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 FAREWELL SERMOI(, 
 
 ^REACHED IN 
 
 CHEIST CHUECH, WESTMINSTER, 
 
 THE REV. J. W. FESTING, M.A. 
 
 ON THE EVENING OP SUNDAY, Gtii JULY, 1873 
 
 PRINTED BY REQUEST.
 
 J. DKAPBR, PRINTEK, 
 
 5 AND 6, LITTLE TOWER STEEKT, 
 
 LONDON, B.C.
 
 " Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his 
 mioht." — Ei'H. vi. 10. 
 
 I SUPPOSE that no one, who is about to give up old work, 
 or to leave old. friends, can help feeling some sort of satis- 
 faction when he is told that he will be missed when gone. 
 No one can do otherwise than hope that he may be remem- 
 bered and thought of by those from whom he parts. It need 
 not be entirely from selfish vanity that his feelings are such 
 (though of course there is the danger of being selfish and 
 vain, at least in part) ; there is a deeper reason, and a better 
 one. The cause for which he has been labouring, the work 
 which he has been permitted to do, or at least try to do, is 
 identified with himself, and for that work's sake he will be 
 missed. The bond between such an one and those he leaves 
 is this work, and no one who has worked, and has cared for 
 his work for its own sake, will not wish that that work may 
 continue and may prosper whatever may happen to himself. 
 His deepest wish must be this. It cannot be any thought 
 about himself and his own interest and feelings just for the 
 time, it must be about the deepest, the lasting interests of 
 those for whom he still cares, though he is about to leave 
 them. It was so in the cases of leavetaking of which we 
 read in the Bible. There we have our pattern in this as in 
 all things. We must hold this pattern before our eyes and 
 try to imitate it, however hard it may be to do so. You re- 
 member our Saviour's discourses with His disciples just 
 before His death. There is no indulgence in sentiment, nc
 
 4 
 
 looking back on the past for the mere pleasure of looking 
 hack ; it is the future that is the main object of all the 
 Saviour says, the clangers, the hopes, the work, the possi- 
 bilities of the future ; the continuance of what has been 
 already begun. The apostles' sorrow at losing him, their 
 remembrances of the past, are all made to merge into 
 the consideration of their future service of God. So it is 
 with St. Paul. Take any of the cases in which he bids fare- 
 well to his converts, how does his great love for them find 
 utterance. In the expression of anxiety for their future, 
 anxiety that they may so live as to do God's work and to 
 obtain God's promises. And so it must be, at however great 
 a distance and Avith however much imperfection, with any 
 parish priest bidding farewell to those for whom he has 
 worked and prayed As he thinks of these friends that he is 
 leaving, his deepest wish must be that the best things that 
 can be gained in life may be theirs. His chief thoughts 
 cannot be of the past ; they cannot be of the present ; though 
 now that the hour of separation has come it shows him by 
 the pain that it brings that his life is bound up with his 
 work even more than he suspected ; he cannot speak only of 
 the present aud indulge in giving vent to his feelings, he 
 must look forward to the future, he must look beyond the 
 changes of things temjDoral to those things which are eternal 
 and w^hich change not. His own earthly interests, his own joys 
 and sorrows and pains, are but little matters of a few hours ; 
 they fade away into nothing when put side by side with the 
 thought of the life, the character, — i. e., the prospects for the 
 endless years of eternity of those to whom he speaks. He 
 wishes for them the best things, and what are the best things 
 for them? Not love for and sympathy with himself, not that 
 they should carry a remembrance of him to the grave. 
 What will that of itself avail them, how v/ill they be the 
 
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 better for that alone ? But true love of that God in whose 
 presence they may abide for ever, constant remembrance of 
 what He has done for them, of what He has commanded. ■ 
 
 The soul of one bidding farewell to his people must long 
 that what he may say may be indeed a bidding them fare well, 
 that his feeling for them and theirs for him may only so far 
 find a place as to make what he may say the more powerful, 
 by God's grace, to bind them the more closely to Him who 
 can give them richly all things to enjoy, gifts which they 
 cannot receive except in a true and faithful service of Him 
 alone. 
 
