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 /^-y^t- .^53/^(L^jr>feK^^ ,
 
 THE SERVANT OF CHRIST. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PBEACHED BEFORE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 
 
 ON THE 
 
 FESTIVAL OF ST. LUKE, 
 
 WITH REFEKEXCE TO THE CHARACTER 
 OF THE L\TE 
 
 DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. WILLIAM SEWELL, B.D. 
 
 SUBRECTOR OF EXETER COLLEGE. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 JOHN HENRY PARKER; 
 AND 377, STRAND, LONDON. 
 
 185-2.
 
 BAXTER, PRINTER, OXTOBD.
 
 Philippians ii. 5 — 9. 
 
 Let this mind he in you, which was also in Christ Jesus : 
 who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery 
 to be equal with God ; but made Himself of no repu- 
 tation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and 
 was made in the likeness of men : and being found in 
 fashion as a man, he humbled Himself, and became 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 
 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and 
 given Him a name which is above every name. 
 
 St. Luke in an eminent manner is the bio- 
 grapher of the Christian Church. He brings 
 before us, especially in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 a series of portraits most graphically thrown out, 
 and most delicately discriminated. And what 
 our characters and principles of conduct should 
 be, charged as we each are in our several pro- 
 vinces with that one great work of Christian men, 
 the labour that God's * kingdom may come, and 
 his will be done on earth as it is in heaven,' we 
 may learn from the example of those, whom He 
 selected as his first instruments and servants, in 
 the foundation under Christ of his Church, 
 
 It may not therefore be inappropriate to the 
 day, if I suggest briefly and simply, and espe- 
 cially to our younger members, a little summary 
 of practical maxims, which may at once test and 
 form their character, as Christian Churchmen — 
 
 A 2
 
 Christian Churclimen, each and all, whatever be 
 their post in life — as rulers or ruled, laitj or clergy, 
 directly or indirectly witnesses to God's truth, 
 and influencers of their fellow men — each and all 
 of them pledged at the font to carry on in their 
 own sphere and proportion of responsibility the 
 great work of God upon earth, and to labour in 
 it " as Christ's faithful soldiers and servants unto 
 their life's end." And if, as line by line we fill 
 in the features of this character, and trace their 
 development in the relation of man to his Saviour 
 and his Church, there should rise up before our 
 eyes involuntarily, without any direct reference, 
 or forced suggestion, another form — an aged, grey- 
 haired, venerable form, bent down with years and 
 toils for his country and his Sovereign, covered 
 with the honours of the world, and now about to 
 be laid in his grave by the veneration and grati- 
 tude of this great empire — if the maxims which 
 Scripture enjoins for our service to Christ in his 
 Church strike on us but as echoes of words, which 
 have fallen almost like proverbs from the lips 
 and the pen of that great man, inculca.ting our 
 duties to our Sovereign and our country — perhaps 
 it will not jar upon our feelings. Perhaps such 
 associations will be only natural and anticipated, 
 surrounded as we are, almost for the first time^ 
 with the memorials of his loss; on a day which the 
 Church sets apart that we may gather instruction 
 and goodness, not merely from the lessons of God,, 
 but from the example of man; and in a place 
 where the thought already must have flashed 
 
 UIUC 
 
 ^:/
 
 across all our minds, liow great a part of our- 
 selves that Spirit was, which has now passed 
 before the judgment-seat of his Maker, beyond 
 the reach either of our prayers or our praise. 
 
 I. There is then one grand maxim, the maxim of 
 the text, w^hich is the foundation of all the others, 
 and the very first to be learnt by Christians, as it 
 is the very last, which from the constitution of 
 nature is learnt by the young. It is, that our place 
 in this world, the place of the mightiest potentate 
 on the throne, the place which Christ Himself 
 assumed upon earth, is that of a subject and a 
 servant. To do not our own will, but the will of 
 Him that sent us — to become the slave, SoOAoj, 
 of Christ, to submit ourselves entirely to his laws, 
 to fix our eyes constantly on God's authority above 
 us, and on his commands around us, with an entire 
 abdication of self-wdll, and a surrender of all our 
 powers to his service — this is the blessed close 
 of the Christian life, and the perfection of the 
 Christian character. But it is not the lesson 
 which nature seems to teach. She rather to the 
 outward eye seems training us up to freedom and 
 supremacy, almost to lawlessness. Day by day 
 she loosens our bands, strengthens our powers, 
 removes our controllers, widens our sphere of 
 action, tempts us on from infancy to childhood, 
 from childhood to youth, from youth to manhood, 
 from manhood to age, by opening prospects of 
 ambition, and over ascending heights, from whence 
 we look down upon our fellows as the rulers and 
 not the ruled. It seems a problem, and a snare ;
 
