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 EASTER JOY AND EASTER WORK. 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 PREACHED ON 
 
 U\u gag of §\xm\l8$imn$ 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 SUPPRESSION OF THE REBELLION IN INDIA. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV, JOHN KEBLE, M.A., 
 
 Vicar of Hursley. 
 
 LONDON : 
 J. T. HAYES, LYALL PLACE, EATON SOttapv,
 
 SERMON. 
 
 1 Kings v. 4, 5. " Now the Lord my God hath given me rest 
 on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent: 
 And behold, I purpose to build an house unto the Name of the 
 Lord my God." 
 
 " Rest on every side !" What is this, brethren, but 
 Easter Joy? "A house to be builded unto the Lord 
 our God ! " What is this but Easter Work ? 
 
 The special Joy of Easter is victory — not that rest 
 which consists in never having any trials, any tempta- 
 tions, any enemies at all — but the soldier's rest after 
 winning a battle ; when, besides feeling himself free 
 to repose and enjoy himself, he has the proud thought 
 of having been conqueror, overcoming difficulties, 
 sharing in the glory and noble deeds of many whom 
 he knows to be braver than himself; — and, if so be, of 
 " pleasing him who hath chosen him to be a soldier;" 
 of receiving praise and " good marks " from his com- 
 mander, perhaps some great hero. This, you know, 
 is the soldier's joy — the joy of such as David and his 
 men, when the Philistines and other enemies of God's 
 people had been put down, and the Lord had given 
 Israel rest : no adversary, no anxiety or fear as to what 
 the heathen might do unto them. 
 
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 When David's wars were over, this was his feeling, 
 and that of his people ; and surely it was a kind of 
 Easter feeling : it answers well to the mind of the 
 true Israel rejoicing in the victory of the true David : 
 — the Christian people rejoicing in what Christ our 
 Lord did as on Good Friday and Easter Day; by His 
 Death giving a deadly wound to the great Goliath, 
 our enemy the Devil, and by His Resurrection over- 
 coming death itself, and " opening unto us the gates 
 of eternal life." 
 
 This is Easter Joy — rejoicing in Christ's victory at 
 Easter : feeling glad at heart that the Saviour Who 
 loves us so dearly, and poured out His Blood unto 
 death for us, hath now ended His sufferings, and lives 
 and reigns for ever : — glad at heart in the sure and 
 certain hope, that if we go on earnestly serving Him 
 for the short time that yet remains, we shall be par- 
 takers for ever of His joy and glory, and with us, all 
 whom we love, except they wilfully cast away their 
 hope. This is Easter Joy, and it ought to lead us to 
 Easter Work ; as the joy and rest of David and of the 
 people of Israel led them to a great work of thanks- 
 giving. What was their work of thanksgiving ? It 
 was building God's Temple. David, now reigning in 
 peace and glory, when he looked round on his own 
 house, and saw how comfortable and beautiful it was* 
 could not be easy in his mind to think that the Ark of 
 God — the token of His Presence — had no better a 
 home than a tent, where it was to dwell within cur- 
 tains. And so he purposed in his heart to build a 
 
 \ U,UC J
 
 House to the Lord, " exceeding magnifical," as such a 
 building ought to be. That was to be his TLasterWork ; 
 — his solemn thanksgiving, in return for the Lord 
 giving him rest ; and accordingly, though by God's 
 own message he was forbidden to attempt the actual 
 building, yet for all the remaining days of his life 
 he was greatly taken up in gathering treasure and 
 materials : and that, under an especial blessing from 
 God ; for He vouchsafed to give David, by His Spirit, 
 exact directions how the Temple should be built. 
 As Moses, when he set about the Tabernacle, was 
 warned to make all things from the pattern showed to 
 him on the Mount, so the Lord caused David by His 
 Hand upon him, i.e., by His Holy Spirit, to under- 
 stand in writing the frame and pattern of the Temple, 
 and all its furniture. What a joy and consolation to 
 good King David, to be thus assured that the Great 
 Almighty Father was well pleased with his way of 
 giving Him thanks ! Make no question of it, He will 
 be well pleased with us Christians also, if, in our 
 Easter joy and thankfulness, we apply ourselves to 
 the same work. 
 