 Looking back then for this purpose (for here is one use of 
 a remembrance of the past, that from the experience of the 
 past we learn what to speak of as we look forward to the 
 future), looking back on the past, I have had to ask myself 
 upon what subject I shall speak to you this evening. In 
 answering this question I have first of all to think, of what 
 kind of persons are those to whom I am speaking ? I am 
 speaking to those who are Christians, and not only Chris- 
 tians in name, but Christians at least, to some extent, in 
 reality. I need not plead with you on the first principles of 
 religion. I need not tell you, as if it were a new truth to 
 you, of Christ's sacrifice of Himself for sinners, of the love 
 and the service which you owe to Him, of the hopes He holds 
 out before you. I need not argue with you on the exceeding 
 value of the soul ; your heart has answered to the appeal, — 
 *' What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and 
 lose his own soul ? " You have trembled at the thought of 
 that loss, you have earnestly prayed that you may be "de- 
 livered from the bitter pains of eternal death;" you have 
 thanked God for the hope of heaven and asked Him to make 
 you worthy of being a partaker of its joys; 3^ou know what 
 are the blessings and what are the responsibilities of your
 
 G 
 
 position as those "who have been baptized ; you come to 
 church to worship God, you pray to Him regularly every day 
 at home ; you study your Bible that you may learn how to 
 live and please Him. 
 
 What then do I wish for you ? What danger do I see 
 threatening you ? 
 
 I look back on my ministry here. I think of myself and 
 my work. I remember the hopes and the confidence with 
 which I began. I recall the prospects of the future which 
 my imagination then pictured. I think of what has been 
 realized. Failure ! failure ! — such is the judgment written on 
 much, I do not say on all, but on much. Part no doubt was 
 due to the inexperience of youth which formed the plans, 
 but part and the greater part was due to something else — to 
 that want of which I shall presently speak. I think of the 
 flock, of this congregation often shifting and changing in the 
 last twelve years and a half. I think of the many with whom 
 I have had to do in closer intercourse than that of preaching 
 to them from this pulpit. I think of many who promised 
 well, of whom I and others hoped much, who hoped much, 1 
 believe, of themselves. Some have fallen away altogether, 
 fallen sadly, most sadly ; others have fallen short and are 
 not so zealous as they once were, as their irregular attendance 
 at Church and at Holy Communion testifies ; others again 
 have varied and changed, now worse, now better, or have 
 come up to a certain point and then wavered, have been 
 afraid of advancing, have been content with being half- 
 religious, (as if there could be such a thing), in the hope 
 that some day they might be able with less effort and at a 
 less sacrifice than it seems now to demand, to be all that they 
 see a Christian ought to be. 
 
 And so, looking back on my own work, and thinking of 
 the reason of some of its failures, and thinking of the lives
 
 and characters of others as far as it has been permitted to 
 me to know them, I see this one great and common faihng — 
 weakness, weakness in purpose, and weakness in execution 
 of what has been purposed ; I see the need for all Christians 
 of that injunction of St. Paul's which I have taken as my 
 text, " Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in 
 the power of His might." Strength, that is what we all 
 need, strength of purpose, strength in action; not the 
 exercise only of our natural strength, but strength in the 
 consciousness of union with the Lord Jesus Christ, strength 
 in purposing and doing what He would have purposed and 
 done, strength in the power of that might which is nothing 
 less than His and which He gives to those, who are united 
 to Him and who seek to use it. 
 