 6 
 
 a school and discipline, adapted to form a master 
 rather than a servant, and a sovereign rather than a 
 subject. And so it is. Man is destined to be a 
 master and a ruler, on earth as well as in heaven. 
 And he must learn by degrees the duties and the 
 pri\i leges of power. But remember, I entreat, 
 those of you especially just entering on that new 
 and advanced stage of apparent disenthralment 
 which awaits you in this place, that each with- 
 drawal of external visible restraint is intended 
 to give scope and opportunity for an unseen 
 restraint within — a restraint from the laws of God 
 instead of the will of men — a restraint by your 
 own conscience upon your own heart, not by 
 the arm of another upon your outward acts. 
 Think of yourself at every moment, even when 
 shrouded in night, let loose in the wilderness, 
 armed with an absolutism of power, still as a sub- 
 ject and a servant, the slave of Christ. Never 
 lose sight of Him above you, guiding you by 
 his eye, when his hand seems far removed. 
 Let it be your boast in every station of life, to 
 be (T am quoting words) not as a head but a right 
 hand ; if not a right hand, at least some humble 
 member of the body, prompt as a right hand to exe- 
 cute the will of Him who only can be a head. Let 
 it be as wild — as ludicrous a dream — in the Tempter 
 of mankind to seduce you from your humility as 
 Christ's servant, by any vision of ambition or self- 
 will, as it was in the despot of France to tempt the 
 all-powerful subject of this empire from his allegi- 
 ance and subjection even by the offer of the crown.
 
 II. When you have thus stamped upon your 
 heart your true relation to your Saviour, there 
 will follow as a necessary consequence, the sur- 
 render of yourself into his hand, to be disposed 
 of according to his pleasure m any post, for the 
 performance of any duty. Never move from any 
 spot where He has placed you, never indulge the 
 caprice of selection, never root your affections in 
 any occupation, or devote yourself to any pro- 
 fession, or accept any offer of a change which may 
 be only a temptation, without first asking in 
 prayer, and consulting the wisest of his servants, 
 if his finger is pointing you on your course. Is it 
 his call ? He does call in various ways, — not now 
 by the Word of the Lord, or by his angel from 
 heaven, or by visions in the night, but by the 
 providential arrangement of opportunities, by 
 clear obvious duties, by overruling necessities, 
 by the choice of his Ministers, and by the advice 
 of his holy followers. If He summons you like 
 Abraham from your kindred, follow, though you 
 know not whither. If He sends you like Philip to 
 the South % even to a desert way, where no field 
 seems opening for your labour, go. If He arrests 
 you on your path like Paul with some sudden 
 stroke, let your first words be the words of Paul, 
 * Lord, what wilt Thou have me do*^ V If He 
 would send you to the Gentiles, depart at once^". 
 If he bind you in the Spirit to go up and con- 
 front the bonds and the scourges, let no voice, 
 even the voice of a prophet, turn you aside. If 
 
 » Acts viii. 25. b Acts ix, 0. ^ Acts xxii. '21.
 
 He calls to you by the voice of men to come 
 over and help them, loose yourself at once, and 
 cross over. 
 
 He of whom we are thinking, even in the last 
 infirmities of age, would have quitted his comforts 
 and his glories, and gone forth to have sunk ex- 
 hausted upon the sands of India, if his Sovereign 
 had given the word. And shall we do less for 
 Christ ? 
 
