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 OUR UNITY AND BROTHEKHOOD IN GOD: 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED IN HAGLEY CHURCH, 
 
 ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1S63, 
 AFTER THE CELEBRATION OF THE COMING OF AGE OF THE 
 
 HON. C. a. LYTTELTON. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 HON. AND EET. W. H. LYTTELTON, 
 
 RECTOR. 
 
 [PEIVATELY PEINTID.] 
 
 BIRMINGHAM : 
 HENRY WRIGHT, TEMPLE BUILDINGS, NEW-ST.
 
 liuiiteJ in its eflects to this world, or to Time. May He 
 grant that we may never hare caiiso to remember any of 
 the high hopes which we all with good reason I think 
 entertained, on tliose days, with any feelings but those of 
 joy and of thankfulness, cither in this world or in that 
 great Eternity that shall be, when tliis world, and the 
 things of this world, shall have passed away for ever ! 
 
 I should be sorry that any reader should suppose that 
 the two members of the congregation to whom personal 
 allusion is made in the Sermon were present when it 
 was delivered. They happened both of them to be 
 absent ; which enabled me to speak as I did. 
 
 W. H. L. 
 
 UfUC ' 
 
 J
 
 SERMON. 
 
 *' Behold, how good and joyful a Ihing it is : brethrcu, 
 to dwell together in unity ! 
 
 " It is like tlie precious ointment upon the head, that 
 ran down unto the beard : even unto Aaron's beard, and 
 went down to the skirts of his clothing. 
 
 " Like as the dew of Hennon : which fell upon the 
 hill of Sion. 
 
 " For there the Lord promised his blessing ; and life 
 for evermore." — Psalm cxxxiii. 
 
 These ancient and sacred words, my brethren, 
 which are so fiimiliar to us all, may be applied, 
 as I hope to show you before the end of my 
 sermon, to our own use under present circum- 
 stances. 
 
 But, before I show this, I will endeavour to 
 explain their original sense. 
 
 They come to us like the rest of that most 
 beautiful book the Book of Psalms, from a far 
 distant country of the earth and from very
 
 6 
 
 ancient times. And yet how wonderfully they 
 fit oui' case and are suited for our use now ! 
 We all, I think, must often feel this as we use 
 the Book of Psalms. Its words come wonder- 
 fully home to our hearts. This makes us feel 
 the real brotherhood, the family relationship, 
 as we may call it, of all mankind in every place 
 and every age. Yes, my brethren, the deepest joys 
 and sorrows, the deepest hopes and fears of us all 
 are in many things very much alike. And it is for 
 that reason that these -wonderful Psalms, written 
 by King David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, 
 or by Moses in the wilderness, or by the Prophets 
 Daniel and Ezekiel in the land of their captivity, 
 or by Ezra the Scribe, fit us now in this far- 
 distant age ; and we find we can pour out our 
 feelinofs before God in the very same words in 
 which they did long ages ago. This is like tliat 
 singular fact told us by musicians, that if a note 
 is played on an instrument of music in a room 
 in ^vhich are other stringed instruments, these 
 latter will answer to the note played — the strings 
 of one answering, faintly it may be, yet really, 
 to the strings in another. Even so in those 
 most wonderful of all musical instruments of
 
 Almighty God's making — the Souls of men, 
 one will answer to another, however far sepa- 
 rated by the great spaces of the world and of 
 time. Yes, my brethren, our souls are set 
 thinking and feeling by the great words of 
 ancient prophets and inspired writers in the old 
 world thousands of years ago. So, indeed, 
 " d-eep caUetli unto deep" the deep of one man's 
 soul to the deep of another man's, and there is 
 ** a noise as of water-pipes," a circulation of 
 feeling and of thought in the great heart of 
 humanity. 
 
 Now, my brethren, before I go on to explain 
 the beautiful Psalm which I have taken for my 
 text, I must mention a few facts about when, and 
 by whom, it is supposed to have been written. 
 
