arm, and signs and wonders, great and terrible, 
 so shall He lead the poor out of their misery, and 
 make them households like a flock of sheep ; even 
 as He led Israel through the wilderness, tender^ 
 forbearing, knowing whereof they were made, 
 having mercy on all their brutalities, and idolatries, 
 murmurings, and backslidings, afflicted in all their 
 afflictions even while He was punishing them out- 
 wardly, as He is punishing the poor man now- 
 even so shall He lead this people out in His good 
 time, into a good land and large, a land of wheat 
 and wine, of milk and honey ; a rest which He has 
 prepared for His poor, such as eye hath not seen, 
 nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart 
 of man to conceive. He can do it; for the Almighty 
 Deliverer is His name. He will do it ; for His name 
 is Love. He knows how to do it ; for He has borne 
 the griefs, and carried the sorrows of the poor. 
 
 Oh, sad hearts and suffering ! Anxious and 
 weary ones ! Look to the cross this day ! There 
 hung your king ! The King of sorrowing souls, and 
 more, the King of sorrows. Ay, pain and grief, 
 tyranny and desertion, death and hell, He has faced 
 them one and all, and tried their strength, and 
 taught them His, and conquered them right royally! 
 
 I G 
 
82 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 And, since He hung upon that torturing cross, 
 sorrow is divine, godlike, as joy itself. All that 
 man's fallen nature dreads and despises, God 
 honoured on the cross, and took unto Himself, and 
 blest, and consecrated for ever. And now, blessed 
 are the poor, if they are poor in heart, as well as 
 purse ; for Jesus was poor, and theirs is the king- 
 dom of heaven. Blessed are the hungry, if they 
 hunger for righteousness as well as food ; for Jesus 
 hungered, and they shall be filled. Blessed are 
 those who mourn, if they mourn not only for their 
 afflictions, but for their sins, and for the sins 
 they see around them ; for on this day, Jesus 
 mourned for our sins ; on this day He was made 
 sin for us, who knew no sin, and they shall be 
 comforted. Blessed are those who are ashamed 
 of themselves, and hate themselves, and humble 
 themselves before God this day ; for on this day 
 Jesus humbled Himself for us; and they shall be ex- 
 alted. Blessed are the forsaken and the despised. 
 Did not all men forsake Jesus this day, in His hour 
 of need ? and why not thee, too, thou poor deserted 
 one ? Shall the disciple be above his Master ? 
 No ; every one that is perfect, must be like his 
 master. The deeper, the bitterer your loneliness, 
 the more are you like Him, who cried upon the 
 cross, ' My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken 
 Me?' He knows what that grief, too, is like. 
 
GOOD FRIDAY. 83 
 
 He feels for thee, at least. Though all forsake 
 thee, He is with thee still ; and if he be with thee, 
 what matter who has left thee for a while ? Ay, 
 blessed are those that weep now, for theyshall laugh. 
 It is those whom the Lord loveth that He chasteneth. 
 And because He loves the poor, He brings them 
 low. All things are blessed now, but sin ; for all 
 things, excepting sin, are redeemed by the life 
 and death of the Son of God. Blessed are wisdom 
 and courage, joy, and health, and beauty, love 
 and marriage, childhood and manhood, corn and 
 wine, fruits and flowers, for Christ redeemed them 
 by His life. And blessed, too, are tears and 
 shame, blessed are weakness and ugliness, blessed 
 are agony and sickness, blessed the sad remem- 
 brance of our sins, and a broken heart, and a 
 repentant spirit. Blessed is death, and blest the 
 unknown realms, where souls await the resurrection 
 day, for Christ redeemed them by His death. 
 Blessed are all things, weak, as well as strong. 
 Blessed are all days, dark, as well as bright, for 
 all are His, and He is ours ; and all are ours, and 
 we are His, for ever. 
 
 Therefore sigh on, ye sad ones, and rejoice in 
 your own sadness ; ache on, ye suffering ones, and 
 rejoice in your own sorrows. Rejoice that you are 
 made free of the holy brotherhood of mourners, 
 that you may claim your place, too, if you will, 
 G 2 
 
84 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 among the noble army of martyrs. Rejoice that 
 you are counted worthy of a fellowship in the 
 sufferings of the Son of God. Rejoice and trust 
 on, for after sorrow shall come joy. Trust on ; for 
 in man's weakness God's strength shall Be made 
 perfect. Trust on, for death is the gate of life. 
 Endure on to the end, and possess your souls in 
 patience for a little while, and that, perhaps, a very 
 little while. Death comes swiftly ; and more swiftly 
 still, perhaps, the day of the Lord. The deeper 
 the sorrow, the nearer the salvation : 
 
 The night is darkest before the dawn ; 
 When the pain is sorest the child is born ; 
 And the day of the Lord at hand. 
 
 Ay, if the worst should come; if neither the 
 laws of your country nor the benevolence of the 
 righteous were strong enough to defend you ; 
 if one charitable plan after another were to fail ; 
 if the labour-market were getting fuller and fuller, 
 and poverty were spreading wider and wider, and 
 crime and misery were breeding faster and still 
 faster every year than education and religion ; all 
 hope for the poor seemed gone and lost, and they 
 were ready to believe the men who tell them that 
 the land is over-peopled that there are too many 
 of us, too many industrious hands, too many cun- 
 ning brains, too many immortal souls, too many of 
 . God's children upon God's earth, which God the 
 
GOOD FKIDAY. 85 
 
 Father made, and God the Son redeemed, and God 
 the Holy Spirit teaches : then the Lord, the Prince 
 of sufferers, He who knows your every grief, and 
 weeps with you tear for tear, He would come out of 
 His place to smite the haughty ones, and confound 
 the cunning ones, and silence the loud ones, and 
 empty the full ones ; to judge with righteousness 
 for the meek of the earth, to hearken to the prayer 
 of the poor, whose heart He has been preparing, 
 and to help the fatherless and needy to their right, 
 that the man of the world may be no more exalted 
 against them. 
 
 In that day men will find out a wonder and a 
 miracle. They will see many that are first last, 
 and many that are last first. They will find that 
 there were poor who were the richest after all ; 
 and simple who were wisest, and gentle who were 
 bravest, and weak who were strongest ; that God's 
 ways are not as men's ways, nor God's thoughts as 
 men's thoughts ? Alas, who shall stand when God 
 does this ? At least He who will do it is Jesus, 
 who loved us to the death ; boundless love and 
 gentleness, boundless generosity and pity ; who was 
 tempted even as we are, who has felt our every 
 weakness. In that thought is utter comfort, that 
 our Judge will be He who died and rose again, and 
 is praying for us even now, to His Father and our 
 Father. Therefore fear not, gentle souls, patient 
 
86 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 souls, pure consciences and tender hearts. Fear 
 not, you who are empty and hungry, who walk in 
 darkness and see no light ; for though He fulfil 
 once more, as He has again and again, the awful 
 prophecy before the text ; though He tread down 
 the people in His anger, and make them drunk in 
 His fury, and bring their strength to the earth ; 
 though kings with their armies may flee, and the 
 stars which light the earth may fall, and there be 
 great tribulation, wars, and rumours of wars, and 
 on earth distress of nations with perplexity yet 
 it is when the day of His vengeance is at hand, 
 that the year of His redeemed is come. And 
 when they see all these things, let them rejoice and 
 lift up their heads, for their redemption drawetk 
 nigh. 
 
 Do you ask how I know this ? Do you ask for 
 a sign, for a token that these my words are true ? 
 I know that they are true. But, as for tokens, I 
 will give you but this one, the sign of that bread 
 and that wine. When the Lord shall have deli- 
 vered His people out of all their sorrows, they shall 
 eat of that bread and drink of that wine, one and 
 all, in the kingdom of God. 
 
 
 
VIII. 
 EASTER-DAY. 
 
 COLOSSIANS. iii. i. 
 
 if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are 
 above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 
 
 f KNOW no better way of preaching to you the 
 -** gospel of Easter, the good news which this day 
 brings to all men, year after year, than by trying 
 to explain to you the Epistle appointed for this 
 day, which we have just read. 
 
 It begins, ' If ye then be risen with Christ/ 
 Now that does not mean that St. Paul had any 
 doubt whether the Colossians to whom he was 
 speaking, were risen with Christ or not. He does 
 not mean, ' I am not sure whether you are risen 
 or not ; but perhaps you are not ; but if you are, 
 you ought to do such and such things/ He does 
 not mean that. He was quite sure that these Colos- 
 sians were risen with Christ. He had no doubt of 
 it whatsoever. If you look at the chapter before, 
 he says so. He tells them that they were buried 
 with Christ in baptism, in which also they were 
 risen with Christ, through faith of the operation of 
 God, who has raised Him from the dead. 
 
88 EASTER-DAY. 
 
 Now what reason had St. Paul to believe that 
 these Colossians were risen with Jesus Christ? 
 Because they had given up sin, and were leading 
 holy lives ? That cannot be. The Epistle for this 
 day says the very opposite. It does not say, c You 
 are risen, because you have left off sinning/ It 
 says, ' You must leave off sinning, because you are 
 risen/ Was it then on account of any experiences, 
 or inward feeling of theirs ? Not at all. He says 
 that these Colossians had been baptized, and that 
 they had believed in God's work of raising Jesus 
 Christ from the dead, and that therefore they were 
 risen with Christ. In one word, they had believed 
 the message of Easter- day, and therefore they 
 shared in the blessings of Easter-day; as it is 
 written in another place, ' If thou shalt confess 
 with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe 
 in thy heart that God has raised Him from the 
 dead, thou shalt be saved/ 
 
 Now these seem very wide words, too wide to 
 please most people. But there are wider words 
 still in St. Paul's epistles. He tells us again and 
 again that God's mercy is a free gift ; that He has 
 made to us a free present of His Son Jesus Christ. 
 That He has taken away the effect of all men's 
 sin ; and more than that, that men are God's 
 children; that they have a right to believe that 
 they are so, because they are so. For, He says, 
 
f LIBRARY^ 
 
 the free gift of Jesus Christ is not like Adam's 
 offence. It is not less than it, narrower than it, as 
 some folks say. It is not that by Adam's sin all 
 became sinners, and by Jesus Christ's salvation an 
 elect few out of them shall be made righteous. If 
 you will think a moment, you will see that it can- 
 not be so. For Jesus Christ conquered sin and 
 death and the devil. But if, as some think, sin 
 and death and the devil have destroyed and sent 
 to hell by far the greater part of mankind, then 
 they have conquered Christ,, and not Christ them. 
 Mankind belonged to Christ at first. Sin and 
 death and the devil came in and ruined them, and 
 then Christ came to redeem them ; but if all that 
 He has been able to do is to redeem one out of a 
 thousand, or, even .nine out often, of them, then the 
 devil has had the best of the battle. He, and not 
 Christ, is the conqueror. If a thief steals all the sheep 
 on your farm, and all that you can get back from 
 him is a part of the whole flock, which has had the 
 best of it, you or the thief ? If Christ's redemption 
 is meant for only a few, or even a great many elect 
 souls out of all the millions of mankind, which has 
 had the best of it, Christ, the master of the sheep, 
 or the devil, the robber and destroyer of them ? Be 
 sure, my friends, Christ is stronger than that ; His 
 love is deeper than that ; His redemption is wider 
 than that. How strong, how deep, how wide it is, we 
 
90 EASTER-DAY. 
 
 never shall know. St. Paul tells us that we never 
 shall know, for it is boundless : but that we shall- 
 go on knowing more and more of its vastness for 
 ever, finding it deeper, wider, loftier than our most 
 glorious dreams could ever picture it. But this, 
 he says, we do know, that we have gained more 
 than Adam lost. For if by one man's offence 
 many were made sinners, much more shall they 
 who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of 
 righteousness reign in life by one, even Jesus 
 Christ. For, he says, .where sin abounded, God's 
 grace and free gift has much more abounded. 
 Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came 
 upon all men to condemnation, even so by the 
 righteousness of one the free gift came upon all 
 men to justification of life. Upon all men, you see. 
 There can be no doubt about it. Upon you and 
 me, and foreigners, and gipsies, and heathens, 
 and thieves, and harlots upon all mankind, 
 let them be as bad or as good, as young or 
 as old, as they may, the free gift of God has 
 come to justification of life ; they are justified, 
 pardoned, and beloved in the sight of Almighty 
 God ; they have a right and a share to a new life ; 
 a different sort of life from what they are inclined 
 to lead, and do lead, by nature to a life which 
 death cannot take away, a life which may grow, 
 and strengthen, and widen, and blossom, and bear 
 
EASTER-DAY. 91 
 
 fruit for ever and ever. They have a share in 
 Christ's resurrection, in the blessing of Easter-day. 
 They have a share in Christ, every one of them, 
 whether they claim that share or not. How far 
 they will be punished for not claiming it, is a very 
 different matter, of which we know nothing what- 
 soever. And how far the .heathen who have never 
 heard of Christ, or of their share in Him, will be 
 punished, we know not *we are not meant to 
 know. But we know that to their own Master 
 they stand or fall, and that their Master is our 
 Master too, and that He is a just Master, and 
 requires little of him to whom He gives little ; 
 a just and merciful Master, who loved this sinful 
 world enough to come down and die for it, while 
 mankind were all rebels and sinners, and has gone 
 on taking care of it, and ..improving it, in spite of 
 all its sin and rebellion ever since, and that is 
 enough for us. 
 
 St. Paul knew no more. It was a mystery, he 
 says, a wonderful and unfathomable matter, which 
 had been hidden since the foundation of the world, 
 of which he himself says that he saw only through 
 a glass darkly; and we cannot expect to have 
 clearer eyes than he. But this he seems to have 
 seen, that the Lord, when He rose again, bought a- 
 blessing even for the dumb beasts and the earth 
 on which we live. For he says, the whole creation 
 
92 EASTER-DAY. 
 
 is now groaning in the pangs of labour, being about 
 to bring forth something ; and the whole creation 
 will rise again ; how, and when, and into what new 
 state, we cannot tell. But St. Paul seems to say 
 that when the Lord shall destroy death, the last of 
 His enemies, then the whole creation shall be re- 
 newed, and bring forth another earth, nobler, and 
 more beautiful than this one, free from death, and 
 sin, and sorrow, and redeemed into the glorious 
 liberty of the children of God. 
 
 But this, on the other hand, St. Paul did see 
 most clearly, and preached, it to all to whom he 
 spoke, that the ground and reason of this great and 
 glorious mystery was the thing which happened on 
 the first Easter-day, namely, the Lard Jesus rising 
 from the dead. About that, at least, there was no 
 doubt at all in his mind. We may see it by the 
 Easter anthem, which we read this morning, taken 
 out of the fifteenth chapter of his first epistle to 
 the Corinthians ! 
 
 * Christ is risen from the dead,. and become the 
 first fruits of them that slept, 
 
 * For since by man came death, by man carne 
 also the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 ( For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall 
 all be made alive/ 
 
 Now he is not talking here merely of the rising 
 again of our bodies at the last day. That was in 
 
EASTER-DAY. 93 
 
 his mind only the end, and outcome, and fruit, and 
 perfecting, of men's rising from the dead in this 
 life. For he tells these same Corinthians, and the 
 Colossians, and others to whom he wrote, that life, 
 the eternal life which would raise their bodies at 
 the last day, was even then working in them. 
 
 Neither is he speaking only of a few believers. 
 He says that, owing to the Lord's rising on this 
 day, all shall be made alive not merely all 
 Christians, but all men. For he does not say, as 
 in Adam all Christians die, but all men ; and so he 
 does not say, all Christians shall be made alive, but 
 all men. For here, as in the sixth chapter of 
 Romans, he is trying to make us understand 
 the likeness between Adam and Jesus Christ, 
 whom he calls the new Adam. The first Adam, 
 he says, was only a living soul, as the savages and 
 heathens are ; but the second Adam, the Lord 
 from heaven, the true pattern of men, is a quicken- 
 ing, life-giving spirit, to give eternal life to every 
 human being who will accept His offer, and claim 
 his share and right as a true man, after the likeness 
 of the new Adam, Jesus Christ. 
 
 We then, every one of us who is here to-day, 
 have a right to believe that we have a share in 
 Christ's eternal life : that our original sin, that is, 
 the sinfulness which we inherited from our fore- 
 fathers, is all forgiven and forgotten, and that man- 
 
94 EASTER-DAY. 
 
 kind is now redeemed, and belongs to the second 
 Adam, the true and original head and pattern of 
 man, Jesus Christ, in whom was no sin ; and that 
 because mankind belongs to Him, God is well 
 pleased with them, and reconciled to them, and 
 looks on them not as a guilty, but as a pardoned 
 and beloved race of beings. 
 
 And we have a right to believe also, that because 
 all power is given to Christ in heaven and earth, 
 there is given to Him the power of making men 
 what they ought to be like His own blessed, and 
 glorious, and perfect self. Ask Him, and you shall 
 receive ; knock at the gate of His treasure-house, 
 and it shall be opened. Seek those things that are 
 above, and you shall find them. You shall find 
 old bad habits die out in you, new good habits 
 spring up in you ; old meannesses become weaker, 
 new nobleness and manfulness become stronger ; 
 the old, selfish, covetous, savage, cunning, cowardly, 
 brutal Adam dying out, the new, loving, brotherly, 
 civilized, wise, brave, manful Adam growing up in 
 you, day by day, to perfection, till you are changed 
 from grace to grace, and glory to glory, into the 
 likeness of the Lord of men. 
 
 6 These are great promises/ you may say, 
 c glorious promises ; but what proof have you that 
 they belong to us ? They sound too good to be 
 true ; too great for such poor creatures as we are ; 
 
EASTER-DAY. 95 
 
 give us but some proof that we have a right to 
 them ; give us but a pledge from Jesus Christ ; 
 give us but a sign, an assurance from God, and we 
 may believe you then/ 
 
 My friends, I am certain- and the longer I live 
 1 am the more certain that there is no argu- 
 ment, no pledge, no sign, no assurance, like the 
 bread and the wine upon that table. Assurances 
 in our own hearts and souls are good, but we may 
 be mistaken about them; for, after all, they are 
 our awn thoughts, notions in our own souls, these 
 inward experiences and assurances ; delightful and 
 comforting as they are at times, yet we cannot 
 trust them we cannot trust our own hearts, they 
 are deceitful above all things, who can know them? 
 Yes : our own hearts may tell us lies ; they may 
 make us fancy that we are pleasing God, when we 
 are doing the things most hateful to him. They 
 have made thousands fancy so already. They may 
 make us fancy we are right in God's sight, when 
 we are utterly wrong. They have made thousands 
 fancy so already. These hearts of ours may make 
 us fancy that we have spiritual life in us ; that we 
 are in a state higher and nobler than the sinners 
 round us, when all the while our spirits are dead 
 within us. They made the Pharisees of old fancy 
 that their souls were alive, and pure, and religious, 
 when they were dead and damned within them ; 
 
96 EASTER-DAY. 
 
 and they may make us fancy so too. No: we 
 cannot trust our hearts and inward feelings ; but 
 that bread, that wine, we can trust. Our inward 
 feelings are a sign from man : that bread and wine 
 are a sign from God. Our inward feelings may 
 tell us what we feel toward God : that bread, that 
 wine, tell us something ten thousand times more 
 important ; they tell us what God feels toward us. 
 And God must love us before we can love Him ; 
 God must pardon us before we can have mercy on 
 ourselves ; God must come to us, and take hold of 
 us, before we can cling to Him ; God must change 
 us, before we can become right ; God must give us 
 eternal life in our hearts before we can feel and 
 enjoy that new life in us. Then that bread, that; 
 wine say that God has done all that for us already; 
 they say, ( God does love you; God has pardoned 
 you ; God has has come to you ; God is ready and 
 willing to change and convert you ; God has given 
 you eternal life: and this love, this mercy, this ; 
 coming to find you out while you are wandering 
 in sin, this change, this eternal life, are all in His 
 Son Jesus Christ ; and that bread, that wine, are 
 the signs of it. It is for the sake of Jesus' blood 
 that God has pardoned you, and that cup is the 
 new covenant in His blood. Come and drink, and 
 claim your pardon. It is simply because Jesus 
 Christ was man, and you, too, are men and women. 
 
EASTER-DAY. 97 
 
 wearing the flesh and blood which Christ wore ; 
 eating and drinking as Christ ate and drank, and 
 not for any works or faith of your own, that God 
 loves you, arid has come to you, and called you 
 into His family. This is the Gospel, the good 
 news of Christ's free grace, and pardon, and salva- 
 tion ; and that bread, that wine, the common food 
 of all men, not merely of the rich, or the wise, or 
 the pious, but of saints and penitents, rich and poor, 
 Christians and heathens, alike that plain, com- 
 mon, every-day bread and wine are the signs of 
 it. Come and take the signs, and claim your share 
 in God's love, in God's family. And it is in Jesus 
 Christ, too, that you have eternal life. It is be- 
 cause you belong to Jesus Christ, to mankind, of 
 which He is the head and king, that God will 
 change you, strengthen your soul to rise above 
 your sins, raise you up daily more and more out of 
 spiritual death, out of brutishness, and selfishness, 
 and ignorance, and malice, into an eternal life of 
 wisdom, and love, and courage, and mercifulness, 
 and patience, and obedience ; a life which shall 
 continue through death, and beyond death, and 
 raise you up again for ever at the last day, because 
 you belong to Christ's body, and have been fed 
 with Christ's eternal life. And that bread, that 
 jwine, are the signs of it. * Take, eat,' said Jesus, 
 ' this is my body ; drink, this is my blood/ Those 
 
 I H 
 
98 EASTER-DAY. 
 
 are the signs that God has given you eternal life, 
 and that this life is in His Son. What better sign 
 would you have? There is no mistaking their 
 message; they can tell you no lies. And they 
 can, and will, bring your own Gospel-blessings to 
 your mind, as nothing else can. They will make 
 you feel, as nothing else can, that you are the 
 beloved children of God, heirs of all that your 
 King and Head has bought for you, when He died, 
 and rose again upon this day. He gave you the 
 Lord's Supper for a sign. Do you think that He 
 did not know best what the best sign would be ? 
 He said, ( Do this in remembrance of me T Do 
 you think that He did not know better than you, 
 and me, and all men, that if you did do it, it would 
 put you in remembrance of Him ? 
 
 Oh ! come to His table, this day of all days in 
 the year ; and claim there your share in His body 
 and His blood, to feed the everlasting life in you ; 
 which, though you see it not now, though you feel 
 it not now, will surely, if you keep it alive in you 
 by daily faith, and daily repentance, and daily 
 prayer, and daily obedience, raise you up, body 
 and soul, to reign with Him for ever at the last 
 day. 
 
IX. 
 THE COMFORTER. 
 
 FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER. 
 
 JOHN xvi. 7. 
 
 If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if 
 I depart, I will send Him unto you. 
 
 "\T7~E are now coming near to two great days, 
 * * Ascension-day, and Whit- Sunday, which our 
 forefathers have appointed, year by year, to put us 
 continually in mind of two great works, which the 
 Lord worked out for us, His most unworthy sub- 
 jects, and still un worthier brothers. 
 
 On Ascension- day He ascended up into Heaven, 
 and received gifts for men, even for His enemies, 
 that the Lord God might dwell among them ; and 
 on Whit-Sunday, He sent down those gifts. The 
 Spirit of God came down to dwell in the hearts of 
 men, to be the right of every one who asks for it, 
 white or black, young or old, rich or poor, and 
 never to leave this earth as long as there is a human 
 being on it. And because we are coming near to 
 these two great days, the Prayer-book, in the Col- 
 H 2 
 
100 THE COMFOKTEK. 
 
 lects, Epistles, and Gospels, tries to put us ID mind 
 of those days, and to make us ready to ask for the 
 blessings of which they are the yearly signs and 
 witnesses. The Gospel for last Sunday told us 
 how the Lord told His disciples just before His 
 death, that for a little while they should not see 
 Him ; and again a little while and they should see 
 Him, because He was going to the Father, and 
 that they should have great sorrow, but that their 
 sorrow should be turned into joy. And the Gospel 
 for to-day goes further still, and tells us why He 
 was going away that He might send to them the 
 Comforter, His Holy Spirit, and that it was expe- 
 dient good for them, that He should go away ; for 
 that if He did not, the Comforter would not come 
 to them. Now, in these words, I do not doubt He 
 was speaking of Ascension-day, and of Whit-Sun- 
 day ; and therefore it is that these Gospels have 
 been chosen to be read before Ascension-day and 
 Whit-Sunday; and in proportion as we attend to 
 these Gospels, and take in the meaning of them, 
 and act accordingly, Ascension-day and Whit- 
 Sunday will be a blessing and a profit to us ; and 
 in proportion as we neglect them, or forget them, 
 Ascension-day and Whit-Sunday will be witnesses 
 against our souls at the day of judgment, that the 
 Lord Himself condescended to buy for us with His ; 
 own blood, blessings unspeakable, and offer them j 
 
THE COMFORTER. 101 
 
 freely unto us, in spite of all our sins, and yet we 
 would have none of them, but preferred our own will 
 to God's will, and the little which we thought we 
 could get for ourselves to the unspeakable treasures 
 which God had promised to give us, and turned 
 away from the blessings of His kingdom, to our 
 own foolish pleasure and covetousness, like ' the 
 dog to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to 
 her wallowing in the mire/ 
 
 I said that God had promised to us an unspeak- 
 able treasure : and so He has; a treasure that will 
 make the poorest and weakest man among us, 
 richer than if he had all the wealth gathered from 
 all the nations of the world, which every one is ad- 
 miring now in that Great Exhibition in London, 
 and stronger than if he had all the wisdom which 
 produced that wealth. Let us see now what it is 
 that God has promised us and then those to whom 
 God has given ears to hear, and hearts to under- 
 stand, will see that large as my words may sound, 
 they are no larger than the truth. 
 
 Christ said, that if He went away, He would 
 send down the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God. 
 The Nicene Creed says, that the Holy Spirit of 
 God is the Lord and Giver of life ; and so He is. 
 He gives life to the earth, to the trees, to the 
 flowers, to the dumb animals, to the bodies and 
 minds of men ; all life, all growth, all health, all 
 
102 THE COMFORTER. 
 
 strength, all beauty, all order, all help and assis- 
 tance of one thing by another, which you see in the 
 world around you, comes from Him. He is the 
 Lord and Giver of life ; in Him, the earth, the 
 sun and stars, all live and move and have their 
 being. He is not them, or a part of them, but He 
 gives life to them. But to men he is more than 
 that for we men ourselves are more than that, 
 and need more. We have immortal spirits in us 
 a reason, a conscience, and a will ; strange rights 
 and duties, strange hopes and fears, of which the 
 beasts and the plants know nothing. We have 
 hearts in us which can love, and feel, and sorrow, 
 and be weak, and sinful, and mistaken ; and there- 
 fore we want a Comforter. And the Lord and 
 Giver of life has promised to be our Comforter ; 
 and the Father and the Son, from both of whom 
 He proceeds, have promised to send Him to us, to 
 strengthen and comfort us, and give our spirits life 
 and health, and knit us together to each other, and 
 to God, in one common bond of love and fellow- 
 feeling, even as He the Spirit knits together the 
 Father and the Son. 
 
 I said that we want a Comforter. If we consider 
 what that word Comforter means, we shall see that 
 we do want a Comforter, and that the only Com- 
 forter which can satisfy us for ever and ever, must 
 
THE COMFORTER. 103 
 
 be He, the very Spirit of God, the Lord and Giver 
 of life. 
 
 Now Comforter means one who gives comfort ; 
 so the meaning of it will depend upon what com- 
 fort means. Our word comfort, comes from two old 
 Latin words, which mean with and to strengthen. 
 And, therefore, a Comforter means any one who is 
 with us to strengthen us, and do for us what we 
 could not do for ourselves. You will see that this 
 is the proper meaning of the word, when you re- 
 member what bodily things we call comforts. You 
 say that a person is comfortable, or lives in comfort, 
 if he has a comfortable income, a comfortable house, 
 comfortable clothes, comfortable food, and so on. 
 Now all these things, his money, his house, his 
 clothes, his food, are not himself. They make him 
 stronger and more at ease. They make his life 
 more pleasant to him. But they are not him; 
 they are round him, with him, to strengthen him. 
 So with a person's mind and feelings ; when a man 
 is in sorrow and trouble, he cannot comfort himself. 
 His friends must come to him and comfort him ; 
 talk to him, advise him, show their kind feeling 
 towards him, and in short, be with him to 
 strengthen him in his afflictions. And if we re- 
 quire comfort for our bodies, and for our minds, my 
 friends, how much more do we for our spirits our 
 
104 THE COMFORTER. 
 
 souls, as we call them ! How weak, and ignorant, 
 and self-willed, and perplexed, and sinful they are 
 surely our souls require a comforter far more 
 than our bodies or our minds do ! And to comfort 
 our spirits, we require a spirit ; for we cannot see 
 our own spirits, our own souls, as we can our 
 bodies. We cannot even tell by our feelings what 
 state they are in. We may deceive ourselves, and 
 we do deceive ourselves, again and again, and 
 fancy that our souls are strong when they are 
 weak that they are simple and truthful when 
 they are full of deceit and falsehood that they are 
 loving God when they are only loving themselves 
 that they are doing God's will when they are only 
 doing their own selfish and perverse wills. No 
 man can take care of his own spirit, much less give 
 his own spirit life ; ' no man can quicken his own 
 soul/ says David, that is, no man can give his own 
 soul life. And therefore we must have some one 
 beyond ourselves to give life to our spirits. We 
 must have some one to teach us the things that we 
 could never find out for ourselves, some one who will 
 put into our hearts the good desires that could 
 never come of themselves. We must have some 
 one who can change these wills of ours, and make 
 them love what they hate by nature, and make 
 them hate what they love by nature. For by 
 nature we are selfish. By nature we are inclined 
 
THE COMFORTER. 105 
 
 to love ourselves rather than any one else ; to take 
 care of ourselves, rather than any one else. By 
 nature we are inclined to follow our own will, 
 rather than God's will, to do our own pleasure, 
 rather than follow God's commandments, and there- 
 fore by nature our spirits are dead ; for selfishness 
 and self-will are spiritual death. Spiritual life is 
 love, pity, patience, courage, honesty, truth, justice, 
 humbleness, industry, self-sacrifice, obedience to 
 God, and therefore to those whom God sends to 
 teach and guide us. That is spiritual life. That 
 is the life of Jesus Christ ; His character, His con- 
 duct, was like that to love, to help, to pity, all 
 around to give up Himself even to death to do 
 His Father's will and not His own. That was His 
 life. Because He was the Son of God He did it 
 In proportion as we live like Him, we shall be 
 living like sons of God. In proportion as we live 
 like Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our spirits will 
 be alive. For he that hath Jesus Christ the Son 
 of God in him, hath life, and he that hath not the 
 Son of God, hath not life, says St. John. But who 
 can raise us from the death of sin and selfishness, 
 to the life of righteousness and love ? Who can 
 change us into the likeness of Jesus Christ ? Who 
 can even show us what Jesus Christ's likeness is, 
 and take the thirigs of Christ and show them to us ; 
 so that by seeing what He was, we may see what 
 
106 THE COMFORTER. 
 
 we should be ? And who, if we have this life in 
 us, will keep it alive in us, and be with us to 
 strengthen us? Who will give us strength to 
 force the foul and fierce and false thoughts out 
 of our mind, and say, 'Get thee behind me, 
 Satan ?' Who will give our spirits life ? and who 
 will strengthen that life in us ? 
 
 Can we do it for ourselves ? Oh ! my friends, I 
 pity the man who is so blind and ignorant, who 
 knows so little of himself, upon whom the lessons 
 which his own mistakes, and sins, and failings, 
 should have taught him, have been so wasted, that 
 he fancies that he can teach and guide himself 
 without any help, and that he can raise his own 
 soul to life, or keep it alive without assistance. 
 Can his body do without its comforts ? Then how 
 can his spirit? If he left his house, and threw 
 away his clothes, and refused all help from his 
 fellow-men, and went and lived in the woods like 
 a wild beast, we should call him a madman, be- 
 cause he refused the help and comfort to his body 
 which God has made necessary for him. But just 
 as great a madman is he who refuses the help and 
 the strengthening which God has made necessary 
 for his spirit just as great a madman is he who 
 fancies that his soul is any more able than his body 
 is, to live without continual help. It is just be- 
 cause man is nobler than the beast that he re- 
 
THE COMFORTER. 107 
 
 quires help. The fox in the wood needs no housej 
 no fire ; he needs no friends ; he needs no com- 
 forts, and no comforters, because he is a beast 
 because he is meant to live and die selfish and 
 alone ; therefore God has provided him in himself 
 with all things necessary to keep the poor brute 
 selfish life in him for a few short years. But just 
 because man is nobler than that; just because 
 man is not intended to live selfish and alone ; just 
 because his body, and his mind, and his spirit, are 
 beautifully and delicately made, and intended for 
 all sorts of wonderful purposes, therefore God has 
 appointed that from the moment he is born to all 
 eternity he cannot live alone ; he cannot support 
 himself ; he stands in continual need of the assis- 
 tance of all around him, for body, and soul, and 
 spirit ; he needs clothes, which other men must 
 make ; houses, which other men must build ; food, 
 which other men must produce ; he has to get his 
 livelihood by working for others, while others get 
 their livelihood in return by working for him. As 
 a child he needs his parents to be his comforters, 
 to take care of him in body and mind. As he 
 grows up he needs the care of others ; he cannot 
 exist a day without his fellow-men : he requires, 
 schoolmasters to educate him ; books and masters 
 to teach him his trade ; and when he has learnt it, 
 and settled himself in life, he requires laws made 
 
108 THE COMFORTER. 
 
 by other men, perhaps by men who died hundreds 
 of years before he was born, to secure to him his 
 rights and property, to secure to him comforts, and 
 to make him feel comfortable in his station ; he 
 needs friends and a family to comfort him in 
 sorrow and in joy, to do for him the thousand 
 things which he cannot do for himself. In propor- 
 tion as he is alone and friendless, he is pitiable 
 and miserable, let him be as rich as Solomon him- 
 self. From the moment, I say, he is born, he needs 
 continual comforts and comforters for his body, and 
 mind,- and heart. And then he fancies that, 
 though his body and his mind cannot exist safely, 
 or grow up healthily, without the continual care 
 and comforting of his fellow-men, that yet his soul, 
 the part of him which is at once the most impor- 
 tant and the most in danger ; the part of him of 
 which he knows least ; the part of him which he 
 understands least ; the part of him of which his 
 body and mind cannot take care, because it has to 
 take care of them, can live, and grow, and prosper, 
 without any help whatsoever ! 
 
 And if we cannot strengthen our own souls, no 
 man can strengthen them for us. No man can 
 raise our bodies to life, much less can he raise our 
 souls. The physician himself cannot cure the sick- 
 nesses of our bodies ; he can only give us fit medi- 
 cines, and leave them to cure us by certain laws of 
 
THE COMFORTER. 109 
 
 nature, which he did not make, and which he 
 cannot alter. And though the physician can, by 
 much learning, understand men's bodies somewhat, 
 who can understand men's souls ? We cannot 
 understand our own souls ; we do not know what 
 they are, how they live ; whence they come, or 
 whither they go. We cannot cure them ourselves, 
 much less can any one cure them for us. The 
 only one who can cure our souls is He that made 
 our souls ; the only one who can give life to our 
 souls is He who gives life to everything. The only 
 one who can cure, and strengthen, and comfort our 
 spirits, is He who understands our spirits, because 
 He himself is the Spirit of all spirits, the Spirit who 
 search eth all things, even the deep things of God ; 
 because He is the Spirit of God the Father, who 
 made all heaven and earth, and of Jesus Christ the 
 Son, who understands the heart of man, who can 
 be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, and 
 hath been tempted in all things, just as we are, 
 yet without sin. 
 