 III. This willing submission, this unhesitating 
 subordination to a power above us, will dignify, 
 and sanctify, and sweeten, by our reverence and 
 affection to that power, every post whatever, 
 foreign as it may be to our tastes, and every task 
 entrusted to us, however mean and lowly. If 
 the Lord of Hosts select our hand to fight 
 his battles at the head of his armies, we shall 
 struggle to fight them well. If he place us as a 
 solitary sentinel to watch some insignificant out- 
 work, we shall struggle to watch it well. There 
 will be no murmur, no jealousy, no discontent, 
 no complaint of slighted merit, no threat of resig- 
 nation, no scorn and contempt at the pettiness of 
 the work, no carelessness or remissness in fulfilling 
 it. Duty no less than love thinks no ofiice mean. 
 And the poor whose heart is in his sacrifice, and 
 *who measures the greatness of his act, not by the 
 meanness of man but by the grandeur of God, 
 will lavish as much interest and zeal on his little 
 offering of the turtle dove, or the two young 
 pigeons, as the rich upon a hecatomb of oxen. 
 IV. On this abnegation of self, and this uncon-
 
 9 
 
 ditional devotion of ourselves to the service of 
 Christ, there will follow a temper of mind, which 
 I would intreat all of us to cultivate at once, but 
 especially the young, most prompt to throw them- 
 selves with hopefulness and enthusiasm, and a 
 thirst for sympathy and cooperation, into works 
 for the glory of God, especially in days like these. 
 Prepare, at least in the beginning, to be thw^arted 
 and obstructed, to be chilled by neglect, maligned 
 by suspicion, injured by misconstruction, despised 
 as an enthusiast, rejected, perhaps insulted, perhaps 
 persecuted, even by the very men for whom you 
 have been made a sacrifice. Devote yourself to 
 any work for the welfare of the world, lavish on 
 it your time, your money, your labour, your all ; 
 but do not count upon any return from men. 
 " He was despised and rejected of men. He was 
 mocked and spitefully entreated, and spitted on, 
 and scourged, and crowned with thorns'^," even by 
 those for whom He died upon the cross. Write 
 this upon the walls of your room, as the history 
 of the Saviour of mankind, the history of those 
 who must follow Him in all his works of mercy. 
 " In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children* ;" 
 that is, every work of thy hand, those works 
 especially most precious in your own eyes, and 
 most precious in the sight of God. Prophesy 
 this to yourself at the commencement of every 
 undertaking. It is the law of creation in a world 
 which lies under the curse of sin. ** I have 
 nourished and brought up children, and they have 
 ^ Luke xviii. 5. e Gen. iii. 16. 
 
 a3
 
 10 
 
 rebelled "against me." Remember this trial of 
 the Lord, when you look for the gratitude of 
 others. And shall you not have the same ? A trial 
 indeed it is. Do not sink under it. Do not throw 
 up the work, cast down your arms, retire sullenly 
 and peevishly from the post, in which not your 
 own choice but the arm of God has placed you ; 
 and placed you to labour for Him, to till his 
 ground with the sweat of your brow, that in time 
 He may reap his harvest, not to cull flowers for 
 yourself. Never let resentment or pique, dis- 
 appointment or provocation of men, drive you 
 from your duty to God. If it be ingratitude, if 
 it be sinfulness, or selfishness, or malignity, or 
 jealousy, which seems to bring you this requital 
 from those for whose good you are toiling, yet 
 remember the long-suflering of Christ, and your 
 own sins for which He died. But far rather 
 distrust your own heart, when in impatience and 
 irritation you are tempted to stamp with such 
 cruel names the conduct of those who are opposed 
 to you. Think of your own errors and your own 
 provocations to them; remember the chances of 
 misconception — how rashly and how fatally we do 
 ourselves interpret even the most innocent, the 
 most praiseworthy of actions. Be not surprised 
 that others should ignore sacrifices, which you 
 laboured to conceal, or that ignoring they should 
 not be grateful. Place yourselves in the same 
 relation with those whose conduct you are resent- 
 ing. Think if their other interests, and other 
 duties, and complications of unknown circum-
 
 11 
 
 stances may not render impossible to them, what 
 to you seems easy. Remember that associated 
 men are not as individuals. They are limited by 
 rules, fettered by the wills of each other, dead- 
 ened in delicacy of feeling by the absence of 
 personal responsibility. Their power in iimumerable 
 points is weakened, not strengthened, by associ- 
 ation. Asssociation in many cases gives them 
 safety, not wisdom ; the safety of delay and 
 inertness, but rather corrupts the mass by the 
 infusion of the evil of each member, than purifies 
 it by the addition of his good. Do not charge 
 upon the depravity of man what may be the 
 accident of circumstances, and fly from it to soli- 
 tude and indolence, to sit down with folded arms 
 and wounded heart, a recreant from the service of 
 God because of the ingratitude of men. But 
 read (it is a wondrous lesson) the early, patient, 
 long enduring struggle against suspicion, neglect, 
 ingratitude, and obloquy of that great man, whose 
 life at last cleared forth from those early clouds, 
 and set in a full unclouded blaze of glory. And 
 remember so yours will set, in heaven if not on 
 earth, if only you do your duty, whatever be your 
 requital from man, 
 
 V. And the servants of God are sent forth two 
 and two. You must serve God in cooperation 
 with others as their equal, or their inferior, or 
 their ruler. And it is only this deep conviction 
 of your own position as a servant, which will 
 preserve in you a right temper of mind in each of 
 these three relations.
 
