'■m 1^ SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. BY EICHMD CHENEA^X TEEXCH, B.D. VICAtt OF ITCHENSTOKE, HANTS; EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD: AND PBOFESSOa OF DIVINITY, KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. LONDO:^: JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND. MDCCCLIV. SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. St. James iv. 1. From wlience come wars aud fightings among you ? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members ? ON any common occasion a minister of God's word would scarcely, I think, choose these words of St. James as a starting point from which to address his hearers upon the circumstances of the present time. It is not that he would not feel them to be deeply true, and to have their fitness at this time as at all others. But he would pro- bably abstain from them, and wisely, lest their selection might, without his intending it, seem to suggest a misgiving on that point, upon which above all it is important that there should be none ; lest it should sound as a sort of confession that all who are engaged in a war must be in the wrong together ; that, in fact, there neither is, nor can be, much more of justice or right or truth on the one side than the other — a miserable faith, or rather a miserable unbelief, in which to enter on a great and perilous crisis such as this is ; one that would contain in it the assurance of present weak- ness in the maintenance of the quarrel, the promise of abundant shame and disaster ere its close. a2 4 A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. But now, upon this day, when we have come together first and chiefly to humble ourselves before Almighty God, to confess our sins, and to pray to Him to turn away the punishments which those sins have deserved — on such a day there can be no misunderstanding of the intention with which these words have been chosen. On such a day we have plainly something else to do than to be clearing ourselves in this matter, or to be seeking anxiously to determine how much of guilt may be ours, how much may be the adversary's. It is plain that nothing can now become us at all so well as to prostrate om^selves without reserve at His throne, and to confess before Him a common guilt, and a common shame ; one which is as much ours as our adversaria's, for it is every man's — the guilt of our common nature, the consequence of our common fall. It is our part now to confess that this gTeat calamity which has overtaken us, is bom of the evil of man's heart ; that it could not at all have been without that e\i\ ; that it is a great standing witness how little that evil has been sub- dued or overcome : and how should all this be more fitly expressed than in the question which St. James asks, and in the answer which he himself supplies — " From whence come wars and fightings among you ? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members ?" Nor is this a truth which does not need to be asserted ; which is allowed by all : it is indeed implicitly denied by many. Thus, how many among us were persuaded but a little year ago, A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. that there never would be again a great European war ; that we might still, perhaps, have petty contests with barbarous tribes on the outskirts of civilization ; that even at home we might still be occasionally disquieted with "rumours of wars ;'' but wars themselves, as between the great potentates and powers of the civilized world, these they were entirely persuaded, had for ever ceased, be- longed to an sera which had now for ever passed away. And why was there to be henceforth no such thing ? on what did they ground their con- fidence that the nations should not learn war any more ? Was it that the Prince of Peace had so established his kingdom in the hearts of men, was it that they had so learned to love one another with a pure heart fervently, that henceforth it was im- possible that they could be ever arrayed for mutual slaughter against each other ? Did they rest their expectations on any such visible triumphs of the kingdom of heaven upon earth as this ? They did not pretend to do so ; but they relied on the intentness with which men were now devoted to the arts of peace, to the multiplication of the com- forts and conveniences of life, to the accumulation of wealth ; they relied on the deep conviction with which men were penetrated at last that war wasted capital, checked industry, interrupted the profitable pursuits of commerce and agriculture ; and, however they may have sought to present it to themselves or others in a form of less naked selfishness, their calculation was, that men's love of money, their love of ease, their love of pleasure, would caiTy the day 6 A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. against the pride, the passion, the lust of conquest, out of which in times past, "wars and fightings'' had sprung. Meanwhile the wiser-hearted, who had more wisdom than these ancients of this world, because they consulted truer oracles, what could they do but listen with a sad incredulity to these predic- tions, to these anticipations of a kingdom of peace, which was not at the same time a kingdom of heaven. They