CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT THE CROSS 
 A CORRUPTION OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 ON SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY, 1875. 
 
 WITH A NOTE ON 
 " MODERN CHRISTIANITY A CIVILISED HEATHENISM." 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. E. B. PUSEY, D.D. 
 
 REGIUS PROFESSOR OF HEBREW, AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH. 
 
 SOLD BY 
 
 JAMES PARKER & CO., OXFORD, 
 
 And 377, Strand, London ; 
 
 And RIVINGTONS, 
 
 london, oxford, and cambridge. 
 
 1875.
 
 PRINTED BY THE SOCIETY OF THE HOLY TRINITY, 
 HOLY ROOD, OXFORD.
 
 CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT THE CROSS 
 A CORRUPTION OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 
 
 S. Luke ix. 23. 
 
 '^And He said unto all, If any ivill come after Me, 
 let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily j 
 andfolloiu Me." 
 
 Does then our Redeeming Lord indeed speak these 
 words to us? Is there no way out of them? Would 
 He still say them, if He were to come again upon 
 earth and preach in our marketplaces ? But was 
 He not then the Eternal Word ? Did He not 
 say, " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My 
 words shall not pass away?" Does He not say, 
 " The word that I have spoken, the same shall 
 judge him in the last Day ? " Does not that Other 
 Comforter, as He called Him, that "best Preacher," 
 God the Holy Ghost, still preach those words to us 
 many times in the year ? Are they not part of the 
 " everlasting Gospel ''? " 
 
 But what then ? Does not only men's practice, 
 in great measure, fall short of the Pattern and 
 Ideal set before them, but is, as has been said, 
 "Modern Christianity a civilised Heathenism''?" 
 Do men not only but half-believe our Blessed 
 Lord's words, but is His plan a failure? Have 
 we altogether parted with Him Whom we adore, 
 a Rev. xiv. 6. ^ See Note at the end. 
 
 E 2
 
 4 C'lirisfiauiti/ ivithont the Cross 
 
 AVhom we desire to love ? Or, how is this state 
 of things around us compatible with the Divinity 
 of the Gospel, which He was ? 
 
 Compatible it certainly is, since He predicted it. 
 For what else do the parables of the tares and the 
 wheat ; the good and bad fish in the one net of the 
 kingdom of God ; the three sorts of soil, upon which 
 the seed sown was wasted, and the one soil in 
 which it yielded varied proportions of fruit ; the 
 wise and foolish virgins ; the sheep and the goats ; 
 the slothful servant who knew his Lord's will and 
 did it not; the many called and the few chosen; the 
 wide gate and the broad way which leadeth unto 
 destruction, and the many who go in thereat ; those 
 who shall say in that Day, " Have we not pro- 
 phesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name done 
 many wondrous works ? " and to whom He shall 
 say " I never knew you;" those who should cause 
 one of those little ones who believe in Him to 
 offend, and for whom it would be better that they 
 should be cast into the sea ; — What is this and 
 the like, but that chequered scene of good and 
 evil which our eyes behold ? Nay, He pictures 
 the times before His Coming '^ as just such times 
 of luxury, selfishness, worldhness, as we see all 
 around us. He tells us of that abounding of ini- 
 quity and the consequent chillness of love ^, which 
 we too well know. One who less knew the human 
 heart than He Who made it, or the intensity of 
 its self-will, might well have thought that it could 
 not resist such overpowering love, as God has 
 shewed us. It is not in the heart of man to iraa- 
 
 « S. Matt. xxiv. 38. 39. '' lb. 12.
 
 a corniptlon of the Gosjxd of Christ. 5 
 
 gine such obduration of the soul against it, even 
 as some picture to themselves a conversion of the 
 soul after death, in those who will not, to the end, 
 be turned back to God here. One who had not a 
 Divine knowledge of the heart would not have ima- 
 gined such Divine love wasted. To human success 
 it is essential to believe its own power to succeed. 
 " " They can because they think they can," is true 
 of men. Divine wisdom alone knew the limits 
 which self-obdurating free-will would set to the 
 prevailingness of Divine love and Divine grace. 
 Success and failure were predicted at once ; Divine 
 success from Divine power : partial failure con- 
 temporaneous with the success, from the limit 
 which God set to the putting-forth of His own 
 Omnipotency — our free-will. 
 
 We may then well dispense ourselves from the 
 superfluous task of vindicating our Redeemer. The 
 love of God, revealed to us in Christ, has eternal 
 ends, even beyond that unutterable bliss of those 
 who will to be saved. "God hath set us the Apos- 
 tles last," S. Paul says f, "as a spectacle to the 
 world and to Angels and to men ," — " ^to the intent 
 that now unto the principalities and powers in 
 heavenly places might be known through the Church 
 the manifold wisdom of God." " The Angels," we 
 are told, '"'desire to look into the Sufferings of 
 Christ and the glory which should follow." Nay, 
 even apart from the hints which Holy Scripture 
 gives us, it were inconceivable that the mystery of 
 the Incarnation, the union of God the Creator with 
 
 « Possunt, quia posse videntur. *" 1 Cor. iv. 9. 
 
 s Eph. iii. 10. f' 1 S. Pet. i. 12.
 
 6 Christianity without the Gross 
 
 us, should not iu ways, more unutterably vast than 
 we can imagine, affect every order and indivi- 
 dual of that creation, those gigantic Intelligences 
 and Powers, of whom we know scarce anything 
 except what is conveyed to us by their names, 
 but over whom, with us, our Incarnate Lord is 
 Head \ But, leaving to Almighty God the wisdom 
 of His own doings, it concerns us more nearly, yea 
 most nearly, (for it may be our salvation) — since 
 there is this evident contrast between the precepts 
 of our Lord and the outward shew of much which 
 thinks itself Christian, which would be shocked 
 and feel itself ao-o-rieved or insulted, if it were told 
 that it is not Christian, — have we corrupted Chris- 
 tianity ? The question ought not to startle us. 
 Where are those seven Churches, to whom God 
 the Holy Ghost dictated those seven Epistles in 
 the Apocalypse, and of the corruption of which', 
 or their chequered good and eviP, or even of whose 
 unmixed good, yet of the necessity of perseverance', 
 He wrote ? And yet what He said to them, He 
 says expressly that He said to all who have an ear 
 to hear, "°'He that hath an ear to hear, let him 
 hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." 
 Corruptions in the Western Churches before the 
 reformation were miserably great ; all acknowledge 
 it : there would not have been otherwise a rent so 
 great. Protestant missionaries have not much 
 more to say of the Eastern Church. I am not speak- 
 
 i Eph. i. 10, 21. Phil. ii. 10. 1 S. Pet. iii. 22. 
 
 J Sardis, Kev. iii. 1 — 6; Laodicea, lb. 14 — 21. 
 
 ^ Ephesus, lb. ii. 1 — 7; Pcrgamos, lb. 12 — 17. 
 
 J Smyrna, ii. lb. 8—11 : Thyatira, lb. 18—29 ; Pliiladelphia, 
 lb. iii. 7— 13. n^b. iii. 22.
 
 a corritptioji of the Got^pel of Chri>;t. 7 
 
 ing of our devotions, or of that which, as a Church, 
 we teach and set forth as truth ; but of that which 
 they contradict, what we should amend if we fol- 
 lowed them — our popular maxims, our lives. Is 
 our 19''' century Christianity, in all which concerns 
 our lives, in that habitual every day course of life 
 whereby we are pleasing or displeasing God, our 
 standard of what is right or wrong, like that which 
 our Lord left on earth for us to follow ? 
 
 Again, I speak not of the poor. They are the spe- 
 cial heritage of Christ. His mission was especially 
 to preach the Gospel unto them. He pronounced 
 them " blessed." He declared that *' theirs is the 
 kingdom of Heaven." Even now they bear still 
 the likeness of His outward lot. They wear His 
 livery and badge. Poverty is full often a sort of 
 sacrament to them, conveying to them His hidden 
 grace ; their privations, when well-endured by His 
 grace, are ""a kind of sacrifice to Him ; they, even 
 by their patient endurance, will have some portion 
 of the reward of those who not only believe, but also 
 suffer for His sake." And happily they are the 
 largest portion of Christendom. Christ is probably 
 more often to be found in the hovels of the poor 
 than in the drawing-rooms of the rich. At the 
 worst I should think that in that great Babylon, 
 our metropolis, the atmosphere of S. Giles' was 
 more healthy for the fruits of the Gospel than the 
 air of Belgravia. 
 
 But again, I speak not of individuals. However 
 horribly like, not theiy- condition, but our's also, is 
 to that of Dives, God alone knows who are really 
 
 ^ Keble's Lenten Sermons, p. 19.
 
