SERMONS

FOR

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR

BY THE LATE

KBV. JOHN KBBLB,
AUTHOR OF "THE CHRISTIAN YEAR."

SOLD BY
JAMES PARKER AND CO. OXFORD,
AND 377, STRAND, LONDON.
1876.

PRINTED BY THE SOCIETY OF THE HOLY TRINITY,
HOLY ROOD, OXFORD.

SERMONS

FOR

ASCENSION DAY

TO

TRINITY SUNDAY

BY THE LATE
REV. JOHN KEBLE,
AUTHOR OF "THE CHRISTIAN YEAR."

SOLD BY
JAMES PARKER AND CO. OXFORD,
AND 377, STRAND, LONDON.
1876.

CONTENTS.

SERMON I.
CHRIST, THE KING OF ANGELS.
ASCENSION DAY.
»1S. Pet. iii. 22.
" Who is gone into heaven, and is on the Bight Hand of
Ood; Angels and Authorities and Powers being made
subject unto Him." .... pp. 1 — 11.
SERMON II.
EFFECTS OF CHRIST'S ASCENSION.
ASCENSION DAY.
Ps. lxviii. 18.
" Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity cap
tive : Thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, for the rebel
lious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them."
pp. 12—20.
SERMON III.
OUR LORD'S LAST PRAYER,
ASCENSION DAY. 1843.
S. John xvii. 11.
" And now I am no 'more in the world, but these are in the
world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through
Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me, that
they may be one, as We are." • . . pp. 21 — 26.

VI CONTENTS.
SERMON IV.
SHOWERS OF BLESSING.
ASCENSION DAY. 1847.
Ezek. xxxiv. 26.
" I will make them and the places round about My hill a
blessing, and I will cause the shower to come down in his
season: there shall be showers of blessing." pp.27 — 33.

SERMON V.
THE DRAWING OF JESUS BY HIS ASCENSION.
ASCENSION DAY. 1849.
Song op Solomon i. 4.
" Draw me, we will run after Thee : the King hath brought
me ¦ into His chambers : we will be glad and rejoice in
Thee."  pp. 34—41.

SERMON VI.
THE BENEFIT OF OUR LORD'S INTERCESSION,
DEPENDENT ON COMMUNION WITH HIM.
ASCENSION DAY. 1855.
Heb. vii. 25.
" He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto
Ood by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for
them."  pp. 42—52.

CONTENTS. VH
SERMON VII.
RESTRAINT, THE CHRISTIAN'S BLESSING.
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
Deut. xii. 8, 9.
" Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this
day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes : for
ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance,
ivhich the Lord your God giveth you." . pp. 53 — 62.

SERMON VIII.
CHRISTIAN CONFIDENCE.
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
Rom. viii. 33, 34.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It
is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is
even at the Bight Hand of God, Who also maketh inter
cession for us." .... pp. 63 — 71.

SERMON IX.
A PLACE PREPARED FOR US, AND WE PREPARED
FOR IT.
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
S. John xiv. 2.
I go to prepare a place for you." . pp. 72 — 81.

Vlll CONTENTS.
SERMON X.
THE REWARD OF FINISHED WORK.
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
S. John xvii. 4, 5.
" I have glorified Thee on the earth : I have finished the
work which Thou gavest Me to do : and now, 0 Father,
glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which
I had with Thee before the world was." . pp. 82 — 92.

SERMON XI.
OFFICE OF FERVENT CHARITY TOWARDS OUR
FORGIVENESS.
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
1 S. Pet. iv. 8.
"Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves ; for
charity shall cover the multitude of sins." pp. 93 — 103.

SERMON XII.
THE NEARNESS OF THE UNSEEN WORLD.
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
S. Make xvi. 19,
' After the Lord had spoken unto them, He was taken up
into heaven, and sat' on the Bight Hand of God."
pp. 104—113.

CONTENTS. IX
SERMON XIII.
CHRIST FILLING ALL THINGS.
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
Eph. iv. 10.
" He that descended is the same also that ascended up far
above all heavens, that He might fill all things."
pp. 114—123.
SERMON XIV.
THE BLESSING OF PEACE.
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
Ps. xxix. 9, 10.
" The Lord sitteth above the water-flood : and the Lord
remaineth a King for ever. The Lord shall give strength
unto His people ; the Lord shall give His people the bless
ing of peace." .... pp. 124 — 134.
SERMON XV.
THE DAYS OF EXPECTATION. I.
WEDNESDAY BEFORE PENTECOST.
Acts i. 13.
" And when they 'were come in, they went up into an upper
room."  pp. 135 — 142.
SERMON XVI.
THE DAYS OF EXPECTATION. II.
FRIDAY BEFORE PENTECOST.
Acts i. 14.
" These all continued with one accord in prayer and suppli
cation, with the women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus,
and with His brethren." . , pp. 143—150.

X CONTENTS.
SERMON XVII.
* PATIENT WAITING FOR PROMISES.
WHITSUNTIDE.
Ps. xlviii. 8.
" We wait for Thy loving -kindness, 0 God, in the midst of
Thy temple." .... pp. 151—163.
SERMON XVIII.
THE BREATH OF THE MOST HIGH GOD.
WHITSUNTIDE.
Ps. civ. 30.
" Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created : and
Thou renewest the face of the earth." . pp. 164 — 175.
SERMON XIX.
CHRIST'S BAPTISM, A TOKEN OF PENTECOST.
WHITSUNTIDE.
S. Luke iii. 21, 22.
" Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was
opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape
like a dove upon Him." . . pp. 176 — 186.j
SERMON XX.
FORGETFULNESS IN CHRISTIANS, NO EXCUSE.
WHITSUNDAY.
S. John xiv. 26.
" The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father
will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and
bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have
said unto you." .... pp. 187 — 196.

CONTENTS. XI
SERMON XXI.
BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY GHOST.
WHITSUNDAY.
Acts i. 5.
"John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
pp. 197—208.
SERMON XXII.
THE FREE GIFTS OF GOD.
WHITSUNDAY.
1 Cok. ii. 12.
" We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things which are
freely given to us of God." . . pp. 209 — 218.
SERMON XXIII.
FLESH AND SPIRIT.
WHITSUNDAY.
S. John iii. 6.
" That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit." pp. 219 — 227.

SERMON XXIV.
CONFESSION AND SELF-DENIAL, TOKENS OF THE
WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST.
WHITSUNDAY.
Acts xix. 20.
"So mightily grew the Word of God, and prevailed."
pp. 228—238.

Xll CONTENTS.

SERMON XXV.
THE ABIDING PRESENCE OF THE HOLY GHOST, OUR
STAY AND OUR COMFORT.
WHITSUNDAY.
Haggai ii. 5.
" According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye
came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth among you :
fear ye not,"  pp. 239—248.

SERMON XXVI.
CHRIST IN ALL.
WHITSUNDAY.
Col. iii. 11.
" Christ is All, and in all." . . pp. 249—258.
SERMON XXVII.
THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT,
WHITSUNDAY,
Rom. viii. 16.
" The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we
are the children of God." . . . pp. 259—268.

SERMON XXVIII.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE PENTECOST.
WHITSUNDAY. Acts ii. 4.
'And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost."
pp. 269—280.

CONTENTS. X111
SERMON XXIX.
ONE SPIRIT, MANY GIFTS.
WHITMONDAY.
1 Coe. xii. 11.
"But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit,
dividing to every man severally as He will."
pp. 281—291.
SERMON XXX.
GRACE WELL-USED, ATTRACTS MORE GRACE.
MONDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK.
Ps. cxix. 55, 56.
"I have thought upon Thy Name, 0 Lord, in the night-season,
and have kept Thy law : this I had, because I kept Thy
commandments." .... pp. 292 — 301.
SERMON XXXI.
THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. I.
MONDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK.
Zeph. iii. 9.
" For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that
they may all call upon the Name of the Lord, to serve Him
with one consent," ... . . pp. 302 — 308.
SERMON XXXII.
THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. II.
MONDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK.
Zeph. iii. 9.
" For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that
they may all call upon the Name of the Lord., to serve. Him
with one consent," .... pp. 309 — 314.

XIV CONTENTS.
SERMON XXXIIL
FESTIVAL JOY.
TUESDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK,
Eccles. ix. 7, 8.
" Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine
with a merry heart ; for God now accepteth thy works.
Let thy garments be ahvays white, and, let thy head lack no
ointment,"  pp. 315—322.

SERMON XXXIV.
CHRISTIAN MINISTERS, TOKENS OF CHRIST'S
PRESENCE.
TUESDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK.
S. John x. 9.
" J am the door : by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,
and shall go in and out, and find pasture," pp. 323—331.

SERMON XXXV.
WHY THE WITNESS OF GOD IS REJECTED.
TRINITY SUNDAY.
S. John iii. 11.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that We do know,
and testify that We have seen; and ye receive not Our
witness."  pp. 332—342.

CONTENTS. XV
SERMON XXXVI.
THE SECRET OF THE LORD.
TRINITY SUNDAY.
Ps. xxv. 13.
" Tlie secret of the Lord is among them that fear Him, and
He will shew them His covenant." . pp. 343 — 353.
SERMON XXXVII.
HEAVEN OPENED.
TRINITY SUNDAY.
Rev. iv. 1.
" I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven."
pp. 354—363.
SERMON XXXVIII.
THE ANGELIC HYMN, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY,
OUR COMMUNION HYMN.
TRINITY SUNDAY.
Isa. vi. 3.
" One cried unto another, and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the
Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of His glory."
pp. 364—373.
SERMON XXXIX.
THE HOLINESS OF GOD, TOWARDS US AND IN US.
TRINITY SUNDAY.
Rev. iv. 8.
" They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."
pp. 374—383.

XY1 CONTENTS.

SERMON XL.
HEAVEN CREATED FOR US, WE RE-CREATED FOR IT,
BY THE HOLY TRINITY.
TRINITY SUNDAY.
Ps. xxxiii. 6.
"By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all
the hosts of them by the Breath of His Mouth."
pp. 384—394.

SERMON XLI.
THE THREEFOLD CORD.
TRINITY SUNDAY.
Eccles. iv. 12.
"A threefold cord is not quickly broken." . pp. 395- — 404.

SEEMON 1.

CHRIST, THE KING OP ANGELS.

ASCENSION DAY.
1 S. Pet. iii. 22.
" Who is gone into Heaven, and is on the right hand
of God ; Angels and Authorities and Powers being
made subject unto Him.''''
It is most certain that, when we have done our best,
we cannot lift up our minds and hearts fully to un
derstand the unspeakable glory which the Son of
God, as He is also Son of Man, obtained as on this
day : when He, who a little more than forty days be
fore had been "aa worm and no man, a very scorn of
men and the outcast of the people," was set at His Fa
ther's Eight Hand "Mn the heavenly places, far above
all principality and power, and might, and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this world,
but in that also which "is to come : " and had all
things put under His feet, and was given to be head-
over all things. We cannot, I say, realize this in
our thoughts, even as we cannot know or imagine
the place, where the visible though spiritual Body
of our Blessed Lord now is ; or how, or which way,
He was received up through the air when He hid
a Ps. xxii. 6. b Eph. i. 20, 21.
B

2 Christ, the King of Angels.
Himself in a cloud from the sight of His servants,
they stedfastly looking after Him.
They saw Him departing, yet could they no more
imagine the manner of His departure than we now
can. But did that hinder them from musing and
meditating upon it ? Nay, their very hearts and
minds went after Him, and did in a manner conti
nually dwell with Him. " c They worshipped Him,
and returned to Jerusalem with great joy : and were
continually in the temple, praising and blessing
God." Christ, ascended into heaven, took up their
thoughts day and night. They were never satisfied
with the wondering and adoring remembrance of it,
and with hymning and praising the Almighty for
that last and greatest of miracles. But did they
think of it only as a miracle ? Or were not their
thoughts rather taken up with the portion which they
themselves had in it, and all whom Christ came to
save? We indeed are but little able to enter into the
thoughts of Apostles, of the favoured friends of Jesus
Christ, accustomed to His Divine words and looks,
when they saw Him in His very Body, His crucified
Body, ascending up into heaven. But we may un
derstand that this Avas a part of their feelings ; that
now One, Who is true Man as we are, Who can enter
into our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears, He
is set in the highest place, over all created things.
And He carries with Him there the same tender love
towards the meanest of His faithful servants which
He ever vouchsafed to exercise here. He still loves
to be called on by the afflicted, with earnest and most
S. Luke xxiv. 52, 53.

Christ, the King of Angels. 3
persevering prayer. He is ready, as of old, to reply
to the woman of Canaan, " 0 woman, great is thy
faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt." There are
still families which He loves with distinguishing and
peculiar love, as He loved Martha, and her sister, and
Lazarus ; and there are graves beside which He waits,
as He did by that of Lazarus, in deep and tender pity
for the sorrows of those who are tried by separation
and bereavement.
His going up into heaven was to the Apostles, who
remembered these things, a sign that, though absent
from us visibly in the Body, He would yet be (if I
may say so) more present than ever in spirit with
the children of men, in all their cares, and griefs and
anxieties. It was a sign of " the Manhood " being
so " taken into God," that He would always (so to
speak) be on our side, in all our struggles and con
flicts, spiritual and temporal, if only we do not cast
Him from us.
It was, in some sort, as if one's nearest and dearest
relation were made absolute king of the country. If
persons who care for earthly things would rejoice in
such a change as that, and consider their own fortune
made, how much more joy to those who care for
heavenly things, when we set our hearts to consider
that He Who " is not ashamed to call us brethren,"
He Who loved us so well that He laid down His life
for us in torment, He is made "the great King" in
heaven and earth, and has all the treasures of grace
and glory put for ever into His hand.
In this, we see at once, is included every good
thing. But for the present there is one blessing in
particular, on which I wish to say a few words. It
b 2

4 Christ, the King of Angels.
is, the subjection of the spiritual world to our Sa
viour, expressed by S. Peter in the words of the text,
that " Angels and Authorities and Powers were made
subject " to the Son of Man when He went into hea
ven, and sat down on the Eight Hand of God. That
is to say, that not only the things which we see, the
sun and moon and stars, the earth and the waters,
the bodies of men, their health and sickness, and all
that we call the course of this world, is under the
command of His Eternal Providence, Who is pledged
to make all things work together for good to them
that love Him ; but also the worlds out of sight, the
spiritual and heavenly world, is entirely ordered by
Him. Now, this is a great thing for us to know ; a great
comfort in our natural fears and misgivings ; a great
encouragement to well-doing ; and a most serious
warning against all carelessness and sin.
We naturally think, even from our childhood ; at
least, all thoughtful children think a good deal of
the spiritual world : of beings out of sight, who yet,
for aught we know, may often be very near us, and
may have great power to do us good, or to hurt us
in body and soul. What are the many stories and
imaginations about spirits appearing, and tokens
from unseen beings, and the like, of which most of
us have at times heard so much ; what are they all,
but signs that we feel, how many things are about
us which we do not see ? They are providential
ways of instructing us, how fearful it would be, were
our eyes suddenly opened ; and how greatly, there
fore, we need some assurance that we are not left
alone and helpless, in regard of this unseen world,

Christ, the King of Angels. 5
any more than in regard of that world, which we
discern by our bodily senses, and which therefore
seems nearer to us.
Now the Ascension of our Lord is such a token.
It assures us, that however deep our solitude, how
ever overpowering our sense of spiritual beings
possibly near us, One is at hand like-minded with
ourselves, Who can pity all our misgivings, as well
as protect us in all dangers. In darkness as in light,
in desolation as in pleasant places, in melancholy as
in cheerful hours, He is still the same. Could we
but bring home to ourselves His most mysterious,
but most certain Presence, we need not " be afraid
for any terror by night," any more than " for the
arrow that flieth by day." The whole world unseen,
we are sure, is under Him, no less than the world
which we see. And committing ourselves to Him,
by serious prayer, will ever be as effectual a safe
guard against the unknown dangers of our spiritual
being, as against those of our natural being, which
we can in some measure understand and foresee.
Thus the disciples found Jesus at hand to relieve
them, as certainly, when supposing Him to be a
Spirit, they " cried out for fear," as when in the
violent storm on the same lake, they woke Him with
the appeal, " Lord save us ! we perish."
Consider the matter in this way. The Bible
teaches that there are two worlds, in the midst of
which we all live, did we but know it and remem
ber it ; the one visible, the other invisible : and that
there are in the invisible world two sorts of Angels,
Authorities and Powers, with both of which we are
concerned ; with the one, as friends and fellow-ser-

6 Christ, the King of Angels.
vants ; with the other, as unrelenting enemies. And
the thought of our Lord gone up into heaven, and
sitting on the Eight Hand of God, is a thought of
great power to set us right in our feelings towards
both these aweful sorts of Beings.
Consider, first, what a thing it is to know that
the good Angels are on our side : that they camp
about us to deliver us : that as Christ Himself in
His distress had but to pray to His Pather, and He
would presently have given Him more than twelve
legions of Angels, so the members of Christ, in their
several agonies of body and mind, have but to pray
to the Almighty, and who knows but the same holy
messengers, most likely unknown to them, will re
ceive some commission to do them good ? As they
came to Daniel, to shut the lions' mouths ; as they
were like an army with horses and chariots of fire
round about Elisha; as they opened the prison-doors
of Jerusalem, and let out first all the Apostles, then
S. Peter, on the eve of martyrdom ; as in the book
of Eevelation they are introduced continually, help
ing the saints in their prayers, assuring them of
blessings, taking their side in their warfare with the
world : even so it is now.
In these instances, there is no doubt of the an
gelical ministry and help : but these are but a few
out of many beyond number. In these, the Powers
of heaven shewed themselves : but in fact, they are
continually acting, continually ministering to such
as shall be heirs of salvation. So the prayer of
Elisha druns : "Lord," (he does not say, "Send Thine
Angel and deliver us," but what he says is,) " Open
;#Ky- a 2 Kes. vi. 17.

Christ, the King of Angels. 7
the eyes of this young man, that he may see :" as
though he might have seen the same at any time, if
he would but have opened his eyes.
What a view does this present of the unspeakably
watchful and tender care of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, over the very humblest and meanest
of His servants ! that the whole army of Angels and
Archangels, all the hosts of the Lord, are set in
array for each one of our defence and salvation :
ready and glad to refresh us, the members of Christ,
as they did Him Who is our Head, after great and
sore temptation : to prompt those who wait on us
with thoughts for our good, as the Angel that spake
to Joseph in a dream : to strengthen us in agony,
as he who appeared to our Lord in the garden : to
remove difficulties, and declare good tidings, as he
who rolled away the stone, and declared, " the Lord
is risen." This certainty of angelical aid, so far as
we are on Christ's side, we have by His exaltation
into heaven, and the subjection to Him of Angels,
Authorities and Powers.
But those words, doubtless, mean the evil angels
as well as the good ; our unseen enemies, as well as
our unseen friends. And is it not worth a great
deal to know, that the power of our Saviour is over
them also, His restraining power, to keep them from
harming us, as His gracious encouraging power is
with the good Angels, commissioning them to help
us to all kinds of blessings ? Of this, also, there
were wonderful tokens given in the course of our
Lord's abode on the earth : first and chiefly, in
the Temptation, when He overcame Satan in the
wilderness ; and afterwards in the power which He

8 Christ, the King of Angels.
continually exercised over the unclean spirits, not
only casting them out Himself, but giving power to
His disciples to do the same. And in one very
particular instance, He shewed us something of the
unseen dangers to which we should be continually
exposed, in body and estate as well as in spirit, were
it not for His continual care to bind Satan, and keep
him in chains. The instance I mean is that of the
legion of devils, who were driven out of the men
possessed with them, and permitted to take posses
sion of a herd of swine ; " and behold, the whole
herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea,
and perished in the waters."
By this we see what would become of us, if God
were to take off the chain, with which Satan, since
Christ's coming in the flesh, has been more than ever
bound. We see that there are bad angels, powers
of mischief and darkness, waiting around us on every
side, ready to hurry us away into utter destruction
both of soul and body, the moment that He in His
anger shall let them-loose. It is the power of our
Lord Christ, sitting at His Father's Eight Hand,
that binds them. It is He Who says to them, " Thus
far shalt thou go, and no further." Without His
permission, we see, they could not hurt so much as a
herd of swine ; with it, the single case of Job shews,
how they may vex and torment even good men ;
and the case of Judas shews still more fearfully what
they are allowed to do with the bad, and with those
who will not take Christ's warnings.
And, both as to good and bad angels, we must
remember that what they do to us in this world, is
but a faint type and shadow of what we may expect

Christ, the King of Angels. 9
from them in the world to come : in that last great
day, when the one shall gather together God's elect
like wheat into His barn ; the other shall be cast,
with all impenitent sinners, into the lake of ever
lasting fire.
In these aweful and overpowering reflections, let
this be our stay and our warning : that in the world
of Angels as well as of men, Christ ascended into
heaven, is supreme, and that He has promised to
order and direct their power, and even the malice
of the bad ones, so as may best work for the good
of them that love Him. Nay, His Holy Scriptures
teach that we, being united to Him. by His Holy
Spirit, are in some mysterious way ascended into
heaven with Him ; therefore we, through Him, ex
cept we have lost our hold of Him by our sins, have
power to resist and overcome the bad spirits, and
are permitted to depend on the succour and protec
tion of the good.
These thoughts are not mere imaginations : they
are great and true realities. They are true and real
at all times : only, while we are in light and com
pany, they are harder for us fully to receive. But
in a few hours we shall be in the darkness ; our
day's work will be over ; we shall be more alone,
and more at leisure to think. Let us recall to our
minds, then, what we have been taught of the pre
sence of the two sorts of angels. Let us then fancy to
ourselves the evil and unclean spirits lying in wait
near our beds, ready to vex us with all sorts of bad
thoughts, and torment our very bodies, if God would
give them leave. Such imaginations are painful and
distressing ; yet let us not turn away from them,

10 Christ, the King of Angels.
till they have filled us with a real fear of consenting
to any bad thought, for that is the only way in which
we can give those evil companions power over us.
Let us not try to put out of our minds the notion
of the bad angels being around us, until we have
turned in serious prayer to Him Who for our sake
holds them in chains. Imagine Christ our Lord on
His Throne, to which He this day ascended : imagine
Him, how His Eye is ever fixed, both on you in your
helpless slumbering condition, and on your adversary
waiting to hurt you. And be sure, that if, before
you lay down, you seriously and reverently commit
ted yourself to Him in prayer, with sincere penitence
for all your sins, He will not let the roaring lion
devour you. You may, without presumption, ima
gine Him, then, saying to some of His good Angels,
" Here is one who lay down to rest, desiring to dwell
under the defence of the Most High ; here is one
who hath sought, day and night, to abide under the
shadow of the Almighty ; he hath set his. love upon
Me, and tried to know My Name ; therefore do you,
My good Angels, take charge of him, and keep him
from the evil that walketh in darkness." And you
may imagine that charge especially given to that
one among the good spirits, who was set to watch
over you at first, on your becoming one of Christ's
little ones. And you may thankfully muse on the
joy, with which those blessed spirits set about their
loving task, and how it pleases them to cherish in
you every good and wholesome thought ; and how
the tempter, finding you so well guarded, will depart,
gnashing his teeth for disappointment, and leave you
to your quiet slumber.

Christ, the King of Angels. 11
Such is the comfortable hope with which a peni
tent, believing person may lie down in sleep, yea, even
in death, ever since Jesus Christ went into heaven,
and the Angels, Authorities and Powers were made
subject unto Him. I say, a penitent, believing,
obedient person. For all these blessings depend on
our keeping our hold of Christ : and that depends on
our sincerely trying to obey Him, in thought, word,
and deed.

SEEMON IL

EFFECTS OF CHRIST'S ASCENSION.

ASCENSION DAY.

Ps. lxviii. 18.

" Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led cap
tivity captive : Thou hast received gifts for men ;
yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God
might dioell among them.''''
As God Almighty graciously taught us how to pray
to Him, in the Lord's prayer, so He had long before
set us a pattern how to praise Him, by the divine
songs of the Old Testament, which He has instructed
us, in the New Nestament, to apply to His mercies
shewn us in Christ Jesus. Otherwise, so infinite
and unspeakable are those mercies, we never surely
should have known how to praise Him for them
worthily. We never should have known or thought
of a hymn worthy the Ascension of our Saviour, had
not the Holy Spirit Himself, by the Prophet David,
condescended to provide us with one in that glorious
Psalm which is appointed by the Church to be used
on Whitsunday : in which, under the figure of the
Ark of God, carried up to Mount Sion, the praises
of our blessed Lord are sung, going up to heaven as
the Head of His Church, and sending down the Holy

Effects of Christ's Ascension. 13
Comforter, the fountain of all spiritual blessings, to
abide among His chosen in His room.
The Psalm, indeed, goes over the whole reach of
God's mercies in redeeming His Church, from the
beginning to the end ; but the most illustrious verse,
perhaps, in it, is this, which relates to our Lord's
Ascension : " Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast
led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts for
men ; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God
might dwell among them."
Here you may observe the several parts of the
great triumph of our suffering Eedeemer, when His
glory was made perfect and He was finally exalted
as on this day.
First, there is the simple fact of His Ascension :
" Thou hast ascended on high."
Next, the effect on His enemies, and on all the
powers of darkness : " Thou hast led captivity cap
tive." Thirdly, the effect on men, even on the worst of
men, "the rebellious." He received for them the
most precious gifts, insomuch that the Lord God, the
Holy Ghost, the Comforter, was sent down by Him
to dwell among them.
First of all, consider the simple fact of our Savi
our's Ascension, by itself : you will find that there is
no end to- the wonderful and glorious prospect which
it opens to the children of men. Here is One Who is
not ashamed to call us brethren ; a true Man, as we
are ; One Who was born like us in all but sin ; Who
underwent the pains and infirmities of childhood, the
trials and troubles of mature age, the agony of fear,
the pain of desertion, the bitterness of extreme an-

14 Effects of Christ's Ascension.
guish both of mind and body, and the pangs of a
cruel death : One Who loved us so dearly as to suffer
all this for our sakes; here we see Him, with the eye
of faith, exalted to the Eight Hand of God, having
all power given Him both in heaven and in earth.
He is gone into heaven, the first of all Adam's chil
dren, opening the gates of immortality to all believers.
He is gone into heaven, the first-fruits of a whole
harvest of His redeemed ; and by that glorious As
cension we know something of what is prepared for
those who try to ascend thither in heart and mind.
We know that nothing possibly can be too high or
glorious for faithful Christians to hope for, seeing
that He, Who is their pattern and example, is raised
to the Eight Hand of the Almighty Father.
When we have thought most highly and gloriously
of all that can make man happy, spiritually happy ;
perfect peace, purity unstained, a will to do all that
God would have done, and power to act and perform
that blessed will, an overflowing charity to all the
good creatures of the Almighty, and the certainty
that we are ourselves beloved by all ; above all, the
sight of the Most High God, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, loving us, and drawing us continually nearer
to Him : and all this sure to persevere and improve
for ever, so that when thousands of millions of years
are past, those who for Christ's sake are graciously
accepted, will be no nearer an end of their happiness
than when it first began : imagine, as you may, all
this and whatever else of joy may be suitable to a
pure, holy, divine soul ; and you will be infinitely far
from comprehending the length and breadth, depth
and height, of the promises which are sealed to us

Effects of Christ's Ascension. 15
by the Ascension of our Saviour, and His having all
power given Him in heaven and in earth. We know
thereby, that the Father of all will not think any
thing too good for those who are truly conformed to
the image of the Only-begotten Son. And yet we
are content to let our minds and hearts creep on here
on earth, full of such low cares and fancies, as if we
knew nothing of heaven, or had no hope of coming
to it. God give us better minds, for His merits and
intercession's sake, Who is now on high pleading for
us !
We see, then, that the mere fact of our Saviour's
exaltation ought in all reason to lift us, heart and
soul, on high after Him : and when the effect of His
Ascension comes to be considered, our duty, and the
way to accomplish it, is so much the plainer. For
He has overcome our spiritual enemies, and bound
the old serpent in chains. " Thou hast led captivity
captive," says the Psalmist : that is, " Thou art now
like a great warrior, returning in triumph from the
field, with a band of captive enemies." And who are
the captives subdued by our Saviour ? who, but the
devil and his angels, the pomps and vanities of this
wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh,
one and all chained as it were to His chariot wheels,
and making up His glory and victory.
This gives a fearful notion of what Ave are in fact
doing, when Ave permit ourselves to forget that we
are Christians, serving any lust or unworthy desire,
instead of practising those tempers, which only can
make us fit for everlasting life. We are then taking
the wrong part in the great never-ending warfare,
between Christ and the power of darkness. We are

16 Effects of Christ's Ascension.
serving and honouring those whom Christ is leading
captive, the host of enemies dragged at His chariot
wheels, instead of serving Him Who, with one act of
His Avill could reduce all such enemies to nothing.
What can come of such madness, but utter confusion
and ruin ere long ?
If, indeed, we could not help ourselves, if we had
no power given us to make a better choice, such be
haviour were more excusable. But observe what
MIoavs next: "Thou hast received gifts for men."
What gifts ? S. Paul replies in the Epistle to the
Ephesians a : they are the manifold gifts of the Holy
Ghost : " grace given to every man according to the
proportion of the gift of Christ." It is in vain then
for any man longer to say, " I meant Avell, but my
enemies were too powerful." How should they be
more powerful than your Friend and never-failing
Helper, the Holy and Almighty Spirit of the Father
and the Son ?
For of Him, i. e. of the Holy Spirit sent down by
the Mediator, the Psalmist is undoubtedly speaking,
in the last words of that astonishing verse: "That
the Lord God might dwell among them." The Lord
God, the Holy Ghost, is personally present in the
hearts and bodies of all believers. He dwells in each
one of us, as in a temple. The word must be spoken
in all reverence, but it may be spoken : What more
could Omnipotence itself do for us, than to send an
Almighty Helper to dwell in our hearts ? We may
speak thus, for God Himself has taught us to do so,
when He asks concerning His vineyard, the Church :
"bWhat could have been done more for My vineyard,
a Eph. iv. 7. b Is. v. 4.

Effects of Christ's Ascension. 17
that I have not done in it ? " Were the most per
verse and froward of men left to choose what he
would have to help him in goodness, what could he
ask for more, than the blessed and sanctifying Spirit,
for ever present, ready to make clean his very heart,
and to purify his inmost thoughts and desires ?
When people are outwardly left to themselves,
when they lose their parents, elders, and instructors,
by death, departure, or otherwise, and then yield to
temptation, and go Avrong ; they are ready enough to
plead for themselves, that they had no friend near
to warn or advise them. But he who will believe
and attend to the Scriptures, as interpreted by the
Church in the Prayer Book, that man knows that he
cannot plead so ; for he has always not only at hand,
but dwelling within him, the Parent and Elder, the
Friend and Instructor of all reasonable and under
standing creatures. He cannot say that he goes
wrong unAvarned, who has the wisdom of God ever
ready to warn him.
And, that no Christian man might imagine himself
shut out of this great blessing, and entitled to justify
his sins through his want of spiritual aid ; observe
what is hinted of those, among whom the Lord God,
the Holy Ghost, sent down by the Son, vouchsafes
to dwell. They are not all good and obedient. Very
far from it : they are too many of them rebellious.
Christ "received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious
also, that the Lord God might dwell among them."
The Psalmist might mean the word "rebellious,"
at first, of the stubborn Jews, who kept tempting
God, both in the wilderness and in the promised
land. " They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit,"

18 Effects of Christ's Ascension.
Which He had put within them, and sent to dwell
among them : they became discontented, lustful, un
believing, even in sight of the cloud of Glory, by
which He sheAved Himself from time to time over
the door of the tabernacle, checking them for their
sins, and telling them the way they should go. Yet
He still abode among them : He took not away the
Glory from them : although, as long as they refused
to be guided by it, it turned not to their blessing,
but to their greater punishment.
In like manner, the New Testament teaches, that
God's Holy Spirit, the true Cloud of Glory, is given
to all Christians in Baptism ; but it is at their peril
to rebel and vex Him afterwards. If they do, still
they cannot drive Him aAvay : He continues among
them for judgement and condemnation, if they will
not let His gracious Presence conduct them to the
mercy which He meant for them. Not indeed visi
bly, but yet truly, He dwells in every one of us as
in a temple, as truly as He dwelt in the whole con
gregation of the Jews by that bright cloud of His,
which declared His presence over the Ark.
As baptized Christians, the Holy Ghost, the Com
forter, does truly abide within us. This is too great
and fearful a thing to be thought on, if the Scripture
of God, the Voice of the same Spirit, had not ex
pressly made it known. S. Paul, speaking to all the
Corinthians, Avho had, of course, various degrees of
grace, and of whom some were far gone in things
very contrary to God's, Spirit ; yet, speaking to them
all, he says, "cKnow ye not that your body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you?" By
" 1 Cor. vi. 19.

Effects of Christ's Ascension. 19
this Ave knoAV for certain, that even from rebellious
Christians the Holy Spirit does not so depart, but
that they still continue under the special curse of
defiling God's Temple, every time that by sinful in
dulgence they abuse their OAvn or others' bodies,
or by sinful desires pollute their souls. Over and
above the judgement due to those, who break God's
general commandment of purity, they bring on them
selves a special judgement, as profaners of God's Ark
and Temple. And so of all other sins. Whatever is
contrary to God's Holy Spirit, being practised by a
Christian man, is a sin against the Temple, is as if it
were committed in a Church, and will draw doAvn a
sentence accordingly.
Now then, add to all this the most serious thought
of all, namely, that we are not speaking of things at
a distance : you, and I, and each particular Christian,
is the person, of whom these wonderful sayings are
written doAvn in the book of God. You are the person
to whom God is revealed in His only Son Incarnate ;
for you Christ died ; for you He sits on high, order
ing all things both in this world and in that unseen
world, so as shall turn undoubtedly to your good, if
you truly try to love God. You are the man, in whom
the Holy Ghost has condescended, ever since your
Baptism, to abide, as in a Temple and Ark of His own.
What a thought is this for you to carry about in the
daily concerns of your life ! What a fountain of
humiliation and self-abasing sorrow, when you think
over the past ! What a spring of holy desires and
good resolutions, if you have the courage to make
them, for the future !
If the Holy Ghost be dwelling in us, since He is
c 2

20 Effects of Christ's Ascension.
a pure Spirit, and thoughts, in His sight, are as dis
tinct and as real as actions ; then every time you in
dulge wrong desires, proud, or covetous, or unkind,
or lustful imaginations, you are as if you made God's
Church a place for actions of the same kind. Who
then can remember his own past thoughts, and not
be overwhelmed with the mighty sum of his offences
committed in this Avay ?
On the other hand, if the Holy Ghost be dwelling
in you, since He is an Almighty Friend, there is hope
even for the vilest : there is encouragement for those
who have been most rebellious, to resolve anew and
more earnestly, that they will be such no longer.
Therefore, although it is fearful to think of Him so
very near us, considering what sort of persons con
science tells us we must be in His sight, yet we dare
not pray as S. Peter once did, in hasty alarm, not
knowing Avhat he said, " Depart from me, for I am a
sinful man, 0 Lord : " rather we pray every day, as
the Church has taught us, in the words of the peni
tent David, " Casi? me not away from Thy presence,
and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." Cast us not
away, though we have deserved the worst; and take
Him not away, though we have so often grieved and
vexed Him by our sins ; but for the sake of Him Who
is gone into heaven, to plead for rebels and sinners
at His Father's Eight Hand, grant, 0 Lord, that the
Holy Comforter may still continue with us on earth,
and we with Him in Thy Church : that what little
good remains in us, and seems often ready to die, may
be strengthened ; and that our evils, great and mani
fold as they are, may be purged out by Thy grace
and help : that when our King returns from Heaven,
we may not be found among "the rebellious."

SEEMON III.

OUR LORD'S LAST PRAYER.

ASCENSION DAY.

S. John xvii. 11.

" And now I am no more in the world, but these are
in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father,
keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou
hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are."
What Christian would not listen earnestly to the
last prayer of Jesus Christ, and account himself very
undutiful, if ever he should permit himself to slight
what his Lord prayed for, immediately before He de
parted ? Now this prayer in the seventeenth of
S. John may be considered in some sense as His last
prayer ; for it was offered up just before His aweful
atoning Sacrifice of Himself on the Cross, and it re
fers throughout to His Ascension which was to take
Him finally from among men, as to something im
mediately to happen. It is therefore much the same
in regard of our Lord, as the last words and prayers
of a departing person are in regard of him. We may
well believe that what He then prayed for on behalf
Of His Apostles, was the same which He desired for
them in that solemn blessing, which He pronounced
just before His Ascension. "He led them out as far
as to Bethany and lifted up His Hands, and blessed

22 Our Lord's last Prayer.
them. And it came to pass while He blessed them,
that He was parted from them, and carried up into
heaven." We can hardly doubt that one chief point
of this blessing was that same heavenly Unity which
He had before prayed for on their behalf: that they
might be one with Him, and through Him one with
the Father, and through the Father and the Son, one
with each other : true members of Jesus Christ, and
truly making up one holy and mysterious Body, one
Church, of which He is the Head.
This blessing He asked, not for the Apostles alone,
but for all Christians. " Neither pray I for these
alone," saith He, "but for them also which shall be
lieve on Me through their word ; that they all may be
one ; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that
they also may be one in Us." "The glory which
Thou gavest Me I have given them ; that they may
be one, even as We are one : I in them, and Thou
in Me, that they may be made perfect in one."
See how the notion of being altogether one, runs
through the whole -of this Divine prayer: how our
Eedeemer dwells upon it, as if it were the great
point, the great object of all, quite necessary to the
accomplishment of the work, for Avhich He came into
the world. And observe that the prayer was uttered
just before that great and unspeakable Sacrifice of
Himself upon the Cross : even as now, when Christians
of our Church are making their solemn offering in
memory of that Sacrifice, the very first and chiefest
blessing they ask is, that God would " inspire conti
nually the universal Church with the spirit of truth,
unity, and concord ; and that all they that do confess
His holy Name may agree, in the truth of His holy

Our Lord's last Prayer. 23
Word, and live in unity and godly love." As that
prayer goes before the consecration of the Holy Com
munion, so our Lord's intercession for Unity went
just before His giving His Body to be broken and His
Blood shed on the Cross for His people. It seems as
if that unity were a great part of our Eedemption,
or at any rate, very closely connected Avith it.
And to confirm this, observe on the other hand,
that our Lord uttered that wonderful intercession
just after He had been ordaining the Sacrament of
Unity, the communion of His Body and Blood. How
that is a Sacrament of Unity, S. Paul explains in
one of his epistles to the Corinthians. " a We being
many are one bread, and one body ; for we are all
partakers of that one bread." The pressing together
of so many corns into one loaf is a type of the
moulding of all Christians, rightly baptized, into one
spiritual Body : and the partaking of that one Bread
is the partaking of Christ's Body, and incorporates
us more and more with Him.
Moreover, all those forty days, from the Eesurrec-
tion to the Ascension, Christ continued with His
Apostles, speaking of the things (no doubt) which
were most necessary to be told them, to prepare the
way for His return. And what were those things ?
They were such as pertain to the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God, i. e. the Church universal, took
up the greater part of our Lord's instructions now
in the portion of time before His departure.
No doubt then, as I said before, this mysterious
blessing of Unity had much to do with God's Church
and kingdom : rather one may say, it seemed the very
same thing. a 1 Cor. x. 17.

24 Our Lord's last Prayer.
And, that the Apostles so understood it, they gave
these signs immediately : that after our Lord's de
parture they all kept together : that the one thing
they did before the descent of the Holy Ghost was
ordaining one to take Judas' place, and complete the
unity of the body, damaged by his fall : that when
the Spirit came, He found them "all with one accord
in one place."
On returning from the holy Mount, Avhere they
had lost sight of our Lord, they did not go apart to
seek God each his own several way ; but they went,
S. Luke tells us, into an upper room, where abode the
eleven Apostles, all of them, continuing in prayer
and supplication with the women, the devout Avomen
who had attended our Lord from Galilee, and with
Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His disciples.
Again, whereas the treachery and death of Judas
had made a breach in the Apostolical body, a rent in
the Lord's garment, which should be without seam,
th,ey knew it to be His will that this should be
healed, and the Body made one, as at first, to be
ready for the descent of the Holy Spirit : and there
fore without losing time they proceeded to elect one,
S. Matthias, in the place of Judas. " He was num
bered with the eleven Apostles," and so the Mystery
of Unity, as far as men could provide for it, being
complete, the whole Body continued waiting in prayer
for the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Even as at
man's first creation, God formed man out of the dust
of the earth, and the entire body was formed, and
lay ready to have " breathed into its nostrils the
breath of life, and so man became a living soul,"
after the image of Him Who created him.

Our Lord's last Prayer. 25
Thirdly, the aweful and unspeakable moment itself
of the descent of the Blessed Comforter found them
all with one accord in one place. They were not
scattered abroad in their several habitations, some
serving God in one way, some in another ; but all
were " with one accord in one place." They were
" with one accord : " that was, as it were, the soul of
their Christian unity : they were "in one place : " that
was the body of it. And being thus prepared both
in body and soul, they had the third and most glori
ous part of a Christian man's being, wonderfully
added to them. "Suddenly there came a sound from
heaven as of a rushing mighty Avind, and they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost." And so from being
only body and soul, they became body and soul and
spirit ; body and soul and all that they had, began to
be sanctified in a heavenly manner, and transformed
by the indwelling Spirit into the likeness of Jesus
Christ. This was God's blessing upon the Apostles, the
holy women, the Mother of Jesus, and His disciples,
they doing all in their power to keep up that hea
venly Unity, for which their Lord had prayed so
earnestly, and which He recommended to them in so
many ways. Surely if ever we are to hope for a re
turn of something like the blessing of Pentecost, a
great outpouring of God's gracious Spirit, there is
reason to think that some great and earnest longing
and prayer for Unity, and self-denial for Unity's sake,
must go before it. The body must be made one again,
before the breath of that first life can be expected to
be breathed into it. I say, made one again. For
where now is that Christian Unity ? Where are all,

26 Our Lord's last Prayer.
or the greater part, of Christians " with one accord
in one place ? " No man surely can deny that the
Unity, for which our Lord prayed and Avhich was
so blessed by His Spirit, is, in a great measure, lost
from among Christians. No man can tell how very
serious the consequence of that loss may be, to his
own soul, and to the Church generally : no man can
be sure that his own personal unworthiness has not a
great deal to do with the sad darkness and divisions
which prevail, where all ought to be light and peace.
Alas ! how is this glorious and happy day turned
into a day of grief and humiliation, because the mem
bers of Christ, being stained with many sins, have
been permitted by the just Judge to separate them
selves, or to cast one another off! "bHow is the gold
become dim, and the most fine gold changed !" To
human eyes, all might almost seem lost in confusion.
But He in His great mercy still permits us to pray,
in humble following our Lord's intercession, that all
Christians may again be one, again united in the
one true Church, as we hope even now they may be
invisibly united. He commands us to pray, and we
do so pray, when we say, " Thy kingdom come."
He commands us so to live, that that and our other
prayers may be heard. He commands us, especially,
to love one another; to make allowance for each
other's doubts and difficulties ; to avoid offence ; to
fast and pray and labour for peace. So doing, in
the end we may trust to find His peace for ourselves:
and we may do some little towards obtaining for His
whole people the " blessing of Peace."
b Lam. iv. 1.

SEEMON IV.
SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

ASCENSION DAY.

Ezek. xxxiv. 26.

" I will make them and the places round about My
hill a blessing ; and I will cause the shower to
come down in his season : there shall be showers
of blessing."
S. Luke tells us in one of the lessons for to-day, that
when the time was fully come for our Lord to depart
out of this world unto the Father, "aHe led" His
disciples "out as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up
His Hands and blessed them. And it came to pass,
that while He blessed them, He was parted from
them, and carried up into heaven." It was while
He was blessing them : the evangelist repeats the
word, as being something to be very much thought
of. God the Son departed from His outward and
visible home among men in the very act of pronounc
ing His solemn Benediction. He might have de
parted in thunder and lightning, in such a storm as
might severely punish this whole wicked world, and
especially the sinful city Avhich had so rejected Him.
He will so depart, when He ascends into heaven
the second time, when the last judgement is over.
He will leave the world burning under His feet.
" S.Luke xxiv. SO, 51.

28 Showers of blessing.
But on His first Ascension it was far otherwise.
All around Him was grace and blessing : so that
to Mount Olivet and the disciples kneeling round,
and to the precious unspeakable gifts, which our
Lord poured down from heaven as He Avent up, we
might very well apply the prophet's saying in the
text, "I will make them and the places round My
hill a blessing." As if He should say, " These who
kneel around Me, as I go up from Mount Olivet: and
not only they, but all the places within reach of that
mountain, on every side of it, I will make them all
a blessing ; the Apostles first, and other Christians
afterwards. All men that see and notice them shall
say, that they are ' the seed whom the Lord hath
blessed.' " And "there shall be showers of blessing."
God's grace shall come down so abundantly, that it
shall supply all men's wants, and satisfy all their
desires, as we are taught in our Whitsunday Psalm :
" h Thou, 0 God, sentest a gracious rain upon Thine
inheritance, and refreshedst it when it was weary."
Christ our Saviour- went up to His Father's Eight
Hand, and made haste to send down His "showers
of blessing." If you can imagine all the blessings
of departing parents, masters, governors, spiritual
pastors, gathered together in the greatest possible
perfection, and poured out without stint on those
whom they leave behind : this will give you some
faint idea of the treasures of joy and comfort which
our Lord's Ascension opened to all believers.
Observe how He ordered the very outward circum
stances of it, making them all as gracious as pos
sible. As true loving friends, departing from their
b Ps. lxviii-. 9.

Showers of blessing. 29
friends among men for any length of time, are very
regardful of each others' feelings and wishes ; they
consider how they may leave them pleasant recol
lections, and contrive the manner of their parting
accordingly, so did our Lord. He prepared them
by degrees for His going ; and when He went, He
had provided such store of comforts, that, instead of
sorrow filling their hearts, as might be expected
Avhen their beloved Master was departing, "they re
turned to Jerusalem," we read, " with great joy."
Consider the place which He chose for His Ascent.
It was on the Mount of Olives, over against Jeru
salem, hard by the village of Bethany. In leading
them out thither from Jerusalem, He would have in
the first place to go over the brook Kedron, and then
across or very near the garden of Gethsemane; almost
along the same ground as He had trodden with them
on the night of His Agony. Think then what joy and
comfort it must have been to them, as they went on,
recollecting at every step, how sad and bitter the
course of things had been, when they were with Him
that night : what a happy and glorious change now !
Again, Bethany was the nearest village to the
spot of His Ascension : Bethany, the town of Mary
and her sister Martha : where He had been used to
lodge when He came near to Jerusalem: and where,
a feAV weeks before, He had raised up Lazarus from
the dead. From this place He chose to ascend to
His Father's Eight Hand. There, rather than any
where else, He would leave His last footsteps on
earth : continuing thus His favours to Martha and
Mary and Lazarus, and giving a token to all Avhom
He left behind, that He still loved with an everlast-

30 Showers of blessing.
ing love His own which were in the world. His
favour and gracious remembrance still abode with
those places and persons, which had been more
especially devoted to His honour and service. The
grave from which He had raised Lazarus was A'ery
near the spot from which He now ascended, so that
the twelve, who were with Him in that miracle,
could not fail to think of it : and it would help to
carry their minds forward to the day when they
should again hear His Voice, and come forth as
Lazarus did ; not hoAvever, as did Lazarus, to return
again to corruption, but to ascend after their Lord
into heaven with glorified bodies, and abide with
Him for ever.
Thus the very place from which it pleased Him
to go up Avas a token of His loATe to those whom He
left behind. But a still more special token was the
commission which He gave them to be always em
ployed in His service : "cye shall be witnesses to Me
both in Judaea and Samaria and unto the uttermost
parts of the earth."* As dutiful children and servants
are never so well pleased as when he whom they love
and reverence gives them something particular to do
for his sake, something which may give them occa
sion to shew how truly they long to be dutiful and
thankful towards him : so must the Apostles have felt
greatly honoured and encouraged, when their Lord, at
parting, promised them that they should be His true
witnesses everywhere: especially as He accompanied
the charge with an assurance of the help, without
which it could not be fulfilled : " ye shall receive power
after the Holy Ghost hath come upon yon; " " behold
c Acts i. 8.