knew that the fountain of bitter- ness, from whence flow all the evils which have desolated the world, and war among the number, w^as not staunched. They were taught out of the word of God that wars and fio-htino^s came of the lusts which war in men's members ; and they saw, or where they did not see, they knew, that these lusts were warring still ; that the prophets of peace themselves did not assert that they had ceased to war, but only that of these some might be effec- tually played off against the other. Knowing the power of Christ's Gospel, and for what it came into the world, they did not doubt that wars should cease out of earth, that swords should yet be beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning-hooks ; but only when the mountain of the Lord's House should be established on the top of the mountains, and all nations should flow to it in spirit and in truth, that they might learn His ways, and walk in His paths. They saw by too many infallible tokens that such a consummation was yet far distant ; and they waited for the day which should disprove all these rash anticipations of a universal kingdom of A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. 7 peace, that should run before the universal empire of Christ over the hearts and spirits of men. And now that day has arrived ; it was inevitable that it should arrive. All of unsubdued evil in the hearts of men was a pledge that peace, resting upon no better foundations than as yet had been laid, must come to an end. And not what was evil merely. Wrecked and shattered as is man's moral condition by sin, there are still remains of original nobleness and greatness about him, yearn- ings after high things, however he may mistake what is truly high, which would protest against the renunciation of war on any such servile induce- ments as were thus supposed to be all-powerful with him. If he was content for ever to sheath the sword, to forego war, with its dreadful pomps, its fearful magnificence, and all its ample spheres for the display of his courage, his endurance, and his skill, this renunciation should be in obedience to far other motives, to the law of love, to the bidding of Christ, to the sense of an universal bro- therhood constituted in Him ; and not merely that he might avoid pain, lead a softer life, enrich him- self sooner, and travel by an easier passage to his grave. Seeing, then, that this thing which thus has come upon us, inevitably must have come, it is worse than idle to fancy to ourselves how by this course or that it could have been averted. Other courses than those which have been taken mishthave deferred,or might have precipitated,the fatal moment. But one thing only would have hindered altogether 8 A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. its arrival — a Cliristendom which had been such less ill name and profession merely, more in reality and power — Christ more fully formed in the heart of myriads of men — his law of love having become more truly the law of their lives, the regulator and ruler of all their inordinate desires. This, and nothing else but this, would have rendered impos- sible the breaking out of war. To confess this, to acknowledge our sin, national and individual, that these barriers against this evil thing have not been more effectually reared in ourselves and in others, is plainly the first and foremost duty of the day. But I cannot think it is the only duty. By our coming together to pray God that He would bless our country's arms, we do in the most solemn way which it is possible for men to choose, avouch our conviction that it is sometimes a most righteous thins: for a nation to draw the sword ; and it is all important that we should bring this conviction out into clearest light and consciousness both in ourselves and in our brethren. To contemplate war merely as it is an outbreak of the spirit of Cain, merely as a fearful seal to the declarations which Scripture makes of the wickedness of man's heart, being a partial view of the matter, becomes a false one when it is presented as the whole; cannot be healthy at any time, least of all can be healthy now. It is not true : for if war were merely this out- break of the spirit of Cain, how should we explain the fact that we everywhere find the gentlest, the most humane, the most tender-hearted, willing A SERMON FOR THP: FAST DAY. I> to take their share in it, and in all which it involves ;'|and these not leaving so their humanity behind, not gradually brutalized by contact with it ; as they needs must be, if it were a merely brutal and devilish thing; but extracting a gain from their very familiarity with anguish and pain and suffering, deepening and quickening all their sympathies thereby. Most of us, I think, will be forward to allow that among the men whom we have known, some of the very gentlest, the most thoughtful for others, the most reluctant to inflict pain upon any creature, have been men following this profession of arms. What, then, is the idea on which war, in so far as it is this just and righteous thing, reposes? How is it that a Christian nation, not therein renouncing its Christian profession, can dare to snatch this terrible weapon from the armoury of God ? The reason has just been given ; because it is felt to be this weapon out of His armoury. War in its idea, and as alone a Christian nation can wage it, horrible and fearful as its accompaniments must be, has yet a divine elem ent in it that is, if truth and righteousness and justice, with the methods by which these may be most effectually sustained, are divine. For what is it, used aright, but the instru- ment whereby, when all other means have failed, it is still sought to repress the evil-doer, to set the trampled right upon its feet, to shield the weak, and to secure the peace of the world on those foundations upon which alone it is worth securing, or can be secured — those, namely, of justice and A3 10 A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. truth ? It is the fact that war is this, which lends to the appeal to arms that overwhelming solemnity which, in the eyes of each thoughtful man, it must ever have. Now, at length, the judgment is set ; and the court opened, to which those causes can be brought which refuse to be determined else- where ; the court of highest instance, to which " the man of the earth/' and all the proud and violent and strong, may be made amenable, even as many as will accept the decisions of no other tribunal. So contemplated, war is no appeal to brute force — no casting of the disturbing sword into the balances which were weighing justly before ; but rather an appeal from brute force ; an appeal to God, to that court of highest arbitrament, where He sits as the Dispenser of final awards, and holding in His hand those tremendous scales in which the destinies of men and kingdoms and nations are weighed. I trust, then, the day will never arrive among us when the banners under which our hosts go forth, will not receive the solemn consecration of prayer; when we shall send forth our fleets and armies without intercessions and supplications, like those of the present time. I trust the day will never come, when Te Deums will not be chanted among us for victories; when the princes and people of this land ^vill not assemble in the houses of God to render thanks to Him for whatever successes He may vouchsafe to our arms. I can imagine nothing more godless than to refrain from this; for if we ascribe not victory to Him, we shall ascribe it to ourselves, and say that with our own A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. 11 arm we have gotten ourselves the victory; nothing that would mark more strongly a guilty conscience than to be waging a war, for success in which we did not dare to thank Him. Let us then, if we can, deepen an hundredfold our abhorrence of those who lightly let loose these dreadful powers, which we have so unwillingly wakened from their slumber, out of the lust of con- quest, to gratify pride or passion, covetousness or reveno^e. But let us not so confound all moral distinctions, as to ascribe in our minds any portion, even the least, of their guilt to those whomay employ the same instrument, but for wholly different ends. Not to speak of the deep injury which we shall thus do to ourselves, for " whatever is not of faith is sin,'' in no way shall we so effectually lower and debase the character of the soldier. If we teach him that his is and must be the Devil's work, we shall do much to bring him to a level with our estimate of him, with the estimate which we shall have taught him to entertain of himself : whereas, let him believe that his work is noble, — the defending of the weak, the upholding of the oppressed, the vindicating of the right, — and it will not fail but that the work will impart some of its own noble- ness to its doers. But there are some other considerations to which this day appears to invite us. There cannot be a doubt that many of the scourges with which God is pleased to visit the sinful children of men, are not simply and merely scourges — that on the con- trary His very stripes are healing. His wounds the 1'2 A SEKMUN FOR THE FAST DAY. wounds of a Friend. Is this one of these evils, which are not all evil, or at least which need not be so ? Is war, as we sometimes hear it spoken of, merely waste and loss, wreck and ruin, havoc and destruction? or brings it any compensations with it ? Leaves it, or can it leave, anything but its own desolations behind it ? The question is a serious one. If it has even its partial compensa- tions, we must thankfully embrace them, welcoming with a firm heart these gifts of a severe provi- dence, and not putting them back from us because they come in another shape from that which we should have chosen. And such I believe it has. Thus, I cannot see how we can refuse to acknow- ledge that the sacrifices which this present time will demand from us all in one shape or another, it may be in many shapes, must have an influence on the national character, and that influence an elevating and ennobling one. Every poor man that accepts cheerfully the enhanced price of the means of his life, and would rather have it thus than that right should be wronged, is a real gainer by this struggle ; much more may they be so, poor or rich, whom it visits in their dearest affections, from whom it de- mands far dearer offerings than this. It is true that these sacrifices for the present cannot be joyous, but grievous. And yet the promptness for sacrifice, and therefore the habit of it, how needful is it that these should be maintained. A nation which has learned to scorn the idea of self-sacrifice, has virtually abdicated its gi'eatness ; and probably it will not be long before the lowness of its out- A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. 