 He is the Comforter which God has promised to 
 our spirits, the only Comforter who can strengthen 
 our spirits ; and if we have Him with us, if He is 
 strengthening us, if He is leading us, if He is abid- 
 ing with us, if He is changing us day by day, more 
 and more, into the likeness of Jesus Christ, are we 
 not, as I said at the beginning of my sermon, richer 
 
110 THE COMFORTER. 
 
 than if we possessed all the land of England, 
 stronger than if we had all the armies of the world 
 at our command ? For what is more precious than 
 God Himself? What is stronger than God 
 Himself? The poorest man in whom God's Spirit 
 dwells, is greater than the greatest king in whom 
 God's Spirit does not dwell. And so he will find 
 in the day that he dies. Then where will riches 
 be, and power ? The rich man will take none of 
 them away with him when he dieth, neither shall 
 his pomp follow him. Naked came he into this 
 world, and naked shall he return out of it, to go 
 as he came, and carry with him none of the com- 
 forts which he thought in this life the only ones 
 worth having. But the Spirit of God remains with 
 us for ever ; that treasure a man shall carry out of 
 this world with him, and keep to all eternity. That 
 friend will never forsake him, for He is the Spirit 
 of Love, which abideth for ever. That Comforter 
 will never grow weak, for He is Himself The very 
 eternal Lord and Giver of life ; and the soul that 
 is possessed by Him must live, must grow, must 
 become nobler, purer, freer, stronger, more loving, 
 for ever and ever, as the eternities roll by. That 
 is what He will give you, my friends ; that is His 
 treasure ; that is the Spirit-life, the true and ever- 
 lasting life, which flows from Him, as the stream 
 flows from the fountain-head. 
 
X. 
 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 GALATIANS v. 22, 23. 
 
 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuflering, gentle- 
 ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such 
 there is no law. 
 
 T~N all countries, and in all ages, the world has 
 -- been full of complaints of Law and Govern- 
 ment. And one hears the same complaints in 
 England now. You hear complaints that the laws 
 favour one party and one rank more than another, 
 that they are expensive, and harsh, and unfair, and 
 what not ? But I think, my friends, that for us, 
 and especially on this Whit- Sunday, it will be 
 much wiser, instead of complaining of the laws, to 
 complain of ourselves, for needing those laws. For 
 what is it that makes laws necessary at all, except 
 man's sin fulness ? Adam required no laws in the 
 garden of Eden. We should require no laws if we 
 were what we ought to be what God has offered 
 to make us. We may see this by looking at the 
 laws themselves, and considering the purposes for 
 which they were made. We shall then see, that 
 
112 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 like Moses' Laws of old, the greater part of them 
 have been added because of transgressions. In plain 
 English to prevent men from doing things which 
 they ought not to do, and which, if they were in a 
 right state of mind, they would not do. How many 
 laws are passed, simply to prevent one man, or one 
 class, from oppressing or ill-using some other man 
 or class ? What a vast number of them are passed 
 simply to protect property, or to protect the weak 
 from the cruel, the ignorant from the cunning ! It 
 is plain that if there was no cruelty, no cunning, 
 no dishonesty, these laws, at all events, would not 
 be needed. Again, one of the great complaints 
 against the laws and the government, is, that they 
 are so expensive, that rates and taxes are heavy 
 burdens and doubtless they are : but what makes 
 them necessary except men's sin? If the poor 
 were more justly and mercifully treated, and if they 
 in their turn were more thrifty and provident, there 
 would be no need of the expenses of poor rates. If 
 there was no love of war and plunder, there would 
 be no need of the expense of an army. If there 
 was no crime, there would be no need of the ex- 
 pense of police and prisons. The thing is so simple 
 and self-evident, that it seems almost childish to 
 mention it. And yet, my friends, we forget it 
 daily. We complain of the laws and their harsh- 
 ness, of taxes and their expensiveness, and we for- 
 
WHIT-SUNDAY. 113 
 
 get all the while that it is our own selfishness and 
 sinfulness which brings this expense upon us, which 
 makes it necessary for the law to interfere and 
 protect us against others, and others against us. 
 And while we are complaining of the government 
 for not doing its work somewhat more cheaply, we 
 are forgetting that if we chose, we might leave 
 government very little work to do that every man 
 if he chose, might be his own law-maker, and his 
 own police that every man if he will, may lead a 
 life c against which there is no law/ 
 
 I say again, that it is our own fault, the fault of 
 our sinfulness, that laws are necessary for us. 
 In proportion as we are what Scripture calls 
 ' natural men/ that is, savage, selfish, divided 
 from each other, and struggling against each other, 
 each for his own interest ; as long as we are not 
 renewed and changed into new men, so long will 
 laws, heavy, severe, and burdensome, be necessary 
 fqr us. Without them we should be torments to 
 ourselves, to our neighbours, to our country. But 
 these laws are only necessary as long as we are 
 full of selfishness and ungodliness. The moment 
 we yield ourselves up to God's law, man's laws are 
 ready enough to leave us alone. Take, for instance, 
 a common example ; as long as any one is a faith- 
 ful husband and a good father, the law does not 
 interfere with his conduct towards his wife and 
 
 i I 
 
114 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 children. But it is when he is unfaithful to them, 
 when he ill-treats them, or deserts them, that the 
 law interferes with its " Thou shalt not/' and com- 
 pels him to behave, against his will, in the way in 
 which he ought to have behaved of his own will. 
 It was free to the man to have done his duty by 
 his family, without the law the moment he neg- 
 lects his duty, he becomes amenable to it. 
 
 But the law can only force a man's actions : it 
 cannot change his heart. In the instance which I 
 have been just mentioning, the law can say to a 
 man 'You shall not ill-treat ypur family; you 
 shall not leave them to starve/ But the law 
 cannot say to him ' You shall love your family/ 
 The law can only command from a man outward 
 obedience ; the obedience of the heart it cannot 
 enforce. The law may make a man do his duty, 
 it cannot make a man love his duty. And there- 
 fore laws will never set the world right. They can 
 punish persons after the wrong is done, and that 
 not certainly nor always : but they cannot cer- 
 tainly prevent the wrongs being done. The law 
 can punish a man for stealing : and yet, as we see 
 daily, men steal in the face of punishment. Or 
 even if the law, by its severity, makes persons 
 afraid to commit certain particular crimes, yet still 
 as long as the sinful heart is left in them un- 
 changed, the sin which is checked in one direction 
 
WHIT-SUNDAY. 115 
 
 is sure to break out in another. Sin, like every 
 other disease, is sure, when it is driven onwards, to 
 break out at a fresh point, or fester within in some 
 still more deadly, because more hidden and un- 
 suspected, shape. The man who dare not be an 
 open sinner for fear of the law, can be a hypocrite 
 in spite of it. The man who dare not steal for 
 fear of the law, can cheat in spite of it. The 
 selfish man will find fresh ways of being selfish, 
 the tyrannical man of being tyrannical, however 
 closely the law may watch him. He will discover 
 some means of evading it ; and thus the law, after 
 all, though it may keep down crime, multiplies 
 
 | sin ; and by the law, as St. Paul says, is the know- 
 
 i ledge of sin. 
 
 What then will do that for this poor world 
 which the law cannot do which, as St. Paul 
 tells us, not even the law of God given on 
 Mount Sinai, holy, just, good as it was, could do, 
 because no law can give life ? What will give 
 men a new heart and a new spirit, which shall love 
 its duty and do it willingly, and not by compul- 
 sion, everywhere and always, and not merely just as 
 far as it is commanded? The text tells us that 
 
 ! there is a Spirit, the fruit of which is love, joy, 
 
 peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
 
 meekness, temperance ; a character such as no 
 
 laws can give to a man, and which no law dare 
 
 i2 
 
116 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 punish in a man. Look at this character as St. 
 Paul sets it forth and then think what need 
 would there be of all these burdensome and ex- 
 pensive laws, if all men were but full of the fruits 
 of that Spirit which St. Paul describes ? 
 
 I know what answer will be ready, in some of 
 your minds at least, to all this. You will be ready 
 to reply, almost angrily, ' Of course if every one 
 was perfect, we should need no laws : but people 
 are not perfect, and you cannot expect them to 
 be/ My friends, whether or not we expect bap- 
 tized people, living in a Christian country, to be 
 perfect, God expects them to be perfect ; for He 
 has said, by the mouth of His Son, our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, 'Be ye therefore perfect, as our 
 Father which is in heaven is perfect/ And He 
 has told us what being perfect is like ; you may 
 read it for yourselves in His sermon on the Mount ; 
 and you may see also that what He commands us 
 to do in that sermon, from the beginning to the 
 end, is the exact opposite and contrary of the ways 
 and rules of this world, which, as I have shown, 
 make burdensome laws necessary to prevent our 
 devouring each other. Now, do you think that 
 God would have told us to be perfect, if He knew 
 that it was impossible for us ? Do you think that 
 He, the God of truth, would have spoken such a 
 cruel mockery against poor sinful creatures like us, 
 
WHIT-SUNDAY. 117 
 
 as to command us a duty without giving us the 
 means of fulfilling it ? Do you think that He did 
 not know ten thousand times better than I, what 
 I have been just telling you, that laws could not 
 change men's hearts and wills ; that commanding 
 a man to love and like a thing will not make him 
 love and like it ; that a man's heart and spirit 
 must be changed in him from within, and not 
 merely laws and commandments laid on him from 
 without ? Then why has He commanded us to 
 love each other, ay, to love our enemies, to bless 
 those who curse us, to pray for those who use us 
 spitefully ? Do you think the Lord 'meant to 
 make hypocrites of us ; to tell us to go about, as 
 some who call themselves religious do go about, 
 with their lips full of meek, and humble, and 
 simple, and loving words, while their hearts are 
 full of pride, and spite, and cunning, and hate, 
 and selfishness, which are all the more deadly for 
 being kept in and plastered over by a smooth out- 
 side ? God forbid ! He tells us to love each other, 
 only because He has promised us the spirit of 
 love. He tells us to be humble, because He can 
 make us humble-hearted. He tells us to be 
 honest, because He can make us love and delight 
 in honesty. He tells us to refrain ourselves from 
 foul thoughts as well as from foul actions, because 
 He can take the foul heart out of us, and give us 
 
118 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 instead the spirit of purity and holiness. He tells 
 us to lead new lives after the new pattern of Him- 
 self, because He can give us new hearts and a new 
 spring of life within us ; in short, He bids us 
 behave as sons of God should behave, because, as 
 He said Himself, ' If we, being evil, know how to 
 give our children what is good for them, much 
 more will our heavenly Father give His Holy 
 Spirit to those who ask Him/ If you would b^ 
 perfect, ask your Father in heaven to make you 
 perfect. If you feel that your heart is wrong, ask 
 Him to give you a new and a right heart. If you 
 feel yourselves as you are, whether you feel it or 
 not too weak, too ignorant, too selfish, to guide 
 yourselves, ask Him to send His Spirit to guide 
 you ; ask for the Spirit from which comes all love, 
 all light, all wisdom, all strength of mind. Ask 
 for that Spirit, and you shall receive it ; seek for 
 it, and you shall find it ; knock at the gate of 
 your Father's treasure-house, and it shall be surely 
 opened to you. 
 
 But some of you, perhaps, are saying to your- 
 selves, * How will my being changed and renewed 
 by the Spirit of God, render the laws less burden- 
 some, while the crime and sin around me remain 
 unchanged ? It is others who want to be improved 
 as much, and perhaps more than I do/ It may 
 be so, my friends ; or again, it may not ; those 
 who fancy that others need God's Spirit more than 
 
WHIT-SUNDAY. 119 
 
 they do, may be the very persons who need it 
 really the most ; those who say they see, may 
 be only proving their blindness by so saying; 
 those who fancy that their souls are rich, and are 
 full of all knowledge, and understand the whole 
 Bible, and want no further teaching, may be, as 
 they were in St. John's time, just the ones who are 
 wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
 naked, in soul, and do not know it. But at all 
 events, if you think others need to be changed by 
 God's Spirit, pray that God's Spirit may change 
 them. For believe me, unless you pray for God's 
 Spirit for each other, ay, for the whole world, there 
 is no use asking for yourselves. This, I believe, is 
 one of the reasons, perhaps the chief reason, why 
 the fruits of God's Spirit are so little seen among 
 us in these days ; why our Christianity is become 
 more and more dead, and hollow, and barren, 
 while expensive and intricate laws and taxes are 
 becoming more and more necessary every year ; 
 because our religion has become so selfish, because 
 we have been praying for God's Spirit too little for 
 each other. Our prayers have become too selfish. 
 We have been looking for God's Spirit not so much 
 as a means to enable us to do good to others, but 
 as some sort of mysterious charm which was to 
 keep us ourselves from the punishment of our sins 
 in the next life, or give us a higher place in heaven ; 
 and, therefore, St. James's words have been fulfilled 
 
120 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 to us, even in our very prayers for God's Spirit, 
 "Ye ask and have not, because ye ask amiss, to 
 consume it upon your lusts/' to save our selfish 
 souls from the pains of hell ; to give our selfish 
 souls selfish pleasures and selfish glorification in the 
 world to come : but not to spread God's kingdom 
 upon earth, not to make us live on earth such lives 
 as Christ lived ; a life of love and self-sacrifice, and 
 continual labour for the souls of others. Therefore 
 it is, that God's Spirit is not poured out upon us 
 in these days ; for God's Spirit is the spirit of love 
 and brotherhood, which delivers a man from his 
 selfishness ; and if we do not desire to be delivered 
 from our selfishness, we do not desire the Spirit of 
 God, and the Spirit of God will not be bestowed 
 upon us. And no man desires to be delivered from 
 his own selfishness, who in his very prayers, when 
 he ought to be thinking least about himself alone, 
 is thinking about himself most of all, and forget- 
 ting that he is the member of a family that all 
 mankind are his brethren that he can claim no- 
 thing for himself to which every sinner around him 
 has not an equal right that nothing is necessary 
 for him, which is not equally necessary for every 
 one around him ; that he has all the world besides 
 himself to pray for, and that his prayers for him- 
 self will be heard only according as he prays for 
 all the world beside. Baptism teaches us this, 
 

 WHITSUNDAY. / 
 
 when it tells us that our, old selfisn^natu/rajis to be 
 washed away, and a new character, after the pat- 
 tern of Christ, is to live and grow up/ in\u ; that j 
 from the day we are baptized, to the day 6f our 
 death, we should live not for ourselves, but for 
 Jesus, in whom was no selfishness ; when it teaches 
 us that we are not only children of God, but mem- 
 bers of Christ's Family, and heirs of God's king- 
 dom, and therefore bound to make common cause . 
 with all other members of that Family, to live and 
 labour for the common good of all our fellow- 
 citizens in that kingdom. The Lord's prayer 
 teaches us this, when He tells us to pray, not ' My 
 Father/ but ' Our Father / not ' my soul be saved/ 
 but c Thy kingdom come / not c give me,' but ' give 
 us our daily bread / not c forgive me,' but ' forgive 
 us our trespasses/ and that only as we forgive 
 others ; not ' lead me not/ but ' lead us not into 
 temptation / not c deliver me,' but ' deliver us from 
 evil/ After that manner the Lord told us to pray ; 
 and, in proportion as we pray in that manner, 
 asking for nothing for ourselves which we do not 
 ask for every one else in the whole world, just so 
 far and no farther will God hear our prayers. He 
 who asks for God's Spirit for himself only, and 
 forgets that all the world need it as much as he, is 
 not asking for God's Spirit at all, and does not 
 know even what God's Spirit is. The mystery of 
 
122 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 Pentecost, too, which came to pass on this day 
 1818 years ago, teaches us the same thing also. 
 Those cloven tongues of fire, the tokens of God's 
 Spirit, fell not upon one man, but upon many ; not 
 when they were apart from each other, but when 
 they were together ; and what were the fruits of 
 that Spirit in the apostles ? Did they remain within 
 that upper room, each priding himself upon his 
 own gifts, and trying merely to gain heaven for his 
 own soul ? If they had any such fancies, as they 
 very likely had before the Spirit fell upon them, 
 they had none such afterwards. The Spirit must 
 have taken all such thoughts from them, and given 
 them a new notion of what it was to be devout and 
 holy : for instead of staying in that upper room, 
 they went forth instantly into the public place to 
 preach in foreign tongues to all the people. In- 
 stead of keeping themselves apart from each other 
 in silence, and fancying, as some have done, and 
 some do now, that they pleased God by being soli- 
 tary, and melancholy, and selfish what do we 
 read ? the fruit of God's Spirit was in them ; that 
 they and the three thousand souls who were added 
 to them, on the first day of their preaching, c were 
 all together, and had all things common, and sold 
 their possessions, and goods, and parted them to 
 all men, as every man had need, and continuing 
 daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking 
 
WHIT- SUNDAY. 123 
 
 bread from house to house, did eat their bread in 
 gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and 
 having favour with all the people/ Those were 
 the fruits of God's Spirit in them. Till we see 
 more of that sort of life and society in England, we 
 shall not be able to pride ourselves on having much 
 of God's Spirit among us. 
 
 But above all, if anything will teach us that the 
 strength of God's Spirit is not a strength which we 
 must ask for for ourselves alone ; that the blessings 
 of God's kingdom are blessings which we cannot 
 have in order to keep them to ourselves, but can 
 only enjoy in as far as we share them with those 
 around us ; if any thing, I say, ought to teach us 
 that lesson, it is the Sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper. Just consider a moment, my friends, what 
 a strange thing it is, if we will think of it, that the 
 Lord's Supper, the most solemn and sacred thing 
 with which a man can have to do upon earth, is just 
 a thing whieh he cannot transact for himself, or by 
 himself. Not alone in secret, in his chamber, but, 
 whether he will or not, in the company of others, 
 not merely in the company of his own private 
 friends, but in the company of any or every one, 
 rich or poor, who chooses to kneel beside him ; he 
 goes with others, rich and poor alike, to the Lord's 
 Table, and there the same bread, and the same 
 wine, is shared among all by the same priest. If 
 
124 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 that means anything, it means this that rich and 
 poor alike draw life for their souls from the same 
 well, not for themselves only, not apart from each 
 other, but all in common, all together, because 
 they are brothers, members of one family, as the 
 leaves are members of the same tree ; that as the 
 same bread and the same wine are needed to 
 nourish the bodies of all, the same spirit of God is 
 needed to nourish the souls of all ; and that we 
 cannot have this spirit, except as members of a 
 body, any more than a man's limb can have life 
 when it is cut off and parted from him. This is 
 the reason, and the only reason, why Protestant 
 clergymen are forbidden, thank God ! to give the 
 Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to any one 
 person singly. If a clergyman were to administer 
 the Lord's Supper to himself in private, without 
 any congregation to partake with him, it would not 
 be the Lord's Supper, it would be nothing, and 
 worse than nothing; it would be a sham and a 
 mockery, and, I believe, a sin. I do not believe 
 that Christ would be present, that God's Spirit 
 would rest on that man. For our Lord says, 
 that it is where two or three are gathered together 
 in His name, that He is in the midst of them. And 
 it was at a supper, at a feast, where all the Apostles 
 were met together, that our Lord divided the bread 
 amongst them, and told them to share the cup 
 

 WHIT-SUNDAY. 125 
 
 amongst themselves, just as a sign that they were 
 all members of one body that the welfare of each 
 of them was bound up in the welfare of all the 
 rest that God's blessing did not rest upon each 
 singly, but upon all together. And it is just be- 
 cause we have forgotten this, my friends because 
 we have forgotten that we are all brothers and 
 sisters, children of one family, members of one body 
 because, in short, we have carried our selfish- 
 ness into our very religion, and up to the altar of 
 God, that we neglect the Lord's Supper as we do. 
 People neglect the Lord's Supper because they 
 either do not know or do not like that, of which 
 the Lord's Supper is the token and warrant. It is 
 not merely that they feel themselves unfit for the 
 Lord's Supper, because they are not in love and 
 charity with all men. Oh ! my dear friends, do 
 not some of your hearts tell you, that the reason 
 why you stay away from the Lord's Supper is be- 
 cause you do not wish to be fit for the Lord's 
 Supper because you do not like to be in love and 
 charity with all men because you do not wish to 
 be reminded that you are all equals in God's sight, 
 all equally sinful, all equally pardoned and to see 
 people whom you dislike or despise, kneeling by 
 your side, and partaking of the same bread and 
 wine with you, as a token that God sees no differ- 
 ence between you and them ; that God looks upon 
 
126 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 you all as brothers, however little brotherly love or 
 fellow feeling there may be, alas ! between you ? 
 Or, again, do not some of you stay away from the 
 Lord's Supper, because you see no good in going ? 
 because it seems to make those who go no better 
 than they were before ? Shall I tell you the reason 
 of that ? Shall I tell you why, as is too true, too 
 many do come to the Lord's Supper, and so far 
 from being the better for it, seem only the worse ? 
 Because they come to it in selfishness. We have 
 fallen into the same false and unscriptural way of 
 looking at the Lord's Supper, into which the 
 Papists have. People go to the Lord's Supper now- 
 a-days too much to get some private good for their 
 own souls, and it would not matter to many of 
 them, I am afraid, if not another person in the 
 parish received it, provided they can get, as they 
 fancy, the same blessing from it. Thus they come 
 to it in an utterly false and wrong temper of mind. 
 Instead of coming as members of Christ's body, to 
 get from Him life and strength, to work, in their 
 places, as members of that body, they come to get 
 something for themselves, as if there was nobody 
 else's soul in the world to be saved but their own. 
 Instead of coming to ask for the Spirit of God to 
 deliver them from their selfishness, and make them 
 care less about themselves, and more about all 
 around them, they come to ask for the Spirit of 
 
WHIT-SUNDAY. 127 
 
 God because they think it will make themselves 
 higher and happier in heaven. And of course they 
 do not get what they come for, because they come 
 for the wrong thing. Thus those who see them, 
 begin to fancy that the Lord's Supper is not, after 
 all, so very important for the salvation of their 
 souls ; and not rinding in the Bible actually written 
 these words, c Thou shalt perish everlastingly unless 
 thou take the Lord's Supper/ they end by staying 
 away from it, and utterly neglecting it, they and 
 their children after them ; preferring their own 
 selfishness, to God's Spirit of love, and saying, like 
 Esau of old, ' I am hungry, and I must live. I 
 must get on in this selfish world by following its 
 selfish ways ; what is the use of a spirit of love and 
 brotherhood to mo ? If I were to obey the Gospel, 
 and sacrifice my own interest for those around me, I 
 should starve ; what good will my birthright do me ? 
 Oh ! my friends, I pray God that some of you, at 
 least, may change your mind. I pray God that 
 some of you may see at last, that all the misery and 
 the burdens of this time, spring from one root, 
 which is selfishness ; and that the reason why we 
 are selfish, is because we have not with us the 
 Spirit of God, which is the spirit of brotherhood 
 and love. Let us pray God now, and henceforth, 
 to take that selfishness out of all our hearts. Let 
 us pray God now, and henceforth, to pour upon us, 
 
128 WHIT-SUNDAY. 
 
 and upon all our countrymen, ay, and upon the 
 whole world, the spirit of friendship and fellow- 
 feeling, the spirit which when men have among 
 them, they need no laws to keep them from sup- 
 planting, and oppressing, and devouring each other, 
 because its fruits are love, cheerfulness, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, honesty, meekness, 
 temperance. Then there will be no need, my 
 friends, for me to call you to the Supper of the 
 Lord. You will no more think of staying away 
 from it, than the apostles did, when the Spirit 
 was poured out on them. For what do we read 
 that they did after the first Whit-Sunday ? That 
 altogether with one accord, they broke bread 
 daily ; that is, partook of the Lord's Supper every 
 day, from house to house. They did not need to 
 be told to do it. They did it, as I may say, by 
 instinct. There was no question or argument 
 about it in their minds. They had found out 
 that they were all brothers, with one common 
 cause in joy and sorrow that they were all mem- 
 bers of one body that the life of their souls came 
 from one root and spring, from one Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, the light and the life of men, 
 in whom they were all one, members of each other ; 
 and therefore, they delighted in that Lord's Supper, 
 just because it brought them together ; just because 
 it was a sign and a token to them that they did 
 
WHIT-SUNDAY. 129 
 
 belong to each other, that they had one Lord, one 
 faith, one interest, one common cause for this life, 
 and for all eternity. And therefore the blessing 
 of that Lord's Supper did come to them, and in it 
 they did receive strength to live like children of 
 God, and members of Christ, and brothers to each 
 other and to all mankind. They proved by their 
 actions what that Communion Feast, that Sacra- 
 ment of Brotherhood, had done for them. They 
 proved it by not counting their own lives dear to 
 them, but going forth in the face of poverty and per- 
 secution, and death itself, to preach to the whole 
 world the good news that Christ was their King. 
 They proved it by their conduct to each other 
 when they had all things in common, and sold 
 their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, 
 as every man had need. They proved it by need- 
 ing no laws to bind them to each other from 
 without, because they were bound to each other 
 from within, by the love which comes down from 
 God, and is the very bond of peace, and of every 
 virtue which becomes a man. 
 
XL 
 ASCENSION-DAY. 
 
 LUKE xxiv. 50 53. 
 
 And Jesus led them out as far as to Bethany ; and he lifted up 
 his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass while he 
 blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into 
 heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem, 
 with great joy ; and were continually in the temple, praising 
 and blessing God. 
 
 ON this day it is fit and proper for us if we 
 have understood, and enjoyed, and profited by 
 the wonder of the Lord's Ascension into heaven 
 to be in the same state of mind as the Apostles 
 were after His Ascension : for what was right for 
 them is right for us and for all men ; the same 
 effects which it produced on them it ought to pro- 
 duce on us. And we may know whether we are 
 in the state in which Christian men ought to be, by 
 seeing how far we are in the same state of mind 
 as the Apostles were. Now the text tells us in what 
 state of mind they were ; how that, after the Lord 
 Jesus was parted from them, and carried up into 
 Heaven, they worshipped Him, and returned to 
 Jerusalem, with great joy, and were continually in 
 
ASCENSION-DAY. 131 
 
 the temple, praising and blessing God. It seems 
 at first sight certainly very strange that they should 
 go back with great joy. They had just lost their 
 Teacher, their Master One who had been more to 
 them than all friends and fathers could be ; One 
 who had taken them, poor simple fishermen, and 
 changed the whole course of their lives, and taught 
 them things which He had taught to no one else, 
 and given them a great and awful work to do the 
 work of changing the ways and thoughts and 
 doings of the whole world. He had sent them out 
 eleven unlettered working men to fight against 
 the sin and the misery of the whole world. And 
 He bad given them open warning of what they 
 were to expect ; that by it they should win neither 
 credit, nor riches, nor ease, nor anything else that 
 the world thinks worth having. He gave them 
 fair warning that the world would hate them, and 
 try to crush them. He told them, as the Gospel 
 for to-day says, that they should be driven out 
 of the churches ; that the religious people, as 
 well as the irreligious, would be against them; 
 that the time would come when those who killed 
 them would think that they did God service ; 
 that nothing but labour, and want, and per- 
 secution, and slander, and torture, and death was 
 before them, and now He had gone away and 
 left them. He had vanished up into the empty 
 K 2 
 
132 ASCENSION-DAY. 
 
 air. They were to see His face, and hear His voice 
 no more. They were to have no more of His ad- 
 vice, no more of His teaching, no more of His 
 tender comfortings ; they were to be alone in the 
 world eleven poor working men, with the whole 
 world against them, and so great a business to do 
 that they would not have time to get their bread 
 by the labour of their hands. Is it not wonderful 
 that they did not sit down in despair, and say, 
 c What will become of us T Is it not wonderful 
 that they did not give themselves up to grief at 
 losing the Teacher who was worth all the rest of 
 the world put together ? Is it not wonderful that 
 they did not go back, each one to his old trade, to 
 his fishing and to his daily labour, saying, ' At all 
 events we must eat ; at all events we must get our 
 livelihood \ and end, as they had begun, in being 
 mere labouring men, of whom the world would 
 never have heard a word ? And instead of that 
 we read that they went back with great joy not to 
 their homes but to Jerusalem, the capital city of 
 their country, and * were continually in the temple 
 blessing and praising God/ Well, my friends, and 
 if iUis possible for one man to judge what another 
 man would have done if it is possible to guess 
 what we should have done in their case common 
 sense must show us this, that if He was merely 
 their Teacher, they would have either given them- 
 
ASCENSION-DAY. 133 
 
 selves up to despair, or gone back, some to their 
 plough, some to their fishing-nets, and some, like 
 Matthew, to their counting-houses, and we should 
 never have heard a word of them. But if you will 
 look in your Bibles, you will find that they thought 
 Him much more than a teacher that they thought 
 Him to be the Lord and King of the whole world ; 
 and you will find that the great joy with which the 
 disciples went back, after He ascended into heaven, 
 came from certain very strange words that He had 
 been speaking to them just before He ascended 
 words about which they could have but two opinions: 
 either they must have thought that they were utter 
 falsehood, and self-conceit, and blasphemy ; and 
 that Jesus, who had been all along speaking to 
 them such words of wisdom and holiness as never 
 man spake before, had suddenly changed His whole 
 character at the last, and become such a sort of 
 person as it is neither fit for me to speak of, or you 
 to hear me speak of, in God's church, and in Jesus 
 Christ's hearing, even though it be merely for the 
 sake of argument ; or else they must have thought 
 this about His words, that they were the most joyful 
 and blessed words that ever had been spoken on 
 the earth ; that they were the best of all news ; the 
 most complete of all Gospels for this poor sinful 
 world; that what Jesus had said about Himself 
 was true ; and that as long as it was true, it did 
 
1 34 ASCENSION-DAY. 
 
 not matter in the least what became of them ; it 
 did not matter in the least what difficulties stood 
 in their way, for they would be certain to conquer 
 them all ; it did not matter in the least how men 
 might persecute and slander them, for they would 
 be sure to get their reward ; it did not matter in 
 the least how miserable and sinful the world might 
 be just then, for it was certain to be changed, and, 
 converted, and brought to God, to righteousness, 
 to love, to freedom, to light, at last. 
 
 If you look at the various accounts, in the four 
 gospels, of the Lord's last words on earth, you 
 will see, surely, what I mean. Let us take them 
 one by one. 
 
 St. Matthew tells us that, a few days before* 
 the Lord's ascension, He met His disciples on a 
 mountain in Galilee, where He had appointed them 
 to await Him ; and there told them, that all power 
 was given to Him in heaven and earth. Was not 
 that blessed news was not that a gospel ? That 
 all the power -in heaven and earth belonged to 
 Him ? To Him, who had all His life been doing 
 good ? To Him, in whom there had never been 
 one single stain of tyranny or selfishness ? To 
 Him, who had been the friend of publicans and 
 sinners ? To Him, who had rebuked the very rich- 
 est, and loved the very poorest ? To Him, who had 
 shown that He had both the power and the will to 
 
ASCENSION-DAY. 135 
 
 heal every kind of sickness and disease ? To Him, 
 who had conquered and driven out, wherever He 
 met them, all the evil spirits which enslave and 
 torment poor sinful men ? To Him, who had 
 shown by rising from the dead, that He was 
 stronger than even death itself? To Him, who 
 had declared that He was the Son of God the 
 Father, that the great God who had made heaven 
 and earth, and all therein, was perfectly pleased 
 and satisfied with Him, that He was come to do 
 His Father's will, and not His own; that He was the 
 ancient Lord of the earth, the I AM who was before 
 Abraham ? And He was now to have all power 
 in heaven and earth ! Everything which was done 
 right in the world henceforth, was to be his doing. 
 The kingdom and rule over the whole universe, 
 was to be His. So He said ; and His disciples 
 believed Him ; and if they believed Him, how 
 could they but rejoice ? How could they but 
 rejoice at the glorious thought that He, the son 
 of the village maiden, the champion of the poor 
 and the suffering, was to have the government of 
 the world for ever ? That He, who all the while 
 He had been on earth had showed that He was 
 perfect justice, perfect love, perfect humanity, was 
 to reign till He had put all His enemies under 
 His feet ? How could the world but prosper 
 under such a King as that ? How could wicked- 
 
136 ASCENSION-DAY. 
 
 ness triumph, while He, the perfectly righteous 
 one, was King? How could misery triumph, 
 while He, the perfectly merciful one, was King ? 
 How could ignorance triumph, while He, the 
 perfectly wise one, who had declared that God 
 the Father hid nothing from Him, was King? 
 Unless the disciples had been more dull and sel- 
 fish than the dumb beasts around them, what could 
 they do but rejoice at that news ? What mat- 
 ter to them if Jesus were taken out of their sight, 
 as long as all power was given to Him in heaven 
 and earth? 
 
 But He had told them more. He had told 
 them that they were not to keep this glorious secret 
 to themselves. No : they were to go forth and 
 preach the gospel of it, the good news of it, to 
 every creature to preach the gospel of the king- 
 dom of God. The good news that God was the 
 King of men, after all ; that cruel tyrants and op- 
 pressors, and conquerors, were not their kings ; 
 that neither the storms over their heads, nor the 
 earth under their feet, nor the clouds and the rivers 
 whom the heathens used to worship in the hope 
 of persuading the earth and the weather to be 
 favourable to them, and bless their harvests, were 
 their kings ; that idols of wood and stone, and evil 
 spirits of lust, and cruelty, and covetousness, were 
 not their kings ; but that God was their King ; 
 

 t? 
 
 // fi / * 
 
 that He loved them, He pitied them in spit oj" all 
 
 their sins ; that He had sent His only begotten 
 Son into the world to teach them, to live for them 
 to die for them to claim them for His own. 
 And, therefore, they were to go and baptize all 
 nations, as a sign tha,t they were to repent, and 
 change, and put away all their old, false, and evil 
 heathen life, and rise to a new life, they and their 
 children after them, as God's children, God's family, 
 brothers of the Son of God. And they were to 
 baptize them into a name ; showing that they be- 
 longed to those into whose name they were bap- 
 tized ; into the name of the Father, and the Son, 
 and the Holy Spirit. They were to be baptized into 
 the name of the Father, as a sign that God was 
 their Father, and they His children. They were 
 to be baptized into the name of the Son, as a sign 
 that the Son, Jesus Christ, was their King and 
 head ; and not merely their King and head, but 
 their Saviour, who had taken away the sin of the 
 world, and redeemed it for God, with His awn 
 most precious blood ; and not merely their Saviour, 
 but their pattern ; that they might know that they 
 were bound to become as far as is possible for mortal 
 man, such sons of God as Jesus himself had been, 
 like Him obedient, pure, forgiving, brotherly, 
 caring for each other and not for themselves, doing 
 their heavenly Father's will and not their own. 
 
1 38 ASCENSION-DAY. 
 