Shotvers of blessing. 31
I send" Him, "the Promise of My Father, upon you."
" I Avill not leave you comfortless, I will come unto
you." My brethren, these sayings do not belong
to those only, Avho Avere kneeling round and gazing
after our Saviour as He went up. They belong to
us also; for we too by our baptismal vow are called on
to be witnesses to our Saviour in all the world, and
we too have " the Promise of the Father," the Holy
Spirit come down to dwell in our hearts. These say
ings then of our Lord on His departure are "showers
of blessing" for us also ; showers of blessing coming
down on those who follow Him through Gethsemane
to Bethany, through His sufferings to His works of
love and mercy : showers of blessing on those who
gather around Him in His holy hill, which is the
Church, and there on their knees humbly look after
Him, trusting in His gracious intercession, and pati
ently wait His return to take them unto Himself.
To such persons, as well as to the Apostles, His
farewell blessing was no doubt pronounced. We are
not told the words of that blessing: we only read that
"cHe lifted up His Hands and blessed them." He
used the same action, with which before He had been
accustomed to seal His gracious benedictions : reach
ing forth His Divine Hands, and laying them on the
sick or the infants who Avere brought to Him for that
purpose ; and sometimes without actual touch, only
stretching forth His hands towards them : as in the
sermon which S. Luke relates, He stretched forth
His hands towards His disciples, and said, "d Blessed
be ye poor, for your's is the kingdom of heaven."
This, then was the outward sign, with which He ac-
c S! Luke xxiv. 50. " Ib. vi. 20.

32 Showers of blessing,
companied His farewell : thereby sealing as it were
afresh, and reneAving for ever, all the solemn bles
sings, which He had at any time pronounced over
any one during His abode on earth. And His bles
sing looked forward also. In that one action of His,
and in the solemn words which accompanied it, were
gathered together the force and virtue of all the so
lemn blessings, which His Bishops and Priests have
ever since pronounced in His Church. That blessing
is continued and repeated to us in every sacramental
act : as Avhen the Avater of our Baptism is sanctified,
when we are signed with the Sign of the Cross,
when the Priest solemnly blesses us, at home or in
Church, in sickness or in health, when he says over
us, believing and penitent, the gracious words of
Absolution and remission of sins. But what more
especially seems to remind us of Christ on Mount
Olivet lifting up His Hands to give a blessing, is the
lifting up the hands of His servants the Bishops,
when persons are confirmed, or ordained, or other
wise solemnly blessed by them. In all such holy
and Christian actions, done according to the mind
of the Church Avith true faith in Jesus Christ, we
may discern the Presence of Him our only Saviour,
blessing us as He goes up, and continuing to bless
us after He has gone up. Every one of them, by
His mercy, may help to prepare us for that final
and eternal blessing, which He will pronounce over
His elect at the Last Day: "Come, ye blessed of My
Father ; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the beginning of the world." As this was the great
farewell, so that will be the great welcome. We
have had by His distinguishing mercy our portion

Showers of blessing. 33
in the first ; may Ave so live as not to miss of the
second ! We know that as our Lord Avent, so He
will return. Be it our care to receive Him then
Avith hearts, if possible, as true and perfect, as Avere
the hearts of His Apostles and followers when they
parted from Him. Let us be found of Him on our
knees, or at least on the knees of our hearts ; looking
up steadfastly towards Him by heavenly thoughts
and holy prayers. Let us be found in Bethany, in
the home of His true servants, such as Mary, Martha
and Lazarus : employed in works of Christian love,
not in the wild businesses and vanities of the world ;
or else may He find us in the Mount of Olives, the
place of holy and heavenly contemplation, repenting
of our sins and humbling ourselves under His Cross.
In a word, Avhen His last message, sent at this time
by His Angels to His Apostles, is fulfilled, and He
shall come again into our sight on His cloud of glory ;
then may He grant us to be found waiting for Him
in His Church, and waiting on Him in His poor and
afflicted. So be it, through His mercy, Who is the
Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End of
all blessing ! May He bless us now with the gift of
His Body and Blood, and hereafter with that perfect
unspeakable Union, which He is preparing for us at
His Father's Eight Hand !

SEEMON V.

THE DRAWING OE JESUS BY HIS ASCENSION.

ASCENSION DAY.
The Sosg of Solomon i. 4.

" Draw me, we will run after Thee : the King hath
brought me into His chambers : ive will be glad and
rejoice in Thee,"
We of Christ's Church are, on this day, as persons
out of whose sight a dear friend has just gone, watch
ing the door through which He vanished out of our
sight. Jesus Christ has been so long, three and thir
ty years and more, going in and out among us ; and
now in a moment He is gone. A cloud receives Him
out of our sight. He is gone; and we, His flock and
people, may seem to be left alone on earth. We
have gone out with Him to the mount of Olives, to
the garden, where His sad sufferings had their be
ginning. He has led us out on this road as far as
Bethany, the village where He had last had some
thing like a home on earth : choosing the place of
His departure in such a Avay, as if He would bid
farewell at once to all the troubles and all the com
forts of this world, and leave His blessing on both.
I say, if we have read the Gospels in faith, we have
in spirit accompanied our Lord Avith His Apostles

The drawing of Jesus by His Ascension. 35
for the last time to that well-known and chosen
spot ; we have heard His parting commands ; He
hath lifted up His hands and blessed us, and in ador
ing wonder we have seen, hoAV in the very act of
blessing He Avas parted from us, and with quiet and
gentle motion Avas lifted up into heaven, and slowly
and gradually taken out of our sight, a cloud coming
betAveen Him and us, as it comes between the stars
and us.
Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Eedeemer, is gone
aAvay from us info heaven, and we are left here on
earth. What shall we do ? Shall Ave wait kneel
ing here on the hill, watching, as it Avere, the door
through Avhich He vanished ? Shall we gaze on that
spot of the heavens, until He return, as He promised,
again ? This indeed to a loving heart might seem
most desirable of all things, so to go on contem
plating our departed Saviour : even as those Avho
from their hearts are mourning for a deceased parent
or friend sometimes feel as if they would gladly go
on thinking of him all their lives, and give up every
thing else : as the aged Jacob, when he was told that
Joseph was lost: "I will go down to the grave to
my son mourning."
Something of this sort might well suit the inclina
tions of some loving hearts. But His will was plainly
declared, that His disciples should not so gaze up
after Him, nor so mourn His departure, as to with
draw themselves in any degree from the tasks He had
set them. By His angels He sent us this message :
" a Why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? " And to
His Apostles, when He was preparing them for this
a Acts i. 11.
D 2

36 The drawing of Jesus by His Ascension.
day, He said, "Because I have said these things unto
you, — because I have said, I go away, sorrow ha^th
.filled your heart. And yet, if ye loved Me, Me chiefly
and not yourselves, you would rejoice, because I said,
I go to the Father." He told them beforehand, true
love would make them rejoice Avhen they saAV Him
go out of their sight : and now, when the time is
come, we read that they Avorshipped Him, and re
turned to Jerusalem Avith great joy. It Avas to them,
as it has been to the Churcli ever since, a matter of
the deepest joy and thanksgiving, that Christ is gone
up out of sight to His Father's Eight Hand.
So the Bride in the Song of Solomon, the mystical
Bride in the text, invites us to rejoice. " The King
hath brought me into His chambers : Ave will be glad
and rejoice in Thee." Why are Ave all to be glad
and rejoice? Because Jesus Christ, the great Bride
groom, has begun to lift up the Church, His Bride,
into Heaven. In the womb of the Blessed Virgin,
of her substance, He took to Himself a pure Body,
and so first espoused to Himself our human nature :
marrying, if I may so speak, the Manhood to the
Godhead, so that the two should never more be di
vided, but for ever united in His most Sacred Person.
And now, by His Ascension, He hath unspeakably
glorified, and that for ever, His Human Soul and
Body, made, as it was at the first, like us in all things,
sin only excepted. He humbled it in the garden, at
the Cross, and in the grave : and now He hath glori
fied it far beyond His humiliation. He hath taken
His Soul and Body as a spouse into the Bedchamber,
and thereby hath given to each soul and body of
Adam's seed an invitation and power, to have a share

The draiuing of Jesus by His Ascension. 37
in that glory. Well then may Ave, as well as the
Apostles, be glad and rejoice on Ascension Day !
We are not then merely to gaze after Him ; Ave are
not to stand bewailing ourselves for His absence:
but this one thing we are to do. For the whole of
our time, until He come again or call us into His
Presence, we are to set about fulfilling His dying
commands. That is the point. He is gone, but will
come again some day, no one can tell how soon : and
in the meantime Ave are to do all His bidding.
And what is His bidding ? That we should run
after Him : that Ave should obtain a place in the
same heaven where He is gone before : and in order
thereunto, that Ave should even noAV ascend thither
in heart and mind. But because the Church knoAvs
that we cannot by mere Avishing obtain such a mind
as this, therefore she prays, and teaches us to pray.
" DraAV me," she humbly and seriously prays, "and
we will run after Thee." As if she should say, " I
knoAV Avell that in me, i.e. in my flesh, chvelleth and
abideth no good thing : therefore it must be quite
changed and reneAved ; and this is far too hard a task
for me : I commend it therefore to Thee, 0 Lord.
Take me in hand, I beseech Thee, and draw me con
stantly and mightily toAvards Thee. Fill my heart
with a sincere love of Thee, and of that heaven where
Thou art gone. Attract and entice it towards Thee,
unworthy as it is, by all sorts of loving and affec
tionate dealings. Draw me towards Thee by Thy
good providence, ordering the events of my life ; the
friends and acquaintance that I meet with ; my joys
and sorrows, my health and sickness, my employ
ments and diversions, secretly and wonderfully, in

38 The drawing of Jesus by His Ascension.
such sort as shall most turn my soul from the world
and turn it toAvards Thee. Draw me towards Thee
again by the reading and hearing of Thy most holy
and heavenly Scriptures : causing me to light in the
proper time upon those verses that will do me good:
to hang upon them : to taste all their sweetness, or,
if need be, all their bitterness ; not to let them go
till they have become, as it were, part of my mind,
and are in a way to do me the Avhole good Thou in-
tendedst by them. Draw me bythe noble and winning
examples of the holy men women and children, whom
Thou from time to time hast blessed with a double
portion of Thy Spirit : shew me Thine own bright
ness upon them, and incline my heart to delight in
it : for, left to myself, I know too well, I shall but
neglect or even hate it. Draw me, once more, and
most of all, draw me, I pray Thee, by Thy most holy
and lifegiving Sacrament. There, above all, help me
to taste and see how gracious Thou, O Lord, art :
there let me touch Thee, as Thou didst promise to
S. Mary Magdalene, now that Thou art ascended to
the Father : let me in the Sacrament of Thy love
touch but the hem of Thy garment, and by that
draw me onward and upward, till, my old impure self
being thoroughly put off and cast aside, I being
Avholly and only Thine, may dwell only and wholly
with Thee."
This is the Christian soul's prayer, when she muses
earnestly on her Lord's Ascension. Thus day and
night she seems to say to Him, "Draw me." But that
is not all. She knows Avell that her holy prayers and
heavenly desires, if not embodied as it were in deeds,
would soon cease to be holy and heavenly : they

The drawing of Jesus by His Ascension. 39
would vanish in the air like thin clouds, which never
drop down in wholesome deAV. This the enlightened
soul greatly fears : and therefore she cries out not
only, " Draw me ; " not only does she pray with all
her might for the grace, Avithout which she can do
nothing, but she is careful to add always, "We will
run after Thee : we will act, and that heartily and
zealously, according to the good desires which Thou
breathest into us." "Draw me," that is her devout
petition: "we will run after Thee," that is her hum
ble and courageous vow, her good resolution made
on her knees before God. And we know that these
two things must go along with every good prayer,
viz. a devout petition, and a humble and courageous
purpose. But now mark well the word, in which the
devout soul expresses her holy intention. She says,
" We will run after Thee." She does not say walk,
but run. For why ? She is full of love : she is like
a loving child who has caught sight of his father at
a distance, and we see that, Avhen that happens, the
child does not creep slowly towards his father, but
runs to meet him as fast as ever he can. So should
we, permitted, as we are, to behold our Lord with the
eye of faith afar off on His Throne in heaven. We
must not Avalk, but run towards Him : or if we cannot
run, because we are weak through sin, at least we
must endeavour to walk our very best. The child,
who for love runs out to meet his parent, does not
mind his playthings if they happen to lie in the
way : or if he minds them, he does not stop for them.
No more should we mind the playthings, the toys
of earth, when, according to the Church's invitation,
we are hastening after our Lord.

40 The drawing of Jesus by His Ascension.
But you will say, "It is so hard to disengage one's-
self from these earthly cares ; they have so Avound
themselves about us, like clinging Aveeds, before
we were aware. And in truth it is hard : but ob
serve, Jesus Christ, because He knows it is hard, has
told us Iioav we may get strength to do it. Because
we have to run after Him, and He knows Ave have
little strength, therefore He teaches us to say, "DraAV
me :" as the little child that Avishes to run and can
not, stretches out its arms and asks for help as well
as it can. Since then He has taught us to pray, we
may not doubt that He Avill help us to run after
Him : any more than the young child doubts the
mother's or nurse's will to help him. He will set
your heart at liberty, that you may run the Avay of
His commandments. He Avill help you to untie for
ever the bands and chains of evil habit, which fasten
you, as yet, more or less down to earth, so that you
may be free to ascend to Him in heart and mind,
and with Him continually dwell. Morning by morn
ing, and evening by evening, say to Him in earnest,
" DraAV me;" and day by day you Avill find yourself
better able to run after Him. Again, endeavour day
by day to run after Him, to be more alert in His
service, and you will be helped morning by morn
ing to pray to Him more earnestly.
And even as those, who are teaching young chil
dren to run, very often go before them, and run a
little way themselves, and then turn and entice them
onwards, beckoning to them with all kinds of affec
tionate endearments : so our loving Lord before He
went up into heaven, had in our sight hastened
along the very worst of the rough way which He

The drawing of Jesus by His Ascension. 41
calls upon us to tread : and iioav, Avith unutterable
yearning love, He turns towards us from His holy
eternal Eest, and beckons us omvard by a thousand
signs, which we shall see and understand more and
more, as our hearts are more open to any kind of
goodness. Every hour something happens, by Avhich
He speaks to the believing soul, and says, " Behold
Me here preparing a place for you : are you prepar
ing yourself for the place ?"
0 may Ave often, very often, think of Him in this
manner : of Him and of this His oavii Ascension
Day ! May the remembrance of Him, caring for us in
heaven, sweeten and allay the troubles of this life,
quicken all our languid obedience, and above all,
keep us from the horrid ingratitude of affronting
Him by wilful sin !
"0 holy and merciful Saviour, Thou hast been lifted
up from the earth, in order to draAV all men unto
Thee : Thou knowest hoAV corrupt, how childish Ave
are : draAV nigh unto us, 0 Lord, that we may draw
nigh unto Thee !"

SEEMON VI.

THE BENEFIT OF OUR LORD'S INTERCESSION,
DEPENDENT ON COMMUNION WITH HIM.

ASCENSION DAY.

Heb. vii. 25.

" He is able to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for them."
Great indeed, and most blessed, is the mystery of
this day : that God our Saviour, He Who suffered
for us on earth, should now and evermore be in hea
ven, at His Father's Eight Hand, pleading for us,
reigning over us, ruling His Church and preparing it
for heavenly glory: and also preparing for it a place,
that, in His own good time, He may come and re
ceive it unto Himself, that where the Head is, there
the Body may be also. That God the Son should
be in heaven, is of course no wonder at all. He was
there, of course, through all the time of His afflic
tion and sufferings. Even then He described Himself
to Nicodemus as " the Son of Man, Who is in hea
ven ; " and this, by virtue of His Divine Power and
Godhead, Avhereby He is evermore one with the
Everlasting Father. But this is the wonder, this the
mystery, this is our joy and bliss on Ascension Day,

Our Lord's Intercession. 43
that the Body and Soul Avhich had been humbled to
such extremity of pain and shame and death ; spit
upon, buffeted, stript, scourged, pierced with nails,
laid in the grave; the Soul which was exceeding
sorrowful, and felt as if the Father had forsaken
it ; that Soul and Body are noAV set "at the Father's
Eight Hand in the heavenly places, far above all
principality and poAver and might and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in that Avhich is to eome, and hath all
things put under its feet."
The better to enable us to conceive this unspeak
able exaltation of the Man Christ Jesus, and the
innumerable benefits which we receive thereby, holy
Church draAvs our attention, in the services of this
day, to Moses going up to the mount, and to the
blessings thereby vouchsafed unto God's people Is
rael. Moses, we know, was a special type and figure
of our Lord: as was promised, "aThe Lord your God
shall raise you up a prophet of your brethren like
unto me." And Moses was remarkably like unto
Christ in his ascension. You know Avhat I mean
by Moses' ascension : his going up into Mount Sinai
to meet the Lord, while the rest of the people staid
below. They Avere so amazed and affrighted at the
fearful sights and sounds, betokening the near ap
proach of the great and dreadful God, that they
removed and stood afar off, and their prayer was,
"Let not God speak Avith us, lest we die." They were
like all sinners when the Lord touches their hearts :
they felt themselves quite unworthy to draw near
and speak to God : they longed for a mediator, one
a Acts iii. 22.

44 The benefit of our Lord's Intercession,
to be between God and them : they said to Moses,
"bGo thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God
shall say, and speak to us all that the Lord our God
shall speak unto thee, and Ave will hear it and do
it." God approved of this. He said, "cThey have
well said all that they have spoken." And so it was
ordered : Moses went up and Avas in their stead, be
fore God. Moses, one of themselves : he Avent up
as surety and representative of the whole people, to
transact with the Almighty this great business of the
covenant betAveen Him and them, on Avhich all their
good and happiness depended. So is the Son of God,
our Moses, one of ourselves, " of our flesh and of
our bones," gone up out of our sight, even to the
highest heavens, " to appear in the Presence of God
for us."
Then, as Moses went to receive the two Tables of
the LaAV, on Avhich the covenant, even the ten com
mandments, was Avritten with the Finger of God, so
Jesus Christ Avent up for this among other purposes,
"that He might receive gifts for men." What gifts?
The New Law, and the Holy Spirit to write it in our
hearts ; with all His manifold outpourings of grace,
"Jfor the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ."
This gift, our Lord plainly tells us, could not, in the
counsels of God, be granted, until He had gone up
to heaven. "eIt is expedient for you that I go aAvay:
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come
unto you." And alas ! my brethren, Avithout the
Comforter, Avithout the Blessed Spirit of God to write
all His laAvs in our hearts, what profit should we
b Deut. v. 27. c Ib. 28. d Eph. iv. 12. e S. John xvi. 7.

dependent on communion with Him. 45
lnwe either of the blessed laws themselves, or even of
His Divine Love in dying to atone for our breach of
them ? Heaven itself will be no heaven ; the Cross
Avill be no salvation to us, except our hearts be turned
and changed by His Almighty grace. Were it only
on this account, then, our Lord's Ascension would be
infinitely more to us, than Moses going up to the
mount could be to the Israelites ; that Moses brought
doAvn only the letter of the law, the ten command
ments written and engraven in stones ; but Christ
sent clown the living and life-giving Spirit, Who
should both instruct us what to do, and also unite us
to Him, i. e. to Christ Jesus, through Whom we may
have grace and strength, really to do it.
Thirdly, Moses had not only to appear before God
for his brethren, and to obtain for them the gift of
the holy law, but even before that errand Avas com
pleted, he had to perform this further work of love
for them ; to intercede in their behalf, and obtain
God's gracious pardon, for that they had already
sinned grievously against one of His chiefest laAvs :
they had turned aside quickly out of the way which
He had commanded them : they had made them a
molten calf. God's sentence had already begun to
go outf: "Let Me alone, that I may destroy them
utterly, and make of thee a great nation." Upon
which, Moses, his heart overflowing with love to his
backsliding brethren, began to plead most earnestly
for them. He besought the Lord, by His great
mercies hitherto vouchsafed, by the memory of His
servants Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and by His pro
mises made to them; by all this he pleaded with
' Ex. xxxii. 10.

46 The benefit of our Lord's Intercession,
God for mercy, and God, in His tender love, heard
the intercession of His servant, and both spared those
sinners for the present, and afterwards, when Moses
came up a second time, to renew the covenant, with
the new tables in his hand Avhich he had hewed like
unto the first, the Lord accepted his fasting and
prayer, continued yet another forty days, and pro
mised to accept the penitence of His people, to for
give them this great sin, and to go up in the midst
of them into the land of Canaan. Now what was
Moses in this holy and loving work, but a true type
of our Saviour in heaven, interceding for our manifold
breaches of His sacred law ? As S. Paul describes
Him in the text, "He ever liveth to make interces
sion for them that come to God by Him ; " and S. John
in those golden Avords, "slf any man sin, we have an
Advocate Avith the Father, Jesus Christ the Eighte-
ous." He pleads for us with the Father, reminding
Him of the perfect Sacrifice which He offered once
for all on the Cross : He presents to the Father the
Body and Blood, which He, this day, took up with
Him to heaven, for a constant memorial of that Sacri
fice: and thus, although His bloody atoning Sacrifice
is completed, never to be renewed, yet is He for ever
offering for us in heaven; He hath an unchangeable
Priesthood ; He is our High Priest for ever, after the
order of Melchizedec. Moses indeed was no priest,
but only a great prophet and a sort of king : neverthe
less, in his intercession for his sinful and condemned
brethren, he was, as I said, a true type of our Lord
pleading in heaven for us sinners. A true type and
shadow he was, but at an immense distance. His In-
t IS. John ii. 1.

dependent on communion with Him. 47
V
tercession being as much more effectual than that of
Moses, as His Name and Nature is higher : Moses
being the servant, Christ the Son ; Moses the friend
of God, but Christ Himself Very God, God the Son,
presenting Himself, as our Priest and Sacrifice, be
fore the Father continually. So that if Moses by
his intercession could obtain so great a boon as the
sparing of his condemned countrymen, well may they
hope to be saved indeed to the uttermost, who truly
and heartily come to God by Christ.
Then again, Moses only wished that he might be
made, if possible, a curse for his people. "JlIf Thou
wilt forgive their sin," he says, "well; and if not,
blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book." Moses, as
S. Paul long afterwards, was willing to die for his
brethren, the Jewish people : but our Lord actually
did die. He caused Himself to be uimade a curse for
us : as it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree." As the Apostle saith of God the Father,
"kHe that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely
give us all things?" so we may say of the Son Him
self, " He that spared not His own life or body, but
poured out His soul to death for us all ; how shall
He not by earnest intercession fully obtain for us all
good things?
Thus you see that our Lord's Ascension, besides
other and infinite blessings Avhich belong to it, did
according to the counsel of God provide you and
me and all Christians with a perpetual Mediator,
Intercessor. Advocate at the Eight Hand of the Fa
ther in heaven ; One Whose word cannot return to
h Ex. xxxii. 32. » Gal. iii. 13. k Rom. viii. 32.

48 The benefit of our Lord's Intercession,
Him void; of Whom we are certain that, Avhatsoever
He blesseth, is blessed. Now what I wish you par
ticularly to obseiwe, dear brethren, is this : that our
Eisen and Ascended Lord's Mediation for us Avith
the Father, whether it rightly be called prayer or
no, depends almost or altogether on the memorial
which (as I said just now) He perpetually maketh
before His Father, of the Sacrifice of His Death on
the Cross : even as the high priest of the JeAvs, when
he entered once a year into the most holy Place, al
ways took with him the blood of the atoning sacrifice,
Avhich he had just been offering without. So S. Paul
informs us1: "Into the most holy place, or inner
tabernacle, entereth the high priest alone, once every
year, not without blood, which he offereth " for sins
and errors: "mbut Christ being come, High Priest
of the good things to come — not by the blood of
bulls and goats, but by His own Blood, entered once
for all into the sanctuary, having obtained eternal
redemption for us;" "He hath entered into heaven
itself, now to appear in the Presence of God for us."
" This Man, having offered one Sacrifice for sins for
ever, sat down on the Eight Hand of God." Thus
Jesus Christ in heaven, presenting to the Father
His own Body and Blood, maketh continual remem
brance of the Sacrifice of His death, and thereby
obtaineth for us "remission of our sins and all other
benefits of His Passion," saveth us, (as the Apostle
says) " to the uttermost."
For us, (so the Scripture speaks) not for all, but
for us. And who are we? It is a most serious ques
tion : but He leaves us in no doubt about the answer.
1 Heb. ix. 7. m lb. 11, 12, 24. x. 12.

dependent on communion with Him. 49
" He is able to save to the uttermost those who come
to God by Him." If we really and earnestly keep on
coming to God by Him, then are we the persons for
Avhom all these blessings are prepared. He intercedes
for us now ; He will save us to the uttermost. Now,
do you not perceive, my brethren, even before I have
named it to you, that there is one special appointed
way of coming to God by Jesus Christ, I mean the
Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood, to
which these promises especially relate ? For even
as our Lord in heaven is clay and night presenting to
the Father the very Body with its Wounds, and the
Sacred Blood, which was once for all offered on the
Cross : so He hath appointed His Church on earth
to join in that Sacrifice of His, and present it to the
Father, uniting thereby the services of earth and hea
ven. " This do," He said, " in remembrance of Me :"
and that very thing the Church does. We join in that
very Sacrifice, which He offered in the upper room
the night before His Death, and which He is now
continuing day and night before His Father in hea
ven, in the place to which He this day ascended. In
that very Sacrifice we join, as often as Ave dulyjfeceive'j
the Holy Communion. The Holy Communion is our
Lord's heavenly memorial transferred to earth : there
is the same Priest as in heaven, Jesus Christ, only
out of sight ; and there is the same Sacrifice, His very
Body and Blood. It comes then to be a very serious i
question, whether they Avho slight Holy Communion
have really any part in our Lord's Intercession ; Avhe
ther their prayers are good for any thing. Certainly
it was a saying of Bishop Wilson's, " If I were not a
Qommunicant, I should be afraid to say my prayers."

50 The benefit of our Lord's Intercession,
I suppose he meant, not simply that it is a great fault
to neglect Holy Communion, and, like any other great
fault unrepented of, Avould make a person unfit to
appear before God. I suppose he meant something
more particular than this. He meant that, in order to
pray acceptably, we must be joined to Him Who is
our only High Priest and Mediator : our prayers must
be joined to His continual Intercession ; that this can
only be through that Sacrifice of Holy Communion,
which keepeth us one with Him and He with us ;
and that therefore the prayers of a wilful non-com
municant are indeed no Christian prayers. There is
no promise, that in them the Holy Spirit Avill be inter
ceding for us, or that they Avill go up to be presented
as a memorial before God by our great Melchisedec
in heaven. My brethren, I want to make this quite
plain to you. There is reason to fear that a Christian
person, who might come to Holy Communion and
does not, is wilfully separating between himself and
his God ; he is putting himself in such a condition
that his prayers AArill be no prayers; they will do him
no good at all, because they are not really said in
Christ's Name : they are not put into the Mediator's
hands, to be offered by Him as part of His perpetual
Sacrifice to His Father.
And Avhat if a person come unworthily, I mean in
Avilful, impenitent unworthiness ? We knoAV, alas !
too well, what such an one is in the way to bring on
himself; "he eateth and drinketh his own damna
tion." It is a fearful instance of taking God's Name
in vain, drawing near to Him only to affront Him.
What then is a poor sinner to do ? It is very plain.
He must not stay a\vay, for this is putting from him

dependent on communion with Him, 51
the only remedy for his sins : he must not come
hastily, for this is turning the remedy into poison :
but he must come penitently; that is the word. He
must come to Christ's Altar; for that is the Throne
of grace, where He is to be found Who is our true
King and Priest, from Whom we are sure to obtain
both mercy for the past and grace for the future, to
help in time of need. Come unto Him in this way,
all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and He will
give you rest; as surely as, at the prayer of Moses, He
forgave His people Israel, and helped them on the
Avay to Canaan, their earthly rest. Through all the
forty days and forty nights, the Avhole time which
yet remains for the trial and exercise of His Church
on earth, He will be interceding at His Father's
Eight Hand, in virtue of that Body and Blood Avhich
He this day took Avith Him into heaven. He will be
interceding both for the whole Church and for each
one of its members. And 0, my brethren, how can
Ave think enough of it ? If we are trying in earnest
to be worthy communicants, this blessed, this per
fect Saviour is ours. He is our Saviour and He will
saAre us ; He is our God, and He Avill save us to the
uttermost. Through Him we may lie down every
night of our lives in peace, in comfortable hope that,
for His Intercession's sake, we are absolved from our
past sins, how grievous soever ; and that our daily
repentance is accepted for our daily slips and infir
mities, we watching and praying against them. And
we may present before Him, and put under His care,
the cares and troubles, the needs and infirmities and
dangers, temporal and spiritual, of all our dear friends
and relations and benefactors, all for whom we are
e2

52 Our Lord's Intercession.
anxious, and of whom we are bound to take charge.
Finally, this our great and good High Priest will
accept at our hands and present to His Father, in
union with His own Flesh and Blood, our earnest
prayers and wishes and longings for the whole Chris*
tian people, the whole of Christendom in its fallen
and divided state ; that, according to His own para
ble of the barren tree, He may spare it yet awhile,
" let it alone this year also," if so be, by our Lord's
merciful grace, " digging about it and dunging it,"
it may bear fruit, and not be cut down.
For all, even for the worst, we may pray in hope;
since for all our Melchisedec liveth to make special
intercession, if only they will come to God by Him.
He liveth, not for a time, but for ever : He offereth,
not now and then, but perpetually. As He is able
therefore, so He is willing to save us to the utter
most. Only have the same will to be saved, that He
hath to save you, and there is no end to the blessing
you may hope for.

SEEMON VII.

RESTRAINT, THE CHRISTIAN'S BLESSING.

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
Deut. xii. 8, 9,
" Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here
this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own
eyes : for ye are not as yet come to the rest and
to the inheritance, ivhich the Lord your God giveth
you."
These words are part of Moses' last admonition to
the children of Israel in the wilderness. They had
just ended their forty years' Avanderings, and were
on the point of entering on that promised land, which
for so long a time had been the great object of their
hopes and prayers. He, like a wise and affection
ate friend, well knowing the stubbornness of their
hearts, and Avhat danger they were in of being spoil
ed by prosperity ; while he speaks to them at large
of the blessings of their neAV home, its corn, wine,
and oil, its flowing with milk and honey, the wealth,
peace, and glory, which they might expect in it ;
warns them also, no less carefully, of God's constant
Presence there, and of the exact obedience they
would have to pay Him, as ever they hoped to enjoy
these blessings. He warns them, here in the text,

54 Restraint, the Christian's blessing.
that it would be a great mistake, if they supposed
themselves more at their OAvn ease and liberty, as
to what they would do and Avhat they Avould leave
undone, when they were in Canaan, than Avhen they
were in the Avilderness. He mentions it as one of
the advantages of Canaan, that they would have it
in their power, and it Avould be their duty, to live
by a stricter and more exact rule there, than they
could possibly do, whilst they Avere moving about in
the wilderness. " Ye shall not do after all the things
that we do here this day, every man Avhatsoever is
right in his own eyes : for ye are not as yet come
to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord
your God giveth you."
Now, there is a striking resemblance betAveen the
condition of the Jews, brought safely to the borders
of Canaan, and waiting for God's signal to go in and
possess it, and the condition of Christians, after our
Saviour had made perfect our redemption by His
death and was ascended into heaven, but before He
had sent down His Spirit to make us fully partakers
of the blessings of the Gospel. And, accordingly,
the Church has ordained this part of the admonitions
of Moses to be read at this solemn time, as most
useful towards helping us to judge rightly of the
great change, which the coming of the Holy Ghost
has made, both in our blessings, and in our duties.
The blessing, of Avhich it is proposed uoav to speak
more particularly, is that of being more under con
trol, of having our lives and ways more exactly or
dered, than as if we were not Christians. We are
now come to the rest and to the inheritance, Avhich
the Lord our God was so long preparing for us; and

Restraint, the Christian's blessing. 55
therefore Ave are no longer to think of doing, every
man what is right in his own eyes. If it might
be excusable in Jews or heathens to do so, it does
not follow that it is excusable in us.
And therefore the gate, into which we must strive
to enter, is called " strait," and the Avay which lead
eth unto life, " narrow." And our Saviour, inviting
us to the blessings of the Gospel, describes them as a
yoke and a burthen; easy indeed and light, yet still
a yoke and a burthen.
And this very circumstance He mentions as a
blessing ; as the very reason why, coming to Him,
the weary and heavy laden might find rest : " Come
unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I Avill give you rest. Take My yoke upon you,
and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
So that it appears, that both the Law and the
Gospel, both Moses and Jesus Christ, consider it a
great blessing, a great increase of comfort and happi
ness, to be kept under strict rules. The Gospel was
more strict than the Law ; and on that very account
its subjects were happier. Canaan was a place,
where men could not do Avhat pleased themselves, so
much as they could in the wilderness : and it was
the more entirely and truly a place of rest.
But noAV, this way of thinking is by no means the
way of the world. People in general like nothing
so much, as having their own choice in all things.
They account it a burthen, and not a privilege, to
be under the government of others. And there is
not, one may venture to say, one man in a thousand,
who would not rather be rich than poor, for this

56 Restraint, the Christian's blessing.
very reason ; that a rich man is much more his own
master, has much more of his own Avay in choosing
how to spend his time, what company to keep, what
employments and diversions to follow, than a poor
man generally can haATe.
Again, every one has observed, I might say has
experienced, the hurry Avhich children are usually
in, to get out of the state of childhood, and to be
left to judge and act for themselves. There are few,
it may be feared, Avho have not to charge themselves
with some undutifulness towards their first and best
friends, their own parents, on this account. Like
the prodigal son, young persons are too often found
so unthankful, as to hurry on the time of separation
from their parents, and say, " Give me the portion
of goods that faileth to me :" as if it were a piece of
preferment and happiness, to get away, as early as
possible, from one's father and mother.
Further : as most of us are, or have been, under
authority of some kind, either as servants, or as
scholars, or in some other way, we cannot be ignorant
how jealous we were of being interfered with by any
but our own masters ; how unwilling to take advice
even from the wisest, lest we should seem to give
him a right to direct us ; and how impatient of con
trol even from our masters themselves, in matters,
which, as we imagined, lay beyond their authority.
All of us, as it may seem, naturally sharing, more or
less, in the temper of that peevish Hebrew, who
would not let Moses interfere with him, though it
was only as a friend, to save him from a great sin.
We put off our best friends, with " Who made thee
a ruler and a judge over us ?"

Restraint, the Christian's blessing. 57
But the worst, and, unfortunately, the most com
mon instance of this ungovernable temper in mankind
is, our unwillingness to' let God choose for us, and
our impatience under the burthens He lays upon us.
Hoav very commonly does it happen, that the very
condition people chose beforehand, the very place
they wished to live in, and the persons they Avished
to live among, being obtained, becomes the ground
of continual complaint and vexation. If they could
but change at will, they say, they should like their
situation Avell enough; but now they are tied down
to it, they cannot, that is, they will not, help being
fretful and impatient.
Yet this very circumstance, of being tied doAvn to
rules, and not having the power to change at will,
is, as we have seen, reckoned a great blessing, both
in the Old and NeAV Testament, both by Moses and
Jesus Christ. And the contrary (the having to choose
for ourselves, and to do what is right in our own
eyes) is spoken of as a great disadvantage. So dif
ferent is the judgement of God from the judgement
of men.
It is true, Moses is speaking of a particular point
of conduct; but we shall presently see, that Avhat he
says Avill apply, just as reasonably, to every other part
of our duty, and may serve to shew us the benefit of
subjection, and not being left to ourselves in any.
He was speaking of the question, where the Israel
ites should offer their sacrifices and solemn prayers
to Almighty God. Whilst they Avere in the wilder
ness, they sacrificed Avhere they would; but when
they should have come into the land of promise,
his Avord of caution is this : " Take heed to thyself,

58 Restraint, the Christian's blessing.
that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place
that thou seest : but in the place which the Lord
shall choose in one of thy tribes : there thou shalt
offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shalt do all
that I command thee."
We may be apt sometimes to wonder, that the
Israelites should have so generally disobeyed this
easy command, and should have sacrificed as they did
in the high places, even in some of their best days ;
Avhen God had said, "You shall Avorship before this
altar in Jerusalem." But if we would look at home,
we might find something very like it amongst our
selves. For many men, even now, are rather too
jealous of being ordered and directed in their per
formance of the outAvard duties of religion. They
had rather choose out churches, ministers, prayers
for themselves, than be content and thankful with
Avhat God's providence has appointed for them.
It is a great happiness in our condition, that we
need not be at any loss in these respects. We have
no reason to doubt that the clergy are God's minis
ters, really appointed by Jesus Christ to stand in
His place, and to bless in His Name. We are certain
that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are His Sacra
ments ; the Bible, His word ; and the Lord's Prayer,
His prayer. We may be more certain than the JeAvs
could be, Avhich side He would have us take in all
doubtful and difficult points of practice. Suppose
the question to be betAveen patient suffering and
violent and eager resistance, we need not be at a
loss for want of a voice from heaven, as the Jews
sometimes were. We know beforehand ; the New
Testament teaches us, in every page, how much bet-

Restraint, the Christian's blessing. 59
ter it is to submit quietly, than to do ourselves right
by any hasty or passionate Avays. Or suppose that
two ways appear equally reasonable, but that our
inclinations and fancy are rather too passionately
inclined towards one of them : Ave may be sure the
safer and better Avay is rather to incline to the other.
" a For even Christ pleased not Himself."
I say, it is a great happiness which Christians en
joy, in being thus over-ruled and guided in every
step, and not left to their OAvn ways. It is impossible
to consider the thing at all seriously, Avithout perceiv
ing that it is so ; unpleasant as Ave too often find it to
own as much, even to ourselves. The advantage is
as plain, as Avhen we say that it is good for a child,
that cannot stand alone, to have hold of a kind and
careful nurse, instead of being left to totter about by
itself. It is, in the strict sense of the words, a bless
ing infinite and unspeakable. It is as great as the
difference between what God knows and what Ave
know : between eternal, unbounded wisdom, and our
frail and short-sighted understanding.
To have this thought steadily fixed Avithin us, will
prove, indeed, the greatest of ail blessings : both as
to our rest in this world, and as to our inheritance in
that which is to come. In whatever counsel and
pursuit we are sure Ave are guided by God, that, we
are equally sure, must turn out Avell in the end : and
soberly speaking, Avhat can we wish for more ? Now,
(Avhatever may be said about the ways and means)
the issues and events of things, Ave knoAV, are abso-
lu-tly and entirely in God's hand ; and therefore it
very ill becomes us to be careful and anxious about
a Rom. xv. i.

60 Restraint, the Christian's blessing.
them. Let us leave them quietly to be managed
by Him, Who cannot do us Avrong, and cannot wish
us harm. Do but reflect on the meaning of these
words, and you cannot but wish to keep it ahvays in
your mind, as an anchor of the soul, sure and stead
fast, against the most tormenting of all the evils of
this mortal life ; those which arise from too anxious
thoughts about the morrow. Once make up your
mind to this most certain truth, that Avhat is right
in God's eyes is far better for you, than Avhat is right
in your oavu eyes ; and you Avill have but one care in
the whole Avorld : i. e. how to please God in making
the best use of the present time : a care in which, by
His gracious assistance, you are sure not to fail.
But it was further said, that this temper of not
choosing for ourselves leads directly to our everlast
ing inheritance in the other world, as Avell as making
sure of our rest and refreshment in this. For it helps
us greatly iu the performance of our duty, because,
in truth, it leaves us nothing else to do. The moment
Ave set our heart -on any worldly object, however in
nocent it may be in itself, that moment we are, in
that respect, in more danger than we Avere before.
We are embarrassed, from having set oursehres an
other task, besides pleasing God. This is of course
a snare and a trouble to us, and it requires great help
on God's part, and most commonly a painful struggle
on our own, to keep out of sin, under such circum
stances. To guard against which we must be so far
free from passions, as to indulge them no more than
we are thoroughly convinced is pleasing to God. In
the spirit of S. Paul's wise and kind warning : "bThis
b 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30.

Restraint, the Christian's blessing. 61
I say, brethren, the time is short : it remaineth, that
both they that have wives be as though they had
none; and they that weep, as though they wept not;
and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not;
and they that buy, as though they possessed not ;
and they that use this world, as not abusing it : for
the fashion of this Avorld passeth away."
"cThe world passeth aAvay, and the lust thereof:
but he that doeth the will of God endureth for ever."
These words of the beloved disciple, S. John, point
out to us the great and final blessing of such a tem
per as has now been recommended : a temper which
had rather be under wise and good guidance, than be
left to choose for itself. It prepares and trains us
for everlasting happiness in heaven. For the very
secret of our enjoyment there will be, that God's
Will shall be ours. We shall behold His works and
ways, especially the Glory which He has given to
His beloved Son our Saviour, and shall rejoice in
them, as in so much good done to ourselves, more
and more thankfully for ever.
What a beautiful and comfortable thought is this,
of the high and noble uses to Avhich, if we will, we
may turn all our worst disappointments, the bitterest
thoughts of shame and remorse, which ever come
upon us ! We may consider them as part of our hea
venly Father's Avay of breaking us in, as it were, and
training us to the desire and enjoyment of His own
blessed Presence in heaven. They are so many les
sons in His school, each intended to make us a little
more perfect in that divine art of having the same
Avill that He has. Look upon your feelings of shame
c 1 S.Johnii. 17.

62 Restraint, the Christian's blessing.
and self-reproach in this way, and you Avill compose
yourself to receive them calmly, ho Ave ver grievous
for the time, in cheerful hope that they may prove
hereafter, for Christ's sake, the happy means of your
amendment and forgiveness.
And if even the bitter thought of our past sins may
be accompanied with so much of what is comfortable
and hopeful, surely we may well leave it to Almighty
God, to do Avhat He will with us in every other re
spect. Only let us think over, fairly and seriously,
Avhat has hitherto passed in our OAvn life. Let us
recollect what we have experienced in ourselves, seen
in our friends, heard of in the Avorld, and read in our
Bible. We cannot think it over in earnest, without
seeing the great evil of being left to our own way ;
and the security, the comfort, and happiness, of hav
ing God to choose for us.
Once possess yourself with this truth, and you will
be fit for every condition that God may send upon
you. You will be humble in prosperity, because
then God seems to leave you to yourself, and this
temper has made you very much afraid of yourself.
In sorroAV you will be cheerful, because then you feel
for certain that God does not leave you to yourself.
And in all conditions, j^ou will keep up a constant
and thankful sense of the presence and providence of
the Almighty God, of God our Saviour ; in Whom
if we once learn to delight ourselves, He is sure to
give us our heart's desire.

SEEMON VIII.

CHRISTIAN CONFIDENCE.

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
Rom. viii. 33, 34.
" Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that
condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, Who is even at the Right Hand
of God, Who also maketh intercession for us."
It Avould not perhaps be wrong to suppose that the
holy Apostle in these courageous Avords was think
ing particularly of the troubles which he and all
Christians were then suffering at the hands of the
Eoman and other heathen magistrates and people.
Wherever S. Paul Avent, he Avas bitterly reviled, be
cause he was a Christian, and the most false and
impossible stories were spread abroad concerning
him. In many towns the people rose against himr
and he Avas in danger of being torn in pieces. His
own words are, "aWe are made as the filth of the
World, and are the offscouring of all things, unto
this day:" words, which shew hoAV deeply he felt the
scorn and censure of men, yet how little he cared
for it when in the way of duty. And why did
a 1 Cor. iv. 13.