 For if a Christian were strong in the Lord what would 
 follow ? He would always do what was right, always keep in 
 God's ways ; he would increase in the knowledge of Christ ; 
 he would become holier and better continually ; grace and 
 peace would be multiplied to him ; all good plans would be 
 carried out ; there would be no standing still, no falling short, 
 no growing careless about God's worship, or private prayers, 
 or any good habit ; no falling before the devil's assaults. 
 Such an one would certainly be ready for the coming of the 
 Lord whenever that coming might be, and would then cer- 
 tainly enter into the joy of His Lord. For if a man be once 
 started on the Christian course, and if he be strong in Christ, 
 he will continue in that course, he will continue in safety 
 and so end rightly. 
 
 My brethren, you have started in that Christian course. 
 You are Christians. God has made you His children. He 
 has given you His Holy Spirit, for you were made by Him 
 in baptism members of Christ. You are in Christ. It is for 
 you to continue in Him. He has put you in the way of
 
 8 
 
 Isaiah and Habakkuk even when the whole Earth about 
 them was full of wickedness, unbelief, and sin, to lift 
 up a mighty voice of absolute certainty saying, ^Hhe Earth 
 shall he filled loitli the hnoioledge of the Lord as the waters 
 cover the sea^'r' which made Paul and Silas sing hymns of 
 joy at midnight in the prison at Philippi ; which enabled 
 St. Paul, while daily expecting, locked in the depths of 
 a Roman prison, the order for his cruel and unjust 
 execution, to write that wonderful Epistle of heroic 
 Christian joy and triumph, the second to Timothy; the 
 faith to which Christ our Lord Himself appealed, as 
 He stood, surrounded by weeping mourners, before the 
 cave in which His friend Lazarus lay buried, in the 
 words of power " Said I not unto thee, that if thou loouldest 
 believe^ thou shouldest see the glory of God ? "I 
 
 Yes, " this is the victory that overcometh the loorld, even 
 our faith, — " the substance of things hoped for ^ the evidence 
 of things not seen^^ 
 
 And you see it sometimes now. 
 
 The minds of many, who hear me will, I aoubt not, 
 have been turning, as I have been speaking, to some 
 instances which have been seen here amongst us of 
 late, of such Faith, and Hope, and Peace in God. 
 
 One death has taken place within the last ten days, 
 which may seem to our short sight untimely, a,nd present 
 difficulties to faith in the wisdom and goodness that 
 governs all. Men are ever ready to speak of such events 
 as " mysteries" ; and, no doubt, like thousands of other 
 things, they are, more or less, mysterious. But, it is 
 hardly possible to listen to the tone in which this is 
 often said, without gathering a painful impression that those 
 
 * Isaiah xi. 9. ; Uab. ii 14. f St. John xi. 40. :^> -; - | I John v. 4 ; Heb. xi. 1.
 
 who say it- do not use that expression quite sincerely, — 
 that in their heart of hearts, they allow themselves in the 
 feeling that such cases are not " mysteries " at all ; but 
 are manifest acts of injustice in the Divine Providence 
 that governs the world. 
 
 But there are, thanks be to God, others amongst us, 
 and not, I trust, a few only, whose faith is of a robuster 
 and deeper nature ; who do, with all their hearts, believe^ 
 even when they cannot, in the least, see. 
 
 It is of two remarkable and blessed cases of such true 
 faith in God which have been seen amongst us here that 
 I think it my duty and privilege now to speak. 
 
 It is not often, my brethren, that I think it well to 
 speak from this sacred place of particular persons. This 
 should, in my judgement, be done only when it happens, 
 either that the cases are generally known to us all and 
 that the thought of them is occupying the minds of most 
 of us ; or are of so special a nature that we may believe 
 that God is teaching us lessons through them, in a way 
 that He does not by ordinary events. 
 
 But the cases I am now about to speak of, have these 
 characteristics, and they illustrate in a remarkable 
 manner, the lessons I have been drawing from my text. 
 
 One of the two is, I doubt not, in the minds of us all 
 this day. The other is that of a great sufferer whom 
 we have, for some months past, been praying for, by 
 name ; and who has now at last been released from his 
 terrible pains, and called to his rest. Both were cases 
 of men who had in the deepest and truest sense of 
 the words " acquainted themselves with God," and 
 gained thereby a peace which nothing could shake.
 
