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 'uffering; anli f^ope 
 
 A SERMOxN 
 
 PREACHED IN 
 
 ST. MARGARETS CHURCH, WESTMINSTER 
 
 ON THE OCCASION OF THE 
 
 ^anbetling of tf)C ^ISJintob) placeti \\\ tfje ai:f)urcf) 
 
 BY 
 MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 LORD FREDERICK C. CAVENDISH, M.P. 
 
 On SUNDAY, JULY 22, 1883 
 
 BY 
 
 The Rev. E. C. WICK HAM, M.A 
 
 MASTER OF WKLUNGTO.N CO-LXBGE 
 
 RI VINGTONS 
 WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIII
 
 ufferincj anli ^o^t 
 
 " The Lord sitteth above the waterflood : and the Lord 
 remainetli a King for ever. 
 
 "The Lord shall give strength unto His people, the Lord 
 shall give llis people the blessing of peace." — Ps. xxix. 9, 10. 
 
 It is the privilege of Christians in the pains and 
 mysteries of life, not only to fly in spirit to the 
 assured sympathy of the Elder Brother, who 
 Himself bore their sicknesses and carried their 
 sorrows, but also to claim in a sense a resemblance 
 of experience with Him, to lay their sorrows by 
 the great sorrow, to see them tliere in the ideal, 
 and so to understand them better. It is in this 
 thought that Christian art has found its most 
 human and universal spell, in its rudest forms 
 and in its most perfect, in the rough outlines in 
 the catacombs or the coarse crucifix by the way- 
 side, as in the cells of San Marco, or on the 
 canvas of Titian or Guido. 
 
 Where the suffering is in any sense for the sake 
 of others, — and that in Christian language, is for 
 
 A 2
 
 4 Suffering- and Hope. 
 
 Christ's brethren, Christ's body, — St. Paul teaches 
 us to see it in yet another light. As work for 
 others is with him a " working with God," so 
 suffering for others is a " filling up of that which 
 was behind in the sufferings of Christ." In spite 
 of all that He suffered for men, He yet left room 
 for His followers to suffer too, to share that Divine 
 prerogative. 
 
 It is in the spirit of his words that those who 
 have designed the window which we unveil this 
 morning have ventured to fill its upper and chief 
 lights with scenes from the Divine-human life. 
 
 The first scene is that of the Agony in the 
 Garden. It is a type on many sides of the higher 
 and more generous sufferings of humanity. The 
 text below it points us to one side. It puts an 
 interpretation on the Angel's comfort. It is the 
 prophetic assurance that bitter as was the agony, 
 it was not blind or purposeless. " He shall see 
 of the travail of His soul." Trust in the beautiful 
 and perfect Will may carry the sufferer himself 
 through pain and loss of which he sees no issue; 
 but those who look on, must crave for the sight 
 of something beyond it — some assurance that the 
 pain has an adequate and satisfying end. 
 
 The second scene is the thorn-crowned Saviour, 
 submitting in patience and gentle dignity to the 
 
 if 
 
 o
 
 Suffering and Hope. 5 
 
 malice of His enemies. And the text below it is 
 the prophet's description of the suffering servant 
 of Jehovah : "He was led as a lamb to the 
 slaughter." As the first picture recalls a character 
 of the suffering, so this recalls the character of 
 the Divine sufferer — " Behold the Man ! " As you 
 study the face, you see nothing either past or 
 present to explain the suffering. It is not 
 punishment. Angels weep and hide their faces. 
 It is the mystery known only to humanity that is 
 seen here in the eternal type — the law of which at 
 times we can trace the process, which at others 
 seems to elude our understanding, by which the 
 pain of the innocent has power on earth and in 
 heaven, power to soften and to save the guilty. 
 
 The thirdj scene is the Saviour carrying His 
 Cross. "He bearing the cross went forth," — 
 bearing the instrument of His own agony and 
 death. He made it Himself, by a prophetic 
 anticipation, the picture of what all His true 
 followers must be ready to do. "Whosoever 
 doth not bear his cross and come after Me, 
 cannot be My disciple." It is the type of 
 suffering accepted, of duty patiently undertaken, 
 with all its risks and inevitable pains more or 
 less realized in detail. 
 
 The la&i scene is the Entombment, — the hush
 
 6 Snfferi?ig and Hope. 
 
 tliat falls on the day of agony, the hush of perfect 
 peace; but, as the text below reminds us, the 
 peace not merely of ended pain, but of calm 
 expectation — " My flesh shall rest in hope " — of 
 hope for the sufferer, and of hope of the cause 
 for which he suffers. 
 
 Suffering fruitful, — suffering of the innocent, — 
 suffering willingly accepted, — suffering ended and 
 merged in peaceful expectancy : — these are the 
 aspects of the great typical sorrow of " Man for 
 man " which the artist has suggested. 
 