 If you look at the Bible version of the Psalms, 
 you will find that the Psalms from the 120 tli 
 to the 134th are entitled " songs of degrees." 
 Some learned men tell us that the words of the 
 original should be translated *' songs of steps," 
 or *' songs of goings up." Now there have been 
 great discussions among Hebrew scholars as to 
 what these words properly mean. Some have 
 supposed, as I have mentioned to you in
 
 8 
 
 fonuer times, that these Psahns were written 
 in the time of David and of the Kings, for the 
 use of the Israelites on their pilgrimages, or 
 journeys up to Jerusalem from all parts of the 
 country, to keep their great religious feasts : 
 and hence they have called them " pilgrim- 
 songs." And I have, before now, endeavoured 
 to show you how beautifully some of them 
 were fitted for use at such times. But, on 
 the other hand, some of the rest do not 
 seem quite to fit this idea of their origin. We 
 need not however go now at any length into 
 these questions. I will content myself* with 
 telling you that there is one other theoiy as to 
 their origin, which on the whole seems more 
 probably true : — and that is, that they were 
 written in the days of Nehemiah, at the time of 
 the return of the Jews from the Babylonian 
 captivity, and were used by them while at their 
 work in re-building the walls of Jerusalem ; and 
 
 * Tliis 18 very well stated, and many of the illustrations 
 I have given in the sermon are suggested in "An Introdue- 
 tion to the study and use of tlie Tsahns," by the Ecv. J. 
 F. Thrupp, in two volumes, published by Macniillan, 
 and to be had of any bookseller — a most valuable and 
 complete book upon its subjeet.
 
 9 
 
 were called "' songs of goings -up,'" because tlicy 
 were used by the workmen as they icent up to 
 their work on the walls. 
 
 If you will look through these Psalms in 
 this view, you will sec in how many ways 
 they express feelings which would have 
 been natural under such circumstances. The 
 Israelites must have had a very deep feeling at 
 that time of their great need of Divine help, 
 and of the gracious protection of their Heavenly 
 Lord and God. For they were surrounded 
 by bitter and cunning enemies ; — they were 
 ^^constrained to dwell with Mesek, and to have tlieir 
 habitation among the tents of Kedar." They passed 
 their lives among wicked men who were "enemies 
 \into peace" who, "when theij spake unto them thereof, 
 made them ready to battle." There were many 
 Samaritans among them, half heathens, not like 
 the tnie Israelites, ''good and true of heart," but 
 double-minded, wishing to be partly Israelites 
 and partly like the Babylonians, or otherheathens 
 — serving God a little and Mammon a little. 
 Accordingly there were many " snares of the 
 fowler," as they say — traps laid to catch them ; 
 and many ''false brethren" who " turned back unto
 
 10 
 
 their own icickednt'ss," men ot" " iyiny lips and a 
 deceitful tongue'' — not of the tnie '* Israel of God." 
 So they carried on their work amongst manifold 
 dangers by day and by night, from before the 
 dawn of day, '* even before the moniiwj natch" 
 till the stars shone out once more in the mighty 
 vault overhead. But in all their labour, 
 their toil, and their danger, they looked to God 
 in His gracious mercy, and ever watchful Provi- 
 dence, to protect them. Without Him, how could 
 they be safe '?— "&a^« THE LOED built th^ house 
 their labour would be hst that built it ; except THE 
 LORD kept the city, the watchman would wake but in 
 vain." But they were sui'e that He would keep 
 them. Every common sight became to them a 
 witness of His actual presence with them. 
 They looked at the hills, whose dark outline 
 stood out so clear against the sky by day and 
 night " rouml about Jerusalem," and they recog- 
 nized in them solid types and s}TQbols of the 
 sure guardianship of God over His people. 
 They looked at the City built as " at unity in 
 itself," and it was to them a t}-pe of that deeper 
 unity which ought to subsist among the mem- 
 bers of God's Church and Family.
 