 12 
 
 If you throw yourself into any work as supreme 
 yourself in its operations, as free to do what- 
 ever may seem good in your own eyes, as doing 
 your own will, and responsible only to yourself; 
 even zeal and earnestness will tempt you to dis- 
 regard the rights, and to trespass upon the pro- 
 vinces of others. You will be impatient of their 
 errors, rash and presumptuous in interference, 
 and take upon yourself uncalled the duties which 
 belong to them. A true Churchman, a true 
 Christian humbly and conscientiously labouring 
 as commanded by Christ, will scrupulously regard 
 the limits of his own office prescribed by Christ. He 
 will not enter into other men's labours, without some 
 express positive summons. His own parish, his 
 own family, his own official task, will concentrate 
 and absorb his exertions. Each man has enough 
 to bear in his own burden. God alone is the 
 judge and the corrector of our fellows. And be 
 assured, the first act of a mind bent steadily and 
 humbly upon the full discharge of its own 
 responsibilities, is to resolve firmly and inflexibly 
 to abstain from any assumption of the responsi- 
 bilities of others. 
 
 VI. And this same sense and conviction of our 
 subordinate position as God's servants, will solve 
 one of the most difficult problems in life, the 
 risrht measure and occasions of our obedience to 
 those other human ministers of God's will, to 
 whom we may be ourselves subordinated — human 
 ministers fallible and corrupt, whom we must 
 often distrust, sometimes condemn, sometimes
 
 13 
 
 think light of, and yet whom we are bound ta 
 obey. If we cannot carry our eye beyond them^ 
 cannot look up and see through them in Heaven 
 God the all-wise, the all -good, carrying on in 
 his mysterious Providence all the movements of 
 the world, to his own good end, through the 
 imperfect agencies of human servants, we must 
 either sink into a blind abject servility towards 
 our earthly rulers, or in heart we shall become 
 rebels. No human authority, however wise, 
 however good, can approve itself in a majority 
 of cases to the conscience and the reason of its 
 subjects. No human authority can escape from 
 doing in some cases what is positively wrong, what 
 as subjects we are bound to disobey. Where shall 
 the line be drawn ? I answer, as the Apostles 
 drew it, as Moses, as Elijah, as Davidy as Daniel 
 drew it, by a constant recognition of that supreme 
 authority, which rules the whole machinery of 
 government — by referring to the positive commands 
 of God delivered to us as his servants; and, let me 
 add, not to human fancies, or to human interpre- 
 tations and perversions of those commands, but to 
 their clear, positive, express meaning demonstrated 
 as a matter of fact. ' Whether it be right in the 
 sight of God to hearken unto you more than 
 unto God, judge ye*. For we cannot but speak 
 the things,' not which we think, not which we feel, 
 not which we have reasoned out by our own fal- 
 lible conclusions, but ' which we have seen and 
 heard' — which have been delivered to us under 
 » Acts iv. 19.
 
 14 
 
 God's injunctions, with the same evidence, on 
 which reposes the great fabric of human behef, 
 the external testimony of the senses. Feel that 
 you are a servant only charged with the com- 
 mands of God — cast away all personal feelings and 
 selfish imaginations — and the single eye of faithful 
 duty \vill at once discern when to obey, and when 
 to refuse to obey the earthly ministers of God's 
 hand. Cast into prison unjustly, you will quit it 
 without consent of the oppressor, if the Angel of 
 the Lord strikes off your fetters, and leads you 
 forth ^. Though an earthquake burst open the 
 doors, and loose your bands, you will remain like 
 Paul and Silas to die, if no such summons be 
 given '^. Now you will remove from city to city 
 as the magistrates bid you depart <i. Now though 
 they oppose and blaspheme®, you will continue 
 and hold not your peace when the vision of the 
 Lord commands it. Now you will refuse to plead 
 before the Pilates of the world, and now obey the 
 call to reason before Felix and Agrippa ; now 
 refuse to come forth from prison, except the 
 magistrates bring you out; and now escape by the 
 wall; now circumcise Timothy, and now withstand 
 Peter. Positive express commands of God, de- 
 livered to you as his servant, will be the test to 
 distinguish where obedience and where resistance 
 is a duty. And thus will be united in your cha- 
 racter that bold and manly independence, that 
 freedom of advice, that openness of expostulation 
 and remonstrance, that steady resistance to the 
 ^ Actsxii. ]0. <= Acts x^i. 36. ^ Acts x\i. 36. ^ Acts xviii. 5.
 