 The lower lights of the window not yet com- 
 pleted will contain scenes which, on a lower and 
 more human level, catch something of the same 
 colour. These again are so chosen as to touch 
 one feature and another of character or situation 
 in the scene nearer to ourselves ; but lightly and 
 at a distance, with the reserve and allowance with 
 which alone one so absolutely simple and modest 
 in soul could have borne to think that what he 
 did or suffered could seem even constructively to 
 be set by the Supreme Model. 
 
 Under the picture of the Agony, with its sha- 
 dowed vision of unselfish reward, will be figured 
 the master in the parable of the talents saying to 
 the faithful servant, " Thou hast been faithful 
 over a few things." We may be allowed to think
 
 Suffering and Hope. 7 
 
 of a life seen by us to be, beyond most, faithful 
 to duty ; shown to all eyes for a moment, as it 
 pleased God, under the fierce light of that sudden 
 fiery trial ; faithful to the last breath, loyal, with- 
 out thought of self, — tested and found w orthy to 
 be laid on the altar of self-sacrifice. 
 
 Beneath the innocent sufferer, " led as a lamb 
 to the slaughter," will be the picture of Nathanael 
 brought to Jesus ; to whom was borne the testi- 
 mony, from the lips of One who could read the 
 heart as noble as was ever borne to son of woman, 
 "An Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile" — a 
 soul transparent, absolutely true, with no after- 
 thoughts or second purposes. 
 
 Beneath the willing bearing of the Cross is to 
 be Christ sending the Seventy — " Behold I send you 
 forth." It is the type of the spirit in which every 
 call of duty is accepted by Christians, as a mission 
 from God Himself, not to be questioned or de- 
 clined ; a type of the spirit, too, in which they 
 must meet danger, opposition, wrong, foreseen by 
 Him who sends, if not by him that is sent : " As 
 lambs among wolves ;" " Into whatsoever house 
 ye enter, first say. Peace be to this house !" 
 
 Beneath the Entombment, with its suggestion 
 of peaceful waiting, is to be represented Christ 
 stilling the tempest — " Peace, be still." It takes
 
 8 Suffering and Hope. 
 
 up the last subject where it necessarily stayed. 
 " If the son of peace be there, your peace shall 
 rest upon it; if not, it shall turn to you again." 
 The peacemaker wins peace at least for himself. 
 It may be that in death he may win the prize 
 that in life he could not have won. But in any 
 case there is a Voice that can say, " Peace, be 
 still," as to the stormy sea, as to the tempest of 
 the heart, so also to the jarring interests and 
 cruel memories and long misunderstandings of 
 national estrangement. 
 
 Such in its general conception and suggestions 
 is the monument itself. It seemed due to say 
 something of it ; and I have been the more glad to 
 do so, because in some ways the figured language 
 of art can express the feelings with which we 
 regard a great and many-sided calamity more 
 perfectly, with more reticence, but for that reason 
 more fully, than plainer speech. 
 
 It is no common monument even in this historic 
 church. It is not common in the manner of its 
 placing here. It is the practically unanimous 
 tribute of the House of Commons, and that not 
 merely in an official sense, by the unanimity of 
 an unquestioned vote, but by the spontaneous 
 and personal act of its several members, of all 
 parties and creeds, in the three kingdoms. In
 
 Suffering and Hope. 9 
 
 the few words which I shall say directly of the 
 
 object of the monument, my desire is to remember 
 
 this, and to express the feelings of which all alike 
 
 would wish this window to be the enduring record. 
 
 The first thought in every heart has been to 
 
 pay a tribute of reverence and affection to the 
 
 singularly pure and noble life which was so sadly 
 
 and cruelly cut short. It was a life devoid of 
 
 show ; but it was one that stood the higlier the 
 
 nearer it was seen : 
 
 " Whatever record leap to light, 
 He never shall be shamed ! " 
 
 All who came into contact with him in business, 
 all who sat with him in the House, felt his in- 
 grained courtesy, his devotion to duty, his 
 simplicity of taste and habit, and felt also, no 
 doubt, his thoroughness, fairness, and steadiness 
 of judgment. Those who knew him best, those 
 under whom he had worked, and at least equally 
 those who worked with or under him, knew well 
 his high capacity, his penetration, strength, and 
 tact, and would have been surprised if in the end 
 high office had not come to him. But if it came, 
 as in that fleeting moment it seemed to be coming, 
 it would have come unsought. There never was 
 a politician less ambitious in any selfish sense. 
 He thought others abler than himself. He was
 
 lo Stiff ering and Hope. 
 
 full of the interest of politics, and glad to spend 
 his life in them; but interested in questions, in 
 the good of the people, in the large ideas and 
 commanding character of those to whom he 
 attached himself. He worked hard at them, as 
 he did at everything else to which a most com- 
 prehensive sense of duty called him, — at the 
 business and higher interests of the towns and 
 neighbourhoods to which he was bound by family 
 or political ties. Such were some of the aspects 
 of the life as the world saw it, and through them 
 all was infused the certain sense of a high and 
 gentle nature, as pure and simple and true as 
 the life ; faithful in affection, faithful in duty and 
 religion — a religion as true and as simple and 
 unassuming as the rest of the character. 
 