 And they were to baptize all nations into the name 
 of the Holy Spirit, for a sign that God's Spirit, the 
 Lord and giver of life, would be with them, to give 
 them new life, new holiness, new manfulness ; to 
 teach, and guide, and strengthen them for ever. 
 That was the gospel which they had to preach. 
 The good news that the Son of God was the King 
 of men. That was the name into which they 
 were to baptize all nations the name of children 
 of God, members of Christ, heirs of a heavenly 
 and spiritual kingdom, which should go on age 
 after age, for ever, growing and spreading men 
 knew not how, as the grains of mustard-seed, which 
 at first the least of all seeds, grows up into a great 
 tree, and the birds of the air come and lodge in the 
 branches of it to go on, I say, from age to age, 
 improving, cleansing, and humanizing, and teach- 
 ing the whole world, till the kingdoms of the 
 earth became the kingdoms of God and of His 
 Christ. That was the work which the apostles 
 had given them to do. Do you not see, friends, 
 that unless those apostles had been the most selfish 
 of men, unless all they cared for was their own 
 gain and comfort, they must have rejoiced ? The 
 whole world was to be set right what matter what 
 happened to them ? And, therefore, I said at the 
 beginning of my sermon, that a sure way to know 
 whether our minds were in a right state, was to see 
 
ASCENSION-DAY. 139 
 
 whether we felt about it as the apostles felt. The 
 Bible tells us to rejoice always, to praise and give 
 thanks to God always. If we believe what the 
 apostles believed, we shall be joyful ; if we do not, 
 we shall not be joyful. If we believe in the words 
 which the Lord spoke before He ascended on 
 high, we shall be joyful. If we believe that all 
 power in heaven and earth is His, we shall be 
 joyful. If we believe that the son of the village 
 maiden has ascended up on high, and received 
 gifts for men, we shall be joyful. If we believe 
 that, as our baptism told us, God is our Father, 
 the Son of God our Saviour, the Spirit of God 
 ready to teach and guide us, we shall be joyful. 
 Do you answer me, ' But the world goes on so ill : 
 there is so much sin and misery, and folly, and 
 cruelty in it : how can we be joyful ?' I answer 
 There was a hundred times as much sin, and 
 misery, and folly, and cruelty in the world, in the 
 apostles' time, and yet they were joyful, and full of 
 gladness, blessing and praising God. If you 
 answer, ' But we are so slandered, and neglected, 
 and misunderstood, and hard- worked, and ill- 
 treated ; we have no time to enjoy ourselves, or do 
 the things which we should like best. How can 
 we be joyful ?' I answer So were the apostles. 
 They knew that they would be a hundred times as 
 much slandered, and neglected, and misunderstood, 
 
1 40 ASCENSION-DAY. 
 
 as you can ever be ; that they would have far less 
 time to enjoy themselves, far less opportunity of 
 doing the things which they liked best, than you 
 can ever have : they knew that misery, and perse- 
 cution, and a shameful death were before them, 
 and yet they were joyful and full of gladness, 
 blessing and praising God. And why should you 
 not be ? For what was true for them is true for 
 you. They had no blessing, no hope, but what you 
 have just as good a right to as they had. They 
 were joyful, because God was their father ; and 
 God is your father. They were joyful, because 
 they and all men belonged to God's family ; and 
 you belong to it. They were joyful, because God's 
 Spirit was promised to them, to make them like 
 God ; and God's Spirit was promised to you. They 
 were joyful, because a poor man was king of heaven 
 and earth ; and that poor man, Jesus Christ, who 
 was born at Bethlehem, is as much your King 
 now as He was theirs then. They were joyful, 
 because the whole world was going to improve 
 under His rule and government ; and the whole 
 world is improving, and will go on improving 
 for ever. They were joyful because Jesus, whom 
 they had known as a poor, despised, crucified man 
 on earth, had ascended up to heaven in glory; 
 and if you believe the same, you will be joyful 
 too. In proportion as you believe the mystery of 
 
ASCENSION-DAY. 141 
 
 Ascension-day ; if you believe the words which the 
 Lord spoke before He ascended, you will have 
 cheerful, joyful, hopeful thoughts about yourselves, 
 and about the whole world ; if you do not, you 
 will be in continual danger of becoming suspicious 
 and despairing, fancying the world still worse than 
 it is, fancying that God has neglected and forgotten 
 it, fancying that the devil is stronger than God, 
 and man's sins wider than Christ's redemption, till 
 you will think it neither worth while to do right 
 yourselves, nor to make others do right towards 
 you. 
 
XII. 
 
 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED AT ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH, WESTMINSTER, 
 MAY 4, i85i, 
 
 IN BEHALF OF THE WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL. 
 
 PSALM Ixviii. 18, and EPHESIANS iv. 8. 
 
 When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and 
 received gifts for men, yea, even for his enemies, that the 
 Lord God might dwell among ^them. 
 
 TF, a thousand years ago, a congregation in this 
 -* place had been addressed upon the text which 
 I have chosen, they would have had, I think, little 
 difficulty in applying its meaning to themselves, 
 and in mentioning at once innumerable instances 
 of those gifts which the King of men had received 
 for men, innumerable signs that the Lord God was 
 really dwelling amongst them. But amongst those 
 signs, I think, they would have mentioned several 
 which we are not now generally accustomed to 
 consider in such a light. They would have pointed 
 not merely to the building of churches, the found- 
 ing of schools, the spread of peace, the decay of 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 143 
 
 slavery ; but to the importation of foreign litera- 
 re, the extension of the arts of reading, writing, 
 painting, architecture, the improvement of agricul- 
 ture, and the introduction of new and more suc- 
 cessful methods of the cure of diseases. They 
 might have expressed themselves on these points 
 in a way that we consider now puerile and super- 
 stitious. They might have attributed to the effi- 
 cacy of prayer, many cures which we now attribute 
 shall I say ? to no cause whatsoever. They may 
 have quoted as an instance of St. Cuthbert's sanc- 
 tity, rather than of his shrewd observations, his 
 discovery of a spring of water in the rocky floor of 
 his cell, and his success in growing barley upon the 
 barren island where wheat refused to germinate ; 
 and we might have smiled at their superstition, 
 and smiled, too, at their seeing any consequence of 
 Christianity, any token that the kingdom of God 
 was among them, in Bishop Wilfred's rescuing the 
 Hampshire Saxons from the horrors of famine, by 
 teaching them the use of fishing-nets. But still 
 so they would have spoken men of a turn of 
 mind no less keen, shrewd, and practical than we, 
 their children ; and if we had objected to their so- 
 called superstition that all these improvements in 
 the physical state of England were only the natu- 
 ral consequences of the introduction of Roman 
 civilization by French and Italian missionaries, 
 
144 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 they would have smiled at us in their turn, not 
 perhaps without some astonishment at our stu- 
 pidity, and asked, c Do you not see, too, that that 
 is in itself a sign of the kingdom of God that 
 these nations who have been for ages selfishly iso- 
 lated from each other, except for purposes of con- 
 quest and desolation, should be now teaching each 
 other, helping each other, interchanging more and 
 more, generation by generation, their arts, their 
 laws, their learning becoming fused down under 
 the influence of a common Creed, and loyalty to 
 one common King in heaven, from their state of 
 savage jealousy and warfare, into one great Chris- 
 tendom, and family of God ? And if, my friends, 
 as I think, those forefathers of ours could rise from 
 their graves this day, they would be inclined to see 
 in our hospitals, in our railroads, in the achieve- 
 ments of our physical science, confirmation of that 
 old superstition of theirs, proofs of the kingdom of 
 God, realizations of the gifts which Christ received 
 for men, vaster than any of which they had ever 
 dreamed. They might be startled at God's conti- 
 nuing those gifts to us,, who hold on many points 
 a creed so different from theirs. They might be 
 still more startled to see in the Great Exhibition 
 of all Nations, which is our present nine-days' 
 wonder, that those blessings were not restricted by 
 God even to nominal Christians, but that His love, 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 145 
 
 His teaching, with regard to matters of civilization 
 and physical science, were extended, though more 
 slowly and partially, to the Mahometan and the 
 Heathen. And it would be a wholesome lesson to 
 them, to find that God's grace was wider than their 
 narrow theories ; perhaps they may have learnt it 
 already in the world of spirits. But of its being 
 God's grace, there would be no doubt in their 
 minds. They would claim unhesitatingly, and at 
 once, that great Exhibition established in a Chris- 
 tian country, as a point of union and brotherhood 
 for all people, for a sign that God was indeed 
 claiming all the nations of the world as His own 
 proving by the most enormous facts that He had 
 sent down a Pentecost, gifts to men which would 
 raise them not merely spiritually, but physically 
 and intellectually, beyond anything which the 
 world had ever seen, and had poured out a spirit 
 among them which would convert them in the 
 course of ages, gradually, but most surely and 
 really, from a pandemonium of conquerors and 
 conquered, devourers and devoured, into a family 
 of fellow-helping brothers, until the kingdoms of 
 the world became the kingdoms of God and of His 
 Christ. 
 
 But I think, one thing, if anything, would 
 stagger their simple old Saxon faith ; one thing 
 would make them fearful, as indeed it makes the 
 
 I L 
 
146 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 preacher this day, that the time of real brotherhood 
 and peace is still but too far off ; and that the 
 achievements of our physical science, the unity of 
 this great Exhibition, noble as they are, are still 
 only dim forecastings, and prophecies as it were, of 
 a higher, nobler reality. And they would say sadly 
 to us, their children, ' Sons, you ought to be so near 
 to God : He seems to have given you so much, and 
 to have worked among you as he never worked for 
 any nation under heaven : How is it that you give 
 the glory to yourselves, and not to Him ?' 
 
 For do we give the glory of our scientific dis- 
 coveries to God, in any real, honest, and practical 
 sense ? There may be some official and perfunctory 
 talk of God's blessing on our endeavours : but 
 there seems to be no real belief in us that God, the 
 inspiration of God, is the very fount and root of the 
 endeavours themselves ; that He teaches us these 
 great discoveries ; that He gives us wisdom to get 
 this wondrous wealth ; that He works in us to will 
 and to do of his good pleasure. True, we keep up 
 something of the form and tradition of the old talk 
 about such things ; we join in prayer to God to 
 bless our Great Exhibition ; but we do not believe 
 we do not believe, my friends that it was God 
 who taught us to conceive, build, and arrange that 
 Great Exhibition ; and our notion of God's bless- 
 ing it, seems to be God's absence from it ; a hope 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 147 
 
 and trust that God will leave it and us alone, and 
 not ' visit' it or us in it, or ' interfere' by any 
 ' special providences/ by storms, or lightning, or 
 sickness, or panic, or conspiracy ; a sort of dim 
 feeling that we could manage it all perfectly well 
 without God, but that as He exists, and has some 
 power over natural phenomena, which is not very 
 exactly defined, we must notice His existence over 
 and above our work, lest He should become angry, 
 and 'visit' us. ... And this in spite of words 
 which were spoken by one whose office it was to 
 speak them, as the representative of the highest 
 and most sacred personage in these realms ; words 
 which deserve to be written in letters of gold on 
 the high places of this city ; in which he spoke of 
 this Exhibition as an ' approach to a more complete 
 fulfilment of the great and sacred mission which 
 man has to perform in the world ;' when he told 
 the English people, that 'man's reason being 
 created in the image of God, he has to discover the 
 laws by which Almighty God governs His crea- 
 tions, and by making these laws the standard of 
 his action, to conquer nature to his use, himself a 
 divine instrument ;' when he spoke of ' thankful- 
 ness to Almighty God for what he has already 
 given,' as the first feeling which that Exhibition 
 ought to excite in us ; and as the second, c the deep 
 conviction that those blessings can only be realized 
 L2 
 
148 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 in proportion to' not, as some would have it, the 
 rivalry and selfish competition but ' in proportion 
 to the help which we are prepared to render to 
 each other ; and, therefore, by peace, love, and 
 ready assistance, not only between individuals, but 
 between all nations of the earth/ We read those 
 great words ; but in the hearts of how few, alas ! 
 to judge from our modern creed on such matters, 
 must the really important and distinctive points of 
 them find an eeho ! To how few does this whole 
 Exhibition seem to have been anything but a 
 matter of personal gain or curiosity, for national 
 aggrandizement, insular self-glorification, and self- 
 ish I had almost said, treacherous rivalry with 
 the very foreigners whom we invited as our guests ? 
 
 And so, too, with our cures of diseases. We 
 speak of God's blessing the means, and God's bless- 
 ing the cure. But all we really mean by blessing 
 them, is permitting them. Do not our hearts con- 
 fess that our notion of His blessing the means, is 
 His leaving the means to themselves, and their own 
 physical laws leaving, in short, the cure to us 
 and not preventing our science doing its work, and 
 asserting his own existence by bringing on some 
 unexpected crisis, or unfortunate relapse if indeed 
 the old theory that He does bring on such, be 
 true? 
 
 Our old forefathers, on the other hand, used to 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 149 
 
 believe that in medicine, as in everything else, God 
 taught men all that they knew. They believed the 
 words of The Wise Man when he said that ' The 
 Spirit of God gives man understanding/ The me- 
 thod by which Solomon believed himself to have 
 obtained all his physical science and knowledge of 
 trees, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop 
 which groweth on the wall, was in their eyes the ' 
 only possible method. They believed the words of 
 Isaiah when he said of the tillage, and the rotation 
 of crops in use among the peasants of his country, 
 that their God instructed them to discretion and 
 taught them ; and that even the various methods 
 of threshing out the various species of grain, carne 
 6 forth from the Lord of hosts, who is excellent in 
 counsel, and wonderful in working/ .... 
 
 Such a method, you say, seems to you now mira- 
 culous. It did not seem to our forefathers mira- 
 culous that God should teach man ; it seemed to 
 them most simple, most rational, most natural, an 
 utterly every -day axiom. They thought it was 
 because so few of the heathen were taught by God 
 that they were no wiser than they were. They 
 thought that since the Son of God had come down 
 and taken our nature upon Him, and ascended up 
 on high and received gifts for men, that it was now 
 the right and privilege of every human being who 
 was willing, to be taught of God, as the prophet 
 
150 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 foretold in those very words ; and that baptism was 
 the very sign and seal of that fact a sign that for 
 every human being, whatever his age, sex, rank, 
 intellect, or race, a certain measure of the teach- 
 ing of God and of the Spirit of God was ready, 
 promised, sure as the oath of Him that made hea- 
 ven and the earth, and all things therein. That 
 was Solomon's belief. We do not find that it 
 made him a fanatic and an idler, waiting with 
 folded hands for inspiration to come to him he 
 knew not how nor whence. His belief that wis- 
 dom was the revelation and gift of God did not 
 prevent him from seeking her as silver, and search- 
 ing for her as hid treasures, from applying his 
 heart to seek and search out by wisdom concern- 
 ing all things that are done under heaven ; and we 
 do not find that it prevented our forefathers. 
 Ceadmon's belief that God inspired him with the 
 poetic faculty, did not make him the less laborious 
 and careful versifier. Bishop John's blessing the 
 dumb boy's tongue in the name of Him whom he 
 believed to be Word of God and the Master of 
 that poor dumb boy, did not prevent his antici- 
 pating some of the discoveries of our modern wise 
 men, in setting about a most practical and scienti- 
 fic cure. Alfred's continual prayers for light arid 
 inspiration made him no less a laborious and 
 thoughtful student of war and law, of physics, Ian- 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 151 
 
 guage, and geography. Those old Teutons, for all 
 these superstitions of theirs, were perhaps as busi- 
 nesslike and practical in those days as we their 
 children are in these. But that did not prevent 
 their believing that unless God showed them a 
 thing, they could not see it, and thanking Him 
 honestly enough for the comparative little which 
 He did show them. But we who enjoy the accu- 
 mulated teaching of ages we to whose researches 
 He is revealing year by year, almost week by 
 week, wonders of which they never dreamed we 
 whom He has taught to make the lame to walk, 
 the dumb to speak, the blind to see, to extermi- 
 nate the pestilence and defy the thunderbolt, to 
 multiply millionfold the fruits of learning, to an- 
 nihilate time and space, to span the heavens, and 
 to weigh the sun what madness is this which has 
 come upon us in these last days, to make us fancy 
 that we, insects of a day, have found out these 
 things for ourselves, and talk big about the pro- 
 gress of the species, and the triumphs of intellect, 
 and the all-conquering powers of the human mind, 
 and give the glory of all this inspiration and reve- 
 lation, not to God, but to ourselves ? Let us be- 
 ware, beware lest our boundless pride and self- 
 satisfaction, by some mysterious yet most certain 
 law, avenge itself lest like the Assyrian conqueror 
 of old, while we stand and cry, c Is not this great 
 
152 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Babylon which I have built V our reason, like his, 
 should reel and fall beneath the narcotic of our 
 own maddening self-conceit, and while attempting 
 to scale the heavens we overlook some pitfall 
 at our feet, and fall as learned idiots, suicidal 
 pedants, to be a degradation, and a hissing, and a 
 shame. 
 
 However strongly you may differ from these 
 opinions of our own forefathers with regard to the 
 ground and cause of physical science, and the arts 
 of healing, I am sure that the recollection of the 
 thrice holy ground upon which we stand, beneath 
 the shadow of venerable piles, witnesses for the 
 creeds, the laws, the liberties, which those our 
 ancestors have handed down to us, will preserve 
 you from the temptation of dismissing with hasty 
 contempt their thoughts upon any subject so im- 
 portant ; will make you inclined to listen to their 
 opinion with affection, if not with reverence ; and 
 save, perhaps, the preacher from a sueer when he 
 declares that the doctrine of those old Saxon men 
 is, in his belief, not only the most Scriptural, but 
 the most rational and scientific explanation of the 
 grounds of all human knowledge. 
 
 At least I shall be able to quote in support of 
 my own opinion a name from which there can be 
 no appeal in the minds of a congregation of edu- 
 cated Englishmen I mean Francis Bacon, Lord 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 153 
 
 Verulam, the spiritual father of the modern science, 
 and, therefore, of the chemistry and the medicine 
 of the whole civilized world. If there is one thing 
 which more than another ought to impress itself 
 on the mind of a careful student of his works, it is 
 this that he considered science as the inspiration 
 of God, and every separate act of induction by 
 which man arrives at a physical law, as a revela- 
 tion from the Maker of those laws ; and that the 
 faith which gave him daring to face the mystery 
 of the universe, and proclaim to men that they 
 could conquer nature by obeying her, was his 
 deep, living, practical belief that there was One 
 who had ascended up on high, and led captive in 
 the flesh and spirit of a man those very idols of 
 sense which had been themselves leading men's 
 minds captive, enslaving them to the illusions of 
 their own senses, forcing them to bow down in 
 vague awe and terror before those powers of 
 Nature, which God had appointed, not to be their 
 tyrants, but their slaves. I will not special-plead 
 particulars from his works, wherein I may consider 
 that he asserts this. I will rather say boldly that 
 the idea runs through every line he ever wrote ; 
 that unless seen in the light of that faith, the 
 grounds of his philosophy ought to be as inexpli- 
 cable to us, as they would, without it, have been 
 impossible to himself. As has been well said of 
 
154 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 him, ' Faith in God as the absolute ground of all 
 human as well as of all natural laws ; the belief 
 that He had actually made Himself known to His 
 creatures, and that it was possible for them to 
 have a knowledge of Him, cleared from the phan- 
 tasies and idols of their own imaginations and 
 understandings ; this was the necessary foundation 
 of all that great man's mind and speculations, to 
 whatever point they were tending, and however 
 at times they might be darkened by too close a 
 familiarity with the corruptions and meannesses of 
 man, or too passionate an addiction to the con* 
 templation of Nature. Nor should it ever be for- 
 gotten that he owed all the clearness and distinct- 
 ness of his mind to his freedom from that Pantheism 
 which naturally disposes to a vague admiration 
 and adoration of Nature, to the belief that it is 
 stronger and nobler than ourselves; that we are 
 servants, and puppets, and portions of it, and not 
 its lords and rulers. If Bacon had in anywise 
 confounded Nature with God if he had not en- 
 tertained the strongest practical feeling that men 
 were connected with God through One who had 
 taken upon Him their nature, it is impossible that 
 he could have discovered that method of dealing 
 with physics, which has made a physical science 
 possible/ 
 
 No really careful student of his works, but must 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 155 
 
 have perceived this, however glad, alas ! he may 
 have felt at times to thrust the thought of it 
 from him, and try to think that Francis Bacon's 
 Christianity was something over and above his 
 philosophy a religion which he left behind him 
 at the church-door or only sprinkled up and down 
 his works so much of it as should shield him in a 
 bigoted age from the suspicion of materialism. 
 A strange theory, and yet one which, so deter- 
 mined is man to see nothing, whether it be in the 
 Bible or in the Novum Organum, but what each 
 wishes to see, has been deliberately put forth again 
 and again by men who fancy, forsooth, that the 
 greatest of English heroes was even such an one as 
 themselves. One does not wonder to find among the 
 general characteristics of those writers who admire 
 Bacon as a materialist, the most utter incapacity 
 of philosophising on Bacon's method, the very rest- 
 less conceit, the hasty generalization, the hankering 
 after cosmogonic theories, which Bacon anathema- 
 tizes in every page Yes, I repeat it, we owe our 
 medical and sanitary science to Bacon's philosophy; 
 and Bacon owed his philosophy to his Christianity. 
 Oh ! it is easy for us, amid the marvels of our 
 great hospitals, now grown commonplace in our 
 eyes from very custom, to talk of the empire of 
 mind over matter ; for us who reap the harvest 
 whereof Bacon sowed the seed. But consider, 
 
156 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 how great the faith of that man must have been, 
 who died in hope, not having received the promises, 
 but seeing them afar off, and haunted to his dying 
 day with glorious visions of a time when famine 
 and pestilence should vanish before a scientific 
 obedience to use his own expression to the will 
 of God, revealed in natural facts. Thus we can 
 understand how he dared to denounce all that 
 had gone before him as blind and worthless guides, 
 and to proclaim himself to the world as the one 
 restorer of true physical philosophy. Thus we 
 can understand how he, the cautious and patient 
 man of the world, dared indulge in those vast 
 dreams of the scientific triumphs of the future. 
 Thus we can understand how he dared hint at the 
 expectation that men would some day even conquer 
 death itself; because he believed that man had 
 conquered death already, in the person of its King 
 and Lord in the flesh of Him who ascended up 
 on high, and led captivity captive, and received 
 gifts for men. The c empire of mind over matter ? ' 
 What practical proof had he of it amid the miser- 
 able alternations of empiricism and magic which 
 made up the pseudo-science of his time ; amid 
 the theories and speculations of mankind, which 
 as he said, were c but a sort of madness useless 
 alike for discovery or for operation/ What right 
 had he, more than any other man who had gone 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 157 
 
 before him, to believe that man could conquer 
 and mould to his will the unseen and tremendous 
 powers which work in every cloud and every 
 flower ? that he could dive into the secret mys- 
 teries of his own body, and renew his youth like the 
 eagle's ? This ground he had for that faith that 
 he believed, as he says himself, that he must 
 ' begin from God ; and that the pursuit of phy- 
 sical science clearly proceeds from Him, the Author 
 of good, and Father of light/ This gave him faith 
 to say that in this, as in all other Divine works, 
 the smallest beginnings lead assuredly to some 
 result, and that the ' remark in spiritual matters, 
 that the kingdom of God cometh without obser- 
 vation, is also found to be true in every great work 
 of Divine Providence ; so that everything glides on 
 quietly without confusion or noise, and the matter 
 is achieved before men either think or perceive 
 that it is commenced/ This it was which gave him 
 courage to believe that his own philosophy might 
 be the actual fulfilment of the prophecy, that in 
 the last days many should run to and fro, and 
 knowledge should be increased words which, like 
 hundreds of others in his works, sound like the 
 outpourings of an almost blasphemous self-conceit, 
 till we recollect that he looked on science only as 
 the inspiration of God, and man's empire over 
 nature only as the consequence of the redemption 
 
158 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 worked out for him by Christ, and begin to see in 
 them the expressions of the deepest and most 
 divine humility. 
 
 I doubt not that many here will be far more 
 able than I am practically to apply the facts which 
 I have been adducing to the cause of the hospital 
 for which I am pleading. But there is one conse- 
 quence of them to which I must beg leave to draw 
 your attention more particularly, especially at the 
 present era of our nation. If, then, these dis- 
 coveries of science be indeed revelations and 
 inspirations from God, does it not follow that all 
 classes, even the poorest and the most ignorant, the 
 most brutal, have an equal right to enjoy the fruits 
 of them ? Does it not follow that to give to the 
 poor their share in the blessings which chemical and 
 medical science are working out for us, is not a 
 matter of charity or benevolence, but of duty, of 
 indefeasible, peremptory, immediate duty? For 
 consider, my friends ; the Son of God descends on 
 earth, and takes on Him not only the form, but 
 the very nature, affections, trials, and sorrows of a 
 man. He proclaims Himself as the person who has 
 been all along ruling, guiding, teaching, improving 
 men ; the light who lighteth every man who cometh 
 into the world. He proclaims Himself by acts of 
 wondrous power to be the internecine foe and con- 
 queror of every form of sorrow, slavery, barbarism, 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 159 
 
 weakness, sickness, death itself. He proclaims 
 Himself as One who is come to give His life for 
 His sheep One who is come to restore to men the 
 
 likeness in which they were originally created, the 
 likeness of their Father in Heaven, who accepteth 
 
 the person of no man who causeth His sun to 
 shine on the evil and on the good, who sendeth his 
 rain on the just and on the unjust, in whose sight 
 the meanest publican, if his only consciousness be 
 that of his own baseness and worthlessness, is more 
 righteous than the most learned, respectable, and 
 self-satisfied pharisee. He proclaims Himself the 
 setter-up of a Kingdom into which the publican 
 and the harlot will pass sooner than the rich, the 
 mighty, and the noble ; a kingdom in which all 
 men are to be brothers, and their bond of union, 
 loyalty to One who spared not His own life for the 
 
 1 sheep, who came not to do His own, but the will 
 of the Father who had sent Him, and who showed 
 
 I by His toil among the poor, the outcast, the igno- 
 rant, and the brutal, what that same will was like. 
 
 1 With His own life-blood He seals this Covenant 
 between God and man. He offers up His own 
 
 I body as the first-fruits of this great kingdom of 
 self-sacrifice. He takes poor fishermen and me- 
 chanics, and sends them forth to acquaint all men 
 
 I with the good news that God is their King, and to 
 baptize them as subjects of that kingdom, bound to 
 
 i 
 
160 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 rise in baptism to a new life, a life of love, and 
 brotherhood, and self-sacrifice, like His own. He 
 commands them to call all nations to that sacred 
 Feast wherein there is neither rich nor poor, but 
 the same bread and the same wine are offered to 
 the monarch and to the slave, as signs of their 
 common humanity, their common redemption, their 
 common interest signs that they derive their life, 
 their health, their reason, their every faculty of 
 body, soul, and spirit, from One who walked the 
 earth as the son of a poor carpenter, who ate and 
 drank with publicans and sinners. He sends down 
 His Spirit on them with gifts of language, elo- 
 quence, wisdom, and healing, as mere earnests and 
 first-fruits ; so they said, of that prophecy that He 
 would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, even upon 
 slaves and handmaids. And these poor fishermen 
 feel themselves impelled by a divine and irresistible 
 impulse to go forth to the ends of the world, and 
 face persecution, insult, torture and death not in 
 order that they may make themselves lords over 
 mankind, but that they may tell them that One is 
 their Master, even Jesus Christ, both God and 
 man that He rules the world, and will rule it, and 
 can rule it, that in His sight there is no distinction 
 of race, or rank, or riches, neither Jew nor Greek, 
 barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. And, as a fact, 
 their message has prevailed and been believed ; and 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 161 
 
 in proportion as it has prevailed, not merely indivi- 
 dual sanctity or piety, but liberty, law, peace, civi- 
 lization, learning, art, science, the gifts which He 
 bought for men with His blood, have followed in its 
 train : while the nations who have not received 
 that message that God was their King, or having 
 received it have forgotten it, or perverted it into a 
 superstition and an hypocrisy, have in exactly that 
 proportion fallen back into barbarism and bloodshed, 
 slavery and misery. My friends, if this philosophy 
 of history, this theory of human progress, or as I 
 should call it, this Gospel of the Kingdom of God 
 mean anything does it not mean this ? this which 
 our forefathers believed, dimly and inconsistently 
 perhaps, but still believed it, else we had not been 
 here this day that we are not our own, but the 
 servants of Jesus Christ, and brothers of each 
 other that the very constitution and ground-law 
 of this human species which has been redeemed by 
 Christ, is the self-sacrifice which Christ displayed 
 as the one perfection of humanity that all rank, 
 property, learning, science, are only held by their 
 possessors in trust from that King who has dis- 
 tributed them to each according as He will, that 
 each might use them for the good of all, certain 
 as certain as God's promise can make man that 
 if by giving up our own interest for the interest of 
 others, we seek first the kingdom of God, and the 
 I M 
 
162 THE EOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 righteousness between man and man, which we call 
 mercy, according to which it is constituted, all 
 other things, health, wealth, peace, and every other 
 blessing which humanity can desire, shall be added 
 unto us over and above, as the natural and neces- 
 sary fruits of a society founded according to the 
 will of God, and declared in his Son Jesus Christ, 
 and therefore according to those physical laws, 
 whereof he is at once the Creator, the Director, and 
 the Eevealer ? 
 
 This was the faith of our forefathers, both laity 
 and clergy that the Lord was King, be the people 
 never so unquiet ; that men were His stewards and 
 His pupils only, and not his vicars ; that they were 
 equal in His sight, and not the slaves and tyrants 
 of each other ; and that the help that was done 
 upon earth, He did it all Himself. Dimly, doubt- 
 less, they saw it, and inconsistently : but they saw 
 it, and to their faith in that great truth we owe all 
 that has made England really noble among the 
 nations. Of the fruits of that faith every venerable 
 building around us should remind us. To that 
 faith in the laity, we owe the abolition of serfdom, 
 the freedom of our institutions, the laws which 
 provide equal justice between man and man; to 
 that faith in the clergy, and especially in the mo- 
 nastic orders, we owe the endowment of our schools 
 and universities, the improvement of agriculture, 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 163 
 
 the preservation and the spread of all the liberal 
 arts and sciences, as far as they were then dis- 
 covered ; so that every one of those abbeys which 
 we now revile so ignorantly, became a centre of 
 freedom, protection, healing and civilization, a 
 refuge for the oppressed, a well-spring of mercy 
 for the afflicted, a practical witness to the nation 
 that property and science were not the private and 
 absolute possession of men, but only held in trust 
 from God for the benefit of the common weal : and 
 just in proportion as in the 14th and 15th centuries 
 those institutions fell from their first estate, and 
 began to fancy that their wealth and wisdom was 
 their own, acquired by their own cunning, to be 
 used for their own aggrandizement, they became 
 an imposture and an imbecility, an abomination 
 and a ruin. And it was this faith, too, in a still 
 nobler and clearer form, which at the Reformation 
 inspired the age which could produce a Ridley, a 
 Latimer, an Elizabeth, a Shakspeare, a Spencer, a 
 Raleigh, a Bacon, and a Milton ; which knit to- 
 gether, in spite of religious feuds and social wrongs, 
 the nation of England with a bond which all the 
 powers of hell endeavoured in vain to break. 
 Doubtless, there too there was inconsistency 
 enough. Elizabeth may have mixed up ambitious 
 dynastic dreams with her intense belief that God 
 had given her her wisdom, her learning, her mighty 
 M 2 
 
164 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 will, only to be the servant of His servants and 
 defender of the faith. Men like Drake and Ra- 
 leigh, while they were believing that God had 
 sent them forth to smite with the sword of the 
 Lord the devourers of the earth, the destroyers of 
 religion, freedom, civilization and national life, may 
 have been unfaithful to what they believed their 
 divine mission, and fancied that they might use 
 the wisdom and valour that God gave them for 
 their selfish ends, till they committed (as some 
 say) acts of rapacity and cruelty worthy of the 
 merest buccaneer. But that was not what made 
 them conquer that was not what made the wealth 
 and the might of Spain melt away before their 
 little bands of heroes; but the same old faith, 
 shining out in all their noblest acts and words, 
 that ( the Lord luas King, and that the help that 
 was done upon earth, He did it all Himself.' So 
 again, Bacon may have fancied, and did fancy in 
 his old age, that he might use his deep knowledge 
 of mankind for his own selfish ends that he might 
 indulge himself in building himself up a name that 
 might fill all the earth, that he who had done so 
 much for God and for mankind, might be allowed 
 to do at last somewhat for himself, and tempted, 
 by a paltry bribe, fall for awhile, as David did 
 before him, that God, and not he, might have the 
 glory of all his wisdom. But then he was less 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 165 
 
 than himself; then he had but lost sight of his 
 lode-star. Then he had forgotten, but only for 
 a while, that he owed all to the teaching of that 
 God who had given to the young and obscure ad- 
 vocate the mission of affecting the destinies of 
 nations yet unborn. 
 
 And believe me, my friends, even as it has been 
 with our forefathers, so it will be with us. Accord- 
 ing to our faith will it be unto us, now as it was of 
 old. In proportion as we believe that wealth, 
 science, and civilization are the work and property 
 of man, in just that proportion we shall be tempted 
 to keep them selfishly and exclusively to ourselves. 
 The man of science will be tempted to hide his dis- 
 coveries, though men may be perishing for lack of 
 them, till he can sell them to the highest bidder ; 
 the rich man will be tempted to purchase them for 
 himself, in order that he may increase his own com- 
 fort and luxury, and feel comparatively lazy and 
 careless about their application to the welfare of the 
 masses ; he will be tempted to pay an exorbitant 
 price for anything that can increase his personal 
 convenience, and yet when the question is about 
 improving the supply of necessaries to the poor, 
 stand haggling about considerations of profitable in- 
 vestment, excuse himself from doing the duty which 
 lies nearest to him by visions of distant profit, of 
 which a thousand unexpected accidents may deprive 
 
166 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 him after all, and make his boasted scientific care 
 for the wealth of the nation an excuse for leaving 
 tens of thousands worse housed and worse fed than 
 his own beasts of burden. The poor man will be 
 tempted frantically to oppose his selfishness and un- 
 belief to the selfishness and unbelief of the rich, and 
 clutch from him by force the comforts which really 
 belong to neither of them, in order that he may 
 pride himself in them and misuse them in his turn ; 
 and the clergy will be tempted, as they have too 
 often been tempted already, to fancy that reason 
 is the enemy, and not the twin sister of faith ; to 
 oppose revelation to science, as if God's two mes- 
 sages could contradict each other ; to widen the 
 Manichaean distinction between secular and spiritual 
 matters, so pleasant to the natural atheism of fallen 
 man ; to fancy that they honour God by limiting 
 as much as possible His teaching, His providence, 
 His wisdom, His love, and His kingdom, and to 
 pretend that they are defending the creeds of the 
 Catholic Church, by denying to them any practical 
 or real influence on the economic, political, and 
 physical welfare of mankind. But in proportion as 
 we hold to the old faith of our forefathers concern- 
 ing science and civilization, we shall feel it not only 
 a duty, but a glory and a delight, to make all men 
 sharers in them ; to go out into the streets and 
 lanes of the city and call in the maimed, and the 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 167 
 
 halt, and the blind, that they may sit down and 
 take their share of the good things which God has 
 provided in His kingdom for those who obey Him. 
 Every new discovery will be hailed by us as a fresh 
 boon from God to be bestowed by the rain and the 
 sunshine freely upon us all. The sight of every 
 sufferer will make us ready to suspect and to exa- 
 mine ourselves lest we should be in some indirect 
 way the victim of some neglect or selfishness of our 
 own. Every disease will be a sign to us that in 
 some respect or other, the physical or moral laws 
 of human nature have been overlooked or broken. 
 The existence of an unhealthy locality, the recur- 
 rence of an epidemic, will be to us a subject of pub- 
 lic shame and self-reproach. Men of science will 
 no longer go up and down entreating mankind in 
 vain to make use of their discoveries ; the sanitary 
 reformer will be no longer like Wisdom crying in 
 the streets and no man regarding her ; and in every 
 ill to which flesh is heir we shall see an enemy of 
 our King and Lord, and an intruder into His king- 
 dom, against which we swore at our baptism to 
 fight with an inspiring and delicious certainty that 
 God will prosper the right ; that His laws cannot 
 change ; that nature, and the disturbances and 
 poisons, and brute powers thereof, were meant to 
 be the slaves and not the tyrants of a race whose 
 head has conquered the grave itself. 
 