 15 
 
 faults of our earthly rulers, and at the same time 
 that reverence to authority, and that scrupulous 
 exact submission to all their lawful commands, of 
 which, if you would study an earthly model, seek 
 it in the communications of that great man, whose 
 memory is now resting on our thoughts, with the 
 Rulers and Sovereigns of the world, of whom he 
 was at once the Subject, the Servant, the Col- 
 league, the Protector, and the Guide. 
 
 VII. And so in our government of others. 
 They are men, they are fallible and frail. Look 
 on them as the mere instruments of your own 
 will, and on yourself as irresponsible to God, and 
 how will you bear with their failings ; how con- 
 tinue patient, and long-suffering, and gentle amidst 
 hourly provocations ; how learn to guard your 
 punishments from cruelty, and your indulgences 
 from weakness, and your intercourse from undue 
 familiarity or undue pretension ! Absolute irre- 
 sponsible power is a fearful temptation to man ; a 
 temptation in the ruler to abuse, and in the 
 subject to resist it. Limit it by the limitations of 
 God, employ it as delegated by Him, and then 
 indeed you can govern, and then only. Then you 
 will forgive others as you hope to be forgiven 
 yourself; then you, the debtor to your God of ten 
 thousand talents, will not bear hard upon your 
 fellow-servant who owes you a hundred pence ; 
 then your intercourse will be one of simple un- 
 pretending considerate dignity ; then your com- 
 mands will take the form not of capricious exac^ 
 tions, but of patient laborious instruction. Your
 
 16 
 
 confidence will be at once cautious and generous, 
 strict and unsuspecting,,because free from personal 
 jealousy, and the fear of resistance. Above all, 
 you will then be able to exercise with firmness 
 and with boldness the necessary discipline of 
 government; discipline, if need there be, stern and 
 inexorable, and terrible as the vengeance of God 
 Himself, — discipline from which the weakness of 
 man's nature shrinks, unless supported by the 
 sanction of Him in whose hands alone are the keys 
 of life and of death. Elymas! Ananias! Sapphira! 
 think of the tenderness, and gentleness, and long- 
 suffering of the lips, from which fell the sentence 
 upon those victims; and ask what spirit could have 
 nerved them, but that dread Spirit, speaking as to 
 Samuel when he hewed Agag in pieces, — as to all 
 the saints of the Lord, when they have gone forth 
 at his command ^ with^ a two-edged sword in their 
 hands, to execute vengeance upon the heathen, to 
 bind their kings with chains, and their nobles 
 with fetters of iron.' 
 
 VIII. And once more, what will give you. 
 strength — real courage, genuine heroism — in your 
 battles for God against the world, except the 
 deep conviction, that you are in his hands but 
 his trumpet to blast the walls of Jericho, and his 
 rod to divide the Red sea. Look to yourself only ; 
 trust to your own arm, and to your own wisdom ; 
 and though the morning of the battle of life 
 opens full of spirit, and hope, and confidence, and 
 vigour, be assured, before the darkness comes, you 
 ^ Psalm c. 5.
 