64 Christian confidence.
he care little for it ? What was the thought that
bore him up ? It was the hope of being accounted
righteous before God : it was the remembrance of all
that our merciful Saviour has done for us, and more
especially of His Ascension into heaven, and con
stant appearance before His Father in our behalf.
"Who dare lay any thing," asks the Apostle, "to the
charge of God's elect?" God Almighty forgives and
acquits us : He pronounces us not guilty of these
grievous things Avhich our enemies report against
us. He justifies : who dare condemn ? He accounts
us innocent : who dare call us guilty ? What sig
nifies how men judge us and treat us, if we have
such a friend in heaven ? He that alone has poAver
finally to condemn is Jesus Christ ; and Jesus Christ
is the very Person Who has done and suffered so
great things for us. He died; yea rather, let us say,
He is risen again. The Apostle speaks so, because
His Eesurrection was the sign of our forgiveness ;
we knew by it, that God was willing to accept His
Sacrifice. His Death purchased our deliverance; His
Eesurrection sealed it. But there is something be
yond them both to be mentioned, making our condi
tion still more blessed. He "is even at the Eight
Hand of God ; He also maketh intercession for us."
The Man Christ Jesus, the very same Who was con
ceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin
Mary, Who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was cruci
fied, dead and buried, Who rose again the third day
from the dead : He is taken up, both soul and body,
to the Eight Hand Of His Father, where, being still
perfect Man as we are, "of a reasonable soul and hu
man flesh subsisting," He reigns over all in heaven

Christian confidence. 65
and earth : Angels and Authorities and PoAvers, as
well as all the children of men, being made subject
unto Him.
Again, He maketh intercession for us ; He is not
only our King in Heaven, but also our Priest. As
King, He sits on the Throne of God : as Priest, He
stands at God's Eight Hand, making intercession for
us : offering up (so Scripture seems to teach) our
prayers and fastings, our doings and sufferings, our
sacrifices and self-denials, to be accepted of His
Father, as being united to His only precious Sacri
fice of Himself on the Cross. And all this He does,
not as one who merely pitied us, though he could
not exactly enter into our feelings : not as an Angel
might be merciful to us, although he could not pos
sibly understand by his own experience what our
sufferings were. It is not so with Jesus Christ. He
can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities ; for
He, in all points but sinfulness, has been tried as
we are. Now we know what a difference it usually
makes in people's compassion and kindness for one
another, if they have ever themselves felt the cala
mity Avhich they are called on to pity and relieve.
The Almighty Himself appeals to -this feeling re
peatedly. E.g., He bids His people remember and
leave gleanings in the fields for the stranger, and
love him as themselves, and allow him the rest of the
Sabbath: "for," saith God, "bye know the heart of a
stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of
Egypt." In like manner He knows our hearts : He
feels for us when death parts us from relations and
friends ; for He wept at the grave of Lazarus. He com-
b Ex. xxiii. 9.
F

66 Christian confidence. ;
passionates the destitute in their hunger and thirst,
for He was an hungred after His forty days' fast ; He on
His Cross felt the thirst that goes before death. And
thus, as persons who have been sick themselves,
make the most compassionate and thoughtful nurses,
so is our Lord the very fountain of all true compas
sion for every affliction and misery, that man can
suffer. He feels for us and with us, being, as He
is, one of us, both body and soul. What a reason is
here, if we had but faith to consider it, for our bear
ing calmly and patiently all the pains and frailties
of this present life, and whatsoever "the devil or man
worketh against us ! " If it be sweet and soothing to
every sufferer, when he feels the sympathy and kind
concern of some affectionate person, on whom he can
depend here in this life : how much more, to be cer
tain, as all Christian men may, that Christ Who died
and rose again is at the Eight Hand of God, making
intercession for us with that unspeakable Love,
which caused Him to lay down His life for us !
In this way then, the Apostle comforts himself and
all his persecuted brethren when they were condemn
ed by the world. "God," he says, "justifieth." He
has made you members of Himself: He sees not now
your old sins which you committed in your heathen
state, but He sees you as you are in Jesus Christ,
with His robe thrown over you : your sinful habits
dead and cast away, and the righteousness of Christ
filling your life and heart and transforming you more
and more into the likeness of Him. If so it be with
you, little need you care for the suspicions and re
vilings, the condemnation and persecutions of men.
But further : we may with humble hope and thank-

Christian confidence. 67
fulness apply this same blessed sentence to the as
suaging the reproaches of our own hearts, when they
are too much cast down by fear and shame at the
thought of our many sins and infirmities. Conscience
may too reasonably say to most of us, "True, these
are great and precious promises ; but what have you
to do with them, whose life has been blemished, since
your baptismal justification, by so many serious
faults ; whose heart is still so imperfect before God,
so far from being throughly renewed after His glo
rious Image?" And the Evil spirit may taunt us, as
it were, and try to reduce us to despair, and make
us say with the Jewish sinners before the captivity,
"There is no hope; I may as well go after my sins."
Nay, my brethren : we, by God's mercy, will never
give way to such thoughts as these : we will not
cast away our hope in Him, Who justified us by His
free grace, making us members of Himself before we
could know any thing: "Who died, yea rather Who
is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God,
Who also maketh intercession for us." Too surely we
have sinned, some of us grievously ; and if He should
deal strictly with us, we cannot deny that we have
broken the covenant, and forfeited His pardon and
grace. But He allows repentance, He invites us to
confess our sins, to humble and punish ourselves for
them : to be watchful and busy in all sorts of well
doing : to seek Absolution in all Avays, where He has
appointed it to be found : and so doing, He permits
us to hope that we are still in communion with Him;
that the blessings of our Baptism are not forfeited ;
that He Who will come to be our Judge has not
ceased to make intercession for us. We may still
p 2

68 Christian confidence.
say to our own hearts, "cPut thy trust in God, for I
Avill yet thank Him for the help of His countenance;"
and to the Evil one Ave may say, "dAway from me; I
will keep the commandments of my God."
See how the words of the text both encourage us
to cherish such good hope, and warn us on what it
must depend, on our own part. We must be such
as not to have forfeited the title of God's elect : for
concerning them only the question is asked, " Who
shall lay any thing to their charge?" They only have
the promise of justification. And again we must be
such as not to have quite lost the gracious Interces
sion of our crucified and glorified Lord. Now "God's
elect" or chosen means of course those whom He has
called out of the Avorld to be His own peculiar people:
as the JeAvs were called from among all other nations.
So the catechism instructs every baptized child to
regard himself as one of the " elect people of God."
So S. Paul, in this epistle to the Eomans, speaking of
the elect among the Jews, plainly means those who
had received the Gospel, whom Christ had taken to
Himself, and put His mark on them in Baptism. So
our Lord Himself in His parables speaks of the elect,
as of persons who should, first of all, come to His
spiritual feast, and next, should keep their wedding-
garment, true holiness, so as not to be cast out.
Against such it will be in vain for bad men or bad
angels to bring any kind of charge. Until they have
cast themselves out of the kingdom, or by staining
their robes have made themselves unworthy to abide
in it, they are, by God's mercy, safe.
So again, as to Christ's Intercession : the many
frailties, negligences and ignorances, with which even
c Ps. xiii. 7. add 15. <i lb. cxix. 115.

Christian confidence. 69
the best man's conscience must accuse him, need
not utterly cast him down, though they should make
him daily more diligent and watchful. For they do
not hinder, but that he is still in a state of justifi
cation : such a state, that our Lord in heaven is still
making intercession for him. But if he be in Avilful
sin, then his justification so far ceases : then Christ's
intercession is not for such as he. So S. John ex
pressly teaches. "eIf any man see his brother sin a
sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He
shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.
There is a sin unto death : I do not say that he shall
pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is
a sin not unto death." Wilful sin persisted in, and
that only, can forfeit God's justifying grace, and our
Saviour's Intercession. If you are conscious of it,
lose no time, break it off by the ways of true peni
tence. Nothing else can ruin us. "Neither tri
bulation nor distress nor persecution nor anguish
nor nakedness nor peril nor sword : neither death
nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities nor powers,
nor things present nor things to come, nor height
nor depth nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord." None of these can separate us ; but
sin may. S. Paul, you observe, does not say a word
as to the elect being safe from sin in this life. What
he does say is, that as long as they continue elect,
that is, until by wilful sin they have separated them
selves from among God's people, none of these out
ward things can hurt them.
We see then most plainly, which way all our cares
and labours should tend : to keep ourselves from
0 1 S. John v. 16.

70 Christian confidence.
what we know displeases Almighty God, lest we lose
our part in Christ Jesus, to which He elected us in
our infancy by His free grace. And here, that no
man may deceive himself, let it be well understood
and always remembered, that nothing displeases God
more, and forfeits our part in His Son more entirely,
than lukewarmness and indifference in His service.
Thousands, at the last day, I fear, will be found, who
have cast themselves out of the kingdom of heaven,
not by positive sin, but by leaving undone the things
which they ought to have done. Do not then say,
"I am neither thief nor murderer, I bear no malice
to any one, I do not live in adultery nor in fornica
tion, I take no false oaths ; why should I be uneasy
about myself?" But say rather, "How have I spent
my time from my youth upward ? How have I at
tended to my prayers ? Which way has my heart
turned ? How strictly have I denied myself ? How
anxiously have I kept in order my thoughts, my pas
sions, and my tongue?" And if you permit your
conscience to answer these questions truly, it will be
a wonder if you do not sentence yourself to be a
humble penitent all your life, instead of indulging
any kind of boastfulness.
In a word, the token of God's continued election is
a man's truly loving God, as S. Paul indeed had in
timated a little before. " All things work together
for good," he says, "to them who love God: who
are the called according to His purpose :" and of
these same he speaks afterwards as justified, and
as being those for whom Christ died, and arose, and
intercedes. If a man love God, he may trust to be
still a partaker of these blessings : not else. Now
" this is the love of God, that we keep His command-

Christian confidence. 71
ments." Where true love is, it is impossible that a man
should be easy or careless, and soon satisfied in his
duties. Look e. g. at an affectionate mother Avith her
child : can she ever think she has done quite enough
for it ? Is she not still watching and contriving, hoAV
to make her love and service more perfect ? So is it
with the love of God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ :
it is a restless ever-active principle : of all things it
neverwill permita man tobe soon pleased with himself.
I conclude therefore, that although every one who
has been baptized into Jesus Christ has been called
to a part in these glorious promises, yet those only
have a present portion in them, who so unfeignedly
love God, as to be habitually endeavouring to keep
all His commandments and do all His Will : who
love Him as truly and constantly as a dutiful child
loves his father or mother, and who shew their love
in like manner, by regularly striving to please and
obey Him more and more.
Such a person will be the last to say to himself,
that he has such love in him : yet in some unknown
way God will make him partaker of His peace, that
"peace which passeth all understanding." Worldly
want, distress, pain and vexation will come lightly in
comparison upon him, because he never depended on
this world. In doubt and perplexity he may hope
for safe guidance : and should his education, or other
circumstances, lead him into error, or continue him
in it, through no wilful fault of his own, his charity,
his true love of God, will cover a multitude of such
sins. The Divine goodness will overflow towards
him : all things will work together for his good : and
in the end he shall see, with joy and for ever, the
Face of the Beloved.

SEEMON IX.

A PLACE PREPARED FOR US, AND WE PREPARED
FOR IT.

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
S. John xiv. 2.
" I go to prepare a place for you."
The Holy Scripture bids us particularly remark the
constant love of our blessed Lord and Saviour, now
about to ascend into heaven, towards His chosen dis
ciples and Apostles. S. John's saying is, "awhen His
hour was come, that He should depart out of this
world unto the Father, having loved His own which
were in the world, He loved them unto the end."
And this, His great and enduring love, He particu
larly shewed, the night before His death, by the
many comfortable words which He poured into their
ears, to prepare them for His departure : at the very
mention of which, as He well knew, sorrow was sure
to fill their heart. But He would not have them be
so cast down. He, the great Lord of heaven and
earth, humbles Himself to behold and to pity the
thoughts and misgivings, which He knows will arise
in the hearts of His poor frail creatures, when death
and separation are spoken of. " b Let not your heart
a S.John xiii. 1. b Ib. xiv. 1, 2.

A place prepared for as. 73
be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father's house are many mansions : " i.e. "in
the great eternal heaven, where God lives and rules
for ever, is abundance of room for you all." The
promise indeed had just before been made to S. Peter
especially; "c Whither I go, thou canst not follow
Me now, but thou shalt follow Me afterwards." But
it was by no means confined to S. Peter. On the
contrary, all the twelve, and through them all the
disciples, are here given to understand that in the
happy home, to which our Lord has returned, every
one may find a place. He is the Head of the Body,
the Church : and where the Head is, there the
members, in due course of time, may hope to be.
Not a few only of the most honourable, but every
one, the meaner as Avell as the more glorious, may
hope to be raised with the Head to everlasting joy.
This surely is infinite love and condescension.
But our gracious Lord goes even beyond this. Hear
how His discourse proceeds. "In My Father's house
are many mansions : He has room enough and glory
enough for all His family both in heaven and earth :
but even were it otherwise, were there room for a few
only, I would have said to you, 'I go to prepare a
place for you.' Whatever became of others, to you
at least, My chosen Apostles, I should have given a
special promise of a home in heaven, suited for each
one of you. Much more may you depend upon that
greatest of all blessings, now that you know by My
sure word how large heaven is, and how the gates
of that happy place are thrown open, by God's mercy,
to all who draw near Me with true hearts ! "
c S. John xiii. 36.

74 .4. place prepared for us,
This being, as it appears by holy writers of old
time, the true way of understanding our Saviour's
words in the text, we may well take them as con
taining an assurance, to the Apostles first and through
them to all believers, of the great mercy which our
Lord intended us at His going up into heaven. He
goes to prepare a place for us, to make ready a
happy home, where we may dwell with Him to all
eternity. And this He does, first, by offering Himself, His
own sacrificed Body and Blood, day and night to
His heavenly Father, as a true and perfect atone
ment and satisfaction for our sins. S. Paul tells us
so, plainly, in the epistle to the Hebrews. " d Christ
being come a High Priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands. . . neither by the blood of goats and
calves, but by His own Blood, hath entered once
for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us." That is, as there was a division
in the tabernacle of Moses first, and afterwards in
Solomon's Temple, and the outer court was called
simply holy, the other Holy of Holies, or holiest of
all : so is God's heavenly kingdom separated from
His kingdom on earth, and far, very far more holy
and glorious than it. And as the priests went al
ways into the outer tabernacle, accomplishing the
service of God, but into the second went the High
Priest alone, once only in every year, and without
this all the rest would have been nothing : so all the
services and offerings, which are made to God here
on earth, have respect to that one meritorious Offer-
d Heb. ix. 11, 12.

and we prepared for it. 75
ing, which our Lord carried up into heaven and pre
sented as at this time to His Father : the Offering of
His own crucified Body and Blood. He has taken
It with Him through the veil into that unseen world
of glory : and there He exhibits and offers it, in
some heavenly and mysterious way, to His Father
and our Father, His God and our God, Who is so
well pleased with it, that for the sake thereof He is
content to remit the punishment which all we have
desen^ed, and to allow us a passage through the veil
into the most high and holy court of heaven. Thus,
as Joseph went in and obtained leave of Pharaoh
that his father and his brethren might dwell in the
best of the land of Egypt, so Jesus Christ our Lord,
Who verily made Himself a brother, a true Joseph
to us, has gone in and obtained leave of the great
King of heaven and earth, that Ave may dwell with
Him in heaven. He has redeemed us by His own
Blood on the Cross, and He never ceases to plead the
virtue of that Blood. "He ever liveth to make inter
cession for us." By His painful death He overcame
the sharpness of death, and by His Eesurrection and
Ascension He opened the kingdom of heaven to all
believers. Once for all, He did then prepare a place
for us ; Heaven for sinners, the Throne of God for
worms of the earth, the Holy of Holies for us who
were unclean from the womb. How can we ever
think enough of it ? And yet, beyond this infinite
deep of mercy, opens another deep no less infinite.
For our Lord ascended, not only to present Himself
for us, as our true sin-offering, before His Father's
mercy-seat, but also to send down the Holy Ghost
the Comforter, the Co-equal, Co-eternal Spirit, to

76 A place prepared for us,
be with us, and dwell in us : to make and keep us,
in very deed, members of Christ, children of God,
and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. That is,
He not only prepares a place there for us, but sends
also from thence to prepare us for the place. For
after all that He has done and suffered for us, though,
by His mercy, the gates of heaven stand open, yet
we could not pass through them, so long as our
hearts continue unclean and unprepared. Therefore
to all His other favours He has mercifully added
this one, that He hath given us His grace, His good
Spirit to live and rule in us, changing our hearts,
and giving us true faith and love; putting on us
the wedding-garment, that the Angels may not turn
us back and bid us depart into outer darkness, when
we are crying, " Lord, Lord, open to us." This
is what He continually spake of to His disciples, as
His hour came on, to make them contented with His
going. "8It is expedient for you that I go away;
for, if I go not away, the Comforter will not come
unto you : but if I depart, I will send Him unto
you." Christ sends the Comforter to us, to teach
us and guide us into all truth : to bring all things
to our remembrance, which He hath taught us from
the beginning : to shew us things to come, turning
our hearts to dwell on the great unspeakable mat
ters of eternity : to be His true witness, putting us
in mind of Him continually : to help us especial
ly when we pray, making "intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered :" but most es
pecially of all, to regenerate and sanctify us, uniting
us to our Eedeemer in Holy Baptism, and then
6 S. John xvi. 7. * Rom. viii. 26.

and we prepared for it. 77
dwelling in our hearts and bodies, to make us grow
up from day to day in more entire and perfect com
munion with Him. Thus our Lord prepares a place
for us, by sending His Spirit to prepare us for it.
And thirdly, Christ is preparing our heavenly
home, by that which He does as our King, sitting
on the Eight Hand of God, with all power com
mitted unto Him in heaven and in earth. He, Who
is now bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh :
He, Who is not ashamed to call us brethren : He is
now and for evermore King of kings and Lord of
lords, having "g given unto Him dominion and glory
and a kingdom, that all people, nations and lan
guages, may serve Him." All kings are to fall down
before Him, all nations are to do Him service. And
He has distinctly told us to what end, and by what
rule, He will order this His empire. "h All things
shall work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His pur
pose." He gives to all the changes of this mortal
life such a turn as He knows to be best for His
Church and kingdom, His Body here on earth. He
is gradually bringing matters into that condition,
which He knows will best prepare this His earthly
Jerusalem, the Church, to be taken up again into
that heaven, from which at first she came down, and
to become a heavenly Jerusalem again. By His
royal power, out of sight, He is preparing heaven for
the Church, and by the same royal power and provi
dence, continually governing all things here in sight,
He is preparing the Church for heaven. And all
these His great and gracious AVorks, visible and in-
s Dan. vii. 14. h Rom. viii. 28.

78 A place prepared for us,
visible ; His sending His Spirit, His offering Him
self, as our Priest, His ordering all as our King : all
are to go on, until the time arrive when He shall come
again, and receive His own to Himself, that where
He is, there we may be also. Thus you see, in a few
short words our Saviour here gives His disciples a
sufficient account of His doings unto the end of the
world. All was to be ordered by Him, and all order
ed with an eye especially to the Church, His Spouse;
that she might in His good time come to be where
He is.
We are, every single one of us, members of that
holy Church : every single one among us, be it man,
woman, or child, has a portion in these great pro
mises. Let us turn this over in our minds.
Every one among us may know for certain, that
our Lord went up to be an Intercessor and Mediator
for the sins not of the whole world only, but also for
each one of us in particular. He had each one in
His thought, when He entered within the veil. He
knew there would.be in His Church, at such a time,
such persons as we are, and that we should be tempt
ed to commit such and such sins. Knowing it all,
knowing all those secret and horrible circumstances
of our sins, which make them so intolerable to our
consciences, our Lord Christ did nevertheless vouch
safe to carry into the Holy of Holies, and there
present before His Father, His own Blood, for the
washing away of those sins. He knew the worst of
us, yet He laid down His life for us. Think of it
again and again, for you can never think enough of
it. From the beginning, from the moment of our
Lord's Ascension to His Father's Eight Hand, even

and we prepared for it, 79
to this very hour, Christ has been preparing a place
for us. What a pity, should we now forfeit that
place ! And for aught we know, we may forfeit it for
ever, the very next known sin we commit.
Then again, our Lord sent the Comforter, not to
quicken whole Churches only, or other large bodies
of Christians, but also to dwell in your heart, in my
heart, in the hearts of all His baptized: for this
special end, that He may prepare us for our place in
heaven. This again is a very aweful, as well as a
very comfortable thought. The great God of heaven
and earth abides and dwells, not only near us, not
only around us, not only about our path and about
our bed, and so as to spy out all our ways, but with
in us, in our very heart, to be, as it were, the soul of
our souls, dwelling in them as they dwell in our
bodies. And to what end ? That we may be not un
worthy to enter in and dwell in the room which the
same great God, in another Person, is getting ready
to receive us in heaven. Eeflect on this : that in every
wilful sin we commit, Ave are actually and immedi
ately fighting against God the Holy Ghost, Who
strives against that sin in our hearts : and we are so
far disappointing and undoing the work which God
the Son, our Saviour, is even now working for us in
heaven. To our corrupt hearts, alas, it seems a light,
simple, natural thing, a mere matter of course, that
we should one hour tell a lie, to keep ourselves from
some little trouble or disgrace ; another hour, suffer
our thoughts and eyes to wander after impurity and
sin; another, that we should in a deliberate way
speak and judge unkindly of some neighbour : and so
on with other sins. To us, alas ! it all seems but too

80 A place prepared for tis,
natural. But what says the Scripture to all Chris
tians ? By every such indulgence in wrong, though
it be but in thought, you resist the Holy Ghost here
on earth, and you vex and scorn your Saviour, plead
ing for you in heaven. Who can ever feel as if he
were watchful enough, when he considers in this way
the immense importance of every thought word and
work, in which God gives him a choice between right
and wrong ?
And again, who ever can be thankful and coura
geous enough, when he considers that other fruit of
our Blessed Lord's Ascension, that we know Him
now to be reigning not only as King over the whole
Church, but as Shepherd and Guide over each one
of us in particular, ordering all and putting all to
gether, in such sort as may most help us, if we will,
in the way to heaven ? So that as every known sin
is unspeakably dreadful in a Christian, being a direct
act of warfare against those two Divine Persons, God
the Son and God the Holy Ghost, so every common
indifferent matter*may be, if we will, turned into an
unspeakable blessing. For if it is set about in God's
faith and fear, our Lord and King will know how to
make it work in some way for our everlasting good.
And now, what shall we say, on the whole, to this
astonishing course of love and mercy, which our
Lord sets forth to us in those few plain words, "I
go to prepare a place for you ?" What can we say
or feel, my brethren, but this — that we are the mean
est and worst of beings, if such love is lost upon us:
if, while God the Son is so busy in heaven, preparing
us there an everlasting home, and God the Holy
Ghost no less busy on earth, preparing us for that

and we prepared for it. 81
home, we still go on brutishly set upon the things
which we see around us, bodily and earthly things,
which are but for a day ? It ought not to be a ques
tion; but it is a most serious question. Christ is gone
to prepare a place for us : are we preparing ourselves
for that place ? Christ has suffered and is doing all
things to provide us with a happy eternity : are we
in any true sense training ourselves for that eter
nity ? He is in heaven as our Priest, Intercessor,
and Advocate, to offer up our prayers like sweet in
cense to His Father : how often, and how earnestly,
do we send up prayers for Him to offer ? He never
forgets our souls : do we ever seriously think of them?
What that heaven is, which He is preparing for us,
we know not yet fully : but thus much He has told
us ; that His Presence there, the Presence of the
Most Holy Trinity, is all in all : that His saints and
servants are to be happy with one another and with
Him, serving Him continually, as in a perfect and
glorious Church : that nothing wicked or unclean can
come there, and that such as abide there will go on
eternally from glory to glory, becoming more and,
more like Him. We know not yet what we shall be,
but "'we know that, when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 0 that
we may be wise ! that we may consider these things !
that we may turn ourselves once for all, away from
the world, towards Christ in heaven, and having done
so, may never forget to keep our hearts pure, lest we
forfeit the place prepared for us !
i 1 S. John iii. 2.

SEEMON X.

THE REWARD OF FINISHED WORK.

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
S. John xvii. 4, 5.
" I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished
the ivork which Thou gavest Me to do : and now,
0 Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self,
with the glory which I had loith Thee before the
world ivas."
God Almighty gives every one a work, and prepares
for every one a reward. So it has been with all the
children of men, ever since the time of Adam. Adam
had his work giVen him, to dress and to keep the
garden of Eden, keeping himself Avith religious care
from going 'near the Tree of knowledge. His re
ward also was prepared for him ; freely to eat of the
trees of the garden, and especially of the Tree of
Life, the fruit whereof would cause him to live for
ever. In like manner we children of Adam, all the
men and women upon earth, have had their task
assigned them one by one at the will of the heavenly
Work-master, the great Householder, the Lord and
Owner of us all : and He is not a hard nor an unfair
man: He never appoints any one a piece of work
without providing for him beforehand an ample re-

The reward of finished zvork. 83
compense. We belong indeed absolutely to Him.
He gives us life and health and all things, so that
Ave should be bound to do His work without any
recompense at all : yet still He is so bountiful, that
He offers us large and abundant wages. "aMan goeth
forth to his work and to his labour until the even
ing." He works on, or neglects his Avork, until the
shadows of death fall : and then begins the time of
reward : then the Lord of the vineyard says, " b Call
the labourers, and give them their hire:" then he
that hath Avrought, receiveth Avages and gathereth
fruit unto life eternal : and he that would not work,
but chose rather to be unprofitable, receives his sen
tence, to be cast into outer darkness.
All this is so Avell knoAvn to us, that, if we have
any serious consideration at all, we think of it, I sup
pose, very often : and especially as often as any per
son dies. As we stand by our neighbour's death-bed,
or by his grave, whoever and whatever he was, these
are the two thoughts which naturally come into our
minds, " his work is done," and, " he is gone to his
reward." And we begin, according to our knoAvledge
of the man and the interest we take in him, to con
sider how he did his work, and what sort of a reward
it is likely his will be.
Now in this, as in other respects, the great Almighty
Son of God, our Lord and Saviour, made Himself
one of us. He too, when He came on earth, had His
ordained work, and when He departed from earth,
He too went to His ordained reward, to His own
place, as any of us, His poor earthly creatures, might
do. Of this work He often spoke, while He Avas
a Ps. civ. 23. b S. Matt. xx. 8.
G 2

84 The reward of finished work.
going about in accomplishment of it. "cMy meat"
and drink "is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and
to finish His work." And in another place, " dI must
work the work of Him that sent Me, while it is day :
the night cometh, Avhen no man can work." This
was our Lord's way of speaking : just as one con
tinually hears hard-working labourers say, " they
are not their own masters, they have not their own
choice, they would like to do so and so, but they
cannot, because they have a task to finish before
night." We say such Avords, too often, in a dissa
tisfied, complaining way. At least, let us learn to
say them Avith patience, seeing that our good God
and Saviour had to say the very same, when He Avas
among men. He too was in that condition, that nei
ther His time nor His labour was His own. He was
as a servant or slave among men, not pleasing Him
self, not doing His own will, but bound to do a cer
tain Avork before His life ended. He too denied and
humbled Himself for the Glory's sake, into which
He was bye and bye to enter : as He tells us by
His Apostle, " e For the joy that was set before Him,
He endured the Cross, despising the shame." Let us
not grudge one against another, nor vex ourselves at
the restraint we live in, but rather let us try at least
to be very thankful for our Lord's exceeding mercy
in so coming among us, and vouchsafing to be one
of us ; to have a work and a reward, as we have.
Our Lord's work was His perfect Sacrifice : that
Will of His Father, which He came into the world
to do. He began it by taking to Himself that Body,
which the Holy Spirit prepared for Him in the womb
o S. John iv. 34. 4 Ib. ix. 4. e Heb. xii. 2.

The reward' of finished ivorlc. 85
of the Blessed Virgin, and He ended it by offering
up that same Body on the Cross, and commending
His Soul into the hands of the Father, with the
words, "It is finished." Looking forward to that
moment, He had said a few hours before, "I have
glorified Thee on the earth : I have finished the work
Avhich Thou gavest Me to do : " reckoning it already
finished, because its accomplishment was now so very
near. Indeed His Passion had now in a manner
begun, for Judas had gone 'out to betray Him, and
He had offered Himself sacramentally in that first
Holy Communion. Now therefore we hear Him say
ing, " I have finished My Avork : it is time for Me
to receive My reward." And what is His reward ?
To be glorified by His Father, with the glory which
He had had with Him before the world was. That
is, that His very Body, that humbled, scourged, cru
cified, buried Body, should be taken up into heaven,
and with His Human Soul made partaker of that In
finite glory, which His Divine Person had with the
Father before the world was, and from which, as God,
He could never be separated for a moment. This,
we know, took place at His Ascension. That was
the great Day of our Lord's Glorification, as the
Crucifixion was the great day of finishing His work.
His work was, to save us from hell by the Sacrifice
of Himself, and His reward, if we may so call it, was
that His crucified Body should go up into heaven,
and sit there in the highest place ; on the Eight Hand
of God, in the Glory of the Father.
This was the work, and this the reward, of Jesus
Christ, our Head and our pattern. And though, as
the heavens are higher than the earth, and as God is

86 The reward of finished work.
greater than man, so infinitely high are His work
and His reward above ours, yet is the one in some
sort the pattern of the other. As His day's work
was, to offer Himself in Sacrifice for the souls and
bodies of all men : so our day's work is, to save each
one his own soul, and the souls committed in any
way to his care. Not that we can, properly speak
ing, save ourselves, any more than we can create
ourselves, or raise ourselves from the dead. But the
Scripture calls it saving ourselves, if we do what in
us lies, not to destroy our own souls, not to forfeit
and cast away God's mercy. Therefore, as I said,
our day's work is, to save each one his own soul and
the souls committed to him. That is the common
work or calling of us all : the priest and the labourer,
the king and the wandering beggar, have so far the
same task. But then God Almighty has given also
to each of us a separate work, task or calling of
his own, for which we have bye and bye to give in
our separate accounts. Thus, the labourer has to
save his soul, by" dutiful, diligent, religious care in
his day-labour ; the priest, in his ministry ; the rich
man, in the spending of his money ; the sick man, in
enduring his affliction : and so of all others. God
has given them a work to do : and the great question
hereafter will be, How was that work done ?
Our work is a shadow of our Lord's work, because
whatever it is outwardly, in the end it will be found
to pertain to the salvation of souls. And our re
ward, if we be found faithful, will be a shadow of
our Lord's reward. It will be some portion, more
or less, of His bright unspeakable glory : as in the
pictures of our Lord with His saints we commonly

The reward of finished work. 87
see a sort of lesser brightness round the heads of
those whom we know He delights to honour ; not in
any degree so wide nor so dazzling as the glory which
is around His Head, yet still enough to shew that
they are partakers of His light, and by it shine forth
far more brightly than ordinary men. And this, in
fulfilment of His own most gracious promise, when,
speaking to His Father, He says, " The glory which
Thou gavest Me, I have given them, that they may
be one as We are." In some heavenly and wonder
ful manner, Christians are even now, at a great dis
tance, partakers of their Lord's glory. How much
more, when they come to the other world: when our
vile bodies shall be changed, and made like unto His
glorious Body: when "fthe righteous shall shine forth
as the sun in the kingdom of their Father :" when
we shall be made like unto Him : "for we shall see
Him as He is ! "
This is our exceeding great reward : and our day's
work is, to prepare ourselves duly for it. We have
to work under Jesus Christ in this world, that He
may give us a crown of life in the next. You see at
once, surely, that there is no proportion between the
work and the reward. A few days or years in this
world is nothing, yea less than nothing, and vanity,
compared with a happy and glorious eternity. A
joyful and pleasant thing it is, at any time, to look
back on our hours of work, and feel that they have
not been spent in vain : that we have, in some tolera
ble manner, fulfilled our task in its proper time.
Joseph, for instance, must have felt a great and pecu
liar delight, when he had finished storing up the corn
f S. Matt. xiii. 43.

88 The reward of finished work.
which Avas to feed all the country in the famine : and
Moses, Avhen he had completed the tabernacle ; and
Joshua, when he had brought the whole land of Ca
naan into subjection to the Israelites ; and Solomon,
when he had made an end of building the temple :
and S. John, when he had baptized our Saviour. All
men have special satisfaction in having finished .their
work, although, strictly speaking, none ever did finish
his work entirely, except Jesus Christ, Who said on
the Cross, "It is finished." Still each one of us has
a special delight in thinking over what he has gone
through with, though it be done but indifferently
well. How much more, when, by God's mercy, he
has to look back on his whole life, with the certainty
that it has not been a failure : that in some way, by
innocence or by penitence, his task is in God's sight
accomplished, and his soul saved for Christ's sake !
Consider. Imagine but for one moment what the joy
and the SAveetness will be, should the merciful Lord
at the last Day meet you with the words of approv
ing love: "Well idone, good and faithful servant."
Then all doubt, all regret, will vanish in a moment:
then will Christians no more disquiet themselves, as
now they may and do but too reasonably, with the
conscience of their manifold infirmities. This one
thought, " God now accepteth my works," will fill
and entrance the soul, and carry her out of herself ;
she will never more have leisure, as one may say, to
grieve that she has not acted more entirely up to the
rule which God had set her. The overflowing trans
port of that one moment will spread into a deep and
wide sea of pleasure, which will bear us on to all
eternity, and bring us nearer and nearer Him, in

The reivard of finished work. 89
Whom, though now we see Him not, we "s rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
All of us know something, some little, of these un
speakable encouragements, held out in God's Word to
those who do but seriously endeavour to finish their
work. How then does it happen, that any of us
should Avilfully leave his day's work undone ? It is,
because, though we know of the great reward, to be
given us at the end of our day, Ave do not earnestly
care enough for it, to think often of it. It would
be well for each one of us to examine ourselves this
night, before we lie doAvn to rest, on this one matter :
"Hoav have I been keeping the Day, on which our
Lord went up into heaven? Hoav often have I
thought to-day of the happiness of heaven? How
often have I thought of seeing His Face with joy? of
hearing from Him, ' Come, ye blessed of My Father?'
of beholding Him, not ' h through a glass darkly,'
but 'face to face,' even as He is ? Did I think of it,
when I waked from my sleep this morning ? Did I
think of it, when I said my prayers ? Did the blessed
remembrance ever come into my mind, to assist me
in bearing the burden and heat of the day ?" Alas !
I fear, were all to ask themselves such plain ques
tions as these, very many, perhaps the greater part,
would be compelled to reply that they had not once
thought of the matter. And if we have not really
thought of eternity, what else was there, to make
us do our work well, so much of it at least, as is
not done in sight of man ? Then, if we have spent
this one day without thinking of heaven, how did
we spend yesterday ? and the day before that ? and
Bl S.Pet. i. 8. h 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

90 The reivard of finished work.
the third day again, and all our past days ? Must
we not confess before our God, that we have hitherto
slighted His promises ? We have said, over and over
in His hearing, the Avords Avhich He meant to put us
in mind of heaven, such as, "Thy kingdom come, Thy
will be done ; " " Thine is the kingdom, the power
and the glory:" or again the words of the Creed, "He
ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the Eight Hand
of God, the Father Almighty," or, " I believe in the
life everlasting." These words we have said over and
over in the hearing of our God, and all the while He
saAV that our hearts and minds were far away from
Him, set on any thing but His promises. It is high
time, surely, that this were amended ; for as long as
we are in this mind, I do not see how we can say
a single prayer well : and then what is to become
of us?Perhaps, however, we are not so bad as this : we
do sometimes recollect the happy place prepared for
us; nay even, we wish ourselves there, especially (for
such is the profane way of some) when anything goes
wrong and discomposes us. But in how many in
stances have we given up anything for this blessed
reward's sake ? What sins have we broken ourselves
of, to make the reward sure ? What imperfections
have we fought against, to make it purer and more
precious ? Too commonly, I fear, every little worldly
trifle has more power to draw us away from remem
brances of heaven, than all Christ's words to invite
us. We kneel down to pray, and time after time,
before the prayer is half over, our frail thoughts fly
off, and we scarcely know where they are. Instead
of being with God in heaven, and with that good

The reivard of finished tvork. 91
Saviour Who is waiting there to present them before
His throne, they are busy with some ordinary affair
of work or amusement : and the saddest part of the
matter is, that Christians content themselves with
this, and take it as a matter of course, and quite leave
off striving against it.
When our prayers are over, and we go out into
the world, and set about our day's Avork, temptations
of course come in our way. Sometimes people are
very provoking, and anger and ill-blood begin to stir
within us. Now if we were in a Avay of striving in
earnest to think often of Christ in heaven, we might
presently put down the unkind thought, before it had
broken into words, by just wishing in earnest that
He would help us to do so. But we are not used to
this, and so unhappily we soon become used to give
way to our evil tempers, and we spoil our dealings
with our brother by all manner of cross Avords, angry
looks, and harsh imaginations. Or it may be, a dif
ferent sort of temptation comes across a man. The
devil brings before him some object, from which Christ
has commanded him to turn aAvay his eyes and his
heart. If now he were used to look upward, to think
of that heaven where no unclean thing can enter, and
of that Saviour Who is always watching him there,
this would give him strength to pray in earnest that
very moment : and no unclean spirit, no evil desire
or fancy, can ever prevail against real and serious
prayer. Pray with the heart, and courageously turn
aAvay the eyes, and you will, by God's blessing, win
in a moment a great spiritual victory, which may do
you unspeakable good as long as you live. But such
prayer and such self-command will not come of them-

92 The reward of finished work.
sehres to a person who has gone on idly and carelessly,
without any regular endeavour to muse and meditate
on heavenly things.
Therefore, my brethren, in one word I say to you,
Try. There is no good to be had without serious
trying. Try to think earnestly, at least twice a day,
of the work which your Father has given you to do,
and of the reward which He has prepared for you.
Try to remember these your earnest thoughts at other
times of the day or night, and especially when temp
tation of any sort comes on. Try to-day, try to-mor
row, try every day, try again and again. God is
merciful : He will surely lend you a hand. God is
true, and He has promised to help you. Holiness
and heaven are great things ; but through His un
speakable love, they may be had for trying !

SEEMON XI.

OFFICE OF FERVENT CHARITY TOWARDS OUR
FORGIVENESS.

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
1 S. Pet. iv. 8.

"Above all things have fervent charity among your
selves, for charity shall cover the multitude of

sins."

During these days of waiting, the days between
Holy Thursday and Whitsunday, the Church will
not allow us to forget the warning words, in the
sound of which He departed. He will come again in
"alike manner, as ye have seen Him go into heaven."
She gives us therefore a lesson for the week, which
takes us on to the Last Day. "The end of all things
is at hand." As surely as the heavens opened on
Ascension Day to let the Son of Man, our Eedeemer,
pass through into heaven ; so surely, and that before
long, will the same heavens open again, and He
will pass outwards once more, not now alone, and in
humility, but in power and glory, His Angels and
saints all with Him. And that will be the end of
all things : the end of all these things that we see,
and live amongst, here on earth : the end of caring
and labouring for the body : the end of earthly
a Acts i. 11.

94 Office of fervent charity towards our forgiveness.
schemes, fancies, and passions ; of eating and drink
ing, marrying and giving in marriage, buying and
selling, planting and building. It will be the end of
all these, and the beginning of heaven and of hell.
It will surely be, and that before long. It is at
hand : the thunders are gathering in the air. What
are we to do ? " Be sober, and watch unto prayer."
There be will an end of eating and drinking; there
fore be sober. Give not yourself over to base and
filthy satisfactions, Avhich make a man uneasy before
hand, which are gone in a moment, and are loathsome
when they are over. Be sober, and be awake : "watch
unto prayer." Observe, it is S. Peter who speaks :
one of those who being told to watch, Avhile his Lord
was praying in the Garden, fell asleep, and that three
times over : and who afterwards fell into the more
grievous fault of denying his Saviour just three times.
It is S. Peter who bids us all " watch unto prayer,"
for he knows better than most, hoAV dearly we must
pay for it, if we refuse to Avatch. Our Lord had said
to him, "Watch, an*d pray," and he had not watched,
and had fallen into temptation : but having reco
vered, he now delivers on the message to us. Our
Lord had said, " he that betrayeth Me is at hand ;"
S. Peter says, " the end of all things is at hand."
And then it is as if he added, tfI did not altogether
watch, and great indeed was my danger, and my es
cape narrow : do you try and do better than I did."
Watch and pray : and before all things, be found of
Him in love : take care that, when He comes, you
may go out to meet Him with fervent love towards
one another in your hearts. You must love : your
hearts must be full of love: love to Him, love to one

Office of fervent charity toivards our forgiveness. 95
another : and you must love with all fervency : the
fire must be kept clear and bright, or it will surely go
out. Have fervent charity towards one another : keep
it up, feed it, fan it, purify and quicken it. It is not
to be bright only, to make a fair shew to persons at
a distance, and make them think we are alive and
busy : but it must have in it warmth also, genial and
continual Avarmth, for the support and comfort of
those who are close at hand. As those who have to
spend the night abroad in the hot countries Avhere
lions and tigers are found, take care to make a good
fire before they lie doAvn to rest, and take turns also
to watch the fire at night, this being the best Avay to
keep off the ravenous beasts until the morning : so it
behoves us, one and all, to keep up the fire of Chris
tian love, inwardly in our hearts and outwardly in
our behaviour, as long as we are in this wilderness,
in the darkness or dim twilight of this dangerous
world : and so to keep off that roaring lion, who goeth
about, seeking whom he may devour. Our one care
should be, that Avhen He cometh, Who will come as
a thief in the night, He may find us with oil in our
lamps, i. e. with charity in our hearts and behaviour.
Now, mark the reason alleged for this : observe the
special cause set down by the chief Apostle, why
we should labour above all to have fervent charity
among ourselves. Of course many, very many, and
very true and good reasons might have been men
tioned. He might have said, " Have fervent charity,
for it is the only sufficient sign of faith : have fervent
charity, else you will be unlike your Lord : have
fervent charity, else heaven itself, could you go there,
would not make you happy." But in this place he

96 Office of fervent charity towards our forgiveness.
does not say either one of these things; but the Holy
Spirit guides him to say another thing equally true,
and equally needful for us all to remember: "have
fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall
cover the multitude of sins :" i. e. "if you have true
love for God and for one another in your hearts ; if
you have kept this holy fire up by the constant prac
tice of your lives, and so are found at the last Day
really loving, fervently loving both your God and
your neighbour, this love will in some way or other
cover and hide your sins, and shelter you from the
wrath to come. The Almighty Father for Christ's
sake will accept it : Christ will present it, as He does
our prayers and good works, joining all to His one
only perfect Sacrifice : Christ will present it, for He
is our Advocate, ever living to make intercession for
us : and thus although not in the way of merit, pro
perly so called, for in nothing can we sinful creatures
make God our debtor, but according to the true way
of His most merciful covenant by the Gospel, our
charity will really help us to obtain pardon for our
sins. The Almighty, pleased with us, will cast all
our sins behind His back : i. e. He will remember
them no more, He will make as though He did not
see them, they shall be fully and freely forgiven.
Plainly this is the meaning of the words, "charity
shall cover the multitude of sins:" plainly they refer
to what will be at the last day; for the Apostle's
thoughts in this place are all upon the last day. He
is speaking of the end of all things ; of our having
to give an account as stewards; of the joyful revela
tion of Christ's glory. This is what the Apostle is
speaking of ; and not of any lesser comfort and satis-

Office of fervent charity towards our forgiveness. 97
faction, how real soever, allowed us by the way. We
are to draw a picture in our mind, as we read, of our
Lord on His Judgement seat, and the Books opened,
and the hidden things revealed according to what is
there written. How then shall any man stand, since
we are all born in sin, and in many things we offend
all ? The gracious Judge will cast, as it were, His
own royal mantle over those who shall have been
found in Him, in faith and in fervent charity : He
will spread His skirt over His servants, accounting
them His near kinsmen : He will blot out all the
handwriting, all the entries that would otherwise
stand against them in His account-books. Thus
their charity will cover the multitude of their sins.
For His Son's sake He forgave them in their Bap
tism their original sin, the sinful taint inherited from
Adam. If they have since grievously sinned, yet
upon their true confession, and turning to Him in
loving penitence, He again forgave them, and gave
them entire Absolution ; still for His dear Son's sake.
Again, as to their daily sins of infirmity, which, if
despised, would grow to a most heavy burthen, like
grains of sand, each one little in itself, but when
heaped together, enough to sink a large vessel : these
also, being daily confessed, daily renounced and
striven against, will be found at the Last Day to be
covered with that atoning veil of charity : as an old
Father and Bishop says, " First is confession, then
charity : for of charity what saith the Scripture ? It
covereth the multitude of sins."
But here we must be careful not to deceive our
selves. A man may think that he has this charity,
and so that he will find his sins forgiven, while he
H

98 Office of fervent charity towards our forgiveness.
is very far from it. Fervent charity is a precious
medicine, made up of many ingredients : and per
sons may easily mistake and think it is all right,
when perhaps some chief portion of the healing
draught is left out. One man may depend on his good-
temper, another on his warm and affectionate feel
ings, another on his freely parting with his money.
Therefore Holy Scripture does not only tell us, as
here in general, that we must have fervent charity,
but mentions also in several places the chiefest and
surest tokens of charity, for men to try themselves
by. E. g. it is full of penitent thoughts : true love
cannot bear itself for having behaved so ill to the
beloved; it is not ashamed to confess; it grudges not
to bear pain and self-denial ; like the woman who
washed our Lord's feet with her tears, and wiped
them with the hairs of her head: and for her reward,
He Who is the Truth said of her, " b Her sins which
are many, are forgiven, for she loved much." My
brethren, are not our sins many? And how shall we
ever obtain forgiveness for them, except by loving
Him much, Who hath paid so dear that they might
be capable of pardon ? And again another Apostle,
S. James, has used the very form of speaking in the
text, about covering a multitude of sins. They are
remarkable words, the very last words of his epistle.
" cIf any of you do err from the truth, and one con
vert him : let him know, that he which converteth a
sinner from the error of his ways, shall save a soul
from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins."
Here forgiveness is promised especially to one espe
cial work of charity; converting sinners: doing good
b S. Luke vii. 47. c S. James v. 19, 20.

Office of fervent charity towards our forgiveness. 99
to perishing souls. Which of us all is tender and
humbled in heart, from the recollection of wrong
things weighing down his conscience, mingling in
his prayers, chilling and damping his endeavours to
please his Saviour? Let him with all his heart apply
himself more and more, far more than he has done
yet, to the profiting of his brethren's souls : let him
not mind going out of his way, denying himself,
giving more than he can well spare, if by any means
he may attain to that highest honour, of being really
God's instrument for the saving of one of Christ's
redeemed. 0 how can we ever think enough of our
merciful Lord's most tender and fatherly providence,
in that He not only offers us pardon, but appoints, as
one chief way of obtaining it, our helping, in good
earnest, to the conversion of our fellow sinners !
What happy meetings, to be looked forward to, here
after in heaven ! What double joy to the Angels,
even now watching us on earth, when they behold
each returning penitent making his own pardon sure
by labouring to bring back others to repentance, and
those again others, in a blessed chain, reaching, no
one can tell how far ! And for this among other
reasons I would seriously advise every one of you,
my friends, (for which of us all has not more than
enough sins to be forgiven ?) to give some little of his
substance : to his power, yea, and beyond his power,
to the missionary collections which we make half
yearly among you. It is one way of helping to con
vert sinners from the error of their ways. Doubt
not, then, that according to the Scripture it will help
to hide your multitude of sins.
There are other works of charity mentioned espe-
h 2

100 Office of fervent charity towards our forgiveness.
cially by our Blessed Lord in His Sermon on the
Mount, with express promise of the forgiveness of
sins. One, you all know, since He has put it in your
mouth to be spoken of, every time you say a prayer
to Him. When ye pray, say, "Forgive us our tres
passes, as we forgive them that trespass against us."
"dFor if ye forgive men their trespasses, your hea
venly Father will also forgive you." 0, bear this in
mind, ye sinners : take care to be very very forgiving :
it will greatly help your own repentance and pardon.
The Merciful One will not keep His anger for ever
against you ; He will chasten you, maybe, but only
in love, if you, while you turn from your own faults,
are free and speedy in pardoning othars. Have pity
on your fellow-servants, and He will have pity on
you. Again our LaAVgiver said on the Mount, " e Judge
not, that ye be not judged." Here is another most gra
cious help to pardon. Be candid, favourable, kind,
in your sentences on others : slow to make yourself
their judge : unwilling to believe or speak amiss of
them. So will the Almighty more readily accept
your endeavours to repent, and not be extreme to
mark what is done amiss. Alas ! how plain it is
that Christians in general think little, far too little
of their own sins ; they are so very free in censur
ing their brethren, and making out bad meanings
in all that they say and do ! But why should it be
always so with us ? Surely we have a heavy bur
den of transgressions of our own ; we cannot afford
to part with any means of release. Christ has ap
pointed, as one help and mean to our release, that
d S. Matt. vi. 14. o Ib. vii. 1.