 11 
 
 So " out of the deep'' of misery and fear which 
 at time oppressed them, they could still ** call 
 unto tJie Lord," and know that He would " hear 
 their voice." " Many a time had their enemies fought 
 against tJiem" in times past; hut always "the 
 righteous Lord had hewn the snares of the ungodly in 
 jneces'" and so they were sure He would agam. 
 Their cause, they knew was indeed the cause 
 of God, which He would defend. And so *' the 
 sun should not burn them by day, neither the moon by 
 night; yea, it was even He that should keep their soids." 
 By night as by day, in the darkness as in the light, 
 they would be safe, because " He that kept Israel 
 shoidd neither slumber nor sleep," and because "their 
 help came even from tJie Lord who made Heaven and 
 Earth." And though they might indeed now be 
 "sowing in tears," yet should they, without fail, one 
 day "reap in joy." Their great happiness that 
 had come upon them " when the Lord turned again 
 the captivity of S ion," -^—when their joy and surprise 
 had been so great, that they had been "like unto 
 them that dream," and " their mouth had been filled 
 with laughter and their tongue with joy," and when 
 they "said of them among the heatJien, that the 
 Lord had done great things for them," — this joy
 
 u 
 
 should surely be fulfilled and continued, and 
 *' he that now went on his way weepiwj, but bearing 
 forth good seed, should doubtless come again with joy 
 and bring his sheaves with him." And as they 
 returned each to his own home from their perilous 
 and toilsome labours, and thought of the better 
 times that should come in the future, it must 
 have delighted them to sing, in the words of 
 the 128th Psalm, of God's promised blessing 
 upon their wives and children ; and of how these 
 latter, their children and grandchildren, should 
 at last see the long-wished-for ''peace upon Israel." 
 
 Read these beautiful and devout " songs of 
 degrees," bearing these circumstances in mind, 
 and you will find them full of meaning ; and if 
 you do so ^^^th a devout and teachable mind, you 
 can adapt them to your own use, — make them 
 profitable to your own soul in stirring your heart 
 to a livelier trust in God's gracious promises to 
 yourself, and to His whole Church now. 
 
 The words of that particular Psalm which I 
 have taken for my text, the 133rd, are such 
 as would veiy naturally have been suggested 
 under such circumstances. Never, probably, do 
 men feel the bond of brotherhood with one
 
 13 
 
 another so strongly as when they are under some 
 danger that is common to them all ; when a 
 little company of fellow-countrymen and brethren 
 are labouring together, as the Jews were then, 
 in the midst of fierce and cunning enemies ; 
 more especially if, in addition to this, every one 
 of that little company is engaged in labouring 
 at some great undertaking interesting to all their 
 hearts, as the Israelites were in re-building the 
 walls of their ancient and sacred city, in the 
 Name of the Lord, and to His glory. 
 
 Then indeed we may understand how deeply 
 they might feel how " good and joyful it u-as to 
 dwell together in unity " — how the pleasure and 
 joy of that feeling of brotherhood sweetened all 
 life in every part of it — how that feeling filled 
 even the most trifling acts with a delightful 
 fragrance, even as the holy oil that was poured 
 upon the head of Aaron, went down " even to the 
 very skirts of his clothing "; and it was as " the deiv 
 which fell upon the hill of Hermon" or as that 
 other ( — so probably the words should be trans- 
 lated) " which fell upon the " more sacred " hill of 
 Sion,for there" on Sion, " the Lord promised His 
 blessing, and life for evermore " — the dews which
 
 14 
 
 fell there might be regarded as the result of the 
 Everlasting Covenant, and were therefore typical 
 of greater blessings than those \Thich are 
 limited by time, even of those which belong to 
 the everlasting Kingdom of God — the " life for 
 evermore" 
 
 Now, my brethren, I trust that there must be 
 many of you who will feel that there is an appro- 
 priateness in the words of this very beautiful 
 ancient Psalm for our use at this particular time. 
 
 We indeed are fai' more favourably circum- 
 stanced in every respect than were those 
 Israelites in the days of Nehemiah. We, by 
 the infinite blessing and kindness of God our 
 Saviour to us, have no bitter enemies round 
 about us to attack and disturb our peace. We 
 have not to " dwell u-ith Mesek" or " have our 
 habitation among the tents of Kedar." No, my 
 brethren, was there ever a community in this 
 fallen and suffering world who dwelt in securer 
 peace than we do '? — verily " each man under his 
 vine, and under his Jig-tree," — " iti pastures fair, near 
 2)leasant streams,'' — in the peace and quiet of 
 happy English homes. Neither is there, to most 
 of us at least, as we look back over past years,
 
 and upon all the way wliich " the Lord our God 
 hath led us these many years" through the long 
 pilgrimage of human life to this day, any " time 
 of captivity'' of which we can recal the sad 
 memories as the Israelites could, when we had 
 to suffer any cruel wrongs from enemies of our 
 race and of our faith, or when *' hy the waters of 
 Babylon we sat down and wejH" in the bitterness of 
 our souls ; and when, had they asked for one of 
 the songs of our native land, we could only have 
 answered — '' How shall ice sing the Lord's Song in 
 a strange land / " 
 