13 ward condition will correspond with the inward abjectness of its spirit. There is but one law of greatness for a nation, as for a man. The one and the other must alike live by faith ; they must walk, if they would walk to any noble issues, as seeino^ that which is invisible — in the acknowledo^- ment of high aims, in the obedience to lofty inspi- rations, in the constant postponement of ease to toil, of pleasure to duty, of safety to peril, of the present to the future ; nor can they cherish more fatal enemies in their bosom than those, who, appealmg to whatever is low and selfish and sensual in them, would fain persuade them otherwise. There is no surer augury of approaching decay, — of decay, indeed, more than approaching, for it has already far advanced, of death begun, — than the absence of generosity from a people's heart ; when it is impossible to stir them, when those electric shocks which with lightning speed run through an entire people now visit them no more ; when the summons to help others, to defend the weak, to uphold the majesty of law, is only met with the reply " Am I my brother's keeper V To such a people it is presently given, by a just law of God's providence, to behold the tide of w^ealth, which bore them so proudly up, while they did not count it the first thing, forsaking them now, when it has become foremost in their eyes — it may be, slowly but surely ebbing, and leaving them stranded as on some forsaken shore ; or else, in a keener irony yet, the man's heart being gone from them, they perish in the midst and at the height of that wealth, 14 A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. which attracted the spoiler, but was impotent to defend itself or its possessors from his hands. Or regard war as a " great tribulation/'' which this present one may easily prove, a much sharper chastening, and finding us out in far more and more searching ways than perhaps the most of us anticipate now, — may it not, even as such, yield to us " peaceable fruits of righteousness'' in the end ? Indeed, so purifying, so elevating an influence does tribulation exercise on the character, (and what is war but tribulation on a great scale, and visiting not one man, or one household, but the households of a nation) an influence which can so little be spared, that it may be boldly said, the mere extinction of war, all other evils of the human heart and of human society, all else in our common life which tends to degi'ade, to debase, to sensualize, remaining the same, would prove no blessing, but the contrary. This mighty evil is yet rendered necessary by the still mightier evils which it helps to check and counteract. ' The great corrector of enormous times, Shaker of o'er-rank states, that heals with blood The earth when it is sick/ war seems indispensable under the present sad con- ditions of humanity ; and here, as so often, He who chastens in mercy extracts a sweet out of this bitter, and compels this curse to leave a blessing behind it. But I must not forget nor wander too far away from the special purpose of this time. " The battle is not yours, but God's" — so taught the inspired A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. 16 seer ; so teaches each page of history ; and in our deep conviction of this we prostrate ourselves, this whole people, we would trust, as a single man, before His footstool. For as war avouches itself in many ways to be that which has been claimed for it, namely, an appeal to the Most Highest, so, above all, in the dread uncertainty which waits upon its issues. " God is ever on the side of the most numerous battalions" was the saying, with a sneer, of a celebrated captain and king, great in many ways, but not great in that which would have constituted the truest greatness of all. I will scarcely pause to observe how he himself, both in victory and defeat, was a witness against his own words ; \for truly, in a thousand ways, God claims the battle for His own, making all things to serve Him, winds and waves to fulfil His pleasure, to fight for men or against them ; defeating the best-laid calculations, dashing the most promising designs, turning wisdom into folly, prudence into rashness, courage into panic fear; and proclaiming evermore that the palms of victory are His to give or to withhold, and " the race not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." But stranger yet than this — if the battle is not always to the strong, as little is it always to those that have the fairest cause, and the justest quarrel. Let us not, therefore, imagine that the justice of the cause which we uphold is itself a pledge to us of exemption from great disasters, however it may give us a confident hope of a successful issue in the end. Very needful is it that we be clear on this i6 A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. point, and see plainly that we have no right to cherish any such expectations as