 For building — building the Temple of God — is the 
 true Easter Work, just as thanksgiving is the true 
 Easter Joy. How was it with the Holy Apostles after 
 that first and greatest Easter? We heard in the Second 
 Lesson for the evening of Easter Day. When the Lord 
 Jesus Christ by His Death had purchased for them 
 rest from their spiritual enemies, and by His Resur- 
 rection and Ascension had led them the way into that
 
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 rest, and by the sending down His Holy Spirit had 
 given the signal for their work to begin, and furnished 
 them with the counsel and strength to do it : what 
 did that work prove to be? It was building, my 
 brethren, building up not a Temple of hewn stones 
 and planks of cedar, but a Temple of sanctified souls 
 and bodies — living stones, one by one builded into 
 the glorious and beautiful House, which is the mystical 
 Body of Christ, even His Holy Catholic Church. 
 This was the work which the Apostles set about, as 
 soon as ever they were themselves filled w 7 ith the 
 Spirit, and so made entirely partakers of our Lord's 
 victory. Like their forefathers, the children of Israel 
 newly delivered and come home from Babylon; because 
 they w r ere thankful, they arose and builded. How 
 did they build ? First they built up themselves, going 
 on in all holy practices by which the Holy Ghost 
 taught them that He would make perfect what He 
 had begun in them. "They continued stedfastly in" 
 their first "doctrine," in "fellowship" one with another, 
 and " in breaking of bread" and in the " prayers " of 
 the Church. By these, the blessed Apostles and their 
 companions builded up themselves day by day in 
 their and our most holy faith ; and they kept on also 
 building in others. 
 
 Take notice of this, brethren, it was not enough for 
 those first and best Christians to be always building 
 vp themselves, trying to abound more and more, they 
 could not be content without building in others also. 
 "Continually in the Temple, and from house to house,"
 
 — both in public services and in private intercourse — 
 "they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ." 
 They knew that for this very purpose they were called 
 — not only that they might walk themselves in the 
 light of the Lord, but that the same light shining 
 before all the brethren might win them also to glorify 
 the Father through Him. So earnestly and well did 
 they begin building, that on that one day of the 
 Church's birthday, — i.e., on the first Whit-Sunday — 
 there were added unto them and unto Christ, by 
 Holy Baptism, three thousand souls — three thousand 
 living stones, builded into Christ's Spiritual Temple, 
 in the course of that one day. 
 
 What was Easter Joy then, the same is Easter Joy 
 now ; and what was the first Christian's Easter Work 
 then, the same (can you doubt it, my brethren ?) must 
 also be your Easter work and mine, now and every 
 year that we are spared to see another Easter. What 
 though it be now 1800 years since the good tidings 
 went forth, " Christ is risen, and His Spirit is come 
 down : believe in Christ, and ye shall receive His 
 Spirit," yet our Lord's Blood has not waxed cold, 
 nor is His Arm shortened that He cannot save. Our 
 need is still what it was, born as we are each one of 
 us in sin, and beset with endless temptations ; and 
 blessed be His Name, His Love is also unchanged. If 
 therefore we rejoice in Jesus Risen, He expects us to 
 show our joy, as the Holy Scripture taught those first 
 Christians to show it, by building up Christ in our- 
 selves, and by building others into Christ.
 
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 And this year, brethren, we seem to be especially 
 reminded of that which in all years alike is our Easter 
 duty, in that God's Providence has called on us at 
 this particular time to join with our Queen and all 
 our fellow-countrymen in thanking Him for merci- 
 fully delivering us from the miseries and dangers of 
 that sad Indian mutiny — the most heart-breaking, in 
 many respect.3, of all the trials and troubles with which 
 it has pleased Him to visit our land, as far back as 
 the oldest of us can remember. And God forbid that 
 the youngest of us — that any of our children, or child- 
 ren's children — should ever have to witness or hear of 
 the like ! But the more fearful it is to think of, the 
 deeper surely should be our gratitude to God for having 
 heard the prayers of His unworthy servants, and re- 
 stored that unhappy land to something like peace and 
 security, after so many months of cruelty and horror. 
 
 And may we never forget that it is His doing, not 
 man's ! If Governors and Commanders were wise, it 
 was He Who put the wisdom in their hearts : if sol- 
 diers were brave and faithful, He helped them to be 
 so : if weak women and children, if sick and dying 
 persons endured like martyrs the worst that man could 
 do unto them, to His Good Spirit be all the glory, 
 Who endued them with martyr's faith and patience. 
 And who knows, brethren, how much of the present 
 deliverance may be due to their earnest prayers, con- 
 tinually offered up in their affliction and agony, which 
 prayers themselves were taught them by the same 
 Holy S pi kit?
 
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 This Indian deliverance, then, like all the great 
 deliverances which onr God at any time bestows upon 
 His people, may be looked on as a kind of faint image 
 or shadow (as David's victories and the peace which 
 followed were a type and shadow beforehand,) of our 
 Lord's all-redeeming victory which He won for us by 
 His Death and Resurrection, and of the Peace assured 
 thereby to all true members of Him. The mercy to 
 our country calls for something like Easter Joy ; and 
 by the same rule, He expects of our country, and of 
 each one of us, something like Easter Work. As David 
 and Solomon felt in their hearts that now the Lord 
 had given them rest, they could not do less than build 
 a House unto His Name : so it seems at this time 
 impossible for a true Englishman to help feeling that 
 the English nation, and all Englishmen, are bound to 
 do their very best to build up God's Spiritual House, 
 the Church, both here and in India, and wherever He 
 gave them a chance. We have but too much reason 
 to fear that one reason why God sent upon us all those 
 sad calamities was the great irreligion of our country- 
 men in India, their too much indulgence of sinful lust, 
 and the too great neglect of all care for the spreading 
 of the Gospel, both there and among us at home. If, 
 now that He has taken off His hand, we go on just as 
 we did before — " after all that is come upon us for 
 our evil deeds and our great trespass, seeing that Thou 
 our God hast punished us less than our iniquities 
 deserve, and have given us such deliverance as this ; 
 should we again break Thy Commandments, wouldcst
 