 No, my brethren, different indeed has been 
 our lot. We were nursed in christian homes ; 
 never do we remember the time when the church 
 bell did not call us, at least on Lord's-days, to 
 prayer ; we have never known the terrors of war 
 — the very words which signify these things are 
 almost unmeaning to us ; they come to us as 
 out of some far distance ; they sound to us like 
 the far murmurings of a storm to men securely 
 sheltered in homes of peace and in havens of 
 safety. 
 
 And some of us who delight to gather together, 
 day by day, m this beautiful and peaceful sanctuary
 
 16 
 
 of God, love to do so partly out of thankfulness 
 to the Great and Bountiful Giver of all our 
 peace and all our blessings. And because, day 
 by day, those blessings are showered so plenti- 
 fully upon us, therefore day by day we would 
 acknowledge them to Him in His own house, 
 and offer in His sanctuary a sacrifice of praise 
 and thanksgiving. Yes, my brethren, surely in 
 our more thoughtful moments, it is almost 
 awful to think of the greatness of our blessings 
 — of the unnumbered trials and difficulties which 
 we might have had to undergo, but which are 
 known only by name, if even so, to us. 
 
 So that that particular help to the feeling of 
 brotherhood which was given to the Israelites in 
 the days of Nehemiah, and which came from a 
 common sense of danger, or from union with one 
 another in resisting human foes, is altogether 
 strange to us. But we may nevertheless enter for 
 other reasons into many of the feelings ex- 
 pressed in this beautiful Psalm. Intense joy 
 and happiness may sometimes draw us together 
 almost as deeply as sorrow and danger ; and even 
 the shallower and commoner kinds of joy, if 
 shared by multitudes, have something of the same
 
 17 
 
 effect. And has not God, my brethren, by late 
 events, and by His blessing upon all that took 
 place, purposed in this way, we may humbly 
 think, to make us feel more at unity one with 
 another, in this our happy and favoured parish, 
 than we did before ? Can any one have ixone 
 through these last two weeks Avitli a mind and 
 heart at all open to right impressions, without 
 having felt thereby drawn more near to all his 
 brethren and companions, his friends and 
 neighbours, with whom he is passing through 
 life '? Does not God at such times indeed reveal 
 to us in wonderful ways, our unity one with another? 
 and that, not only with the members of any one 
 class to which we may happen ourselves to belong 
 but with all our brethren? Are we not all 
 sharers in o)ie feeling 1 Are we not all in a deep 
 and real way, then, of one mind? Yes, my 
 brethren, and when to the common feeling of 
 every-day joy, such as we may have at any 
 connuon festival, which itself is some help to 
 unity, there is added any deeper ground of 
 sympathy, — when not only the shallower feelings 
 of our common human heart are stirred, but 
 some also of its stronger and more deep-seated
 
 18 
 
 chords are at the same time struck, when some 
 common memory, sacred to the minds of all, is 
 called up out of its deep hiding place within, 
 and becomes in very deed present with power 
 to every musing soul — and many an eye becomes 
 dimmed with tears, and many a face grows pale, 
 and many a strong form is shaken with the deeper 
 emotions of the soul ; then indeed we feel in 
 another nnd far more mysterious way one with 
 one another: our highest hopes and deepest 
 thoughts are felt to be the same for all of us ; 
 we are one in God, for only in Him have we 
 hope. May it, my brethren, have been indeed 
 so with many of us during the last two weeks' 
 festivities I May the feelings which have been 
 stirred in us not have been altogether shallow : 
 mny they have drawn us to feel our inward 
 brotherhood even amid all external differences, 
 and brought us nearer to God, and in Him to each 
 other I And then, if so, my brethren, I trust that 
 that feeling will not end in itself, but that just as 
 those ancient Israelites, of whom we have been 
 thinking, were drawn together not only by the 
 feeling of their dangers, but also by the common 
 work in which they were engaged, so we too
 