these. Else, when calamities arrive, as arrive they will, they will strangely weaken our hands, creating in us doubts and misgivings in respect of the righteousness of that cause wherein we are engaged. "VVTiat could be more fisfhteous than that cause in which all Israel was gathered as one man to avenge the hideous outrage which Benjamin, by refusing to punish, and by shielding the criminals, had adopted and made his own ? (Judg. xix. xx.) Nay, the people went up as ministers of God's wrath, at the express bid- ding of the Lord ; and yet once and again they fell beneath the sword of the evil doer. The jus- ticers of heaven, they yet were sorely smitten ; and only after they had paid this penalty, was it granted to them to accomplish the decree for which they drew the sword. Nor is the explanation of the fact that it is so often thus very far to seek. God's judgments are a great deep, and yet He gives us a plummet line by wliich we may fathom them. The reason, I believe, is this; the justest cause which men maintain is never so entirely just as to be wholly pure from every admixture of injustice ; or if it be, is never so maintained by men but that there mingles some of their dross mth its pure gold, more or less of passion or of pride, of bitter zeal, of desire for their own glory, of confidence in their own resources, with their maintenance of it. The quarrel may be the very quarrel of God, but sinful men are its champions. He therefore who designs to crown them with the victory in the end, does yet A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. 17 demand from them this tribute by the way. By painfully and dearly-bought experience they learn that the battle is the Lord's, and not theirs. By disappointment and defeat He turns them in upon themselves, to deep heart-searchings, to a proving whether there be not some Achan in the host, some indulged and cherished evil in their hearts, which will not allow them to vanquish : and then, when that is cast out, when they have cleansed their hearts from the guilty stains which were cleaving to them, victory returns to their banner; and success, which is ten-fold more precious, ten times a better blessing, than it would have been if ob- tained more earl}^ ; for it is now received more purely as a gift of God — and, as all gifts of God, received aright, will do, it humbles, and does not puff up the receivers. Therefore, brethren, kno^ving beforehand what we must look for, let us stablish in our hearts, and, in this sense, not be afraid of evil tidings. Doubt- less they will come — if not now at once, yet in the course of this contest we must look for them — tidings of mishap, which will darken with sorrow and with sadness innumerable homes of England ; yea, which will spread gloom over the whole land, while they who mourn not for themselves shall yet mourn with those that are mourning around them. And not to speak of defeat, victory itself may seem often too dearly purchased at the time, so costly will be the price which must be paid for it. But let none of these things move us from our stead- fastness ; for that steadfastness must rest not upon 18 A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. the shifting issues and changeful fortunes of the battle-field, which may be now for us and now for the adversary ; but on our con\dction that they are the eternal principles of right and justice, which however weakly, with however much of infirmity and sin, we are maintaining. And let me say that the more earnestly we fulfil the intention vnih which this day's services were appointed, the more faithfully we carry on its spirit into many a secret after-day of humiliation and prayer, the more effec- tually we shall be helping to avert such calamities from our country and from ourselves ; seeing that, in the measure wherein we humble our ownselves, it will not need that God should humble us ; as we freely bring our hearts to be purged and purified by Him from their dross, it will not require that He should forcibly take them, and cast them into the fiery furnace of His judgments. For this day then of humiliation and prayer, as for after-days which we may most profitably appoint to ourselves, let me offer in conclusion a few suggestions of things to be confessed, and things to be prayed for. Clearly, then, while our o^vn single separate guilt will not remain unacknowledged, the intention of the day will lead us, in the confession of sins, to dwell chiefly upon those which are the common guilt of us alL Thus, when a long peace is leaving us, and we only see, as is too often the case with unthankful men, the true price and worth of our blessings as they are taking their departure, let us confess our giiilt that this peace has not been more thankfully enjoyed, its opportunities more A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. 