 8 Christianity ivithout the Cross 
 
 such. In outward luxuries we far exceed him. 
 The whole realm of luxury and comfort has ex- 
 panded, even to those who have fewest of what 
 would be called luxuries. He had not the neces- 
 saries of his breakfast from the two opposite ends 
 of the earth, or his fuel from the earth's bowels, 
 gained by the unacknowledged and unthanked toils 
 of his fellow-men. It were well, exceeding well for 
 us, if we were content with the luxuries which the 
 Prophets condemned. This outward lot is not, we 
 must hope, their and our all. In one way it bears 
 most on our judgement hereafter, whether we are 
 steadily setting ourselves to act up to what we 
 know. We are not responsible, in the same degree, 
 for the fog and mist around us, which hinders our 
 seeing beyond a little way, unless we could ourselves 
 remove it. And yet, although we be swept along 
 by the torrent of tyrant custom, or may not see 
 how effectually to resist it, we must often have felt 
 a misgiving, "Are we honest with the words of 
 .Christ ?" Let us hear Him, as we just now heard 
 Him. It is He, our Redeemer, our Judge, Who 
 speaks, " If any will come after Me, let him deny 
 himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me." 
 Our Lord sets Himself before them to accept or 
 to refuse, if any mil. God so loveth the free 
 choice and love of His creatures, that He draggeth 
 us not as stones, but draws us with cords of 
 loving-kindness. God became Man to win our love. 
 He calls us on no road which He hath not Himself 
 tracked with His Blood. The closer we follow, 
 (even reason tells us,) the nearer we come to Him.^ 
 He respects our freewill, in which He created us,
 
 a comvpfion of tie Gosjjel of Ghn'sf. 9 
 
 whether we will follow Him or no; but, if we 
 will to follow Him, the way is but one. He is the 
 Truth, and cannot bid us follow Him in ways 
 which lead away from Him. He cannot bid us 
 serve Him and that which is contrary to Him. 
 "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." It is a 
 contradiction, as it would be to walk on two op- 
 posite roads at once, to go at once backwards 
 and forwards. The words are simple, "If any will 
 to follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his 
 cross and follow Me." Self-renunciation stands at 
 the threshold of the school of Christ. Our Master 
 saith not, (in our petty way of speaking of "self- 
 denial ") " let him lay aside this or that," but 
 " himself " {apvr^arda-Qw eavrov). It were little to re- 
 nounce what one has, unless one renounce also 
 what one is. One might renounce anything one 
 has, and plume ourselves on having renounced it. 
 The self which we are to renounce is the self, 
 which is opposed to God and the will of God. 
 "We are," says a father", "one thing, as we 
 are fallen by sin ; another, as we were created by 
 nature ; one thing, which we have made, another, 
 which we loere made. Let us forsake ourselves, 
 such as we have by sinning made ourselves, and 
 remain ourselves, such as by grace we have been 
 made. The proud, who by conversion to Christ 
 hath been made humble, has forsaken himself. 
 The luxurious, who has changed his life to conti- 
 nence, hath renounced what he was. The covetous, 
 who hath ceased to seek for gain, and hath learned 
 to give bountifully of his own, hath forsaken 
 
 ° S. Greg, in Evangel. Horn. 32. n. 2 (abridged).
 
 10 Chrliiilaiiity ivUhuiit the Cross 
 
 liimself . He is himself by nature ; lie is not him- 
 self in ill. Paul had denied himself, who said, 
 *yet I live, but not I.' Dead was that fierce per- 
 secutor, and there had begun to live the pious 
 preacher. *But Christ liveth in me.' 'T,' he saith, 
 * am dead from my former self, for I live no longer 
 after the flesh ; but not dead essentially, for in 
 Christ I live spiritually.' Let then the Truth say, 
 *If any will to come after Me, let him deny him- 
 self;' for unless any cease from himself, he ap- 
 proacheth not to Him, Who is above himself ; nor 
 can he lay hold of that which is beyond himself, if 
 he know not how to do to death what he is." 
 
 So far the first step of being a disciple of Christ 
 is to "cease to do evil," as Isaiah p says. But it 
 is not an abnegation of this or that evil thing in 
 him, but liimself. It is not, to renounce sensuality, 
 and retain pride ; to renounce sloth, and retain ambi- 
 tion; to cease to abuse God's gifts, and by self- 
 exaltation to be ungi'atef ul to the Giver ; to refrain 
 from active evil, yet to be ashamed of Christ and 
 His words ; to diminish self-indulgence, yet shew 
 no mercy to the poor ; to prize the truth, yet speak 
 evil of dignities ; to own one's self a miserable 
 sinner, and be angry because one is slighted. Real 
 self-renunciation is in all things, and as one tied 
 by one leg may walk for miles, but quit not the 
 spot where he is tied ; so one unrenounced evil 
 habit keeps the soul Satan's prisoner, that he 
 cannot follow Christ. Whoso renounceth not his 
 whole self is Hke one who walks all night in a 
 
 r Is. i. 16. "Depart ftx)m evil and do good." Ps. xxxiv. 14, 
 xxxvii. 27.
 
 a corruption of the Gospel of Christ. 1 1 
 
 mist, and finds himself in the morning close to 
 what was a burthen to him and what he had 
 thrown down. 
 
 Self-surrender must be complete. Else it is, at 
 best, the surrender not of self, but of one part of 
 self; a sacrifice, like that utter destruction of what 
 was vile and worthless in Saul's eyes, for which 
 God rejected himself ; a sacrifice, such as men will 
 offer to any of the idols of this world, of that which 
 costs them nothing, compared to that which they 
 gain. All of us have renewed our vows to re- 
 nounce the devil and — not some of his works but 
 all; not some of the sinful lusts of the flesh, but all; 
 to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, 
 with all our soul, with all our strength ; we have 
 " renounced the devil and all his works ; the vain 
 pomp and glory of the world, and the carnal desires 
 of the flesh, so that we will not follow nor be led 
 by them." What can we retain, which shall not 
 brand us as perjured persons, perjured to our Re- 
 deemer and our God ? One deadly sin, wilfully and 
 knowingly indulged, absolutely separates from God. 
 Not that the sinner's state is so hopeless, or that 
 he need be so far separate from God, as by mani- 
 fold sins, though deadly sins seldom come singly ; 
 but all seeming or real natural good unites not to 
 God one, whom one unrepented, repeated sin 
 separates from Him. It is God Himself Who 
 says, " "i If a man keep the whole law, yet offend in 
 one point, he is guilty of all;" for all are one whole, 
 and One is the Giver of all. 
 
 This lies at the threshold of the Gospel : one 
 1 S. James ii. 10.
 
 12 Christuiuifij icithoiit tlie Cross 
 
 deadly sin, persevered in, separates from Christ; 
 one deadly sin persevered in, enlists us in war 
 against Christ ; and makes us, instead of soldiers 
 of Christ, mercenaries of the Enemy ; our name of 
 Christian, until we repent, brands us as deserters. 
 
 But our Lord goes on, " let him deny himself, 
 and take up his cross." " Here," some may tell 
 me, " we have a metaphor, and metaphors may not 
 have a very precise meaning." Doubtless, many 
 of us have passed over this saying, as not ha^dng a 
 very definite meaning. Yes ! but also metaphors 
 may have a very deep meaning ; nay, it is for the 
 sake of that deeper meaning, that the metaphor is 
 used at all, because it expresses more than could 
 be taught in plain terms, without it. And here the 
 metaphor is from Christ Himself, and the bitter 
 Passion which He willingly underwent for love of 
 each one of us. 
 
 It was probably the first time that our Blessed 
 Lord had spoken plainly of that Death. He had 
 before told them of the mourning, when He, Whom 
 S. John Baptist had spoken of as the Bridegroom, 
 *■ should be taken from them : He had declared their 
 future blessedness, "* when men shall hate you, 
 and shall cast out your name as evil for the Son of 
 Man's sake." Now, that S. Peter had, in the name 
 of all, confessed," Thou art the Christ of God," He 
 told them (it seems for the first time) plainly ; " * The 
 Sou of Man must suffer many things, and be re- 
 jected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, 
 and be slain and be raised the third day." And 
 
 '■ S. Luke Y. 35, S. Mark ii. 20, S. Matt. ix. 15. 
 s S. Luke vi. 22. t lb. ix. 22.
 
 a corruftion of the Gospel of Glirid. 1;' 
 
 when Peter had deprecated this, and received that 
 severe rebuke, as doing the part of the Evil one, 
 and " "savouring not the things that be of God, but 
 the things that be of men," then, lest we should 
 think that He said this to Apostles only, " " He 
 called the ijeople with His disciples," and said to 
 them, this about the cross, and added that aweful 
 sanction,'""' What shall it profit a man, if he shall 
 gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? or 
 what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? ' ' 
 and then, " Whoso shall be ashamed of Me and of 
 My words in this sinful and adulterous generation, 
 of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when 
 He Cometh in the glory of the Father and of the 
 holy Angels." the horrible woe of him, from 
 whom Christ, our only hope, shall turn away His 
 Face in that Day ! 
 