 10 
 
 may in our time and measure, and so long as 
 God gives us life in this present world, be moved 
 to go forth to "build the walls of the City of God," 
 to do some real work for God and for His Church : 
 to show our thankfulness for His endless and 
 untold blessin.L^s to us, by some true and perse- 
 vering work for the souls for which He died. 
 hear that voice — that Divine voice — addressing 
 each one of you in your own individual soul from 
 Heaven, as by name : " Simon, son of Junas, 
 Invest thou Me /" — then, " Feed My sheep, feed My 
 lambs:" — care for those for whom I poured out 
 !My Blood upon the Cross, — try to do some real 
 work with Me and for ]\Ie for your suffering 
 and perishing fellow-creatures, who are indeed 
 My Sheep and INly Lambs. Yes, my brethren, 
 and if you do this in the spirit of real faith in 
 God, then will you be led to some greater 
 thoughts than relate only to this present world. 
 We may not be able to tell what exactly the 
 ancient Psalmist meant, when he was led to 
 those great and strange words with which he 
 concludes his Psalm. We cannot tell how far 
 he had a distinct vision of a future state and 
 future life, when he spoke of "the Lord promising
 
 20 
 
 His hh'SsilUf, AND LIFE FOR EVERMORE." But SO 
 
 much as this I think we may see : — thnt all 
 moments of intense feeling do seem to lift us up 
 for the time out of this narrow world and state, 
 — do make us feel that man has a higher life and 
 higher calling than merely to live a few years on 
 this earth, and then die. Yes, those strong 
 affections that last after death, and in defiance of 
 death, those deep yearnings of the soul tliat 
 make us feel that the dead are still ours, and we 
 theirs, — those common feelings which so shake, 
 to its deep foundations the whole heart of great 
 nmltitudes of human beings at one time, and 
 knock, as it were, in their intensity, loud at 
 the veiy door of Heaven, asking for admission 
 There, — those sorrows that almost make us 
 one with Him Who wept at the grave of 
 Lazarus, but Who at last Himself rose tri- 
 umphant over death, — these do bring home to 
 our very souls the sense of our gi'eatness and 
 of our immortality. We not only know hut feel , 
 that God is near us ; and as through a crack in 
 the prison walls of this material world, we seem 
 to ourselves to see for the moment into the 
 higher Life that shall be — yea, that U at this
 
 I 
 
 n 
 
 moment around us and about us, in the great 
 world of Spirits. 
 
 And so, my brethren, if in these weeks you 
 have looked upon the face of one for whom you 
 have shown you care, and have seen it trembling 
 with the thought of a great sorrow ; and if you 
 have looked also upon another face, still in the 
 glory of its youth, looking forward in hope to 
 future times, and to life on earth — 0, then, do 
 not limit your thoughts or your prayers and 
 hopes for them to this world, — do not believe 
 that that past for hiin is altogether past, — do 
 not think that the future for that other is bounded 
 by this narrow world, and narrow life : no ! but 
 — let the wings of your soul expand, — let your 
 thoughts widen boldly, — let them rise even to 
 the very Throne of God, and to Him that sitteth 
 thereon, and Who created us to live with Him 
 for ever. Pray that these two, and all of us, 
 may indeed through Christ's infinite mercies be 
 fitted to dwell with Him, and to take our place 
 among the redeemed " Sons and Daughters of 
 THE Lord Almighty,"* in that Great and Glorious 
 Kingdom of the Future, in which the " sons of 
 
 * II Cor. vi. 17. 18.
 
 Q'2 
 
 God " shall be •* inaiiifested."='- Believe the great 
 words that tell that in Him Who has once for 
 all conquered death, we vnuf be one with each 
 other, not only in Time, but also in the great 
 Kternity that shall be ; and that it is indeed 
 the sober truth that to *' Sion," — to His true 
 Church, — to all that are truly His, — " the Lord 
 htidi i>rnii(hed His blessing, and Life for Ever- 
 Moui:."' 
 
 * See Rom. viii. 19. 
 
 HENat WHIGHT, FBIM'KB, NEW STEEET, BIBMINGHAM.