 10 
 
 I will say a few words upon each of these. 
 
 The first I have mentioned was as well known to us all 
 as any one, unless it is we ourselves, your ministers. His 
 well known figure was as regularly seen, attending this 
 House of God, and coming also to the Lord's Table, during 
 the years he lived here, as that of any one. Never, scarcely, 
 while at home was he absent, though he lived at some 
 distance, and though the great and ceaseless activity of 
 his week-day life would . have been pleaded by many, 
 as an excuse for staying away, and for taking more ab- 
 solute rest, on God's Day of Rest. But our dear friend 
 was one of those to whom Religion, in the truest and 
 deepest sense of that word, was, not only the great 
 concern, ■ but also the great comfort, and delight of life. 
 It was no bare or cold sense of mere duty that brought 
 him here ; it was the deepest feelings and the strongest , 
 impulses of his truly Christian heart. So it was that he 
 never, we might almost say, unless actually prevented 
 by illness, or by some unavoidable cause, missed an 
 opportunity of joining with those who could say " / 
 was glad when they said unto me. We loill go into the House 
 of the Lord'''-' And from, I cannot doubt, precisely the 
 same motives, of pure and simple and warm love of God, 
 leading to a rare singleness of purpose in doing any and 
 every good work that God put in his way, he made 
 himself, notwithstanding the unusual pressure upon 
 him of very much secular work with which he was 
 always occupied, the willing official servant of the 
 Church. He was one of those who felt the Church to 
 be really the Church of God, not of man ; he was not 
 the man to look at these things as worldly men do, — 
 
 * Psalm cxTTJi. 1.
 
 11 
 
 they were deep heart-matters to him. And hence 
 it was from these motives — (had it indeed been other- 
 wise, — had he done such works only from lower motives, 
 we could not have attributed this worth to them) — that 
 he fulfilled these and other duties, in a manner that won 
 for him, and that could not but win for him, the warm 
 affection, regard and respect of us all. So it came to 
 pass that he was known, more or less, to our whole 
 population ; and I may add with perfect truth that the 
 more intimately he was known, the more he was loved, 
 as well as respected ; and the more clearly did men see 
 that the real, ever working main-spring of his whole 
 life was religion, of the deepest and most Christian 
 kind, — the true love of God, and of man, in God and 
 for God, and the deep feeling of his inmost heart that 
 Christ had saved him, and died for him. In the last 
 letter that I had the happiness to receive from him 
 — only a month ago, — there occur words which I think 
 I may lawfully mention to you, and which expressed 
 the habitual state of his mind towards God. " I have 
 had," he says, "a sad illness, and why it has occurred 
 I know not. One thing is very certain : — I was very 
 near exchanging Time for Eternity. Well ! I trust I am 
 prepared. I have one faith, one hope, — life in Time, life 
 in Eternit}^, in Christ Jesus." Such words were not, in 
 his mouth, as they are in some, mere words ; they ex- 
 pressed, as all who knew him well feel absolutely 
 certain, the deepest and strongest feeling in him.* 
 
 And it was because it was so, — because the ruling 
 power and true mainspring of his life was the love of 
 Christ as his Saviour and his heart's true Lord, that he 
 
 * See note at the end.
 
 12 
 
 feel sure that they will become more and more so. Believe 
 me, I can never forget the many proofs of kindness and of 
 love which I have met with at the hands of all here, young 
 and old, rich and poor. I trust that I shall ever remember 
 you in my prayers. I ask you to remember me too, and to 
 ask God that in the new sphere of duty to which I am called 
 I may be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 
 May His love. His mercy, His strength and power be with 
 you during life, up to and through that last and greatest 
 change of all. 
 
 J. Deafer, Printer, 5 & 6, Little Tower Street, E.G.
 
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