 Is there then no escape from it ? Did our Lord, 
 the Truth, mean what He said ? Let me ask you an 
 opposite question. Did our Lord, being God, be- 
 come Man, only that His disciples should lead as 
 easy lives as they can, multiply to themselves as 
 many comforts and luxuries as they can, say to 
 our souls, with the rich man whose soul was that 
 night demanded of him to give account of his 
 stewardship, '"'Soul, take thine ease, eat, drink and 
 be merry," so only that thou be not drunken? Is 
 His law, " Thou canst not serve God and mammon," 
 obsolete ? Or is what He declared impossible, be- 
 come possible with time ? Are we to turn our 
 Lord's Woes into Blesseds and His Blesseds into 
 
 II S. Mark viii. 32» 33. ^ lb. 34. 
 
 * lb. 36-38. " S. Luke xxii. 19.
 
 14 Chvutlanify vufliont the Cross 
 
 Woes, and still call ourselves His disciples ? Shall 
 we say," ^ Blessed are ye that are rich :" " Blessed 
 are ye that are full :" and, " Woe unto you that are 
 poor : " " woe unto you that hunger now." It is 
 what men's every day lives, what our boast that 
 " we English understand our comforts, " what our 
 self-gratulations seem to say. Can we persuade 
 ourselves that our treasure is not, where our heart 
 is ? or that our heart is not there, for which we 
 toil. A heathen said, " The despot money com- 
 mands or serves each^" It commands those who 
 slave for it. We are not less its slaves, if we toil 
 for it, to spend on ourselves, our comforts and our 
 luxuries. 
 
 If we cannot find one word of our Lord's to 
 excuse our living for this world, and hoping to 
 gain heaven, how did they understand Him, to 
 whom He spake or revealed Himself ? Let us ask 
 him, men's favourite Apostle, because, while he 
 teaches that we are " justified by faith," they hide 
 from themselves, that he speaks not of an inactive 
 faith but of a "faith that worketh by love." What 
 didst thou, Paul, understand by this metaphor, 
 which men satisfy themselves with calling a meta- 
 phor because they do not like its meaning ? What 
 didst thou understand by this doctrine of the 
 cross, thou who dost tell us, that thou didst " de- 
 termine" to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and 
 Him crucified ?" Didst thou live to the world or 
 to Him Who died for thee ? " God forbid," he 
 
 y S. Luke vii. 20, 21, 24, 25. 
 
 '^ Imperat aut servit regina pecunia ciiique. 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. ii. 2.
 
 a corruption of the Gospel of ClirUt. 15 
 
 says'', " that I should glory save in the cross of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified 
 to me, and I unto the world." In the cross of 
 Christ the world was crucified to him and was 
 dead ; it had no power over him to hold him, for 
 it was dead : it had no attractions for him, no 
 winningness to him, for to him it was a corpse. 
 And he too was crucified to the world on that same 
 cross. He could, like his Lord, embrace the world 
 with outstretched arms, in that large heart, but 
 not with any longing for it, save to win it to his 
 Lord, He was " co-crucified (aweaTavpco/jiai) with 
 Christ," and had no will, no longing, no affections, 
 no love for it, but Christ's : he heard not its re- 
 vilings ; he heeded not its praises ; for he was dead 
 to it. '"^All which it loved was a cross unto him, 
 the delights of the flesh, honours, riches, vain 
 praises of men : all which it counted a cross, to 
 that he clave, to that he was nailed : that he em- 
 braced with his whole heart." His former self was 
 dead. " I have been and am crucified with Christ ; 
 it is no longer I that live but Christ liveth in 
 me." He was dead to all besides ; he felt them 
 not, heeded them not, cared not for them, any 
 more than one dead ; all of himself was dead and 
 gone ; his human passions were nailed to the cross 
 of Christ, and were dead; "dead," says a father'', 
 " were pleasure and pain and wrath and fear and 
 timidity and vehement emotion and pride and rash- 
 ness, and memory of injuries, and envy and self- 
 •> Gal. vi. 14. 
 
 e S. Bern, de Quadr. Serm. \ii. n. 1. 0pp. i. 833. 
 
 d S. Greg. Nyss. in Cant. Horn. xv. Tom. i. p. 695.
 
 16 Chr 'upturn it}i ivithoiit the Cross 
 
 defence, and covetousness or any other affection 
 which defiles the soul — He had stripped off all 
 which was not in Christ, and his life was Christ, 
 Who was Sanctification and Purity and Immorta- 
 lity and Light and Truth." "Not I live, but Christ 
 liveth in me." Christ wrought all his works in 
 him ; Christ spake by his tongue, so that he spake 
 those fiery words of persuasive burning love ; Christ 
 was the Heart of that vast heart which embraced 
 all, Jew and heathen, those who were won, and 
 those who could be won, and those who could 
 not yet be won, by and to the love of Christ, 
 breathing forth the fire of Divine love, with 
 which he was himself kindled. Christ in him 
 made known in all the world the riches of the mys- 
 tery of the faith in Him ; Christ filled up in His 
 servant " ^ what was yet lacking of His own Suf- 
 ferings for His Body's sake, which is the Church;" 
 those sufferings which He willed should be endured 
 in His members for His members, that so His own 
 meritorious Sufferings might reach unto all those 
 for whom He died. "To him to live was Christ." 
 Christ was the source of his spiritual life ; Christ 
 was, within him, the perpetual maintainer of his 
 life ; Christ was the Pattern and Exemplar of 
 his life; Christ was the end and object and sub- 
 stance of his life ; Christ was in all things the 
 mainspring of his life, the informer of his words, 
 the inworker of his acts, the endurer of his suffer- 
 ings, the instrengthener against temptation by His 
 grace and gracious Presence ; in A^^iom he strove 
 according to His working. Who worked in him 
 e Col. i. 25.
 
 a corruption, of the Gospel of Christ. 17 
 
 in might Divine. And so, since Christ lived in 
 him and to him to live was Christ, " to die was 
 gain;" for the persecutor's sword was the finisher 
 of his toils, yielding him up to Him, for Whom 
 and in Whom and by Whom he lived. 
 
 Does this life, this death, belong to Paul alone ? 
 What saith he to those whom he had won to Christ? 
 '"'In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through 
 the Gospel ; wherefore, I beseech you, be ye imita- 
 tors of me." "Be ye," he says who was crucified 
 with Christ, "^be ye imitators of me, as I also of 
 Christ." Nay, he says of those new converts to 
 the faith, "^ye also became imitators of us and 
 of the Lord." How? In our Lord's exceptional 
 presence at the marriage feast, or in eating with 
 publicans and sinners ? Perhaps in this too, if so 
 they might win them to Christ; but what is re- 
 corded is, that they received the word " in much 
 affliction, with joy in the Holy Ghost." As the 
 Apostles departed from the presence of the Council, 
 rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer 
 shame for His Name', so to these, things grievous 
 became joyous ; grievous to the bodily frame, with 
 spiritual joy, " joy in the Holy Ghost." Yet these 
 were no exceptional Christians; "model Christians" 
 only in that they were models for others to fol- 
 low, in that from " them the word sounded out to 
 others." Yet these had been converts, converts 
 from the ordinary heathen vices. " Ye turned to 
 God from idols to serve the living and true God." 
 How ? Amid self-indulgence, the pomps and vani- 
 
 f 1 Cor. iv. 15, 16. s lb. xi. 1. ^ \ Thess. i. 6. 
 
 i Acts V. 14. 
 

 
 18 . Christianity ■without the Cross 
 
 ties of tlie world ? No, but with one longing 
 expectation to see Him, to Whom they owed their 
 all, to wait the return of Him Who was crucified 
 for them, Whose cross thev, like Simon of Cyrene, 
 bare after Him. " To wait for His Son from hea- 
 ven. Whom He raised from the dead, Jesus which 
 delivered us from the wrath to come." 
 
 This was the common lot of Christians then, 
 "J Ye became imitators of the Churches of God, 
 which in Judea are in Christ Jesus." Wherein? 
 That they suffered. "For," he adds, "ye have 
 suffered like things of your countrymen, even as 
 they have of the Jews." As he says to another 
 Church; "''To you it is given not only to believe 
 in Him, but also" — What is this gift, this grant 
 bestowed by God's love upon them? How should 
 we fill this up ? The last thing, I fear, with which 
 we should fill it up, would be that which he adds, 
 " but also to suffer with Him." 
 