168 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE, 
 
 This is no speculative dream. The progress of 
 science is daily proving it to be an actual truth ; 
 proving to us that a large proportion of diseases 
 how large a proportion, no man yet dare say are 
 preventible by science under the direction of that 
 common justice and mercy which man owes to man. 
 The proper cultivation of the soil, it is now clearly 
 seen, will exterminate fevers and agues, and all the 
 frightful consequences of malaria. An attention to 
 those simple decencies and cleanlinesses of life of 
 which even the wild animals feel the necessity, will 
 prevent the epidemics of our cities, and all the 
 frightful train of secondary diseases which follow 
 them, or supply their place. The question which 
 is generally more and more forcing itself on the 
 minds of scientific men is not how many diseases 
 are, but how few are not, the consequences of man's 
 ignorance, barbarism, and folly. The medical man 
 is felt more and more to be as necessary in health 
 as he is in sickness, to be the fellow-workman not 
 merely of the clergyman, but of the social reformer, 
 the political economist, and the statesman ; and the 
 first object of his science to be prevention, and not 
 cure. But if all this be true, as true it is, we ought 
 to begin to look on Hospitals as many medical men 
 I doubt not do already, in a sadder though in a no 
 less important light. When we remember that the 
 majority of cases which fill their wards are cases of 
 
PTHE FOUNT OF , 
 / v j v/f 
 
 more or less directly preventible diseases,' i 
 of our social neglect, too often of oiir'ne/gleot of the 
 sufferers themselves, too often also our neglect of 
 their parents and forefathers ; when we think how 
 many a bitter pang is engendered and propagated 
 from generation to generation in the noisome alleys 
 and courts of this metropolis, by foul food, foul bed- 
 rooms, foul air, foul water, by intemperance, the 
 natural and almost pardonable consequence of 
 want of water, depressing and degrading employ- 
 ments, and lives spent in such an atmosphere of 
 filth as our daintier nostrils could not endure a day : 
 then we should learn to look upon these Hospitals 
 I not as acts of charity, supererogatory benevolences 
 t of ours towards those to whom we owe nothing, but 
 as confessions of sin, and worthy fruits of penitence; 
 as poor and late and partial compensation for misery 
 ! which we might have prevented. And when again, 
 taking up scientific works, we find how vast a pro- 
 portion of the remaining cases of disease are pro- 
 duced directly or indirectly by the unhealthiness of 
 ; certain occupations, so certainly that the scientific 
 man can almost prophesy the average shortening 
 : of life, and the peculiar form of disease, incident to 
 any given form of city labour when we find, to 
 I quote a single instance, that a large proportion 
 \\ one half, as I am informed of the female cases in 
 certain Hospitals, are those of women-servants suf- 
 
170 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 fering from diseases produced by overwork in house- 
 hold labour, especially by carrying heavy weights 
 up the steep stairs of our London houses when we 
 consider the large proportion of accident cases 
 which are the result, if not always of neglect in our 
 social arrangements, still of danger incurred in 
 labouring for us, we shall begin to feel that our 
 debt towards the poorer classes, for whom this and 
 other Hospitals are instituted, swells and mounts 
 up to a burden wh ichught to be and would be 
 intolerable to us, if we had not some such means as 
 this Hospital affords of testifying our contrition for 
 neglect for which we cannot atone, and of practi- 
 cally claiming in the Hospital our brotherhood 
 with those masses whom we pass by so carelessly 
 in the workshop and the street. What matters it 
 that they have undertaken a life of labour from 
 necessity, and with a full consciousness of the 
 dangers they incur in it ? For whom have they 
 been labouring, but for us ? Their handywork 
 renders our houses luxurious. We wear the clothes 
 they make. We eat the food they produce. They 
 sit in darkness and the shadow of death that we 
 may enjoy light and life and luxury and civiliza- 
 tion. True, they are free men, in name, not free 
 though from the iron necessity of crushing toil. 
 Shall we make their liberty a cloak for our licen- 
 tiousness ? and because they are our brothers and 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 171 
 
 not our slaves, answer with Cain, c Am I my brother's 
 keeper f What if we have paid them the wages 
 which they ask ? We do not feed our beasts of 
 burden only as long as they are in health, and when 
 they fall sick leave them to cure themselves and 
 starve and these are not our beasts of burden ; 
 they are members of Christ, children of God, in- 
 heritors of the Kingdom of Heaven. Prove it to 
 them, then, for they are in bitter danger of forget- 
 ting it in these days. Prove to them, by helping to 
 cure their maladies, that they are members of 
 Christ, that they do indeed belong to Him who 
 without fee or payment freely cured the sick of 
 Judea in old time. Prove to them that they are 
 children of God, by treating them as such as 
 children of Him without whom not a sparrow falls 
 to the ground, children of Him whose love is over 
 all His works, children of Him who defends the 
 widow and the fatherless, and sees that those who 
 are in need or necessity have right, and who maketh 
 inquiry for the blood of the innocent. Prove to 
 them that they are inheritors of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven, by proving to them first of all that the 
 Kingdom of Heaven exists, that all, rich and poor 
 alike, are brothers, and One their Master, He who 
 ascended up on high and led captivity captive, and 
 received gifts for men, the gifts of healing, the gifts 
 of science, the gifts of civilization, the gifts of law, 
 
172 THE EOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 the gifts of order, the gifts of liberty, the gifts of 
 the spirit of love and brotherhood, of fellow-feel- 
 ing and self-sacrifice, of justice and humility, a 
 spirit fit for a world of redeemed and pardoned 
 men, in which mercy is but justice, and self-sacri- 
 fice the truest self-interest ; a world, the King 
 and Master of which is One who poured out his 
 own life-blood for the sake of those who hated him, 
 that men should henceforth live not for themselves, 
 but for Him who died and rose again, and ascended 
 up on high and received gifts for men, that the 
 Lord God might dwell among them. 
 
 And because all general truths can only be veri- 
 fied in particular instances, verify your general faith 
 in that Christianity which you profess in this par- 
 ticular instance, by doing the duty which lies nearest 
 to you, and giving, as it is called, to this Hospital 
 for which I now plead. 
 
 Thanks to the spirit and the attainments of the 
 average of English medical men and chaplains, to 
 praise the management of any Hospital which is 
 under their care, is a needless impertinence. Do 
 you find funds, there will be no fear as to their 
 being well employed ; and no fear, alas ! either of 
 their services being in full demand, while the sani- 
 tary state of vast streets of South London, lying 
 close to this Hospital, are in a state in which they 
 are, and in which private cupidity and neglect 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 173 
 
 seem willing to compel them to remain. It is on 
 account of its contiguity to these neglected, desti- 
 tute, and poisonous localities, that this Hospital 
 seems to me especially valuable. But though 
 situated in a part of London where its presence is 
 especially needed, it has not, from various causes 
 which have arisen from no fault of its own, at- 
 tracted as much public notice as some other more 
 magnificent foundations ; while it possesses one 
 feature, peculiar I believe to it, among our London 
 Hospitals, which seems to me to render it espe- 
 cially deserving of support : I speak of the ward 
 for incurable patients, in which, instead of ending 
 their days in the melancholy wards of a workhouse, 
 or amid those pestilential and crowded dwellings 
 which have perhaps produced their maladies, and 
 which certainly will aggravate them, they may have 
 their heavy years of hopeless suffering softened by 
 a continued supply of constant comforts, and con- 
 stant medical solicitude, such as the best-conducted 
 workhouse, or the most laborious staff of parish 
 surgeons, and district visitors, ay, not even the be- 
 i nevolence and self-sacrifice of friends and relations, 
 can possibly provide. I beseech you, picture to 
 yourselves the amount of mere physical comfort, 
 i not to mention the higher blessings of spiritual 
 teaching and consolation, accruing to some poor 
 tortured cripple, in the wards of this hospital; 
 
174 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 compare it with the very brightest lot possible for 
 him in the dwellings of the lower, or even of the 
 middle classes of the metropolis ; then recollect 
 that these hospital luxuries, which would be unat- 
 tainable by him elsewhere, are but a tithe of those 
 which you, in his situation, would consider abso- 
 lute necessaries, without which a life of suffering, 
 ay, even of health, were intolerable and do unto 
 others this day, as you would that others should do 
 unto you ! 
 
 I might have taken some other and more popular 
 method of drawing your attention to this institu- 
 tion. I might have tried to excite your feelings 
 and sympathies by attempts at pathetic or pic- 
 turesque descriptions of suffering. But the mini- 
 ster of a just God is bound to proclaim that God 
 demands not sentiment, but justice. The Bible 
 knows nothing of the 'religious sentiments and 
 emotions/ whereof we hear so much talk now-a- 
 days. It speaks of duty. ' Beloved, if God so 
 loved us, we ought to love one another/ 
 
 I might also have attempted to flatter you into 
 giving, by representing this as a 'good work,' a 
 work of charity and piety, well pleasing to God ; a 
 sort of work of Protestant supererogation, fruits of 
 faith which we may show, if we like, up to a certain 
 not very clearly -defined point of benevolence, but 
 the absence of which probably will not seriously 
 
THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 175 
 
 affect our eternal salvation, still less our right to 
 call ourselves orthodox, Protestants, churchmen, 
 worthy, kind-hearted, respectable, blameless. The 
 Bible knows nothing of such a religion ; it neither 
 coaxes nor flatters, it commands. It demands 
 mercy, because mercy is justice ; and declares that 
 with what measure we mete to others, it shall be 
 surely measured to us again. If therefore my 
 words shall seem to some here, to be not so much a 
 humble request as a peremptory demand, I cannot 
 help it. I have pleaded the cause of this Hospital 
 on the only solid ground of which I am aware, for 
 doing anything but evil to every one around us 
 who is not a private friend, or a member of one's 
 own family. I ask you to help the poor to their 
 share in the gifts which Christ received for men, 
 because they are His gifts, and neither ours nor 
 any man's. Among these venerable buildings, the 
 signs and witnesses of the Kingdom of God, and 
 the blessings of that Kingdom which for a thousand 
 years have been spreading and growing among us 
 I ask it of you as citizens of that Kingdom. 
 Prove your brotherhood to the poor by restoring to 
 them a portion of that wealth which, without their 
 labour, you could never have possessed. Prove 
 lyour brotherhood to them in a thousand ways in 
 every way in this way, because at this moment it 
 happens to be the nearest and the most imme- 
 
176 THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE. 
 
 diate, and because the necessity for it is nearer, 
 more immediate, to judge by the signs of the times, 
 and most of all by their self- satisfied unconsciousness 
 of danger, their loud and shallow self-glorification, 
 than ever it was before. Work while it is called 
 to-day, lest the night come wherein no man can 
 work, but only take his wages. 
 
 Again I say, I may seem to some here to have 
 pleaded the cause of this Hospital in too harsh and 
 peremptory a tone. . . And yet I have a ground 
 of hope, in the English love of simple justice, in the 
 noble instances of benevolence and self-sacrifice 
 among the wealthy and educated, which are, thank 
 God ! increasing in number daily, as the need of 
 them increases in these, I say, I have a ground 
 of hope that there are many here to-day who would 
 sooner hear the language of truth than of flattery ; 
 who will be more strongly moved toward a righteous 
 deed by being told that it is their duty toward 
 God, their country, and their fellow-citizens, than 
 by any sentimental baits for personal sympathy, or 
 for the love of Pharisaic ostentation. 
 
XIII. 
 .-FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 27, 1849. 
 
 PSALM x. 5 . 
 
 God's judgments are from above, out of the sight of the wicked. 
 
 TT7E have just been praying to God to remove 
 from us the cholera, which we call a judg- 
 ment of God, a chastisement : and God knows we 
 have need enough to do so. But we can hardly 
 expect God to withdraw His chastisement unless 
 we correct the sins for which he chastised us, and 
 therefore unless we find out what particular sins 
 have brought the evil on us. For it is mere cant 
 and hypocrisy, my friends, to tell.God, in a general 
 way, that we believe He is punishing us for our 
 sins, and then to avoid carefully confessing any 
 particular sin, and to get angry with any one who 
 tells us boldly which sin God is punishing us for. 
 But so goes the world. Every one is ready to say 
 ' Oh ! yes, we are all great sinners, miserable 
 sinners I' and then if you charge them with any 
 I N 
 
178 FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 particular sin, they bridle up and deny that sin 
 fiercely enough, and all sins one by one, confessing 
 themselves great sinners, and yet saying that they 
 don't know what sins they have committed. No 
 man really believes himself a sinner, no man really 
 confesses his sins, but the man who can honestly 
 put his finger on this sin or that sin which he has 
 committed, and is not afraid to confess to God 
 ' This sin and that sin have I done this bad habit 
 and that bad habit have I cherished within me/ 
 Therefore, I say, it is no use for us Englishmen to 
 dream that we can flatter and persuade the great 
 God of Heaven and earth into taking away the 
 cholera from us, unless we find out and confess 
 openly what we have done to bring on the cholera, 
 and unless we repent and bring forth fruits worthy 
 of repentance, by amending our habits on that 
 point, and doing everything for the future which 
 shall not bring on the cholera, but keep it off. 
 
 Do not let us believe this time, my friends, in 
 the pitiable, insincere way in which all England 
 believed when the cholera was here sixteen years 
 ago. When they saw human beings dying by 
 thousands of the pestilence, they all got frightened, 
 and proclaimed a Fast, and confessed their sins and 
 promised repentance in a general way. But did 
 they repent of and confess those sins which had 
 caused the cholera ? Did they repent of and con- 
 
FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 179 
 
 fess the covetousness, the tyranny, the carelessness, 
 which in most great towns, and in too many 
 villages also, forces the poor to lodge in undrained 
 stifling hovels, unfit for hogs, amid vapours and 
 smells which send forth on every breath the seeds 
 of rickets and consumption, typhus and scarlet 
 fever, and worse and last of all, the cholera ? Did 
 they repent of their sin in that ? Not they. Did 
 they repent of the carelessness and laziness and 
 covetousness which sends meat and fish up to all 
 our large towns in a half putrid state which fills 
 every corner of London and the great cities with 
 slaughter-houses, over-crowded grave-yards, un- 
 drained sewers ? Not they. To confess their sins 
 in a general way cost them a few words : to con- 
 fess and repent of the real particular sins in them- 
 selves, was a very different matter ; to amend them 
 would have touched vested interests, would have 
 cost money, the Englishman's god ; it would have 
 required self-sacrifice of pocket, as well as of time. 
 It would have required manful fighting against the 
 prejudices, the ignorance, the self-conceit, the lazi- 
 ness, the covetousness of the wicked world. So 
 they could not afford to repent and amend of all 
 that. And when those great and good men, the 
 Sanitary Commissioners, proved to all England 
 fifteen years ago, that cholera always appeared where 
 fever had appeared, and that both fever and 
 N2 
 
180 FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 cholera always cling exclusively to those places 
 where there was bad food, bad air, crowded bed- 
 rooms, bad drainage and filth that such were the 
 laws of God and Nature, and always had been ; 
 they took no notice of it, because it was the poor 
 rather than the rich who suffered from those causes. 
 So the filth of our great cities was left to ferment 
 in poisonous cesspools, foul ditches and marshes 
 and muds, such as those now killing people by 
 hundreds in the neighbourhood of Plymouth ; for 
 one house or sewer that was improved, a hundred 
 more were left just as they were in the first cholera ; 
 as soon as the panic of superstitious fear was past, 
 carelessness and indolence returned. Men went 
 back, the covetous man to his covetousness, and 
 the idler to his idleness. And behold ! sixteen 
 years are past, and the cholera is as bad as ever 
 among us. 
 
 But you will say, perhaps, it is presumptuous to 
 say that Englishmen have brought the cholera on 
 themselves, that it is God's judgment, and that we 
 cannot explain His inscrutable Providence. Ah ! 
 my friends, that is a poor excuse and a common 
 one, for leaving a great many sins as they are ! 
 When people do not wish to do God's will, it is a 
 very pleasant thing to talk about God's will as 
 something so very deep and unfathomable, that 
 poor human beings cannot be expected to find it 
 
FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 181 
 
 out. It is an old excuse, and a great favourite with 
 Satan, I have no doubt. Why cannot people find 
 out God's will ? Because they do not like to find 
 it out, lest it should shame them and condemn them, 
 and cost them pleasure or money because their 
 eyes are blinded with covetousness and selfishness, 
 so that they cannot see God's will, even when they 
 do look for it, and then they go and cant about 
 God's judgments ; while those judgments, as the 
 text says, are far above out of their mammon- 
 blinded and prejudice-blinded sight. What do 
 they mean by that word ? Come now, my friends ! 
 let us face the question like men. What do you 
 mean really when you call the cholera, or fever, or 
 affliction at all, God's judgment ? Do you merely 
 mean that God is punishing you. you don't know 
 for what, and you can't find out for what ? but that 
 all which He expects of you is to bear it patiently, 
 and then go and do afterwards just what you did 
 before ? Dare any one say that who believes that 
 God is a God of justice, much less a God of love ? 
 What would you think of a father who punished 
 his children, and then left them to find out as they 
 could what they were punished for ? And yet 
 that is the way people talk of pestilence and of 
 great afflictions, public and private. They are not 
 ashamed to accuse God of a cruelty and an injustice 
 which they would be ashamed to confess themselves ! 
 
182 FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 How can men, even religious men often, be so 
 blasphemous ? Mainly, I think, because they do 
 not really believe in God at all, they only believe 
 about Him they believe that they ought to be- 
 lieve in Him. They have no living personal faith 
 in God or Christ ; they do not know God ; they do 
 not know God's character, and what to believe of 
 Him, and what to expect of Him ; or what they 
 ought to say of Him ; because they do not know, 
 they have not studied, they have not loved the 
 character of Christ, who is the express image and 
 likeness of God. Therefore God's judgments are 
 far away out of their sight ; therefore they make 
 themselves a God in their own image and after 
 their own likeness, lazy, capricious, revengeful ; 
 therefore they are not afraid or ashamed to say that 
 God sends pestilence into a country without show- 
 ing that country why it is sent. But another great 
 reason, I believe, why God's judgments in this and 
 other matters are far above out of our sight, is the 
 careless, insincere way of using words which we 
 English have got into, even on the most holy and 
 awful matters. I suppose there never was a nation 
 in the world so diseased through and through with 
 the spirit of cant, as we English are now : except 
 perhaps the old Jews, at the time of our Lord's 
 coming. You hear men talking as if they thought 
 God did not understand English, because they 
 
FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 183 
 
 cling superstitiously to the letter of the Bible in 
 proportion as they lose its spirit. You hear men 
 taking words into their mouths which might make 
 angels weep and devils tremble, with a coolness and 
 oily, smooth carelessness which shows you that they 
 do not feel the force of what they are saying. You 
 hear them using the words of Scripture, which are 
 in themselves stricter and deeper than all the books 
 of philosophy in the world, in such a loose unscrip- 
 tural way, that they make them mean anything or 
 nothing. They use the words like parrots, by rote, 
 just because their forefathers used them before them. 
 They will tell you that cholera is a judgment for 
 our sins, 'in a sense/ but if you ask them for 
 what sins, or in what sense, they fly off from that 
 home question, and begin mumbling common-places 
 about the inscrutable decrees of Providence, and 
 so on. It is most sad, all this ; and most fearful 
 also. 
 
 Therefore, I asked you, my friends, what is the 
 meaning of that word judgment? In common talk, 
 people use it rightly enough, but when they begin 
 to talk of God's judgments, they speak as if it 
 merely meant punishments. Now judgment and 
 punishment are two things. When a judge gives 
 judgment, he either acquits or condemns the accused 
 person ; he gives the case for the plaintiff, or for 
 the defendant : the punishment of the guilty per- 
 
184 FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 son, if he be guilty, is a separate thing, pronounced 
 and inflicted afterwards. His judgment, I say, is 
 his opinion about the person's guilt, and even so 
 God's judgments are the expression of His opinion 
 about our guilt. But there is this difference be- 
 tween man and God in this matter a human judge 
 gives his opinion in words, God gives His in 
 events : therefore there is no harm for a human 
 judge, when he has told a person why he must 
 punish, to punish him in some way that has no- 
 thing to do with his crime for instance, to send a 
 man to prison because he steals, though it would 
 be far better if criminals could be punished in 
 kind, and if the man who stole could be forced 
 either to make restitution, or work out the price of 
 what he stole in hard labour. For this is God's 
 plan God always pays sinners back in kind, that 
 He may not merely punish them, but correct 
 them ; so that by the kind of their punishment, 
 they may know the kind of their sin. God pu- 
 nishes us, as I have often told you, not by His 
 caprice, but by His laws. He does not break His 
 laws to harm us ; the laws themselves harm us, 
 when we break them and get in their way. It is 
 always so, you will find, with great national afflic- 
 tions. I believe, when we know more of God and 
 His laws, we shall find it true even in our smallest 
 private sorrows. God is unchangeable ; He does 
 
FIRST SERMON ON 
 
 ijr *a . 
 
 THE CHOLERA. 185 
 
 v /;.s /-, 
 
 not lose His temper, as heathens>a*nd superstitious* ] 
 men fancy, to punish us. He d6es^a/t/i<^iange T 
 His order to punish us. We break His order, and ' ^ 
 the order goes on in spite of us and crushes us : 
 and so we get God's judgment, God's opinion of 
 our breaking His laws. You will find it so almost 
 always in history. If a nation is laid waste by 
 war, it is generally their own fault. They have 
 sinned against the law which God has appointed 
 for nations. They have lost courage and prudence, 
 and trust in God, and fellow-feeling and unity, and 
 they have become cowardly and selfish and split-up 
 into parties, and so they are easily conquered by 
 their own fault, as the Bible tells us the Jews 
 were by the Chaldeans : and their ruin is God's 
 judgment, God's opinion plainly expressed of what 
 He thinks of them for having become cowardly 
 and selfish, and factious and disinterested. So it 
 is with famine again. Famines come by a nation's 
 own fault they are God's plainly spoken opinion 
 of what He thinks of breaking His laws of industry 
 and thrift, by improvidence and bad farming. So 
 when a nation becomes poor and bankrupt, it is 
 its own fault ; that nation has broken the laws 
 of political economy which God has appointed for 
 nations, and its ruin is God's judgment, God's . 
 plain-spoken opinion again of the sins of extrava- 
 gance, idleness, and reckless speculation. 
 
186 FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 So with pestilence and cholera. They come only 
 because we break God's laws ; as the wise poet well 
 says, 
 
 1 Voices from the depths of Nature borne 
 Which vengeance on the guilty head proclaim.' 
 
 ' Of nature / of the order and constitution which 
 God has made for this world we live in, and which 
 if we break them, though God in his mercy so 
 orders the world that punishment comes but seldom 
 even to our worst offences, yet surely do bring 
 punishment sooner or later if broken, in the com- 
 mon course of nature. Yes, my friends, as surely 
 and naturally as drunkenness punishes itself by a 
 shaking hand and a bloated body, so does filth 
 avenge itself by pestilence. Fever and cholera, as 
 you would expect them to be, are the expression 
 of God's judgment, God's opinion, God's hand- 
 writing on the wall against us for our sins of filth 
 and laziness, foul air, foul food, foul drains, foul 
 bed-rooms. Where they are, there is cholera. 
 Where they are not, there is none, and will be 
 none, because they who do not break God's laws, 
 God's laws will not break them. Oh ! do not 
 think me harsh, my friends ; God knows it is no 
 pleasant thing to have to speak bitter and up- 
 braiding words ; but when one travels about this 
 noble land of England, and sees what a blessed 
 place it might be, if we would only do God's will, 
 
FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 187 
 
 and what a miserable place it is just because we 
 will not do God's will, it is enough to make one's 
 soul boil over with sorrow and indignation ; and 
 then when one considers that other men's faults 
 are one's own fault too, that one has been adding 
 to the heap of sins by one's own laziness, cowardice, 
 ignorance, it is enough to break one's heart to 
 make one cry with St. Paul, ' Oh wretched man 
 that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of 
 this death ?' Ay, my friends, the state of things 
 in England now is enough to drive an earnest man 
 to despair, if one did not know that all our dis- 
 tresses, and this cholera, like the rest, are indeed 
 God's judgments ; the judgments and expressed 
 opinions, not of a capricious tyrant, but of a 
 righteous and loving Father, who chastens us just 
 because He loves us, and afflicts us only to teach 
 us his will, which alone is life and happiness. 
 Therefore we may believe that this very cholera is 
 meant to be a blessing ; that if we will take the 
 lesson it brings, it will be a blessing to England. 
 God grant that all ranks may take the lesson 
 that the rich may amend their idleness and neglect, 
 and the poor amend their dirt and stupid igno- 
 rance ; then our children will have cause to thank 
 God for the cholera, if it teaches us that cleanli- 
 ness is indeed next to holiness, if it teaches us, 
 rich and poor, to make the workman's home what 
 
188 FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 it ought to be. And believe me, my friends, that 
 day will surely come ; and these distresses, sad as 
 they are for the time, are only helping to hasten it 
 the day when the words of the Hebrew prophets 
 shall be fulfilled, where they speak of a state of 
 comfort and prosperity, and civilization, such as 
 men had never reached in their time how the wil- 
 derness shall blossom like the rose, and there shall 
 be heaps of corn high on the mountain-tops, and 
 the cities shall be green as grass on the earth, 
 instead of being the smoky, stifling, hot-beds of 
 disease which they are now and how from the 
 city of God streams shall flow for the healing of 
 the nations : strange words, those, and dim ; too 
 deep to be explained by any one meaning, or many 
 meanings, such as our small minds can give them ; 
 but full of blessed cheering hope. For of whatever 
 they speak, they speak at least of this of a time 
 when all sorrow and sighing shall be done away, 
 when science and civilization shall go hand in 
 hand with Godliness when God shall indeed dwell 
 in the hearts of men, and His kingdom shall be 
 fulfilled among them, when ' His ways shall be 
 known upon earth at last, and His saving health 
 among all nations ' of a time when all shall know 
 Him, from the least unto the greatest, and be in- 
 deed His children, doing no sin, because they will 
 have given up themselves, their selfishness and 
 
FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 189 
 
 cruelty and covetousness, and stupidity and laziness, 
 to be changed and renewed into God's likeness. 
 Then all these distresses and pestilences, which, as 
 I have shown you, come from breaking the will of 
 God, will have passed away like ugly dreams, and 
 all the earth shall be blessed, because all the earth 
 shall at last be fulfilling the words of the Lord's 
 Prayer, and God's will shall be done on earth, even 
 as it is done in heaven. Oh ! my friends, have 
 hope. Do you think Christ would have bid us 
 pray for what would never happen ? Would He 
 have bid us all to pray that God's will might be 
 done unless He had known surely that God's will 
 would one day be done by men on earth below 
 even as it is done in heaven ? 
 
XIV. 
 
 SECOND SERMON ON THE 
 CHOLERA. 
 
 EXODUS xx. 5. 
 Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children. 
 
 TN my sermon last Sunday I said plainly that 
 *- cholera, fever, and many more diseases were 
 man's own fault, and that they were God's judg- 
 ments just because they were man's own fault, be- 
 cause they were God's plain-spoken opinion of the 
 sin of filth and of habits of living unfit for civilized 
 Christian men. 
 
 But there is an objection which may arise in 
 some of your minds, and if it has not risen in your 
 minds, still it has in other people's often enough ; 
 and therefore I will state it plainly, and answer it 
 as far as God shall give me wisdom. For it is 
 well to get to the root of all matters, and of this 
 matter of Pestilence among others ; for if we do 
 believe this Pestilence to be God's judgment, then 
 it is a spiritual matter most proper to be spoken of 
 in a place like this church, where men come as 
 
SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 191 
 
 spiritual beings to hear that which is profitable for 
 their souls. And it is profitable for their souls to 
 consider this matter ; for it has to do, as I see, more 
 and more daily with the very deepest truths of the 
 Gospel ; and according as we believe the Gospel, 
 and believe really that Jesus Christ is our Saviour 
 and our King, the New Adam, the first-born 
 among many brethren, who has come down to pro- 
 claim to us that we are all brothers in Him in 
 proportion as we believe that, I say, shall we act 
 upon this very matter of public cleanliness. 
 
 The objection which I mean is this : people say 
 it is very hard and unfair to talk of cholera or fever 
 being people's own fault, when you see persons 
 who are not themselves dirty, and innocent little 
 children, who if they are dirty are only so because 
 they are brought up so, catch the infection and die 
 of it. You cannot say it is their fault. Very true. 
 I did not say it was their fault. I did not say that 
 each particular person takes the infection by his 
 own fault, though I do say that nine out of ten do. 
 And as for little children, of course it is not their 
 fault. But, my friends, it must be some one's fault. 
 No one will say that the world is so ill made that 
 these horrible diseases must come in spite of all 
 man's care. If it was so, plagues, pestilences, and 
 infectious fevers would be just as common now in 
 England, and just as deadly as they were in old 
 
192 SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 times ; whereas there is not one infectious fever 
 now in England for ten that there used to be five 
 hundred years ago. In ancient times fevers, agues, 
 plague, small-pox, and other diseases, whose very 
 names we cannot now understand, so completely 
 are they passed away, swept England from one 
 end to the other every few years, killing five peo- 
 ple where they now kill one. Those diseases, as 
 I said, have many of them now died out entirely ; 
 and those which remain are becoming less and less 
 dangerous every year. And why ? Simply because 
 people are becoming more cleanly and civilized in 
 their habits of living; because they are tilling 
 and draining the land every year more and more, 
 instead of leaving it to breed disease, as all uncul- 
 tivated land does.* It is not merely that doctors 
 are becoming wiser : we ourselves are becoming 
 more reasonable in our way of living. For instance, 
 in large districts both of Scotland and of the Eng- 
 lish fens, where fever and ague filled the country 
 and swept off hundreds every spring and fall thirty 
 years ago, fever and ague are now almost unknown, 
 simply because the marshes have all been drained 
 in the mean time. So you see that people can 
 prevent these disorders, and therefore it must be 
 some one's fault if they come. Now whose fault 
 is it ? You dare not lay the blame on God. And 
 yet you do lay the fault on God if you say that it 
 
SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 193 
 
 is no man's fault that children die of fever. But 
 I know what the answer to that will be ' We do 
 not accuse God it is the fault of the fall, Adam's 
 curse which brought death and disease into the 
 world/ That is a common answer, and the very 
 one I want to hear. What ? is it just to say, as 
 many do, that all the diseases which ever tormented 
 poor little innocent children all over the world, 
 came from Adam's sinning six thousand years ago, 
 and yet that it is unfair to say that one little child's 
 fever came from his parents' keeping a filthy house 
 a month ago ? That is swallowing a camel and 
 straining at a gnat that God should be just in 
 punishing all mankind for Adam's sin, and yet un- 
 just in punishing one little child for its parents' 
 sin. If the one is just, the other must be just too, 
 I think. If you believe the one, why not believe 
 the other? Why? Because Adam's curse and 
 'original' sin, as people call it, is a good and plea- 
 sant excuse for laying our sins and miseries at 
 Adam's door ; but the same rule is not so pleasant 
 in the case of filth and fever, when it lays other 
 people's miseries at our door. 
 
 I believe that all the misery in the world sprung 
 from Adam's disobedience and falling from God. 
 e By one man sin entered into the world, and death 
 by sin, and so death passed on all men, even on 
 those who had not sinned after the likeness of 
 
 i o 
 
194 SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 Adam's transgression/ So says the Bible, and I 
 believe it says so truly. For this is the law of the 
 earth, God's law which He proclaimed in the text. 
 He does visit the sins of the fathers upon the chil- 
 dren unto the third and fourth generation of those 
 who hate Him. It is so. You see it around you 
 daily. No one can deny it. Just as death and 
 misery entered into the world by one man, so we 
 see death and misery entering into many a family. 
 A man or woman is a drunkard, or a rogue, or a 
 swearer : how often their children grow up like 
 them ! We have all seen that, God knows, in this 
 very parish. How much more in great cities, where 
 boys and girls by thousands oh, shame that it 
 should be so in a Christian land ! grow up thieves 
 from the breast, and harlots from the cradle. 
 And why ? Why are there, as they say, and I am 
 afraid say too truly, in London alone upwards of 
 10,000 children under sixteen who live by theft 
 and harlotry ? Because the parents of these chil- 
 dren are as bad as themselves drunkards, thieves, 
 and worse and they bring up their children to 
 follow their crimes. If that is not the father's sins 
 being visited on the children, what is ? 
 
 How often, again, when we see a wild young 
 man, we say, and justly, ' Poor fellow ! there are 
 great excuses for him, he has been so badly brought 
 up/ True, but his wildness will ruin him all the 
 
SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 195 
 
 same, whether it be his father's fault or his own 
 that he became wild. If he drinks he will ruin 
 his health ; if he squanders his money he will grow 
 poor. God's laws cannot stop for him : he is break- 
 ing them, and they will avenge themselves on him. 
 You see the same thing everywhere. A man fools 
 away his money, and his innocent children suffer 
 for it. A man ruins his health by debauchery, or 
 a woman hers by laziness or vanity or self-indul- 
 gence, and her children grow up weakly and in- 
 herit their parent's unhealthiness. How often, 
 again, do we see passionate parents have passionate 
 children, stupid parents stupid children, mean and 
 lying parents mean and lying children ; above all, 
 ignorant and dirty parents have ignorant and dirty 
 children. How can they help being so? They 
 cannot keep themselves clean by instinct; they 
 cannot learn without being taught : and so they 
 suffer for their parents' faults. But what is all 
 this except God's visiting the sins of the fathers 
 upon the children ? Look again at a whole parish ; 
 how far the neglect or the wickedness of one man 
 may make a whole estate miserable. There is one 
 parish in this very union, and the curse of the 
 whole union it is, which will show us that fearfully 
 enough. See, too, how often when a good and 
 generous young man comes into his estate, he finds 
 it so crippled with debts and mortgages by his 
 o 2 
 
196 SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 forefathers' extravagance, that he cannot do the 
 good he would to his tenants, he cannot fulfil his 
 duty as landlord where God has placed him, and 
 so he and the whole estate must suffer for the 
 follies of generations past. If that is not God 
 visiting the sins of the fathers on the children, what 
 is it? 
 
 Look again at a whole nation ; the rulers of two 
 countries quarrel, or pretend to quarrel, and go to 
 war and some here know what war is just be- 
 cause there is some old grudge of a hundred years 
 standing between two countries, or because rulers 
 of whose names the country people, perhaps, never 
 heard, have chosen to fall out, or because their 
 forefathers by cowardice, or laziness, or division, or 
 some other sin, have made the country too weak 
 to defend itself; and for that poor people's pro- 
 perty is destroyed, and little infants butchered, 
 and innocent women suffer unspeakable shame. 
 If that is not God visiting the sins of the fathers 
 on the children, what is it ? 
 
 It is very awful, but so it is. It is the law of 
 this earth, the law of human kind, that the innocent 
 often suffer for other's faults, just as you see them 
 doing in cholera, fever, ague, small-pox, and other 
 diseases which man can prevent if he chooses to 
 take the trouble. There it is. We cannot alter 
 it. Those who will may call God unjust for it. 
 
SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 197 
 
 Let them first see, whether He is not only most 
 just, but most merciful in making the world so, and 
 no other way. I do not merely mean that what- 
 ever God does must be right. That is true, but it 
 is a poor way of getting over the difficulty. God 
 has taught us what is right and wrong, and He will 
 be judged by His own rules. As Abraham said to 
 Him when Sodom was to be destroyed, 'That be ' 
 far from Thee, to punish the righteous with the 
 wicked. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do 
 right?' Abraham knew what was right, and he 
 expected God not to break that law of right. And 
 we may expect the same of God. And I may be 
 able, I hope, in my sermon next Sunday, to show 
 you that in this matter God does not break the 
 law of right. Nevertheless in the mean time, this 
 is His way of dealing with men. When Sodom 
 was destroyed He brought righteous Lot out of it. 
 But Sodom was destroyed, and in it many a little 
 infant who had never known sin. And just so 
 when Lisbon was swallowed up by an earthquake, 
 ninety years ago, the little children perished as 
 well as the grown people just as in the Irish 
 famine fever last year, many a doctor and Roman 
 Catholic priest, and Protestant clergyman, caught 
 the fever and died while they were piously attend- 
 ing on the sick. They were acting like righteous 
 men doing their duty at their posts ; but God's 
 
198 SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 laws could not turn aside for them. Improvidence, 
 and misrule, which had been working and growing 
 for hundreds of years, had at last brought the 
 famine fever, and even the righteous must perish 
 by it. They had their sins, no doubt, as we all 
 have ; but then they were doing God's work bravely 
 and honestly enough, yet the fever could not spare 
 them any more than it could spare the children of 
 the filthy parents, though they had not kept pig- 
 sties under their windows, nor cesspools at their 
 doors. It could not spare them any more than it 
 can spare the tenants of the negligent or covetous 
 house-owner, because it is his fault and not theirs 
 that his houses are undrained, overcrowded, desti- 
 tute, as whole streets in many large towns are, of 
 the commonest decencies of life. It may be the 
 landlord's fault, but the tenants suffer. God visits 
 the sins of the fathers upon the children, and land- 
 lords ought to be fathers to their tenants, and must 
 become fathers to them some day, and that soon, 
 unless they intend that the Lord should visit on 
 them all their sins, and their forefathers' also, even 
 unto the third and fourth generation. 
 
 For do not fancy that because the innocent suffer 
 with the guilty that therefore the guilty escape. 
 Seldom do they escape in this world, and in the 
 world to come never. The landlord who, as too 
 
SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 199 
 
 many do, neglects his cottages till they become 
 mansties, to breed pauperism and disease the 
 parents whose carelessness and dirt poison their 
 children and neighbours into typhus and cholera 
 their brother's blood will cry against them out of 
 the ground. It will be required at their hands 
 sooner or later, by Him who beholds iniquity and 
 wrong, and who will not be satisfied in the day of" 
 His vengeance by Cain's old answer, ' Am I my 
 brother's keeper ?' 
 