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 not Thou be angry with us till Thou hadst consumed 
 us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?" 
 So the good and earnest Ezra — that true Patriot and 
 Reformer — mourned in his prayer over his country- 
 men ; fearing that after all they would refuse to learn 
 righteousness from the judgments and mercies of their 
 God. I wish it may not be so with us Englishmen in 
 our great and remarkable trials. I wish it could be 
 said that our nation grows in faith — in religious 
 reverence to God and His Church, — at all after the 
 same rate as He multiplies His mercies towards us. 
 
 But what is the use of just wishing ? let us up and 
 be doing : let us all be earnest and busy, each one in 
 his own place, in building up the Church of God — 
 the proper employment of hearts thankful for Easter 
 blessings. Our Queen and our Bishops have directed 
 us this day to say in our prayers to Almighty God — 
 " Grant, we beseech Thee, that every renewal of Thy 
 loving-kindness towards our country may lead us to 
 unfeigned thankfulness, and dispose us to walk more 
 humbly and obediently before Thee ;" which is the 
 same in meaning with the prayer which the Church 
 puts into our mouths twice every day of the year — 
 " That we show forth His praise not only with our 
 lips, but in our lives." 
 
 You say those words, at least you say Amen to 
 them, very often indeed. What if you were now to 
 try and say it more in earnest than ever you did 
 before ? Does any one here doubt, that if he were to 
 do so it would be a very blessed thing to him ? Do
 
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 you think, brethren, that David and Solomon, now in 
 that other world, wish that thev had laid out their 
 money, their time and skill, in the works and pleasures 
 of this world, instead of planning and building that 
 beautiful Temple to the glory of God ? Do you think 
 — nay, God forbid that such a thought should find 
 room in any of our minds — that the blessed Apostles 
 and other members of that first Church in Jerusalem 
 repent, where they now are, of having given them- 
 selves up altogether, body and soul and spirit, to 
 waiting on their Lord ? Do you think they wish any 
 of their goods back again, which they sold — all that 
 they had, and gave the produce to the Church and 
 the Poor ? 
 
 Well then, this is what you will do, if, as English- 
 men, you would follow David in his w T ay of thanking 
 God for victory and peace ; and still more, if, as 
 Christians, you would follow Christ's Saints in their 
 way of keeping Easter. You will put by foolish 
 fancies and trilling objections, and difficulties which 
 in fact are no difficulties at all, and you will set your- 
 self to build up in earnest that holy Church and 
 kingdom, which you know your Great Father and 
 Saviour has most at heart of all the things in this 
 world, and which He would have you seek first, and 
 attend to before everything else. 
 
 Do not say, " How can we build ? we who are 
 neither rich, nor great, nor learned — it is idle to talk 
 to us of bearing a hand in so great a work." There 
 was once a person who might have said so,— if ever
 
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 any one might — a very poor desolate woman, who 
 found herself at the place where offerings were being- 
 made for building up the House of the Lord, and she 
 had one farthing (1 Jc?.) in the world : she might have 
 well thought with herself, and I dare say she might 
 have found many to encourage her in the thought — 
 " What is the use of my offering so small a sum ? it 
 will go no w T ay towards the work, but it would buy 
 me a morsel of bread." She might have thought 
 this, and who durst have blamed her ? But no ! her 
 heart was so full of love — so enlarged by the Spirit 
 of God, that she offered her two mites, though it was 
 her all, and went her way home to serve God as she 
 might ; little imagining what the Son of God was 
 saying of her, that she had in His sight put in more 
 than all the rich men, because it was all she had — all 
 her living : and so her praise is in the Gospel, and 
 shall be to the end of the world. Only think what 
 that poor widow would have lost, had she thought, 
 like one of us, that it was not worth giving at all, 
 when she had so little to give— that she might as well 
 keep it, so far as it would go, to lay it all out upon 
 herself. Is not the same God, think you, beholding 
 you, Who was beholding her ? Has He not the same 
 power and mind to bless you, and make what little 
 you can give to Ilini, or do for Him, go a very great 
 way ? 
 