 But these, you may say, were days of persecu- 
 tion, from which, by God's mercy, we are exempt. 
 It is, I trust, " in God's mercy." For look at any 
 picture of post- Apostolic times, in which Christians 
 were again braced up by one of the ten persecu- 
 tions ; they who were such as we mostly are, in 
 ease or worldliness or self-indulgence, apostatised. 
 And apostacy involved the formal renunciation 
 and blaspheming of Christ, Who died for us. But 
 the most commonplace Christian life was not, 
 S. Paul says, without crucifixion. All was "with 
 Christ ;" all, past and future. With Him we hope 
 to live for ever, but not otherwise than if we first 
 J 1 Thess. ii. 14. k p^ii. i. 29.
 
 a corruption of the Gospel of Christ. 19 
 
 die and remain dead with Him. "If we be dead 
 with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with 
 Him." In S. Paul's language^, we "co-died," "were 
 co-crucified, were co-interred, were co-implanted in 
 His death;" with Him, "God co-crucified" co-raised 
 us," " co-seated us in heavenly places with Him." 
 Are we to be joined with Christ in everything 
 which is not of us or by us, and ouly not with 
 Christ in that which is our own, which it is in our 
 power to give or to refuse ? Not so. S. Paul says, 
 ""'It is a faithful saying, 'If we co-die, we shall also 
 co-live : if we endure, we shall also co-reign." We 
 have heard what crucifixion was to S. Paul, a living 
 death, death to himself, and life in Christ. Think 
 you that he would use the image of some easy 
 painless process ? Would you ? Could you gravely 
 say to one another, that you were crucified to any- 
 thing? Yet S. Paul, having arrayed over against 
 each other the two opposed armies, the works of 
 the flesh and the works of the Spirit, sums up — 
 " " They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh 
 with the affections and lusts." Granted that by the 
 flesh the Apostle means the ill deeds of the flesh, 
 yet see the completeness of the death in which 
 they are held. Not one ill-deed, but all ; not one 
 disposition to sin, but all ; not one concupiscence, 
 but all ; nailed, motionless, powerless to the cross 
 of Christ. "We then,'' says a father", " crucify the 
 
 1 Rom. vi. 4, 5, 6. viii.. 17, Gal. ii. 20. Eph. ii. 5, 6, Col. ii. 
 12, 13, iii. 1, 2 Tim. ii. 11. See Dr. Pusey's Scriptural Doctrine 
 of Holy Baptism p. 171. "^2 Tim. ii. 11, 12. " Gal. v. 24. 
 
 » S. Greg, in Job c. 8. L. viii. c. xliv. n. 73. 0pp. i. 277. He 
 begins, " Contrariwise, it is well said of the elect by Paul " They 
 that are Christ's &c." 
 
 c 2
 
 20 Christianity ivithout the Cross 
 
 flesh witli the affections and lusts, if we in such 
 wise restrain appetite, as therewith to seek nothing 
 from the glory of the world. For he who macerates 
 his body but pants after honours, crucifies the 
 flesh ; but by concupiscence he lives to the world 
 yet more, because, often through a phantom of 
 holiness, he, being unworthy, gains some place of 
 rule, whereto he would attain by no labour, unless 
 he had some shew of virtue." 
 
 Is this the glowing language of S. Paul only ? Is 
 it only his language, to whom on his wonderful 
 conversion, which we are to commemorate to- 
 morrow, Christ Himself shewed how great things 
 he must suffer for His Name's sake ? Is it only a 
 transcript of his life who was " in labours more 
 abundant, in deaths oft ? " Will any other Apostle 
 of our Master, Who was crucified for us, give us 
 easier terms ? 
 
 You would scarce expect it of him, our Lord's 
 brother, whose knees were hardened like a camel's, 
 being bent evermore in prayer to God for forgive- 
 ness for his people^. Certainly his idea of the 
 " summum bonum" is different from that of Hea- 
 then philosophy, nor could it ever occur to any 
 one apart from Christ and His Cross. It would 
 not occur to us, now living in the midst of, and 
 boasting ourselves of the Gospel of Christ. "iMy 
 brethren, count it all joy," the sum of joy, com- 
 prising in itself all other joys, " when ye fall into 
 divers trials." And these were no passing trials, 
 
 P Hegesippus in Eusebius (H. E. ii. 23.) who says that Heg. 
 related most accurately the history of S. James. 
 1 S. Jas. i. 2.
 
 a corruption of the Gospel of Christ. 21 
 
 but enduring. For their benefit was endurance. 
 They were to test endurance to the utmost, and 
 yield the soul perfected for '""the crown of life," 
 which the Lord hath promised to them that love 
 Him. The joy of S. James is the exultation of 
 S.Paul; "^yea, we glory in tribulations," and 
 on the self -same ground, that the Christian's joy 
 Cometh from being perfected by the Cross. " Tri- 
 bulation worketh patience, and patience experience, 
 and experience hope, and hope maketh not asham- 
 ed." For both Apostles repeated their Master's 
 lesson, "* Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall 
 be comforted ; " " Blessed are they which are per- 
 secuted for righteousness sake ; for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven." Whence the Martyr's cry 
 so often was " '' Thanks be to God." 
 
 But what of the opposite condition which men 
 now count so happy ? " The rich man," he says "", 
 " exulteth in that wherein is humiliation." He as- 
 sumes it as a thing known or which ought to be 
 known to them : " Friendship with the world is 
 enmity with Grod;" " Whoso would be the friend 
 of the world is made"' " by the very fact, by being 
 so minded, {KaOlararai) " an enemy of God." He 
 that loveth the one, as our Lord saith, despiseth 
 the other. Such are already " adulterous souls," 
 fallen away from God Who hath made them His 
 own, and giving themselves over to His enemy. 
 
 r lb. i. 12. 8 iiom. V. 3. t g, ^att. v. 4—6. 
 
 " " The Christian being condemned giveth thanks." Tertull. 
 Apol. c. 1. p. 4, Oxf. Tr. and note m. and Rninart, Acta Mart. 
 
 ^ S. James i. 10, supplying Kavxti-Tai as in Phil. iii. 19, "whose 
 glory is in their shame." Alford. ^ S, Jas^. iv. 4.
 
 22 Christianity without the Cross 
 
 Or ask S. Peter, him wlio would have dissuaded 
 his Master from the Cross, him, who was drawn 
 by love of his Master to the judgement-hall, and 
 there cowered before a little maid and denied Him, 
 to whom, our Lord, fore signifying his death, said, 
 " Follow thou Me." Wherein did he understand 
 that following to be ? For our Lord says' to us, 
 as to him, "Follow Me." '"'If when ye do well 
 and suffer, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable 
 with God; for even thereunto were ye called." — 
 called whereto? to " suffer patiently for well doing." 
 Suffering he declares to be the very object of 
 our calling, even as S. Paul and Barnabas " con- 
 firmed the souls of the disciples in every city" where 
 they had preached, telling them that "^"we must 
 through much tribulation enter into the kingdom 
 of God." But S. Peter assigns, further, the ground 
 of our being so called, because we are members of 
 a thorn-crowned Head; ^^ because Christ also suf- 
 fered for us, leaving us a copy," {vTroypa/x/nov) as 
 children copy line by line and stroke by stroke, 
 that we should follow close upon His steps, marking 
 them, placing our feet as nearly as we can to them ; 
 and those steps were, in that sad road to Calvary, 
 tracked in His own Blood, shed for us. 
 
 Again, see how close he brings us to our Lord. 
 "''Christ then having suffered in the flesh," (as 
 he had said, " Christ died for our sins, the Just 
 for the unjust" to bring us to God,) "arm your- 
 selves likewise with the same mind" — "arm your- 
 selves," not assuredly for a listless peace; "with 
 the same mind as Christ" when He suffered; "for 
 
 ^ 1 S. Pet. ii. 20. y Acts xiy. 22. ^ 1 S. Pet. iv. 1, 2.
 
 a corruptio7i of the Gospel of Christ. 23 
 
 he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from 
 sin." We, being members of Christ, are counted 
 as having ourselves suffered with Christ, " that we 
 should no lono-er live the rest of our life to the 
 lust of men, but to the will of God;" that the 
 one object of our lives, our affections, our new 
 regenerate being, should be the will of God. The 
 thought of Christ crucified, the sharing of His 
 sufferings, not without us only, but within us, 
 is the panoply of Christians. Or look at that say- 
 ing, "If the righteous scarcely (with difficulty) be 
 saved," and that, in view of judgement through 
 which he has to pass and to be sifted therein. 
 Surely this does not speak of an easy, good-natured, 
 effortless life, but a life passed, as he also says, 
 ""If ye call upon Him as Father, Who without 
 respect of persons judgeth every man's work, pass 
 the time of your sojourning here with fear," and 
 that the more, he adds, on account of the exceed- 
 ing preciousness of the price of our redemption, 
 the precious Blood of Christ. We have to give 
 account, not of our lives only, but of the terrible 
 ingratitude of despising our Redeemer. 
 
 Once more, let us ask him, the beloved disciple, 
 the Apostle of love, who lay on his Master's breast 
 and drank there the streams of wisdom and of love, 
 he who speaks so much of the love of God towards 
 us ; of the propitiation for our sins ; of the life 
 in God begun in us ; of the beatific vision of God. 
 What saith he ? " ''He that saith that he abideth 
 in Him ought himself also to walk even as He 
 
 a lb. i. 17. M S. Johnii. 6.
 