 We are every one of us our brother's keeper ; 
 and if we do not choose to confess that, God will 
 prove it to us in a way that we cannot mistake, 
 A wise man tells a story of a poor Irish widow 
 who came to Liverpool, and no one would take 
 her in or have mercy on her, till, from starvation 
 and bad lodging, as the doctor said, she caught 
 typhus fever, and not only died herself, but gave 
 the infection to the whole street, and seventeen 
 persons died of it. ' See/ says the wise man, ' the 
 poor Irish widow was the Liverpool people's sister 
 after all. She was of the same flesh and blood as 
 they. The fever that killed her killed them, but 
 they would not confess that they were her brothers. 
 They shut their doors upon her, and so there was 
 no way left for her to prove her relationship, but 
 by killing seventeen of them with fever/ A grim 
 
200 SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 jest that, but a true one, like Elijah's jest to the 
 Baal priests on Carmel. A true one, I say, and 
 one that we have all need to lay to heart. 
 
 And I do earnestly trust in you that you will 
 lay it to heart. We have had our fair warning 
 here. We have had God's judgment about our 
 cleanliness ; His plain spoken opinion about the 
 sanitary state of this parish. We deserve the 
 fever, I am afraid ; not a house in which it has ap- 
 peared but has had some glaring neglect of common 
 cleanliness about it ; and if we do not take the 
 warning God will surely some day repeat it. It 
 will repeat itself by the necessary laws of nature ; 
 and we shall have the fever among us again, just 
 as the cholera has reappeared in the very towns, 
 and the very streets, where it was seventeen years 
 ago, wherever they have not repented of and 
 amended their filth and negligence. And I say 
 openly, that those who have escaped this time may 
 not escape next. God has made examples, and by 
 no means always of the worst cottages. God's plan 
 is to take one and leave another by way of warn- 
 ing. ' It is expedient that one man should die for 
 the people, and that the whole people perish not' 
 is a great and a sound law, and we must profit by 
 it. So let not those who have escaped the fever 
 fancy that they must needs be without fault. 
 * Think ye that those sixteen on whom the tower 
 
 
 
SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 201 
 
 of Siloam fell and slew them, were sinners above 
 all those that dwelt at Jerusalem ? I say unto 
 you, Nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all like- 
 wise perish/ 
 
 And I say again, as I said last Sunday, that this 
 is a spiritual question, a Gospel sermon ; for by your 
 conduct in this matter will your faith in the Gospel 
 be proved. If you really believe that Jesus Christ 
 came down from heaven and sacrificed Himself for 
 you, you will be ready to sacrifice yourselves in this 
 matter for those for whom He died ; to sacrifice, 
 without stint, your thought, your time, your money, 
 and your labour. If you really believe that He is 
 the sworn enemy of all misery and disease, you 
 will show yourselves too the sworn enemies of every- 
 thing that causes misery and disease, and work 
 together like men to put all pestilential filth and 
 damp out of this parish. If you really believe that 
 you are all brothers, equal in the sight of God and 
 Christ, you will do all you can to save your brothers 
 from sickness and the miseries which follow it. If 
 you really believe that your children are God's 
 children, that at baptism God declares your little 
 ones to be His, you will be ready to take any care 
 or trouble, however new or strange it may seem, to 
 keep your children safe from all foul smells, foul 
 food, foul water, and foul air, that they may grow 
 up healthy, hearty, and cleanly, fit to serve God as 
 
202 SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 christened, free, and civilized Englishmen should 
 in this great and awful time, the most wonderful 
 time that the earth has ever seen, into which it 
 has pleased God of His great mercy to let us all be 
 born. 
 
XV. 
 THIRD SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 EXODUS xx. 5. 
 
 I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the 
 
 Fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth genera- 
 tion of them that hate me. 
 
 II yf'ANY of you were perhaps surprised and 
 ~L-*- puzzled by my saying in my last sermon 
 that God's visiting the sins of the fathers on the 
 children, and letting the innocent suffer for the 
 guilty, was a blessing and not a curse a sign of 
 man's honour and redemption, not of his shame and 
 ruin. But the more I have thought of those words, 
 the more glad I am that I spoke them boldly, the 
 more true I find them to be. 
 
 I say that there is in them the very deepest and 
 surest ground for hope. ' Yes/ some of you may 
 say, ' to be sure when we see the innocent suffering 
 for the guilty, it is a plain proof that another world 
 must come some day, in which all that unfairness 
 shall be set right/ Well, my friends, it does prove 
 that, but I should be very sorry if it did not prove 
 
204 SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 a great deal more than that this suffering of the 
 innocent for the guilty. I have no heart to talk to 
 you about the next life, unless I can give you some 
 comfort, some reason for trusting in God in this 
 life. I never saw much good come of it. I never 
 found it do my own soul any good to be told, 
 ' This life and this world in which you now live are 
 given up irremediably to misrule and deceit, 
 poverty and pestilence, death and the devil. You 
 cannot expect to set this world right you must 
 look to the next world. Everything will be set 
 right there/ That sounds fine and resigned ; and 
 there seems to be a great deal of trust in God in it: 
 but, as I think, there is little or none ; and I say so 
 from the fruits I see it bear. If people believe 
 that this world is the devil's world, and only the 
 next world God's, they are easily tempted to say, 
 ' Very well, then, we must serve the devil in this 
 world, and God in the next. We must of course 
 take great care to get our souls saved when we die, 
 that we may go to heaven and live for ever and 
 ever ; but as to this world and this life, why we 
 must follow the ways of the world. It is not our 
 fault that they have nothing to do with God. It 
 is not our fault that society and the world are all 
 rotten and accursed ; we found them so when we 
 were born, and we must make the best of a bad 
 matter and sail as the world does, and be covetous 
 
SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 205 
 
 and mean and anxious, how can we help it ? 
 and stand on our own rights, and take care of 
 number one ; and even do what is not quite right 
 now and then for how can we help it ? or how 
 else shall we get on in this poor lost, fallen, sinful 
 world V 
 
 And so it comes, my friends, that you see people 
 professing ay, and believing, Gospel doctrines, 
 and struggling and reading, and, as they fancy, 
 praying, morning, noon, and night, to get their own 
 souls saved, who yet, if you are to judge by their 
 conduct, are little better than rogues and heathens ; 
 whose only law of life seems to be the fear of what 
 people will say of them ; who, like Balaam the son 
 of Bosor, are trying daily to serve the devil without 
 God finding it out, worshipping the evil spirit, as 
 that evil spirit wanted our blessed Lord to do, be- 
 cause they believed his lie, which Christ denied 
 that the glory of this world belongs to the evil one ; 
 and then comforting themselves like Balaam their 
 father, in the hope that they shall die the death 
 of the righteous, and their last end be like his. 
 
 Now I say, my friends, that this is a lie, and 
 comes from the father of lies, who tempts every 
 man, as he tempted our Lord, to believe that the 
 power and glory of this world are his, that man's 
 flesh and body, if not his soul, belongs to him. I 
 say, it is no such thing. The world is God's world.. 
 
206 SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 Man is God's creature, made in God's image, and 
 not in that of a beast or a devil. The kingdom, 
 the power and the glory, are God's now. You say 
 so every day in the Lord's Prayer ; believe it, St. 
 James tells you not to curse men, because they are 
 made in the likeness of God now not will be 
 made in God's likeness after they die. Believe 
 that ; do not be afraid of it, strange as it may seem 
 to understand. It is in the Bible ; and you profess 
 to believe that what is in the Bible is true. And 
 I say that this suffering of the innocent for the 
 guilty is a proof of that. If man was not made so 
 that the innocent could suffer for the guilty, he 
 could not have been redeemed at all, for there 
 would have been no use or meaning in Christ's 
 dying for us, the just for the unjust. And more, 
 if the innocent could not suffer for the guilty, we 
 should be like the beasts that perish. 
 
 Now, why ? Because just in proportion as any 
 creature is low I mean in the scale of life just 
 in that proportion it does without its fellow- 
 creatures, it lives by itself and cares for no other of 
 its kind. A vegetable is a meaner thing than an 
 animal, and one great sign of its being meaner is, 
 that vegetables cannot do each other any good 
 cannot help each other cannot even hurt each 
 other, except in a mere mechanical way, by over- 
 growing each other or robbing each other's roots ; 
 

 SECOND SEEMON ON THE CHOLERA. 207 
 
 but what would it matter to a tree if all the other 
 trees in the world were to die? So with wild 
 animals. What matters it to a bird or a beast, 
 whether other birds and beasts are ill off or well 
 off, wise or stupid ? Each one takes care of itself 
 each one shifts for itself. But you will sayj 
 ' Bees help each other and depend upon each other 
 for life and death/ True, and for that very reason 
 we look upon bees as being more wise and more 
 wonderful than almost any animals, just because 
 they are so much like us human beings in depend- 
 ing on each other. You will say again, that among 
 dogs, a riotous hound will lead a whole pack wrong 
 a staunch and well-broken hound will keep a 
 whole pack right ; and that dogs do depend upon 
 each other in very wonderful ways. Most true, 
 but that only proves more completely what I want 
 to get at. It is the tame dog, which man has 
 taken and broken in, and made to partake more or 
 less of man's wisdom and cunning, who depends on 
 his fellow dogs. The wild dogs in foreign countries, 
 on the other hand, are just as selfish, living every 
 one for himself, as so many foxes might be. And 
 you find this same rule holding as you rise. The 
 more a man is like a wild animal, the more of a 
 savage he is, so much more he depends on himself, 
 and not on others in short, the less civilized he 
 is ; for civilized means being a citizen, and learning 
 
208 SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 to live in cities, and to help and depend upon each, 
 other. And our common English word c civil' comes 
 from the same root. A man is c civil' who feels 
 that he depends upon his neighbours, and his neigh- 
 bours on him ; that they are his fellow-citizens, 
 and that he owes them a duty and a friendship* 
 And, therefore, a man is truly and sincerely civil' 
 just in proportion as he is civilized ; in proportion 
 as he is a good citizen, a good Christian in one 
 word, a good man. 
 
 Ay, that is what I want to come to, my friends 
 that word man, and what it means. The law 
 of man's life, the constitution and order on which, 
 and on no other, God has made man, is this to 
 depend upon his fellow-men, to be their brothers, 
 in flesh and in spirit ; for we are brothers to each 
 other. God made of one blood all nations to dwell 
 on the face of the earth. The same food will feed 
 us all alike. The same cholera will kill us all alike. 
 And we can give the cholera to each other ; we 
 can give each other the infection, not merely by 
 our touch and breath, for diseased beasts can do 
 that, but by housing our families and our tenants 
 badly, feeding them badly, draining the land around 
 them badly. This is the secret of the innocent 
 suffering for the guilty, in pestilences, and famines, 
 and disorders, which are handed down from father 
 to child, that we are all of the same blood. This is 
 
THIRD SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 209 
 
 the reason why Adam's sin infected our whole race. 
 Adam died, and through him all his children have 
 received a certain property of sinfulness and of 
 dying, just as one bee transmits to all his children 
 and future generations the property of. making 
 honey, or a lion transmits to all its future genera- 
 tions the property of being a beast of prey. For . 
 by sinning and cutting himself off from God Adam 
 gave way to the lower part of him, his flesh, his 
 animal nature, and therefore he died as other 
 animals do. And we his children, who all of us 
 give way to our flesh, to our animal nature, every 
 hour, alas ! we die too. And in proportion as we 
 give way to our animal natures we are liable to 
 die ; and the less we give way to our animal 
 natures, the less we are liable to die. We have 
 all sinned ; we have all become fleshly animal 
 creatures more or less ; and therefore we must all 
 die sooner or later. But in proportion as we be- 
 come Christians, in proportion as we become civil- 
 ized, in short, in proportion as we become true 
 men, and conquer and keep in order this flesh of 
 ours, and this earth around us, by the teaching of 
 God's spirit, as we were meant to do, just so far 
 will length of life increase and population increase. 
 For while people are savages, that is, while they 
 give themselves up utterly to their own fleshly 
 lusts, and become mere animals like the wild 
 i P 
 
210 THIRD SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 Indians, they cannot increase in number. They 
 are exposed by their own lusts and ignorance and 
 laziness, to every sort of disease ; they turn them- 
 selves into beasts of prey, and are continually right- 
 ing and destroying each other, so that they seldom 
 or never increase in numbers, and by wa^ drunken- 
 ness, small-pox, fevers, and other diseases too hor- 
 rible to mention, the fruit of their own lusts, whole 
 tribes of them are swept utterly off the face of the 
 earth. And why ? They are like the beasts, and 
 like the beasts they perish. Whereas, just in pro- 
 portion as any nation lives according to the spirit 
 and not according to the flesh ; in proportion as 
 it conquers its own fleshly appetites which tempt 
 it to mere laziness, pleasure, and ignorance, and 
 lives according to the spirit, in industry, cleanli- 
 ness, chaste marriage, and knowledge, earthly and 
 heavenly, the length of life and the number of the 
 population begin to increase at once, just as they 
 are doing, thank God ! in England now ; because 
 Englishmen are learning more and more that this 
 earth is God's earth, and that He works it by 
 righteous and infallible laws, and has put them on 
 it to till it and subdue it ; that civilization and 
 industry are the cause of Christ and of God ; and 
 that without them His kingdom will not come, 
 neither will His will be done on earth. 
 
 But now comes a very important question. The 
 
THIRD SEKMON ON THE CHOLERA. 211 
 
 beasts are none the worse for giving way to their 
 flesh and being mere animals. They increase and 
 multiply and are happy enough ; whereas men, if 
 they give way to their flesh and become animals, 
 become fewer and weaker, and stupider, and viler, 
 and more miserable, generation after generation. 
 Why? Because the animals are meant to be 
 animals, and men are not. Men are meant to be 
 men, and conquer their animal nature by the 
 strength which God gives to their spirits. And as 
 long as they do not do so ; as long as they remain 
 savage, sottish, ignorant, they are living in a lie, in 
 a diseased wrong state, just as God did not mean 
 them to live ; and therefore they perish ; therefore 
 these fevers and agues, and choleras, war, starva- 
 tion, tyranny, and all the ills which flesh is heir 
 to, crush them down. Therefore they are at the 
 mercy of the earth beneath their feet, and the skies 
 above their head ; at the mercy of rain and cold ; 
 at the mercy of each other's selfishness, laziness, 
 stupidity, cruelty; in short, at the mercy of the 
 brute material earth, and their own fleshly lusts 
 and the fleshly lusts of others, because they love 
 to walk after the flesh and not after the spirit 
 because they like the likeness of the old Adam who 
 is of the earth earthy, better than that of the new 
 Adam who is the Lord from Heaven because 
 they like to be animals, when Christ has made 
 P2 
 
212 THIRD SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 them in his own image, and redeemed them with 
 His own blood, and taught them with His own 
 example, and made them men. He who will be a 
 man, let him believe that he is redeemed by Christ 
 and must be like Christ in everything he says and 
 does. If he would carry that out, if he would live 
 perfectly by faith in God, if he would do God's 
 will utterly and in all things, he would soon find 
 that those glorious old words still stood true 
 ' Thou shalt not be afraid of the arrow by night, 
 nor of the pestilence which walketh in the noon- 
 day : a thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten 
 thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come 
 nigh thee/ For such a man would know how to 
 defend himself against evil; God would teach 
 him, not only to defend himself, but to defend 
 those around him. He would be like his Lord 
 and Master, a fountain of wisdom and healing and 
 safety to all his neighbours. We might any one 
 of us be that. It is every one's fault more or less 
 that he is not. Each of us who is educated, 
 civilized, converted to the knowledge and love of 
 God, it is his sin and shame that he is not that. 
 Above all, it is the clergyman's sin and shame that 
 he is not. Ay, believe me, when I blame you, I 
 blame myself ten thousand times more. I believe 
 there is many a sin and sorrow from which I might 
 have saved you here, if I had dealt with you more 
 
THIKD SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 213 
 
 as a man should deal who believes that you and I 
 are brothers, made in the same image of God, re- 
 deemed by the same blood of Christ. And I 
 believe that I shall be punished for every neglect 
 of you for which I have been ever guilty. I be- 
 lieve it, and I thank God for it ; for I do not see 
 how a clergyman, or any one else, can learn his 
 duty, except by God's judging him, and punishing 
 him, and setting his sins before his face. 
 
 Yes, my friends, it is good for us to be afflicted, 
 good for us to suffer anything which will teach us 
 this great truth, that we are our brother's keepers ; 
 that we are all one family, and that where one of 
 the members suffers, all the other members suffer 
 with it ; and that if one of the members has cause to 
 rejoice, all the others will have cause to rejoice with 
 it. A blessed thing to know, is that though 
 whether we know it or not, we shall find it true. 
 If we give way to our animal nature, and try to 
 live as the beasts do, each one caring for his own 
 selfish pleasure still we shall find out that we 
 cannot do it. We shall find out, as those Liver- 
 pool people did with the Irish widow, that our 
 fellow-men are our brothers that what hurts them 
 will be sure in some strange indirect way to hurt 
 us. Our brothers here have had the fever, and we 
 have escaped : but we have felt the fruits of it, in 
 our purses in fear, and anxiety, and distress, and 
 
214 THIRD SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 trouble we have found out that they could not 
 have the fever without our suffering for it, more 
 or less. You see we are one family we men and 
 women ; and our relationship will assert itself in 
 spite of our forgetfulness, and our selfishness. 
 How much better to claim our brotherhood with 
 each other, and to act upon it to live as brothers 
 indeed. That would be to make it a blessing, and 
 not a curse ; for as I said before, just because it is 
 in our power to injure each other, therefore it is in 
 our power to help each other. God has bound us 
 together for good and for evil, for better for worse. 
 Oh ! let it be henceforward in this parish for better, 
 and not for worse. Oh ! every one of you, whether 
 you be rich or poor, farmer or labourer, man or 
 woman, do not be ashamed to own yourselves to 
 be brothers and sisters, members of one family, 
 which as it all fell together in the old Adam, so it 
 has all risen together in the new Adam, Jesus 
 Christ. There is no respect of persons with God. 
 We are all equal in His sight. He knows no differ- 
 ence among men, except the difference which God's 
 Spirit gives, in proportion as a man listens to the 
 teaching of that Spirit rank in godliness and true 
 manhood. Oh ! believe that believe that because 
 you owe an infinite debt to Christ and to God, His 
 Father and your Father, therefore you owe an in- 
 finite debt to your neighbours, members of Christ 
 
THIRD SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 215 
 
 and children of God just as you are a debt of 
 love, help, care, which you can pay, just because 
 you are members of one family ; for because you 
 are members of one family, for that very reason 
 every good deed you do for a neighbour, does not 
 stop with that neighbour, but goes on breeding 
 and spreading, and growing and growing, for aught, 
 we know, for ever. Just as each selfish deed we 
 do, each bitter word we speak, each foul example 
 we set, may go on spreading from mouth to mouth, 
 from heart to heart, from parent to child, till we 
 may injure generations yet unborn ; so each noble 
 and self-sacrificing deed we do, each wise and 
 loving word we speak, each example we set of in- 
 dustry and courage, of faith in God, and care for 
 men, may and will spread on from heart to heart, 
 and mouth to mouth, and teach others to do and 
 be the like; till people miles away, who never 
 heard of our names, may have cause to bless us 
 for ever and ever. This is one and only one of 
 the glorious fruits of our being one family. This is 
 one and only one of the reasons which make me 
 say, that it was a good thing mankind was so made, 
 that the innocent suffer for the guilty. For just as 
 the innocent are injured by the guilty in this 
 world, even so are the guilty preserved, and con- 
 verted, and brought back again by the innocent. 
 Just as the sins of the fathers are visited on the 
 children, so is the righteousness of the fathers a 
 
216 THIRD SERMON ON THE CHOLERA. 
 
 blessing to the children ; else, says St. Paul, our 
 children would be unclean, but now they are holy. 
 For the promises of God are not only to us, but to 
 our children, even to as many as the Lord our God 
 shall call. And thus each generation, by growing 
 in virtue and wisdom and the knowledge of God, 
 will help forward all the generations which follow 
 it to fuller light and peace and safety ; and each 
 parent in trying to live like a Christian man him- 
 self, will make it easier for his children to live like 
 Christians after him. And this rule applies even 
 in the things which we are too apt to fancy unim- 
 portant every house kept really clean, every 
 family brought up in habits of neatness and order, 
 every acre of foul land drained, every new improve- 
 ment in agriculture and manufactures or medicine, 
 is a clear gain to all mankind, a good example 
 set which is sure sooner or later to find followers, 
 perhaps among generations yet unborn, and in 
 countries of which we never heard the name. 
 
 Was I not right then in saying that this earth is 
 not the devil's earth at all, but a right good earth 
 of God's making and ruling, wherein no good deed 
 will perish fruitless, but every man's works will 
 follow him a right good earth, governed by a 
 righteous Father, who, as the Psalm says, ' is 
 merciful/ just ' because He rewards every man 
 according to his work/ 
 
UNIVERSITY' OF 
 
 CALIFORNIA, 
 
 XVI. 
 
 ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 
 
 Nov. 15th, 1849. 
 
 LUKE vii. 16. 
 God hath visited his people. 
 
 TTTE are assembled this day to thank God 
 ' solemnly for the passing away of the cholera 
 from England ; and we must surely not forget to 
 thank Him at the same time for the passing away 
 of the fever, which has caused so much expense, 
 sorrow, and death among us. Now I wish to say 
 a very few words to you on this same matter, to 
 show you not only how to be thankful to God, 
 but what to be thankful for. You may say, It is 
 easy enough for us to know what to thank God for 
 in this case. We come to thank Him, as we have 
 just said in the public prayers, for having with- 
 drawn this heavy visitation from us. If so, my 
 friends, what we shall thank him for depends on 
 what we mean by talking of a visitation from God. 
 Now I do not know what people may think in this 
 parish, but I suspect that very many all over Eng- 
 land do not know what to thank God for just now ; 
 
218 ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 
 
 and are altogether thanking him for the wrong thing 
 for a thing which, very happily for them He has 
 not done for them, and which, if He had done it 
 for them, would have been worse for them than all 
 the evil which ever happened to them from their 
 youth up until now. To be plain then, many, I 
 am afraid, are thanking God for having gone 
 away and left them. While the cholera was 
 here, they said that God was visiting them ; and 
 now that the cholera is over, they consider that 
 God's visit is over too, and are joyful and light of 
 heart thereat. If God's visit is over, my friends, 
 and He is gone away from us ; if He is not just as 
 near us now as He was in the height of the cholera, 
 the best thing we can do is to turn to Him with 
 fasting, and weeping, and mourning, and roll our- 
 selves in the dust, and instead of thanking our 
 Father for going away, pray to Him, of His infinite 
 mercy, to condescend to come back again and visit 
 us, even though, as superstitious and ignorant men 
 believe, God's visiting us were sure to bring cholera, 
 or plague, or pestilence, or famine, or some other 
 misery. For I read, that in His presence is life 
 and not death at His right hand is fulness of joy, 
 and not tribulation and mourning and woe ; but if 
 not, it were better to be with God in everlasting 
 agony, than to be in everlasting happiness without 
 God. 
 
ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 219 
 
 Here is a strange confusion ! people talking 
 one moment like St. Paul himself, desiring to be 
 with Christ and God for ever, and then in the 
 same breath talking like the Gadarenes of old, 
 when, after Christ had visited them, and judged 
 their sins by driving their unlawful herd of swine 
 into the sea, they answered by beseeching Him to 
 depart out of their coasts. 
 
 Why is this confusion ? Because people do not 
 take the trouble to read their Bibles; because 
 tey bring their own loose, careless, cant notions 
 with them when they open their Bibles, and settle 
 beforehand what the Bible is to tell them, and 
 then pick and twist texts till they make them 
 mean just what they like and no more. There 
 is no folly, or filth, or tyranny, or blasphemy, 
 which men have not defended out of the Bible 
 by twisting it in this way. The Bible is better 
 written than that, my friends. He that runs 
 may read, if he has sense to read. The way- 
 faring man, though simple, shall make no such 
 mistake therein, if he has God's Spirit in him, 
 the spirit of faith, which believes that the Bible 
 is God's message to men the humble spirit, which 
 is willing to listen to that message, however strange 
 or new it may seem to him the earnest spirit, 
 which reads the Bible really to know what a man 
 shall do to be saved. Look at your Bibles thus, 
 
220 ON THE DAY OE THANKSGIVING. 
 
 my friends, about this matter. Read all the texts 
 which speak of God's visiting and God's visitation, 
 and you will find all the confusion and strange- 
 ness vanish away. For see ! The Bible talks of 
 the Lord visiting people in his wrath visiting 
 them for their sins visiting them with sore plagues 
 and punishments, about forty times. But the 
 Bible speaks very nearly as often of God's visiting 
 people to bring them blessings and not punish- 
 ments. The Bible says God visited Sarah and 
 Hannah to give them what they most desired 
 children. God visited the people of Israel in 
 Egypt to deliver them out of slavery. In the 
 book of Ruth we read how the Lord visited His 
 people in giving them bread. The Psalmist, in the 
 captivity at Babylon, prays God to visit him with 
 His salvation. The Prophet Jeremiah says that 
 it was a sign of God's anger against the Jews that 
 He had not visited them ; and the prophets pro- 
 mised again and again to their countrymen, how, 
 after their seventy years' captivity in Babylon, 
 the Lord would visit them, and what for? To 
 bring them back into their own land with joy, 
 and heap them with every blessing peace and 
 wealth, freedom and righteousness. So it is in 
 the New Testament too. Zacharias praised God, 
 c Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath 
 visited and redeemed His people ; through the 
 
ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 221 
 
 tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring 
 from on high hath visited us/ And that was the 
 reason why I chose Luke vii. 16, for my text 
 only because it is an example of the same thing. 
 The people, it says, praised God, saying, c A great 
 Prophet is risen up among us, and God has visited 
 his people/ And in the I4th of Acts we read how 
 God visited the Gentiles, not to punish them, but 
 to take out of them a people for His name, 
 namely, Cornelius and his household. And lastly, 
 St. Peter tells Christian people to glorify God in 
 the day of visitation, as I tell you now whether 
 His visitation comes in the shape of cholera, 
 or fever, or agricultural distress ; or whether 
 it comes in the shape of sanitary reform, and 
 plenty of work, and activity in commerce ; whether 
 it seems to you good or evil, glorify God for it. 
 Thank Him for it. Bless Him for it. Whether 
 His visitation brings joy or sorrow, it surely 
 brings a blessing with it. Whether God visits 
 in wrath or in love, still God visits. God shows 
 that He lives ; God shows us that He has not 
 forgotten us; God shows us that He is near 
 us. Christ shows us that His words are true, 
 * Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of 
 the world/ 
 
 That is a hard lesson to learn and practise, 
 though not a very difficult one to understand. I 
 
222 ON THE DAY OE THANKSGIVING* 
 
 will try now to make you understand it God 
 alone can teach you to practise it. I pray and 
 hope, and I believe too, that He will that these 
 very hard times are meant to teach people really 
 to believe in God and Jesus Christ, and that they 
 will teach people. God knows we need, and thanks 
 be to Him that He does know that we need, to be 
 taught to believe in Him. Nothing shows it to me 
 more plainly than the way we talk about God's 
 visitations, as if God was usually away from us, 
 and came to us on]y just now and then only on 
 extraordinary occasions. People have gross, hea- 
 then, fleshly, materialist notions of God's visitations, 
 as if He was some great earthly king who now and 
 then made a journey about his dominions from 
 place to place, rewarding some and punishing 
 others. God is not in any place, my friends. God 
 is a Spirit. The heaven and the heaven of heavens 
 could not contain Him if He wanted a place to be 
 in, as, glory be to His name, He does not. If He 
 is near us or far from us, it is not that He is near 
 or far from our bodies, as the Queen might be 
 nearer to us in London than in Scotland, which is 
 most people's notion of God's nearness. He is 
 near, not our bodies, but our spirits, our souls, our 
 hearts, our thoughts as it is written, 'The king- 
 dom of God is within you/ Do not fancy that 
 when the cholera was in India, God was nearer 
 
ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 223 
 
 India than He was to England, and that as the 
 cholera crawled nearer and nearer, God came 
 nearer and nearer too ; and that now the cholera 
 is gone away somewhere or other, God is gone 
 away somewhere or other too, to leave us to our 
 own inventions. God forbid a thousand times ! 
 as St. Paul says, ' He is not far from any one of 
 us/ ' In Him we live and move and have our 
 being/ cholera or none. Do you think Christ, the 
 King of the earth, is gone away either that while 
 things go on rightly, and governments, and clergy, 
 and people do right, Christ is there then, filling 
 them all with His Spirit and guiding them all to 
 their duty ; but that when evil times come, and 
 rulers are idle, and clergy dumb dogs, and the 
 rich tyrannous, and the poor profligate, and men 
 are crying for work and cannot get it, and every 
 man's hand is against his fellow, and no one 
 knows what to do or think; and on earth is 
 distress of nations with perplexity, men's hearts 
 failing them for fear, and for dread of those things 
 which are coming on the earth do you think 
 that in such times as those, Christ is the least 
 further off from us than He was at the best of 
 times ? The least further off from us now than He 
 was from the apostles at the first Whitsuntide ? 
 God forbid ! God forbid a thousand times ! He 
 has promised Himself, He that is faithful and true, 
 
224 ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 
 
 He that will never deny Himself, though men 
 deny Him, and say He is not here, because their 
 eyes are blinded with love of the world, and 
 covetousness and bigotry, and dread lest He, their 
 Master, should come and find them beating the 
 men-servants and maid-servants, and eating and 
 drinking with the drunken in the high places of the 
 earth, and saying, 'Tush! God hath forgotten it' 
 Ay, though men have forgotten Him thus, and 
 worse than thus, yet He hath said it c Lo, I am 
 with you always, even unto the end of the 
 world/ Why, evil times are the very times of 
 which Christ used to speak as the 'days of the 
 Lord/ and the ( days of the Son of man/ Times 
 when we hear of wars and rumours of wars, 
 and on earth distress of nations with perplexity 
 what does He tell men to do in them ? To go 
 whining about, and say that Christ has left His 
 church ? No ! ' Then/ He says, ' when all these 
 things come to pass, then rejoice and lift up your 
 heads, for your redemption draweth nigh/ 
 
 And yet the Scripture does most certainly speak 
 of the Lord's coming out of His place to visit of 
 the Son of Man coming, and not coming to men 
 of His visiting us at one time and not at another, 
 How does that agree with what I have just said ? 
 My dear friends, we shall see that it agrees per- 
 fectly with what I have said, if we will only just 
 
ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 225 
 
 remember that \ve are not beasts, but men. It may 
 seem a strange thing to have to remind people of, 
 but it is just what they are always forgetting. My 
 friends, we are not animals, we are not spiders to 
 do nothing but spin, or birds only to build nests 
 for ourselves, much less swine to do nothing but dig 
 after roots and fruits, and get what we can out of 
 the clods of the ground. We are the children of 
 the Most High God ; we have immortal souls 
 within us ; nay, more, we are our souls : our bodies 
 are our husk our shell our clothes our house 
 changing day by day, and year by year upon us, 
 one day to drop off us till the Resurrection. But 
 we are our souls, and when God visits, it is our 
 souls He visits, not merely our bodies. There is 
 the whole secret. People forget God, and there- 
 fore they are glad to fancy that He has forgotten 
 them, and has nothing to do with this world of His 
 which they are misusing for their own selfish ends ; 
 and then God in His mercy visits them. He knocks 
 at the door of their hearts, saying, ( See ! I was close 
 to you all the while/ He forces them to see Him 
 and to confess that He is there whether they choose 
 or not. God is not away from the wor]d. He is 
 away from people's hearts, because He has given 
 people free wills, and with free wills the power of 
 keeping Him out of their hearts or letting Him in. 
 And when God visits .He forces Himself on our 
 I Q 
 
226 ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 
 
 attention. He knocks at the door of our hard 
 hearts so loudly and sharply that He forces all to 
 confess that He is there all who are not utterly 
 reprobate and spiritually dead. In blessings as 
 well as in curses, God knocks at our hearts. By 
 sudden good fortune, as well as by sudden mishap ; 
 by a great deliverance from enemies, by an abun- 
 dant harvest, as well as by famine and pestilence. 
 Therefore this cholera has been a true visitation 
 of God. The poor had fancied that they might be 
 as dirty, the rich had fancied that they might be as 
 careless, as they chose ; in short, that they might 
 break God's laws of cleanliness and brotherly care 
 without His troubling Himself about the matter. 
 And lo ! He has visited us ; and shown us that 
 He does care about the matter by taking it into 
 His own hands with a vengeance. He who cannot 
 see God's hand in the cholera must be as blind 
 as blind as who ? as blind as he that cannot see 
 God's hand when there is no cholera ; as blind as 
 he who cannot see God's hand in every meal he 
 eats, and every breath he draws ; for that man is 
 stone blind he can be no blinder. The cholera 
 came ; every one ought to see that it did not 
 come by blind chance, but by the will of some 
 wise and righteous Person ; for in the first place 
 God gave us fair warning. The cholera came 
 from India at a steady pace. We knew to a month 
 
ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 227 
 
 when it would arrive here. And it came, too, by 
 no blind necessity, as if it was forced to take 
 people whether it liked or not. Just as it was in 
 the fever here, so it was in the cholera, ' One shall 
 be taken and another left/ It took one of a street 
 and left another ; took one person in a family and 
 left another : it took the rich man who fancied he 
 was sate, as well as the poor man who did not care 
 whether he was safe or not. The respectable man 
 walking home to his comfortable house, passed by 
 some untrapped drain, and then poisonous gas 
 struck him and he died. The rich physician who 
 had been curing others, could not save himself 
 from the poison of the crowded graveyard which 
 had been allowed to remain at the back of his 
 house. By all sorts of strange and unfathomable 
 judgments the cholera showed itself to be working, 
 not by a blind necessity, but at the will of a 
 thinking Person, of a living God, whose ways are 
 not as our own ways, and His paths are in the great 
 deep. And yet the cholera showed and this is what 
 I want to make you feel that it was working at the 
 will of the same God in whom we live and move 
 and have our being, who sends the food we eat, 
 the water in which we wash, the air we breathe, 
 and who has ordained for all these things natural 
 laws, according to which they work, and which He 
 never breaks, nor allows us to break them. For 
 Q2 
 
228 ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 
 
 every case of cholera could be traced to some 
 breaking of these laws foul air foul food foul 
 water, or careless and dirty contact with infected 
 persons ; so that by this God showed that He and 
 not chance ruled the world, and that he was indeed 
 the living and willing God. He showed at the 
 same time that He was the wise God of order and 
 of law ; and that gas and earth, wind and vapour, 
 fulfil His word, without His having to break His 
 laws, or visit us by moving, as people fancy, out of 
 a Heaven where He was, down to an earth, where 
 He was not. 
 