Office of fervent charity towards our forgiveness. 101
we should not judge, should not be eager to find
fault. If Ave judge not, He has promised that we
shall not be judged. He has pointed out this as one
work of that heavenly charity, which Avill be found
at the last Day to cover a multitude of sins.
By this time, dear brethren, if you have been able
to mind what Avas said, you will understand how
that every where in Scripture forgiveness is offered
to love, and to the fruits of love : and yet not a
word is said, as though we by our good works could
deserve or purchase it. No : the deserving and pur
chasing of our pardon depends, we know, on our
Lord Jesus Christ entirely. "It cost more to redeem
our souls : " " it is higher than heaven, what can
we do ? deeper than earth, where should we go ?"
And when Scripture speaks of love covering sins, it
does not of course mean that our love, our faith, our
works, any thing of ours could be a sacrifice, so as
to do away with one sin. But it does mean that
there are things, without which the pardon so dear
ly bought will not in the end be ours : it means
that charity, forgiveness, conversion of other sinners,
judging gently, and other good ways and works, do
really help, in some way known to God, to make our
pardon and cure more perfect : and, that although
these things could never have obtained heaven for us,
yet the neglect of these things may and will forfeit
heaven, and fasten our sins freshly upon us. We
could not have saved ourselves ; but, being saved,
we may ruin ourselves. We could not have called
and elected ourselves : -but we may make our call
ing and election sure, or we may unthankfully cast
it away. Sin casts it away ; love and charity make

102 Office of fervent charity towards our forgiveness.
it sure. Are you then troubled at past sins ? Pray
and endeavour to love : busy yourself in all the
works of love. Or is your care on account of your
own present infirmities ? Yet do all as well as you
can ; still love on, and be active in deeds of love ;
and of all things abhor known and wilful sin; for
that absolutely excludes love. Your love must be
fervent. You know how it is with regard to those
for whom you have a partial kindness. Such in
some measure ought to be your love of God : such
also your charity to your brethren, as members of
Christ. Those whom you love, you delight to think
of: so, if you love our Lord, you will often draw
nigh to Him by devout meditation and prayer. You
will think of Him till your heart is full; and then
you will look round and see, who of your brethren are
now within your reach, to whom you have it in your
power to do good. Make sure that in helping any
such you are in fact helping the Lord; for each one
of them is in the Lord's stead : of each one of
them He will say, "Doing it unto him, ye did it
unto Mef." Especially, He charges you, do what you
can for the perishing souls of your brethren. Be
very covetous, very ambitious to help in saving, if it
may be, a soul from death. If you care little for the
souls of men, be sur^e there is some very serious de
fect in your charity. You had need go over your
doings again and again, and compare them with
the Word of God and the love of Christ, until you
are thoroughly vexed and ashamed of yourself:
thoroughly touched with His love, Who is ready to
pardon you all. This will help you to be really lov-
f S. Matt. xxv. 40.

Office of fervent charity towards our forgiveness. 103
ing to your neighbour : a humble, contrite heart
will help you to forbear and to forgive : a loving
heart will desire that other hearts should be loving
also. You will try to awaken them, that they and
you may do good to one another : and so bye and
bye, when you look for the account of your past
sins, there will be no entry in that page : the Lord
will have cast them all behind His back, they will
have melted away " like the ice in the fair warm
weather," and you, and those whom you charitably
helped, will be on the Eight Hand, will hear Christ's
final Absolution, and will enter after Him into the
Kingdom of Love.

SEEMON XII.

THE NEARNESS OF THE UNSEEN WORLD.

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.
S. Mark xvi. 19.
"After the Lord had spoken unto them, He was taken
up into heaven, and sat down on the Right Hand,
of God."
It is Avell that at such times as this, Christian per
sons earnestly trying to meditate on the great things
which happened to our Lord, should put themselves
as well as they can in the place of the holy Apostles,
and consider what their feelings must have been, who
saw with their very eyes the wonderful and fearful
events which we .only read or hear of. The difference
between seeing and only hearing is very great. Job
speaks of it, as if it made all the difference. "aI
have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear : but
now mine eye seeth Thee." Which of us has not
found something like this ? When God, e. g. has
given us back a dear friend, whom we perhaps ex
pected never to see alive again: or when on the other
hand He has taken away some one whom we could ill
spare : which of us but found such joy and such sor
row far different from what he had before expected?
It might be more tolerable to us, or it might be
a Job xiii. 5.

The nearness of the unseen world. 105
heavier ; at any rate it was not the same as our ima
gination had told us of.
We cannot therefore suppose, do what we will,
that we draw accurately to ourselves in thought the
picture of the great event, which the Scripture draws
for us in words at this time, the Ascension of our
Lord and SaAriour into the heavens. But some points
in it Ave may be sufficiently sure of, and may feel in
our hearts enough to do us much good. I will now
take one, and that the simplest and most obvious.
Only think how the beholding of that sight must
have brought home to them the thought, how near
earth is to heaven ; what a narrow line, what a mere
hair's breadth, separates us from the eternal world.
Here is a Person Who, down to a certain moment on
the day answering to last Thursday, the fortieth day
after the Paschal Sunday, had been living and con
versing bodily among His friends, going in and out,
eating and drinking in their presence. For so many
years, except at certain short intervals, He had been
their constant companion ; day after day and all day
long, it had been a matter of course to them to think
of Him, to expect His interference, to order all their
ways with an eye to Him, as visibly present. Their
whole life, their Avhole being in the world, had been
in a manner mixed up with Him. And behold, He
disappears at once : not gradually, by slow decay
and death, as one Avorn out, from whom people part
by degrees ; but in a moment. They see Him go,
their eyes follow Him, as He is taken up and parted
from them, rising up from the earth on which He
was standing, the level land on the top of Mount
Olivet, very near the village of Bethany. From

106 The nearness of the unseen world.
that spot, a familiar spot, a neighbourhood where
they had been used to see Him employed in His
daily work; while in the act of lifting up His Hands
to bless them, they behold Him slowly drawn up
as by an invisible power, through the air. He is
going : He will soon be gone. See now, a cloud be
gins to receive Him, a bright cloud probably, like
that which came and overshadowed the three dis
ciples on mount Tabor; the special token, perhaps, of
the presence of His Holy Spirit. In this cloud His
disciples lose sight first of His glorious and Divine
Countenance and all the upper part of His person,
and then of the rest ; and while they are gazing, He
is gone. His very Feet slowly disappear and are
lost within that bright cloud. He is gone : they feel
that He is no more on earth. "But where is He ?
How is He employed ? How may we now think and
imagine of Him ? We cannot forget Him, we can
not do without Him : " so we may be sure, would
each Apostle feel in his heart, "Who will tell us what
has become of Him ? " They saw His Footsteps ;
the very spot from which He ascended was specially
marked with the print of His retiring Feet, which
indeed some affirm to be visible even at this time :
at any rate, the saying shews the feeling of the
Church about our Lord's example and pattern left
on earth, that we, treading in His steps, may ascend
after Him to heaven. They saw His Footsteps, but
Himself they saw no more, and a thousand times a
day, we may be sure, did they ask themselves,
" Where is He now ? In what work of love is He
engaged for us ? "
We may the better enter into the feelings of our

The nearness of the unseen world. 107
Saviour's Apostles at that moment, if we consider
how it is with ourselves, and with those whom we
know, when they are taken from us by death; when
that final, cold, dark cloud receives them altogether
out of our sight. They had been gradually, perhaps,
but slowly, fading away; their friends had staid with
them watching them, and had said over and over
again to themselves, " they must soon be released :
they cannot last much longer." We knew they would
go ; we watched them, as we saw that they were
going : and now they are gone : and where are they ?
What is their place in the world out of sight ?
Yes, brethren : the death of each person among
us, as we part with each one in turn, reads so far the
same lesson as the glorious event of our Lord's own
Ascension. It puts home to us, brings forcibly be
fore us, this most certain, most aweful, most blessed
circumstance, the nearness of the next world to this :
so that as we read in the Burial service, "in the
midst of life we are in death," so at sight of the
Ascension, were it not for our sad unworthiness, we
might say to ourselves, " in the midst of earth we are
in heaven." There is, as I said, but a hair's breadth,
the narrowest possible span, between the condition
of Lazarus, lying at the rich man's gate full of sores,
yet full of patience and faith, and the condition of
the same Lazarus, carried of the Angels into Abra
ham's bosom. One moment this, the other moment
that, is his condition. To see our Lord disappear as
He did, must have fixed this aweful thought in the
Apostles' minds, so as nothing else could fix it ; ex
cept indeed they had been caused by Providence to
witness with their eyes a case of the contrary kind,

108 The nearness of the unseen world.
a case like that of Dathan and Abiram, Avhen the
earth opened her mouth suddenly, and swallowed
them up, with their wives and children and all that
appertained unto them. "bThey and all that apper
tained unto them went down alive into the pit, and
the earth closed upon them : and they perished from
among the congregation." If we had been by to see
this, surely, my brethren, it would have been to us a
most overpowering proof, hoAV close we are to eternity ;
how near to this present Avorld is that fearful pit
into which those sinners sank ; quite as near on the
one side, as the heaven which was opened on Ascen
sion Day is on the other side.
Truly it is so : had we been by to witness these
great things, they would have been to us astonishing
testimonies from the great Lord, Creator and Owner
of all, that we are on the edge of both heaven and
hell. There are but those two, heaven and hell, ap
pointed for us, and one or other we must take; there
is but heaven for us to ascend into with our Saviour,
or the pit for us to go down alive into, with Korah.
And the end of all things, this double end, is close
at hand : one moment, and it may be here. Before
one more breath is drawn, the one or the other of
these may be our unchangeable portion for ever :
and if we are spared, it is but a question of time.
Sooner or later that last breath will come, and we
shall find ourselves — we, who are now here, as yet by
God's mercy with more or less of hope — shall find
ourselves actually sinking into the deep with the
Evil one, or in the act of being carried up with our
Lord into heaven itself. b Num. xvi. 33.

The nearness of the unseen world. 109
It is even so, brethren : if you have any faith at all,
you surely believe this : I know you do not doubt
nor deny it. You believe it : but what do you think
of it ? Or is it too fearful, too astounding, for you
willingly to think on it at all ? Well, you may put
it off ; I mean, you may put off the thought of it, if
you please. Nothing at present forces you against
your will to turn your minds towards eternity. As
it is in any person's power, when he hears of such
things in Church, to stop his ears, and hinder him
self from so much as receiving the sounds which
bring with them disagreeable unwelcome thoughts ;
like the deaf adder spoken of in the Psalm, "which
refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer : " so the
just God leaves us all free, if we will, to decline lis
tening in our hearts to His calls and warnings at any
time. There are plenty of things in this world to
think about, if we choose, every day and all day long :
mere play for children and childish people, mere
business for grown-up men and women, mere ease
and refreshment for the aged whose work is over.
There are lusts for the sensual, vanities for the
proud, quarrels for the quarrelsome, grievances for
the discontented and envious. Verily it is a world,
not Avanting in objects to take up a man's mind,
if he chooses to giAre himself wholly to them. No
doubt, you may, if you will, come to great perfection
in the art of shutting out from your soul uneasy dis
quieting thoughts about the next world : and there
is one who will always be too ready at hand, too glad
to help you to such irreligious forgetfulness.
But then, my brethren, you must take the conse
quences. You may effectually shut out the appre-

110 The nearness of the unseen world.
hensions of eternity for the present : but then you
must make up your mind to what may happen bye and
bye. This is a war, in which there is no discharge.
If a man take the devil's wages, if he consent, for
his present enjoyment's sake, to turn away his heart
from his Saviour and his salvation; then he must
abide the same sentence, which the master and cap
tain whom he has chosen will abide at last. You
may -refuse to think of the next world, saying, "it is
too dismal; you had rather enjoy yourself: you will
let nothing daunt you : " but whatever comes in the
next world of Such a course of conduct, to that you
must make up your mind.
But, my brethren, my children in Christ, I hope
better things than this of you, one and all. I hope
that there is not one here, who will obstinately refuse
to face the thought — terrible as it surely is for all
who have sinned ; that to you, to me, to each one
of us severally, the Almighty Judge will ere long
openly and bodily appear, and say a word which
will send us either upwards or downwards for ever.
Now, He speaks many words to us, and leaves us our
choice whether we will mind them : but that word
will leave us no choice. As soon as we hear of it, we
shall obey itc. He will either say, "Come, ye blessed
of My Father," or " Go, ye cursed : " and presently
each one of us will find himself either drawn up
wards, as our Lord on the day of His Ascension, or
cast down and swallowed, as Dathan and Abiram
when the earth opened her mouth.
Supposing there were any doubt of these things,
yet a wise man would do his best to be safe, even
c Ps. xviii. 44.

The nearness of the unseen world. Ill
from the chance of so terrible a lot as falling into
hell, and to secure but the chance of so blessed a
place as Heaven. But there is really no doubtfulness
in the matter : you know there is not. Think only
of what happened on Holy Thursday. Twelve men
saAV their Lord, Whom they had before seen crucified
and risen again, go bodily up into heaven : they gave
up everything they had in the world, and spent their
time in labouring and suffering, and at last laid down
their lives, in testimony of what they had seen, "God
also bearing them witness with signs and wonders
and gifts of the Holy Ghost." And as surely as they
saw Him go into heaven, so surely they know, and
have told us, where He is in heaven. Not in any
Angel's place, but above the highest Angels : "on the
Eight Hand of God, Angels and Authorities and
Powers being made subject unto Him : " according
to His own prophecy, uttered indeed to His enemies,
the high priests and elders, but in the hearing also
of S. Peter and S. John, and perhaps also of some
other of His friends : " Hereafter shall ye see the Son
of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and com
ing in the clouds of heaven." That is, " ye shall see
Him both as King and as Judge : as King, for it is
said ' sitting on the right hand of power : ' as Judge,
for it is said ' coming in the clouds of heaven.' " Plain
therefore it was to the Apostles, and no less plain is it
to us and to all Christians, what is become of our Lord,
and how highly He is exalted. Now this of course,
if a man have common sense, to say nothing now of
duty, and gratitude, and love, settles what ought to
be the whole course of our lives. If Christ is exalted
above all, if He has all power in heaven and in earth,

112 The nearness of the unseen world.
what madness is it to disobey Him; what entire safety,
peace, and comfort, to be under His protection and
favoured by Him ! But there is another thing which
touches us yet more nearly. This Almighty King,
this righteous and unerring Judge, is no stranger,
no alien to our nature, under whose dominion we
find ourselves placed, and so are bound to submit
ourselves to him, but without having any special
interest, he in us and we in him. Not at all so.,
He is no stranger : He is our bone and our flesh ; of
the same blood, of the same nature that we are, only
without spot of sin. He is so near to us, so entirely
one with us, that in His exaltation we all are exalted.
We are exalted as men, children of Adam : because
One Who is also a child of Adam is lifted up to so
high a place* One Who is really, as men speak, our
blood-relation; really, outwardly, bodily, akin to each
one of us : is set down on the right hand of the throne
of the Majesty in the heavens. He has all our na
tural tendencies to love and indulgent pity : He loves
us because we are His kindred, with a love far more
perfect than any one of us loveth another : indeed our
love for one another is altogether taught and inspired
by Him. If you had a brother who loved you, in the
Queen's court, entrusted with all the good things of
the state : should you not account your fortune
made ? How much more, now you know that your
brother Who loves you and died for you is at the
Eight Hand of God !
Can there be anything more than this ? There is
something more, yea, and beyond comparison greater
and more blessed. We are not only, as men, brothers
of our Lord and Saviour, but as Christian men, we

The nearness of the unseen world. 113
are actual members of Him, mystically yet really
united to Him, partakers through Him of the Divine
Nature: as it is written, "dHe called them gods,
to whom the Word of God," the Incarnate Saviour,
"came." Since then we are each one members of
Him, not only is our common human nature exalted
in Him, but each of us also personally. He is the
Head : you, I, the rest, are members : and where
the Head is, there God intends the members should
be also ; there, by mysterious communion, they are
already. He is the great King ; therefore we are all of
us kings. Through the Sacrament of our new-birth,
Holy Baptism, we are inheritors of His royal blood ;
and by His grace we are entrusted and enabled to
reign as kings here on earth ; to reign over our own
wild passions and keep our bodies and souls in order ;
and also to reign over outward things, to command
even the changes and chances of this mortal life, that
they do us no harm but everlasting good, because,
being either borne patiently or used faithfully, they
help us to become better, and to do God service, in
His kingdom : as it is declared to all Christians ;
"eAll things are yours : whether . . . the world, or life,
or death, or things present, or things to come ; all are
yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's."
Away then with all little and low thoughts. Who
would not be very courageous in Christ's work ! And
on the other hand, down with all proud thoughts : for
the more highly we are exalted in Christ, the more
reason is there we should abase ourselves in the very
dust, remembering past backslidings and present in
firmities, and the strict account we have to give.
d S. John x. 35. o 1 Cor. iii. 21—23.
I

SEEMON XIII.

CHRIST FILLING ALL THINGS.

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY.

Eph. iv. 10.
" He that descended is the same also that ascended
up far above all heavens, that He might fill all
things."
S. Paul, in this part of the epistle to the Ephesians,
is preaching us a short sermon on a verse in the
sixty-eighth Psalm. The verse on which he is preach
ing is, "When He ascended up on high, He led
captivity captive, and received gifts for men ; " and
of course his sermon is well suited to this holy sea
son, in which we remember Christ's Ascension. Ob
serve here, says the Apostle, how David, speaking of
the Lord his God, says, " He is gone up on high."
Well, but for God to go up, He must first have come
down among men. For His place and abode is na
turally up on high. He must descend, before He
can ascend. Therefore, proceeds the Apostle, "this
word, ascended, what else can it signify, but that He
had also descended first?" He had in a mysterious
way come down from His high place in heaven : and
whither had He come down ? Not simply to earth,
but into the lower parts of the earth. And whither

Christ filling all things. 115
hath He gone up ? Not simply to heaVen, but far
above all heavens. There is a descent first, and an
ascent afterwards : the descent as low, the ascent as
high as it could be. That there might be no mis
take, he bids all take notice, that it was the same
Person Who first came down and afterwards went
up. " He that descended is the same also that as
cended up far above all heavens." And lastly, he
explains in one word the merciful purpose of this
most astonishing dispensation. The Lord, the very
same Lord and Son of God, first came down, then
went up, and His end in doing so was, "that He
might fill all things." The whole answers in a re
markable way to the second and third portions of the
Apostles' Creed. The great God descends to earth, '
that is, Jesus Christ made Man, " conceived by the
Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary." He descends
not only to earth but to the lower. parts of the earth:
i.e. He suffers "under Pontius Pilate; is crucified,
dead, and buried, He descended into hell." For of
this descent into hell, more especially, we are to
think, when we read of His going down to the lower
parts of the earth. During the hours from the mo
ment that He gave up the ghost to the moment of
His glorious Eesurrection, His Body lay in the grave,
and His Divine Soul went down ""and preached to
the spirits in prison." As low as could be was His
descent : and when He began to ascend again, He
staid not till He came to the Eight Hand of God.
First, from the lower parts of the earth, from the
grave and from the prison of departed souls He came
to the surface of the earth again, on Easter morning,
a 1 S. Pet. iii. 19.
i2

116 Christ filling all things.
to abide in men's sight forty days. That was His Ee
surrection : the beginning, in fact, of His Ascension.
Afterwards, at the end of the forty days, He ascended
into heaven, and not into heaven only, but far above
all heavens, to the very Eight Hand of God the Fa
ther Almighty ; where He sitteth as a King on His
throne; and from whence He shall come to judge the
quick and the dead. Thus the saying, He descended
and ascended, is in short the second portion of our
Creed. And the other saying, that He might fill all
things, answers to the third or concluding portion of
the same Creed. For how doth our Incarnate and
Eisen Lord fill all things? Surely by His Holy Spirit;
of which it is written in the book of Wisdom, " bThe
Spirit of the Lord filleth the world." And did not
the Holy Comforter on the first Whitsunday begin
to fill the world with Christ, uniting sinners to Him
one by one, and making them saints, till the whole
earth should be full of His glory, and that glory
should be more and more glorious, until in its ful
ness it should become the " Eesurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting ?" Of all which He gave a
token, in that He came down at the first" "with a sud
den great sound as of a rushing mighty wind, and fill
ed all the house where" the Apostles " were sitting."
They heard Him, above, beneath, on every side of
them, at once : as their fathers had seen His visible
glory when the cloud filled the Temple. That mighty
sound, that bright cloud, were the sure tokens of the
Spirit of the Father and of Christ, abiding everywhere
and at all times in the Holy Catholic Church ; shew
ing its present work in the " Communion of saints,
b Wisd. i. 7. c Acts ii. 2.

Christ filling all things. 117
and the Forgiveness of sins," and certain bye and bye
to fulfil, as I said, its future work in the "Eesurrection
of the body, and the life everlasting." Thus the final
portion of our Creed explains how He Who first des
cended and then ascended did so, that He might fill
all things. Had He not descended, by taking our
nature upon Him, there could have been no Body of
Christ, of which we might be made members. Had
He not afterwards ascended into heaven, He could
not afterwards have sent down His Spirit to fill
all things with Himself by making all members of
Him. This is the special point, my brethren, on which I
would desire that we may all meditate to-day : our
Lord and Saviour filling all things. Eeflect how
entirely He does fill all things in every sense of that
word. All things, according to their measure, are full
of Him. In that He is true God, One with the Fa
ther, He filleth all places, all regions, one as much
as another, with His Divine Presence. In that He
is God made Man, God our Saviour, God crucified,
dead, and buried, risen and glorified and partaken of
by His people, He filleth all His holy ones, whether
in earth, in paradise, or in heaven, as each one is
capable of receiving Him. Look at a little child just
baptized. There is no outward change in it, it sleeps
and wakes, takes its nourishment and utters its little
cries as before ; we see no particular difference, and
yet faith tells us, that little one is full of Christ, and
were it to die this moment, would be sure, quite sure,
to go to Christ. Consider that same little child as
it grows older. It is still full of Christ ; for it hath
still Christ's Spirit within it, enabling it, if it will,

118 Christ filling all things.
to live in its degree the life of Christ upon earth.
Too true it is, that by a certain amount of sin, known
to God, unknown to us, any one of us may, if he will,
cease to be a partaker of Christ ; he may finally drive
the good Spirit aAvay from him, and become the mere
shadow of a Christian, a walking dead body, empty
and void of Christ our life. Yet still the great truth
remains, that it is the purpose and will of our Ee-
deemer to fill us all with Himself by His Spirit ; and
even with regard to those who seem most entirely to
have forfeited the gift, we are not allowed to despair.
It may be some friend's sad case, it may be our own ;
we may have come fearfully near to the point of final
ruin, we may be trembling on the very edge of the
pit, but it is not too late : if we yet hear the voice of
Christ, if we yet have the heart to turn towards it
when we hear it, He may return and fill us with
Himself again. Only remember, and never let the
thought go, that every moment of wilful delay is
lost for ever : and what if we should be lost with it ?
Christ is in each Christian, filling each more and
more with Himself, in such measure as we try to
keep Him with us ; but He is not in all alike. The
gifts of His Holy Spirit are of many kinds, and are
given in divers degrees, as the rewards will be here
after ; and so holy men have compared the condition
of glorified spirits in heaven to so many vessels
ranged in some rich man's treasure house, each to
be made quite full, yet of course holding more or less
according to their unequal sizes. All good Chris
tians will be called together to sit down at the feast
in the kingdom of heaven, to "be satisfied with the
plenteousness of His house, and to have drink given

Christ filling all things. 119
them of His pleasures as out of a river a: " but some
will be able to taste and receive more than others.
Every star will shine in unclouded brightness, yet
" e one star " will differ " from another star in glory."
And as the rewards prepared in heaven, such must
the trials be here on earth : various and unequal, as
He knoweth best for each. As a man's limbs are all
of the same body, all quickened with one life from
the same soul, Avhich belongs to one limb as entirely
as it does to another, so you and I, this Christian
and that Christian, all alike are of Christ, all quick
ened with one and the self-same Spirit, which is the
life, the Christian life, of one of us as entirely as of
another. And yet our offices and our gifts are not
the same, any more than the eye has the same work
with the hand, or the head with the feet. Christ
filleth all, therefore all are one : therefore none must
look down upon another, or refuse to sympathize
with it. You know S.Paul's parable: " fthe eye
cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee ;
neither again the head to the feet, I have no need
of you." Those wdio have higher or more favoured
places are not to look down upon others, or think
they could do without them. And again : Christ
filleth all, and in the strength of Christ each one
doth his work, whatever it is. Why repinest thou,
as if thou wert forgotten, as if thy Lord took no ac
count of thee, whoever thou art who occupiest the
room of a lower and less honoured limb in the great
body ? Do thou thy mean ordinary work throughly
well, entirely in Christ's Spirit, and see whether He
will not treat thee with such a reward as will take
a Ps. xxxvi. 8. e 1 Cor. xv. 41. f Ib. xii. 21.

120 Christ filling all things.
away all temptation to envy thy neighbour. It is
not, depend upon it, it is not so much ivhat we do, as
how we do it, with what mind and purpose, which
will make the great difference in the accounts of eter
nity. Your Lord has set you in such a place : one
care you have, to do your duty in that place : you
may safely trust your good Saviour to take care of
your reward. It is your own duty, moreover, which
you have to mind, not the duty of other people : that
also, except so far as you can help them, you had
best leave to the common Master Who hath set each
one his task. If you cannot help seeing faults
in your brethren's work, pray for them, but do not
despise them, nor indulge a fretful wish that you
were in their place, under the notion that you could
manage better. Force yourself still to recollect that
Christ is in them and in you : for His sake be gentle
to them ; for His sake be strict with yourself.
One other thought I will mention : a very deep and
aweful one, and very natural to come into a serious
mind on this great day of Ascension; that as Christ
is in all Christians, one and the same to all, so He
is, and ever must be, one and the same with His
former self. He is one and the same Christ now in
Glory, Who humbled Himself in the dust at Gethse-
mane, and permitted men to nail Him to the Cross on
Calvary. He is, as S. Paul says, " & Jesus Christ, the
Same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." " He
that descended is the same also that ascended up
far above all heavens, that He might fill all things."
Now as Christ is one with Himself always, so we,
who are Christ's. We are not so bad perhaps, or not
s Heb. xiii. 8.

Christ filling all things. 121
so good, as we Avere at some former time, but we are
the very same persons that we were at our Baptism,
may be, or so many years ago. This seems a simple
thing : but have you ever considered it in earnest,
my brethren? Have you considered, that as our Lord
Jesus Christ is the very same Person, now above all
the heavens, as He was when His condition was
lowest ; hid in the womb, and laid in the grave : so
shall you and I be the same persons, bye and bye, in
the next world, as we have been since our first be
ginning ? You and I, and those who are next to us,
on our right hand and our left, and all the rest of
the congregation, every one of them, are and will be
the same persons for ever. " h My Eedeemer liveth,"
saith holy Job : "and in my flesh shall I see God :
Whom mine eyes shall behold and not another."
And another, with very different expectations, said,
even the covetous prophet Balaam said, " 'l I shall see
Him but not now ; I shall behold Him but not nigh."
Every wicked Christian may expect with Balaam to
see Him one day with the eye of flesh, Whom he
refuses now to see with the eye of faith. Such as
Balaam will see Christ, but not nigh ; for the word
will be given in that moment, "Depart from Me. "
And on the other hand patient believers, like Job,
who have waited on Him, though their reins were
consumed within them, they also shall see Him, they
shall see His Face with joy, plainly with their very
bodily eyes, wherewith they behold one another in
their life-time: as it is written, "k thine eyes shall
behold the King in His beauty." We shall see Him,
we shall all behold Him : with the same keen and
b Job xix. 25, 26, 27. » Num. xxiv. 17. k Isa. xxxiii. 17.

122 Christ filling all things.
aweful distinctness, the same sense of utter reality,
as the Apostles felt when they saw Him rise from
the earth, and disappear behind the cloud on the top
of the mount of Olives. We shall all see Him, we
shall behold Him ; but with how different aspects,
and with what opposite results ! What a cloud will
that be, behind which He will hide His glory from
those who shall be left behind, when in the Body He
shall return to heaven again ! For it will not be then,
you know, as in His first Ascension. He will not
leave His faithful ones gazing after Him, but they
shall be caught up to meet Him in the air, shall be
received into His own cloud, and so shall they ever
be with the Lord '. But those that are left behind ;
the Balaams and Korahs and Judas's, the unclean
and covetous, the unruly and unbelieving ; which
way will they move ? What sort of a cloud will re
ceive them, and with whom will they be for ever?
And we shall see it, that is the point : we shall be
there, and have our portion on the one side or on the
other, we, the very same persons that are here now,
shall be there then : on the right hand or on the left ;
and we shall have our memories with us and our
consciousness, only a thousand times keener and
more lively than ever they were on earth. Here,
from mere lapse of time, unless people watch against
it, they really forget that they are the same persons
who did such and such wicked things many years
ago. I have often found it so. Without any special
repentance, they go on as if the sins of their youth
were blotted out, merely because it is twenty, thirty
or forty years since they were committed ; and they
1 1 Thess. iv. 17.

Christ filling all things. 123
are as much affronted at being reminded of them, as
if you were charging them with the sins of some
other person. But it is not so : they are the same
persons, and so they will find at last. God grant
they may find it in time !
We shall be the same persons, when we stand up to
be judged: and what is yet more aweful, more beyond
thought, we shall be the same persons afterwards.
On and on through all eternity, we, we ourselves
shall abide, knowing ourselves to be, in heaven or
in hell, unspeakably near to God or unspeakably
far from Him. Very different, no doubt, we shall
be, both in soul and in body, from what we are
now : but still in God's sight and in our sight we
shall be the same individual beings. How unlike is
a little new-born child to a tall strong full-grown
man, full of wisdom and counsel, and knowing so
much of many things : and yet the little child, if he
lives and prospers, may become such a man. So, after
this our childhood on earth, we shall be full-grown
in goodness or in badness, when we come to the other
world ; yet knowing ourselves to be the same. We
must be moving upwards or downwards: starving
the good seed, which is Christ in us, or growing
more in His fulness. Which way are you moving ?
I beseech you, lay it to heart. Prove yourselves,
examine yourselves, try yourselves thoroughly this
very week: for next Sunday is one of the great Sea
sons, in which God cometh to try and judge His
people for their correction ; and as you employ or
neglect those Seasons here on earth, so will He
honour you or cast you away, when He cometh
finally to judge you for reward or punishment.

SEEMON XIV.

THE BLESSING OF PEACE.

SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION DAY".
Ps. xxix. 9, 10.

" The Lord sitteth above the water-flood : and the
Lord remaineth a King for ever : The Lord shall
give strength unto His people ; the Lord shall give
His people the blessing of peace."
This time last year, my brethren, and for months
before and after, we were (so to speak) in a great
storm : like our Lord's disciples that night on the sea
of Galilee, when " b there arose a great tempest in the
sea, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was
now full." And what did the disciples then ? They
had our Saviour on board, and they knew it, but He
was sleeping. In that He was the Son of Man, weari
ness had come upon Him after His hard day's work,
and it pleased Him in His Divine providence to give
way to it at that time, so trying the faith of His
followers ; and our faith too, my brethren, whether
we will really turn to Him on the like occasions, as
His disciples then did ; for they " came to Him, and
awoke Him saying, Lord save us : we perish." So
a Being also the day of thanksgiving for peace at the close of
the war with Russia. b S. Matt. viii. 24.

The blessing of Peace. 125
did our mother the holy Church, all the time of that
storm of war, which we thought so much of, while it
was going on. Three times a week the Church prayed,
in the Litany, "that it may please Thee to give unto,
all nations, unity, peace, and concord;" and when
there was no Litany, then we prayed for all Christian
nations especially, that they might hold the Faith not
only "in the unity of the spirit, "but also "in the bond
of peace." And more than all this, as often as we
offered the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, the
Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion, we
offered it for all that confess His Holy Name, that
they might "live in unity and godly love." Thus the
Church prayed; and who can tell how many prayed
at home also, alone or with their families, that God
would bring the war speedily to a right and lasting
peace ? And now He Who was in the ship with us,
sleeping as it were, and unseen all the while, He
hath heard us, unworthy, according to the greatness
of His mercy, and when we least expected it, hath
stayed the winds and the sea; according to that power
Avhich He shewed in so many miracles, wherein the
Voice of the Lord hath been upon the waters, pre
serving Noah in the ark, abating the Deluge, divi
ding the Eed Sea, quieting the ocean when Jonah had
been cast into it, and the sea whereon S.Peter walked
to meet Him ; and delivering S. Paul and his com
panions from shipwreck according to His promise.
We are to make no question of it, that He Who thus
stilleth the raging of the sea, He, and no other it is,
Who stilleth the madness of the people also : sub
duing men's violent passions, and making peace, when
so many were eager for war.

126 The blessing of Peace.
How can we ever thank Him enough, first for the
public blessing, that we are no longer at war, espe
cially no longer at war with a nation of Christians,
our brethren in the Faith ; and that, so far as there
may have been unfair aggression and injustice, it
seems to be sincerely and effectually withdrawn and
ended ? And again, how can we thank Him enough
for the consolation restored to so many of our fellow-
creatures, who may now lie down at night and rise
up in the morning, without the aching, heart- wear
ing thought of those who are dearest to them being
in pain and danger, and they unable to wait on them
or help them : who are now freed from the sad an
xiety of listening after what every day may bring
forth, lest they should find themselves on a sudden
widowed, orphaned, or otherwise made mourners ?
We had so sadly abused the blessings of our long
continued peace, that surely we deserved to have
them entirely taken away from us. But He, Whose
Name is Merciful, has had mercy upon us. He has
given us another trial. God grant, that, in this time
of restored peace, we may be more earnest in setting
a good example to the heathen, and in praying and
labouring for their conversion, than we proved our
selves to be before the war !
We cannot thank Him enough. But there is a
way of thanking Him which He will surely receive :
and God our Saviour calls upon us to take this way,
by the very season, on which our thanksgiving falls.
It is not without reason, depend upon it, that the
good providence of God calls upon us thus to thank
Him for the blessing of peace, in the very season of
Peace, the time between our Lord's Ascension and

The blessing of Peace. 127
the coming of the Holy Ghost. He went away, lift
ing up His Hands and blessing us, and what His
words of blessing were, we know. When He came
among His disciples, He was accustomed to say,
" Peace be unto you : " and when He took leave of
them, the night before His Death, some of His last
words were, " Peace I leave with you, My Peace I
give unto you." And when His Holy Spirit came
down, sent down by Himself from heaven, He came
to be our Peace, making both one, Jews and Gentiles
to be one in Christ. Therefore, as I said, this par
ticular season is indeed a suitable season for us to
think worthily of the outward and temporal peace,
with which it has pleased God to bless us. The very
time itself instructs us to receive that peace as a true
and great blessing, yet to think nothing of it in
comparison with the heavenly Peace of which it is a
shadow. And how are we to thank Him? Surely in
the same way, in which He of His great love requires
us to thank Him for all His mercies : by humbly re
ceiving fresh mercies from Him. Such is His tender,
parental mind towards us. " c What reward shall I
render unto the Lord for all the benefits that He hath
done unto me ? " So asks the Psalmist : and what
is the reply fit for God's true servants to make ? " d I
will receive the cup of salvation, and call upon the
Name of the Lord." The reward He looks for at
our hands is, that we should consent to receive an
other and greater blessing from Him. We, English
Christians, are to thank Him for this deliverance
from the dangers and miseries of war, by drawing
near with a true heart and full assurance of faith,
c Ps.cxvi. 11. d Ib. 12.

128 The blessing of Peace.
and humbly accepting from His Hands the spiritual
and eternal good things which He, our Ascended
Lord, is inviting us to.
What those good things are, the Psalmist in the
text tells us. The first is, spiritual strength : for "the
Lord will give strength unto His people ;" and the
second is, spiritual peace : for " the Lord will give
His people the blessing of peace." And they both
depend on His Ascension ; for what had gone before
them is this, "The Lord sitteth above the water-flood,
and the Lord remaineth a King for ever."
" The Lord sitteth above the water-flood." He
poured out the flood in the time of Noah, and stay
ed it when it had done its work. He ordereth the
nations, who are as mighty waters. They think they
are having their own way : but indeed it is His way
in which they are moving, His work which they
are accomplishing, without knowing it. And again,
in the spiritual world also : it is as in the twenty-
fourth Psalm, " The earth is the Lord's and the ful
ness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
He hath founded it upon the seas, and established
it upon the floods." At the first creation, Christ,
the Word of the Lord, by Whom the heavens were
made, laid out the earth above the waters : and at the
new creation, the great deliverance of the world, He
founded His new heaven and His new earth, the
holy Church, His heavenly kingdom, on the waters
of holy Baptism.
And again, " The Lord remaineth a King for
ever." The kingdoms of this world change contin
ually and pass away : not so the kingdom of Christ,
that kingdom which began on Ascension Day, and

The blessing of Peace. 129
Under Avhich we are noAV living. His "e kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endureth
throughout all generations." It is the stone heAvn
out of the mountain without hands, against Avhich no
thing can stand : it will dash in pieces, one after the
other, all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of
them, be it more or less : iron, brass, silver or gold :
but as for Christ's kingdom itself, the Holy Church
Universal, it shall never be dashed in pieces, for it
is founded upon the Eock, Christ. And let this be
our comfort and our stay in all the changes and
chances of the kingdoms of men here beloAV ; in all
human and earthly politics. England may pass away,
as Egypt and Babylon, Greece and Eome, have passed
away before her ; but the Church of Christ, the hea
venly Jerusalem, shall never pass away. "The Lord
remaineth a King for ever:" and therefore His pro
mises are for ever ; and His people Avhom He hath
formed for Himself, they also are for ever.
And what are His promises? Every good thing :
but at this time, as I said, two more especially are set
before us : — spiritual strength, and spiritual peace.
"The Lord will give strength unto His people,"
strength, to stand firm in the place Avherein He shall
set them ; strength, to accomplish the Avork which He
shall appoint for them ; strength, to prevail against
the enemies Avhom He shall at any time permit to rise
up against them. Such strength He promised to His
holy Apostles, Avhen, as at this time, He gave them
His parting benediction. " f Ye shall receive power,
i. e. " strength," " after that the Holy Ghost is come
upon you." " s'Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until
e Ps. cxlv. 13. f Acts i. 8. e S. Luke xxiv. 49.
K

130 The blessing of Peace.
ye be endued with power from on high." They waited
as He bade them, and in ten days time, as we shall
hear on Whitsunday, " they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost," Who made them bold to stand fast in
the Faith, gave them a tongue and a heart to do their
work in preaching it, and in due time victory over
vdeath and hell, won as their Master's had been before,
by dying. Thus the Lord gave, and is ever giving,
strength unto His people.
He gave also, and is ever giving, to the same peo
ple that other blessing of peace: peace with God,
peace with their brethren, peace and consolation each
in his own heart. Of these three, peace with God
is the first and best, and on it the others depend ; for
as one asks, who had it in perfection, " if God be for
us, who can be against us?" The peace of God is
to have God Almighty, the Father the Son and the
Holy Ghost, for our friend and not our enemy ; to be
on our part and not against us. It is the blessing
of all blessings: but as S. Paul says again, it "hpass-
eth all understanding; " for it is hidden in God Him
self. But it maketh itself known usually by the two
other kinds of peace, peace with our fellow men,
and peace with our own hearts ; by our being in love
and charity with our neighbours, and by the witness
of a man's own heart, that he constantly and humbly
endeavours to please and obey his Divine Master,
and when he falls, makes haste by His aid to recover.
Now both this holy peace, and the strength which
enables us to preserve it, are promised, you see, to
Christ's people, and to Christ's people only. Christ's
people are His, not only as any other people may be
h Phil. iv. 7.

The blessing of Peace. 131
said to belong to their king; as Caesar's, or Pharaoh's
or Cyrus' subjects might be called their people ; but
in a nearer and dearer sense, because they are His
members ; really though mysteriously united to Him
by His Holy Spirit; " 'l members of His Body, of His
flesh, and of His bones." This strength and peace,
strength to obey Him, and peace so long as they
really strive to do so, are therefore made sure to
them ; for, as they live by Christ's life, not they but
Christ living in them, so they are strong by Christ's
strength, and at peace by Christ's peace : as He said
in His gracious Farewell, "Peace I leave with you,
My Peace I give unto you." And therefore, as soon
as ever we quit our hold of Christ, we lose both our
strength and our peace. Without Him we can do
nothing : neither can any man come to the Father
but by Him.
My brethren, let no man deceive himself. There
are many who try to persuade themselves that all is
right with them, because they have no enemies, and
all around are on good terms with them. But this
is merely outward peace : a heathen or an unbelieATer
might have it. It is no safe mark of your being one
of God's people ; and you hear what He says, His
people only have the gift and the blessing of peace.
So it is with nations, so it is with the soul of each
one. We know by God's sure word of prophecy,
that "kthe nation and kingdom, which will not serve"
God's Church, however it may prosper for a time,
" shall perish ; yea, those nations shall be utterly
wasted." And too well, I fear, may most of us know
by our own sad experience, that so far as a man cuts
1 Eph. v. 30. k Is. Ix. 12.
K 2

132 The blessing of Peace.
himself off even from his Saviour by wilful neglect of
any of his duties, so far he shuts himself out from
true" peace, and joy, and consolation.
Surely, it is so, my brethren, and you cannot
deny it. Any one great duty, wilfully neglected,
deprives a man of true peace, because it deprives him
of Christ. Now then, my brethren, let me speak to
you (the subject and the time itself even call on me
fof it): let me speak freely to you on one matter, Which
most nearly concerns the peace of us all. We haA^e
just been celebrating the Ascension of our Saviour
to His Father's Eight Hand : we have known and
believed the hope laid up in store for us, in that
Christ Jesus our King and our Priest is gone up
into heaven, in order to be both our Strength and
our Peace. Noav as we know that He cannot be
our Strength, unless we are members of Him, and
therefore, we would not on any account remain un
baptized : so let us for God's sake consider, that
neither can He be our Peace, unless we apply to
ourselves what He hath done and is doing, to make
our peace Avith God : unless we take our part in
His atoning Sacrifice. And how are we to do this ?
In the Sacrament of Holy Communion. If we wil
fully neglect or abuse that Sacrament, Ave refuse to
have Christ for our Priest. And who then is to re
concile us ? How can we ever have peace with God ?
My brethren, do let me beseech you to lay this to
heart; for indeed it is of more consequence than any
of us can well imagine. One of the great feasts of
the Church, Whitsuntide, as you know, is fast com
ing on : and may I acknowledge it to you, I look
forward to it with dread : for it will bring Avith it a

The blessing of Peace. 133
trial, in Avhich I fear too many of Christ's flock in
this place Avill fail. It is a sad and a humbling con
fession to make, for one who has the care of souls ;
but I must confess to-day before you, that in this
parish Ave can count those who have at some time
communicated and have withdrawn themselves from
Holy Communion, we can count them, I say, by
twenties, almost by fifties : and if Ave add to them
the many Avho having been instructed and promised,
yet go on week by Aveek, and month by month, and
year by year, breaking their promise, then we shall
have to count them by hundreds. And moreover,
my brethren, who can help fearing that some may
perhaps be partaking unworthily ? Sad things have
happened, Avhich may well cause us to fear it. And
they are not cases of ignorance. It is not as if men
had not been told the meaning and the consequence
of Avhat they do and leave undone. They have been
told what Christ said, and hoAV to set about obeying
Him. Alas ! if one Avere able to think of these mischiefs
as they really are, in their full effect on men's souls,
it Avould be enough to break a Christian Pastor's
heart, unless God in His great mercy were to shew
him also at the same time the great, the almost
angelical, blessings vouchsafed to those who com
municate duly with a humble and contrite heart.
The Lord increase their number, and make us more
fit to be among them ! For of such it is written,
"'Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabit
eth eternity, Whose Name is Holy : I dwell in the
high and holy place, with him also that is of a con-
1 Isa. lvii. 15.

134 The blessing of Peace.
trite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the
humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."
"m I have seen his ways and will heal him: I will
restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I
create the fruit of the lips : Peace, peace to him that
is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord ;
and I will heal him."
0 blessed words ! Which of you would not wish
to have them spoken to his own self? And they will
be, if you lose no time, but come seriously to Christ
in His ordained way. But if not, you may read in
the next verses, Avhat God hath decided concerning
you : " " The wicked are like the troubled sea, when
it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."
m Is. lvii. 18, 19. » lb. 20, 21.

SEEMON XV.

THE DAYS OF EXPECTATION.

WEDNESDAY BEFORE PENTECOST.
Acts i. 13.

"And when they were come in, they went into the
upper room."
These ten days, which come between Ascension Day
and Whitsunday, are called, sometimes, the days of
Expectation : because, you know, the disciples were
so long waiting for our Lord to fulfil His promise of
sending them another Comforter. They are, in some
respects, like the time of betrothal before a marriage,
or like the time which passes, when any dear friend,
father or mother, son or daughter, wife or husband,
brother or sister, is gone away, and has fixed the day
to come back. At such times, we know, affectionate
spirits are fully taken up with the one thought, how
happy they shall be when the promised blessing
comes : and so, we may be quite sure, the disciples'
minds were quite full, during those ten days, of our
Lord's promise to come to them by His Spirit. They
lived, as it were, all those days upon that one thought.
In all they did, they were preparing themselves to
receive the Holy Ghost.
Now we are in a manner, as the Apostles then

136 The days of expectation.
Avere. Christ our Lord did in a manner depart from
us last Thursday, and Ave are waiting to receive the
Holy Ghost, by His great mercy, in next Sunday's
Communion. How can we do better than try to
spend these days, these ten holy days of joyful yet
longing expectation, in the same Avay as the friends
and Apostles of the Holy Jesus spent their ten days ?
The fulness of the blessing, we knoAV, came upon
them : on us, Avho call ourselves His friends and dis
ciples now, it will come in such measure as we try
to be like them. For that unspeakable blessing,
the Gift of the Holy Ghost, is not in any wise wasted
or worn away. The Lord's hand is not shortened ;
the holy Fire is not burned out, nor the holy Water
dried up, neither has the Breath of the Lord ceased
to breathe. The promise was unto those first Chris
tians and to their children, and to all that were afar
off: and to us, by His great mercy, among the rest.
Therefore we have but to prepare ourselves as the
first friends of our Saviour did, and we shall have
the same blessing to crown our Pentecost that they
had. The Holy Ghost will come upon tis also, and
we in our several Avays shall be enabled to glorify
God far more worthily than we have yet done.
Now as Jesus Christ after His Eesurrection kept
Himself apart and out of sight of ordinary men, only
appearing from time to time to His chosen witnesses
as His and their work required, so it appears that
these ten days were spent by His friends and disci
ples in religious retirement. Before His death, when
He sent them out, and was for a while to be parted
from them, He sent them out for a course of active
employment, to be much among their fellow-men,

.The days of expectation. 137
and to Avork in their sight : to preach the kingdom
of God, and to heal the sick. Then they Avere to
make a circuit of all the chief towns and villages of
Judea and Galilee : now His express command was,
" Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be en
dued Avith power from on high." Some of them, it is
likely, after all the wonderful things they had seen,
Avould be eager to publish His great Name, and to
tell friends and relations at a distance, how He had
died for them and risen again and ascended up to
heaven in their sight. But they put by all such
inclinations for the present, and staid joyfully and
contentedly where He bade them.
They staid where He bade them, and did exactly
as He bade them. That was their main and most
necessary preparation for receiving the gift of the
Holy Ghost. Let it be our preparation also. If we
would have grace, we must, as well as we can, put
ourselves in the way of it. It is true, no man, pro
perly speaking, can deserve grace : yet our Lord
speaks of some Avho are fit and some who are unfit for
the kingdom of God ; of some who are near to it and
some Avho are far from it : and what little we can do,
to put ourselves in His way, we are sure He will
graciously accept, and help us to do more. If but for
these feAV days we set ourselves a strict rule, to watch
all our ways, and do nothing that we know will dis
please Him : to think of Him as much as we can, at
all leisure times, and to look aAvay from the world ;
no one can ' say how much good that little effort, if
sincere, may do us : how abundantly the good Spirit
may bless us when He comes down next Sunday:
how He may cause that little leaven to leaven the

138 The days of expectation.
Avhole mass of our earthly time and doings, and give
unto the whole the taste of eternal life.
Observe, where the Apostles tarried. Not in any
place chosen by themselves, but in the city of Jeru
salem, which still continued to be the chosen place of
God's temple and worship. So must we tarry and
abide in His Church, if we expect Him to come among
us by His Spirit. Our own Bishops and Priests, and
our own Prayer-Book ; with them and in them, our
Lord has promised to be : even as to the Israelites
He had promised to be at Jerusalem ; and that from
Mount Sion and no other place, His Word, full of His
Spirit, should go forth. As they then had to wait in
Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Ghost, so we
have to wait for the same gift in the holy Catholic
Church, in communion with our own Church, and in
devout use of the Prayer-Book.
Moreover, see where the disciples went in Jerusa
lem. As soon as they returned from Mount Olivet,
as it Avere on Thursday afternoon last week, they
went to the house where, before our Lord's death,
and in all likelihood many times since, they had as
sembled together with Him : a house somewhere on
Mount Sion ; the house to which, on the day of the
Passover, they had been directed by a man bearing
a pitcher of water. Thither, S. Luke seems to tell
us, they returned straight from the scene of His won
derful Ascension, full of great joy : and when they
were come in, they went into the Upper-room. What
Upper-room ? No doubt the very same, in which on
that other holy Thursday they had sat down with
our Lord to His last Passover ; in which room, whilst
they were eating, He took bread and blessed and

The days of expectation. 139
brake it, and solemnly ordained the Sacrament of
His Body and Blood. That was the room which He
had most highly honoured : there He had been and
had promised to be in the midst of them in an un
speakable manner, so as the world cannot receive
Him. He had promised to be among them and with
in them by the poAver of His Holy Spirit. There He
had spoken all those comfortable words, to cheer
their hearts nearly broken at the thought of His
departure from them : there He had promised them
another Comforter, Who should abide Avith them for
ever, and by Whom the Father and the Son should
come unto them and make Their abode with them.
There, again, He had stood in the midst of them, and
had lifted up His eyes to heaven, and had offered in
their and in our behalf that most merciful prayer
to the Father, which Ave read in the seventeenth of
S. John : thereby fulfilling His Word just given, " I
will pray the Father, and He shall give you another
Comforter:" "I will pray the Father for you." From
that same Upper-room He had led them forth into
the garden by the Mount, where His Passion was
to begin. There, most likely, it Avas that He shewed
Himself to them on the night of His Eesurrection,
coming in while the doors were shut, and on Low
Sunday: and thence, we may well believe, He had led
them out to Bethany and the Mount of Olives the
second time, that very Thursday morning, not to suf
fer, but to be glorified. Whither else then should
they return, or what other place on earth could be so
like a home to them, as that Upper-room ? Where
else might they so naturally abide, waiting for the
great Gift which was so soon to come upon them ?