 24 Christianity without the Cross 
 
 walked." " ^ If any man love the world, the love of 
 the Father is not in him." "Abide in Me," Jesus 
 says, "and I in you." "Abide in Me," of Whom ye 
 have been made members, by faith and love and 
 obedience, and I will abide in you by My grace, 
 and the continual influx of My Spirit. If then we 
 abide in Him, we are to walk as He walked. We 
 all have an idea that we are to keep, in a general 
 way, God's commandments, not to swear, not to 
 lie, not to commit certain excesses. But does this 
 suffice, to walk as Christ walked ? Is this mere 
 negative or limited Christianity to walk as He, 
 Whom we own as our Exemplar, walked? " What," 
 says an approved writer'', "is to walk as He walked, 
 but to despise all prosperous things, which He 
 despised; to fear nothing adverse which He bare; 
 to do cheerfully what He did ; to teach to do what 
 He commanded; to hope what He promised; to 
 follow v^here He went before ; to bestow benefits 
 on the ungrateful also ; not to requite ill-wishers 
 as they deserve ; to pray for enemies, to love the 
 good, to pity the perverse, to invite those averted 
 (from God), to receive lovingly those converted; 
 to endure patiently the treacherous and the proud ; 
 to die to one's own sins as He for our's; for as 
 one dead in the body detracts from none, injures 
 none, despises none, corrupts, envies, flatters, courts 
 none, so they who have crucified their flesh with 
 the affections and lusts, living to God, live not to 
 these or the like sins." "What must he do," says 
 <= 1 S. Jolmii. 15. 
 ^ Pomerius de vit. contempl. ii. 21. (in S. Prosper 0pp. T. ii.) 
 abridged.
 
 a corruption of the Gospel of Ghrid. 25 
 
 a father % "to whom the great name of Christian 
 has been vouchsafed? What else than diligently 
 judge in himself thoughts, words, deeds, whether 
 each of these look to Christ or are alien from 
 Him ?" 
 
 You would not expect relaxation from S. Jude, 
 whose whole Epistle is one upbraiding of the sins 
 of false teachers and relapsers. But among their 
 very heavy sins, it is startling to our self-indulgent 
 age, to find the habit of our times, "*^ feeding them- 
 selves without fear." He does not mention glut- 
 tony or excess in meat or wine, but that, in sup- 
 plying the wants of nature, they fed without 
 reverence and awe, lest they should do amiss. 
 
 So did the goodly company of the Apostles 
 inculcate with one voice, a life to be led above the 
 world, contrary to the world and conformed to 
 our Redeemer, as the way of salvation. 
 
 We have been in the habit of speaking dispa- 
 ragingly of a former generation, which spoke much 
 of our Lord as our Example ; we thought it cold ; we 
 thought much of our revived preaching of the Cross 
 and of the Crucified. I fear, that much of the reli- 
 gion of the present day has been rather the belief 
 of a doctrine, a revelation, than a personal belief 
 in Him our Redeemer ; that believing, so far truly, 
 our redemption, many have forgotten Him as an 
 Example. Could we take up with such poor mea- 
 sures of attainment, if we seriously thought of Him 
 as the likeness which we were to copy, which was, 
 by His Spirit, to be formed in us ? Look at them 
 
 e S. Greg. Nyss. de pex-f. Christiani forma. 0pp. iii. 296. 
 f S. Jude 12.
 
 26 Christianity without the Gross 
 
 one by one. We might think perhaps, that we 
 had something of meekness or gentleness, or charity, 
 or peaceableness ; or, more probably, that we were 
 not flagrantly the very opposite; but meekness 
 of Christ, long-suffering of Christ, lowliness of 
 Christ, gentleness of Christ, self-sacrificing love of 
 Christ, self-consuming zeal of Christ, burning 
 thirst of Christ for saving souls, hunger of Christ 
 to do His Father's will, unwearied tenderness of 
 Christ, — we see you in His wearisome life on earth, 
 but where are those, who set themselves, in the 
 full endeavour of their souls, to copy these in them- 
 selves ? 
 
 Are men really disciples of Christ, or of some 
 phantom Christ ? Him, God-Man, Who was cruci- 
 fied for them, or a mythical Christ, the creature of 
 their own imaginings ? Christ, to Whose likeness 
 they are to be conformed, or a Christ, such an one 
 as themselves, formed in their own image ? " One 
 stood before S. Martin, (S. Martin himself related 
 its) enveloped in a glittering radiance, clad in royal 
 robes, crowned with a golden and jewelled diadem, 
 with face serene and bright looks, and said to him, 
 " I am Christ. I am now descending upon earth, 
 and I willed first to manifest myself to thee. Ac- 
 knowledge me whom thou seest, I am Christ." 
 Martin at first gazed at him in silence : then, 
 taught by God, answered, " Jesus, the Lord, an- 
 nounced not, that He should come in glittering 
 clothing and radiant with a diadem. I will not 
 believe that Christ is come, save in that state and 
 form in which He suifered, save with the shew of 
 
 6 Life of S. Martin c. 25, in Church of the Fathers, c. 21. fin.
 
 a corruption of the Gospel of Christ. 27 
 
 the "Wounds of the Cross." Forthwith the Evil one 
 (for it was he) vanished. " Many spirits are 
 abroad, more are issuing from the pit," says the 
 relater •> ; " the credentials which they display are 
 the precious gifts of mind, beauty, richness, depth, 
 originality. Christian, look hard at them with 
 Martin in silence, and then ask for the print of the 
 nails." 
 
 ** ' Smooth open ways, good store ; 
 
 A creed for every time and age, 
 
 By Mammon's touch new moulded o'er and o'er. 
 
 No cross, no war to wage ;" — 
 
 Are these the prints of the nails ? Is this the Creed 
 in the Crucified ? 
 
 Shall we say to our Lord when He comes down 
 to be our Judge, when we shall behold Him, Whom 
 we, by our sins, have pierced ? " True ! Lord, I 
 denied myself nothing for Thee ; the times were 
 changed and J. could not but change with them ; I 
 ate and drank, for Thou too didst eat and drink 
 with the publicans and sinners ; I did not give to the 
 poor ; but I paid what I was compelled to the poor- 
 rate, of the height of which I complained ; I did 
 not take in little children in Thy Name, but they 
 were provided for ; they were sent, severed indeed 
 from father or mother, to the poor-house, to be 
 taught or no about Thee, as might be ; I did not 
 feed Thee when hungry ; political economy forbade 
 it ; but I increased the labour-market with the 
 manufacture of my luxuries ; I did not visit Thee 
 when sick, but the parish doctor looked in on his 
 
 h J. H. I^ewman lb. p. 414. fin. ed. 1836. 
 
 'John Keble, Lyra Apostolica no. xcviii. Dissent p. 121.
 
 28 Christianity ivithoiit the Cross 
 
 ill-paid rounds ; I did not clotlie Thee when naked ; 
 I could not afford it, the rates were so high , but 
 there was the workhouse for Thee to go to ; I did 
 not take Thee in as a stranger : but it was provided 
 that Thou mightest go to the ' casual-ward ^. ' Had 
 I known that it was Thou " — " ' And He shall say, 
 Forasmuch as thou didst it not to one of the least 
 of these, thou didst it not to Me." 
 
 Many of you, my sons, are provided with super- 
 fluities. You have not to stint yourselves as to 
 the pleasures of your age. Day by day, I suppose, 
 passes with all conveniences of life, or amusement 
 or some self-indulgences, which though not directly 
 
 ^ I said this, not of Oxford nor of any particular place, but of 
 the system. The poor-law, nearly 40 years ago, "was reduced 
 into a sort of police- system, on the principle " if a man will not 
 work, neither let him eat. " It might have been, and the writer 
 hoped that it would have been, supplemented by Christian cha- 
 rity. (See Pusey's Parochial Sermons Yol. III. p. 143. "The 
 Yalue and Sacredncss of Suffering," published in 1841.) As it 
 is, reliance on the Poor-law interferes with Christian charity, 
 offers, in large towns, a mode of relief which the better poor 
 would starve rather than accept ; and in time* of suffering, as of 
 an epidemic, offers relief in a way which degrades the poor in 
 their own eyes, and of their compeers, if they accept it. What 
 else than a police-law is it, to separate husband and wife from 
 each other and from their children ? If the poor, like the lower 
 animals, needed only food and warmth, the poor-house system 
 provides these, I doubt not. But the poor have souls, and loving 
 hearts, more loving than many rich, and to separate those whom 
 God has joined, as the condition of supplying them with necessa- 
 ries, is un-Christian and anti-Christian. " I would not be sepa- 
 rated from my old missus," was the remark of an aged peasant, 
 at the time of the change in the law, which many an aching heart 
 has repeated since. I fear that, in the great Day, many even 
 kindly people will find that reliance on the Poor-law has steeled 
 their heart against Christ. ^ S. Matt. xxV. 45.
 
 a corruptloji of the Gospel of Christ. 29 
 
 sinful are rather injurious. If our Lord was to 
 come now, in how many do you think that you 
 could tell Him that you had fed Him, clothed Him, 
 supplied Him when sick ? Some, I fear, could not 
 say, that they had bestowed as much on Christ, as 
 upon their dogs. 
 