 But, lastly, remember what I told you before, 
 that the cholera being a visitation means that God, 
 by it, has been visiting our hearts, knocking loudly 
 at them that He may awaken us, and teach us a 
 lesson. And be sure that in the cholera, and this 
 our own parish fever, there is a lesson for each and 
 every one of us if we will learn it. To the simple 
 poor man, first and foremost, God means by the 
 cholera to teach the simple lesson of cleanliness ; 
 to the house-owner He means to teach that each 
 man is his brother's keeper, and responsible for his 
 property not being a nest of disease ; to rulers it 
 is intended to teach the lesson that God's laws 
 cannot be put off to suit their laziness, cowardice, 
 or party squabbles. But beside that, to each per- 
 son, be sure such a visitation as this brings some 
 
ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 229 
 
 private lesson. Perhaps it has taught many a 
 widow that she has a Friend stronger and more 
 loving than even the husband whom she has lost 
 by the pestilence the God of the widow and the 
 fatherless. Perhaps it has taught many a strong 
 man not to trust in his strength and his youth, but 
 in the God who gave them to him. Perhaps it. 
 has taught many a man, too, who has expected 
 public authorities to do everything for him, ' not 
 to put his trust in princes, nor in any child of 
 man, for there is no help in them/ but to hear 
 God's advice, 'Help thyself and God will help 
 thee/ Perhaps it has stirred up many a benevo- 
 lent man to find out fresh means for rooting out 
 the miseries of society. Perhaps it has taught 
 many a philosopher new deep truths about the 
 laws of God's world, which may enable him to 
 enlighten and comfort ages yet unborn. Perhaps 
 it has awakened many a slumbering heart, and 
 brought many a careless sinner (for the first time 
 in his life) face to face with God and his own sins. 
 God's judgments are manifold ; they are meant to 
 work in different ways on different hearts. But 
 oh ! believe and be sure that they are meant to 
 work upon all hearts that they arej not the pu- 
 nishments of a capricious tyrant, but the rod of a 
 loving Father, who is trying to drive us home into 
 His fold, when gentle entreaties and kind deeds 
 
230 ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 
 
 have failed to allure us home. Oh ! my friends, if 
 you wish really to thank God for having preserved 
 you from these pestilences, show your thankfulness 
 by learning the lesson which they bring. God's 
 love has spoken of each and every one of us in the 
 cholera. Be sure He has spoken so harshly only 
 because a gentler tone of voice would have had 
 no effect upon us. Thank Him for His severity. 
 Thank Him for the cholera, the fever. Thank 
 Him for anything which will awaken us to hear 
 the Word of the Lord. But till you have learnt 
 the lessons which these visitations are meant to 
 teach you, there is no use thanking Him for taking 
 them away. And therefore I beseech you solemnly, 
 each and all, before you leave this church, now to 
 pray to God to show you what lesson He means to 
 teach you by this past awful visitation, and also 
 by sparing you and me who are here present, not 
 merely from cholera and fever, but from a thou- 
 sand mishaps and evils, which we have deserved, 
 and from which only His goodness has kept us. 
 may God stir up your hearts to ask advice of 
 Him this day ; and may He in His great mercy so 
 teach us all His will on this day of joy, that we 
 may not need to have it taught us hereafter on 
 some day of sorrow. 
 
XVII. 
 THE COVENANT. 
 
 PSALM cxxxv. 4, 5, 6. 
 
 The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his 
 own possession. For I know that the Lord is great, and that 
 our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, 
 that did he in heaven and earth, and in the sea, and in all 
 deep places. 
 
 TTTEKE you ever puzzled to find out why the 
 Psalms are read every Sunday in Church, 
 more read, indeed, than any other part of the 
 Bible ? If any of you say, No, I shall not think you 
 the wiser. It is very easy not to be puzzled with 
 a deep matter, if one never thinks about it at all. 
 But when a man sets his mind to work seriously, 
 to try to understand what he hears and sees around 
 him, then he will be puzzled, and no shame to him ; 
 for he will find things every day of his life which 
 will require years of thought to understand, ay, 
 things which, though we see and know that they 
 are true, and can use and profit by them, we can 
 never understand at all, at least in this life. 
 
 But I do not think that God meant it to be so 
 
232 THE COVENANT. 
 
 with these Psalms. He meant the Bible for a poor 
 man's book : and therefore the men who wrote the 
 Bible were almost all of them poor men, at least 
 at one time or other of their life ; and therefore 
 we may expect that they would write as poor men 
 would write, and such things as poor men may 
 understand, if they are fairly and simply explained. 
 Therefore I do not think you need be puzzled long 
 to find out why these Psalms are read every Sun- 
 day, For the men who wrote them had God's 
 spirit with them ; and God's spirit is the spirit in 
 which God made and governs this world, and just 
 as God cannot change, so God's spirit cannot 
 change ; and therefore the rules and laws according 
 to which the world runs on cannot change ; and 
 therefore these rules about God's government of 
 the world, which God's spirit taught the old Hebrew 
 Psalmists, are the very same rules by which He 
 governs it now ; and therefore all the rules in 
 these Psalms, making allowance for the difference 
 of circumstances, have just as much to do with 
 France, and Germany, and England now, as they 
 had with the Jews, and the Canaanites, and the 
 Babylonians then. 
 
 St. Paul tells us so. He tells us that all that 
 happened to the old Jews was written as an ex- 
 ample to Christians, to the intent that they might 
 
^/ 
 
 PTHE COVE^AOT. <J / 
 -/ L- 7 
 
 not sin as the Jews did> and so (Goffs laws W|* + 
 ways being the same now as thr/) be punished as 
 the Jews were. Moreover, St. ratijr /ays, tiiaV, 
 Christians now are just as much God"*, Chosen ' 
 people as the Jews were. God told the Jews th&t 
 they were to be a nation of kings and priests to 
 Him. And St. John opens the Revelations by - 
 saying, ' Unto him that loved us and washed us 
 from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us 
 kings and priests unto God and His Father, to 
 Him be glory/ St. Paul tells the Ephesians, who 
 had not a drop of Jewish blood in their veins, that 
 through Jesus Christ both Jews and Gentiles had 
 c access by one spirit unto the Father. Now there- 
 fore/ he goes on, ' ye are no more strangers and 
 foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and 
 of the household of God/ In fact, he tells the 
 Christians of every country to which he writes, that 
 all the promises which God made to the Jews be- 
 longed to them just as much, that there was no 
 more any difference between Jew and Gentile, 
 that the Lord Jesus Christ was just as really 
 among them, and with them, ruling and helping 
 each people in their own country, as He was in 
 Jerusalem when Isaiah saw His glory filling the 
 Temple, and when Zion was called the place of 
 His inheritance. Indeed, the Lord Jesus said the 
 
234 THE COVENANT. 
 
 same thing Himself, for He said that all power 
 was given to Him in heaven and earth ; that He 
 was with His churches (that is, with all companies 
 of Christian people, such as England) even to the 
 end of the world ; that wherever two or three 
 were gathered together in His name, He would be 
 in the midst of them ; and if those blessed words 
 and good news be true, we Englishmen have a 
 right to believe firmly that we belong to Him just as 
 much as the old Jews did ; and when we read these 
 Psalms, to take every word of their good news and 
 their warnings also, to ourselves, and to our own 
 land of England. And when we read in the text, 
 that the Lord chose Jacob unto himself and Israel 
 for his own possession, we have a right to say, 
 ' And the Lord has chosen also England unto 
 himself, and this favoured land of Britain for his 
 own possession/ When we say in the Psalm, 
 ' The Lord did what He pleased in heaven, and 
 earth, and sea/ to educate and deliver the people 
 of the Jews, we have a right to say just as boldly 
 c And so He has done for England, for us, and 
 for our forefathers/ 
 
 This then is the reason, the chief reason, why 
 these Psalms are appointed to be read every Sun- 
 day in Church, and every morning and evening 
 where there is daily service to teach us that the 
 
THE COVENANT. 235 
 
 Lord takes care not only of one man's soul here, 
 and another woman's soul there, but of the whole 
 country of England ; of its wars and its peace ; of 
 its laws and government, its progress and its afflic- 
 tions; of all, in short, that happens to it as a 
 nation, as one body of men, which it is. It must 
 be so, my good friends, else we should be worse off 
 than the old Jews, and not better off, as all the 
 New Testament solemnly assures us a thousand 
 times over that we are. 
 
 For in the covenant which God made with the 
 Jews, and in the strange events, good and bad, 
 which He caused to happen to their nation, not 
 only the great saints among them were taken care 
 of, but all classes, and all characters, good and 
 bad, even those who had not wisdom or spiritual 
 life enough to seek God for themselves, still had 
 their share in the good laws, in the teaching and 
 guiding, and in the national blessings which He 
 sent on the whole nation. They had a chance 
 given them of rising, and improving, and prosper- 
 ing, as the rest of their countrymen rose, and im- 
 proved, and prospered. And when the Lord came 
 to visit Judaea in flesh and blood, we find that He 
 went on the same method. He did not merely go 
 to such men as Philip and Nathaniel, to the holy 
 and elect ones among the Jews, but to the whole 
 
236 THE COVENANT. 
 
 people ; to the lost sheep, as well as to those who 
 were not lost. He did not part the good from the 
 bad before he healed their sicknesses, and fed them 
 with the loaves and fishes. It was enough for Him 
 that they were Jews, citizens of the Jewish nation. 
 God's promises belonged not to one Jew or another, 
 but to the Jewish nation ; and even the ignorant 
 and the sinful had a share in the blessings of the 
 covenant, great or small, in proportion as they 
 chose to live as Jews ought, or to forget and deny 
 that they belonged to God's people. 
 
 Now, surely the Lord cannot be less merciful 
 now than he was then. He cannot care less for 
 poor orphans, and paupers, and wild untaught 
 creatures, in England now, than he cared for them 
 in Judaea of old. And we see that in fact He does 
 not. For as the wealth of England improves, and 
 the laws improve, and the knowledge of God im- 
 proves, the condition of all sorts of poor creatures 
 improves too, though they had no share in bringing 
 about the good change. But we are all members 
 of one body, from the Queen on her throne to the 
 tramper under the hedge ; and as St. Paul says, 
 'If one member suffer, all the members suffer 
 with it, and if one member rejoice, all the others' 
 sooner or later 'rejoice with it/ For we, too, are 
 one of the Lord's nations. He has made us one 
 
THE COVENANT. 237 
 
 body, with one common language, common laws, 
 common interest, common religion for all; and 
 what He does for one of us, He does for all. He 
 orders all that happens to us ; whether it be war 
 or peace, prosperity or dearth, He orders it all ; 
 and He orders things so, that they shall work for 
 the good, not merely of a few, but of as many as 
 possible not merely for His elect, but for those 
 who know Him not. As He has been from the 
 beginning, when He heaped blessings on the stiff- 
 necked and backsliding Israelites as He was 
 when He endured the cross for a world lying not 
 in obedience, but in wickedness ; so is He now ; the 
 perfect likeness of His Father, who is no respecter 
 of persons, but causes ' His sun to shine alike on 
 the evil and on the good, and His rain to fall on 
 the just and on the unjust/ 
 
 But now, there is one thing against which I have 
 to warn you most solemnly, and especially in such 
 days as these. You may believe my words to your 
 own ruin, or to your own salvation. They are ' The 
 Gospel/ ' The good news of the Kingdom of God/ 
 that is, the good news that God has condescended 
 to become our King, to govern and guide us, to 
 order all things for our good. But as St. Paul 
 says, the Gospel may be a savour of death unto 
 death, as well as a savour of life unto life. And 
 
238 THE COVENANT. 
 
 I will tell you now; that you have only to do what 
 the Jews just before the coming of our Lord did, 
 and give way to the same thoughts as they, and 
 then, like them, it were better for you that you had 
 never heard of God, and been like the savages, to 
 whom little or no sin is imputed, because they are 
 all but without law. How is this ? 
 
 As I said before. Take your covenant privi- 
 leges as the Pharisees took theirs, and they will 
 turn you into devils while you are fancying your- 
 selves God's especial favourites. Now this was 
 what happened to the Pharisees : they could not 
 help knowing that God had shown especial favour 
 to them ; and that He had taught them more 
 about God than He had taught the heathen. But 
 instead of feeling all the more humble and thank- 
 ful for this, and of remembering day and night 
 that because much had been given to them much 
 would be required of them, they thought more 
 about the honour and glory which God had put on 
 them. They forgot what God had declared, namely, 
 that it was not for their own goodness that He had 
 taught them, for that they were in themselves not 
 a whit better than the heathen around them. 
 They forgot that the reason why He taught them 
 was, that they were to do His work on earth, by 
 witnessing for His name, and telling the heathen 
 
THE COVENANT. 239 
 
 that God was their Lord, as well as Lord of the 
 Jews. Now David, and the old Psalmists and 
 Prophets, did not forget this. Their cry is, ' Tell it 
 out among the heathen that the Lord is King/ 
 ' Worship the Son of God, ye kings of the earth, 
 and make your peace with Him lest He be angry/ 
 c It was in vain/ he told the heathen kings, c to try 
 to cast away God's government from them, and 
 break His bonds from off them/ for c The Lord was 
 King, let the nations be never so unquiet/ 
 
 But the Jews gradually forgot this, and their 
 daily boast was, That God had nothing to do with 
 the heathen ; that He did not care for them, and 
 actually hated them ; that they, as it were, had the 
 true God all to themselves for their own private 
 property ; and that He had neither love nor mercy, 
 except for them and their proselytes, that is, the 
 few heathens whom they could persuade and entice 
 not to worship the true God after the customs of 
 their own country that would not have suited the 
 Jews' bigotry and pride but to turn Jews, and 
 forget their own people among whom they were 
 born, and ape them in everything. And so, as 
 our Lord told them, after compassing sea and land 
 to make one of these proselytes, they only made 
 him after all twice as much the child of hell as 
 themselves. For they could not teach the heathen 
 
 
240 THE COVENANT. 
 
 anything worth knowing about God, when they 
 had forgotten themselves what God was like. 
 They could tell them that there was one God, and 
 not two but what was the use of that? As St. 
 James says, the devils believe as much as that, and 
 yet the knowledge does not make them holy, but 
 only increases their fear and despair. And so with 
 these Pharisees. They had forgotten that God 
 was love. They had forgotten that God was 
 merciful. They had forgotten that God was just. 
 And therefore, while they were talking of God 
 and pretending to worship God, they knew nothing 
 of God, and they did not do God's will, and act 
 like God ; for (as we find from the Gospels) they 
 were unjust, tyrannous, proud, conceited, covetous 
 themselves ; and while they were looking down on 
 the poor heathens, these very heathens, the Lord 
 told them, would rise up in judgment against 
 them : for they, knowing little, acted up to the 
 light which they had, better than the Pharisees 
 who knew so much. And so it will be with us, my 
 friends, if we fancy that God's great favours to us 
 are a reason for our priding ourselves on them, 
 'and despising Papists and foreigners instead of re- 
 membering that just because God has given us so 
 much, He will require more of us. It is true, we ; 
 do know more of the Gospel than the Papists, who, 
 
THE COVENANT. 241 
 
 though they believe in Jesus Christ, worship the 
 Virgin Mary and the Saints, and idols of wood and 
 stone. But if they, who know so little of God's will, 
 yet act faithfully up to what they do know, will they 
 not rise up in judgment against us, who know so 
 much more, if we act worse than they ? Instead of 
 despising them, we had better despise ourselves. In- 
 stead of fancying that God's love is not over them, 
 and so sinning against God's Holy Spirit, by deny- 
 ing and despising the fruits of God's Holy Spirit 
 in them, we had much better, we Protestants, be re- 
 penting of our own sins. We had better pray God 
 to open our eyes to our own want of faith, and want 
 of love, and want of honesty, and want of cleanly 
 and chaste lives; lest God in his anger should 
 let us go on in our evil path, till we fall into the 
 deep darkness of mind of the Pharisees of old. For 
 then, while we were boasting of England as the 
 most Christian nation in the world, we might 
 become the most unchristian, because the most 
 unlike Christ ; the most wanting in love and 
 fellow-feeling, and self-sacrifice, and honour, and 
 justice, and honesty ; wanting, in short, in the 
 fruits of the Spirit. And without them there 
 is no use crying, { We are God's chosen people, 
 He has put His name among us, we alone hate 
 idols, we alone have the pure word of God, and 
 
 I R 
 
242 THE COVENANT. 
 
 the pure sacraments, and the pure doctrine :' 
 for God may answer us, as He answered the 
 Jews of old, ( Think not to say within yourselves, 
 We have Abraham for our father : Verily, I say 
 unto you, God is able of these stones to raise up 
 children to Abraham/ . . . e The Kingdom of 
 God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation 
 bringing forth the fruits thereof/ Oh ! my friends, 
 let us pray, one and all, that God will come and 
 help us, and with great might succour us, ' that 
 whereas through our sins and wickedness we are 
 sore let and hindered in running the race set before 
 us, God's bountiful grace and mercy may speedily 
 help and deliver us/ and enable us to live faith- 
 fully up to the glorious privileges which He has 
 bestowed on us, in calling us c members of Christ, 
 children of God, and inheritors of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven / in giving us His Bible, in allowing us 
 to be born into this favoured land of England, in 
 preserving us to this day, in spite of all that we 
 have thought, and said, and done, unworthy of the 
 name of Christians and Englishmen. 
 
 And then, we may be certain that God will also 
 fulfil to us the glorious promises which we find in 
 another Psalm: 'If thy children will keep my 
 covenant and my testimonies, which I shall learn 
 them, this land shall be my rest for ever. Here 
 
THE COVENANT. 243 
 
 will I dwell, for I have a delight therein. I will 
 bless her victuals with increase, and satisfy her 
 poor with bread. I will deck her priests with 
 health, and her holy people shall rejoice and 
 sing/ 
 
 K 2 
 
XVIII. 
 
 NATIONAL REWARDS AND 
 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 EZEKIEL XX. 32, 33, 38. 
 
 And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all ; that 
 ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the 
 countries, to serve wood and stone. As I live, saith the Lord 
 God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, 
 and with fury poured out, will I rule over you * * * 
 And ye shall know that I am the Lord. 
 
 A FATHER has two ways of showing his love 
 to his child, by caressing it, and by punish- 
 ing it. His very anger may be a sign of his love, 
 and ought to be. Just because he loves his child, 
 just because the thing he longs most to see is that 
 his child should grow up good, therefore he must 
 be, and ought to be, angry with it when it does 
 wrong. Therefore anger against sin is a part of 
 God's likeness in us ; and he who does not hate 
 sin is not like God. For if sin is the worst evil 
 perhaps the only real evil in the world and the 
 end of all sin is death and misery, then to indulge 
 people in sin is to show them the very worst of 
 cruelty. 
 
NATIONAL KEWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 245 
 
 To sit by and see iniquity going on without try- 
 ing to stop it, is mere laziness. The parent, when 
 his child does wrong, does not show his love to the 
 child by indulging it, all he shows is, that he him- 
 self is carnal and fleshly ; that he does not like to 
 take the trouble of punishing it or does not like to 
 give himself the pain of punishing it ; that, in - 
 short, he had sooner let his child grow up in bad 
 habits, which must lead to its misery and ruin for 
 years and years, if not for ever, than make himself 
 uncomfortable by seeing it uncomfortable for a few 
 minutes. That is not love, but selfishness. True 
 love is as determined to punish the sin as it is to 
 forgive the sinner. Therefore, St. Paul tells us, 
 that we can be angry without sinning ; that is, that 
 there is an anger which comes from hatred of sin 
 and love to the sinner. Therefore, Solomon tells 
 us to punish our children when they do wrong, and 
 not to hold our hands for their crying. It is 
 better for them that they should cry a little now, 
 than have long years of shame and sorrow here- 
 after. Therefore, in all countries which are pro- 
 perly governed, the law punishes in the name of 
 God those who break the laws of God, and punishes 
 them even with death, for certain crimes ; because 
 it is expedient that one man die for the people, 
 and that the whole nation perish not. 
 
 And this is God's way of dealing with each and 
 
246 NATIONAL REWARDS 
 
 every one of us. This is God's way of dealing with 
 Christian nations, just as it was His way of deal- 
 ing with the Jews of old. He never allowed the 
 Jews to prosper in sin. He punished them at once 
 and sternly whenever they rebelled against Him ; 
 not because He hated them, but because He loved 
 them. His love to them showed itself whenever 
 they went well with Him, in triumphs and bless- 
 ings ; and when they rebelled against Him, and 
 broke His laws, He showed that very same love to 
 them in plague, and war and famine, and a mighty 
 hand, and fury poured out. His love had not 
 changed, they had changed; and now the best 
 and only way of showing His love to them, was by 
 making them feel His anger ; and the best and 
 only way of being merciful to them, was to show 
 them no indulgence. 
 
 Now the wish of the Jews all along, and espe- 
 cially in Ezekiel's time, was to be like the heathen 
 like the nations round them. They said to 
 themselves, ' These heathen worship idols, and yet 
 prosper very well. Their having gods of wood and 
 stone, and their indulging their passions, and being 
 profligate and filthy, covetous, unjust, and tyran- 
 nical, does not prevent their being just as happy 
 as we are, ay, and a great deal happier. They 
 have no strict law of Moses, as we have, threaten- 
 ing us, and keeping us in awe, and making us 
 
AND PUNISHMENTS. 247 
 
 uncomfortable, and telling us at every turn, e Thou 
 shalt not do this pleasant thing, and thou shalt not 
 do that pleasant thing. And yet God does not 
 punish them, as Moses' law says He will punish 
 us. These Assyrians and Babylonians above all 
 they are stronger than we, and richer, and better 
 clothed, and cleverer ; they have horses and 
 chariots, and all sorts of luxuries and comforts 
 which we Jews cannot get. Instead of being- 
 like us, in continual trouble from earthquakes, 
 and drought, and famine, and war, attacked, 
 plundered by all the nations round us, one after 
 another, they go on conqueriog, and spreading, 
 and succeeding in all they lay their hand to. Look 
 at Babylon/ said these foolish Jews perhaps to 
 themselves, ' a few generations ago, it was nothing 
 of a city ; and now it is the greatest, richest, and 
 strongest nation in the whole world. God has not 
 punished it for worshipping gods of wood and 
 stone, why should He punish us? These Baby- 
 lonians have prospered well enough with their 
 gods, why should not we? Perhaps it is these 
 very gods of wood and stone who have helped 
 them to become so great. Why should they not 
 help us ? We will worship them, then, and pray 
 to them. We will not give up worshipping our 
 own God, of course, lest we should offend Him : 
 but we will worship Him and the Babylonian idols 
 
248 NATIONAL REWARDS 
 
 at the same time ; then we shall be sure to be 
 right if we have Jehovah and the idols both on our 
 side/ So said the Jews to themselves. But what 
 did Ezekiel answer them? 'Not so, my foolish 
 countrymen/ said he, ( God will not have it so ; 
 He has taught you that these Babylonian idols are 
 nothing and cannot help you ; He has taught you 
 that He can and will help you, that He can and 
 will be everything to you ; He has taught you that 
 He alone is God, who made heaven and earth, who 
 orders all things therein, who alone gives any people 
 power to get wealth ; and He will not have you go 
 back and fall from that for any appearances or 
 arguments whatsoever, because it is true. He 
 has chosen you to witness to these heathen about 
 Him ; to declare His name to them, that they may 
 give up their idols and serve the true God, in whom 
 alone is strength. He chose you to be these hea- 
 thens' teachers, and He will not let you become 
 their scholars. He meant the heathen to copy you, 
 and He will not let you copy them. If He does, 
 in His love and mercy, let these poor heathen 
 prosper in spite of their idols, what is that to you ? 
 It is still the Lord who makes them prosper, and 
 not the idols, whether they know it or not. They 
 know no better, and He will not impute sin to 
 them where He has given them no law. But you 
 do know better ; by a thousand mighty signs and 
 
AND PUNISHMENTS. 249 
 
 wonders and deliverances, the Lord has been 
 teaching you ever since you came up through the 
 Red Sea, that He is all-sufficient for you, that all 
 power is His in heaven and earth. He has pro- 
 mised to you, and sworn to you by Himself, that 
 if you keep His law and walk in His command- 
 ments, you shall want no manner of good thing ; 
 that you shall have no cause to envy these heathen 
 their riches and prosperity, for the Lord will bless 
 you in house and land, by day and night, at home 
 and abroad, with every blessing that a nation can 
 desire. Moses' law tells you this, God's prophets 
 have been telling you this, God's wonderful deal- 
 ings with you have been telling you this, that the 
 Lord God is enough for you. And if you, who 
 are meant to be a nation of kings and priests to 
 God, to teach all nations and serve solely Him, 
 fancy that you will be allowed to throw away the 
 high honour which God has put upon you, and 
 lower yourselves to the follies and sins of these 
 heathen round you, you are mistaken. You were 
 meant to be above such folly, you can be above it ; 
 and you shall not prosper by serving God and idols 
 at once ; you shall not even prosper by serving 
 idols alone. God will visit you with a mighty 
 hand, and with fury poured out, and you shall 
 know that He is the Lord/ 
 
 Well, my friends, and what has this to do with 
 
250 NATIONAL REWARDS 
 
 us? This it has to do with us that if God 
 taught the Jews about Himself, He has taught us 
 still more. If he has shown signs and wonders of 
 His love, and wrought mightily for the Jews, He 
 has wrought far more mightily for us; for He 
 spared not His own Son, but gave Him freely for us. 
 If He promised to teach the Jews, He has pro- 
 mised still more to teach us,; for He has promised 
 His Holy Spirit freely to young and old, rich and 
 poor, to as many as ask Him, to guide us into all 
 truth. If he expected the Jews to set an example 
 to all the nations around, He expects us to do so 
 still more. And if He punished the Jews, and 
 drove them back again by shame, and affliction, 
 and disappointment, whenever they went after 
 other gods, and tried to be like the heathen 
 around, and despised their high calling, and their 
 high privileges, He will punish us, and drive us 
 back again still more fiercely, and still more 
 swiftly. God has called us to be a nation of 
 Christians, and He will not let us be a nation of 
 heathens. We are longing to do in these days 
 very much as the Jews did of old ; we are all too 
 apt to say to ourselves, ' Of course we must love 
 God, or He might be angry with us ; and besides, 
 how else should we get our souls saved ? But the 
 old heathen nations, and a great many nations 
 now, and a great many rich and comfortable people 
 
AND PUNISHMENTS. 251 
 
 in England now, too, get on very well without 
 God, by just worshipping selfishness, and money, 
 and worldly cunning, and why should not we do 
 the same ? why should we not worship God and 
 Mammon at once, and serve God on Sundays, and 
 the selfish ways of the world all the week? Surely 
 then we should be doubly safe ; we should have 
 God and the world on our side both at once/ 
 
 No, my friends, God will not allow us to succeed 
 on that plan. We are members of His Church, 
 whose head is Jesus, who gave Himself for sinners ; 
 whose members are all brothers of His Church, 
 which is held together by self-sacrifice and fellow- 
 help. If we try to be like the heathens, and fancy 
 that we can succeed by selfishness, and cunning, 
 and covetousness, God will not let us fall from the 
 honour which He has put on us, and trample our 
 blessings under foot. He will bring our plans to 
 nought. Whomsoever He may let prosper in sin, 
 He will not let those who have heard the message 
 of His kingdom prosper in it. Whatever nation 
 He may let become great by covetousness, and 
 selfish competing and struggling of man against 
 man, He will not let England grow great by it. 
 He loves her too well to let her fall so, and cast 
 away her high honour of being a Christian nation. 
 By great and sore afflictions, by bringing our cle- 
 verest plans to nothing, He will teach us that we 
 
252 NATIONAL EEWAKDS 
 
 cannot worship God and Mammon at once; that 
 the sure riches, either for a man or for a nation, 
 are not money, but righteousness, love, justice, 
 wisdom ; that this new idol of selfish competition 
 which men worship now-a-days, and fancy that it 
 is the secret cause of all plenty, and cheapness, and 
 civilization, has no place in the Church of Jesus 
 Christ, who gave up His own life for those who 
 hated Him, and came not to do His own will, but 
 the will of His Father ; not to enable men to go to 
 heaven after a life of selfishness here ; but by the 
 power of His Spirit, the spirit of love and fellow- 
 ship, to sweep all selfishness off the face of God's 
 good earth. By sore trials and afflictions will God 
 in His mercy teach this to England, and to every 
 man in England who is deluded into fancying that 
 he can serve God and selfishness at once, till we 
 learn once more, as our forefathers did of old, that 
 He is the Lord. Because we are His children, 
 God will chasten us ; because He receives us, He 
 will scourge us back to Him ; because He has pre- 
 pared for us things such as eye hath not seen, He 
 will not let us fill our bellies with the husks which 
 the swine eat, and like the dumb beasts, snarl and 
 struggle one against the other for a place at His 
 table, as if it were not wide enough for all His 
 creatures, and for ten times as many more, for- 
 getting that He is the giver, and fancying that we 
 
AND PUNISHMENTS. 253 
 
 are to be the takers, and spoiling the gift itself in 
 our hurry to snatch it out of our neighbours' hands. 
 In one word, God "will not give us false prosperity, 
 as the children of the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil, because He wishes to give us real prosperity 
 as the sons of God, in the kingdom of His Son 
 Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for us. 
 
XIX. 
 
 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERU- 
 SALEM. 
 
 2 KINGS xix. 35. 
 
 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went 
 out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and 
 eighty-five thousand: and when they arose in the morning, 
 behold, they were all dead corpses. 
 
 "\70TJ heard read in the first lesson last Sunday 
 * afternoon, the threats of the king of Assyria 
 against Jerusalem, and his defiance of the true 
 Lord whose temple stood there. In the first lesson 
 for this morning's service, you heard of king 
 Hezekiah's fear and perplexity; of the Lord's 
 answer to him by Isaiah, and of the great and 
 wonderful destruction of the Assyrian army, of 
 which my text tells you. Of course you have a 
 right to ask, ' This which happened in a foreign 
 country more than two thousand years ago, what 
 has it to do with us?' And of course, my preach- 
 ing about it will be of no use whatsoever, unless I 
 can show you what it has to do with us ; what 
 lesson we English here, in the year 1851, are to 
 draw, from the help which God sent the Jews. 
 
THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM. 255 
 
 But to find out that, we must hear the whole 
 
 
 
 story. Before we can find out why God drove the 
 Assyrians out of Judea, we must find out, it seems 
 to me, why He sent them, or allowed them to come 
 into Judea ; and to find out that, we must first see 
 how the Jews were behaving in those times, and 
 what sort of state their country was in ; and we 
 must find out, too, what sort of a man this great 
 king of Assyria was, and what sort of thoughts were 
 in his heart. 
 
 Now, by the favour of God, we can find out this. 
 You will see, in the first thirty-seven chapters of 
 Isaiah's prophecies, a full account of the ways of 
 the Jews in that time, and the reasons why God 
 allowed so fearful a danger to come upon them. 
 The whole first thirty-five chapters belong to 
 each other, and are, so to speak, a spiritual his- 
 tory of the Jews, and the Assyrians, and all the 
 nations round them for many years. A spiritual 
 history, that is, not merely a history of what 
 they did, but of what they were, what was in their 
 inmost hearts, and thoughts, and spirits ; a spi- 
 ritual history, that is, not merely of what they 
 thought they were doing, but of what God saw 
 that they were doing a history of God's mind 
 about them all. Isaiah had God's spirit on him ; 
 and so he saw what was going on round him in the 
 same light in which God saw it, and hated it, or 
 
256 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 praised it, only according as it was good, and ac- 
 cording to the good Spirit of God, or bad, and 
 contrary to that Spirit. So Isaiah's history of his 
 own nation, and the nations around him, was very 
 unlike what they would have written for them- 
 selves ; just as I am afraid he would write a very 
 different history of England now, from what we 
 should write, if we were set to do it. Now what 
 Isaiah thought of the doings of his countrymen, 
 the Jews, I must tell you in another sermon, next 
 Sunday. It will be enough this morning to speak 
 of the king of Assyria. 
 
 These kings of Assyria thought themselves the 
 greatest and strongest beings in the world; they 
 thought that their might was right, and that they 
 might conquer, and ravage, and plunder, and oppress 
 every country round them for thousands of miles, 
 without being punished. They thought that they 
 could overcome the True God of Judea, as they 
 had conquered the empty idols and false gods of 
 Sepharvaim, Hena, and Iva. But Isaiah saw that 
 they were wrong. He told his countrymen, 'These 
 Assyrian kings are strong, but there is a stronger 
 King than they, Jehovah the Lord of all the earth. 
 It is He who has sent them to punish nation after 
 nation, Sennacherib is the rod of Jehovah's anger ; 
 but he is a fool after all ; for all his cunning, for all 
 his armies, he is a fool rushing on his ruin. He may 
 
THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM. 257 
 
 take Tyre, Damascus, Babylon, Egypt itself, and 
 cast their gods into the fire, for they are no gods, 
 but the work of men's hands, wood and stone ; 
 but let him once try his strength against the real 
 living God ; let the axe once begin to boast itself 
 against Him that hews therewith ; and he will find 
 out that there is one stronger than he, one who 
 has been using him as a tool, and who will crush him 
 like a moth the moment he rebels. His father 
 destroyed Samaria and her idols, but he shall not 
 destroy Jerusalem. He may ravage Ephraim, 
 and punish the gluttony, and drunkenness, and 
 oppression of the great landlords of Bashan ; he 
 may bring misery and desolation through the 
 length and breadth of the land : there is reason, 
 and reason but too good for that : but Jerusalem, 
 the place where God's honour dwells, the temple 
 without idols, which is the sign that Jehovah is a 
 living God, against it he shall not cast up a bank, or 
 shoot an arrow into it. c I know/ said Isaiah, c what 
 he is saying of himself, this proud king of Assyria : 
 but this is what God says of him, that he is only 
 a puppet, a tool in the hand of God, to punish 
 these wicked nations whom he is conquering one 
 by one, and us Jews among the rest. He, this 
 proud king of Assyria, thinks that he is the chosen 
 favourite of the sun, and the moon, and the stars, 
 whom, in his folly, he worships as gods. He will 
 i S 
 
258 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM, 
 
 find out who is the real Lord of the earth ; he will 
 find out that this great world is ruled by that very 
 God of Israel whom he despises. He will find that 
 there is something in this earth, of which he fancies 
 himself lord and master, which is too strong for 
 him, which will obey God, and not him. God rules 
 the earth, and God rules Tophet, and the great 
 fire-kingdoms which boil and blaze for ever in the 
 bowels of the earth, and burst up from time to 
 time in earthquakes and burning mountains ; and 
 God has ordained that they shall conquer this 
 proud king of Assyria, though we Jews are too 
 weak, and cowardly, and split up into parties by 
 our wickedness, to make a stand against him/ . . 
 This great eruption, or breaking out of burning 
 mountains, which would destroy the king of 
 Assyria's army, was to happen, Isaiah says, close 
 to Jerusalem, nay, it was to shake Jerusalem it- 
 self. Jerusalem was to be brought to great misery 
 by everlasting burnings, as well as by being besieged 
 by the Assyrians ; and yet the very shaking of the 
 earth and eruption of fire which was nearly to 
 destroy it, was to be the cause of its deliverance. So 
 Isaiah prophesied, and we cannot doubt his words 
 came true. For this may explain to us the way 
 in which the king of Assyria's army was destroyed. 
 The text says, that when they encamped near 
 Jerusalem the messenger of the Lord went out, 
 
THE DELIVEEANCE OF JERUSALEM. 259 
 
 and slew in one night 180,000 of them, who were 
 all found dead in the morning. How they were 
 killed we cannot exactly tell, most likely by a 
 stream of poisonous vapour, such as often comes 
 forth out of the ground during earthquakes and 
 eruptions of burning mountains, and kills all men 
 and animals who breathe it. That this was the ' 
 way that this great army was destroyed I have little 
 doubt, not only on account of what Isaiah says in 
 his prophecies of God's 'sending a blast ' upon the 
 king of Assyria, but because it was just like the 
 old lesson which God had been teaching the Jews 
 all along, that the earth, and all in it, was His pro- 
 perty, and obeyed Him. For what could teach 
 them that more strongly than to see that the 
 earthquakes and burning mountains, of all things on 
 earth the most awful and most murderous, the very 
 things against which man has no defence, obeyed 
 God ; burst forth when He chose, and did His work 
 as he willed ? For man can conquer almost every- 
 thing in the world except these burning mountains 
 and earthquakes. He can sail over the raging sea 
 in his ships ; he can till the most barren soils ; 
 he can provide against famine, rain, and cold, ay, 
 against the thunder itself: but the earthquakes 
 alone are too strong for him. Against them no 
 cunning or strength of man is of any use. With- 
 out warning, they make the solid ground under 
 s 2 
 
260 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 his feet heave, and reel, and sink, hurling down 
 whole towns in a moment, and burying the in- 
 habitants under the ruins, as an earthquake did 
 in Italy only a month ago. Or they pour forth 
 streams of fire, clouds of dust, brimstone, and poi- 
 sonous vapour, destroying for miles around the 
 woods and crops, farms and cities, and burying 
 them deep in ashes, as they have done again 
 and again, both in Italy and Iceland, and in 
 South America, even during the last few years. 
 How can man stand against them ? What greater 
 warning or lesson to him than they, that God is 
 stronger than man ; that the earth is not man's 
 property, and will not obey him, but only the God 
 who made it ? Now that was just what God in- 
 tended to teach the Jews all along; that the earth 
 and heaven belonged to Him and obeyed Him ; 
 that they were not to worship the sun and stars, 
 as the Assyrians and Canaan ites did, nor the 
 earth and the rivers, as the Egyptians did : but to 
 worship the God who made sun and stars, earth 
 and rivers, and to put their trust in Him to 
 guide all heaven and earth aright ; and to make all 
 things, sun, earth, and weather, ay, and the very 
 burning mountains and earthquakes, work together 
 for good for them if they loved God. Therefore 
 it was that God gave His law to Moses on the burn- 
 ing mountain of Sinai, amid thunders, and light- 
 
THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM. 261 
 
 nings, and earthquakes, to show them that the 
 lightnings and the mountains obeyed Him. There- 
 fore it was that the earthquake opened the ground 
 and swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, 
 who rebelled against Moses. Therefore it was that 
 God once used an earthquake and eruption to pre- 
 serve David from his enemies, as we read in the eigh- 
 teenth Psalm. And all through David's Psalms we 
 find how well he had learnt this great lesson which 
 God had taught him. Again and again we find 
 verses which show that he knew well enough who 
 was the Lord of all the earth. 
 