 Observe — there are two ways in which you may 
 build for God, and you must practise both, or you 
 will not succeed in either. You are to build up your-
 
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 self in your most holy faith, to become a more and 
 more perfect member of Christ's Body ; and if you 
 are in earnest doing this, you will of course long to 
 build in others into the same Body. I say you must 
 practise both these, or you will not please your Savi- 
 our in either of them. 
 
 Of course, there is none of you but will at once 
 allow, that offering alms, or any other outward work, 
 will never bring glory to your God, or save your soul, 
 except you be really endeavouring daily to draw nearer 
 to God in holy obedience : " Though I bestow all my 
 goods to feed the Poor," or to benefit the Church, "and 
 have not charity" — true dutiful love of God, "it will 
 profit me nothing ;" — of that you are quite sure, you 
 all know it very well. But there is another thing which 
 you do not know : very few of you seem to have more 
 than a very dim notion of it ; namely, that your love 
 to God is unreal and cannot be depended on, unless 
 it urge you to win others to love Him also : as it is 
 written — " Let us consider one another to provoke 
 unto love and to good works." I say, this is a neces- 
 sary token of a heart truly converted and turned to 
 God. " This commandment have we from Him, That 
 he who loveth God love his brother also." 
 
 If 3'mi love your brother, can you possibly help 
 desiring his eternal good ? and if you truly desire it, 
 will you not, when occasion serves, put yourself a little 
 out of the way — make some little sacrifice to promote 
 it ? Depend upon it, if you see people, young or old, 
 rich men or working men, turning away with scorn
 
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 when they are asked to offer something for Missionary 
 work, those persons are not in the right way as to the 
 salvation of their own souls. Think what ye do, when 
 Christ — (for in truth it is He) — when Christ comes 
 knocking at your door, and vouchsafes to call upon 
 you for aid in building up His Spiritual Temple, and 
 you answer "No!" or give no answer at all, but 
 make as though you heard Him not. Even if there 
 be no scornfulness, no wilful disrespect, yet such 
 behaviour is a bad sign of your love to the souls for 
 which Christ died, and to Christ Himself. For be 
 sure you cannot really love one without loving the 
 other. 
 
 Consider what the Holy Ghost teaches, in tbe 
 Old Testament and in the New, about persons caring 
 or not caring for Jerusalem, how the Lord regards 
 them as caring or not caring for Him. " Pray for 
 the peace of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that love 
 thee."* And Isaiah says, "The nation and kingdom 
 that will not serve Thee shall perish :" and those who 
 " forget His holy mountain," are reproved as "forsak- 
 ing the Lord."! And He invites His people to Him 
 thus : " Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad with 
 her, all ye that love her ; rejoice for joy with her, all 
 ye that mourn for her : that ye may suck, and be 
 satisfied with the breasts of her consolations ; that ye 
 may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance 
 of her glory." None, you see, are called to the glory 
 
 * Ps. lx. 12. f Is. Ixv. ii.
 
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 and consolation, but those who really rejoice with 
 Jerusalem and mourn for her. 
 
 And in much the same way He speaks of the Church 
 in the New Testament — " Feed the Church of God 
 which He hath purchased with His own Blood." 
 " He loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that 
 He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of 
 water by the Word, — that He might present it to Him- 
 self a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, 
 or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and 
 without blemish." And the dearest lovers of Christ 
 were such as " rejoiced in their sufferings for the 
 Church."* If then, you care not for the Church, — 
 if you turn a deaf ear when there is reasonable hope 
 and serious talk of spreading the Gospel, — I am afraid 
 it will appear by and by that you cared very little for 
 Christ. 
 
 Well may an Englishman's heart ache, when he 
 thinks of such sayings, and compares them with the 
 way in which the Church and the Prayer Book have 
 been too commonly treated among us of late years. 
 
 The remedy for this evil state of things requires, 
 indeed, much patience : but it is sure, and cannot fail, 
 for each one of us. It is simply this — let every one 
 mend one, and all will be mended. Do you strive and 
 pray each one of you to build up Christ in yourself, 
 and in all whom He puts within your reach : give 
 gladly some little, as He shall enable you, when He 
 
 * Col. i. 24.
 
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 asks your aid in His Missionary Work. And take 
 courage, for He dearly loves when humble and holy 
 persons come to Him and try to bring others : such 
 persons as the holy S. Philip, one of this day's Saints; 
 Christ permitted him to find Nathanael, and promised 
 them the sight of heaven opened, and " the Angels of 
 God ascending and descending upon the Son of 
 Man," and upon those whom He comes to save. This 
 promise is for you, and that for ever : for the least and 
 lowest of you, that will truly try to build up Christ 
 in himself and in others. When will the World, the 
 Flesh, or the Devil, do half as much for you, serve 
 them as devoutly as you may ? 
 
 YALL VLACE, EATON SU
 
 
 > > . 
 
 
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