19 diligently improved — that comparatively so little has been done in our times of tranquillity for heal- ing the deeper spiritual hurts of our people, for bringing all under the renewing, transforming powers of Christ's word ; while, in respect of their outward condition, let us acknowledge that there is something of hypocrisy in our being prepared to lament so loudly those who may perish on the distant battle-field, while we have suffered and are suffering yearly it may be ten times as many to perish by preventable fevers in the very cities where we dwell. And then let us confess how little as a Church we have done to render that sounder form of words, that pure doctrine and discipline which we possess, attractive in the eyes of the nations. What could they see in us more than in themselves ? what peculiar beauty of holiness ? what that should have inspired in them respect, reverence, and awe, with a desire to draw nearer and to examine into the peculiar position which this Church occupied in Christendom ? — nay rather, what strifes, what scan- dals, what offences — some out of the very children whom She had reared, not without her fault, how- ever it might be with a greater fault of their own, forsaking and turning against her. Let us confess how much is wanting to us, which would have added weight to our words as those of a Christian nation; how much further our pleadings for peace might have reached, if Christ's presence and power had been more ^dsibly among us. But time woidd fail me if I sou^-ht to enumerate o 20 A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. an himdredth part of those things which at this time it would behove us to confess. I must leave the mustering of their long catalogue to your own consciences; and gather into a few briefest heads what may be very fitly some of our present subjects for prayer. While, then, we thank God that He has given us a righteous cause, let us ask of Him, in fear and trembling for ourselves, that it may be as righteously maintained by us to the last — that no bye-ends of ambition or covetousness, of self- seeking or pride, in the progress of the struggle may disturb the singleness of eye with which it has been commenced, or put a difference between us and that great people, hand-in-hand with whom we go forth to this warfare. Let us further pray Him that He would give us as a nation a sober and resolved spirit, tempered and removed alike from an insolent gladness in prosperity, and an abject despondency in adversity — that in prosperity we may remember the darker days which may be travelling up behind; and in adversity may accept His chastening; and endure, as knowing that not he who can inflict the heaviest blow, but he who can endure the heaviest without shrinking, is crowned mth victory in the end. And yet once more — let us beseech Him that whatever is just, whatever is equitable, whatever Avill set forward this nation's lasting good or the world's, in the ends which we have proposed to our- selves, this He would grant us as the price of our toils and sacrifices to obtain; whatever is other or A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. 21 more than this, that He would mthhold it from us, however eagerly we may covet or desire it. And, bearing not ourselves the burden and heat of this day, but sitting at home as in the shade, let us not forget to make to Him our frequent suppli- cation for those who have so cheerfully gone forth to bear it — that they may live as men, who, even more than other men, stand on the threshold of eternity; as men whose accounts may be suddenly called for; who, fearing no other, do yet count it their glory to fear Him who can alone truly kill or make alive. Neither let us esteem it any impeachment of their courage, to pray Him that He would give them stout hearts and valiant spirits; for, as the victory is of God, so the fear which loses, the courage which grasps it, are both of His inspiration as well. And while we ask for them these stout hearts and these strong hands, let us ask also that they may have no pleasure in the evils which they inflict, but that rather they may accomplish their dread work with an inward bleeding compassion, unwilling messengers of doom — and, if this maybe, in something of the same spirit wherewith we may imagine a destroying angel, with unfaltering hand but with averted eyes, to execute his dreadful errand upon the guilty children of men. And, looking beyond the clouds and darkness which are round about us now, let us pray God that He would yet give us peace in our days, and that when it comes, we may use it better and more 2*2 A SERMON FOR THE FAST DAY. thankfully than we have done — that it too may have its victories, many times more blessed and more glorious than any which war can yield; victories wherein none are mourners, none are vanquished; but all conquerors and rejoicing together; victories over sin; victories over igno- rance ; victories over all the powers of darkness and of evil which are among us. And asking for peace in our time, let lis not be satisfied to ask only for peace which is as it were but a breathing time between two wars; a little respite for the nations, in which to forget the mise- ries of one, and thus to strenglhen themselves for encountering another. But let us humbly ask of God, that He would hasten the time when that peace which Christ bequeathed to His own, may be- come the portion of all the dwellers on the earth, yea, that that Man Himself may he the Peace, who can alone knit together in bands of enduring amity and love the divided and discordant families of men. LONDOK : SAVILL AND EDWABDS, PBINTEBS, CHANDOS-STKEET. . •*. 4 ^1) fA ^ \.