 In Isaiah's time, it seems, God taught the Jews 
 once more the same thing. He taught them, 
 and the proud king of Assyria, once and for all, 
 that He was indeed the Lord Lord of all nations, 
 and King of kings, and also Lord of the earth, and 
 all that therein is. He taught it to the poor op- 
 pressed Jews by that miraculous deliverance. He 
 taught it to the cruel invading king by that mira- 
 culous destruction. Just in the height of his glory, 
 after he had conquered almost every nation in 
 the east, and overcome the whole of Judea, ex- 
 cept that one small city of Jerusalem, Senna- 
 cherib's great army was swept away, he neither 
 knew how nor why, in a single night, and utterly 
 disheartened and abashed, he returned to his own 
 land ; and even there he found that the God of 
 
262 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 Israel had followed him that the idols whom he 
 worshipped could not save him from the wrath of 
 that God to whom Assyria, just as much as Jeru- 
 salem, belonged. For as he was worshipping in 
 the house of Nisroch his God, his two sons smote 
 him with the sword, and there was an end of all 
 his pride and conquests. . . Now Nisroch was 
 the name of a star the star which we call the 
 planet Saturn ; and the Assyrians fancied in their 
 folly, that whosoever worshipped any particular 
 star, that star would protect and help him. . . But, 
 alas for the king of Assyria, there was One above 
 who had made the stars, and from whose ven- 
 geance the stars could not save him ; and so even 
 while he was worshipping, and praying to, this 
 favourite star of his which could not hear him, 
 he fell dead, a murdered man, and found out too 
 late how true were the great words of Isaiah 
 when he prophesied against him. 
 
 Yes, my friends, this is the lesson which the Jews 
 had to learn, and which the king of Assyria had 
 to learn, and which we have to learn also; and which 
 God will, in His great mercy, teach us over and over 
 again by bitter trials whensoever we forget it ; that 
 The Lord is King ; that He is near us, living for 
 ever, all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving; that those 
 who really trust in Him shall never be con- 
 founded ; that those who trust in themselves are 
 
THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM. 263 
 
 trying their paltry strength against the God who 
 made heaven and earth, and will surely find out 
 their own weakness, just when they fancy themselves 
 most successful. So it was in Hezekiah's time ; so 
 it is now, hard as it may be to us to believe it The 
 Lord Jehovah, Jesus Christ, who saved Jerusalem 
 from the Assyrians, He still is king, let the earth 
 be never so unquiet. And all men, or governments, 
 or doctrines, or ways of thinking and behaving, 
 which are contrary to His will, or even pretend that 
 they can do without Him, will as surely come to 
 nought as that great and terrible king of Assyria. 
 Though man be too weak to put them down, Christ 
 is not. Though man neglect to put them down, 
 Christ will not. If man dare not fight on the 
 Lord's side against sin and evil, the Lord's earth 
 will fight for Him. Storm and tempest, blight and 
 famine, earthquakes and burning mountains, will 
 do His work, if nothing else will. As He said Him- 
 self, if man stops praising Him, the very stones 
 will cry out, and own Him as their king. Not 
 that the blessed Lord is proud, or selfish, or re- 
 vengeful ; God forbid ! He is boundless pity, and 
 love, and mercy. But it is just because He is per- 
 fect love and pity that He hates sin, which makes all 
 the misery upon earth. He hates it, and he fights 
 against it for ever ; lovingly at first, that He may 
 lead sinners to repentance ; for He wills the death 
 
264 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 of none, but rather that all should come to repent- 
 ance. But if a man will not turn, He will whet His 
 sword ; and then woe to the sinner. Let him be as 
 great as the king of Assyria, he must down. For 
 the Lord will have none guide His world but 
 Himself, because none but He will ever guide 
 it on the right path. Yes but what a glorious 
 thought, that He will guide it, and us, on that right 
 path. Oh blessed news for all who are in sorrow 
 and perplexity ! Whatsoever it is that ails you 
 and who is there, young or old, rich or poor, who 
 has not their secret ailments at heart ? whatso- 
 ever ails you, whatsoever terrifies you, whatsoever 
 tempts you, trust in the same Lord who deli- 
 vered Jerusalem from the Assyrians, and He will 
 deliver you. He will never suffer you to be 
 tempted above that you are able, but will with the 
 temptation also make a way for you to escape, 
 that you may be able to bear it. This has been 
 His loving way from the beginning, and this will be 
 His way until the day when He wipes away tears 
 from all eyes. 
 
XX. 
 
 PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 
 
 JEREMIAH v. 2. 
 Though they say, ' The Lord liveth,' surely they swear falsely. 
 
 T SPOKE last Sunday morning of the wonderful 
 -** way in which the Lord "delivered the Jews from 
 the Assyrian army, and I promised to try and ex- 
 plain to you this morning, the reason why the 
 Lord allowed the Assyrians to come into Judea, 
 and ravage the whole country, except the one small 
 city of Jerusalem. 
 
 My text is taken from the first lesson, from the 
 book of the prophet Jeremiah. And it, I think, 
 will explain the reason to us. 
 
 For though Jeremiah lived more than a hundred 
 years after Isaiah, yet he had much the same mes- 
 sage from God to give, and much the same sins 
 round him to rebuke. For the Jews were always, 
 as the Bible calls them, * a backsliding people ;' 
 and, as the years ran on, and they began to forget 
 their great deliverance from the Assyrians, they slid 
 back into the very same wrong state of mind in 
 
266 PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 
 
 which they were in Isaiah's time, and for which God 
 punished them by that terrible invasion. 
 
 Now, what was this ? 
 
 One very remarkable thing strikes us at once. 
 That when the Assyrians came into Judea, the 
 Jews were not given up to worshipping false gods. 
 On the contrary, we find, both from the book of 
 Kings and the book of Chronicles, that a great 
 reform in religion had taken place among them a few 
 years before. Their king Hezekiah, in the very first 
 year of his reign, removed the high places, and cut 
 down the groves (which are said to have been carved 
 idols meant to represent the stars of heaven), and 
 even broke in pieces the brazen serpent which 
 Moses had made, because the Jews had begun 
 to worship it for an idol. He trusted in the 
 Lord God, and obeyed Him, more than any 
 king of Judah. He restored the worship of 
 the true God in the temple, according to the law 
 of Moses, with such pomp and glory as had never 
 been seen since Solomon's time. And not only 
 did he turn to the true God, but his people also. 
 From the account which we find in Chronicles, 
 they seemed to have joined him in the good work. 
 They offered sin-offerings as a token of the wicked- 
 ness of which they had been guilty, in leaving the 
 true God for idols ; and all other kinds of offer- 
 ings freely and willingly. ' And Hezekiah rejoiced, 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 267 
 
 and all the people, that God had prepared the 
 people. Moreover, Hezekiah called all the men 
 in Judea up to Jerusalem, to keep the passover 
 according to the law of Moses/ which they had 
 neglected to do for many years, and the people 
 answered his call and ' came, and kept the feast at 
 Jerusalem seven days, with joy and great gladness, 
 offering peace-offerings, and making confession to 
 the God of their fathers/ ' So there was great joy 
 in Jerusalem ; for since the time of Solomon there 
 was not the like in Jerusalem. Then the priests 
 and the Levites arose, and blessed the people, and 
 their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to 
 the Lord's holy dwelling, even to heaven/ And 
 when it was all finished, the people went out of 
 their own accord, and destroyed utterly all the 
 idols, and high places, and altars throughout the 
 land, and returned to their houses in peace. 
 
 Now does not all this sound very satisfactory 
 and excellent ? What better state of mind could 
 people be in? What a wonderful reform, and 
 spread of true religion ! The only thing like it, 
 that we know, is the wonderful reform and spread 
 of religion in England in the last sixty years, after 
 all the ungodliness and wickedness that went on 
 from the year 1660 to the time of the French war ; 
 the building of churches, the founding of schools, 
 the spread of Bibles, and tracts, and the wonder- 
 
268 PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 
 
 ful increase of gospel preachers, so that every old 
 man will tell you, that religion is talked about and 
 written about now, a thousand times more than 
 when he was a boy. Indeed, unless a man makes 
 a profession of some sort of religion or other, now- 
 a-days, he can hardly hope to rise in the world, so 
 religious are we English become. 
 
 Now let us hear what Isaiah thought of all that 
 wonderful spread of true religion in his time ; and 
 then, perhaps, we may see what he would think of 
 ours now, if he were alive. His opinion is sure to 
 be the right one. His rules can never fail, for he 
 was an inspired prophet, and saw things as they 
 are, as God sees them ; and therefore his rules will 
 hold good for ever. Let us see what they were. 
 
 The first chapter of the book of the prophet 
 Isaiah is called ' The vision of Isaiah, the son of 
 Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jeru- 
 salem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and 
 Hezekiah/ Now this is one prophecy by itself, in 
 the shape of a poem; for in the old Hebrew it is 
 written in regular verses. The second chapter 
 begins with another heading, and is the beginning 
 of a different poem ; so that this first chapter is, 
 as it were, a summing up of all that he is going to 
 say afterwards ; a short account of the state of the 
 Jews for more than forty years. And what is 
 more, this first chapter of Isaiah must have been 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 269 
 
 written in the reign of Hezekiah, in those very 
 religious days of which I was just speaking ; for it 
 says that the country was desolate, and Jerusalem 
 alone left. And this never happened during Isaiah's 
 lifetime, till the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, that 
 is, till this great spread of the true religion had 
 been going on for thirteen years. Now what was 
 Isaiah's vision? What did he, being taught by 
 God's Spirit, see was God's opinion of these reli- 
 gious Jews : Listen, my friends, and take it 
 solemnly to heart ! 
 
 ' Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; 
 give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Go- 
 morrah. To what purpose is the multitude of 
 your sacrifices unto me ? saith the Lord : I am full 
 of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed 
 beasts : and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, 
 or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to 
 appear before me, who hath required this at your 
 hand, to tread my courts ? Bring no more vain 
 oblations ; incense is an abomination unto me ; the 
 new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, 
 I cannot away with ; it is iniquity, even the solemn 
 meeting. Your new moons and your appointed 
 feasts my soul hateth : they are a trouble unto 
 me ; I am weary to bear them. And when ye 
 spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes 
 from you ; yea, when ye make many prayers, I 
 
270 PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 
 
 will not hear : your hands are full of blood. Wash 
 you, make you clean ; put away the evil of your 
 doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil ; 
 learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the op- 
 pressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 
 . . . How is the faithful city become an harlot ! 
 it was full of judgment ; righteousness lodged in 
 it ; but now murderers. Thy silver is become 
 dross, thy wine mixed with water ; thy princes are 
 rebellious, and companions of thieves ; every one 
 loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards : they 
 judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of 
 the widow come unto them. Therefore saith the 
 Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, 
 Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge 
 me of mine enemies/ . . . 
 
 Again, I say, my friends, listen to it, and take 
 it solemnly to heart ! That is God's opinion of 
 religion, even the truest and soundest in worship 
 and doctrine, when it is without godliness, without 
 holiness ; when it goes hand in hand with injustice, 
 and covetousness, and falsehood, and cheating, and 
 oppression, and neglect of the poor, and keeping 
 .company with the wicked, because it is profitable ; 
 in short, when it is like too much of the religion 
 which we see around us in the world at this day. 
 
 Yes it was of no use holding to the letter of 
 the law while they forgot its spirit. God had 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 271 
 
 commanded church -going, and woe to those, then 
 or now, who neglect it. Yet the Lord asks, c Who 
 hath required this at your hands, to tread my 
 courts ? . . . He had commanded the Sabbath- 
 day to be kept holy ; and woe to those, then or 
 now, who neglect it. Yet He says, ' Your sab- 
 baths I cannot away with ; it is iniquity, even the 
 solemn meeting/ The Lord had appointed feasts : 
 and yet He says that His soul hated them ; they 
 were a trouble to Him ; He was weary to bear 
 them. The Lord had commanded prayer; and 
 woe to those, then or now, in England, as in Judea, 
 who neglect to pray. And yet He says, c When 
 ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes 
 from you ; yea, when ye make many prayers, I 
 will not hear/ And why ? He himself conde- 
 scends to tell them the reason, which they ought 
 to have known for themselves ; ' Because/ He says, 
 ' your hands are full of blood/ This was the reason 
 why all their religiousness, and orthodoxy, and 
 church-going, and praying, was only disgusting to 
 God ; because there was no righteousness with it. 
 Their faith was only a dead, rotten, sham faith, for 
 it brought forth no fruits of justice and love ; and 
 their religion was only hypocrisy, for it did not 
 make them holy. No doubt they thought them- 
 selves pious and sincere enough ; no doubt they 
 thought that they were pleasing God perfectly, 
 
272 PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 
 
 and giving Him all that He could fairly ask of 
 them ; no doubt they were fiercely offended at 
 Isaiah's message to them ; no doubt they could 
 not understand what he meant by calling them a 
 hypocritical nation, a second Sodom and Gomor- 
 rah, while they were destroying idols, and keeping 
 the law of Moses, and worshipping God more 
 earnestly than He had been worshipped since 
 Solomon's time. But so it was. That was the 
 message of God to them ; that was the vision of 
 Isaiah concerning them ; that there was no sound- 
 ness in the whole of the nation, ' from the sole of 
 the foot to the crown of the head, nothing but 
 wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores/ that 
 is, that their whole heart and conscience, and ways 
 of thinking, were utterly rotten, and abominable 
 in the sight of God, even while they were holding 
 the true doctrines about them, r and keeping up 
 the pure worship of Him. This, says the Lord, is 
 not the way to please me. ' He hath showed 
 thee, oh man, what is good. And what doth the 
 Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love 
 mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God f To 
 do justly, to love mercy, and then to walk humbly, 
 sure that when you seem to have done all your 
 duty, you have left only too much of it undone ; 
 even as St. Paul felt when he said, that though he 
 knew nothing against himself; though he could not 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 273 
 
 recollect a single thing in which he had failed of 
 his duty to the Corinthians, yet that did not 
 justify him. 'For he that judgeth me/ he says, 
 ' is the Lord/ He sees deeper than I can ; and 
 He, alas ! may take a very different view of my 
 conduct from what I do ; and this life of mine, 
 which looks to me, from my ignorance, so spotless 
 and perfect, may be, in His eyes, full of sins, and 
 weakness, and neglects, and shameful follies. c To 
 walk humbly with God/ Not to believe that be- 
 cause you read the Bible, and have heard the 
 gospel, and are sharp at finding out false doctrine 
 in preachers, and belong to the Church of England, 
 that therefore yau know all about God, and can 
 look down upon poor papists, and heathens, and 
 say, ' This people, which knoweth not the law, is 
 accursed : but we are enlightened, we understand 
 the whole Bible, we know everything about God's 
 will, and man's duty ; and whosoever differs from 
 us, or pretends to teach us anything new about 
 God, must be wrong/ Not to do so, my friends, 
 but to believe what St. Paul tells us solemnly, 
 ' That if any man think that he knows anything, 
 he knows nothing yet as he ought to know' to 
 believe that the Great God, and the will of God, 
 and the love of God, and the mystery of Redemp- 
 tion, and the treasures of wisdom which are in 
 His Bible, are, as St. Paul told you, boundless, like 
 I T 
 
274 PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 
 
 a living well, which can never be fathomed, or 
 drawn dry, but fills again with fresh water as fast 
 as you draw from it. That is walking humbly 
 with God ; and those who do not do so, but like 
 the Pharisees of old, believe that they have all 
 knowledge, and can understand all the mysteries 
 of the Bible, and go through the world, despising 
 and cursing all parties but their own let them 
 beware, lest the Lord be saying of them, as He 
 said of the church of Sardis, of old, c Thou sayest, 
 I am rich, and increased with goods, and have 
 need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art 
 wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
 naked/ 
 
 How is this ? What is this strange thing, with- 
 out which even the true knowledge of doctrine is 
 of no use ; which, if a man, or a nation has not, he 
 is poor, and blind, and wretched, and naked in 
 soul, in spite of all his religion ? Isaiah will tell us 
 What did he say to the Jews in his day ? 
 
 ' Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil 
 of your doings from before my eyes. Do justice to 
 the fatherless, and relieve the widow T ' Do that/ 
 says the Lord, ' and then your repentance will be 
 sincere. Church building, and church going are 
 well but they are not repentance, churches are 
 not souls. I ask you for your hearts, and you give 
 me fine stones and fine words. I want souls 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 275 
 
 I want your souls I want you to turn to me. 
 And what am I ? saith the Lord. I am justice, I 
 am love, I am the God of the oppressed, the father- 
 less, the widow. That is my character. Turn to 
 justice, turn to love, turn to mercy ; long to be 
 made just, and loving, and merciful ; see that your 
 sin has been just this, and nothing else, that you 
 have been unjust, unloving, unmerciful. Repent 
 for your neglect and cruelty, and repent in dust 
 and ashes, when you see what wretched hypocrites 
 you really are. And then, my boundless mercy 
 and pardon shall be open to you. As you wish to 
 be to me, so will I be to you; if you wish to 
 become merciful, you shall taste my mercy ; if you 
 wish to become loving to others, you shall find that 
 I love you ; if you wish to become just, you shall 
 find that I am just, just to deal by you as you deal 
 by others ; faithful and just to forgive you your 
 sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. 
 And then, all shall be forgiven and forgotten ; 
 ' though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white 
 as snow : though they be red like crimson, they 
 shall be as wool/ 
 
 Surely, my friends, these things are worth taking 
 to heart ; for this is the sin which most destroys 
 all men and nations High religious profession 
 with an ungodly, covetous, and selfish life. It is 
 the worst and most dangerous of all sins ; for it is 
 T2 
 
276 PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 
 
 like a disease which eats out the heart and life 
 without giving pain ; so that the sick man never sus- 
 pects that anything is the matter with him, till he 
 finds himself, to his astonishment, at the point of 
 death. So it was with the Jews, three times in 
 their history. In the time of Isaiah, under King 
 Hezekiah ; in the time of Jeremiah, under King 
 Josiah ; and last and worst of all, in the time of 
 Jesus Christ. At each of these three times the 
 Jews were high religious professors, and yet at each 
 of these three times, they were abominable before 
 God, and on the brink of ruin. In Isaiah's time 
 their eyes seemed to have been opened at last to 
 their own sins. Their fearful danger, and wonder- 
 ful deliverance from the Assyrians, of which you 
 heard last Sunday, seem to have done that for 
 them ; as God intended it should. During the 
 latter part of Hezekiah's reign they seemed to have 
 turned to God with their hearts, and not with their 
 lips only ; and Isaiah can find no words to express 
 the delight which the blessed change gives him. 
 Nevertheless, they soon fell back again into idola- 
 try ; and then there was another outward lip- refor- 
 mation under the good king Josiah ; and Jeremiah 
 had to give them exactly the same warning which 
 Isaiah had given them nearly a hundred years be- 
 fore. But that time, alas ! they would not take 
 the warning ; and then all the evil which had been 
 
PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 277 
 
 prophesied against them came on them. From 
 hypocritical profession, they fell back again into 
 their old idolatry ; their covetousness, selfishness, 
 party quarrels, and profligate lives made them too 
 weak and rotten to stand against Nebuchadnezzar, 
 king of Babylon, when he attacked them ; and 
 Jerusalem was miserably destroyed, the temple 
 burnt, and the Jews carried captives to Babylon. 
 There they repented in bitter sorrow and slavery ; 
 and God allowed them after seventy years to 
 return to their own land. Then at first they 
 seemed to be a really converted people, and to be 
 worshipping God in spirit and in truth. They 
 never again fell back into the idolatry of the 
 heathen. So far from it ; they became the greatest 
 possible haters of it ; they went on keeping the law 
 of God with the utmost possible strictness, even to 
 the day when the Lord Jesus appeared among them. 
 Their religious people, the Scribes and Pharisees, 
 were the most strict, moral, devout people of the 
 whole world. They worshipped the very words and 
 letters of the Bible ; their thoughts seemed filled 
 with nothing but God and the service of God : and 
 yet the Lord Jesus told them that they were in a 
 worse state, greater sinners in the sight of God, than 
 they had ever been ; that they, who hated idola- 
 try, were filling up the measure of their idolatrous 
 forefathers' iniquity; that the guilt of all the 
 
278 PROFESSION AND PRACTICE. 
 
 righteous blood shed on earth was to fall on them ; 
 that they were a race of serpents, a generation of 
 vipers ; and that even He did not see how they 
 could escape the damnation of hell. And they 
 proved how true His words were, by crucifying the 
 very Lord of whom their much-prized Scriptures 
 bore witness, whom they pretended to worship day 
 and night continually ; and received the just 
 reward of their deeds in forty years of sedition, 
 bloodshed, and misery, which ended by the Romans 
 coming and sweeping the nation of the Jews from 
 off the face of the earth. 
 
 So much for profession without practice. So 
 much for true doctrine with dishonest and unholy 
 lives. So much for outward respectability with 
 inward sinfulness. So much for hating idolatry, 
 while all the while men's hearts are far from God ! 
 
 Oh ! my friends, let us all search our hearts 
 carefully in these times of high profession and low 
 practice ; lest we be adding our drop of hypocrisy 
 to the great flood of it which now stifles this land 
 of England, and so fall into the same condemnation 
 as the Jews of old, in spite of far nobler examples, 
 brighter and wider light, and more wonderful and 
 bounteous blessings. 
 
XXL 
 THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 
 
 LUKE xii. 45, 46. 
 
 But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his 
 coming; and shall begin to beat the men servants and the 
 maid servants, and to eat and drink and to be drunken ; the lord 
 of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, 
 and in an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him asunder, 
 and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 
 
 BUT why with the unbelievers ? The man had 
 not disbelieved that he had any Lord at all ; he 
 had only believed that his Lord delayed his coming. 
 And why was he to be put with those who do not 
 believe in him at all ? This is a very fearful question, 
 friends, for us, when we think how it is the fashion 
 among us now, to believe that our Lord delays His 
 coming. And surely most of us do believe that ? 
 For is it not our notion that, when the Lord Jesus 
 ascended up to heaven, He went away a great 
 distance off, perhaps millions of miles beyond 
 the stars ; and that He will not come back again 
 till the last day which, for aught we know, and 
 as we rather expect, may not happen for hundreds 
 or thousands of years to come ? Is not that 
 
280 THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 
 
 most people's notion, rich as well as poor ? And if 
 that is not believing that our Lord delays His 
 coming, what is ? 
 
 But, you may answer, the Creed says plainly, 
 that He ascended into heaven and sits at the right 
 hand of God. Ah ! my friends, those great words 
 of the Creed which you take into your lips every 
 Sunday, mean the very opposite to what most 
 people fancy. They do not say, ' The Lord Jesus 
 has left this poor earth to itself and its misery : ' 
 but they say, ' Lo, He is with you, even to the 
 end of the world/ True, He is ascended into 
 heaven. And how far off is heaven ? for so far 
 off is the Lord Jesus, and no further. Not so far 
 off, my friends, after all, if you knew where to 
 find it. Truly said the great and good poet, now 
 gone home to his reward 
 
 Heaven lies about us in our infancy. 
 
 And if we lose sight of it as we grow up to be men 
 and women, it is not because heaven goes further 
 off, but because we grow less heavenly. Even 
 now, so close is heaven to us, that any one of us 
 might enter into heaven this moment, without 
 stirring from his seat. One real cry from the 
 depths of your heart c Father, forgive thy sinful 
 child ! ' one real feeling of your own worthless- 
 ness, and weakness, and emptiness, and of God's 
 righteousness, and love, and mercy, ready for you 
 
THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 
 
 and you are in heaven there and then, as^near the 
 feet of the blessed Lord Jesus,' ast]\aiw,^lagdalen ; 
 
 was, when she tried to clasp them in the 
 I am serious, my friends ; I am not given to talk 
 fine figures of poetry ; I am talking sober, straight- 
 forward, literal truth. And the Lord sits at God's 
 right hand too ? you believe that ? Then how far 
 off is God ? for as far off as God is, so far off is 
 the Lord Jesus, and no further. What says St.. 
 Paul ? That c God is not far off from any one of 
 us for in Him we live, and move, and have our 
 being ... IN Him . . . How far off is 
 that ? And is not God everywhere, if indeed we 
 can say that He is anywhere ? Then the Lord 
 Jesus, who is at God's right hand, is everywhere 
 also here, now, with us this day. One would 
 have thought that there was no need to prove that 
 by argument, considering that His own blessed lips 
 told us, ' Lo, I am with you, even to the end of 
 the world / and again, 'Wheresoever two or three 
 are gathered together in my name, there am I in 
 the midst of them/ And this is the Lord whom 
 people fancy is gone away far above the stars, till 
 the end of time ! Oh, my friends, rather bow 
 your heads before Him here this moment. For 
 here He is among us now, listening to every thought 
 of our poor sinful hearts ..... He is where 
 God is God in whom we live, and move, and have 
 
282 THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 
 
 our being and that is everywhere. Do you wish 
 Him to be any nearer, my friends? Or do you do 
 you take care what your hearts answer, for He is 
 watching them do you in the depth of your hearts 
 wish that He were a little further off? Does the 
 notion of His being here on this earth, watching and 
 interfering (as we call it now-a-days in our atheism) 
 with us and everything, seem unpleasant and bur- 
 densome ? Is it more comfortable to you to think 
 that He is away far up beyond the stars ? Do you 
 feel the lighter and freer for fancying that He will 
 not visit the earth for many a year to come ? In 
 short, is it in your hearts that you are saying, The 
 Lord delays His coming ? 
 
 That is a very important question. For mind, 
 a pious man might be, as many a pious man has 
 been in these days, deceived by bad teaching into 
 the notion that Jesus Christ was gone far away. 
 But if he were a truly pious man, if he truly loved 
 the Lord, that would be a painful thought as I 
 should have fancied, an unbearable thought to 
 him, when he looked out upon this poor miserable, 
 confused world. He would be crying night and 
 day, ' Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens and 
 come down !' He would be in an agony of pity 
 for this poor deserted earth, and of longing for the 
 Saviour of it to come back and save it. He would 
 never have a moment's peace of mind till he had 
 
THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 283 
 
 either seen the Lord come back again in His glory, 
 or till he had found out what I am sure the 
 blessed Lord would teach him as a reward for his 
 love that it was all a dream and a nightmare, 
 and that the Lord of the earth was in the earth, 
 and close to him, all along ; only that his weak 
 eyes were held so that he did not know the Lord 
 and the Lord's works when he saw them. 
 
 But that was not the temper of this servant- 
 in the Lord's parable. I am afraid it is by 
 no means the temper of many of us now-a-days. 
 The servant said in his heart, that his master 
 would be long away. It was his heart put the 
 thought into his head. He took to the notion 
 heartily, as we say, because he was glad to believe 
 it was true ; glad to think that his master would 
 not come to interfere' with him ; and that in the 
 meantime he might be lord and master himself, 
 and treat every one in the house as if he himself, 
 was the owner of it, and tyrannize over his fellow- 
 servants, and enjoy himself in luxury and good 
 living. So says David of the fool, c The fool hath 
 said in his heart, there is no God \ his heart puts 
 that thought into his head. He wishes to believe 
 that there is no God ; and when there is a will 
 there is a way ; and he soon finds out reasons and 
 arguments enough to prove what he is so very 
 anxious to prove. 
 
284 THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 
 
 Now, my friends, I am afraid that there is 
 not so much difference as people fancy, between 
 the fool who says in his heart, c There is no God/ 
 and the fool who says in his heart, c My Master 
 delays His coming/ c God has left the world to 
 us and we must shift for ourselves in it/ The 
 man who likes to be what St. Paul calls ' without 
 God in the world/ is he so very much wiser than 
 the man who likes to have no God at all ? St. 
 James did not think so ; for what does he say 
 ' Thou believest that there is one God ? Thou 
 doest well the devils also believe and tremble/ 
 They know as much as that ; but it does them no 
 good only increases their fear. ' But wilt thou 
 know, oh ! vain man, that faith without works/ 
 believing without doing, c is dead ?' And are not 
 too many, as I said just now, afraid of the thought 
 of God ; so afraid of it that they wish to allow the 
 Son of God as little share as possible in the ma- 
 nagement of this world ? Have not too many a 
 belief without works ; a mere belief that there is 
 one God and not two, which hardly, from one 
 year's end to another, makes them do one single 
 thing which they would not have done if they had 
 believed that there was no God at all ? Fear of 
 the law ; fear of the policeman ; fear of losing their 
 work or their custom ; fear of losing their neigh- 
 bour's good word that is what keeps most people 
 
THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 285 
 
 from breaking loose. There is not much of the fear 
 of God in that, or the love of God either, as far as 
 I can see. They go through life as if they had 
 made a covenant with God, that He should have 
 his own way in the world to come, if He would 
 only let them have their way in this world. 
 Oh ! my friends, my friends, do you think God 
 is God of the next world and not of this world 
 also? Do you think the kingdom, and the power, 
 and the glory will be His a great many hundreds 
 of years hence, in what you call heaven ; and will 
 not see what every page of Scripture tells you, 
 what you yourself say every time you repeat the 
 Lord's Prayer, that the Kingdom, and the Power, 
 and the Glory are His now, here, in this life, 
 and that He has committed all things to His Son 
 Jesus Christ and given the power into His hand, 
 that He may rule this earth in righteousness now, 
 here, in this life, and conquer back for God one 
 by one, if it be possible, every creature upon earth ? 
 So says the Bible and people profess now-a-days 
 to believe their Bibles. My friends, too many, 
 now-a-days, while they profess very loudly to be- 
 lieve what the Bible says, only believe what their 
 favourite teachers tell them that the Bible says. If 
 they really read their Bibles for themselves, and 
 took God at His word, there would be less tyran- 
 nizing of one man over another, less grinding down 
 
286 THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 
 
 of men by masters, and of men by each other 
 for the poor are often very hard on each other in 
 England, now, my friends very envious and 
 spiteful, and slanderous about each other. They 
 say that dog wont eat dog yet how many a 
 poor man grudges and supplants his neighbour, 
 and tries to get into his place and beat him 
 down in his wages. And there are those who 
 call themselves learned men, who tell the poor 
 that that is God's will, and the way by which 
 God intends them to prosper. If those men 
 believed their Bibles, they would be repenting in 
 sackcloth and ashes for having preached such a 
 devil's sermon to God's children. If men really 
 read their Bibles, there would be less eating and 
 drinking with the drunken ; less idleness and 
 luxury among the rich ; less fancying that a man 
 has a right to do what he likes with his own, 
 because all men would know that they were only 
 the Lord's stewards, bound to give an account to 
 Him of the good which they had done with what 
 He has lent them. There would be fewer parents 
 fancying that they can tyrannize over their children, 
 bringing them up as heathens for the sake of the 
 few pence they earn ; using bad language, and 
 doing shameful things before them, which they 
 dared not do if they recollected that the Lord was 
 looking on ; beating and scolding them as if they 
 were brutes or slaves, to save themselves the 
 
THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 287 
 
 trouble of teaching them gently what the poor 
 little creatures cannot know without being taught : 
 and most shameful of all, robbing the poor chil- 
 dren of their little earnings to spend it themselves 
 in drunkenness. Ah, blessed Lord ! if people 
 did but know how near Thou wert to them, all that 
 would vanish out of England, as the night clouds 
 vanish away before the sun ! 
 
 And He is near, my friends : He is watching .; 
 He is governing ; He is at hand : and in this life 
 or in the life to "come, forget Him as we choose, 
 He will make us know plain enough, and without 
 any doubt whatsoever, that He is the Lord. 
 
 He has fulfilled this awful parable of His about 
 the unfaithful servant already; many a time, against 
 many a man, many a great king, and prince, and 
 nation ; and He will fulfil it against each and every 
 man, from the nobleman in his castle to the labourer 
 in his cottage, who says in his heart, ' My Lord 
 delays his coming/ and begins to tyrannize over 
 those who are weaker than himself, and to enjoy 
 himself as he likes, and forget that he is not his 
 own, but bought with the price of Christ's blood, 
 and bound to work for Christ's kingdom and glory. 
 
 So He punished the popes of Rome, three 
 hundred years ago. When all the nations in 
 Europe were listening to them and obeying them, 
 and they had put into their hands by God a greater 
 power of doing good than He ever gave to any 
 
288 THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 
 
 human being before or since, what did they do ? 
 Instead of using their power for Christ,, they used 
 it for themselves. Instead of preaching to all 
 nations the good news that Christ the Son of God 
 was their King, they said, ' I, the pope, am your 
 king. Christ is gone far away into heaven, and 
 has committed all power on earth to us ; we are 
 Christ's vicars ; we are in Christ's place ; He has en- 
 trusted to our keeping all the treasures of His 
 merits and His grace, and no one can get any 
 blessing from Christ, unless we choose to give it 
 him/ So they said in their hearts just what the 
 foolish servant in the parable said : and fancying 
 that they were lords and masters, naturally enough 
 went on to behave as such ; to beat the men- 
 servants and maid-servants, that is, to oppress and 
 tyrannize over the bodies and minds and consciences 
 of men, and women too, God knows ; and to 
 eat and drink with the drunken, to live in riot 
 and debauchery. But the Lord was not so far 
 off as those foolish popes fancied. And in an 
 hour when they were not aware, He came and 
 cut them asunder. He snatched from them 
 one half of the nations of Europe, and England 
 among the rest; He punished them by doubt, 
 ignorance, confusion, and utter blindness, and 
 appointed them their portion among the unbe- 
 lievers in such terrible earnest, that to this very 
 
THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 289 
 
 day, to judge by the things which they say and 
 do, it is difficult to persuade ourselves that the 
 popes really believe in any God at all. 
 
 So He did, only three years ago, to many kings 
 and princes on the continent.* They professed to 
 be Christians ; but they had forgotten that they 
 were Christ's stewards, that all their power came 
 from Him, and that He had given it them only 
 to use for the good of their subjects. And they too 
 went on saying 'The Lord delays His coming, 
 we are rulers in this world, and God is ruler in the 
 world to come/ So they, too, oppressed their 
 subjects, and lived in ease on what they wrung 
 out of the poor wretches below them. But the 
 Lord was nearer them, too, than they fancied ; 
 and all at once as they were fancying them- 
 selves all safe and prosperous, and saying, ' We 
 are those who ought to speak, who is Lord over 
 us ? ' their fool's paradise crumbled from under 
 their feet. A few paltry mobs of foolish starving 
 people, without weapons, without leaders, without 
 good counsel to guide them, rose against them. 
 And what did they do ? They might have crushed 
 down the rebels most of them, in a week, if they 
 had had courage. And in the only country where 
 the rebels were really strong, that is in Austria, 
 
 * In 1848-9. 
 I U 
 
290 THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 
 
 all might have been quiet again at once, if the 
 king had only had the heart to do common justice, 
 and keep his own solemn oaths. But no the 
 terror of the Lord came upon them. He most 
 truly cut them in sunder. They were every man 
 of a different mind, and none of them in the same 
 mind a day together ; they became utterly con- 
 science-stricken, terrified, perplexed, at their wit's 
 end, not having courage or determination to do 
 anything, or even to do nothing, and fled shame- 
 fully away one after another, to their everlasting 
 disgrace. And those of them who have got back 
 their power since are showing sadly enough, by 
 their obstinate folly and wickedness, that the Lord 
 has appointed them their portion with the unbe- 
 lievers, and left them to fill up the measure of 
 their iniquity, and drink deep the cup of wrath 
 which is in His hand, full and mixed for those who 
 forget God. 
 