140 The days of expectation.
They might not stay in the mountain, gazing after
Him : they were expressly forbidden to do that ; and
they Avere also commanded to stay in Jerusalem : and
this was their home in Jerusalem, the home of their
hearts. Here therefore they abode together. Their
place of waiting for the Holy Ghost was the Upper
chamber where their First Communion had been
given them : where, besides, all their Lord's farewell
sayings and doings, His heavenly words and looks
and actions would seem yet fresh and present to
them. Where they had most helps to remember Him,
there they waited for His Spirit.
And does not this tell us something of the best way
in which we can prepare for Whitsunday ? Surely,
as the friends and followers of Christ, the Apostles
and holy Avomen, loved to be in that Upper-room,
so it is good for us at this time to be as much as
we can in those places, where our Lord has at any
time specially come to us by His grace and spiritual
favour : and if the places be too far from us, or we
hindered from visiting them, it is good that we
should muse on them and be there in spirit. What
I mean is like this : we should be as much as we can
in Church, because the Church is the special place
where He has met us again and again : and if we
cannot go to Church, we should think, all we can, of
it and of Him Who is there. In thought we should
do Avell to go back to our Baptism, wherever that
took place, and to consider again and again the ines
timable love of God our Saviour in so taking us into
His arms, and washing us from our sins in His own
Blood. If there are any of us, who have unhappily
fallen into grievous sin, for a short or a long time,

The days of expectation. 141
and by God's exceeding mercy have truly repented
and confessed and received Christ's Absolution, now
is a good time to recollect with all possible thankful
ness that miraculous loving-kindness of our Judge :
now, I say, whilst we are humbly waiting for Him
to seal it by a new gift of His sanctifying Spirit.
And the mention of that Upper-room seems to re
mind us, that very much of these ten days might
Avell be spent in meditation on Holy Communion : in
recollecting, as we may, all His mercies vouchsafed
unto us in that Sacrament from our Confirmation
until noAV : in fear and trembling to think, how little
our hearts and lives have answered to this great love
of His : and in earnest consideration, how we may
now become and continue, ever after, more worthy
communicants. Any Christian who should so em
ploy himself would, I suppose, be in God's sight
spending this time of expectation, as the Apostles
spent it in that blessed Upper-room : and when the
Day of Pentecost shall be fully come, such an one
may humbly hope that the heavenly Gift then vouch
safed to the Apostles will be poured out even on him,
unworthy as he feels himself, and grievous as his
sins may have been.
I would particularly suggest, as a sort of spiritual
exercise likely to be very useful to many of us, that
WO should at this time go over in our thoughts the
providential dealings of our God, Avhereby He has
helped us all along hitherto. As, for example, if at
any time we have had dear friends and relations, who,
having been lovely in their lives, did in their last
sickness and departure draw nearer than ever to their
Saviour : if we haVe heard them speak words which

142 The days of expectation.
sounded almost as messages of Angels in our ears :
now is the time to remember them, and think over
all that happened, all the signs and tokens which
God gave us when we were Avaiting on them, that
He is indeed very near, and that our way to Him is
to follow their faith, as the disciples in that Upper-
room remembered all Christ's parting words. If we
have been ourselves at any time brought very low,
deeply distressed in body or in mind, or both ; and
after many thoughts and misgivings, sore agony and
wondering what would become of us, it pleased the
Lord to raise us up, and give us more time and
strength to serve Him : now is a good time seriously
to review both our trouble and His mercy: as S.Peter
and the rest, no doubt, reviewed all that passed on
the night of our Lord's Agony : how near they were
casting themselves away, and how graciously He
interfered to save them.
By such thoughts as these, my brethren, I advise
you to prepare for Whitsunday. I would we might
all put ourselves*in the way of grace; for that is the
way to have grace come abundantly to us. Eetire
as much as you well can from the world : sit alone
and keep silence : go over in your minds our Lord's
gracious dealings towards you : remember past Com
munions, how unworthy you were, and how merciful
He was. Thus may you abide in the Upper-room,
the place of high and heavenly meditation, until
His Spirit be poured upon you, to strengthen and
refresh you more abundantly than ever for all that
you have to do and suffer for His Sake.

SEEMON XVI.

THE DAYS OF EXPECTATION.

FRIDAY BEFORE PENTECOST.

Acts i. 14.
" These all continued with one accord in prayer and
supplication, with the women, and Mary the Mother
of Jesus, and with His brethren."
We are told over and over in Holy Scripture, that
if we really desire the grace of God, we ought to
put ourselves in the way of it : we shall do so of
course, just as we look after any thing which we de
sire to find, or ask for any thing which we wish to
have, or knock at any door which we want to have
opened. Our Lord has taught us all this in the
Sermon on the Mount. " a Ask, and ye shall have ;
seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened
unto you." As if He should say, "You must not think
of obtaining what you want, if you will not give your
self the trouble of doing what little in you lies for
it." And lest any one should say, " the Holy Spirit
is so great a Gift : our doings are nothing at all to
wards it : surely in vain shall we give ourselves any
such trouble: " hear hoAV, in the same breath, He dis
tinctly makes our obtaining the Holy Spirit a thing
to depend on our prayers. " bIf ye, being evil, know
a S. Luke xi. 9. b Ib. 13.

144 The days of expectation.
how to give good gifts unto your children : hoAV much
more shall your Father which is in heaven give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him ! " Fathers give
their children what they ask, not for any profit that
they have of their children's asking, but because they
are their fathers, and love them. So the Lord God
will hear our petitions, when we say, " Take not Thy
Holy Spirit from us," not for any worth in those
prayers of ours, but because He is our loving Lord,
and from Him alone flows out all fatherly and mo
therly love. As our parents, for our good, often made
us ask respectfully for a thing before they gave it,
so our Lord would have us pray to Him, or ever His
gifts of grace shall descend upon us.
He will have us pray ; and there are also other
things which He will have us do. One of them, as
I shewed you the other day, is to make much of the
very places, where God has at any time shewed us
any particular mercy : where He has at all wrought
wondrously with us. I shewed you, how the disciples
of our Lord, having to wait in Jerusalem for the gift
of the Holy Ghost, waited in that very Upper-room,
in which they had seen so much of Christ before His
departure : where He had given them the First Holy
Communion, and where also, as we may well believe,
He had often met them, after He was risen. So may
Ave prepare ourselves for a new gift of the Holy
Ghost, by going back in spirit to the places, times,
and Avays, in which He has, before now, graciously
given Himself to us. We may come to Church, or
if we cannot come always, we may think of the holy
place : we may in spirit kneel at God's altar, and re
member what Holy Communion has been to us, and

The days of expectation, 145
hoAV much more it might have been. All this we may
ponder upon, Avhilst we are at home or at our work :
and this will be like abiding in the Upper-chamber,
in the place where Christ has met us aforetime, in
hope of another happy meeting.
But there was another thing which the friends
and followers of Christ crucified did at that time ;
they not only staid in the place which Christ had
blessed, but they continued also in company with
those, whom they knew to be dearest to Christ.
Each Apostle continued with the other Apostles :
they did not go apart, each to his own place of de
votion, but all went up together to the same Upper-
room, and there abode the whole ten days. They
did not part; why should they? They were all alike
thinking of the same departed Saviour, they were
all alike waiting for the same Blessed Spirit : that
sacred Upper-room belonged to one of them as much
as to another : there they had been all alike used to
meet their Lord ; and to see one another there, would
help as much as anything to keep them well in mind
of Him. And so, I suppose, my brethren, we all feel,
when in obedience to our mother, the Church, we try
to prepare ourselves for great and holy seasons, such
as this of Whitsuntide which is coming. As it helps
us to be here in Church, so it helps us to see one
another here. Those few who are able to come,
more or less regularly, on other days besides Sun
days, know well, if they come thoughtfully, how
good it is for them to be here; here, in the immediate
Presence of Christ ; here, where they have so many
times had great spiritual mercies ; here, where their
hearts have burned within them at hearing His holy

146 The days of expectation.
Word, and where He has afterwards shewn Himself
to them in breaking of bread. They know how much
good the very place by itself seems to do them :
how the very air and shadow of it is felt the moment
they come in, as a shelter from the bleak rude weari
some world without. And are they not also able to
say something of the comfort it is to them to meet
the same people there continually ? how much help
it sometimes gives them in their own prayers, if
their eyes fall on some devout, old man or innocent
child making the most of God's house : how they
miss such their felloAV- worshippers, if by chance they
are absent: how, if they meet them elsewhere, or do
but hear their names mentioned, presently cheerful
and edifying thoughts of this holy place and its ser
vices arise in their hearts. Indeed, there is no end to
the ways, in which those who are used to walk to the
house of God as friends help each other, knowingly
or unknowingly, to obtain yet further blessings from
God. No wonder then that the Apostles continued
together "with one accord in one place; " and that
place, the place of Holy Communion; while they were
waiting for the Spirit. They did so, all of them, be
cause as yet they all had leisure to do so. Many of us
have little or no leisure so to come into God's house
on week-days : but it would be well, if all who have
health and leisure did come, according to some con
stant rule, as their own conscience tells them would
be best. It would soon make a great difference on
our Sundays and great days, if the Christian people
would make up their minds to make more use of the
Church on common days. Putting themselves more
in the way of grace, they would be more likely to

The days of expectation. 147
receive grace. Abiding together in the Upper-room,
they would be where the Holy Spirit is most likely
to descend : just as the Israelites in the old time, if
they would fain see the Glory of God, knew that
their best chance was to abide with God's priests in
His Tabernacle or Temple.
No wonder, again, if we find it so particularly
mentioned that the disciples continued, as with one
another, so also with the rest of them who had been
nearest our Lord in times past. "They " (the twelve)
" continued in prayer and supplication with the wo
men and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and His dis
ciples: " to the number, all together, of one hundred
and twenty. We see at once, what their rule and
principle was : Avhat one love it Avas, which ruled in
all their hearts. It was4he love of Jesus : therefore
they abode together, because each helped the other to
remember Jesus. And by whom could they remem
ber Jesus so well and so entirely, as by Her, whom
He had made nearest Him of all creatures — by His
own blessed Mother ? Surely, when they looked on
her, it must have helped them greatly to remember
Him. For His sake, they must have greatly loved
and revered her, so long as she was permitted to
remain on earth among them : even as He Himself
had plainly directed one of them, and that one His
own beloved, "cBehold thy Mother." It was a great
and high privilege to have her with them, and no
doubt it helped them greatly, as she and they prayed
together, in their mutual preparation for the coming
of the Holy Ghost. And is she not also in a man
ner with us also ? Yes, assuredly, by virtue of the
c S. John xix. 27.
L2

148 The days of expectation.
Communion of Saints, that may be said of all our
solemn assemblies, which is said of the marriage of
Cana. "The Mother of Jesus is there" Avith Him
and His disciples. Christ our Head being here, all
His glorified members are with Him in spirit and in
truth, and therefore we may think of that same com
pany, which waited so devoutly for the first Whit
sunday, as waiting in some sense with us here, even
the Apostles, and the women, and Mary the Mother
of Jesus and His brethren. So far as we are members
of Christ, Ave are in real communion and fellowship
Avith them. When we are honoured, they rejoice
with us: they cry unto the Lord on our behalf, "How
long, 0 Lord, holy and true ? " And we on earth
praise the Lord in the words which they have left
us. Very often, as you know, we use in the evening
service the holy hymn of the Mother of Jesus, "My
soul doth magnify the Lord. " God gives us that
help by her, as who knows but she may in the same
words have helped the devotions of that congregation
in the Upper-room on Mount Sion ? It is not the
less a token of communion with her and the other
saints, because they are out of our sight, and we know
not, perhaps, whether or no we are in their sight : we
have their holy and comfortable words, we have their
pure and devout example ; and with the thought of
them we are permitted to strengthen and refresh
ourselves in these our hours of waiting.
Further : it is said they continued in prayer and
supplication; not only with the Mother and brethren
of our Lord, with those who were nearest to Him
after the flesh, but also with certain women. What
women? The same, no doubt, who had so long waited

The days of expectation. 149
on Him : following Him out of Galilee, ministering
to Him of their substance, standing by His Cross,
coming early to His Sepulchre. These Aveak and
simple women, one of whom at least is believed to
have been a very great sinner, were Avith the Apos
tles and our Lord's blessed Mother and brethren,
both in the preparation for Whitsunday and in the
great day itself. Are you then weak and simple ?
Is any of you a great sinner? See what blessed
encouragement you have : you are not only permit
ted but earnestly invited to draw near and prepare
yourselves to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Church, your mother, accounts herself im
perfect without you : she longs to have you duly pre
paring yourself now, that she may present you next
Sunday to be a worthy communicant : even as the
Apostles and the Blessed Virgin, and the brethren of
Jesus Christ, would have reckoned their assembly in
the Upper-room imperfect, if the women from Galilee
had not been present also.
All this care is taken of us : and shall we take
no care of ourselves? Only imagine, good brethren
and sisters, how it would have seemed, if any of that
favoured company had turned his back on the gra
cious offers of our Lord. Our Lord said, " Stay in Je
rusalem : stay but a short time : continue in the place
Avhich I have chosen, with My saints, in prayer and
supplication : and you shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost." Our Lord said it ; they did it ; and the
Holy Ghost came down upon them, and they were
most blessed. But suppose any of them had scorned
our Lord's words. He said, " Stay in Jerusalem."
What if one had gone straight out of the place, after

150 The days of expectation,
his own worldly fancies? What if he had left the
company of the Apostles ? What if he had taken
no care to remember his Lord's death? What if he
had left off prayer ? What if he had staid in the
company, only to wrangle and disobey orders, and
set up his own self-willed ways ? You see how it
would have been. Such a person would have for
feited the promise of his gracious Saviour, and he
would not have received the gift of the Holy Ghost
on Whitsunday. No more shall we, if we turn our
back on the Church ; if we refuse to remember our
Lord in Holy Communion; if we neglect prayer, real
prayer, and diligent self-examination. We know
very well that to such as do so, Whitsunday will
come and go without a blessing : and so it will to
those who, although they may be diligent in these
spiritual exercises, are not endeavouring to be truly
humble in the practice of them. There is such a
thing as going to Church, praying, considering, nay
even communicating, and yet driving away God's
Spirit. How? Because people worship, consider, com
municate, in ways of their own, and not in Christ's
true way. Their hearts are serious after a fashion,
but they are not humble, lowly, penitent, obedient
hearts. God preserve you and me from this !

SEEMON XVII.

PATIENT WAITING FOR PROMISES.

WHITSUNTIDE.

Ps. xlviii. 8.

" We wait for Thy loving-kindness, 0 God, in the
midst of Thy temple."
These words of the prophet and Psalmist seem to
contain a short and plain account of the temper and
behaviour of the friends and Apostles of our Lord,
during those days of hope and patience, which came
to an end on the morning of the first Whitsunday.
Our Lord, on departing, told them, that as surely as
John had baptized with water, they should be bap
tized with the Holy Ghost, not many days from that
time. How many, He did not say ; but He distinctly
forbade their moving out of Jerusalem, or doing any
thing in their great office of witnesses to Him, until
they should be so endued with power from on high.
They were to wait for the promise of the Father,
which they had heard from Him. Accordingly,
having solemnly worshipped Him on His departure,
they "a returned to Jerusalem with fear and great
joy; and were continually in the temple, praising
and blessing God." Thus exactly did they fulfil the
» S. Luke xxiv. 52, 53.

152 Patient waiting for promises.
description, which the Holy Spirit by the mouth of
David had so long before given in the text, of the
temper and behaviour which He approves of in His
Church, and in every member of the same,, concern
ing His great and precious promises. We are to
"wait for His loving-kindness in the midst of His
temple." " bHe that believeth shall not make haste."
There is " cneed of patience, that after Ave have done
the will of God, we might receive the promise."
We naturally think the time long, while we are
expecting any blessing, more especially when the
Word of God is pledged to us for the blessing itself.
And the blessing, which the Apostles were now wait
ing for, was both in itself, and to them, infinitely
beyond all others that could be desired. It was the
return of Him Who had just departed from them, not
leaving them comfortless, but coming to them again
by His Spirit. But so perfect had their faith now
become, that they endured His absence, not only
patiently, but with a holy and reverential joy ; in
this, as in other things, offering an instructive con
trast to the behaviour of God's elder Church, the
Church of the Israelites in the wilderness, when their
mediator had been out of sight in the mountain for
several days. They began to complain, " As for this
Moses, we wot not what is become of him;" and
their complaining ended, as you know, in profane
idolatry. But the spiritual Israel, those out of whom
God was about to complete the foundation of His
Church, they waited patiently for the Lord. They
had taken it on His word, however unaccountable it
might sound, that it was expedient for them, His
b Is. xxviii. 16. ° Heb. x. 36.

Patient waiting for promises. 153
going away ; and they were prepared to trust Him
still further, and to abide in faith and quietness any
length of time, during which the Comforter might
delay His coming.
Further; observe the place where they waited.
The prophecy had described God's people as waiting
in the midst of His temple. Our Lord ordered His
Apostles to tarry in the city of Jerusalem, and they
were continually in the temple. And, as it is said in
one of the oldest Prayer-books of the Church, it was
"in an upper room of holy and glorious Sion,"
Avhere they were assembled with one accord, when
the windows of heaven were opened, and the un
speakable Gift poured forth ; the same Upper-room,
no doubt, which is mentioned in the first chapter of
Acts, to which they had gone from Mount Olivet,
immediately after our Lord's Ascension, where all
the Apostles abode together, "with the women, and
Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren."
There they continued, with one mind, in prayer and
supplication : they were also continually, that is, at
the services in the temple, praising and blessing
God, until the great miracle of miracles happened,
and the kingdom of heaven was opened to all be
lievers. Now, does not this teach us something as to the
disposition and frame of mind, which God approves
of and will bless in His Church, and in all to whom
His promises are made ? Does it not seem to shew,
first of all, that patient waiting is the strength of
God's people ; that they greatly err if they pretend
to fix His times, or to take His matters into their
own hands; and, secondly, that they are to take

154 Patient waiting for promises.
things as they find them, and set out on God's work
in their social callings from the present moment, and
the present state of things, whenever and whatever
it be ? They are to make the best use they can of
it, in doing or suffering their Maker's will : even
as the Apostles did not separate themselves from
the temple-worship, imperfect as they knew it to be,
nor from the communion of the unbelieving Jews,
though newly stained with their Master's Blood.
They continued, as we have seen, in the temple;
they solemnized the great day of Pentecost, which
the Jews kept in remembrance of the giving of the
Law, by assembling together with one accord at the
third hour, which was one of the Jewish hours of
prayer ; an hour no where appointed in the Law,
but ordained by the voluntary piety of God's ancient
people, and so far approved by God's testimony, as
that He several times answered the devotions of His
people at that hour with great and signal blessings
from Heaven.
In these and .other instances, the holy Apostles
shewed themselves the true followers of Him, Who
came not to destroy the law but to fulfil ; and they
seem to set us an example, how we too should follow
His steps. In other words, we are not to draw back,
and let our time pass unimproved, or indulge in any
sort of spiritual idleness, on the plea, that "really
the state of things is so very bad, we would mend it
if we could, but we cannot ; and therefore we will
just behave ourselves as the world does. If we had
lived among the first Christians, or if our own
families, or neighbourhood, or acquaintance, were
more favourable to such efforts than they are, then

Patient ivaiting for promises. 155
the case would be different, we would try and do
something ; but, as it is, we are sure it would do no
good ; it is not for us to reform the world ; we are
not called to it ; so we will even stay as we are for
the present, and wait until God shall send us better
opportunities." This is no uncommon way of speaking, as might
be shewn by many familiar instances. Did you
never, for example, know a father or a mother of a
family, who delayed to come to the Holy Communion,
until their children had left off vexing them ? Or a
person who refused to come to Church, because he
could not find a sitting exactly to his mind, or be
cause he had something to say against the minister ?
Did you never know a person in service, or in some
other situation in life, who avowedly put off serious
thought and turning to Almighty God, with this sort
of speech, " Bye and bye I shall get a quieter place,
or more leisure, or a home nearer Church, or com
panions who will not laugh at me, and then I will
be more serious ; but, for the present, it is no use to
ask me ?"
Surely, whenever we hear or see such things, we
hear and see what must forfeit the blessing and
favour of that God, Who reAvarded the devotion of
His Apostles, while they had only the temple to wor
ship in, and only Jews to worship with, by the gift
of the indwelling Spirit. It is His will that people
should set out from the spot whereon His providence
has placed them, be it favourable or be it unfavour
able, and ask the way to heaven with their faces thi
therward ; sure to find it, if they ask with obedient
hearts. Let us depend on it, when we have said our

156 Patient waiting for promises.
worst against the times we live in, the Church or
state we belong to, the companions among whom
God has cast our lot, still our worst enemy and our
most perilous struggle will be found at last within
our own hearts. Let us patiently seek God's favour
on our diligent use of all the means of grace which
He has put within our reach, abiding in Jerusalem
in the temple, and not seeking new ways for our
selves, and see (to use His own words by His
Prophet), if He " d will not open the windows of
heaven, and pour us out a blessing, that there wilL
not be room enough" in this world " to receive it :"
it will overflow into eternity.
Certainly, there can be no such encouragement
besides to earnest repentance, to serious improve
ment, to patient continuance in well-doing, as the
answer which God gave to those prayers, in which
our Lord's disciples and His Mother continued during
the ten days from His Ascension to Pentecost. The
return of those prayers was, the Holy Ghost sent
down from heav.en, Jesus Christ coming by His
Spirit, to save us, one by one, from the power of sin
for the future ; as He had before come in His own
Person to offer Himself an all-sufficient Sacrifice for
us, and so save us, one and all, from the punishment
of sins past. As S. Paul speaks, in the Epistle to
the Eomans, "eIf, when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much
more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His
life," by that heavenly life of His, which He com
municates to us as Christians by His Holy indwelling
Spirit. d Mal. iii. 10. e Rom. v. 10.

Patient waiting for promises. 157
This should be very deeply considered; for it brings
the mystery of Whitsunday much nearer home to
us, than we are perhaps in general used to imagine
it. Think of it in this way : that the most Holy and
Divine Spirit, God the Holy Ghost, is come down,
not only to enable the Apostles to preach the Gospel
in all nations, whereby, as our Church thankfully
confesses in the Communion Service for this day,
" we have been brought out of darkness and error
into the clear light and true knowledge of God and
of His Son Jesus Christ:" not only is the light of
Christ thus made to shine upon us by the coming of
the Holy Spirit, but we are also made, inwardly and
spiritually, partakers of the life which is in Christ.
We noAV know that the Comforter is come to abide
in the Church, so as that He dwells, personally and
really, in every one whom He Himself by Baptism
shall have first made a member of Christ.
This is the constant doctrine taught by the Holy
Spirit Himself in the writings of the Apostles. "f Ye
are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ : " " §And because ye are sons,
God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father." And again, "hYe
are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."
S. Peter describes it as the very condition of Chris
tians, that they are lli elect according to the foreknow
ledge of God the Father, through sanctification of
the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the Blood
f Gal. iii. 26, 27. « Ib. iv. 6. h Rom. viii. 9, * IS. Pet. i. 2.

158 Patient waiting for promises.
of Jesus Christ." As much as to say, the Spirit was
to sanctify them, that is, to renew the image of God
in them, abiding in them, so as to make them " par
takers of the Divine nature:" so might their obedience
and good works be a sacrifice well-pleasing to God,
being sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus Christ. Thus
also S. John makes the presence of the Spirit the
very token of the abiding of Christ among Christians,
according to His own gracious promise, when about
to depart from among them. " Hereby we know
that He abideth in us, by His Spirit which He hath
given us." The visible coming of the Holy Ghost,
on the day of Pentecost, was the outward pledge of
His invisible Presence, and Christ's invisible Pre
sence by Him. Christians are thereby assured, to
all generations, that their Lord has not left them
comfortless, but is perpetually coming unto them ;
once for all in the Sacrament of Baptism, to make
them members of Himself, and from time to time in
the other blessed Sacrament, to nourish and perfect
in them that sacred Communion.
Such was the loving-kindness, with which the Lord
of old crowned His people, patiently waiting for it
in the midst of His temple ; and though that pre
cious and unspeakable gift be no longer to be waited
for, though it be come already, and we dwell in the
midst of it, yet, even in this more perfect Temple,
the Church and Household of the living God, we
still have to wait for our perfection. "We walk by
faith, not by sight." We cannot yet be fully like
Christ, for we do not yet see Him as He is, but only
through a glass, darkly. This very blessing, for which
we are giving thanks, the indwelling of the Spirit,

Patien t tvaiting for promises. 159
is altogether matter of faith ; there are no open mi
racles to assure us of it, no inward feelings on which
we can positively rely : the Word of God sealing
His Sacraments is our only warrant for quite depend
ing on it.
This being so, the same graces which the disciples
of our Lord were called on to exercise between the
Ascension-day and Pentecost, must ever be part of
our special trial as Christians ; a trial, of which we
shall be more sensible in proportion to our faith
and seriousness. God keeps us waiting for His lov
ing-kindness, for the full revelation of His glorious
mercies, for the day when we shall know even as
also we are known : and this our time of waiting
will seem the longer to us, will practise us the more
severely in patience and resignation, the more ear
nestly we are used to think of God, and to lay up
our treasure in heaven.
Then, again, as to the other caution suggested by
the words of the text : if the disciples were to wait
for the Comforter in Jerusalem, in or near the visi
ble temple, much more ought we to take care how
we wander in any way, even in thought, beyond the
bounds of the spiritual temple, " the Church of the
Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." As
Christians, Ave hope and expect great mercies. God's
Holy Scriptures are full of promise and encourage
ment to us, both as to blessings in store for the whole
Church, and as to what we may look for ourselves,
as individual souls, redeemed by Christ's Blood, and
made members of Him by His Spirit. Let us so long
and strive for these mercies, as never to forget the
sort of persons to whom they are promised.

160 Patient waiting for promises.
For example, with respect to those which concern
the whole Church ; every year shews more and more
how great need there is of patience, since every year
we seem to become better acquainted with the dis
order and decay which so sadly prevail in Christ's
kingdom ; every year we may well fancy the saints'
voices crying out more and more sorrowfully, " J How
long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not avenge
us of them that dwell on the earth ?" And there
are persons, and as it should seem, sincere ones, who
are tempted by these appearances of disorder to take
or encourage irregular ways of forwarding the good
and holy cause.
Thus, whereas our Lord appointed that His Apos
tles only should send forth others to minister in His
Church in His Name, many persons seem to think it
wrong for this to be insisted on, in times and coun
tries where there are many heathenish persons. They
say, "Why, when the call is so urgent, may not any
person, that feels sincere in heart, take on himself
the work of the ministry ?" If they were really as
considerate) as I doubt not they are often well-mean
ing, it ought to be enough to answer them, that such
means as they recommend do not answer to the in
spired direction ; that we must wait patiently for God
to send His blessing, not expect to draw it down,
like Saul or Balak, or other heathenish characters,
by any enchantments or divinations of our own.
Other instances of like disorder might be given ;
to all Avhich the saying of the father of the faithful
may be applied : " My son, God will provide Him
self a lamb for a burnt-offering." His hand is not
i Rev. vi. 10.

Patient waiting for promises. 161
waxed short ; He has means enough to accomplish
His purposes in His own good time ; He has no need
of the irregular, disobedient, disorderly, any more
than of the sinful man.
Pray then, and look, and long, and strive for the
promised blessing and triumph of God's Holy Church ;
pray, and look, and long for the time, when " kthe
kingdoms of this Avorld" shall "become the king
doms of our Lord and of His Christ," and when "'the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as
the waters coA*er the sea ;" when all the Church's
"m children shall be taught of the Lord, and great
shall be the peace of her children." But yet I say,
do all that you do in the ways of the Church herself;
for surely they are the ways of God, and to depart
from His ways must be evil ; and no appearance,
nay, no seeming certainty of profiting ever so many
of our brethren, should ever tempt us to break God's
commandment, seeing how aweful the censure is
on those who say, " n Let us do evil, that good may
come." In conclusion, I may just say, that, as to particular
individual blessings, which Christians, however un
worthily, may venture to hope for, considering that
God has made them partakers of this most unspeak
able gift, His Spirit abiding in them : first of all, it
would be well to consider seriously with ourselves,
how little right we can have, knowing all the evil we
do against ourselves, to look for any peculiar grace
and comfort ; next, that God's offers, how large and
gracious soever, are all held out to those who shall
k Rev. xi. 15. ' Isa. xi. 9.
¦» Ib. liv. 13. n Rom. iii. 8.
M

162 Patient waiting for promises.
approach Him in His ordinances. Persevere in them,
not so much caring Avhether they bring comfort at
the time or no, and in time you will find your re
ward. The seed so thrown into the ground, though
that ground might seem unkindly at first, will spring
and grow up, you know not how, bringing forth
"° first the blade, then the ear, after that, the full corn
in the ear."
Persevere ; in private and secret prayer, however
little good you seem to yourself to feel by it. Do
not leave it off for fear of becoming formal. If it be
but accompanied with keeping of the commandments,
it Avill do you good beyond the knowledge of man ;
just as a river, which seems to part with nothing of
its waters, and makes no immediate difference in the
look of the ground just about it, may yet, in a silent
and gradual way, feed and cherish the whole country
round. The same may be said of going to Church, and
even of receiving the Holy Communion. It is not
in any wise necessary, that persons should be. able
distinctly to feel and point out a certain good effect
on their minds and feelings, occasioned by such and
such a service or Communion. Only let them attend
decently and devoutly, and strive to be exact in all
their conduct ; and though they " Pnow go on their
way weeping," yet "bearing forth such good seed,
they will doubtless come again with joy, and bring
their sheaves with them," in the last great harvest-
day. Only look for one moment to the warnings of
past experience. Seek in the Book of the Lord, or
in the records of His Church, and see Avhether any
0 S. Mark iv. 28. p Ps. cxxvi. 6.

Patient waiting for promises. 163
one thing has done so much harm as impatience : in
making people heretics, or dissenters, or heathenish
churchmen. Has it not been generally so, that they
wished to do good, but became impatient of wait
ing, and of the wholesome restraint of the temple ?
While Angels, on the contrary, stooping from hea
ven, are content to wait God's time ; they desire to
look into the secrets of our redemption, but they
cheerfully put back the desire, and quiet it until it
shall please God to fulfil it ; and, in the mean time,
they at once obey, and that for love's sake, whatever
He would have done. May His will, by the might
of His Spirit and for the love of His Son, be so done
here on earth, as it is by them in heaven !

m 2

SEEMON XVIII.

THE BREATH OF THE MOST HIGH GOD.

WHITSUNTIDE.

Ps. civ. 30.

" Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created:
and Thou renewest the face of the earth."
These words were apparently intended to put thought
ful readers in mind of the history of the creation of
the wrorld, as we find it in the book of Genesis. ' ' The
earth was without form, and void ; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters. And God said,
Let there be light : and there was light." The work
of creation did not "begin, things did not receive
any order, nor had come into that condition which
caused the Almighty, seeing them all, to pronounce
them " very good," until the Holy Spirit of God had
"brooded upon the face of the dark void deep," as
one may imagine a bird brooding with outspread
wings, according to the force of the original word.
He brooded over it, and in some mysterious way made
it apt to obey God's commands, and to bring forth
out of its own bosom those marvellous works, which,
one after another, God called into being out of the
great deep, during those six days of creation.
In like manner, when all things were again become

The Breath of the Most High God. 165
in a manner empty and void and waste, by reason
of the mischief which the wilful sin of Adam had
caused ; when it had become quite manifest, that men
left to themselves must perish in their misery (they
can but " die, and turn again to their dust"); then
did God send forth His Holy Spirit, the Comforter
promised by our Saviour, to unite them as true mem
bers to Jesus Christ, so to new-create them, and
" renew the face of the earth." Since He came down
on the day of Pentecost, a new heaven and a new
earth has begun here among men; all things are
changed, all put in a new light, all clothed with a
kind of glory from above. So great is this change,
that the New Testament mentions it repeatedly under
the title of a "new creation," a "new birth," a
"kingdom which cannot be moved," and the like :
and the Church has always considered such Psalms
as this hundred and fourth, Avhich celebrates God's
glory in the works of the first creation, to be in their
Christian meaning, hymns of praise for the second
creation also ; for the regeneration of the world out
of wickedness and confusion, as well as for its first
birth out of disorder, and emptiness, and darkness.
The Breath of the Most High, then, mentioned in
the text, is the Holy Spirit of the Father and the
Son, the Third Person in the Blessed Inseparable
Trinity, proceeding from the Father and the Son, to
give life, and order, and harmony, to His creatures ;
especially to make His reasonable creatures, Angels
and men, partakers of His unspeakable holiness.
Therefore, the Psalm which so teaches concerning the
Breath of the Lord, is appointed to be one of the pro
per Psalms for this great day ; Almighty God having

166 The Breath of the Most High God.
so ordered this world which we see, in reference to
that better one which Ave do not see, that the one is
throughout a kind of pattern or shadow of the other ;
and the hymns of praise for the first creation, which
the book of Psalms has in many places, are suitable
to be used when we are glorifying God for this His
second and far more perfect creation, His spiritual
and eternal world.
And as the Church on Christmas-day taught us to
regard the light of the sun as a visible token of our
Saviour, according to S.John's expression, "aThat
was the true Light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world ; " so at this season she teaches
us to regard the Holy Spirit as being, in some Avon-
derful sense, the Breath of God ; as indeed the word
" Spirit " would of itself imply, for in the first place
it means " breath."
The Holy Spirit is called the Breath of God, as
being breathed out in a mysterious and marvellous
way over His whole creation, but especially into the
souls of reasonable beings, to make all in their several
measure partakers of God and of happiness. The
Holy Spirit is God secretly present, encompassing us
about, entering into us, piercing even to the very
depths of our being, like the air we breathe, unseen,
but known by its effects.
If this parable of Breath be well considered, it may
seem to account for other like parables, so to call them,
by Avhich Holy Scripture teaches us how to think of
This our most Holy Comforter. For instance, the
Holy Spirit is sometimes compared to the wind, as
in the discourse of our Saviour to Nicodemus : " b the
» S. John i. 9. * lb. iii. 8.

The Breath of the Most High God. 167
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh,
and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of
the Spirit." The wind, blowing so far and wide over
the world, invisible, but possessed often of immense
power, unknown as to Avhere it begins and ends, and
as to the rules by which it rises or falls, is set forth
as an emblem of that Spirit, Whose coming was to-day
made known to His chosen messengers by a sudden
great ' ' c sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty
. Avind," which " filled all the house Avhere they were sit
ting." So the Holy Spirit came suddenly, not accord
ing to any rules which AVe could calculate upon, but
according to God's good pleasure, when He saw the
time Avas arrived for the kingdom of heaven to be set
up. It Avas "a rushing mighty wind; " the whole
Avorld might perceive, that that there was a heavenly
power in It, which had never yet made Itself known.
"It filled all the house, where they were sitting :"
the Spirit of God shewed Himself alike in all places
of the Church at once. North, south, east, and west ;
it is the same Divine Presence and Power, accom
panying the Sacraments of Jesus Christ, and answer
ing the prayers of His people.
Thus the wind, when we hear or feel it, may re
mind us of the Breath of Almighty God ; and the
effects of the wind, the clouds which it brings over
the earth, the moisture which the air takes up, the
dews which descend, the rains which pour down, the
springs which gush out, the waters which flow ovrer
the earth ; all these are in Scripture tokens of the
same Spirit, shewing Himself in gifts and sanctify-
G Acts ii. 2.

168 The Breath of the Most High God.
ing graces, and communicating spiritual life to nis
people. Thus the cloud of Glory, in which, as well as in
the Eed Sea, the children of Israel were baptized,
was the figure, as we learn from S. Paul, of the Holy
Spirit by Whom Christians are regenerated in the
waters of Baptism.
The dew which came down at the prayer of Gi
deon, first on the fleece alone, then on all the ground
besides, leaving the fleece alone dry, betokened the
gifts of the Holy Spirit in several degrees, for a long
time given to the Jews only, then at the setting up of
Christ's Kingdom made common to all nations, and
that in an infinitely higher and more blessed way.
The manna which came down all night, silently on
every side of the camp, that too was a kind of dew
from heaven, "da gracious rain upon God's inherit
ance, refreshing it when it was weary," as another of
the Psalms appointed for this season teaches, adding,
that God's congregation was to dwell therein. The
whole Church is to dwell in the Spirit of God, as in
the air it breathes, as in the comfortable and refresh
ing dewy vapour, which makes this earth tolerable
for her to abide in.
The water gushing from the smitten rock was the
token and sign of the Holy Spirit, flowing forth from
Jesus Christ crucified to every one of His members,
even as He Himself declared : " eIf any man thirst,
let him come unto Me and drink : he that believeth
on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water." " f This" (S. John
adds) "spake He of the Spirit, Avhich they that be-
d Ps. lxviii. 9. e S. John vii. 37, 38. ' lb. 39.

The Breath of the Most High God. 169
licve on Him should receive." It is also compared to
water generally, as in the Sacrament of Baptism; and
in the vision wherein S. John saw living waters pro
ceed from the Throne of God and the Lamb, and go
out through the Avhole sacred city, "sa pure river
of water of life."
Nay, and that well-known token also of a dove,
by which the Holy Spirit manifested Himself to the
Baptist, is not altogether of a different sort from
these. For the hovering of the Holy Dove, we may
suppose, was like a soft cloud, gently wafted from
heaven to settle on the Son of God ; and this may
have been one reason why that figure in particular
was fixed on.
You see, then, what a number of common things,
the most common things in our sight, Almighty God
has set down in His Word as emblems of His Holy
and Blessed Spirit, the Teacher and Comforter of all
faithful souls. If you do but see a cloud in the sky,
you see what may remind you of Him, overshadowing
the Church with blessed consolations and promises,
coming to be the Tabernacle and Eefuge, the Home
and Shelter of all who are weary and heavy laden.
The morning and evening dews are like His refresh
ing graces, ever new, never failing, given impartially
to all, coming silently, but known by their purity
and brightness, and by the holy hope and joy and
strength, which they spread over the whole heart
and life of man ; not unlike the cheerful green, which
follows on a timely shower in spring or summer.
Nay, even such an ordinary sight as a shower of
rain is a sign of the same high Presence, if Christians
8 Rev. xxii. 1.

170 The Breath of the Most High God.
will but have the heart to believe it. It tells us of
Him Who is always ready, in answer to our true and
faithful prayers, to "send a gracious rain on His
inheritance, and refresh it" in its Aveariness.
And so, too, if we will follow the example of those
who came nearest our Lord's own time, we shall not
be ashamed to see continually, even in the wells by
our doors, or in the brooks or watercourses that we
meet with, something to remember Him by, Who has
vouchsafed, once for all, to " sanctify the element of
water to the mystical washing away of sin."
So many, and so common and cheap, are the les
sons which the works of God all around will read to
us, if we have ears to hear, concerning the ever-
blessed Spirit ; and how unspeakably deep and high,
how infinitely important, is the truth which they join
to teach! That He Who is the Finger, the Power
of God, the Holy Ghost, One with the Father and the
Son, as He is present in all His works, so is He ever
in a peculiar manner abiding in those whom He has
regenerated and made members of Jesus Christ: out
of sight, out of hearing, beyond all feeling or any
outward sense, yet infinitely nearer and closer to
every one of us than any of the things we do see,
hear, or feel, or can make out by reasoning ; ready
at hand to all His faithful ones, at every moment of
their dangerous and trying pilgrimage, to guide and
comfort, to purify and refresh them ; so that, what
ever difficulties arise, we may still say, " We are, by
Baptism, partakers of God and of Christ ; we have
once renounced and overcome the Evil one, and by
the same Power we may do so again, because 'greater
is He that is in us, than he that is in the world.'"

The Breath of the Most High God. 171
More especially Ave are hereby taught to think of
our OAvn spiritual and hidden life, the life which we
have, concealed and laid up for us with Christ in God,
the life which is altogether of faith, not at all of
sight. I say, whatever puts us in mind of the Holy
Spirit, puts us in mind of that life ; for He, as the
Belief truly tells us, is " the Lord and Giver of
life." Christ, Ave know, is our only life, as many
as truly belong to the kingdom of heaven. Now
the Holy Spirit joins us to Christ, makes us members
of Him in Holy Baptism ; keeps us so in the other
Blessed Sacrament ; and, therefore, especially is He
called "the Lord, and Giver of Life" in the Creed.
By Him "we live, and move, and have our being,"
as people of God.
Observe noAV, how well this agrees with the teach
ing both of the Old and New Testament, concerning
the heavenly operation and providence of God's
Spirit. First, the Spirit of God, moving on the face
of the waters, prepared them mysteriously for the
wonderful births, which God kept bringing out of
them, till the six days' work was over. The waters
cherished the still and dead elements, to bring forth
life when Almighty God should command. Bye and
bye, when mention is made of creating man, we read,
" The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the
earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life, and man became a living soul." What was it,
then, my brethren, that gave our first father life ?
It was the Breath of Life, the Spirit of God, breathed
from above into his nostrils. The natural life, then,
of the first Adam was a gift of the Spirit, a token of
His Divine Presence ; but much more so the spiritual

172 The Breath of the Most High God.
life, which Christians have by union Avith the second
Adam. To bring us, us I say, Avho are here present,
unworthy sinners (for every one of us was then in
His mind), to bring us to Almighty God, the Holy
Ghost first performed this great wonder, He after
wards came down from heaven in the fulness of
time, descended upon the ever-blessed Virgin Mary,
and caused our Lord to be conceived in her womb,
and to take our human nature upon Him, of her
substance, she still continuing a most pure and holy
virgin. Thus, that Christ's life might be communi
cated to us, did God's watchful love provide for Him
to be first partaker of our life ; and as our regenera
tion was to be the work of the Holy Ghost, so was
Christ's Nativity ordered in like manner.
Again, at the Baptism of our Lord, when that
water, and in it all water, was sanctified to be the
outward means of that blessed union and communion
with Christ, here also again the Holy Spirit came
down from heaven to bless the water for the purpose.
At Pentecost He came down as in cloven tongues of
fire, to quicken the dead world and make it a living
Church. In Baptism it is His gracious doing, that
we put on Christ, Who is our Life. In the Holy
Eucharist, He it is, He the most Holy Spirit, Who
comes down in answer to the prayers of His Church,
and works that unseen wonder, that the Bread and
Wine become, to those who worthily receive them h,
the Body and Blood of Christ, verily taken and
received. That is, in the Eucharist the Holy Spirit
h The author was speaking only of the benefits to the faithful
receiver, without any reference to the case of the wicked. He
held undoubtingly that the Holy Eucharist was, by virtue of the

The Breath of the Most High God. 173
comes down, to strengthen and refresh us in Christ,
Who is our Life.
Lastly, the Holy Spirit is to us a Giver of life,
because He plants even in our bodies a life-giving
seed, Christ's Body received by faith ; and it is a
pledge that we really never die, but sleep ; it is a
token, in our very outward members, that we may
look in hope for a glorious resurrection ; as S. Paul
reasons in the epistle to the Eomans, " ' If the Spirit
of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit which
dwelleth in you."
Thus is Christ's Spirit to each one of us the Lord
and Giver of Life from the beginning ; thus is He
near at hand, keeping us continually joined to Jesus
Christ, our Head, if we have not thrown His grace
quite away.
Surely, if we believe these things indeed, they will
not pass away out of our minds ; they must seem to
us so great and wonderful, so near to our own selves,
as to swallow up all other thoughts and cares in this
one, how we may shew ourselves not unworthy of
the miracles of God's mercy towards us, how we may
consecration, the Body and Blood of Christ to all ; to the members
of Christ, to unite them yet more to Christ ; to those who profaned
His Body, to their hurt. The words are equivalent to the prayer
in the Roman Missal and other Eucharistic Liturgies, "that it may
be to us the Body and Blood of Thy most dearly Beloved Son our
Lord Jesus Christ." The writer was one who cooperated with
Bishop Forbes in writing (what there was not time allowed, in
which one person could write) ' ' the theological defence for the
Bishop of Brechin," in which Eucharistic doctrine was fully set
forth. E.B.P. ' Rom. viii. 11.

174 The Breath of the Most High God,
avoid grieving that good Spirit, and forcing the Al
mighty Father to take Him from us. If we believe
that, as baptized and justified Christians, we are
really temples of the Holy Ghost, members of the Son,
partakers of the Divine Nature, even as S. Paul and
S. Peter plainly teach ; which of us can say, that he
has been or is behaving himself with that awefulness
and fear, which becomes those, to whom God is so
very nigh ? Which of us is thankful, as he ought,
to that gracious and merciful God, Who has given us
not this or that blessing, but the Gift, the gracious
and unspeakable Gift, even His Own Self, to dwell in
our hearts and bodies, to cure us of all evil, and per
fect us in every good ? Surely our condition is now,
since our Baptism, like that of God's Angels, before
any of them fell ; we are brought very near to Him,
nearer than any of us can imagine or express : our
blessings are heavenly blessings and privileges ; our
communion is with the inhabitants of heaven; we see
" jthe light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Clfrist," in His Church, and in His
Scriptures ; and we know and feel all the while that
we have as yet all our blessings, and the hope of
infinitely greater ones, on trial ; we have them to
make sure of, or to lose, for ever, according as we
try to keep God's commandments or no. This is, so
far, like the condition of the high Angels in heaven
before they fell ; or like that of our first parents in
Paradise. Let^us not, I beseech you, be so childish, as to
put off serious thoughts of this our state with the
ordinary saying, " God is merciful ; and I hope I
3 2 Cor. iv. 6.