 17 
 
 will have sunk and fled. Courage is easy for a 
 time. Pride, passion, shame, emulation, enthu- 
 siasm, even physical excitability will kindle it for 
 an hour, kindle it like fire among the stubble. 
 But the war, which we have to wage in fulfilling 
 the work of the Lord, is a war from morn to night, 
 and from night again to morn, day after day, 
 month after month, year after year, through 
 suffering, through defeat, through alarm, through 
 anguish, often through despair. And how will 
 you sustain it ? What can plant you calmly and 
 coolly upon the field of battle in the face of a 
 mighty enemy, his troops victorious and veteran, 
 your own untried and weak, not to rush wildly 
 into conflict, but to stand beneath his vollies and 
 his charges, the dead falling all around you, and 
 one prayer burning upon your lips that night may 
 come, and one fixed resolve in your heart to die 
 rather than abandon your post, — what but that 
 which has been the soul of courage to all the hosts 
 which have defied the world, — faith in His hand 
 who employs you, certainty that victory must 
 C9me, where He commands and He disposes, 
 though it may be purchased by your death ? 
 Calm, patient, thoughtful, enduring, unwearied 
 courage, the courage of an English soldier, the 
 only courage worth the name, can it be found 
 severed from the faith and the humility of a 
 servant ? 
 
 IX. And when tliat courage has triumphed, 
 (for triumph it will at times even upon earth,) 
 and men gather round in wonder to applaud and
 
 18 
 
 crown with glory, (for even to the saints of the 
 Lord this trial and temptation may be permitted,) 
 where shall we look for that even and balanced 
 temper, which without vanity, or intoxication, or 
 arrogance, receives each proffered homage in 
 unpretending simplicity, neither coveting, nor 
 despising, but accepting each as the will of his 
 Sovereign, as due rather to that Sovereign than 
 himself, and rather as an example to encourage 
 others than as a gewgaw for his personal enjoy- 
 ment ? Must it not be to one w^hose eye is ever 
 fixed on the great Hand, in which he has been 
 but an instrument and a servant ; and whose 
 thought has ever been not fame, or popularity, 
 or glory, but those two mighty words, the words 
 which can remove mountains, which would to God 
 we could inscribe upon our hearts, as they should 
 be graven on the coffin of the dead, Obedience 
 and Duty ! 
 
 X. And one more feature may I touch on in 
 this character of Christ's faithful soldier and faith- 
 ful servant, which can scarcely be shaped into 
 a precept, which may seem even fanciful and far- 
 fetched: but which, seen in connection with others, 
 possesses a deep significance, and will at least be 
 conofenial to our hearts. It occurs ac^ain and 
 again in the lives of Christian heroes, who have 
 most thoroughly realized their subjection to the 
 service of their Master in fighting his battle upon 
 earth. It is found in the greatest heroes and 
 statesmen of the world, wherever they have given 
 themselves up with the most pure and unselfish
 
 19 
 
 abandonment to obedience and to duty. Minds 
 wearied and worn out wdth labour prescribed and 
 not sought, covered over in the secresy of the breast 
 ahnost wdth sores and ulcers from the offences and 
 collisions and exasperations of their conflict with 
 man, too pure to find relief in indulgences of sin, 
 indifferent to paltry occupation, careless of self- 
 aggrandisement, forced into coldness and reserve by 
 their official responsibility, distrustful of the hearts 
 of others from long experience of mankind, and yet 
 needing some living thing on which to vent affec- 
 tion, and find repose, are always found to turn as 
 their chief relaxation and enjoyment, there 
 where our Lord turned, when beset with the 
 jealousies of his Apostles; there where He dwelt 
 in prayer, when rejoicing that he beheld Satan 
 falling as lightning from Heaven »; there where 
 the affections of the Apostles again and again 
 seem to throw themselves ; there where the face of 
 God Himself in heaven rests, ever miclouded and 
 unveiled among the myriads of his angels, — to the 
 tenderness, the innocence, the docility, the affec- 
 tion of little children. It is known of the great- 
 est statesman of this empire, when brought almost 
 to the brink of the grave by the terrible anxieties 
 of that struggle which he was conducting in the 
 last century against the despot of the earth, that 
 almost his only recreation was to fly from the 
 city into the country, and fling himself on the grass 
 to play with the little children of his friends. And 
 so it was with him whom we have lost. When the 
 " Luke X. t>l,
 
 20 
 
 mightiest of tlie land trembled to provoke his re- 
 buke, and almost to approach his presence, he was 
 found with little children. He nursed them, 
 played with them, sat by their sick bed and told 
 them stories of his battles, fondled them, kept 
 for them his little store of childish memorials, 
 delighted to be present in their school, and 
 to stand by and gaze on their amusements ; and 
 the eye which at the call of duty could face 
 unmoved and stern the horrors of the battle field, 
 and the launching of thousands to destruction at 
 the bidding of his word, would melt and soften 
 into tears at witnessing the joyousness of chil- 
 dren. 
 