 Oh ! my friends, let us lay these things solemnly 
 to heart. Do not fancy that the Lord will punish 
 the wicked great, and forget the wicked small. In 
 His sight there is neither great nor small ; all are 
 small enough for Him to crush like the moth; and 
 all are too great to be overlooked, or forgotten by 
 Him, without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground. 
 Again I say, my friends, let us lay His parable to 
 heart. Let us who have property, and station, and 
 
THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 291 
 
 education, never forget who has given it us, and 
 for whom we must use it. Let us never forget that 
 to whom much is given, of them will much be re- 
 quired. Let us pray to the Lord daily to write 
 upon our inmost hearts those solemn words, 'Who 
 made thee to differ from another ; and what hast 
 thou which thou didst not receive?' Let us look 
 on our servants, our labourers, on every human 
 being over whom we have any influence, as weaker 
 brothers whom God has commanded us to help, 
 teach, and guide in body, mind, and spirit, not 
 that we may make them our slaves, but make them 
 free, manful, self-helping, and in due time indepen- 
 dent of us and of every one except God. 
 
 And you young people, who have no authority 
 over any one, but over your own bodies ; to whom 
 the Lord has given little or nothing to manage and 
 take care of except your own health and strength 
 do not let the devil tempt you to believe that 
 that health and strength is your own property, to 
 do what you like with. It belongs to the Lord 
 who died for you, and He will require an account 
 from you how you have used it. Do not let the 
 devil tempt you to believe that the Lord delays his 
 coming to you that you may do what you like 
 now, in the prime of your years, and that it will be 
 time enough to think about God and religion when 
 God visits you with cares, and sickness, and old age. 
 
292 THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 
 
 That is the fancy of too many ; but it will surely 
 turn out to be a mistake. Those who misuse their 
 youth, and health, and strength, in tyrannizing 
 over those who are weaker than themselves, 
 and laughing at those who are not as clever 
 as themselves, and eating and drinking with the 
 drunken the Lord will come to them in an hour 
 when they are not aware, and cut them asunder, 
 in some way or other, by loss of work, or poverty, 
 or sickness, or doubt and confusion, and bitter 
 shame and perplexity of mind ; till they find out, 
 poor things, that they have been living like the un- 
 believers all their youth, without God in the world, 
 while God's love and God's teaching, and God's 
 happiness was ready for them ; and have to go 
 back again to their Father and their Lord, and cry, 
 ( Father, we have sinned against heaven and before 
 Thee, and are no more worthy to be called Thy 
 children !' Oh, you who have been fancying that the 
 Lord was gone far away, and that you had a right 
 to do what you liked with the powers which He has 
 given you, go back to Him, now at once, and con- 
 fess that you, and all belonging to you, belong to 
 Him, and ask Him to teach you how to use it 
 aright. Ask Him to teach you how to please Him 
 with it, and not yourselves only. Ask Him to teach 
 you how to do good to all around you, and not 
 merely to do what you like. Ask Him to show 
 
THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT. 293 
 
 you how to do your duty to Him, and to your 
 neighbours, for whom He died on the cross, in that 
 station of life to which He has called you. Ask 
 Him to show you how to use your property, your 
 knowledge, your business, your strength, your 
 health, so that you may be a blessing and a help 
 to those whom He blesses and helps, and who, He 
 wishes, should bless and help each other. Go back 
 to Him at once, my friends. You will not have far 
 to go, seeing that He is now even among us here 
 hearing my clumsy words; and I do hope, and 
 trust, and pray, bringing them home to some of 
 your hearts with that spirit and power of His, 
 which is like a two-edged sword, piercing to the 
 very depths of a man's heart, and showing him 
 how ugly it is and how noble the Lord will make 
 it, if he will but repent, and pray to Him who 
 never cast out any that came to Him. 
 
XXII. 
 THE WAY TO WEALTH. 
 
 ISAIAH Iv. 6, 7. 
 
 Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while 
 He is near : let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrigh- 
 teous man his thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, 
 and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will 
 abundantly pardon. 
 
 OME of you, surely, while the first lesson was 
 being read this morning, must have felt th e 
 beauty of it : and if you were thoughtful, per- 
 plexed, weary, sad at heart, perhaps you felt that 
 it was more than beautiful that it was full of 
 comfort. And so it should be full of comfort to 
 you, my friends. God meant it to give you com- 
 fort. For though it was written and spoken by a 
 man of like passions with ourselves, it was just as 
 truly written and spoken by God, who made heaven 
 and earth. It is true and everlasting, the message 
 which it brings, and like all true and everlasting 
 words, it is the voice of God who cannot change ; 
 who makes no difference between Jew and Gentile, 
 between us in England here, and nations which 
 perished hundreds of years ago. 
 
THE WAY TO WEALTH. 295 
 
 And what is its message? What was God's 
 word to the old Jews, among all their sin, and sor- 
 row, and labour ? 
 
 Is it the message of a stern judge, saying 'Pay 
 me that thou owest, to the uttermost farthing ; and 
 if you cannot do that, fret and torment yourselves 
 in shame and terror here on earth, for all your sins, 
 if, possibly, you may chance to change my mind, 
 and find forgiveness at the last day 
 
 Is it the message of a proud tyrant, saying, ' If 
 you are miserable, and fallen, and sinful, what is 
 that to me ? I am perfect, blest, contented with 
 myself, alone in my glory, far away beyond the 
 sight of men, beyond the sun and stars what are 
 you worms of earth to me f 
 
 Or is it the voice of a loving Father, calling to 
 his self-willed children who have gone proudly and 
 boldly away from their Father's house, and thrown 
 off their Father's government, and said in their 
 conceit, ( We are men. Do not we know good and 
 evil ? Do we not know what is our interest ? Can- 
 not we judge for ourselves, and shift for ourselves, 
 and take care of ourselves ? Why are we to be 
 barred from pleasant things here, and profitable 
 things there ? We will be our own masters/ 
 
 To self-willed children who have said thus, and 
 done thus in their foolish hearts, and have found 
 all their conceit, and shrewdness, only lead them 
 
296 THE WAY TO WEALTH. 
 
 into sorrow, and perplexity, and distress. Who 
 have found that with all their cleverness they could 
 not get the very good things for which they left 
 their Father's house ; or if they get them, find no 
 enjoyment in them, but only discontent, and shame, 
 and danger, and a sad self-accusing heart spend- 
 ing their money for that which does not feed them 
 after all, and labouring hard for things which do not 
 satisfy them ; always longing for something more 
 always finding the pleasure, or the profit, or the 
 honour which a little way off looked so fine, look 
 quite ugly and worthless, when they come up to it 
 and get hold of it finding all things full of labour ; 
 the eye never satisfied with seeing, or the ear with 
 hearing; the same thing coming over and over 
 again. Each young man starting with gay hopes, 
 as if he were the first man that ever was born, and 
 he was going to do out of hand such fine things as 
 man never did before, and make his own fortune, 
 and set the world to right at once; and then as he 
 grows older, falling into the same weary ruts as his 
 forefathers went dragging on in, every fresh year 
 bringing its own labour, and its own sorrow ; and 
 dying like them, taking nothing away with him of 
 all he has earned, and crying with his last breath, 
 ( That which is crooked cannot be made straight, 
 and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. 
 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he 
 
THE WAY TO WEALTH. 297 
 
 taketh under the -sun, for all is vanity and vexation 
 of spirit V 
 
 To self-willed children, who have tried their own 
 way ever since they were born, they and their 
 fathers before them, and found it go round in a 
 ring and leave them just where they started in heart 
 and soul, and, on their death-beds, in purse and 
 power also 
 
 To such struggling, dissatisfied beings such as 
 nine-tenths of the men arid women on this earth, 
 alas ! are still comes the word of this loving 
 Father 
 
 ' Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 waters ! and he that hath no money, come, buy and 
 eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, 
 and without price/ Why do you fancy that money 
 can give you all you want ? Why this labouring 
 and straining after money, as if it was God, as if it 
 made heaven and earth, and all therein ? Is money 
 a God ? or money's worth ? ' I am God/ saith the 
 Lord, * and beside me there is none else. It is I 
 who give, and not money. It is I who save men, 
 and not money. And I do save, and I do give 
 freely to all. Come, and try my mercy, and see if 
 my word be not true/ This struggling and snarl- 
 ing, like dogs over a bone what profit comes of 
 it? are you happier? are you wiser? are you better? 
 are you more at peace with your neighbours ; more 
 
298 THE WAY TO WEALTH. 
 
 at peace with your own hearts arid consciences? If 
 you are, money has not made you so, nor plotting, 
 and scraping, and struggling, and pushing your 
 neighbour down, that you may rise a few inches on 
 his shoulders. No. Hear what the voice of your 
 Father says is the true way to wealth and comfort, 
 after which you all struggle and labour so hard in 
 vain. ' Hearken diligently unto me, and you shall 
 eat that which is good, and your soul shall delight 
 itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me. 
 Hear, and your soul shall live. And I will make 
 an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure 
 mercies/ or rather ' the faithful oath which I sware 
 unto David/ And what is this faithful oath which 
 God sware to David. * Of the fruit of thy body, 
 I will'set on thy seat V A promise of a righteous 
 king who should arise in David's family. How far 
 David understood the full meaning of that glorious 
 promise we cannot tell. He thought most probably, 
 at first, that Solomon, his son, was to be the king 
 who would fulfil it. But all through many of his 
 psalms, there are deep and great words about some 
 nobler and more perfect king than Solomon about 
 one who, as Isaiah says here, would perfectly wit- 
 ness to the people that God was their King ; one 
 who would be a perfect leader and commander of 
 the people ; a holy one of Israel, who would sit on 
 God's right hand; to hear the good news of whom, 
 
THE WAY TO WEALTH. 299 
 
 the Jews would call nations whom they then did 
 not know of, and for whose sake nations who did not 
 know them would run to them. And dimly David 
 did see this, that God would raise up a true Christ, 
 that is, one truly anointed by God, chosen and sent 
 out by God, to sit on his throne, and be perfectly 
 what David was only in part ; a King made perfect 
 by suffering, a King of poor men, a King who bore 
 the sins and carried the iniquities of all His people, 
 from the highest to the lowest. We know who that 
 was. We know clearly what David only knew 
 dimly, what Isaiah only knew a little more clearly. 
 We know who was born of the Virgin Mary, cru- 
 cified under Pontius Pilate, ascended into heaven, 
 and now sits at the right hand of God 3 ever pray- 
 ing for us, ruling the world in righteousness, Jesus 
 the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, to whom all 
 power is given in heaven and earth. 
 
 But Isaiah, though he knew Him only dimly, 
 still knew Him. He did not know that the Lord, 
 the Holy One of Israel, would take on Himself the 
 form of a poor man, and be called the son of the 
 carpenter. Such boundless love and condescension 
 in the Son of God he never could have fancied for 
 himself, and God had not chosen to reveal it to 
 him; or to any one else in those days. But this 
 he did see, that the Lord Jesus, He whom he calls 
 the Holy One of Israel, was near the Jews in his 
 
300 THE WAY TO WEALTH. 
 
 time ; that He was watching over them, mourning 
 over their sins, arguing with them, and calling to 
 them to return to Him with most human love and 
 tenderness, as a husband to the woman whom he 
 loves in spite of her unfaithfulness to him. As he 
 says to his sinful and distressed country in the 
 chapter before this ' Thy Maker is thy husband : 
 the Lord of Hosts is His name, and thy Redeemer 
 is the Holy One of Israel, the Lord of the whole 
 earth shall He be called. For the Lord hath called 
 thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit. 
 For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but 
 with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little 
 anger I hid my face from thee for a moment, but 
 with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, 
 saith the Lord thy Redeemer/ 
 
 This, then, Isaiah knew that the heart of the 
 Holy Lord pitied and yearned after those poor 
 sinful Jews, as a husband's after a foolish and sin- 
 ful wife. And how much more should we believe 
 the same, how much more should we believe that 
 His heart pities and yearns for all foolish and sin- 
 ful people here in England now ! We who know 
 a thousand times more than Isaiah knew of His 
 love, His pity, His condescension, which led Him 
 to sacrifice Himself upon the cross for us ? Surely, 
 surely, if Isaiah had a right to say to those Jews 
 ' Seek the Lord while He may be found/ I have 
 
THE WAY TO WEALTH. 301 
 
 a thousand times as much right to say it to you. 
 If Isaiah had a right to say to those Jews, c Let 
 the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous 
 man his thoughts, and let him return unto the 
 Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to 
 our God, for He will abundantly pardon/ then 
 I have a right to say it to you. 
 
 Free mercy, utter pardon, pardon for all, even 
 for the worst. And what is the argument which 
 Isaiah uses to make his countrymen repent ? Is it 
 < Kepent, or you shall be damned : Kepent because 
 God's wrath and curse is against you ? The Lord 
 hates you and despises you, and you must crawl to 
 His feet, like beaten hounds, and intreat Him not 
 to strike you into hell as He intends T Not so ; 
 it was because God loved the Jews, that they 
 were to repent. It is because God loves you that 
 you must repent, ' Incline your ear/ saith the 
 Lord, 'and come unto me, hear, and your soul shall 
 live ; and you shall eat that which is good, and 
 your soul shall delight itself in fatness/ Yes, God 
 is love. God's delight and glory is to give ; in spite 
 of all our sins He gives and gives, sending rain and 
 fruitful seasons to just and unjust, to fill their 
 hearts with joy and gladness ; and all the while 
 men fancy that it is not God that gives, but they 
 who take. God has not left Himself, as St. Paul 
 says, without a witness ; every fruitful shower and 
 
302 THE WAY TO WEALTH. 
 
 quickening gleam of sunshine cries to us See ! 
 God is love : He is the giver. And men will not 
 hear that voice. They say in their hearts, c The 
 Lord is far away above the skies ; He does not 
 care for us : we must help ourselves, each man to 
 what he can get off this earth ; nay even when we 
 are hard put to it for a living, we must break God's 
 laws to keep ourselves alive, and so steal from 
 God's table the very good things which he offers 
 us freely/ 
 
 But some will say, ' He does not give freely : 
 we must work and struggle. Why do you mock 
 poor hard-worked creatures with such words as 
 these V 
 
 Ask that question of God, my friends, and not 
 of me. Isaiah said that those who hearkened to 
 God diligently should eat what is good. The Lord 
 Jesus Christ Himself said the same that if we 
 seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, all 
 other things should be added to them. He did 
 not mean us to be idle, God forbid ! but this He 
 meant, that if we, each in his business and calling, 
 put steadily before ourselves what is right, what 
 God would wish us, His subjects, to be in His 
 kingdom if instead of making our first thought 
 in every business we take in hand, c What will suit 
 my interest best, what will raise most money, what 
 will give me most pleasure V we said to ourselves 
 
THE WAY TO WEALTH. 303 
 
 all day long, 'What will be most right, and just, 
 and merciful for us to do ; what will be most 
 pleasing to a God who is love and justice itself? 
 what will do most good to my neighbour as well 
 as myself V then all things would go well with us. 
 Then we should be prosperous and joyful. Then 
 our plans would succeed and our labour bring forth 
 real profit to us, because they would be according 
 to the will of God: we should be fellow- workers 
 with Jesus Christ in the great work of doing good 
 to this poor distracted world, and His help and 
 blessing would be with us. 
 
 And if you ask me, how can this come to pass ? 
 I must answer, as Isaiah does in this same chap- 
 ter, 'The Lord's ways are not as our ways, nor 
 His thoughts as our thoughts, but higher than 
 ours, as the heavens are above the earth.' But 
 if we do turn to God, and repent each man of us 
 of his selfishness, his unfaithfulness, his hard- 
 heartedness, his covetousness, his self-will, his un- 
 godliness then God's blessing, as Isaiah says, 
 will come down on us, and spring up among us, 
 we know not how or whence, like the rain and 
 snow, which comes down from heaven and waters 
 the earth, and makes it bud and bring forth to 
 give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So 
 shall be the Lord's word, which goes out of His 
 mouth ; it will not return to Him void, but will ac- 
 
304 THE WAY TO WEALTH. 
 
 complish what He pleases, and prosper in that 
 whereto he sends it. He will teach us and guide us 
 in the right way. He will put His word into the 
 mouths of true teachers to show us our duty. 
 He will pour out His spirit upon us, to make us 
 love our duty. In one way and another, we know 
 not how, we shall be taught what is good for Eng- 
 land, good for each parish, good for each family. 
 And wealth, peace, and prosperity for rich and 
 poor will be the fruit of obeying the word of God, 
 and giving up our hearts to be led by His spirit. 
 As it was to be in Judaea of old, if they repented, 
 so will it be with us. They should go forth with 
 joy and do their work in peace. The hills should 
 break before them into singing, and all the trees 
 of the field should clap their hands ; instead of 
 thorns should come up timber trees : instead of 
 briers, garden shrubs. The whole cultivation of 
 the country was to improve, and be to the Lord 
 for a name, and a sign for ever that the true way 
 to wealth and prosperity, is the way of God, jus- 
 tice, mercy to each other, and obedience to the 
 will of Him who made heaven and earth, trees 
 and fruitful fields, rain and sunshine, and gives 
 the blessings of them freely to His children of 
 mankind, in proportion as they look up to Him 
 as a loving Father, and return to Him day by day, 
 with childlike repentance, and full desire to amend 
 their lives according to His holy word. 
 
XXIII. 
 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 
 
 2 COR. v. 14, 15. 
 
 For the love of Christ constraineth us; hecause we thus judge, 
 that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that He died 
 for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto 
 themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. 
 
 TTTHAT is the use of sermons ? what is the use 
 * * of books ? Here are hundreds and thousands 
 of people hearing weekly and daily what is right, 
 and how many do what is right ? much less love 
 what is right ? What can be the reason of this, 
 that men should know the better and choose the 
 worse ? What motive can one find out ? what 
 reason or argument can one put before people, to 
 make them do their duty? How can one stir 
 them up to conquer themselves ; to conquer their 
 own love of pleasure, laziness, cowardice, conceit, 
 above all their own selfishness, and do simply what 
 is right, morning, noon, and night? That is a 
 question worth asking and considering, for there 
 ought to be some use in sermons and in books ; 
 and there ought to be some use in every one of us 
 i x 
 
306 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 
 
 too. Woe to the man who is of no use ! The 
 Lord have mercy on his soul ; for he needs it ! It 
 is, indeed, worth his while to take any trouble 
 which will teach him a motive for being useful ; 
 in plain words, stir him up to do his duty, to do his 
 rights; for a man's rights are not, as the world 
 thinks, what is right others should do to him, but 
 what is right he should do to others. Our duty 
 is our right, the only thing which is right for us. 
 What motive will constrain us, that is, bind us, 
 and force us to do that ? 
 
 Will self-interest ? Will a man do right because 
 you tell him it is his interest, it will pay him to do 
 it ? Look round you and see. The drunkard 
 knows that drinking will ruin him, and yet he gets 
 drunk. The spendthrift knows that extravagance 
 will ruin him, and yet he throws away his money 
 still. The idler knows that he is wasting his only 
 chance for all eternity, and yet he puts the thought 
 out of his head, and goes on idling. The cheat 
 knows that he is in danger of being almost certainly 
 found out sooner or later ; he knows too that he 
 is burdening his own conscience with the curse 
 of inward shame and self-contempt ; and yet he 
 goes on cheating. The hard master knows, or 
 ought to know (for there is quite enough to prove 
 it to him) that it would pay him better in the long 
 run to be more merciful, and less covetous ; that 
 
THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 307 
 
 by grinding those whom he employs down to the 
 last farthing, he degrades them till they become 
 burdens on him and curses to him ; that what he 
 gains by high prices, he will lose in the long run 
 by bad debts ; that what he saves in low wages, he 
 will pay in extra poor-rates ; and that even if he 
 does make money out of the flesh and bones of those 
 beneath him, that money ill gotten is sure to be ill 
 spent, that there is a curse on it, that it brings a 
 curse in the gnawing of a man's own conscience, 
 and a curse too in the way it flows away from his 
 family as fast as it flowed to them. 'He that 
 by usury and unjust gain increases his wealth, 
 shall gather for him that will pity the poor/ So 
 said Solomon of old. And men who worship 
 Mammon find it come true daily, and see that, 
 taking all things together, a man's life does 
 not consist in the abundance of the things which 
 he possesses, and that those who make such haste 
 to be rich, fall, as the apostle says, 'into tempta- 
 tion and a snare, and pierce themselves through 
 with many sorrows/ Such a man sees his neigh- 
 bours making money, and making themselves more 
 unhappy, anxious, discontented by it ; he sees, in 
 short, that it is not his interest to do nothing but 
 make money and save money : and yet in spite of 
 that, he thinks of nothing else. Self-interest can- 
 not keep him from that sin. I do not believe that 
 x2 
 
308 THE LOVE OF CHKIST. 
 
 self-interest ever kept any man from any sin, 
 though it may keep him from many an imprudence. 
 Self-interest may make many a man respectable, 
 but whom did it ever make good ? You may as 
 well make house walls of paper, or take a rush for 
 a walking-stick, as take self-interest to keep you 
 upright, or even prudent. The first shake and the 
 rush bends, and the paper wall breaks, and a man's 
 selfish prudence is blown to the winds. Let 
 pleasure tempt him, or ambition, or the lust of 
 making money by speculation ; let him take a 
 spite against any one ; let him get into a passion ; 
 let his pride be hurt ; and he will do the maddest 
 things, which he knows to be entirely contrary to 
 his own interest, just to gratify the fancy of the 
 moment. Those who call themselves philosophers, 
 and fancy that men's self-interest, if they can only 
 feel it strong enough, would make all men just and 
 merciful to each other, know as little of human 
 nature as they do of God or the devil. 
 
 What will make a man do his duty ? Will the 
 hope of heaven ? That depends very much upon 
 what you mean by heaven. But what people 
 commonly mean by going to heaven, is not going 
 to hell. They believe that they must go to either 
 one place or the other. They would much sooner 
 of course stay on earth for ever, because their 
 treasure is here, and their heart too. But that 
 
THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 309 
 
 cannot be, and as they have no wish to go to hell, 
 they take up with heaven instead, by way of 
 making the best of a bad matter. 
 
 I ask you, solemnly, my friends, each one of you, 
 which would you sooner do stay here on earth, or 
 go to Heaven ? You need not answer me. I am 
 afraid many of you would not dare answer me as 
 you really felt, because you would be ashamed of 
 not liking to go to heaven. But answer God. 
 Answer yourselves in the sight of God. When you 
 keep yourselves back from doing a wrong thing, 
 because you know it is wrong, is it for love of 
 heaven, or for mere fear of being punished in hell ? 
 Some of you will answer boldly at once, 'For 
 neither one nor the other ; when we keep from 
 wrong, it is because we hate and despise what is 
 wrong : when we do right, it is because it is right 
 and we ought to do it. We can't explain it, but 
 there is something in us which tells us we ought to 
 do right/ Very good, my friends, I shall have a 
 word to say to you presently; but in the mean 
 time there are some others who have been saying 
 to themselves, c Well, I know we do right because 
 we are afraid of being punished if we do not do it, 
 but what of that ? at all events we get the right 
 thing done, and leave the wrong thing undone, and 
 what more do you want ? Why torment us with 
 disagreeable questions as to why we do it/ 
 
310 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 
 
 Now, my friends, to make the matter simpler, 
 I will take you at your words, for the sake of 
 argument. Suppose you do avoid sin from the 
 fear of hell, does that make what you do right ? 
 Does that make you right ? Does that make your 
 heart right? It is a great blessing to a man's 
 neighbours, certainly, if he is kept from doing 
 wrong any how by the fear of hell, or fear of 
 iail, or fear of shame, or fear of ghosts if you like, 
 or any other cowardly and foolish motive a great 
 blessing to a man's neighbours : but no blessing, 
 that I can see, to the man himself. He is just 
 the same ; his heart is not changed ; his heart is 
 no more right in the sight of God, or in the sight 
 of any man of common sense either, than it would 
 be if he did the wrong thing, which he loves and 
 dare not do. You feel that yourselves about other 
 people. You will say ' That man has a bad heart, 
 for all his respectable outside. He would be a 
 rogue if he dared, and therefore he is a rogue/ 
 Just so I say, my friends, take care lest God 
 should say of you, ' He would be a sinner if he 
 dared, and therefore he is a sinner/ 
 
 How can the hope of heaven, or the fear of hell, 
 make a man do right ? The right thing, the true 
 thing for a man, is to be loving, and do loving 
 things ; and can fear of hell do that, or hope of 
 heaven either ? Can a man make himself affec- 
 
THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 311 
 
 tionate to his children because he fancies he shall 
 be punished if he is not so and rewarded if he is 
 so ? Will the hope of heaven send men out to 
 feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, visit the sick, 
 preach the gospel to the poor? The Papists say 
 it will. I say it will not. I believe that even in 
 those who do these things from hope of heaven 
 and fear of hell, there is some holier, nobler, more 
 spiritual motive, than such everlasting selfishness, 
 such perfect hypocrisy, as to do loving works for 
 others, for the sake of one's own self-love. 
 
 What feeling then is there left which will bind a 
 man to do good, not once in a way, but always and 
 habitually ? to do good not only to himself but to 
 all around him ? I know but of one, my friends, 
 and that is JLove. There are many sides to love 
 admiration, reverence, gratitude, pity, affection 
 they are all different shapes of that one great spirit 
 of love. Surely all of you have felt its power 
 more or less ; how wonderfully it can conquer a 
 man's whole heart, change his whole conduct. For 
 love of a woman ; for pity to those in distress ; for 
 admiration for any one who is nobler and wiser 
 than himself; for gratitude to one who has done 
 him kindness ; for loyalty to one to whom he feels 
 he owes a service a man will dare to do things, 
 and suffer things, which no self-interest or fear in 
 the world could have brought him to. Do you not 
 
312 THF LOVE OF CHRIST. 
 
 know it yourselves ? Is it not fondness for your 
 wives and children, that will make you slave and 
 stint yourselves of pleasure more than any hope of 
 gain could ever do? But there is no one human 
 being, my friends, whom we can meet among us now, 
 for whom we can feel all these different sorts of love? 
 Surely not : and yet there must be One Person some- 
 where for whom God intends us to feel them all 
 at once ; or else He would not have given all these 
 powers to us, and made them all different branches 
 of one great root of love. There must be One Person 
 somewhere, who can call out the whole love in us 
 all our gratitude ; all our pity ; all our admiration ; 
 all our loyalty ; all our brotherly affection. And 
 there is One, my friends. One who has done for us 
 more than ever husband or father, wife or brother, 
 can do to call out our- gratitude. One who has 
 suffered for us more than the saddest wretch upon 
 this earth can suffer, to call out our pity. One who 
 who is nobler, purer, more lovely in character, 
 than all others who ever trod this earth, to call 
 out our admiration. One who is wiser, mightier 
 than all rulers and philosophers, to call out 
 all our reverence. One who is tenderer, more 
 gentle, more feeling-hearted, than the kindest 
 woman who ever sat by a sick bed, to call out 
 all our love. Of whom can I be speaking? 
 Of whom but of Jesus ; He who for us stooped 
 
*'<? u 
 
 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 313 
 
 out of the heaven of heaven's; fafus left Et 
 glory in the bosom of the Faffre/<Vfo,us tc 
 upon Him the form of a servant, and was feornjof 
 a village maiden, and was called the son of a car- 
 penter ; for us wandered this earth for thirty years 
 in sorrow and shame ; for us gave His back to the 
 scourge, and His face to shameful spitting ; for us 
 hung upon the cross, and died the death of the 
 felon and the slave. Oh ! my friends, if that story 
 will not call out our love, what will ? If we cannot 
 admire Christ, whom can we admire? If we 
 cannot be grateful to Christ, to whom can we be 
 grateful ? If we cannot pity Christ, whom can we 
 pity ? If we cannot feel bound in honour to live 
 for Christ, to work for Christ, to delight in talking 
 of Christ, thinking of Christ, to glory in doing 
 Christ's commandments to the very smallest point, 
 to feel no sacrifice too great, no trouble too petty, 
 if we can please Christ by it and help forward 
 Christ's kingdom upon earth if we cannot feel 
 bound in honour to do that for Christ, what honour 
 is there in us? Again, I say, if we cannot love 
 Christ, whom can we love ? If the remembrance 
 of what He has worked for us will not stir us up 
 to work for Him, what will stir us up ? 
 
 I say it again, we are bound by every tie, by 
 every feeling that can bind man to man, to devote 
 ourselves to Christ, the Man of all men. I say 
 
314 THE LOVE OF CHKIST. 
 
 this is no dream or fancy, it is an actual fact, which 
 thousands, and hundreds of thousands on this earth 
 have felt. Nothing but love to Christ, nothing 
 but loving Him because He first loved us, can 
 constrain and force a man as with a mighty feeling 
 which he cannot resist, to labour day and night 
 for Christ's sake, and therefore for the sake of God 
 the Father of Christ. What else do you suppose 
 it was, which could have stirred up the apostles, 
 above all, that wise, learned, high-born, prosperous 
 man St. Paul, to leave house and home, and wander 
 in daily danger of his life ? What does St. Paul 
 say himself? ' The love of Christ constraineth us, 
 because we thus judge, that if one died for all, 
 then were all dead, and that He died for all, that 
 they which live should not henceforth live unto 
 themselves, but unto Him who died for them/ 
 And what else could have kept St. Paul through 
 all that labour and sorrow of his own choosing, of 
 which he speaks in the chapter before ? ' We are 
 troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; we are 
 perplexed, but not in despair ; persecuted, but not 
 forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed ; always 
 bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord 
 Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made 
 manifest in our body ; for we which live are alway 
 delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life 
 also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.' 
 
THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 315 
 
 We may say that St. Paul was an exceedingly 
 benevolent man, and that made him do it ; or that 
 he had found out certain new truths and opinions 
 which delighted him very much, and therefore he 
 did it. But St. Paul gives no such account of 
 himself : and we have no right to take any one's 
 account but his own. He knew his own heart best. 
 He does not say that he came to preach a scheme 
 of redemption, or opinions about Christ. He says 
 he came to preach nothing but Christ Himself 
 Christ crucified to tell people about the Lord he 
 loved, about the Lord who loved him, certain that 
 when they had heard the plain story of Him, their 
 hearts, if they were simple, and true, and loving, 
 would leap up in answer to his words, and find out 
 as by instinct, what Christ had done for them, 
 what they were to do for Christ. Ay, I believe, my 
 friends indeed I am certain from my own reading, 
 that in every age and country, just in proportion as 
 men have loved Christ personally as a man would 
 love another man, just in that proportion have they 
 loved their neighbours, worked for their neighbours, 
 sacrificed their time, their pleasure, their money, 
 to do good to all, for the sake of Him who com- 
 manded, ( If ye love ME, keep my commandments ; 
 and my commandment is this, that ye should love 
 one another as I have loved you/ That is the 
 only sure motive, All other motives for doing 
 
316 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 
 
 good or being good, will fail in one case or another 
 case, because they do not take possession of a 
 man's whole heart, but only of some part of his 
 heart. Love love to Christ, can alone sweep away 
 a man's whole heart and soul with it, and renew it, 
 and transfigure it, and make it strong instead of 
 weak, pure instead of foul, gentle instead of fierce, 
 brave instead of being vain and cowardly, and 
 fearing what every one will say of him. Only 
 love for Christ, who loved all men unto the death, 
 will make us love all men too : not only one here 
 and there who may agree with us or help us ; but 
 those who hate us, those who misunderstand us, 
 those who thwart us, ay, even those who disobey 
 and slight not only us, but Jesus Christ Himself. 
 That is the hardest lesson of all to learn : but 
 thousands have learnt it ; every one ought to learn 
 it. In proportion as a man loves Christ, he will 
 learn to love those who do not love Christ. For 
 Christ loves them whether they know it or not ; 
 Christ died for them whether they believe it or not ; 
 and we must love them because our Saviour loves 
 them. 
 
 Oh ! my friends, why do so few love Christ ? 
 Why do so few live as those who are not their 
 own, but bought with the price of His precious 
 blood and bound to devote themselves, body and 
 soul, to His cause? Why do so many struggle 
 
THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 317 
 
 against their sins, while yet they cannot break off 
 those sins, but go struggling and sinning on, hating 
 their sins and yet unable to break through their 
 sins, like birds beating themselves to death against 
 the wires of their cage? Why? Because they 
 do not know Christ. And how can they know 
 Him, unless they read their Bibles with simple, 
 child-like hearts, determined to let the Bible tell its 
 own story : believing that those who walked with 
 Christ on earth, must know best what He was like ? 
 Why ? Because they will not ask Christ to come 
 and show Himself to them, and make them see 
 Him, and love Him, and admire Him, whether 
 they will or not. Oh ! remember, if Christ be the 
 Son of God, the Lord of heaven and earth, we can- 
 not go to Him, poor, weak, ignorant creatures as 
 we are. We cannot ascend up into heaven to 
 bring Christ down. He must come down, out of 
 His own great love and condescension, and dwell 
 in our hearts as He has promised to do, if we do 
 but love Him. He must come down and show 
 Himself to us. Oh ! read your Bibles read the 
 story of Christ, and if that does not stir up in you 
 some love for Him, you must have hearts of stone, 
 not flesh and blood. And then go to Him ; pray 
 to Him, whether you believe in Him altogether or 
 not, upon the mere chance of His being able to 
 hear you and help you. You would not throw 
 
318 THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 
 
 away a chance on earth ; will you throw away such 
 a chance in heaven as having the Son of God to 
 help you ? Oh, cry to Him ; say out of the depths 
 of your heart, ' Thou most blessed and glorious 
 Being who ever walked this earth, who hast gone 
 blameless through all sorrow and temptation that 
 man can feel ; if Thou dost love any one, if Thou 
 canst hear any one, hear me ! If thou canst not 
 help me, no one can. I have a hundred puzzling 
 questions which I cannot answer for myself, a 
 hundred temptations which I cannot conquer for 
 myself, a hundred bad habits which I cannot shake 
 off of myself ; and they tell me that Thou canst 
 teach me, Thou canst guide me, Thou canst 
 strengthen me, Thou canst take out of my heart this 
 shame and gnawing of an evil conscience. If Thou 
 be the Son of God, make me clean ! If it be true 
 that Thou lovest all men, show Thy love to me ! 
 If it be true that Thou canst teach all men, teach 
 me ! If it be true that Thou canst help all men, 
 help my unbelief, for if Thou dost not, there is no 
 help for me in heaven or earth !' You, who are 
 sinful, distracted, puzzled, broken-hearted, cry to 
 Christ in that way, if you have no better way, 
 and see if He does not hear you. He is not one 
 to break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking 
 flax. He will hear you, for He has heard 
 all who have ever called on Him. Cry to 
 
THE LOVE OF CHRIST. 319 
 
 Him from the bottom of your hearts. Tell Him 
 that you do not love Him, and that yet you 
 long to love Him. And see if you do not find it true 
 that those who come to Christ, He will in no wise 
 cast out. He may not seem to answer you the 
 first time, or the tenth time, or for years ; for 
 Christ has His own deep, loving, wise ways of 
 teaching each man, and for each man a different 
 way. But try to learn all you can of Him. Try 
 to know Him. Pray to know, and understand 
 Him, and love Him. And sooner or later you 
 will find His words come true, ' If a man love me, 
 I and my Father will come to him, and take up 
 our abode with him/ And then you will feel arise 
 in you a hungering and a thirsting after righteous- 
 ness, a spirit of love, and a desire of doing good, 
 which will carry you up and on, above all that man 
 *can say or do against you above all the laziness, 
 and wilfulness, and selfishness, and cowardice 
 which dwells in the heart of every one. You will 
 be able to trample it all under foot for the sake ot 
 being good and doing good, in the strength of that 
 one glorious thought, c Christ lived and died for 
 me, and, so help me God, I will live and die for 
 Christ/ 
 
 THE END. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, 
 CHANDOS STREET. 
 
Kings ley , 
 x)iL:t; 
 
 Charles 
 felie earth. 
 
 BX5133 
 K536