The Breath of the Most High God. 175
shall find pardon, though I have sinned, as many
more have done." Was not He the same merciful
God, was not His mercy over all His works, when
the Angels sinned and when Adam fell, as truly as it
is now ? And yet His sentence came to pass in both
cases ; the one lost Heaven, and the other Paradise.
Whatever else we do, then, or refrain from doing, let
us at least endeavour to open our eyes, and contem
plate our real condition. The outward world indeed
is to us the same, as if we were no Christians ; the
breath of heaven is around us, the dew falls, the
winds blow, the rain descends, the waters gush out,
and all the other works of nature go on, as if we had
never been taken out of this wicked world, and placed
in the kingdom of God. But in reality, we know
that there is a meaning and power in all these com
mon things, Avhich they can have to none but Chris
tians. They are so many tokens of the Holy Ghost,
the Comforter, the Breath of God, Which proceeded
and yet proceeds from the Father and the Son, to
new-create a ruined world, to renew each one of us
in particular to a new life, the life of Jesus Christ.
That good Spirit is around us on every side ; He is
within us ; we are His temples ; we do not leave Him
behind us, when we go out of Church ; only let us so
live, that we force Him not to depart from us at last !

SEEMON XIX.

CHRIST'S BAPTISM, A TOKEN OF PENTECOST.

WHITSUNTIDE.

S. Ltjke iii. 21, 22.

"Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven
was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a
bodily shape like a dove upon Him."
Without all question, there is a deep and mysterious
connexion between the Baptism of our Saviour and
the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles.
They are, if we may so speak, parts of the same won
derful work of God, the saving Christian people by
the kingdom of heaven. Christ's Baptism was the
beginning, the coming down of the Holy Ghost on
the day of Pentecost was the middle, the Baptism of
each Christian is, in a certain sense, part of the end.
First, the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus Christ,
our Head and Surety ; then on the whole body or
assembly of the Apostles and other Christians at
Jerusalem, to make them truly Christ's Body; thirdly,
He descends upon each individual person, first in
Baptism and afterwards in Confirmation, to make
each one individually a member of that Body, a par
taker of the blessing.
Accordingly, as the heaven was opened at the

Christ's Baptism, a token of Pentecost. 177
Baptism of our Holy Lord Jesus, and the Spirit of
God was seen descending, in a bodily shape, like a
dove, and abiding upon Him, so was the heaven si
lently opened, as on this clay, ten days after the
Ascension, and the Holy Ghost was again seen and
heard, coming down with a rushing mighty sound,
with cloven tongues, like as of fire, which settled on
each of the Apostles, and they began to speak with
other tongues, as the Spirit gave each one power to
do. That is, being filled with the Holy Ghost, they
presently set about the great work, to which they
were called, of preaching to all nations in their seve
ral languages ; as our Lord, for His part, being filled
with the same Spirit, went out straightway into the
wilderness, to accomplish that great combat with the
devil, wherewith His ministry was to begin.
Our Saviour was praying, after His Baptism, when
the Holy Ghost came upon Him. So the Apostles,
when they returned from witnessing His Ascension,
continued with one accord in prayer and supplica
tion, until He sent the Comforter according to His
promise. As it was the same heavenly Person Who
came down first upon the Head and afterwards upon
the members, so there was, by God's providence, a
great resemblance between the outward tokens given
in the one case and in the other.
And one thing we shall do well to observe, for the
better understanding of the great things which God
has done for us ; that it was not one or more special
gifts of the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost, the
third Divine Person Himself, Who came down first
on our Lord and afterwards on His Church. That
Holy and Blessed Spirit has innumerable gifts and
N

178 Christ's Baptism, a token of Pentecost,
graces, Avhich, both before and after the day of Pente
cost, He divideth to every man severally as He will ;
but the greatest Gift of all, the Infinite, Unspeakable
Gift, is His coming down in His own Person to dwell
in the souls and bodies of men, join them as true
members to Jesus Christ, and cause them to have
from Christ a new and heavenly life.
It is the Holy Ghost Himself, not the gifts of the
Holy Ghost only, for which to-day we give God
thanks ; and although many gifts and graces had
been vouchsafed to favoured persons in all times be
fore, the Holy Ghost Himself had not been given.
S. John informs us, that He " a was not' 37et given,
because that Jesus was not yet glorified."
Abraham, therefore, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph and
Samuel, Moses and Joshua, Job and David, Elijah,
Daniel, and the Prophets, great and holy and good
as they were, and mightily blessed with the gifts of
God's Spirit, yet that very Spirit Itself they had not
yet, in the same sense as Christians have .It after
their Baptism : they were not yet regenerate, they
were not yet members of Christ, they were not yet
in the kingdom of heaven. This greatest blessing
they have obtained or shall obtain, in some way un
known to us, after their departure out of this world ;
as S. Paul teaches in the epistle to the HebreAVS :
"b These all, having obtained a good report through
faith, received not the promise: God having provided
some better thing for us, that they without us should
not be made perfect." But to the Church this as
tonishing change Avas Avrought openly, as on this day ;
and ever since then, every little child who is made
a member of Christ by Baptism, had thereupon the
¦' S. John vii. 39. '• Heb. xi. 39, 40.

Christ's Baptism, a token of Pentecost. 179
Holy Ghost dwelling in him, in a nearer and more
heavenly Avay than He dwelt in S. John the Baptist,
who was the greatest saint before Christ came.
We have our Lord's own word for this : " c Verily
I say unto you, Among them that are born of women
there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist ;
notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he."
So great and precious is the heavenly gift, the
Holy Comforter entering into men's hearts ; and it
could not be before this time, because that until now
"Jesus was not yet glorified." And of this, the pro
mise of the Father to Christ's members, the Spirit
descending on Christ Himself, was a Type, a First-
fruit, and a Beginning.
Now although the gifts of the Holy Ghost were
not always accompanied with outward and sensible
signs, yet the Holy Ghost Himself, descending as
He did on Our Lord and on the Church, has always,
so far as appears from Scripture, seen fit to manifest
Himself thus outwardly. When He came down on
Jesus Himself, it was "in a bodily shape like a Dove,"
and with the voice of the Almighty Father, " This
is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."
When He came down on the Church, there was an
appearance of fiery tongues, cloven tongues of fire,
that sat upon each of the Apostles. When He comes
to each one of us in Baptism, then also there is both
a sight and a voice ; the sight of the water Avherein
the person is baptized, the sound of the priest's voice
saying the holy words, " I baptize thee in the Name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
c S. Matt. xi. 11.
N 2

180 Christ's Baptism, a token of Pentecost.
So that we are no more to doubt whether an in
fant, rightly baptized, had received the Holy Spirit,
than S. John the Baptist doubted of the Spirit's de
scending and remaining on our Lord, when he had
seen the Dove and heard the voice ; no more than
Ave should have doubted, had we stood by on the Day
of Pentecost, and heard the rushing mighty wind,
and seen the cloven tongues like as of fire. Our own
Church's direction to us is, " Doubt ye not therefore,
but earnestly believe" these things.
But further, we may plainly see that those out
ward tokens of the Holy Comforter's Presence do not
only make us sure of that Presence, but also instruct
us not a little in the manner and in the greatness of
the change He works in us. Water, for example,
pure water, springing out of the earth, or dropping
from heaven by the immediate gift of God ; who sees
not at once, that it represents the refreshing and
cleansing poAver of that Divine grace, which, coming
direct from God, purifies the stain of our hearts, and
makes us strong and active to keep the command
ments ? Who is not reminded by it of the living
Avater which the Lord hath promised to give us, not
only to quench our thirst for the time, but to be in
us "da well of water springing up into everlasting
life?" Again, what signified the fiery tongues which
settled upon each of the saints on this great Day of
Pentecost ? We perceive in a moment that the
shape of tongues was intended to point out the gift
of divers languages, which was suddenly communi
cated to all of them. But why was it in the sub-
d S. John iv. 14.

Christ's Baptism, a token of Pentecost. 181
stance of fire ? Surely, because, of the searching
power of Christ's Spirit, AA'hich in a wonderful man
ner tries every man's heart, of what sort it is, pene
trating into all the dark corners of our souls, and
where it is not resisted, enlightening, warming, melt
ing all ; spreading all Avays. and transforming all into
its own nature, sometimes not without grievous
pain and suffering. Think of grace working in this
manner, and you will presently see that it is like a
refiner's fire, purifying the elect of God, and purging
them as gold and silver, that they may stand the
terrible trial of the Last Day.
Lastly and chiefly, consider well the wonderful
appearance in the text. When the Lord of all had
been baptized, and was praying, He went up straight
way out of the water, " and the Holy Ghost de
scended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him."
It is probable that the appearance of fire, or of a
bright cloud, which had taken in former times the
shape of a pillar guiding the Israelites, and which
afterwards took that of fiery tongues lighting on the
Apostles, now hovered over the Blessed Jesus in
somewhat of the form of a dove, with wings spread
ing over Him ; and we may be certain that it came
down with the gentle steady motion of a dove.
What are we to learn from this ? For we may be
sure it is not told us in vain. The second Person of
the Blessed Trinity, partly because of His unspeak
able patience, and lowliness, and innocency, is often,
we know, called a Lamb ; and doubtless we may dis
cern the same kind of reason, why the Third Person
vouchsafes to represent Himself as a Dove.
We may think, for instance, of the prayers, the

182 Christ's Baptism, a token of Pentecost.
"dovelike moanings," which this blessed Comforter
puts into the hearts of God's people. " eThe Spirit,"
says S. Paul, " helpeth our infirmities : for we know
not what we should pray for as we ought, but the
Spirit Itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered." That is a true saint's
description of the sacred Spirit of God and of Christ,
earnestly praying in the hearts of Christ's people, fill
ing them with longing desires and earnest breathings
after heavenly things, causing them to cry mightily
unto God, to thirst and long after heavenly delights,
as the hart after the rivers of waters. Herein the
Holy Ghost is like a dove, because the dove goes on
in such wistful, plaintive, longing tones, sometimes
far into the night, very often in the early morning.
They who lie awake, or who are about betimes, know
the sound very well ; and one can hardly listen to
it without feeling as if it told us, what a restless thing
this world is, and how we have need to set our hearts
on an infinitely better treasure, which as yet is far
away from us. And it goes on, like a person earnest
in prayer, still repeating the same note, as if it could
never be tired nor stop, until it had found the rest
which its soul loveth. Such is the voice of the Holy
Ghost in prayer, inwardly uttered in a Christian's
heart ; and because it is like the unwearied melan
choly tones of the dove, that may be one reason, why
the Blessed Comforter came down on our Lord in a
bodily shape like a dove.
This reason is given us by a great and holy Bi
shop, S.Augustine; and he adds another, the simple
harmless innocence of the clove ; and yet another, its
e Rom. viii. 26.

Christ's Baptism, a token of Pentecost. 183
gentle, peaceful, loving nature : whereby it becomes
the token both of truth and charity. And whereas
it is said, that the dove never forsakes its mate, this
may serve to remind us of the Infinite unchangeable
love of the Most High God, enduring for ever and
ever upon them that fear Him. His promise is, "fI
will never leave thee nor forsake thee." "sCan a
woman forget her sucking child, that she should not
have compassion on the son of her womb ? Yea, they
may forget ; yet will not I forget thee."
In these and other" ways the holy Dove is God's
token to us of the Almighty and Blessed Comforter ;
and it is also His token of the grace which He be
stows upon His Church. For such as He is, such He
would have us to be. The very purpose and glory
of our Christian calling is to bring us back to God's
Image, from which we are so sadly fallen.
"h We 'know not yet what we shall be, but wc
know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him; for we shall see Him as He is." The Church,
therefore, the sanctified, is called in Scripture a Dove,
as well as the Holy Spirit Who comes to sanctify.
The Church is called a Dove, as when it is said,
" ' My Dove, my undefiled, is but one; she is the only
one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that
bare her:" because there is but one Church, to which
all the promises are made. Again, each obedient
Christian soul too, in which Christ delights to dwell
by His Spirit, is compared to this sacred bird, the
Dove : because it is changed by the indwelling Spirit
into His own likeness; to be gentle and loving, simple
£ Heb. xiii. 5. e Isa. xlix. 15.
h 1 S. John iii. 2. ! Cant. vi. 9.

184 Christ's Baptism, a token of Pentecost.
and peaceful like Him. Thus David wishes that he
had " wings like a dove," grace and help, such as is
given to the saints, to flee away from the troubles of
the world, and be at rest in holy meditation. Thus
our Lord Himself is introduced, mercifully encourag
ing the devout soul to present herself before Him
in prayer, and tell Him all her wants. "kO my
Dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,"(that is, whose
thoughts are in the wounds of the Holy Jesus, as
the wild pigeon makes her nest in the cliffs by the
sea,) "let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy
voice." Thus that ancient dove, which Noah sent
out of the Ark, was a type of the true spiritual mind
abiding with our Lord in His Church, and finding
no rest any where else ; and Avherever her thoughts
Avander, even in this lower world, still finding tokens
of peace and hope, and humbly acknowledging God's
mercy in them, as Noah's dove returned to him and to
the Ark, with an olive-leaf plucked off in her mouth.
We see, then, our calling, Christian brethren ; we
see what our Lord would have us be ; Ave see what
especial graces and virtues He sets before us, to be
thought on, and prayed for, this high and holy day.
We are to be simple and harmless as doves. It is
His own Word ; we are to be simple and harmless.
We are to put far away from us the unchristian
fancy, that it is good to be knowing about wicked
ness. Never again, as long as we live, are we to
be ashamed of that happy ignorance, whereby God's
fatherly care would keep us out of mischief. Never
again are we to imagine, with Eve, that it becomes
us to know something of evil as well as of good.
k Cant. ii. 14.

Christ's Baptism, a token of Pentecost. 185
Eemember this in particular, you that are prepar
ing to be confirmed. The consecrated hands of the
Bishop are, we hope, soon to be spread over you, in
token of the presence and outstretched Avings of that
Dove Avhich descended on our Saviour. See, He
Avarns you, how you are to get yourselves ready for
that aweful yet blessed moment. Be "L harmless as
doves." Be " m simple .concerning evil." Makeup
your minds to that saying of a Avise man of old :
"nThe knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom, nei
ther at any time the counsel of sinners prudence."
Care not to seem clever and knowing among foolish
men ; care not for their ridicule, Avhen you knoAV you
are trying to please God.
Then, remember that Christ's Dove is undefiled ;
and think what a miserable thing it will be, should
you come to kneel before God Avith any wilful im
purity of heart and life, and bring a curse on you
instead of a blessing. Eemember that Christ's Dove
is without gall, Avithout bitterness, or malice, or
spile, or envy. She is very gentle, and has good
Avords, aye, and kind thoughts too, and prayers, for
them " that despitefully use her and persecute her."
Eemember lastly, that Christ's Dove is full of
lowly and earnest moanings to Him ; she prays and
mourns continually, because, though contented with
her condition in this world, she is ever longing to
be in a better Avorld. She thirsts for God, yea, even
for the living God : her thought by day and by night
is, """When shall I come to appear before the pre
sence of God ?"
1 S.Matt. x. 16. m Rom. xvi. 19.
" Ecclus. xix. 22. ° Ps. xiii. 2.

186 Christ's Baptism, a token of Pentecost.
My brethren, if we know in our secret hearts that
these marks of the saintly character, these tokens of
Christ's love, find as yet little in us to answer to
them, let us not rest, let us be afraid ; for it is pro
bable that we are far worse than we know : let us
be afraid, but never let us despair. We cannot in
deed enter heaven, until we are greatly changed.
But this Spirit is mighty to change us, as well as
All-Holy to hate our sins. He can do great things
in a short time, in making the proud lowly, the un
kind gentle, the worldly full of penitential love ; He
came to us in Holy Baptism, and pledged Himself
to do so, if we sincerely and with all our hearts call
upon Him in good time. Call upon Him, and seek
Him early, and you will find Him waiting at your
doors. He will prepare you to meet your Saviour,
and your Saviour will carry you into heaven.

SEEMON XX.

FORGETFULNESS IN CHRISTIANS, NO EXCUSE.

WHITSUNDAY.

S. John xiv. 26.

" The Comforter, lohich is the Holy Ghost, whom the
Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you
all things, and bring all things to your remem
brance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
Among other ways which careless people have of
getting rid of the matter easily, when they have
committed sin, one shall sometimes hear them say,
They are sorry they did wrong, but really, at the
time, the temptation was strong upon them, and
they did not recollect that it was wrong. Angry
and passionate people, for one instance, very often
employ this excuse. They seem to imagine that God
cannot be very much displeased with them, if they
can but say that what they did amiss was done in a
hurry, and without thinking.
But it is worth their considering very seriously
indeed, whether the very circumstance of their being
in a hurry, and doing bad things without thinking,
was not itself their own fault.
Not to give yourself time to think, whether what
you do is right or wrong, this surely is a sort of con-

188 Forgetfulness in Christians, no excuse.
duct very unworthy a reasonable being, who knows
that it is as much as his soul is worth, whether he
use himself to do right or wrong.
And the fact is, that this excuse of doing things
in a hurry, together with all others Avhich sinful
Christians are apt to plead for themselves, has been
completely done away with by that great mercy of
God in giving us His Holy Spirit, as on this Day, to
be^with us always, and help us to do good.
In particular, no Christian can fairly pretend to
plead his having forgotten his duty, and therefore
done wrong, after this most gracious promise of our
Lord and Saviour in the text, that the Comforter,
that is, the Holy Ghost, should not only teach His
disciples their duty, if they did not know it before,
but should also put them in mind of it, if at any
time they had forgotten it.
The words indeed were first spoken to the Apostles,
who, being to carry through the whole world the
message with which Jesus Christ had entrusted them,
might Avell fear, if left to themselves, lest they
should forget it, or remember it wrong. It was
therefore exceeding merciful and considerate, both
for them and us, to tell them beforehand, that they
would not be left to themselves : that the Holy Spirit
of God, Who alone can give man knowledge at all,
would be with them continually ; so that they should
be always able to speak or write down, Avithout any
material error, the words of Christ and the truths
of His Gospel.
By this promise we know and are sure, that the
things written in the four Gospels concerning our
Lord Jesus Christ, are the very things which He

Forgetfulness in Christians, no excuse. 189
said and did : and the lessons contained in the
epistles, the very instructions of His Holy Spirit,
telling us what Ave must do to be saved.
Because, however, by the frailty and weakness of
our mortal nature, we are in danger of forgetting,
either for a time or altogether, what we once knew
perfectly ; we also, in some measure, stand in need
of a promise like this : though we be not sent out, as
the Apostles were, to teach all nations. If they
might forget what Christ said in their hearing, we
also, especially those among us who cannot read,
may forget what they have written for our instruc
tion. We have reason, therefore, to think, that our
Blessed Saviour in the text was speaking, not to the
Apostles only, but to all who should at any time
become disciples of His. He tells them, one and all,
that it must be their own fault if they forget His
will, any part of it that is necessary to salvation.
For He, in compassion to their infirmities, gave them,
when they were baptized, His Holy Spirit, to teach
them their duty, and bring it to their remembrance.
But then, in order to be taught, they must be
willing to learn. They must steadily make up their
minds to do their duty, when they know it; and
they must ask God to teach it them, with a sincere
and hearty goodwill. Then they are sure, upon the
word of an Apostle, not to be left in ignorance. For
S. James has said, " a If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, Who giveth unto all men liberally,
and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him."
The true cause, then, of men's forgetting, or being
ignorant of, their duty, is their not praying to God
a S. James i. 5.

190 Forgetfulness in Christians, no excuse.
as they ought. Perhaps they say over some prayers
every day ; but they do not in their hearts desire
the thing they pray for. They say in the Lord's
prayer, " Deliver us from evil;" but they do not seri
ously wish, while they say so, to be delivered from
their bad desires and foolish fancies, their worldly
hopes and expectations, their false pleasures and
profits. Again, whenever they join in the Communion
Service, they pray that God would incline their hearts
to keep all His laws, one as much as another ; and
would write them in their hearts. But while they
say those words, they are perhaps thinking of some
thing else. For all such prayers as these, there may
yet be some favourite sin, from Avhich they do not
even wish to be delivered. It is no wonder, if men
go on in such devotion all their lives long, and are
never at all the better for it. And yet, for all this, it
may be, and is, quite true, that no man, who sin
cerely keeps asking of God to teach him his duty,
will ever, in any thing of consequence, be left in
ignorance or forgetfulness of it.
Not that Christians are to expect, in answer to
their prayers, any thing like sudden illumination or
inspiration from God Almighty. This is a fancy of
some persons, who do not enough consider the differ
ence between earth and heaven. If ever, by God's
great mercy, we shall be so happy as to come there,
God will speak to us, as it were, face to face, and we
shall have no trouble to find out His will. But here,
when our sins have put such a distance between us
and Him, we must not expect such favours. We
must humbly and patiently do our best, and leave
every thing else to Him : remembering always, that

Forgetfulness in Christians, no excuse. 191
our great business, the purpose for which we are to
pray, and live, and do all things, is, not to be com
fortable here, but safe hereafter.
Although, however, we are not to expect that the
Holy Spirit should pour into our hearts any sudden,
sensible comfort, in answer to our most earnest pray
ers ; yet it is easy for us to see, in some measure,
how our continually praying for grace should help
to keep us continually from sin. We never pray to
God in earnest, without seriously considering and
bringing it to our minds, that He is with us. If we
pray to Him on a journey, we must recollect that He
is about our path ; if in our chamber, that He is about
our bed : in short, wherever we are, we cannot use
thoughtful prayer without having it strong upon our
minds, that God " spieth out all our ways." Now
although the folly and misery of man is so great,
that not even this recollection will always keep a
person from private sins, yet no doubt it very often
does so. If he still indulge bad thoughts, yet this
remembrance of God's Presence makes them more
uneasy to him, and gives him, so far, a fairer chance
to repent of them and forsake them.
And hence the saying which I have often heard,
that you cannot keep your prayers and your sins to
gether. This would hardly be true, if it were spoken
of such prayers, as the generality, it is to be feared,
are content with. We see and know by sad experi
ence, that men may keep up some sort of prayer,
both in public and in private, along with many of
the sins which God most hates. But that sort of
prayer, which in earnest brings with it the remem
brance of our Maker's Presence : this, indeed, it is

192 Forgetfulness, in Christians, no excuse.
hardly possible to continue for many years, and yet
to go on carelessly in what we know will displease
Him. One of the two, the habit of praying with
thought, or the habit of sinning wilfully, must, one
should think, wear out the other, in no very long
time. Prayer, therefore, as being a kind of holy medita
tion, and as bringing the Presence of Almighty God
continually to our remembrance, is, of itself, likely
to keep a man out of much mischief.- But over and
above what it is of itself, there is the promise of
Jesus Christ added to it, that His Father will give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him : that is, the
Spirit of God, God Himself, will be always at hand,
to keep those, who pray as they ought, from forget
ting their duty.
For a Christian, then, to complain, that he cannot
recollect his duty in the hour of temptation, is a sort
of excuse which only makes bad, worse ; for it is
affronting God, in supposing that He is not at hand
to fulfil His own. promise. A poor man must not
complain of being cruelly starved, when he knoAVS
he may have what he wants, upon merely asking for
it : neither must a sinner plead that he has not grace
to think of what he ought to do, now that he knoAvs
of the Holy Comforter, Who is come to bring all
Christ's sayings to the remembrance of His people.
Besides, let us consider for a moment, what sort
of things they are, in excuse for which we hear Chris
tian people pleading this sort of forgetfulness. It is
not in nice and hard points ; but in such plain and
necessary duties, as one would think no one could
mistake ; things, in which forgetting is itself a great

Forgetfulness in Christians, no excuse. 193
sin, since it could not happen without a shameful
carelessness about right and wrong.
Thus, men wrong and cheat their neighbours, and
yet lie down at night with a quiet conscience, and
think they have done nothing strange or shocking,
because they forget that every Christian is a brother
to them; and that, in robbing and cheating him, they
are robbing and cheating a brother.
Now this is a thing which they cannot be excused
for forgetting ; any more than a mother could be ex
cused, if she had cast off the care of her child, till
she forgot that it was her's, and so came to use it
unkindly. Again, Christian men and women allow themselves
to indulge wrong desires, and fall into sins, which
are not fit to be named among us ; because they for
get what God has threatened to all such. They do
not consider that, by pleasing themselves now with
forbidden things, they wilfully give up their bodies
hereafter to the worm that never dieth, and the fire
that never shall be quenched. They do not call to
mind what God's Spirit has plainly enough taught
thenj ; that it is madness to give themselves up to
such things, unless they have made up their minds
to dwell with the devouring fire, with everlasting
burnings. Now you see plainly, that such forgetfulness, be
ing altogether their own fault, is itself a great sin,
so far from being an excuse for other sins.
Suppose a father had warned his son very earnest
ly, not to steal, not to swear, not to tell lies, or any
thing else of that sort, which every child knows to be
wrong. Would the father take it for a good excuse,
o

194 Forgetfulness in Christians, no excuse.
if the son did the very thing forbidden, and said he
forgot that his father had told him any thing about it ?
But if, besides speaking to him earnestly himself,
the father had left a friend to be with his son always,
and keep his warnings fresh in his mind : then the
excuse of forgetting, Avhich Avould be foolish enough
in any case, would be a much more wicked and un
dutiful mockery.
Now, this is just the case with Christians. They
have not only the commandments of Jesus Christ, to
let them know His will ; but they have His Spirit
also abiding with them, like a friend whom He has
trusted, to put them in mind continually, when they
are tempted to do amiss.
We may very well judge, then, what sort of an
answer God Almighty will make at the last Day to
those Christians who plead forgetfulness, when, if
they would, they might have had grace to call upon
Him in all temptation. And He is never far from
those, who call on Him in good earnest.
In like manner, all the excuses, which ill-minded
Christians employ, to keep themselves easy in their
sins, are done away with, when it is once known,
that the Holy Spirit is among us ; as we are taught
by His wonderful descent upon the Apostles, as on
this Day.
We cannot now lay upon our corrupt nature the
blame of what we do amiss ; since, however bad that
may be, God Himself is at hand to cure it, if we will
apply to Him.
We cannot say, it was all bad example : since here
we are assured of the assistance of the Holy Ghost,
to turn our thoughts from the base and evil things

Forgetfulness in Christians, no excuse. 195
we see around us, to the pure and blessed conversa
tion of good men in times past, or of angels in heaven.
We cannot say, it was too much to expect from
weak mortals, that they should resist the enticing
customs of the world, when we consider Avhat power
and support it is, which we have given us to lean on ;
the power and support of the Spirit of God, God
Himself. In short, when once a man believes, after a Chris
tian manner, in the Holy Ghost ; believes that he,
however poor and mean, is yet, as a Christian, the
Temple of God, and has the Spirit of God dwelling in
him, from that time all excuses for sin are taken
away, and it becomes indeed, as S. Paul calls itb, most
"exceeding sinful." It becomes like the rebellion
of those Jews, who cried out against God and Moses,.
while the cloud was overshadowing the tabernacle
in their sight ; or like the sin of Balaam, who went
on in his covetousness, when he saw the Angel of
the Lord with his sword drawn in his hand.
If people will disobey God wilfully under such
circumstances, Ave have great reason to believe they
would disobey Him in heaven itself, as the devil
and his angels did ; and therefore they can no more
reasonably expect to come to heaven, than the fallen
angels can expect to return thither.
Such is the aweful, but most true notion, which
the Church to-day would teach to every Christian
concerning wilful sin and forgetfulness of God, when
found in any soul that has been baptized, and that
has received, of course, the grace of the Holy Ghost.
It is no wonder, then, that the devil should always
b Rom^vii. 13.
o 2

196 Forgetfulness in Christians, no excuse.
have done his best to root this doctrine out of the
minds of God's people ; to make them forget, if pos
sible, that the Spirit of God dwelleth in them. And
sad experience shews, that it is but too possible, nay,
easy for him, to keep such thoughts out of men's
minds, that they may the more freely indulge them
selves in their sins.
For can any one think, that such sort of Christians,
as one commonly sees in the world, have really any
serious consideration of God's Holy Spirit, as dwell
ing in them, and being in them ? They could not be
so easy in their secret sins, could not so composedly
go about to defile themselves with all sorts of base
pleasures, if they really laid this truth to heart ; that
they are doing all this, not only in sight of their
God, but, while He is, as it were, speaking to them
expressly, and coming close to them, to hinder them
from such sins.
It is, therefore, the purpose of our adversary, the
devil, to prevail upon us either to neglect this truth
altogether, or tq think of it amiss : as though the
gift of the Spirit were partial, and as if (though He
may have come to some Christians in this particular
way) He had not come to us ; in which case, we
persuade ourselves, we have less to answer for.
This being the purpose of Satan, our purpose, of
course, must be just the contrary, if we would save
our souls. We must hold fast the doctrine of the
catechism. We must "believe in God the Holy
Ghost, Who sanctifies us and all the elect people of
God," all Christians whatever; and believing, we
must do all our best, that we receive not the grace
of God, His last and greatest favour, in vain.

SEEMON XXI.

BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY GHOST.

WHITSUNDAY.

Acts i. 5.

"John truly baptized with ivater; bid ye shall be bap
tized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
Our Saviour here makes a promise, which sank deep
into the heart of the holy Apostles, and was under
stood by them to be very full of mysterious and gra
cious meaning. He was just on the point of de
parting out of their sight, and sitting down at His
Father's Eight Hand : and He turns their thoughts
more and more to the great Promise which had al
ways been the end of His preaching : the promise
of the Holy Ghost to come down from the Father,
and set up the kingdom of heaven. He renews this
promise to them for the last time in such a way, as
to signify that it was connected, in some mysterious
way, with the former baptism of S. John, though
that was by water only, this with the assured Pre
sence and Power of the Blessed Spirit also. " John
truly baptized with water ; but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost." It was the great point of our
Lord's farewell blessing. No wonder that the blessed
Apostles treasured it up in their minds, and applied

198 Baptism with the Holy Ghost,
it more than once as a prime law and rule of the
kingdom of heaven. Thus S. Peter, Avhen he was
blamed for admitting Cornelius and other Gentiles
into the Church as well as the Jews, told them hoAV
he had seen with his eyes the Holy Spirit come down
upon them, and how that heavenly sight recalled to
his mind our Lord's own Avords. "aAs I began to
speak," says the holy Apostle, " the Holy Ghost fell
on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remem
bered I the word of the Lord, hoAV that He said,
John indeed baptized Avith water, but ye shall be
baptized with the Holy Ghost." And so S. Paul long
after, finding certain disciples at Ephesus Avho kneAV
no baptism but that of John, spoke unto them as one
who would have them think so seriously of the bap
tism of S. John, which had gone before, as to receive
Christ, Who came after, the better and more truly
for it. When they said, they had been baptized
Avith John's baptism, S.Paul's answer was, "bJohn
verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, say
ing unto the people, that they should believe on
Him Avhich should come after him, that is, on Christ
Jesus." And in his last regular discourse to the
Jews, Avhich being rejected, he turned to the Gen
tiles: "cGod, according to His promise, hath raised
unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus : when John had first
preached, before His coming, the baptism of repent
ance to all the people of Israel."
By all these places it is very evident, that there
is some deep and heavenly connection between the
beginning and the end of the Gospel : the baptism
of S. John, and that of the Holy Ghost. Between
a Acts xi. 15, 16. b lb. xix. 4. c lb. xiii. 23, 24.

Baptism with the Holy Ghost. 199
these two, I say, there is such a connection, as all
would do well to take notice of: our Lord Himself
recommending it to the very serious thoughts of all
His people. So too at the beginning of the Gospel,
we find, on the other hand, no less distinct reference
to this, the designed crown and end of it. The very
form and object of S. John the Baptist's ministry
was, as we all know, by baptizing with Avater, to pre
pare the way for One Who should baptize Avith the
Holy Ghost. Twice indeed, to a few chosen disciples
he said, "Behold the Lamb of God :" but to the whole
multitude his saying Avas (before he knew for certain
that Jesus of Nazareth Avas the Person), " dI indeed
baptize you Avith water unto repentance, but He that
cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I
am not worthy to bear : He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire." And after he had come
to know Jesus (by what occurred at His Baptism),
still when he had to speak of Him to the multitude,
it does not appear that he pointed out to them His
very Person, or spoke of His being the Lamb of
God, but he spoke generally, and described our Lord
as before. "eThere standeth One among you, Whom
ye knoAV not, of Whom I said, He cometh after me
but is preferred before me : He shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." The Baptism
with the Holy Ghost was that great thing, which
they to whom Christ was preached were taught to
look on to from the beginning : it was (if I may say
so) the Sign of the Son of Man. So that when it
actually took place, in that wonderful manner, as
on this day, Christians and especially the Apostles,
d S.Matt. iii. 11. e S. Johni. 26. 27. S. Luke iii. 16.

200 Baptism with the Holy Ghost.
looked back to the sayings of S. John, and said to
themselves, " Now we know their meaning, now we
see how God has been gradually preparing us for
this His greatest work of all, the setting up of His
kingdom by the coming of His Spirit to dwell in
the souls and bodies of His people."
In particular, they would then seem to know, bet
ter than ever they had known before, concerning the
astonishing Baptism of our Lord Himself. They
would perceive that there was a sort of mysterious
connection and correspondence between S.John's bap
tizing our Lord with water, and the whole Church
being baptized by Christ Himself with the Holy
Ghost. The Church, we know, is the Body of Christ.
His natural Body is in many respects a kind of Type
of that spiritual Body, of which His Person is the
Head, and which has all its life from Him, made
manifest in the flesh. The water therefore poured
upon His visible Body by S. John Avas a token and
type of the baptismal water, by which sinners were
in all time to be -born again and made members of
Him. And the Holy Ghost, which descended in a
bodily shape like a Dove and lighted upon Him, was
a type and token of the same Holy Spirit descending,
as in cloven tongues, like as of fire, Avith a hovering,
perhaps, and dove-like motion, and settling on His
Mother and His disciples, the first members of His
mystical Body. Who knows too but the sound as of
a rushing mighty wind, Avhich came suddenly from
heaven, and filled all the house where they were sit
ting, might answer in some wonderful way to the
voice from heaven, Avhich said, " Thou art My belov
ed Son ; in Thee I am well-pleased?" seeing that those

Baptism with the Holy Ghost. 201
who then received the Spirit were truly made sons
of God, adopted by Him as true members of Christ
Jesus, and thenceforth, their eyes being enlightened,
they discerned in all the house where they were
sitting, in all the Church and the world around them,
nothing but voices and tokens of His mysterious
Presence. As many as receive Him, to them He
gives the privilege thus to become the sons of God,
even to them who believe on His Name. He gives
them power, not only to be accounted, but really to-
become, His children, by true Sacramental union
with Christ His Son.
Thus it may appear that our Lord's Baptism by
S. John was the pledge and in a manner the begin
ning of His Church's Baptism by Himself. He then,
as our Head, received the Holy Ghost for us. He
was anointed with It ; so S.Peter speaks, "anointed
with the Holy Ghost and with power." And as the
precious oil upon the High Priest's head "ran doAvn
unto the beard and went clown to the skirts of his
clothing," so the Holy Spirit, poured upon the Head
of the Church, did on this day begin to flow over her
members, one and all, and shall do so until the end
of the Avorld, when she shall have attained her full
stature, and the number of those chosen to be graft
ed into her shall be complete. Behold here, as in all
things, the merciful condescension of our Eedeemer:
how when He wanted nothing, He condescended to
receive all, that we might receive it through Him.
That He might baptize us, He consented to be bap
tized Himself: that He might confirm us, to be con
firmed : that He might ordain some among us, to
be ordained. For so the Holy Scriptures and the

202 Baptism with the Holy Ghost.
Church represent the deep meanings of His Baptism
by S. John. By His heavenly touch He sanctified
the waters, not only of Jordan, but of all the earth,
to the mystical washing away of sin : by receiving
the Holy Ghost presently afterwards, He sealed to
us not only the baptismal Gift, but also that further
Gift of the Spirit, which the Church teaches us to
call Confirmation. And since S. Paul affirms that
the saying, "Thou art My Son, this day have I be
gotten Thee," was the Father's commission to glorify
Christ as our High Priest f, we have reason to think
that His Baptism, so far, was a pledge of that holy
gift also, which He gave His Apostles, when He made
them priests in His Church. And in a word : for
whatever holy and divine purposes God intended to
give the Spirit, in due time, to the Church and her
members ; for all of them together we believe that
He gave the same Spirit to the Divine and most mer
ciful Head of the Church. Christ received the Holy
Ghost without measure, that unto every one of us He
might give grace, according to the measure which He
saw to be proper for each.
Since it was for us only, not at all for Himself,
that He received that good Spirit, we need not fear
to say and believe the very highest things regard
ing the privileges, with which He has endowed His
Church and kingdom, for which He hath obtained
that unspeakable Gift. We may truly say, that as
He was anointed to be Prophet, Priest and King, so
His Holy Spirit has anointed His Avhole Church, and
what is more, each particular Christian, to be in
some sort prophet, priest and king in His stead.
The Church, Christ's Body on earth, is a prophet in
f Heb. v. 5

Baptism with the Holy Ghost. 203
our Lord's absence, because the Spirit which dwells
in her is a Spirit of prophecy, enabling her to foretel
things to come, guiding her into all truth, opening
her understanding, that she may understand the
Scriptures. As Christ's prophet, and our teacher un
der Him, the Church has provided us with Creeds,
declaring to us the true meaning of the Holy Bible,
and which of all the truths Avhich it teaches are par
ticularly necessary to salvation. And not only in
Creeds, but in Liturgies and in catechisms and in
many other Avays, the holy Church throughout all
the world does the office of a prophet to God's peo
ple, Avarning them of their duty, calling their atten
tion to God's written Word, giving them sure tokens
Avhen He is especially near them, shewing them how
He will be praised and worshipped, what prayers and
Sacraments they should offer Him. Nay, and all the
Lord's people too are prophets, now that He hath
put His Spirit within them : they all know Him,
from the least to the greatest, so far as that He has
made them aware of their duty : they know what
great things He has done in coming into the world
and dying for them, and how infinite the consequence
of their hearing or refusing to hear. They are pro
phets, because they can look on into eternity. They
are prophets, because they have in them the Holy
Spirit of the Father and the Son, teaching them, in
answer to their diligent prayer, what to do and what
to avoid.
Again, Christians are priests likewise, and kings :
" s a royal priesthood, a peculiar people." So speaks
S. Peter : and S. John gives glory " hunto Him that
« 1 S. Pet. ii. 9. " Rev. i. 5, 6.

204 Baptism with the Holy Ghost.
loved us, and washed us from our sins in His OAvn
Blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God
and His Father." And the whole Church is, so far,
made partaker of Christ's priestly office, as that she
is entrusted by Him to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
to do that in remembrance of Him, which He did
the night before His death, in order to our being all
made partakers of His most blessed Body and Blood.
The Apostles indeed and their ordained successors
only have commission to do it with their hands ; but
in virtue and effect it is the offering of all Christians,
for themselves and for one another. So indeed are
all her solemn prayers and intercessions. If it is a
great thing to have one righteous man praying ear
nestly and fervently for us, much more to have the
whole Church : because the Church is the Body of
Christ, anointed with His Spirit, the Spirit of grace
and supplication, and encouraged to intercede for
His members by very special promises. And in that
she sacrifices and intercedes, she is so far a Priest.
The grace of His mediatorial office runs Over, as it
were, and is communicated, in a lower and ministerial
sense, to His Church.
Now as to our Lord's third office, that of King on
His throne : the sayings of Scripture are quite ex
press, that we shall reign with Him for ever: that
such as overcome shall sit with Him on His throne :
that we are even now raised with Christ to sit with
Him on God's right hand in the heavenly places.
And it is the same, where either Prophets or Apos
tles make mention of the whole Church as one. She
is called the bride of the Lamb, Who is King of kings,
and Lord of lords. She is the queen, " the king's

Baptism with the Holy Ghost. 205
daughter, all glorious within," standing on the right
hand of Him Who is most mighty. To her is given
that kingdom and dominion, which all people nations
and languages are to own and obey for ever : before
which the kingdoms of the world are to become as
dust, carried away by the whirhvind. Thus is the
holy Catholic Church invested with her Lord's
kingly office also, anointed to it with the Holy
Ghost in mystery and type at His Baptism, and
really on the Day of Pentecost, when the kingdom of
heaven began.
What could the Lord have done more for His
vineyard, that He hath not done in it ? What if
after all, Avhen He looks that we should bring forth
grapes, He finds us bringing forth no better than
wild grapes ? The same Scriptures, which instruct
us so largely in the Church's privileges and our own,
teach also no less plainly, what fruit He expects both
of the Church and of us her members. The Spirit
which rested first upon our Lord in Baptism, then
upon His whole Church at the Day of Pentecost,
thirdly, on each of us individually, when we were
baptized and made members of Christ : this Holy
Spirit the Lord declares by His prophet to be the
Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of
Counsel and Might, the Spirit of Knowledge and of
the Fear of the Lord. Wisdom first, and Understand
ing: that is, as it may seem, right thoughts concern
ing those things both in heaven and in earth, which
Christian people ought to pursue and seek after.
These are the first tokens of God's Spirit : a true
judgement of things eternal, as compared with things
temporal, and of things in this world, as they may

206 Baptism with the Holy Ghost.
or may not be made helps towards eternal blessings.
We have reason then to hope, that we have not for
feited or thrown away the Blessed Spirit of God
given us at our Baptism, if we find and feel that
eternal things take up the chief place in our will and
mind, and that we use to measure other things by
the hurt or good they do to our immortal souls.
Again, Christ's Spirit is a Spirit of Counsel and
Might. He shews people the right way to obtain
what they seek after, and gives them the heart, the
courage, the good will, to set at once about that way,
however disagreeable to flesh and blood. It is a
good sign as to our having the Spirit, when we are
ready at once to do those things which our consci
ence tells us ought to be done, without asking ques
tions, without making excuses or difficulties. When
we are bold to say at once to foolish irreligious friends
and companions, " I will not go with you in sin, and
there is an end of it: " when we make ourselves good
rules, or what is still better, observe the good rules
of the Church, and keep resolutely to them ; Avhen
we mind the laughter of idle people less and less,
and the secret whisperings of our conscience more and
more: when, having considered beforehand and made
up our minds what is right to be done, and strength
ened ourselves with prayer and Holy Communion,
we steadily deny ourselves in order to perform our
good intentions, not listening to our own indolent
scruples nor to the frivolous objections of men : all
these are good marks of our still being possessed
with the Spirit of Counsel and Might, Who was
given us at our Baptism.
But most especially He is the Spirit of Knowledge

Baptism ivith the Holy Ghost. 207
and of the Fear of the Lord. Those who have not in
any degree made void His gracious influences have
a sort of inward light Avithin them; an instinct, such
as that by which children know their parents, which
tells them at once what ought to be done, without
long calculation and reasoning. And most especially
He causes the Fear of the Lord to be present with
us. He brings it home to our hearts, that God is
looking on ; that whatever we do, must not be done
at random, seeing an account is surely taken of all ;
an account, the result of which will no less surely
be made known to men and Angels, when Jesus
Christ comes to judge us. When we have this
thought entirely rooted in our minds, and the dread
ful picture of the last Day filling our hearts and
imaginations, so that we are really afraid to sin, and
ashamed to be cold and lukewarm in serving God :
then may we hope that the sacred Spirit, of Whom
we were born again unto righteousness, has in no
wise departed from us : then may we trust the Lord
Almighty, that we have still the portion which He
freely gave us in His Son : then may we, in all hu
mility and thankfulness, endeavour to go on unto
perfection, without such restless, devouring anxiety,
as if we had still the first foundations to lay.
This is what Christ would have us be, whom He
hath Himself baptized with the Holy Ghost : and
what we might all be at this moment, had we duly
kept, according to our power, the covenant we then
made with God in Him. This is what we might be,
and what He gave us power to be. What we are,
is another question : a most painful one for very
many of us to answer, yet one which must be laid

208 Baptism with the Holy Ghost.
to heart and sincerely answered, as in the Presence
and hearing of Him Whom we cannot deceive : else
we shall but go on from bad to worse ; and any peace
and calm of mind we may now seem to enjoy will
prove no better than a deceitful soul -destroying
dream, from which we shall awake before long to
everlasting incurable shame and anguish. Let us
not shrink from asking ourselves, again and again,
every day of our lives, the serious question, "Am I
living as one who has been baptized with the Holy
Ghost, made one with Christ, endowed with grace to
be in some true sense a king, a priest, a prophet
under Him ? Am I wise to love heaven, really,
better than earth ; strong to keep my good resolu
tions;, full of humility and fear, as constantly re
membering the last dreadful day?" Let every man's
own heart make him the true answer to these most
aweful questions : let him compare what he is with
what he might be : and then although, blessed be
God, there is no ground for despair in any, yet surely
there will be found in most of us deep reason for
humiliation and penitence through the whole time
of our life : too happy, if even so we may be for
given and saved at last !

SEEMON XXII.

THE FREE GIFTS OF GOD.

WHITSUNDAY.
1 Cob. ii. 12.

"We have received, not the spirit of the ivorld, but
the Spirit ivhich- is of God, that we might know
the things which are freely given us of God."
The Church's collect for Whitsunday mentions two
gifts of the Holy Ghost, and instructs us to pray for
them together. Those two gifts are Wisdom and
Joy, " to have a right judgement in all things, " and
" evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort." We, the
Christians who are now living, when we say that
collect, put our Lord in mind of what He did for the
first Christians on the first Whitsunday. He "taught
the hearts of His faithful people, by sending upon
them the light of His Holy Spirit." Such sayings
represent to us the condition of Christians, here in
this present world, as being, in some respects, like
that of children in a school. Christ our Teacher ;
His Creed our lesson ; our hearts the tablet on which
that lesson is written ; His Spirit, that by which it
is written : as S. Paul says of his own instructions,
that they were written "anot with ink, but with the
a 2 Cor. iii. 3.