 But if, to be saved, we must be disciples of our 
 crucified Redeemer ; and if, to be His disciples, we 
 must imitate Him and take up our cross daily ; 
 and if, of those whom we see around us, the great 
 mass seems to think of nothing less that taking up 
 any cross, nay rather boast that they have no cross 
 to bear ; who, except the poor, on whom the cross 
 is, any how, laid, "who then shall be saved?" 
 "0 Lord, Thou knowest ! " "The Judge of all 
 the Earth will do right ! " God mercifully lays on 
 the cross, in ways which we know not. Others, it 
 may be, building on the True and Only Founda- 
 tion, which is Jesus Christ, may be building thereon 
 wood, hay, stubble, which shall be burned up, 
 S. Paul tells, in the fire of the great Day, but 
 themselves be saved, yet so as by fire°\" Be not 
 curious about others, but in God's longsuffering 
 save thou thyself. Look up to Him the Good 
 Shepherd Who laid down His life for the sheep, 
 and pray Him with His pierced Hands to loose the 
 thorns which hold thee, and to lay thee upon His 
 shoulders : yea He will carry thee in His bosom. 
 
 Ye would not be unlike Him, Who loved you and 
 gave Himself for you; you would not, now at least, 
 that it has been set before you, however little you 
 
 ^ See Pusey's Lenten Sermons. Scrm. v. " The losses of the 
 saved" pp. 89—106.
 
 30 Christianity tvithout the Cross 
 
 may have before thouglit of even venturing to imi- 
 tate Him. Yet such is your calling. " "^ Christianity 
 is the imitation of God ; " conformity to God made 
 Man, to Whom you have been conformed ; with 
 Whom you have been made one; your oneness 
 with Whom has been so often renewed ; for in the 
 Holy Communion (as is so often repeated to you) 
 if we partake worthily, " we dwell in Christ, and 
 Christ in us : we are one with Christ, and Christ 
 with us." 
 
 Any self-denial, however simple, done for love 
 of your Redeemer, is accepted by Him as a bearing 
 of His Cross. Self-denials which you, many of you, 
 exercise for a corruptible crown, might set you in 
 the way, at least, not to lose the incorruptible. 
 Fulness of bread which "bankereth out the wits," 
 dulls also the affections towards God and man. 
 He, to whom Jesus manifested Himself on the way, 
 to whom by a wondrous miracle He had revealed 
 Himself ; He, the chosen vessel, the teacher of the 
 nations; whose love suffering only kindled; "in la- 
 bours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in 
 deaths oft;" who rejoiced to be "the off-scourings of 
 the world and to die daily," so that he might win 
 any to Christ ; to whom daily sufferings were more 
 than his daily bread, "the marks of the Lord Jesus" 
 on his waled body, but who was thereby " a spec- 
 tacle to the world, to angels and to men," how did 
 he fight, how did he win his crown ? "I run," he 
 answers you°, " not as uncertainly," without any 
 definite object, " so fight I, not as striking the 
 
 " S. Greg. Nyss. de Profess. Christiana. Oi^'p. iii. 271. 
 o 1 Cor. ix. 26.
 
 a corruption of the Gospel of Christ. 31 
 
 air; but I bring under (maltreat) my body and 
 bring it into subjection." To what end ? to be 
 abundantly rewarded for liis abundant sufferings? 
 No, but, " lest when I have preached to others — 
 filled the whole world with the preaching of Christ 
 and won to Him countless souls, " I myself should 
 be a castaway." If Paul, being what he was, so 
 feared, what shall we say ? Are we wiser than 
 S. Paul, or have we ceased to be disciples of Him, 
 Who foretold, that "when the Bridegroom," Him- 
 self, shall be taken away, " then shall My disciples 
 fast in those days ; " Who instructs us how to fast, 
 as well as how to pray and to give alms^? Are we 
 (it is a terrible thing to say, but this is what it 
 comes to) are we wiser than Christ ? 
 
 We are to-day at the vestibule of those days 
 wherein, bearing the cross of this yearly abstinence, 
 we are, if we are His disciples, to follow Him Who 
 for our sakes did fast forty days and forty nights, 
 that so " by continual mortifying our corrupt affec- 
 tions we may be buried with Him ; and through 
 His Cross and Passion may be brought to the 
 glory of His Resurrection." 
 
 Three weeks hence, you will plead that fasting 
 to Him Who for our sakes did fast forty days and 
 forty nights, and pray Him that after His likeness 
 you too "may use such abstinence, that your flesh 
 being subdued to the spirit, you may ever obey 
 His godly motions in righteousness and true holi- 
 ness." Let not your prayers be a witness against 
 you. 
 
 He does not put hard things upon you. He 
 
 p S. Matt. Yi. 16.
 
 32 Christianity loitJiout the Cross, ^c. 
 
 Who accepts tlie cup of cold water will accept petty 
 self-denials. Self-indulgence is a hard master, not 
 Jesus. Vice wears the body, self-denial braces 
 it. Sin is an exacting tyrant, the service of God 
 is perfect freedom. 
 
 Give yourselves anew to Him, Who gave Him- 
 self for you. He grudged not for you one drop 
 of His Heart's Blood: grudge not to Him the 
 price of His Blood, yourselves. Think of that 
 place around the eternal Throne, which He by that 
 Blood has prepared individually for you. Jesus 
 will impart to your petty cross some of the virtue 
 of His Saving Cross. He will make any hardness 
 sweet to you, Who is Himself all sweetness and 
 every pleasureable delight. He will give you His 
 own love and 
 
 *' The heart that loveth knoweth well, 
 What Jesus 'tis to love."
 
 NOTE. 
 
 On '' Modern Christianity a civilised Heathenism P 
 
 The allusion to the little book "Modern Christianity a 
 civilised Heathenism ^^ at the beginning of my sermon, 
 perhaps requires some explanation. I alluded to it, because 
 I was told the minds of some were disturbed by it, not 
 in a healthy way (which the writer intended and it might 
 have done and, I hope, will do with others) to set them 
 looking whether they had not been making, in different 
 degrees, a compromise with the world or worldliness, but, 
 according to the form of the fiction, whether, I suppose, 
 real civilisation and real Christianity were opposed to one 
 another; whether a Christian must become "^ the greatest 
 nuisance to meet,^' "must make an ass of himself, make 
 himself ridiculous in the eyes of worldly people — in the 
 opinion of modern society — every time he speaks or acts,^' 
 and " be hated and laughed at for his eccentricities." 
 
 Some perhaps have been led to the terrible question, 
 "Is Christianity a failure?" Any how, "does it bear 
 evidence in itself, as it exists now, that it is Divine ? " 
 
 The writer is, I fear, in some degree responsible for 
 raising this question, by the form in which he has cast 
 his book, the subject of which is the unpersuasiveness or 
 positive oflfensiveness of the life of worldly persons and 
 especially of worldly Clergy. For had he adopted a title, 
 which would have expressed his meaning more exactly, 
 * Much modern Christianity ; " — or " Fashionable Christi- 
 
 ' pp. 118, 119, 73. 
 D
 
 34 NOTE. 
 
 anitj," or " The Christianity of the worldly/' or " of the 
 wealthy^' or "of the great" — "a civilised Heathenism," 
 he would have avoided raising those other questions, and 
 liis book would only have been an application of our Blessed 
 Lord's warning, "How hardly shall they that are rich enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 For, of course, "fashionable Christianity" is but an 
 infinitesimal portion even of " Modern Christianity." 
 *' Fashionable Christianity" may be, and too much of it, 
 alas ! I fear is, utterly false and hollow, and yet its false- 
 ness and hollowness has nothing to do with the truth 
 of Christianity, to which it is a contradiction and which 
 condemns it. It is a practical corruption of Christian- 
 ity, which civilly sets aside the teaching of the Gospel, 
 not openly opposing it, treating our Lord's words with 
 irreverent courtesy (as it would treat its fellow men's), yet, 
 none the less, emptying them of their meaning. Nega- 
 tively, as far as the lives of its adherents are conspicuous, 
 it involves the loss of that evidence which Christians would, 
 if they acted up to the Gospel, silently, unconsciously, but 
 unmistakeably give, and which, the early Christians did 
 give to the heathen, among whom their lot was cast, that 
 " ~ the Gospel is a power of God unto_ salvation." When 
 our missionaries in the neighboui'hood of Tinnevelly sepa- 
 rated their converts from their heathen countrymen, their 
 countrymen saw, in the diiference of their lives, that there 
 was something superhuman in Christianity and asked to 
 be taught it. Eeport says that the Japanese Embassadors 
 came to England, with the thought that it might be well 
 to introduce Christianity among the Japanese, and that, 
 seeing what they did see on the surface, they were deterred 
 from it. Whether there be any foundation for this or no, 
 it is only what one should expect, if they had. We have 
 our idols as well as they ; we have, too often, a god, who 
 is not the true God, as well as they. Mammon is not the 
 less worshipped, because his image is not visibly set up 
 
 - Rom. i. 16.
 