 You have wished that such a life should not 
 have disappeared from amongst you in this sudden 
 and awful way without some record of your high 
 regard and profound sorrow. And you must 
 have wished also that the crime itself, and the 
 deep horror and searchings of heart which it 
 caused, should have a place among the many 
 associations of this sacred spot. 
 
 There are some aspects of the crime with which 
 it would be impossible to deal here, but two things 
 at least are fitting to be said.
 
 Suffering ajid Hope. 1 1 
 
 I. It was an instance — a crowning instance, 
 and one tliat struck home closely to ourselves — 
 but only one instance, unhappily, amongst very 
 many, of a phenomenon of our time, peculiar to 
 no country or political conditions, but threatening 
 the life and happiness of every community alike. 
 In its widest expression, it is the claiming for 
 acts committed with political ends emancipation 
 from the restraints of morality. It is no new 
 thing in the world. It was condemned by St. 
 Paul : " Let us do evil that good may come . . . 
 whose damnation is just." It is to be traced 
 in characters of blood, in misery and shame, on 
 many a page of history. The novelty is, that 
 whereas in days gone by it was the secret crime 
 of the few — the damning sin with which men 
 branded the names of tyrants and inquisitors — 
 it is now practised and avowed by men who 
 claim to speak and act on behalf of the many, in 
 the outraged and desecrated names of Freedom 
 and Humanity. We can attack it only in its 
 principle. In any particular case we shall be 
 held to be interested, to underrate the occasion 
 or misinterpret the motive. But the Church of 
 Christ is bound to lift up her voice always and 
 everywhere, to high and low, to rulers and to 
 ruled, for the eternal law which knows no respect
 
 1 2 Suffering and Hop e . 
 
 of persons or occasions, — to preach that no end can 
 consecrate bad means, — that crimes of violence, 
 acts of wrong, far short of this one, degrade a 
 people, harden its heart, pervert and poison its 
 generous sentiments, cannot possibly lead the 
 way to a happier epoch of national life. If the 
 loss of that innocent life helped to bring this 
 home to any — if it helped on one side of the 
 Channel or the other to give men more serious 
 and moral views of political questions, to recall 
 them to the true proportion of things — that life 
 was not laid down in vain, 
 
 II. That is one end to which this window will 
 always speak to those who look on it. Another 
 is, surely, to raise in them a burning desire to 
 do something, if they may, to heal that cruel 
 difference of centuries between those who should 
 be friends and brothers, which has had this 
 amongst its many untoward and bitter incidents. 
 AYe shall not do this, as we are sometimes bidden, 
 by forgetting the past — as though it were unmanly 
 to be always accusing ourselves of wrongs long 
 o-one by and past undoing. Rather, those acts of 
 wrong-doing, on one side and on the other, should 
 never be entirely out of sight of those who on 
 either side have to act or speak. And if either 
 country must remember its old failures and
 
 SufferiTig a?id Hope. 13 
 
 injustices, then surely most the stronger, the 
 happier, the one which has most to ' answer for. 
 It is true that the men of this generation are 
 not responsible, morally, for the selfishness and 
 injustice of generations long passed to their 
 account. But it is the very characteristic of 
 national sin, that the punishment comes almost 
 always on the innocent. It seems at times as 
 though no punishment could balance and make 
 quit the account. The remembrance should not 
 weaken the hands of any in strong and firm doing 
 of justice ; but it should surely teach us patie7ice. 
 It is a sad reproach to us as a nation : other 
 nations see that. But is it not at God's hand 
 deserved ? We have reaped, in part at least, as 
 those who came before us sowed. It should 
 soften our tone. It should stimulate our anxiety 
 to find and do the right thing. It should nerve 
 us to bear with temporary and occasional failure, 
 — to remain steadfast in patient right-doing. 
 And it should teach us caution. We shall not 
 sin quite as our fathers sinned. We have their 
 example to warn us, and clearer lights than they 
 had as to the effects of political action. But how 
 anxious shall we be to avoid every form and 
 appearance of the same wrong ! How anxious 
 shall we be in dealing with political questions,
 
 14 Suffering and Hope. 
 
 especially with questions which touch Ireland, to 
 avoid levity and party spirit, to be calm and just. 
 to learn and understand the truth, to do right 
 without fear and without thought of self ! 
 
 -If we may not prophesy, we may not despair — 
 least of all when we are looking on the window 
 which commemorates this noble life, given as 
 truly as a soldier's life is given for his country, 
 ^nd given in the cause of peace and good govern- 
 ment. God means us surely to learn by punish- 
 ment and failure, by nobly-borne loss and calamity 
 and mortal sorrow, and " be the people never so 
 impatient," the issue is in His hands.
 
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