210 The free gifts of God.
Spirit of the Living God ; not in tables of stone, but
in fleshy tables of the heart." So it is now, and so
it has been from the beginning. Men think that
they learn Christian knowledge at school, by read
ing such and such lessons, getting by heart the an
swers to such and such questions. And it is very
true that such things, rightly used, are helps to
knowledge ; but they are not the same as Christian
knowledge by a great deal ; they are but words, in
which a child, yea or a man, may be perfect, and yet
not know anything really of Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. To learn certain words and sayings, and
the history, how certain things happened, is what
any may do for himself, if he will take the trouble.
The spirit of the world, that is, men's natural skill
knoAvledge and understanding, what they are born
Avith, or what they obtain by experience, will enable
them to say the right words ; but it will never help
them to have the right thoughts. The Apostles,
they might have known in other ways, as Pilate and
the chief priests knew, the things which happened
about the Death and Passion of our Lord; but to know
the power and virtue of that Death, to enter into the
true spirit and meaning of it, that is what the whole
world and all its wisdom could never have taught
anyone. That kind of knowledge must be God's
special teaching : the Apostles, to have that know
ledge, received, not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God. The Third Person in the
Blessed Trinity, Whom Christ our Lord sent down
as on this day to dwell in men's hearts, uniting them
to Himself, He only could teach us really to knoAV,
what we may easily enough teach ourselves to an-

The free gifts of God. 211
swer and talk about, the things Avhich are freely
given us of God, the great matters which He has
done for us, for no merit of ours, but entirely of His
free gift. We can neither judge of these things
rightly, nor rejoice in them holily, without Him.
What a great and wonderful thought is here ! That,
whenever a person thinks worthily on the secrets
of God as made known to us in the Bible by the
Church, that person is under the immediate teaching
of God's Spirit : he is partaker, in some slight mea
sure, of that which is called inspiration : the Breath
of God is breathed into him, more or less, in the same
sort of way as it was breathed of old into the Apos
tles and Prophets. What a fearful thing, then, must
it be, for any one to deal carelessly and irreverently
with Christian instruction ; which, so far as it is any
thing real and good in any wise, is the very teaching
of the Most High and Holy God, the Wisdom from
above conversing with us, not face to face, nor word
to word, but, as a holy Bishop once said, " thought
to thought." Truly we know not what we do, when
we turn away from such good and holy meditations.
Still less, when, having been favoured with them,
we depart to our old ways, our old sins. And even
when men fall short of such extreme impiety, it is
no small guilt and danger which they bring on them
selves, by talking and thinking of the ways of God
and Christ without deep and due humility, as in
God's presence. So our Lord warned the Jews,
when they received disrespectfully His sayings con
cerning the Bread which came down from Heaven.
"bMurmur not among yourselves : no man can come
b S. John vi. 43, 44.
P 2

212 The free gifts of God.
unto Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me,
draw him." "cNo man can come unto Me, except it
be given him of My Father. " As if He had said, ' ' you
think, the truths of the Gospel, the meaning of the
Scriptures, the lessons of the Churcli, are matters on
which you may use your judgement, just as on things
of this world, relying on your own skill and sense.
Be not deceived: it is not so. Left to your own skill
and sense, you will surely go wrong in these things.
If you are right in them, it is only because the Father
is drawing you to Him by His Spirit." Think ear
nestly on this, and let it make you very humble,
very full of fear and reverential awe, like persons
Avho, being present at some aweful religious cere
mony, scarce dare lift up their eyes or draw their
breath : like Moses, when he hid his face and was
afraid to look upon God : like our Lord's disciples,
when at various times they were afraid to ask Him
questions, knowing, as S. John says, that He Avas
the Lord. So ought we all to tremble and restrain
ourselves, when divine matters are spoken or thought
of, those matters, Avhich we know the Holy Ghost has
kept for His own especial teaching.
S. Paul in the text speaks especially of "the things
which are freely given us of God." "The Spirit which
is of God," he says, helps us to know about those
things : the spirit of the world, mere human skill or
learning, never could have obtained us that know
ledge. Consider for a moment what these things
are," freely given us of God,"the knowledge of which
is so divine and aweful. Some of them are already
bestowed on us in this world : for some we must wait
c S. John vi. 65.

The free gifts of God. 213
until it please Him to bring us to a better world.
Now already, even in this world, we are, by the spe
cial working of the good Spirit, born again ; already
in this world we are made " members of Christ, chil
dren of God, inheritors of the kingdom of heaven."
We have learned to say this long ago : Ave have said
it over and over, as often as we have said our cate
chism : but are we used, really and in earnest, to me
ditate upon it ? How often do we try to withdraw
our thoughts from the company and concerns of this
present world, and to fix them on this great truth,
that we are members of Christ ; really and truly
united to Him Who was made Man and died for us
on the Cross ? How often have we said to ourselves,
when temptation came near, and we were in danger
of evil thoughts, " Do we not know that our bodies
are members of Christ ? Shall I then bear the thought
of taking the members of Christ and making them
the members of an harlot? " Do we, or do we not,
force ourselves to respect and love all Christians that
come in our way, considering that they, as well as
we, are members of Him Who died on the Cross ; of
His Body, of His flesh and of His bones ?
Again, God has freely given us to be His own chil
dren. We may say to Him, "Abba, Father." We
may kneel before Him as often as Ave please, say
ing, "Our Father, which art in heaven." What have
we done, what are we doing, in the way of earnest
meditation on this great gift ? How many troubles
have we borne patiently, from a deep conviction
and feeling, " It is our Father; He knows best; He
doth not afflict willingly ?" How many good works
have we set about, not for any present or worldly

214, The free gifts of God.
purpose, but with sincere purpose, that our Father's
Name should be honoured and His Will done? How
frequently have we ventured on what we know to be
right, not minding the foolish wonder and unkind
sayings, which we might bring on ourselves, so long
as we could but obtain approbation from our Father
out of sight ?
But God freely gave us also to be "inheritors of the
kingdom of heaven." When, of ourselves we were
but dust and under sentence to return to dust, for
our own and our father's sins, He breathed into us
by His Spirit the breath of everlasting life ; He gave
us the hope of reigning for ever Avith Christ. Look
back, my brethren : remember your own ways of
thought. How much of your daily time and care is
taken up with recollection of this great thing ? How
near have you come as yet to the good advice of the
wise man, "dWhatsoever thou takest in hand, re
member the end." Eemember the great end of all
things: remember death and judgement : remember
eternity: remember that what you now do will make
a difference to you for ever. Have these been your
sayings to yourself to-day ? or yesterday ? or the
day before that ? Have you ever made it a rule to
have such thoughts ?
These are some of the good gifts, which Christ gave
us when He made us Christians : and He gave them
quite freely. We had not done, we could not do any
thing, to win for ourselves so great blessings. We
were but little infants in our nurses' arms, unable
to have any thoughts of our own at all : and as full
of natural corruption, as much by our own nature
4 Ecclus. vii. 36.

The free gifts of God. 215
inclined to evil, as any of the millions born in hea
then lands, or before the coming of Christ, whom
God never called to Himself in this world, at all.
This is our election : and we ought to think more of
it than we do. We ought to be more thankful than
we are, for not having been born or left among those,
who never had the chance of being made members of
Christ. They are by very far the greater part of
mankind. Even at this present time there are sup
posed to be in the world, by hundreds of millions,
more unbelievers than believers. Who elected and
chose us out ; us, I say, who are here present, that
we should be here in Christ's portion, rather than
far away in the portion of the enemy ? Surely this
also is much to be thought upon, that every one of
these great things is freely given to us of God. They
are all of grace, not of debt. They came not of our
works or deservings ; they were a mere and pure gift,
as much as our life and being was so.
God's gifts to us in Holy Baptism were freely
given ; yet when we think of them under the gui
dance of His Spirit, we shall remember that they are
not yet absolutely ours : we may forfeit them, if we
choose to do so. We never could have won them
for ourselves, but we may lose them for ourselves.
This also is a point to be much borne in mind. If
you think of the privileges of Christianity as being
yours for certain, you have great reason to fear that
your thoughts are breathed into you by the spirit of
the world, not by the Spirit of God. For the Spirit
of God ever whispers, " e Be not high-minded, but
fear. Eemember that you are running a race f ;
e Rom. xi. 20. f 1 Cor. ix. 24—27.

216 The free gifts of God.
and the prize is not yet won. Keep yourself under,
both body and soul : bring yourself into subjection,
lest after all you be a cast-away." So speaks the
Spirit of God to the souls of Christians, even the
most saintly, while they are yet in this world.
Thus He teaches us to " have a right judgement in
all things :" but for the other part of the Church's
Whitsuntide prayer, that " we may evermore rejoice
in His holy comfort," for that He rather bids us look
on to the other world. For our comfort He reveals
to us, what " ^eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nei
ther have entered into the heart of man : the things
which God hath prepared for them that love Him."
He so far reveals heaven to His faithful and obedient
ones, that they may have a sure and certain hope of
it, and a dim and mysterious delight in meditating
on it, and considering what it may be. As those
who are to be introduced to some wise and kind per
son, who has done great things for them, but whom
they have never yet seen, naturally spend much
time beforehand' in conjecturing how he will look,
who will attend him, under Avhat circumstances they
shall be admitted to so great an honour : so those
who, have the Spirit of Christ may be expected to
turn their thoughts, in humble hope and joy, to
wards that moment of glory and perfection, when
they shall see Him face to face, see Him as He is,
and be made like unto Him.
And even in this world, they may take to them
selves this great comfort, that they look at things, in
some measure, as Jesus Christ does : they have the
mind of Christ ; a fellow-feeling and sympathy with
s 1 Cor. ii. 9.

The free gifts of God. 217
Him. Although they knoAv themselves to be full of
sin and error, and never for a moment imagine that
they are quite right in any one thing, yet Almighty
God mercifully allows them, on the Avhole, the wit
ness of a good conscience : they go on, from day to
day and from hour to hour, in a reasonable hope,
that they are on Christ's side, and not on the side of
His enemy : that their sentences and thoughts about
things are, on the whole, such as He approves : that
He is with them and not against them, guiding them
upAvards, not suffering them to fall more and more
aAvay from Him.
Such is the good and comfortable hope of those
who practise indeed in Christ's school, keeping the
commandments as Avell as learning them by rote.
They must not be disheartened, if others misunder
stand them. "hThe natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God : neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned." And
many persons, by sin and unbelief, have brought
themselves more or less back into this their natural
condition; they, of course, find fault Avith holiness
when they see it, just as a heathen person would
have done. We must deal calmly and charitably
Avith them, but Ave must not be disheartened by what
they say or think of us.
Neither again let it daunt us too much, if we feel,
as surely almost every one of us must feel, that we
are but beginners and babes in Christ ; requiring, as
the Apostle speaks afterwards, to be fed with milk
and not Avith meat. We may well indeed be hum
bled and ashamed, that Ave so long continue in that
h 1 Cor. ii. 14.

218 The free gifts of God.
imperfect state, when, for the time, perhaps, we
ought to be teachers. Well may it humble and
shame, but it must not discourage us. If we are
sorry to be but children in understanding, let us
strive at least to be children, i. e. inexperienced, in
malice and mischief; and He will help us, by de
grees, to a more manly way of understanding things
also. Put off carnal thoughts, thoughts of pleasing
yourself. Be ready to take the lowest place, with
out inwardly praising yourself for doing so. Pray,
strive, watch, against envying and strife and divi
sions. Be content to learn in Christ's school, which
is the Church, instead of making out ways of your
own. Try to fix your thoughts very often on the
Presence and teaching of the good Spirit : learn more
and more to fear and reverence Him, as actually
abiding in your heart, and to think tremblingly of
holy things, as pertaining especially to Him. These
are safe and sure ways to have the Holy Ghost for
our teacher through life, and our Comforter in the
last great Day.

SEEMON XXIII.

FLESH AND SPIRIT.

WHITSUNDAY.

3. John iii. 6.

" That lohich is bom of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
The great work of God the Holy Ghost, which He
came down to do as on this day, is our new birth
and our new life. We Avere naturally lost and dead
in sin: but He descended, in order to join us to Jesus
Christ our Lord, and so to make us partakers of a
new, a heavenly and Eternal Being. Our minds are
naturally therefore turned at this time to the say
ings of our Divine Master concerning our new birth
and our new life, and concerning that good Spirit,
Who is the Almighty worker of so great a change in
men. And as, after the accomplishment of any great
undertaking, people look back with a special kind of
interest to its first rude and tender beginnings, to
the time when it was first thought and talked of;
so Christians in all times, since first the kingdom
of heaven was set up on the day of Pentecost, have
ever thought very much of the obscurer and more
private hints and sayings of our Lord, when He first
began to give notice of that kingdom. Their minds

220 Flesh and Spirit.
have turned back in earnest consideration to that
solemn discourse which our Lord held by night with
Nicodemus, when they two alone discoursed of the
way, in which He was to save us. Nicodemus did not
then understand Him ; but he treasured up all His
words, and bye and bye he came to understand Him.
At the time, it was too strange and hard a saying
for him, that a man must be born again of water and
the Spirit, or ever he can enter into the kingdom of
God. But when our Lord had died, and Avas risen
again, and had gone up into heaven, and when, as on
this good Dajr, He sent doAvn His Holy Spirit to
make men partakers of a new life through and in
Him, Jesus Christ : and when Nicodemus saw that
this unspeakable gift was bestowed upon believers
not without water ; for so the Apostles told them in
Christ's Name, " a Eepent and be baptized every one
of you : and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy
Ghost : " then he understood Avhat at first had been
too hard for him ; then he remembered the remark
able words Avhich* our Lord had spoken to him by
night, and no doubt gave special thanks to Him Who
was so gloriously accomplishing those words in sight
of the whole world. And Avhen he saw, what a new
life that converted and regenerate people presently
began to lead, how they walked with God all day
long, how they "b continued stedfastly in the Apos
tles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread
and in prayer : " how they were all of one accord and
of one mind, and what fervent charity they practised
among themselves, as if what they had was only lent
them for the help of their brethren who needed it :
a Acts ii. 38. >> Ib. 42.

Flesh and Spirit. 221
I say, when Nicodemus beheld all this in lives of
the first believers, he might well remember and un
derstand the next saying of our Saviour, "That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that Avhich is born
of the Spirit is spirit." He might say to himself,
" Now I see and know Avhat those Avords meant ; and
Iioav truly they prophesied of the difference between
the natural and spiritual man."
For as children are partakers of the same nature
as their parents, and are commonly more or less
like them in their bodily shape and features, so Chris
tian persons, children of God, are partakers through
Christ of a heavenly and divine nature, and ought
to shew their high parentage by their actual resem
blance to Him Who so begat them. " That which is
born of the flesh is flesh ; " i. e. Adam's posterity, all
of them, children as they are of a frail and sinful
parent, inherit from him frailty and sin. You may
know them by their likeness to their fallen and cor
rupt father. And no less surely on the other hand,
"that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Those
who by the power of the Holy Ghost have been made
parts of the family and household of our only Lord
and Saviour, children as they now are of Him that is
perfect, inherit from Him holiness and righteousness :
wisdom to know what is good, a good will to choose
it, and strength to bring that good will in very deed
to good effect. All this they have from their hea
venly Father, Who has adopted them to be His sons,
because of their union with Him, Who is His true
and only Son, Jesus Christ. As the natural man,
man left to himself, has all bad tokens from fallen
Adam ; so the spiritual man, man regenerate and born

222 Flesh and Spirit.
again in Jesus Christ, has or may have all good tokens
from Him, our risen and ascended Lord and Saviour.
Let us endeavour to set the two side by side, and
see how the one differs from the other, in respect of
all the chiefest things, on which our good and evil
depend, both in time and in eternity.
And first, as concerning faith : He that is born
of the flesh only is mere flesh in this respect, that he
minds, quite or almost entirely, the things of the
flesh, bodily and earthly things, the things of this
present world. He is all taken up with meat and
drink, company and diversion, work and play, gain
and pleasure and praise. If he is well off, he says
to his soul, "°Soul, thou hast much goods laid up
for many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink and be
merry : " " d to-morrow shall be as this day, and
much more abundant." If he is poor, he says, "I
have my bread to get : that is care enough for me :
why should I trouble myself about things in an
other world, so far off, and out of sight ? why may I
not divert and indulge myself in what little leisure
I have ? " Thus, every way, the children of this
world, they which are born of the flesh, live by sight
only and not by faith : as Adam and Eve, when they
ate of the deadly fruit, thought only of what they
saw, and would not at all turn their minds to what
God had told them.
But that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and
tends upward to the place from whence it came.
That is to say, those souls, which by God's special
grace are made partakers of the new and divine
birth in Holy Baptism, have that in them (if they
c S. Luke xii. 19. d Is. lvi. 12.

Flesh and Spirit. 223
quench it not by their sins) which will hinder them
from being quite satisfied with any thing that they
find here on earth. Our Saviour Himself said, " e I
am come to send fire on the earth : " the sacred fire
of His good Spirit, which should spread over all na
tions, kindling one heart after another, and causing
all to mount upward, as flames might from an altar,
with earnest desire to be where He is, Who is their
Fountain, from Whom they have all their light and
heat. This holy fire laid hold of us ; it kindled upon
us, as it were, at our Baptism. Is it now alive with
in us or no ? The question is a very serious one, a
mournful one, alas ! for too many of us ; yet let us
not shrink, let us not be afraid to ask it of our own
consciences, now on the great Day, in which we cele
brate the first lighting-up of that fire on earth. Are
our thoughts, and desires, and wishes, turned to
wards heavenly things, regularly, as a matter of
course ? Do we think within ourselves very often,
when we set about anything, ' ' Will it hurt or help
me in the next world ? " Do we try, when we can,
to consider seriously, that the Eye of the invisible
God is looking down upon us ? Do we look back
ward to the Cross of Christ, and forward to the Day
of Judgement? If not, it is a sad confession, but
surely we dare not deny it, — though we were once
born of the Spirit, we are so far in the flesh again :
we are driving away the heavenly Guest, after He
has come to dwell within us : we are quenching the
fire which God Himself has kindled in our hearts.
Try yourselves again, my brethren, by your pray
ers. The natural man, he who is either yet unre-
" S. Luke xii. 49.

224 Flesh and Spirit,
generate, or Avho by his sins has cast himself back
into a heathenish and unregenerate mind ; such an
one has no love for his prayers ; no constant love, I
mean; no such mind toAvards them, as that he will
say them regularly and try to think of them, though
it be ever so much trouble and inconvenience to him.
He readily puts up with excuses for being careless
about prayer, saying to himself, " God knows my
meaning and my wants, Avithout my trying to ex
press them to Him; He knows my sins, without my
particularly confessing them ; He knoAvs, Avhom I
mean to pray for, without my pausing to remember
them. He can hear me, as well sitting as on my
knees ; any where else as in Church ; half asleep or
broad awake." And so persons go on, till they have
excused themselves in all sorts of hurry and irreve
rence : the fact being, that all the while they have no
real love for their prayers, no real faith in God as in
Him Who heareth prayer. But he that is born of
the Spirit, and is not in the way to quench that
Spirit, to him prayer is a great and real work. He
knows and considers that no one thing which can
happen to him in the whole day is of so much con
sequence to him as his prayers, well or ill performed :
that no company that he goes into can be worthy of
such careful preparation as the Presence of the great
King of heaven and earth, with Whom, would he
but lay it to heart, he is alone as often as he prays.
This is the mind concerning prayer, which the good
Spirit puts into the hearts of those Christians who
are willing to obey His godly motions : and their
prayers do them good indeed : for they are not so
much their own, as the prayers of the Holy Ghost

Flesh and Spirit. 225
within them. I do not say that they always pray
comfortably, that they feel as if God were answering
them in mercy : on the other hand, I suppose that
they are for the most part troubled and ashamed to
think, hoAV very ill they pray : how their thoughts
wander, how soon they grow weary, how hard they
find it to set God always before them. But after all,
praying as they try to do in earnest, and with a full
purpose of heart to live accordingly, their devotions
are devotions indeed, and they are counted before
God as "'continuing instant in prayer."
Another difference between the partakers of the
spiritual and only of the carnal birth, is this : that
the one use the creatures of God only for their own
present maintenance or enjoyment, the other lift
up their minds from them continually to the great
things out of sight. It is this which our Saviour
noticed when He said, "s Labour not for the meat
which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give
unto you." Thus He taught us in His Sermon on
the Mount, to consider the flowers of the field. All
persons, even the most carnal and earthly, consider
the flowers, so far as to admire their beauty when
they see them. "But you Christians," says Jesus
Christ, " ought to learn something heavenly from
them : how to trust in God and His fatherly Provi
dence." So in regard of such a common matter as
the weather, and the changes in it : the world's
family consider it only as it affects them, their health
and wealth: but God's family learn always to see His
f Rom. xii. 12. s S. John vi. 27.

226 Flesh and Spirit.
Hand in it, and to think of Him ordering it all for
His own wise purposes, secret to us.
But of all created things, those which most bring
out the difference between the carnal and spiritual
mind are perhaps the holy Sacraments. The water
of Holy Baptism, the Bread and Wine of Holy Com
munion, are nothing to an irreligious man : but to a
true believer they are in a sense every thing : and so,
in proportion, it is with respect to all other things
which God vouchsafes to use in His solemn service.
Unbelief scorns them, as Naaman did the waters of
Jordan ; but faith uses them as so many steps pre
pared by our Almighty Friend to bring us nearer
and nearer to heaven.
We are employed, as you know, all the week long,
each in his own line of life ; some in building, some
in trade, some in service, the most part in tilling the
ground ; so'me in other ways which we cannot now
reckon up. Now a person may look at these several
works merely as works, merely as ways of procuring
employment, of spending time, of getting their bread
or of maintaining the state of the world. Or each
one may look upon his own worldly employment as
being, what we know it is, God's special way of
dealing with him especially : God's especial trial of
each one, whether or no he will remember Christ,
pray to Him at all times, and for Christ's sake do
always to others, as he would have others do to him.
To a person who really tries to look on things in
this way, whatever happens in" his own work and
trade is one token more of God's aweful and graci
ous Presence ; one call more to remember the great
unspeakable things which have been done for us;
one remembrancer more of eternity.

Flesh and Spirit, 227
How differently again do men behave in regard
of the pain and sickness, from which so many of us
are at all times suffering! How differently do we
ourselves feel tempted to behave at different times !
That within us, which is born of the flesh, and is
flesh, is led away sometimes into murmuring and
complaining, sometimes into anxious inordinate care
about the future ; sometimes it merely strives, as well
as it can, after some ease and refreshment; but that
which is born of the Spirit, and is spirit, makes it all
an occasion of high Christian virtues. The more
the body suffers, the more steadily will he that is
spiritual submit himself to God, deny himself, pro
vide as he may for the comfort of his afflicted bre
thren : and so he will turn the present bitterness
into a blessing which will last for ever.
Thus anyone who will just look around him, may
perceive something of the opposite fruits of the spirit
of the world and of the Spirit which is of God. But
to know their difference perfectly, we must wait and
see their end. We must wait until Christ returns
to Judgement, and then we shall not only see but
feel the deep the infinite importance of our doings
here. God grant us so to live, so to believe, to pray
and to use all His good creatures, that the good Spirit
Who descended even now to prepare us for that day,
may be our Comforter when it comes !

Q 2

SEEMON XXIV.

CONFESSION AND SELF-DENIAL, TOKENS OF THE
WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST.

WHITSUNDAY.

Acts xix. 20.
" So mightily grew the Word of God, and prevailed."
The Word of God is the doctrine of the Gospel, the
religion of Jesus Christ, which His Apostles began
to preach as on this Day with the Holy Spirit sent
down from heaven. They had preached it before. So
far they were commissioned, as a message from Jesus
Christ. But now the whole of it was made known
to them ; and the blessed Comforter, God the Holy
Ghost, came down according to Christ's promise, to
teach them, and guide them into all truth. Then
they began to speak with all authority, and to declare
to men in Christ's Name the whole Counsel of God,
all His wonderful works wrought for the salvation
of mankind : not only as before, that men should re
pent, and that the kingdom of heaven was at hand ;
but the whole of what is contained in the Apostles'
Creed : the whole of what Christians must believe, in
order to be Christians. This the Apostles taught,
and they taught it in Christ's Name, i. e. as persons
who had Christ dwelling within them by His Holy

Confession and self-denial. 229
Spirit, and opening their mouths to say and to teach
these things. The epistle to-day has told us of the
beginning of that teaching, on the great Day of Pente
cost. The second morning-lesson has told us how it
went on, no long time afterwards, to be made known
among the Gentiles : hoAV, after a sermon by S. Peter,
the Holy Ghost fell upon the good centurion Corne
lius, and upon all who, with him, heard and believed
the word. And bye and bye we shall hear in the
second evening-lesson, how after many years this good
work was going on and prospering in the rich and
learned city of Ephesus. S. Paul was there, preach
ing and teaching for two whole years : and God
wrought special miracles by his hands : " so that from
his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs
and aprons, and the diseases departed from them,
and the evil spirits went out of them."
Now in this city of Ephesus there were many of
those whom the Scripture calls wizards and sooth
sayers, whose way was, to have dealings with evil
spirits, or to pretend that they had so : and some of
them, seeing S. Paul's miracles, made believe to do the
same, using our Blessed Lord's Name : " We adjure
you by Jesus, Whom Paul preacheth." But though
they took in their mouths the Name of Christ, they
were in reality about the devil's work : they were
trying to do that, which our Saviour Himself had
long ago declared to be impossible : i. e. to cast out
devils by Beelzebub : and it happened as might be ex
pected : " the man in whom the evil spirit was, cried
out " as that spirit taught him, " Jesus I know, and
Paul I know, but who are ye ? and he leaped on them,
and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so

230 Confession and self-denial,
that they fled out of that house naked and wounded."
Thus the people of that place were plainly taught
that there was an inward Power in the Church and
Body of Christ, far above all those evil powers which
they depended on and made idols of : and all feared,
and many believed. They felt, as S. John Avrites a,
"These Christians are of God, and have overcome
the world : for greater is He that is in them, than he
that is in the world."
In that time then, and in that place, the kingdom
of God was clearly coming on, and the great work,
which had begun at Pentecost, was advancing to
wards perfection. And our Church has appointed
this history to be read as the last lesson for Whit
sunday, in order perhaps, that we might have before
us a sort of token or sample of what has been and is
even now going on, and Avill go on unto the world's
end more or less openly, in the spreading and pre
vailing of the Church and Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, thoughtful people are apt to be continually
asking for signs and tokens of the progress of Chris
tianity, both outwardly in the world, and inwardly
in their own hearts. They would like to knoAV, whe
ther or no there are from time to time more and
better Christians than there used to be : and also
they would like to know whether they themselves
and those belonging to them, are really and in ear
nest going forward or backward. Now if we will
attend to this history, we shall find that Almighty
God has here given us two sure and clear signs,
whereby we may know both for ourselves, and for
others committed to our charge, Avhether or no things
a 1 S. John iv. 4.

tokens of the work of the Holy Ghost. 231
are going well Avith us in the great matter of saving
our souls : Avhether or no we are growing in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ : whether
we are carrying on or hindering the work of the Spirit,
begun on the first Whitsunday.
These two signs are, first, sincere confession of sin,
and next, giving up for Christ's sake what people
would be glad to keep. For so it was in Ephesus at
that time. " The Name of the Lord Jesus was mag
nified." And how might men know that it was truly
magnified, and not in word only? "Many of them
that had believed came, and confessed, and shewed
their deeds." That Avas one sign of real conversion :
the sincere confession of their sins. The other is
described as folloAvs : " Many of them also which used
curious arts, brought their books together, and burn
ed them before all men : and they counted the price
of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver."
What is the meaning, when it is said, "They used
curious arts?" It means that they are magicians,
sorcerers; what we call conjurors. It means that
they had, or imagined themselves to have, secret
dealings with the evil spirits. They were, then, idol
aters of a very bad sort, depending upon the devil
for that help, which men ought to seek of God only.
Now the secrets of this their hateful and accursed
knowledge were written in certain books : rare books
and very costly : i. e. foolish persons, who wanted to
prosper in the world and thought they might do so
by such help as this, were willing to give a great
deal for it. For the owners therefore of these books,
to part with them and throw them into the fire, was
making a real sacrifice, parting with something that

232 Confession and self-denial,
cost them a good deal : it was making themselves so
much the poorer for Christ's sake : and in this case
we read hoAV they counted the price of the books
which they burned, and found it fifty thousand pieces
of silver : i. e. more than sixteen hundred pounds of
our money : a very large sum indeed at that time.
All this money they gave up, and likewise all the
credit and profit and consequence which they might
enjoy by their skill in such matters : all, at once, they
cast into the fire ; they gave it up with all joy and
eagerness, to take Christ's part against the devil,
to please their God and to save their souls.
Thus, you see, those Ephesian Christians gave two
remarkable signs of the work of the Spirit going on
within them. They had believed, it appears, some
time before, and had received God's grace in Bap
tism ; but the wonderful things Avhich they now saw
moved them to a deeper fear of God, and a more
entire repentance : and they proved it in these two
ways : they confessed their sins, and they burned
their bad books. . And we know that those two things
were very pleasing in God's sight, and were accepted
by Him as real helps to His kingdom : for the Scrip
ture, after relating them, adds, " So mightily grew
the word of God, and prevailed."
Now that great and Holy Spirit Who began His
work to-day at Jerusalem, and Who, as you have just
now heard, afterwards did so great things at Ephe
sus : He is the same Spirit now that He was then,
and His work is the same ; to turn men from Satan to
God, and to set up His heavenly kingdom in all our
hearts, by making and keeping us members of Jesus
Christ. The signs then, whereby Christian people

tokens of the work of the Holy Ghost. 233
may know whether that gracious Spirit is still abid
ing in their hearts, are the same now, as they Avere
then. There was not one manner of conversion for
the Christians of Ephesus in S. Paul's time, and an
other for us in these days : but as we believe in the
same Father, and Avorship the same Saviour, and are
sanctified by the same Comforter, so the fruits and
tokens of His Divine Presence must be the same now
as they were then. If it was well for those Ephe-
sian Christians to come and confess and shew their
deeds, it is also well for us. If it was necessary
for them to burn their bad books, it must be also
necessary for us to cast away sinful studies and
amusements, whatever it may seem to cost us.
As to confession, it is most properly a work of the
Spirit, a work of this holy time of Pentecost. For
the Holy Spirit, Who graciously offers Himself at
this season to dwell more and more in our hearts
He will not, He cannot abide in the same lodging
with an impure spirit, nor dwell in the body which
is subject to sin15: and therefore, where He is invited
to come, the bad spirit must be turned out : and we
know that one of the most effectual ways of driving the
Evil one out of our hearts, when he has got himself a
place there by our unhappy sinful ways, is to confess
the sin, truly and humbly : to make, as the saying
is, a clean breast of it. We know : at least all who
have been used to care at all for their souls know
what a great relief such confession is, how it seems,
almost immediately, to take off a part of our burthen,
and to make room in the heart for better things.
"Now I have told, I feel much easier : " is not this a
b Wisd. i. 4, 5.

234 Confession and self-denial,
thought, which even young children can understand ?
And if it is a relief to them to pour out their shame
and grief, when they have done amiss, into their
mother's bosom, how much more, when God's sinful
children humbly acknowledge their sins to Him ! If
the one drives away the sullen and impenitent spirit,
how much more the other ! If the parent's very
heart yearns over his son or daughter, drawing near
to own transgression and ask pardon : how unspeak
ably sweet will be the consolations of God, when we
have knelt before Him in earnest, and tried to tell
Him all our faults ! So we are told by one, who had
deep experience, first alas! of sin, and then of con
fession and pardon. Holy David tells us, " c I said,
I will confess my sins unto the Lord, and so Thou
forgavest the wickedness of my sin." '"Thou art
a place to hide me in ; Thou shalt preserve me from
trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with Songs of
deliverance." But let us well understand, what that confession
is, to which so great things are promised. Of course
it is not merely owning in general, that you are a
sinner, as other men are. It is not merely going to
Church, and kneeling down with the rest and joining
in the General Confession : for this all men may do,
light and serious, sincere and hypocritical alike. But
true and devout confession, such as Holy Scripture
approves of, is first of all, humbly considering in
your heart your own particular sins, whatever they
are, and however long ago committed ; as Joseph's
brethren were stricken to the heart, when God's Pro
vidence caused them to remember, so many years
c Ps. xxxii. 6. d Ib. 8.

tokens of the work of the Holy Ghost. 235
afterwards, how guilty they were concerning Joseph.
True confession, that confession of the heart, which
is really the work of God's Spirit, recollects the mi
serable past, one bad thing after another, all those
particulars of our sin, which tend to made us hate
and abhor it. True confession cannot be, where
people suffer themselves to dwell with satisfaction on
the praise, which in the bottom of their hearts they
know they cannot really deserve. Again, observe
this very particularly : that you cannot make a true
confession to God, if, in order to hide your sin, you
wilfully use deceit and lying toAvards man. How
common is it, how completely a matter of course, for
persons, when they have done amiss, to deny it as
nearly as they dare, on being asked about it ! How
readily do they find excuses, to make themselves out
less blameable than they know they are ! Many, I
fear, go on doing this in little ordinary matters, for a
great part of their lives, and hardly ever repent of
it in earnest : and yet they think themselves decent
people, good enough to obtain God's mercy through
Christ without any special repentance. 0 that they
would consider it in time, and pray God to shew
them, Avhether they are in a safe way ! For observe,
how unlike such doings are to the fruits of the Spirit
as described in God's Word ! When S. Peter preach
ed at Jerusalem, on the first Whitsunday, those who
heard him were pricked to the heart, and instead of
making light of their sins, came to the Apostles in
great distress, saying, "eMen and brethren, what
shall we do ? " And you have heard how S. Paul's
miracles caused Christians, hitherto imperfect, to re-
e Acts ii. 37.

236 Confession and self-denial,
member their old sins : to come and confess them,
and shew their deeds : their own deeds, one by one.
They did not merely own that they were sinners like
all others : they openly and willingly took shame
for what they had done. At least then let sinners
now meekly submit to the shame, if it please God to
make their sin known ; let them not hide it deceit
fully, nor be angry when told of it. Let them freely
and thoughtfully confess their sin to those whom it
may concern : to God always, all their sins : to the
Priest, if they conveniently may, those sins which
perplex their souls, and cause them to desire further
comfort or counsel: also to any of their brethren
whom they have wronged, if so be that, by confes
sion, they may set matters more nearly right ; restor
ing unlawful gains, unsaying false or unkind words,
or asking pardon for offences. All these are so many
works of true Christian confession, fruits of the Holy
and Blessed Spirit, tokens that the Word of God is
growing mightily and prevailing in the souls which
are so moved, and- in the congregations where many
such souls are found.
Confess your sins thus heartily and entirely, and
He will not only, for His Son's sake, forgive the
wickedness of your sin, but will also "f inform you
and teach you in the way wherein you should go."
He will give you more and more of His Spirit, and
help you to avoid, more and more entirely, the evils
which you so earnestly repent of.
And as part of your reward, you may hope that
He will enable you to deny yourself more and more
for His sake. For this is that other true token of the
f Ps. xxxii. 9.

tokens of the work of the Holy Ghost, 237
Holy Comforter abiding within you, which, being
joined to real and humble confession, will cause you
to keep a blessed and joyful Whitsuntide. Do not,
I beseech you, think this a hard saying. It is our
Lord's own word, " s If any man will come after Me,
let him deny himself." If the Ephesians would turn
in earnest to God, they must give up their curious
arts, and throw their learned and enticing books
into the fire. If we English Christians would keep
the grace given unto us in holy Baptism, we must
beware of the many corrupt books and papers, which
in our times are constantly thrown in the way of
almost all persons who can read, tempting them to all
kinds of evil fancies, discontented, covetous, impure,
unkind. We must turn away from the pleasantest
companions, when we perceive that they are likely
to lead us into sin. We must be willingly ignorant
of many things, which the world and the flesh would
tell us we ought to know. We must watch ourselves,
eye, ear, and heart, that we do not wander after for
bidden imaginations. This will be very troublesome,
especially after the first strong effort is over, and be
fore the habit of denying ourselves is formed. But
will you not endure a little trouble, for the sake of
saving your souls, and doing your humble part in
the work of God's kingdom ? Eemember our first
mother, Eve : what a great thing it would have
been for her and for us, had she taken that little
trouble of turning away her eyes, and checking her
desire to know, what God in mercy would have kept
from her. The Holy Spirit Who came down this day
is a kind and loving Spirit : He watches night and
s S. Matt. xvi. 24.

238 Confession and self-denial.
day for every little token we may give of a dutiful
and devout mind : nothing that we try to do right is
suffered by Him to fall to the ground. He watches,
to do you good ; do you also watch, to receive good
from Him. Every night, confess to Him : every
day deny yourself something for His sake. So shall
you find bye and bye, that, without your knowing it,
the Word of God has been growing mightily and
prevailing within you. May the good God bestow
on us this favour, through His Son Jesus Christ
our Lord !

SEEMON XXV.

THE ABIDING PRESENCE OF THE HOLY GHOST,
OUR STAY AND OUR COMFORT.

WHITSUNDAY.

Haggai ii. 5.

" According to the ivord that I covenanted with you
when ye came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth
among you : fear ye not."
When we look around us, and see how very unlike
the appearance of things is to what we read of in
Holy Scripture, and in the histories of the first and
best times of the Church, it is but natural, according
to our human infirmity, that our hearts should at
times feel as if they would utterly die down within us ;
we are tempted to say to ourselves, " a Hath God for
gotten to be gracious ?" Hath He quite " bcast away
His people ? " For instance ; what a blessed sight
was that which was seen at Jerusalem on the even
ing of the first Whitsunday, eighteen hundred and
thirty years ago ! c when three thousand were convert
ed by one sermon of the blessed S. Peter, and being
converted, so continued together, so stedfast in the
Apostles' doctrine and communion, and in breaking
of Bread and prayer, that all men might plainly see
they were of one heart and one soul. There was such
» Ps. lxxvii. 9. b Rom. xi. 1. c Acts ii. 41, 42.

240 The abiding Presence of the Holy Ghost,
love of one another among them, that it seemed as
if each one counted his property just as much his
brethren's as his own. There was such love of God,
as brought them daily to the blessed Feast of His
Body and Blood : and a very great many of those
who were before unbelieving, seeing how those Chris
tians loved God and one another, were moved to
come in and give their names to Christ : and so our
Lord's directions in the Sermon on the Mount be
gan to be most gloriously and happily fulfilled. His
Church's light so shone before men, that they, seeing
what good works were wrought therein, gave glory
to the heavenly Father and King of the Church by
true repentance, conversion and perseverance.
Such was the fair and bright appearance of the
city of God, the holy city, new Jerusalem, the mother
of us all, on this the first day of her earthly exist
ence, when, by the coming of the Holy Ghost the
Comforter, she did, as it were, come down from God
out of heaven. And now we are keeping this our
mother's birthday after so many hundred years, and
it may be with us in some measure, as it is when
persons who knew one another in the prime of life
meet again in old age ; so great is the change and de
cay that they hardly seem to one another the same
persons. So the Christian Body, Christ's mystical
Body, the Church on earth, seems in every part so
full of spots, wrinkles, and blemishes, that it is hard
for us to discover therein the true tokens of His
"dove," His "undefiled," " dfair as the moon, and terri
ble as an army with banners," of whom such glorious
things are spoken everywhere in God's book.
d Song of Solomon vi. 9, 10.

our stay and our comfort. 241
When thoughts such as these come over us, like
a cloud over the heavenly sunshine of this good and
great Day, the first thing we should say to ourselves
is, " Let things be ever so bad, sure I am that it is
not God's doing, but mine own. The decays and cor
ruptions and divisions of the Church are my fault,
and the fault of such as I am, our fault, our own
fault, our own most grievous fault." Try always to
consider such things with a meek and humble spirit.
In no wise let them make you fretful and unbeliev
ing. " ° Let God be true, but every man a liar." He
has told us beforehand that iniquity would abound,
and the love of the greater part wax cold, but He has
also told us, that no one soul will be lost, except by
its own fault: for "dhe that shall endure unto the
end, the same shall be saved." Let us pray that the
sad falling off, which it is impossible not to see, on
comparing things as they are now with the first be
ginnings of the Church, may make us each one watch
ful and humble for himself and for those committed
to his charge : afraid for himself and for them :
compassionate to all, earnestly clinging, by prayer
and humble obedience, to the Creed and command
ments as he was sworn to them in Baptism : re
ceiving them and all God's will as it really stands
in the Word of God, not as the fallen and corrupting
Avorld interprets them.
Having so made up our minds, we may go on hum
bly to take to ourselves the special comfort which
Holy Scripture provides for Christians, trying to be
faithful in evil times. We are not to doubt, but
earnestly to believe, that the backslidings of God's
" Rom. iii. 4. * S. Mark xiii. 13.
E

242 The abiding Presence of the Holy Ghost,
people can never make void His Truth. As He is
the same in Himself, Blessed, and Holy, for all our
sin and misery, so is He the same to His Church, the
faithful God, keeping His covenant of mercy. His
promises in the Old and New Testament are not at
all blotted out ; Holy Baptism and Holy Communion
are still His true tokens ; in a word, His Spirit is still
among us and within us, as on the evening of that
great Day of Pentecost, although we, His new Israel,
His own elect people, have so often and so long
grieved Him by our many 'transgressions. It is of
great consequence that we should be aware of this ;
otherwise we shall neither be duly thankful to our
long-suffering God, nor careful, as we ought, to make
the most of His grace.
We are to believe, I say, that God's Spirit con
tinues with us, however fallen and corrupt the times
may be. And in this faith we may be greatly en
couraged, by opening our Bibles, and looking at the
many promises which God gave to His people by His
later prophets ; I mean, by those whom He sent to
instruct them when they had just returned from their
captivity and were about building the second tem
ple : such as Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Very
great and grievous had been the sins of Israel : fear
fully and sadly had the nation provoked God, pro
faning the holiest things and practising the most
abominable ways, and heavily had the wrath of God
fallen upon them ; the city and temple desolate, the
daily sacrifice taken away, and the chief of the people
carried away captive. Compare this with the word
which the same people Israel had heard from the
Almighty at the beginning, " eI will dwell among
e Exod. xxix. 45, 46.

our stay and our comfort. 243
the children of Israel, and will be their God. And
they shall know that I am the Lord their God that
brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I
may dwell among them ; I am the Lord their God."
Well might it seem, at the time of the captivity, that
this promise had utterly failed : but when they be
gan to repent in earnest, God graciously shewed
them that He was their God as much as ever : His
promise to dwell among them, had not failed ; only
the tokens of His Presence were obscured for a time.
So He assures them distinctly by one of His prophets,
at the time when after much discouragement they
were beginning to build again the House of the
Lord. They had got on some way with their work,
and they had a melancholy feeling upon them, that
after all it would not be half so beautiful as the old
temple which Solomon had builded, and which had
been of late destroyed for their sins. " Whosoever
was left among them that saw this house in its
first glory, when he looked at it now, it was in his
eyes in comparison as nothing." That was a sad and
discouraging thought : but hear how the Merciful
One met it with good words and comfortable words.
ui Yet now be strong, 0 Zerubbabel, saith the Lord;
and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech the high
priest : and be strong all ye people of the land, saith
the Lord, and work : for I am with you, saith the
the Lord of Hosts : according to the word that I
covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt,
so My Spirit remaineth among you : fear ye not."
This, you see, was just what they wanted. God had
promised His good Spirit, His peculiar Presence, to
f Haggai ii. 4, 5.
E 2

244 The abiding Presence of the Holy Ghost,
be with their fathers in the beginning, and He, as
a pillar of fire and cloud of glory had led them
on though they rebelled and vexed Him, and had
caused them to rest in the land of promise, and had
dwelt with them continually ; and now when they
had begun to fear lest they should have finally driven
Him away by their sins, it was everything to them
to be told that He still remained among them, as in
former times.
Now compare with this, my brethren, our own con
dition, and God's dealings with us. God's good word
to His people at the first was, "I will dwell among,
them, and will be their God." Our Lord's new word
to His own new people was, "si will not leave you
comfortless; I will come to you." "hI am Avith you
always, even unto the end of the Avorld." But this not
in His own Person, but by His own and His Father's
Spirit. "'I will pray the Father, and He shall give
you another Comforter, that He may abide with you
for ever : even the Spirit of Truth :" "k He dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you : " and so, " ' if a man
keep My words, My Father will love Him, and We
Avill come unto him, and make Our abode Avith him."
This indwelling of the Father and the Son by the
Spirit is the promise of the Father, concerning which
the disciples heard so much from their Lord. . It is
the Gift, the free Gift, "m the Gift of God," the Gift
by Grace, of which our Lord spake to the Samaritan
Avoman, comparing it to living water; and S. Paul to
the Eomans, shewing how more than complete it is
as a cure for all our sin and misery. It is That by
k S. John xiv. 18. h S. Matt, xxviii. 20. ' S. John xiv. 16.
k lb. 17. ' Ib. 23. ¦« lb. iv. 10.

our stay and our comfort. 245
which we are members of Christ, children of God,
inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. It is Christ
in us, ""the hope of glory." It is therefore our all in
all ; our guide_ in life, and the pledge of our eternal
bliss. What a favour, to be chosen out of the world
to inherit such a promise ! What a shame, what a
loss, what an unspeakable misery, being chosen, to
forfeit it by our unworthiness !
But now, however it may be with the several sin
ners who continue impenitent within the enclosure
of God's Church; of whom, alas ! there are too, too
many ; certain it is that Christ has promised never
to forsake His Church itself, but to continue with
those who stand in the place of His Apostles even
to the end of the world. And again He saith to the
same Church, " ° As for Me, this is My covenant with
them, saith the Lord; My Spirit that is upon thee, and
My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not
depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of
thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed,
saith the Lord, from henceforth, and for ever." The
tokens of this covenant are, the Bishops of the
Church, the Holy Bible, the Creeds of the Church,
the Holy Sacraments. Where these are, there is the
Gift, there is the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit in
wardly and the Church outwardly, and there the
blessed word in the book of Eevelation is accomplish
ed: "?The Spirit and the Bride say, Come : — and let
him that is athirst come : and Avhosoever will, let him
take of the water of life freely."
All these heavenly promises are as fresh now as
they were at the beginning, would we but so take
" Col. i. 27. » Isa. lix. 21. p Rev. xxii. 17.