 NOTE. 35 
 
 in his temples ; the god of this world is not less people's 
 god, because his worship is in the heart ; the idolatry is 
 not the less real, because it is the hidden mainspring of 
 men's acts ; its icy touch is not the less felt, because it is 
 unseen. Mammon has his servants, God has His. But 
 unhappily, the service of Mammon is open ; the service of 
 God is for the most part out of sight ; and one cannot but 
 think, that the sight of our metropolis would give but an 
 unfavourable impression of the power of Christianity over 
 the hearts of men. 
 
 God Himself does oftentimes and in many ways speak to 
 the souls of those who know Him not, but argument in 
 proof that the Gospel is a revelation from God will have 
 little effect in converting unbelievers, unless they see, in 
 some way, the fruits of the Gospel in a life above nature. 
 A religion above nature ought to produce a life above na- 
 ture. Divine grace, which our Lord promises to those who 
 are His, is supernatural : every action of grace on the soul 
 is a miracle ; the conversion of one dead in sin is a greater 
 miracle than the raising of one phj-sically dead : whence 
 also our Lord said to His Apostles, " ^ He that believeth 
 on Me, shall do greater things than these." But the lives, 
 which what is called " the world '' lives, have too often the 
 appearance of being sweet, amiable, kindly, natural lives : 
 yet not lives (if men are married) remarkably above nature, 
 not apparently the lives of those whose " * citizenship is in 
 heaven," 
 
 But the superficial only will judge from the surface. 
 When the historian Niebuhr was asked in 1827 about the 
 state of the German universities and especially of Bonn 
 where he resided, he said to the effect ; " You must not 
 judge from what you see ; you will see students lounging 
 about in the market-place with their long pipes and their 
 dogs ; the students who are in their upper rooms at their 
 work (which he said, were two thirds) you do not see." 
 Much more in Christianity, which is an inward power of 
 
 3 S. Jolm xiv. 12. " Phil. iii. 20.
 
 36 NOTE. 
 
 God ! The outward acts must^ unless a person be called to 
 a higlier lifcj be^ to tlie outward eye, much the same ; the 
 soul of the acts, whether what is done is done to the glory 
 of God, or for self- exaltation, or for some secular end, is, 
 except on long experience or from some accidental gleam 
 of the inner self, unseen except by God. "The good 
 housemaid," Nicole says, " sweeps the room, and prays : 
 the good watchmaker makes watches, and prays : " and so 
 on. Outwardly they would be doing the same acts ; the 
 difference would be seen in the long run, by the con- 
 scientiousness, with which they did them. The street- 
 sweeper, who, while he swept his crossing, was thinking 
 of the golden streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, would, 
 outwardly, only sweep it more carefully. The slaves whom 
 S. Paul exhorted, "^obey your masters according to the 
 flesh with fear and trembling, with singleness of heart, as 
 unto Christ, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as 
 the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the 
 heart, — with good will doing service as unto the Lord and 
 not to men," doubtless did the same outward acts, the in- 
 ward motive was discoverable only by those who looked 
 carefully ; others would say of such, *' ^ he is a good man, 
 only he is a Christian." 
 
 Perhaps the subject may also be somewhat confused by 
 the absence of any statement, what is " civilisation." Not 
 the condition of civilised nations in general; not their 
 objects, or pursuits ; it is nothing outward ; it is not litera- 
 ture, nor philosophy, not the perfection of mechanical arts, 
 nor the multiphcation of luxuries or comforts. We have 
 no poet to surpass Homer ; yet his age was a very simple 
 one : " mechanical arts aud merchandise flourish," Bacon 
 tells us, " in the decay of a nation : " if luxuries were its 
 " summum bonum," Sybaris would be without a rival, and 
 Apicius its ideal : we have not yet discovered by what 
 mechanical art the enormous monoliths of Thebes were 
 removed from the quarries of Syene ; it used to be a ques- 
 
 5 Eph. vi. 5-7. 6 Tert. Apol. c. 3, p. 8. Oxf, Tr.
 
 NOTE. 37 
 
 tion liow our ancestors could raise Stoneheuge. Abstract- 
 ing ourselves for a time from tlie actual condition of 
 civilised nations^ we should not doubt that " civilisation " 
 means that which makes us men civilised. We learnt in 
 our grammars the heathen notion of it, that it was " ^ in- 
 genuas didicisse fideliter artes/^ in which, great emphasis 
 must be laid upon the ^'fideliter/' for it was a contemporary 
 of the poet who would have fed his lampreys with the 
 slave who broke a crystal vessel. The young slave only 
 asked Augustus for some other death. The master's pu- 
 nishment for the intended murder was only to have his 
 crystals broken and his fishpond filled up ^. " Manners 
 maketh man '' may, I suppose, represent our modern idea 
 of it ; only that " manners " must be taken in a broad and 
 deep meaning, including the whole relation and intercourse 
 of man with man. Improved medical science does not 
 authoritatively discountenance the savagery of vivisection, 
 and this as perpetrated even by women-dissectors. 
 
 But in this sense civilisation will only be an outward as- 
 pect of Christianity; it cannot be opposed to it^. Any 
 peasant, who cannot read, will, if he be indeed a Christian, 
 be distinguished by courtesy, gentleness, refinement of 
 feeling and manners, even tone of voice^ from one who 
 is not a Christian. E-efined manners may be a mere out- 
 side ; the manners of the world may be soulless, like the 
 beauty of a corpse, '^ere the first day of death is fled;" 
 with ^^its mild angelic air, the rapture of repose that's 
 there." The beauty may not last; but it is the beauty, 
 left by the departed soul. But the beauty of the "manners 
 of the world" is, in its basis. Christian. Let any one in 
 his mind go over its instances, I think, he may see in 
 them the Apostle's rule ; " ^ in honour preferring one 
 
 7 Sencea de ira iii. 40. 
 
 8 I would venture to recommend tlie writer who holds British civilisation to be as 
 corrupt as the heathen to read DoUinger llcidenthum und Judenthum. 
 
 ■' " If Christianity has any thing to do with Christ, Civilisation must ever be its 
 deadliest foe." p. G9. ^ Rom. xii. 10.
 
 38 NOTE. 
 
 another;'^ ""follow after — love, patience, meekness;" " ^the 
 servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto 
 all, patient;" "put them in mind to speak evil of no man, 
 shewing all meekness to all men." It used to strike me, 
 in young days, how the preference of others to self, the 
 great shock which it evidently was to give pain to any 
 one, the consideration of every one's feelings, the thinking 
 of others rather than one's-self, the pains that no one 
 should feel neglected, the deference shewn to the weak or 
 the aged, the unconscious courtesy to those secularly in- 
 ferior, were the beauty of the refined woi'ldly manners 
 of the " old school ;" that it was acting upon Christian 
 principle, and that if in any case it became soulless, as 
 apart from Christianity, the beautiful form was there, into 
 which real life might re-enter. Any thing in society, which 
 is contrary to Christianity, is contrary also to " good man- 
 ners," unless indeed any society is itself avowedly un- 
 christian. 
 
 The use of the word " world " may also perplex some. 
 " The world " may be used to designate those who " "* have 
 their portion in this life," for those out of Christ. Yet 
 however miserably large may be the number of those who 
 are going on the broad road, however many may bear the 
 name of Christian without the reality, "^the Lord knoweth 
 those who are His;" the Searcher of hearts alone can sepa- 
 rate the sheep from the goats. " Some men's sins," the 
 Apostle says^, "are open beforehand, going before to 
 judgment." From such the Apostle bids us separate 
 ourselves ; and it is no good sign, that if men are e. g. 
 notoriously " defilers of their neighbour's wives," such, if 
 they have political influence, or wit, or wealth, or any 
 other secular recommendation, are courted by what is 
 called " the world." But these are few. Even these pro- 
 bably would respect one who avoided intercourse with 
 
 " 1 Tim. vi. 11. ^ 2 Tim. ii. 24. 
 
 * Ps. xvii. 14. ^ 2 Tim. ii. 19. 
 
 ^ 1 Tim. V. 24.
 
 NOTE. 39 
 
 them. But the representation in " Modern Christianity " 
 that a consistent Christian (Hving, it is assumed, in ordi- 
 nary society) must be hated by all, with whom he comes 
 in contact, assumes an universality of evil. The writer 
 says in his own person ; 
 
 " ' I challenge the reader of any Gospel or Epistle in the Scripture, 
 to produce one single page which does not more or less distinctly set 
 forth the truth, that to be hated and persecuted and ridiculed from 
 morning till night by all the world, is, in all ages, ancient and modern 
 alike, the eternal immutable unfailing test of the Christianity that 
 comes from Christ." 
 
 " ^ We find it inconvenient to proclaim oiu* religion, wherever we go, 
 to be marked men in every circle wherein we move, to expose ourselves 
 to hatred persecution and ridicule, whenever we come in contact with 
 our neighbours." 
 
 The language implies that there is nothing which is not 
 un- Christian and inimical to Christianity, and that we are 
 the judges who are His and who not. Yet this, or the 
 assumption of inconceivable "human respect" which would 
 be ashamed of Christ and His words, lies as the basis of 
 many of those contrasts, that a Christian must either 
 separate himself from all intercourse with his fellow men, 
 or be hated by them. 
 