 He is gone; and we are preparing to lay him in 
 the grave by the hands as it were of this whole 
 empire, in the midst of the mournings of Europe. 
 
 And the world, as it gazes upon that funeral 
 pomp, w^ill think of fame and victory and glory ; 
 of the liberties of Europe, of vengeance upon 
 tyrants, and of the salvation of this great Empire. 
 And those of deeper thoughts will look beneath 
 these vanities of earth, and dwell with reverence 
 and affection on the glorious features of that 
 character, the true object of our gratitude and 
 homage. But our eyes must look still deeper ; 
 the eyes of those who would judge as God will 
 judge, and who tremble at the horrible mockery 
 of heaping honour upon the ashes of the dead, 
 while the spirit all trembling and condemned may 
 be cowering at the judgment-seat of Heaven. And 
 therefore I have offered these suggestions. It is
 
 21 
 
 sometliing in these solemn moments to recall those 
 many acts by which he exhibited in relation to 
 God, the same spirit of obedience and duty, so 
 striking in his relation to his Sovereign, — in public 
 prayer, in daily study of the Scriptures, in re- 
 cognition of the authority of God's ministers, in 
 submission, whether in the doctrine, or discipline, 
 or order of the Church, (I am alluding to facts 
 not yet generally known,) to whatever was com- 
 manded, wdiatever w^as law. It is something to 
 follow in our thoughts that great departing spirit 
 into the regions of the dead ; to picture to our- 
 selves with the Prophet, * the grave ^ moved at 
 his coming, stirring up the dead, even all the 
 chief ones of the earth, and raising from the 
 thrones all the kings of the nations,' with whom he 
 sat in council and foug'ht in battle ; and to 
 think of all those potentates and princes, all the 
 thousands whom in the shock of battle or of siege 
 his voice had plunged into destruction, and who 
 may gather to meet the man who ' made the 
 earth to tremble, that did shake the kingdoms,' 
 no one can taunt him with the cry, ' How^ hath 
 the oppressor fallen, how is he brought down 
 to hell, who had exalted his throne above the 
 stars !' What hero, what conqueror of history, 
 could face that terrible encounter with an eye so 
 single and unblenched ! But there is a comfort 
 still beyond. God is training and disciplining us 
 upon earth not so much to outward acts, as to 
 inward principles and habits. And those prin- 
 P Isaiah xiv, 9.
 
 22 
 
 ciples and habits may be deeply sunk, and be 
 indirectly developed in other spheres and relations, 
 and on objects far lower, and meaner, than those 
 on which they are hereafter to be exerted, when 
 we stand face to face with God, and are to serve 
 Him in the courts of Heaven. The child may be 
 fit at once to be transported to the face of his 
 heavenly Father, who as yet has only practised 
 faith, and obedience, and love towards his father 
 upon earth, if he has practised them aright. And 
 St. Paul, the persecutor of Christ, persecutor from 
 honest zeal, and unfeigned love to the law of 
 God, only required to hear the voice of Christ, 
 and to see his light, at once with the same zeal 
 and earnestness to become the great Apostle of 
 the Gentiles. 
 
 So may it have been with the dead. We 
 know^ not what secret guidance, what inward 
 knowledge never revealed to man, God's Spirit 
 may vouchsafe to a soul struggling with sim- 
 plicity and earnestness to do its duty, so far as 
 that duty is discerned. But this we do know ; 
 that unto whom much has been given, of them 
 shall much be required. Not to have been plunged 
 into camps and bloodshed from our earliest youth ; 
 not to have been withdrawn from the chastening 
 purifying influence of home, and friends, and the 
 Church of Christ, when all our passions most 
 needed their restraints ; to have been called every 
 day to prayer, urged every day to repentance, 
 warned every day against sin ; to have been sur- 
 rounded with all the lessons of religion and asso-
 
 23 
 
 ciations of holiness, and clear distinct enunciations 
 of God's truth and will, and solemn prospects of 
 a future summons to minister more immediately 
 at his altar — surely, surely such mighty bless- 
 ings will be treasured in condemnation against 
 ourselves, if we in our service to Christ fall short 
 of that model which has now been given us in the 
 service of our Sovereign and our country ; if our 
 soul when released from the body appears before 
 the judgment-seat of Christ, less stamped and 
 dignified and hallowed with the symbols of Obe- 
 dience and Duty. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.
 
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