 " ^ While I see them (priests) smiling politely on sin, and caressed 
 by those who would have spat on our Lord." 
 
 It belongs to the fiction to make the defender of " Modern 
 Christianity'^ argue in a very common-place way. The 
 theory is, that the parson, who enters society, dismisses all 
 thought of both his Baptismal and Oi^dination vows, or 
 thinks every sort of self-indulgence which does not fla- 
 grantly contradict both, compatible with both. On his own 
 part, as the assailant, his idea of teaching seems to be that 
 of a thunder or a hailstorm, and he certainly has not had 
 present to his mind Moses' description " ^ my speech doth 
 distil as the dew " or the " ^ here a little and there a little " 
 of Isaiah. I should have thought that Clergy who might 
 feel it to be a duty to go into society, would, with a little 
 
 ' Pref: p. 8. « lb. p. 9. ''p. 140. 
 
 ' Deut. x.xxii. 2. '^ Is. xxviii. 19.
 
 40 NOTE. 
 
 wisdom, have found no difficulty to sow seed at least in the 
 hearts of individuals, to which God might " ^ give the in- 
 crease/^ I do not remember the difficulty. 
 
 Christianity has a great task before it, to make "'^the 
 kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our Lord and of 
 His Christ : " but it is not because they are civilised, but 
 because, retaining an outward civilisation, they are fast 
 decaying and becoming uncivilised. Class is being array- 
 ed against class, interest against interest; '' union '^ is be- 
 coming fast a name for disunion and antagonism ; the 
 elder of us have observed, for well-nigh forty years, the 
 materials of a worse revolution than that of 1793 : yet 
 Christianity has not " ^to fight tooth and nail with civilisa- 
 tion, '' but by the grace of God to ensoul it. 
 
 The anonymous writer dwells much and often on the 
 evils caused by worldly clergy. I had hoped that this 
 generation had passed away. I have not met with them. 
 Only we need not be worldly, because a proportion of us 
 has been well-endowed ; nor need we " make ourselves 
 ridiculous " in order, by God's grace, to convert the world. 
 The world respects those who are consistent and act 
 on principle, even while they speak against it. In days 
 relatively cold, Bp. Porteus remonstrated separately with 
 three ladies of highest rank for the fashionable Sunday re- 
 ceptions which they held weekly. All listened to him, 
 though one only permanently abandoned them. Yet he 
 was respected, not ridiculed, for his remonstrance. We 
 have people's consciences with us, whether they hear or 
 whether they forbear. As for our incomes, the question 
 for our own souls is, not what we have, but what we 
 do with it. It was said of a Bishop of London, before 
 the income of his see was reduced, that he '' could not 
 afford'' to become Archbishop of Canterbury, because so 
 much of his income had been appropriated to works for 
 God, in part for his poorer Clergy. 
 
 Christianity has a side, which gains respect from those 
 
 3 1 Cor. iii. 6. ^ Rev. xi. 15. * p. 69.
 
 NOTE. 41 
 
 wlio are not themselves Christians. People admire what 
 they do not follow. The new commandment is, that ye 
 " love one another, as I have loved you/' with a self- 
 sacrificing love. And this, whatever political economists 
 may say, or however people may under false principles 
 excuse themselves from giving to the poor, the world will 
 appreciate. Indeed, it has often seemed strange to me 
 how, even for this world only, the very wealthy so forego 
 the love of their fellow beings and the happiness of bene- 
 fitting them and the radiance of their smile of thankfulness, 
 and can waste on dogs and horses or vanities of the world 
 what might make them be, and be counted among the 
 world's benefactors. I have thought that God allowed 
 them to blind themselves, not willing that great things 
 should be done to any end, except to His Glory. It would, 
 for the wealthy, be a cheap way of gaining popularity. But 
 any how obedience to the Gospel does make people popular. 
 S. Anthony, the very ideal of an ascetic life and its great 
 promoter, we are told by his biographer, when young, 
 " made all to take delight in him." At this moment, one 
 of the most popular names in England is that of one who 
 gave very largely, in the hopes of improving the dwellings 
 of the poor, the late Mr. Peabody. The most popular living 
 Nobleman, probably, is one of the so-called Evangelical 
 school, who has associated, not his name only, but himself 
 with all sorts of works of piety and charity, and es- 
 pecially in benefitting the poor, but has also acted con- 
 spicuously in the state of life to which it pleased God to 
 call him, his hereditary position as one of our Lawgivers, 
 — Lord Shaftesbury. Of course there is the other side 
 also. Some who hate religion, or strictness, or the Church, 
 will ridicule, call names, slander, nay persecute, till they 
 have tested a person's perseverance. But then, they will 
 turn and respect a man the more, because he held on. The 
 times of open persecution are not yet. 
 
 Having mentioned these imperfections in "Modern Chris- 
 tianity &c." it would be wrong not to say, that (personalities 
 
 E
 
 42 NOTE. 
 
 and exaggerations ^ apart) tlie anonymous writer has been 
 carrying on the same war against worldliness^ of which the 
 terrible revolution of 1793 blew the first trumpet notes; 
 which was carried on by all earnest men, but perhaps 
 especially first by the pious Evangelicals; and then, simul- 
 taneously with them but by a distinct action, by the 
 Tractarians. He himself indeed accuses the Tractarians 
 of having", "as if out of pure perversity and spite per- 
 mitted^ their disciples to indulge in an almost unlimited 
 amount of secularity/^ Whence he can have obtained this 
 impression, I know not. I should have thought that if he 
 read any of the writings of the Tractarians, he could not 
 have said it. The old allegation against us was the very 
 contrary, that we were too strict. I should have thought 
 that our objection was, that the sphere of worldliness con- 
 demned by the Evangelicals was too limited. However, 
 his own positive pictures of what a Christian ought to be, 
 and his statement of the witness borne by the prayers 
 provided for us by the Church of England, are valuable 
 and true. The penitential character of our Prayer-book 
 was drawn out some 36 years ago by Isaac Williams, in a 
 thoughtful essay in the Tracts for the times. 
 
 The standard is high, but has, I trust, been in the way 
 of being reali2;ed by many, of whom the world knows 
 nothing. 
 
 "^Without immediate reference to Christ, as to a personal guide 
 standing by, no action is to be performed, no word spoken, no thought 
 conceived." 
 
 Translated into the old language, this is, "Live con- 
 
 1 e. g. " Christianity cannot exist in the empii-e of the intellect and the region of 
 human prosperity, because it came on purpose to destroy them both," (rather " to 
 sanctify both.") p. 46. Elsewhere however he says, "There is a variety of secular 
 pursuits available," and reproaches us for om- ignorance of natm-al history, pp. 
 130, 131. His bete noire is the richer endowments of the Bishops and of a portion of 
 the clergj'. 2 p, 29. 
 
 3 I suppose that by "pemiission" he means the maxims of their school, as expressed 
 by their wi-itings. And yet he says not of them only, but of the Clergy generally, 
 " Your preaclung is plain enough, and your Simday standard of Christian holiness all 
 that can be desired." p. 64. ^ p. 23.
 
 NOTE. 43 
 
 stantly in the presence of God, '' and " pray without 
 ceasing/' 
 
 " ^ He wants your life, and the life of every creature for whom He 
 died, to be given up without reserve to Him." 
 
 In the Apostle's words, " Do all in the Name of the Lord 
 Jesus." 
 
 " ^ Christ was now to produce a form of testimony altogether new, a 
 testimony real, ever present, personal, a testimony which should pro- 
 claim the truth as plainly in modern Paris or London or Berlin as in 
 Jerusalem or Galilee of old. His Spirit must linger here ; it must be 
 manifesting Him with a brightness which cannot be hid, wherever His 
 servants and children dwell." 
 
 In our Lord's words, " Let your light so shine before 
 men, that they may see your good works and glorify your 
 Father which is in heaven." 
 
 Thoughts such as these can never be misplaced, and I 
 hope that they may, by God's grace, find entrance among 
 those whom, without the condiment in which they are en- 
 veloped, we could not have reached. I should be glad to 
 think that they would reach some of the worldly, whom 
 they are apparently intended to rouse, and occasion them 
 to review their own standard by the measure of Christ. 
 Unhappily such books mostly fall into the hands of those 
 who amuse themselves with the inconsistencies of others, 
 rather than correct their own. The anonymous writer will 
 forgive the expression of the hope that he will be found in 
 the Great Day to have acted up to the standard, which he 
 lays down ; for it is an aweful thing to judge others, if we 
 bear in memory our Lord's words'', "With what judgement 
 ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye 
 mete, it shall be measured unto you again." 
 
 5 p. 27. fi p. 55, 50. ' S. Matt. vii. 2. 
 
 PRlNTliD BY THE SOCIETY OF THE HOLY TRINITY, 
 HOLY ROOD, OXFORD.
 
 '■■'' '.■':■' i'MMiii
 
 ore