246 The abiding Presence of the Holy Ghost,
it. We, Christians who are now living, are the
same people, the same family, with those who heard
S. Peter preach, and were converted and baptized
on the Day of Pentecost. We are Christ's family,
for whom so great things have been done. We have
been spiritually born as they Avere, of water and of
the Holy Ghost ; bred, as they were, in the one true
Faith, taught evermore by the Church out of Holy
Scripture. We have the same privileges as they
had, if only we had the heart to claim them. Those
children, when they stand up to say the catechism,
say in effect the same words as Timothy said to
S. Paul, Avhen he was catechised by him in his young
days. All of us in rehearsing our Creed, are but
echoing the same sounds, the same form of sound
words, Avhich our forefathers iu Christ have been
rehearsing, ever since the Apostles were on earth.
We have the same dangers and temptations as they
had ; and, thanks be to God for it, we have the same
Saviour to plead for us, the same Holy Spirit to help
us, the same hope of everlasting life to encourage and
uphold us, the same rules of holy penitence to revive
and recover us when we fall. In all these things
we are one and the same with the Apostles and their
companions, even as we must come to the same death,
judgement, and eternity.
Wherefore, as it was said to the Jews returning
from Babylon, "My Spirit abideth in you, according
to My covenant, fear not: " so it is said to us. We
Christians of these latter days are in one sense en
couraged not to fear, while yet in another sense
we are bidden to fear exceedingly. We are not to
fear, as though Christ's Spirit were Avithdrawn, as

our stay and our comfort. 247
though His heavenly mercies and judgements were
not surrounding us on every side, far more won
derfully than they encompassed the Jews in the
wilderness. We need not fear as though we were
out of the Church, but we have the very greatest
need to fear lest we prove unworthy of the Church.
Observe, my brethren, how it was with those Is
raelites of the Captivity, to whom it was said, "My
Spirit remaineth among you, fear not." They were
not living at random, nor taking things easily : they
did not say to themselves, "Why should Ave fear?
we are leading as religious lives as our parents did
before us, as strict as any of our neighbours." But
they were continually about a great work of peni
tence, repairing the city and temple of the Lord,
which lay in ruins on account of their sins. So
must we, my brethren, each in his place and sta
tion, if we are to be partakers of the comfort given
to them. We, each one in his providential place
and station, must be working the work of the
Lord, His penitential work ; building up His spiri
tual city and temple within us, too nearly, alas !
ruined by our many wilful imperfections and sins.
We must be busy, really busy, in amending our
selves, our daily and hourly thoughts, words, and
actions ; and then we need not be too much cast
down with fear, lest our old bad ways, or present
frailties, should drive the Holy Ghost from us. We
may say to ourselves, "It is too true: I have sadly
broken my vows, and have sinned wilfully against
the Lord. If He were extreme to mark what is done
amiss, His Spirit would long ago have departed from
me. But He is giving me daily all these signs, that

248 The abiding Presence of the Holy Ghost.
I am still in the Church, that my day of grace is not
over. As He bore with Israel of old, as He bore
with the murderers of His Son, as in times past He
hath borne with me most unworthy, so as yet He is
bearing with me : I will not despair, it is not His
will that I should perish ; He still bids me pray, and
encourages me to do my best : and by God's grace I
will do my best." By meditations such as these,
continually accompanying our prayers, at home and
in Church, we shall be encouraged in our daily task
of penitence : we shall learn to love God more and
more, as we obey Him more and more exactly, and
the good Spirit Who came down to be the Comforter
of His elect while our Saviour is away, will not
forsake us, when He, the same Saviour, shall come
again to be our Judge. He will hear on our behalf
the prayer of His Church at this season : such a
measure of His grace, that we, running the way of
His commandments, may obtain His gracious pro
mises and be made partakers of His heavenly treasure.
So be it, 0 Lord, through the same Jesus Christ :
To Whom be glory &c.

SEEMON XXVI.

CHRIST IN ALL.

WHITSUNDAY.

Col. iii. 1 1 .
" Christ is All and in all."
Is not this a short confession of a Christian's faith ?
Six little words, and easy to be learned by any child,
and yet we have much reason to fear that a very
large proportion even among thoughtful Christians,
do not thoroughly receive more than the half of this
confession. That "Christ is All" they allow, but
they cannot comprehend how it should be true to say
that He is "in all," Let us consider how this is.
When the Apostle in this place tells the Colossians
that Christ is all, he means, first, all those things of
which he had just before been speaking. What were
those things ? The outward advantages, which made
so great a difference between one man and another
before they were Christians, whether they were Jews
or Greeks, circumcised or uncircumcised, Barbarian,
Scythian, bond or free. These things made a great
deal of difference in them while they were in their
natural unconverted state ; but after they had become
members of Christ, these things were of no conse
quence to them Avhatever. Christ is to every Chris-

250 Christ in all.
tian instead of all these outward advantages. They
may have been by birth Greeks or Gentiles ; but
now, through Christ in Whom they are, they are
become Israelites, a portion of the Lord's true people.
They have never received outward circumcision, but
through Christ they are all circumcised in heart.
Their native tongue Avas that of Barbarians, foreign
ers, or even Scythians, the wildest of all ; but now,
in the hearing of the Angels they all speak the lan
guage of the kingdom of heaven. They have been
some bond, some free, but now they have been all
made children of the Freewoman, Christ's Church :
they have been released, one by one, and admitted
into the glorious liberty of His kingdom. Christ
hath become all this to each one of them ; their call
ing, their circumcision, their adoption, their freedom :
Christ is become to each one of us all this and much
more, for a Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, is made
unto us wisdom from God, even righteousness, sanc
tification, and redemption : righteousness to cure our
sins ; sanctification to make us holy, and prepare us
to be happy with Him, redemption to pay all our
debts and undo all our chains. Christ is our All.
This, I suppose, we are quite ready to believe, as
many as bestow one serious thought on their souls.
Christ is our All. But how ? In what manner, in
what special way does He beoome All to each one of
us in particular ? For we know that by nature, and
from the moment of our birth, He is none of all this
to any one of us : rather we are in a way to give our
selves up entirely to another being, who. is the very
contrary of all these good things. By nature then*
a 1 Cor. i. 30.

Christ in all. 251
and by birth, Christ is not our All : how and when
does He come to be so ? This is what we are told
in the latter half of S. Paul's short creed in the text :
Christ is not only All, but in all. Then He becomes
our All, Avhen He enters in and dwells in us : when
He unites us to His mystical Body, and makes us
members of Himself: and when by virtue of that
union we have poAver to do good works pleasing and
acceptable in His sight. And of this happy and
saving union God the Holy Ghost is the Author.
His descent on the Apostles was the beginning of it
to the whole Church, (as the Baptism of each Chris
tian was the beginning to that particular Christian)
and therefore the great feast of Whitsunday is ap
pointed to be kept for ever in humble and thankful
remembrance of it. Whitsunday is the birthday of
the Church, as Christmas day is the Birthday of
Christ. If Ave compare the three great and holy
times one with another, Christmas tells us of God
in Christ; Easter with Good Friday, of Christ be
coming our All, dying, rising, ascending for us;
Pentecost or Whitsunday, of Christ in us. - Or to
put it in another form, Christmas sets before us
Christ as He is in Himself; Easter, Christ as our re
demption ; Whitsuntide, Christ as our sanctification.
And perhaps, if we will set our minds to it, we
may come from hence to perceive the reason why
Whitsunday is less thought of among us, than either
of the other two great days. That it is so, no one I
imagine will deny. We have only to count our com
municants at this season year after year, and compare
the number with that at Christmas and at Easter,
and we shall find such a difference as to make it

252 Christ in all.
quite plain that this is by a good deal less thought
of than either of the other holy seasons. But why ?
Some part of the disrespect is owing, we may well
fear, to the greater abundance of ordinary feast-
ings and diversions, which are so apt to take up
a great deal of many people's minds and thoughts
at this time of the year. Young persons especially
permit themselves to be so carried away with the
mere diversions, innocent perhaps in themselves,
which come in their way at Whitsuntide, that they
feel as if their hearts and imaginations were out of
tune for the aweful things of God. They think
so much of Whitsuntide as a time of pleasure, that
they almost, or altogether forget that it is a time of
devotion. A sad thing, when you come to think of
it, apd quite enough to put those who feel it very
especially on their guard, lest they come in time
to be like that unhappy man, who sold his birthright
for a mess of pottage, and "b found no place of re
pentance." But, if I do not mistake, there is another cause,
besides the more than usual amount of diversion at
this time, to make many of us less devout in com
parison than we were at Christmas and Easter. Men
do not understand so much of the mystery of this
time, what God did for them, as they understand
about Christmas, and Easter : and they accordingly
care less for it. The Evil one, no doubt, takes pains
to hide it from them ; and his contrivances are often
but too successful. Satan does not so much mind
men's believing that Jesus Christ is God and Man,
that He died and rose again and went up to heaven
'> Heb. xii. 17.

Christ in all. 253
for us : Satan, I say, does not so much mind our
believing this, if he can but make us doubt or disbe
lieve or forget our being members of that Christ : so
united to Him by His good Spirit, that it is in our
power to obey and please Him, if we will. The great
deceiver has no objection to our thinking much of our
Lord's Cradle and Cross, His mercy in taking our
nature and dying for us, if he can but get us to stop
there, and not to go on and lay it to heart what
manner of persons we ought to be, who by the Holy
Ghost are made members of this Holy Saviour, and
able, through Him, to work out our own salvation.
Satan will be willing enough to let you believe that
Christ is All, yea, and to rejoice in that belief, if only
he can effectually stay you from believing that He
is in us all, by virtue of His own holy Sacrament of
Baptism, and therefore, that all our excuses for not
being holy are nothing worth. I will shew you this,
or rather, S. Paul will shew it you, in a few plain in
stances mentioned by him just before the words of
the text.
First, Satan is the king of pride and the author of
envy, and he would fain have us as envious and as
proud as himself. He would have us think very
much of the ordinary differences among men here on
earth ; rich and poor, learned and unlearned, sickly
and healthy, high and low in the world. Satan
would have us think very much of these, in order-
that he may, if he can, make the one sort envious,
and the other proud. Those who are worse off, he
tempts to envy others. Who does not know it too
well ? The moment we see any one richer, healthier,
cleverer, more admired than ourselves, there is gene-

254 Christ in all.
rally something in our hearts which rises against
them, a secret disposition to put them down and lift
ourselves up. And on the other hand, the more fa
voured person is used to look down on the other, to
scorn him, and congratulate himself like the Phari
see in the parable, that he is not such an one as he is.
In either case the tempter has his own way with us ;
with the rich, if he can get him to despise the poor ;
with the poor, if he can get him to envy the rich :
and to both temptations we have an answer, if we
will but believe and earnestly recollect, that Christ
is in us all : in our brethren whom we might scorn
or envy, as well as in ourselves; "we are all one in
Christ Jesus." This S. Paul teaches in saying, "Ye
have put off the old man with his deeds, and have
put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness, where there is nei
ther Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumci
sion, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ
is all and in all." Why should you mind these
earthly and temporal differences ? They will present
ly pass away and be as nothing, nay there is nothing
in them already as among Christians. Christians
are all alike in this great thing, unutterably great —
that Christ is everything to them, and is in every
one of them. What can it signify to them, really,
if one be born in a higher, another in a lower place,
if one be richer and another poorer, or anything else
of that kind? In good truth it does not signify at all,
only to our weak and frail hearts it is very hard to
think so. But we must try and bring ourselves to
that good mind ; the good Spirit will help us to it,
if we try in earnest.

Christ in all. 255
And there is another kind of differences among
men ; by occasion of which in all times the devil
has endeavoured to pervert and ruin Christ's people;
such differences, I mean, as those between Jew and
Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised, bond or free.
It was a great thing for him if he could get people
to fancy that the Gospel was only for the Jews, only
for the circumcised ; for so the Jews would be proud,
the others would be careless, saying it was all no
thing to them. So in our times it greatly serves
his bad purpose, if he can possess any one with an
imagination that Christian privileges and Christian
duties are only for a few chosen ones, instead of be
ing meant for the whole elect people of God, i. e. for
all who are called to be Christians. He whispers to
unstable souls, one after another, " If Christ were in
you, you might indeed do God's will ; but as it is, you
cannot do it : Christ is not yet in you, and therefore
God does not expect you to be so very particular in
your conduct." These are the whisperings of the
Evil one: but thou, 0 well-advised Christian, wilt
know how to silence him at once, by simply trying
to set thy mind and heart upon the certain fact, that
Christ is in all ; and if in all, then in thee also.
The Apostle mentions by name yet one more work
of the devil, which would pass away from among
Christians, if they all really believed and recollected
that Christ is in them all. That evil work is lying.
" Lie not," says S. Paul, " one to another, seeing ye
have put off the old man and have put on the new."
Or as it is in the Epistle to the Ephesians. " c Put
ting away lying, speak every man truth with his
c Eph. iv. 25.

256 Christ in all.
neighbour: for we are members one of another." Of
course, being all in Christ, Ave are all members one of
another : through Him Ave are all united ; the many
corns to make up one loaf, the many drops to make
one holy cup of salvation. "d We beiug many are
one body in Christ, and every one members one of
another." Over and over, you see, the saying is re
peated : Christ is in us all, therefore we are all in
each other : and consequently among other duties,
we are earnestly forbidden on any account to lie one
to another. Lying, more plainly than almost any
other sin, is the work of the devil, one of the very
first lessons which he taught our first parents, set
ting them an example in that he said (contradicting
God, Whose words he well knew), " e Ye shall not
surely die." And it is certain, that the more entire
ly the peoples and families of the world are left to
themselves, the more false do they generally prove.
Savages, no man can trust. And on the other hand,
truth, exact truth, in word and in deed, we know to
be a certain sign of the new man. Good and true
words ; words of praise to God, words of charitable
truth to men, were the first-fruits of the Day of Pente
cost. As soon as the Holy Comforter, according to
Christ's promise, had come down upon them, to unite
them to Christ, they began all of them to speak with
new and Christian tongues'. And what did they first
speak of? " g The wonderful works of God." What
next ? Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up
his voice, and preached to them the true Gospel of
Christ's Eesurrection. " Speaking the exact truth"
was the first, the very first fruit of the Spirit : and
d Rom. xii. 5. e Gen. iii. 4. f Acts ii. 4. s Ib. 11.

Christ in all. 257
so it has been ever since. For as Christians cannot
lie to God, Whom they know to be always in every
place, and to read every secret of their hearts, so nei
ther can they lie one to another, for that is still lying
to God, since each one of them has Christ i. e. God
abiding in him. Hoav should they lie in Avait to de
ceive, since each one, knowing that Christ is in both
alike, kno\veth also that such craftiness would be
trying to make Christ deceive Himself ? Each one
seeks not his own only but his brother's good, why
should one ever wish to deceive another ?
And yet, it is indeed a sad thought, a very sad
one, how very, very easily, do most people, I fear,
allow themselves to lie. For what a mere nothing,
Avhat a trifle, what a dream of a shadow, such as to
avoid a little scolding, to obtain some small indul
gence, to gratify some dislike or partiality, to win a
moment's praise and admiration ; any of these things,
any slighter reason even than these, would be an ex
cuse in the mind of too many for telling any number
of lies. It could not be so, if Cliristians generally
had not learned to despise their calling, to think little
of their union with God through the Holy Ghost,
even though they do really think much, in their
fashion, of Christ dying for them on the Cross. Theyr
could not be so free in lying, if they understood and
believed, what Whitsunday means. O that they
would be wise enough to consider this in time ! Here
is the God of Truth watching you : He has given you
a tongue to speak the Truth : He has given you sense
to know what will come of not speaking it: "hall liars
shall have their part in the lake which burneth with
11 Rev. xxi. 8.
8

258 Christ in all.
fire and brimstone : which is the second death." He
has given you, above all, His Holy and blessed Spirit,
to overcome temptation, and force your tongue to
speak true, when that unruly member is inclined to
go beyond bounds. These are God's unspeakable
gifts, to one as much as to another among you, since
Christ is in you all. Truth or falsehood, which will
you speak ? Eternal life or death, Avhich will you
have ? How weak must your faith be, if, being warn
ed as you are, you still go on in any kind of false
ness ! What will it come to ? And how will you be
able to bear it ?
Think on the other hand of the bright and glori
ous hour, when He, Who is the Truth, shall reveal
Himself finally, and for ever, to all who have loved
the Truth here on earth. It is written, "'God giveth
not the Spirit by measure." He is no niggard of
His gifts; they are poured out fully according as His
servants are able and willing to receive them. If His
Holy Ghost, descending to-day, was like a mighty
rushing Avind, coming on all sides at once, filling all
the house Avhere they were sitting: if the Tongues of
Fire, softly gliding from heaven, left out none of the
faithful worshippers, but sat upon each of them, light
ing them up with such fire as that all generations
should be kindled at it : what, think you, will be the
outpouring of His glory, how will He give Himself
Avithout measure to those whom He shall find in His
Church waiting for Him, when His last day is fully
come ! May it please Him, that you and I may be of
that blessed company ! But in order to be so, we must
constantly speak the truth; for He is the Spirit of
Truth, and He came to guide us into all Truth.
' S. John iii. 34.

SEEMON XXVII.

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT.

WHITSUNDAY.

Rom. viii. 16.

" The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,
that ive are the children of God."
The Comforter ! That you know is the special Name
by Avhich it has pleased the Holy Spirit of God to
make Himself known to His people, and come among
them, as on this great Day. He came also to be our
Guide, by leading us into all Truth : our Advocate,
by prompting us inwardly in our hearts, how to pray
to the Father and plead with Him, in union with
the prayers and pleading of our Intercessor Jesus
Christ : and most of all He came to be our Sancti
fier, by changing our hearts, giving us a new na
ture, making us holy by uniting us to the Incarnate
Saviour. The Holy Spirit came to be all this and
more to us, more than we could ask or think. But
the 'Name by which in His good Providence He
vouchsafed to be especially known to us was the
gracious and condescending Name, Comforter. By
that Name our Saviour promised Him : " a I will pray
the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,
a S.John xiv. 16.
s 2

260 The witness of the Spirit.
that He may abide with you for ever ; " and again,
" bThe Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, Whom
the Father Avill send in My Name ; " and again, " c If
I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you;
but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." By that
Name we OAvn Him in our hymns; "Also the Holy
Ghost the Comforter;" and,
" Thou art the very Comforter
In grief and all distress."
And for His coming as Comforter we are taught to
pray especially during the time that we commemo
rate our Lord's Ascension : " We beseech Thee,
leave us not comfortless : but send to us Thine Holy
Ghost to comfort us."
Now a Comforter, we know, is one who strengthens
and refreshes another ; cheers him up and supports
him, and soothes and heals the wounds of his heart,
in any distress or pain or loss or sorrow with which
it may please God to visit him ; and no doubt when
the Blessed Spirit teaches us to call Him the Com
forter, we are to understand that by Him more im
mediately the Holy Trinity visits all poor and needy
creatures with all merciful and loving gifts. The
Holy Spirit is the Gift and the Promise and the
Consolation, in which all other gifts, promises, and
consolations are contained. Nevertheless there is a
special meaning, no doubt, in the word Comforter,
by which He first made Himself known to the Apos
tles, and now continues to make Himself known to
each of us. There was a special sorrow which at
that time hung heavy upon them, and He came to
comfort them under it. What was that special
b S. John xiv. 26. c j^_ xvj_ y_

The witness of the Spirit. 261
sorrow ? It may be put in one word : they Avere
orphans. He Who was their Father and more than
Father, was departing from them, and leaving them,
outwardly, alone and helpless in the world. That
was the sorrow Avhich filled their heart. They were
on the point of being bereaved of Him Whom their
soul loved, their Friend and Father and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. Therefore our Lord expressly promises
them, " clI will not leave you comfortless" (the word
in the original Greek is the very word orphans) " I
will not leave you orphans, I will come to you." See
how the Blessed Lord, reading their hearts, touched
the very string which He knew was moving them
so deeply. They feared they should lose Him their
Father and so be left orphans. He promises them,
in the first place, that He would not leave them
orphans; they should not be without a Father : and
in the next place, because He had said, " I will pray
the Father, and He shall give you another Com
forter;" and the word " another " might make them
jealous, as if they were going to lose Him, and they
might say in their hearts : " If Jesus goeth, it matters
not who cometh; we cannot be happy without Jesus,"
lest they should go on so troubling themselves, He
adds, "/will come to you; I Who am now depart
ing in Body will come to you again in Spirit : that
other Comforter will work so marvellously with you
and with Me, that in Him I shall be nearer to you,
unspeakably nearer, than I am at present while you
see Me ; and that, never to depart more, for He will
abide with you for ever, and by Him I shall abide
also." Thus the second Adam, the Father of all Chris-
a S. John xiv. 18.

262 The witness of the Spirit.
tian souls, promised the Holy Ghost to comfort His
Apostles, His eldest children in the Faith, under the
sorrow of losing Him.
But was the comfort for the Apostles only, and
for those who had known our Lord's Face in the
flesh ? No, surely : it was intended for us all : for
by nature and birth we are all spiritually orphans,
all without God our Father in the dangerous, forlorn,
cruel world : all and every one, as surely as we are
of Adam's seed, are in the condition of that poor
helpless prodigal, who wandered as far as he could
from his father's house, and made haste to spend all
his substance in riotous living. And as the great
thing to that poor wanderer, when he came to him
self, was, to be received back again, on any terms,
into his father's house, and the offended father, still
loving him most dearly, and knowing all that was in
his heart, not only received him, but received him
as a son ; running to meet him, and falling on his
neck, and kissing him, and ordering out the fatted
calf, the shoes and the ring and the best robe, and
so adopting him again into all the privileges which
he had forfeited, and not suffering him to doubt, that
he was his son as much as ever : such is the work of
the Comforter for us sinners, bringing us one by one
into our Father's house again, first by Baptism, after
wards, if need be, by a harder but no less sure way,
by repentance. He gives us this sure comfort, that
whereas we were outcasts from our Father and our
home, now we are admitted to a place in the family
again, not as servants but as sons ; by virtue of our
union with Him, Who is the True, natural, Eternal
Son. So long as men are out of God's family, they

The ivitness of the Spirit. 263
are, as our Lord saith, of their father the devil ; but
Avhen He adopts us for His own in His beloved Son,
then God is our Father, Christ our elder brother,
heaven our inheritance, Angels our ministers, the
Bread of heaven our nourishment. This, our adop
tion to be children of God, is the great Whitsun
Gift : for this, most especially, the Holy Ghost came
down from heaven as at this time with all those
mighty signs and wonders. He came doAvn, to work
in each one of us that change, which our Lord calls
being born again, and S. Peter, a partaking of the
Divine Nature e. The Spirit came clown, I say, to
work this change in each one of us ; and He signi
fied His coming by the cloven tongues like as of
fire, the rushing mighty wind, and the rest, that
dutiful persons might have the comfort of knowing
His blessed Presence, and their share in it. Thus
He was their Comforter, sealing to them their adop
tion. The wonders which they saw and heard con
firmed the deep inward conviction, which the Spirit
itself, at the same time entering into them, wrought
in their hearts, that they were now really taken into
a new and heavenly state, adopted into God's family,
endowed with a new and heavenly life. We, my
brethren, as Christians, have our portion in the same
blessings, sealed to us by the same Spirit ; only, in
stead of the fiery tongues and the rushing mighty
wind and the other miracles connected with that
first outpouring, we have His Presence sealed to us
by His sure promises to be with His Church and in
His Sacraments to the end of the world. E. g. lit
tle children are brought here, Sunday after Sunday,
e 2 S. Pet. i. 4.

2 04 The witness of the Spirit.
and are baptized, as He ordered, with water, " in the
Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost." And the Spirit itself is there; for
so our Lord promised, both making and declaring
each one of those little ones to be verily a child of
God. This the Spirit itself testifieth, before the
child can have any will or knowledge. Bye and
bye, as time goes on, God Almighty blessing the
work of His Church, parents, godfathers, teachers,
Pastors, not altogether neglecting their duty, and the
children themselves not wilfully breaking aAvay from
His loving Hand, that which S. Paul calls "the wit
ness of our spirit" comes to be added to the Avitness
of God's Spirit. As long as Ave are too young to
think on the matter, the Holy Ghost bears His wit
ness alone, that we are children of God. He beareth
witness toith our spirit, when we come to have seri
ous thoughts ; thoughts of God, thoughts of eternity,
thoughts of our Lord and His Cross ; and more espe
cially, the Apostle here teaches, doth He, the Holy
Comforter, bear His proper witness in our hearts,
when we try in earnest to pray. Mark the holy and
comfortable words: "Ye have received the Spirit of
adoption, whereby Ave cry, Abba, Father." As if He
should say, "Here you are, so many Christians of dif
ferent ages, men and women, youths and maidens ; for
one and all Christ died : to one and all He gave His
good Spirit in Baptism, and if you had died that
moment, you would have surely died children of
God. Now, would you not wish for the comfort of a
reasonable hope that you are still in His family,
that, whatever your backslidings may have been, you
have not quite cut yourselves off from Him, but are

The witness of the Spirit. 265
still His sons and daughters, however erring and
imperfect ? Well, the Apostle seems to say, here is
a sign, a token which God points out to you by me,
whether you are yet His children or no. Do you
really try to pray in earnest ? Do you really Avish,
and endeavour to speak to God as your Father, be
cause it is your duty, because you know in your
heart, that you belong to Him, and cannot be happy
without Him ? Do you feel vexed, really vexed and
grieved and ashamed in heart, that your prayers
have been and are so very imperfect and irregular ?
that you know not, Avhat you should pray for as you
ought ? And do you in your secret heart call upon
your good Lord, and wish that by His help you may
pray better ? Like the disciple who so earnestly
said, "fLord, teach us to pray," and so helped to
win for himself and us that great gift of the Lord's
Prayer. If these are your thoughts, and you en
courage them when they come, and try to make
much of them, it is a good and hopeful sign for you :
the Spirit of God is so far testifying with your spirit
that you are the child of God ; the Ear that heareth
all things will distinguish even in your faint un
steady tones the call which you have learned of your
Saviour, 'Abba, Father,' even as parents know the
meaning of the imperfect sounds their infants make
long before they can speak plain. Thus even in the
humblest beginnings of sincere prayer that gracious
and wonderful saying may have an accomplishment,
"g We know not what we should pray for, as we ought:
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that
f S. Luke xi. 1. s Rom. viii. 26, 27.

266 The witness of the Spirit.
searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of
the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the
saints according to the Will of God."
It is of the greatest consequence, brethren, that we
fall into no mistake in this matter. Consider : would
it not be sad indeed, exceeding dangerous, if a per
son, because he has occasional good feelings, and so
far thinks himself in earnest, should therefore say in
his heart, " The Spirit itself bears me witness ; I feel
in myself that I am a child of God ? " And yet per
haps all the while that man may be going on in some
great and deadly sin : lying, or cheating, or thieving,
or uncleanness, or evil-speaking, or selfish unkind
ness. 0, is it not dismal to think of the words which
will too likely be spoken to such a man bye and bye,
when he with the foolish virgins shall stand without
and knock at the door, and the answer will come from
within, "I know you not: " and the self-deceiving
heart perhaps would say, " I felt the witness within
me, I had great comfort in my religion : " but still
there would be but one reply, " h I know you not ;"
" depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity." As
you would escape this worst of miseries, observe,
I pray you, my brethren, that it will never do to
trust our own feelings simply. The Holy Spirit is
not given to make us comfortable but to help us to
heaven. If you want to know whether His witness
agrees with that of your own heart, the only safe
way is to examine yourself strictly ; how you pray,
and how you live. If you come to God constantly
in prayer, in Church and out of Church, as a child
to a parent, wishing you could pray better, and
11 S. Matt. xxv. 12. S.Luke xiii. 27.

The witness of the Spirit. 267
really trying to do so : if the eye of your soul look
singly and in faith towards that unseen inheritance
which is promised, where we read, "If we are chil
dren, then heirs : heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ : if so be that we suffer with Him, that we
may be also glorified together ;" if the love of Christ,
growing in us more and more, lead us to think more
and more of seeing Him in that Avorld (for you see
the Christian's hope is not only to be an heir of God,
but still more to be joint-heir with Christ;) and lastly
if, devoting ourselves to Him, we make up our minds
to suffer with Him : all these are happy signs in
deed ; and where they are, the humble heart may
reasonably, and assuredly say within itself, " I trust
it is not my fancy alone, but that I really have the
comfortable witness of the Spirit : God give me
grace never to grieve, never to tempt, never to vex
that good Spirit : God keep me from ever so relying
on His consolations, as to become less careful of my
ways !"
These, my brethren, are some of the great Whit
suntide thoughts : very deep and serious thoughts
indeed : thoughts, Avhich we cannot put away from
us, Avithout great risk and hazard of losing our souls.
Encourage them, I beseech you, by all means in your
poAver. Set your heart to meditate deeply on that
which occurred at Jerusalem to-day ; not only, nor
chiefly, for the greatness of the miracles, but because
it was the beginning of His deep mercies in convert
ing men's hearts, joining them to Christ, leading
them in His steps, and so preparing them for heaven.
Think also much of your own Baptism : that clay,
whenever it happened, was a sort of Whitsunday to

268 The witness of the Spirit.
you, the Holy Spirit coming down for the first time
upon you individually, to seal to you your portion
in Christ. Eemember your Baptism, and the vows
that are upon your soul ever since ; and as the
Apostles, after the first Whitsunday, went out and
preached everywhere, so do you lose no time in
setting about your special duties. Do all to Him,
for Him, by Him ; as knowing, that you can do no
thing at all without Him. "; And may the very God
of Peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blame
less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ ! "
1 1 Thess. v. 23.

SEEMON XXVIII.

THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE PENTECOSTAL GIFT.

WHITSUNDAY.

Acts ii. 4.
" And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost."
Let no man imagine that this great miracle, of which
we keep the remembrance to-day, is a thing gone
and passed away from us, so that we who now live
have nothing more to do with it, than to believe it,
and thank God for it. It is not so at all, my bre
thren. We are as much concerned in the work which
God wrought on Whitsunday, as in what was done
on the other great days which all Christians think
so much of. Why do we honour Christmas Day ?
Not merely because it was the Birthday of our best
friend and only Saviour, but because it was the very
way to our spiritual new-birth. He was made Man,
our Head, that we might become members of Him,
and through Him children of God. Why is Good
Friday so very solemn and precious ? Because it is
the day not only of the greatest martyrdom, but
also of the only meritorious Sacrifice. He died for our
sins: for one as much as for another. We, blessed be
His Name, have each one of us as great an interest
in His Passion as the very thief who hung at His

270 The universality of the Pentecostal gift.
side, and to whom He promised, " a To-day shalt thou
be with Me in paradise." Why is Easter so joyful a
day ? Because we are risen Avith Him : " in Christ we
are all made alive." And why is Ascension Day, in
one sense, even more triumphant than Easter ? Be
cause we are not only risen, but in spirit and mystery
we are even ascended and taken up into heaven with
Him : as it is written, " b He hath raised us up with
Him, and made us sit with Him in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus." Just in like manner, this day of
Pentecost was meant to be the great day of comfort
to us,' quite as much as to the Apostles and the rest,
on whom He came down on the first Whitsunday in
the Upper-room on God's holy hill of Zion. We
have as much need to be filled with the Holy Ghost
as they : and the same encouragement from God's
glorious and merciful promises ; and that at this
very time. Let us consider these things a little more
particularly, as in the Presence of the Holy Spirit,
even now waiting to come down upon us, and fill us
every one with Himself, and in humble fear lest by
some unworthiness we forfeit that unspeakable Gift.
First then, I say, that we have as much need to be
filled with the Holy Ghost as ever the Apostles had :
for they, as one of themselves said, were "cmen of
like passions with " us, and we are Christians of like
privileges and calling with them. The Blessed Vir
gin Mary, and the holy S. Peter and S. John, and the
rest of the hundred and twenty, who were together
keeping their Pentecost more than eighteen hundred
years ago, Avere born, as we are, of the fallen race of
Adam ; they needed a Eedeemer as we do, and as they
a S. Luke xxiii. 43. "» Eph. ii. 6. « Acts xiv. 15.

The universality of the Pentecostal gift. 271
could not wash away their own sins, so neither could
they by their own power graft themselves into Jesus
Christ, so as spiritually to rise from the grave, and
ascend to heaven with Him. They could no more
do this, than they could mount bodily from earth to
heaven, and go up through the air, as our Lord did,
by the Virtue that abode in Himself. In all these
great things, upon which their salvation depended no
less than ours, they by nature were as helpless as we
are : they needed the Holy Ghost, the Lord and
Giver of Life, to enter into them one by one, and
make them partakers of Christ, Who is our Life.
They Avanted Him as Ave do, to be their Eegeneration
and Eenewal, their Justifier and Sanctifier : their
case, in that respect, was all one with our case, and
with that of all the elect people of God, of every one,
Avho is chosen out of the world to be a Christian.
But you will say, perhaps, " The Apostles, and the
others in that first generation of Christians stood
in more need of the Holy Spirit than we do, in re
spect of their special calling, which Avas to be the
beginners of the Gospel, by the miracles which they
Avrought, by their preaching in all languages, by
the heavenly wisdom which guided them into all
truth without possibility of error, and by the bold
ness and fervent zeal which enabled them to stand
before rulers and kings, and to endure all manner
of torments, and joyfully to die for Christ. They"
(some persons may think) " having this high calling,
which is not your calling and mine, needed the Holy
Ghost more than we do : and therefore we have no
such immediate part in the miracle of Pentecost as
they had." I have met, before noAV, with persons

272 The universality of the Pentecostal gift.
who spoke in this way ; but surely, my brethren, it
is a great and dangerous mistake. As the Apostles'
nature was like yours and mine, and they needed the
Holy Ghost as we do, to turn and renew them day
by day, making them, from children of Adam, per
fect children of God ; so your calling and mine is so
far like that of the Apostles, that we have first to
save each one his own soul, and then to take each
one his part in the great work of the Church for the
salvation of all souls, to the glory of God. And who
is suflicient for these things? Which of us all can
either save his own soul, or help to glorify God by
saving others, without His special grace ? Doubt it
not, my brethren : the simplest and most ordinary
Christian needs to be filled with the Holy Ghost for
the work of his own calling, and for his own part in
the Church, quite as much as the Apostles needed
it to speak with tongues, to write the. Scriptures,
to set up and govern the Church. From the Holy
Ghost alone such marvellous grace can proceed : and
accordingly, we find that good Spirit promised, at
His first coming, to all converts, quite as much as to
the blessed Apostles. For thus it was said to all the
multitudes, men, women, and children, out of every
nation under heaven, who stood by at the Day of
Pentecost, "dThe promise is unto you, and to your
children and to all that are afar off, even as many as
the Lord our God shall call." What promise ? The
gift of the Holy7 Ghost which he had spoken of just
before "eEepent, and be baptized every one of you
in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
a Acts ii. 39. e ib. 38.

The universality of the Pentecostal gift. 273
Neither is that heavenly Gift spoken of as belonging
to Holy Baptism only, but, every where in the NeAV
Testament, you will find the Holy Ghost promised, in
sundry ways and divers measures, to all Christians
in all times of their warfare and pilgrimage here on
earth. For thus saith the Lord, "'Whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water springing up unto
everlasting life ;" and, " s If any man thirst, let him
come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on
Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of
the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should
receive." It was to be not a sudden flood, coming
down and doing its work at once ; but a living
stream from a perpetual fountain, from a spiritual
Eock following them, and always at hand for them
to drink of and wash in. It was to be all things to
all men: grace given to every man "according to the
measure of the gift of Christ." It was never to be at
one stay, but always to flow and flow more abun
dantly ; so that to such as are endowed with it might
be said at all seasons, " Grow in grace ; abound more
and more, from Baptism to Confirmation, from Con
firmation to Holy Communion, from one Communion
to another : so that your whole life shall be as the
patriarch's ladder reaching from earth to heaven,
and not the Angels only ascending and descending,
but the Holy Comforter in Person always present, to
help you up the successive stairs, till you come to
the Lord Jesus Himself, standing visibly above it."
f S. John iv. 14. e lb. vii. 37-39.
T

274 The universality of the Pentecostal gift.
We are then to make no question, that, whatever
other differences inward or outward there may be
between us and that first generation of Christians
who with the Apostles wore assembled in the Upper-
room on the first Whit-Sunday, in this respect we are
on a level with them, that we, coming together in the
Church, shall be filled with the Holy Ghost as they
were, provided only we come prepared as they did :
and that when we have received the Gift, It will
make Itself known in us by tokens of the same kind,
as those whereby It was discerned in them at the
beginning. Consider then, my brethren, with all seriousness
of heart, how you have come prepared here to-day.
Consider : for indeed it is no small matter, whether
we be at this time, according to Christ's offer, filled
with the Holy Ghost, or no. There is too much
reason to fear, that such as at this holy season allow
the Blessed Comforter to come so near, without any
earnest endeavour to grow in grace, will find them
selves in a condition too like that of Saul : of whom
we read, "hThe Spirit of the Lord departed from
him, and an evil spirit," by the Lord's permission,
" troubled him." For you may be quite sure of this,
that a man's inward house cannot remain empty ;
and if Christ be not dwelling there by His Spirit,
we know who is on the watch to enter in. A fear
ful thought, that the very time when the great God
of heaven and earth had appointed to come and
visit you, should be the time for you to open your
doors to the foul, intemperate, unclean, profane
spirit ! And yet who can help fearing it, when he
h 1 Sam. xvi. 14.

The universality of the Pentecostal gift. 275
considers the Avay in which too many spend this
glorious Whitsun-Aveek : yea, how they look on to it
beforehand, for weeks, may be, or even for months :
contriving how they may most enjoy themselves,
without any scruple or fear lest they should be for
getting God, and serving only the lusts of their own
hearts. God preserve you from every thing like this !
God grant that we, and all who are near and dear to
us, may so spend this accepted time, that we may
be all filled with the Holy Ghost, and not with the
unclean spirit !
And it will be so, my brethren, if we come pre
pared, as that congregation of saints came prepared
to their Whit-Sunday. They, when they came down
from the mountain where they had seen our Lord
ascend, did not make haste to forget Him, did not
hurry back to the world as. persons glad to escape
from a painful duty, but did their very best to keep
their hearts fixed upon Him. They returned from
Mount Olivet to Jerusalem, not in order to be busy
in the streets and markets, the assemblies and diver
sions and ordinary ways of the world, but to abide,
as continually as duty to their neighbour permitted,
in the Upper-room, that place of most heavenly re
membrances : where our Lord had given them His
own Body and Blood, and where He had given them
the gracious promise of the Comforter. Well for
those who, at this time, bearing in mind that they
hope soon to be filled with the Holy Ghost, try to
make much of the great spiritual mercies with which
that bountiful Spirit has already favoured them : who
have not yet forgotten their Christmas and Easter,
who have not (with too many, alas !) suffered the
t 2

276 The universality of the Pentecostal gift,
great Day of our Lord's Ascension to pass away un
observed and unthought of. Well for those who have
continued with one accord in prayer and supplication:
neither in Church nor at home permitting them
selves to follow their own fancies and humours in so
serious a matter : but forcing themselves to keep
their rules of prayer as well as they could, whether,
at the time, they felt inclined for prayer or no. Well
for those who have charitably and discreetly prayed
for and with one another; seeking out, as far as they
had a choice, those companions who would most help
them to keep near to our Saviour : as the Apostles
continued with the holy women, and Mary the mo
ther of Jesus, and His brethren. Well for those
who are here to-day, not by chance, nor because
they had a fancy to come, nor because decency and
custom seemed to require of them that they should
come now and then ; but because they dare not on
any Lord's Day forsake the assembling of themselves
together ; because they are happy to keep and obey
the loving laws. of their loving Saviour, Who has
twice marked the First Day of the week for His
own : once, as all of you know, by His Eesurrection
from the dead on Easter Day: and again, (what some
of you perhaps may not have observed) by sending
the Promise of His Father as on this day. Well, I
say, for those, who are now here, because they know
from the Word of God, that the way to be ready
for His Spirit is, to be " all with one accord in one
place," all of one faith, and hope, and love, in one
Holy Catholic Church.
Blessed are they who have come so prepared : but
not without a blessing, be sure, have those come also,

The universality of the Pentecostal gift. 277
who in any degree may be moved to wish themselves
sincerely better Christians than they are : who, listen
ing on such a great Day as this to the gracious pro
mise of our Lord and the wonderful history of its
fulfilment, and joining as they may in the devout
praises and prayers of His Church, may feel, as the
by-standers did on the first Whit-Sunday, pricked in
their hearts, ashamed and sorry for the past, and
ready to cry out to those whom Christ hath sent to
help them, uiMen and brethren, what shall we do?"
Would to God, there were many such : and to such,
every one of them, our answer must be the same which
S. Peter made at this time, "kEepent, and be con
verted, that your sins maybe blotted out:" not now
in Baptism, but in true penitence ; and ye too shall
receive the free gift of the Holy Ghost. And thus,
if so be, there need not be one in this or any other
congregation of Christian people, who shall depart
this day to his house without the great Pentecostal
Gift, without being filled with the Holy Ghost.
Alas ! that it should almost seem idle to utter such
a hope ! And yet we are bound to hope it, because
we are bound to pray for it. But of this at least we
are quite certain : that it is in the power of each one
of us, if he will, to receive this Gift for himself, if
only he seek it with a true heart.
And now I will just point out to you in conclusion,
some of the principal signs and tokens, whereby each
one of us may judge himself, whether he have been
this day partaker of the benefit or no. And I will
mention those only, which the history of the Day sets
before us. 1 Acts ii. 37. k Ib. iii. 19.

278 The universality of the Pentecostal gift.
The Apostles and their companions were known
to have received the Holy Ghost by their speaking
with new tongues : and whether or no we Christians
have received the same good Spirit on this His own
Day, will be known (as one principal sign) by our
setting or not setting a stricter watch over our
tongue, than we have done hitherto. "'By thy
words, " saith our Lord, "thou shalt be justified, and
by thy words thou shalt be condemned ;" and by our
words will men and Angels, and the Almighty God
Himself, judge us, every one of us, whether we have
this day been partakers of the Holy Ghost. Let this,
then, brethren, be one of our main cares, when we
leave this place of holy silence, and are at liberty to
speak, and converse with one another again. Let no
lie, no corrupt communication, no unclean, no bitter,
no angry word, proceed any more out of any of our
mouths ; " but that which is good to the use of edify
ing: " kind, sober, serious, cheerful, contented words:
words of exact and careful truth : words that will
leave no sting, no stain behind them, even in our
neighbour's conscience or in our own. That will be
an excellent token that we have received the Holy
Ghost, when we cease to grieve Him by our words.
Another fruit of the Spirit in the Apostles was
their Christian courage : their boldness and fervent
zeal, to declare Christ's Name before kings and
governors, not counting their life dear unto them
selves, so that they might finish their course with
joy, and perform, like good soldiers, the work ordain
ed for them of God. We too, each in his place, have
need of Christian courage. We are in danger, not
1 S. Matt. xii. 37.

The universality of the Pentecostal gift. 279
so much from sword or spear threatening our lives,
as from the mockery and evil report and worldly
disadvantages, which constant profession of Christ's
truth, and keeping His commandments, is, in a man
ner, sure to bring after it. Have we fortitude to
stand this ? If we were weak and wavering before,
are we now, by God's blessing, stronger and more
steady ? Is there in any degree the same sort of
difference in us, as there was in the holy S. Peter
before and after Pentecost? Can we stand being
laughed at, when we know we are doing God's will ?
This is another good sure sign.
Have you, moreover, a brave and steady purpose,
come what may, to enter upon immediately, and to
continue stedfastly, the wholesome and religious
rules of the Church, such as the Apostles and their
converts from the beginning observed ? Especially,
that necessary rule of receiving Christ's Body and
Blood in Holy Communion, at least so many times
in a year. If you have not so resolved, you are still,
so far, resisting and grieving the Holy Ghost.
One more mark I will set down. That first Church
in Jerusalem had none among them that lacked :
" mfor as many as were possessors of lands or houses
sold them, and brought the prices of the things that
were sold, and laid them down at the Apostles'
feet : and distribution was made unto every man ac
cording as he had need." By this we may perceive
that an open hand is an excellent sign of the Holy
Ghost dwelling in a Christian. Freely to give, to
be a cheerful giver, is what they cannot help, who
have freely received of that Unspeakable Gift. The
m Acts iv. 34, 35.

280 The universality of the Pentecostal gift.
vessels that are so blessedly filled must needs over
flow for the benefit of the souls and bodies of all
around them. Which of you, if he pleases, will not
be able to try himself by this token ?
In one word, my brethren, love, Christian love,
heavenly charity towards God and our neighbour,
that is what God the Father purposes, for His Son's
sake, to ""shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us." The Holy Ghost is
sometimes called the Eternal Love of the Father and
the Son : His Day is very especially the Day of Love :
if we are filled with Him, we are filled with love :
love, ever occupied in doing good, and in keeping
the commandments of the Beloved. Pray we, strive
we, above all for this ; it is all fruits of the Spirit in
one : it is very heaven begun on earth : it was the
last best gift of our departing Saviour. For thus
He made an end of His final prayer to His Father :
" ° These have known that Thou hast sent Me. And
I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will de
clare it, that the Love wherewith Thou hast loved
Me, (i. e. the Holy Ghost) may be in them, and I
in them." My brethren, He was praying for us.
Should not our great care be, so to love, so to obey
Him, that we may not cast away the fruit of so lov
ing, so aweful a prayer !
n Rom. v. 5. « S. John xvii. 25, 26.

SEEMON XXIX.

ONE SPIRIT, MANY GIFTS.

WHIT-MONDAY.

1 Cos. xii. 11.

" But all these worketh that one and the self-same
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He
will."
On the first Whit-Sunday, that is, above one thou
sand eight hundred years ago, that great wonder of
God's mercy began to take place, of which the Apos
tle in these words, as every where else in his writings,
declares the continuance. The twelve Apostles, with
the holy and blessed Virgin Mother, and with the
other devout women from Galilee, in short, all the
followers of our Lord, being " with one accord in one
place," in the Upper-room, no doubt, where they had
ever since His Ascension continued to meet in prayer
and supplication, "suddenly there came a sound from
heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled
all the house where they were sitting." It seemed to
be on all sides of them at once : " and there appeared
unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat
upon each of them, and they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost."
One and the same Spirit filled them all, and all

282 One Spirit, many gifts.
began to speak with other languages ; not all alike,
but as the Spirit gave them power to speak. Thus
was fulfilled for the first time, to the very eye and
ear, that, of which the Apostle in the text speaks, as
a law of God's kingdom to be continued for ever.
There were " diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit."
It was one fire, but separated into many tongues :
one sound, as of a rushing mighty wind, but different
in tone, when they spake, according to each man's
voice. One man spake one language, another an
other, but it was the same Holy Ghost that put
words in the mouths of all. And all spake the same
thing, " the wonderful works of God ; " His marvel
lous mercies by Jesus Christ, His Son, made Man,
crucified, risen, and glorified, for the salvation of the
world. As it was thus in the beginning of the Church, so
it continued to be afterwards. The Holy Comforter
came down, as Christ had promised, upon one Chris
tian after another, uniting every one to Jesus Christ,
and giving every pne such gifts- as He knew to be
best for him : as it is said in a verse a little before
the text, " The manifestation of the Spirit is given
to every man to profit withal."
But now these best gifts of God, as well as all His
other gifts, are in danger of being profaned by men.
And it seems that the Corinthians did profanevthem.
They employed the power of speaking new languages,
as well as other spiritual gifts, to their own glory,
and not to God's glory alone. Those who had the
higher and more abundant gifts, were tempted to
think lightly of those who had less ; and these again
to be discontented and slothful, and think they had

One Spirit, many gifts. 283
no occasion to try their best for God's sake. Just
as rich men are in danger of permitting themselves
to look down upon the poor, and poor men to envy
the rich. To correct this, S. Paul would have all
Christians remember these two things : first, that all
Christians are one in Christ; secondly, that each one
has his own work, his own place, his own character.
Much in the same way " as the body " of a man " is
one, and hath many members:" it "is not one mem
ber, but many;" "and all those members, being many,
are but one body : so also," he saith, " is Christ."
His mystical Body, the Church, is like His natural
Body, or any of our bodies, in respect that, although
it is made up of many members, each having its own
office, yet it is truly, strictly, mysteriously One.
What makes it one, and binds it together, is the
Holy Spirit of God dwelling in each person's soul
and body, to unite him truly to Jesus Christ : just
as what unites the hands, feet, and other limbs, into
one living and moving body, is the life which was
breathed into them by Almighty God. " By one
Spirit, " the Apostle tells us, " we are all baptized
into one Body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, whe
ther we be bond or free ; and have been all made to
drink into one Spirit."
Thus are Christians put in mind of the one Church,
to which all alike belong ; and they are also put in
mind of the diversity of gifts, whereby each member
is made different from another. As in the epistle to
the Ephesians, " a There is one Body and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling ;"
" b but to every one of us is given grace according to
a Eph. iv. 4. b Ib. 7.

284 One Spirit, many gifts.
the measure of the Gift of Christ." The eye, the ear,
the hand, the foot, have their several offices in the
body ; so have different Christians in the Church.
Each is to be pleased and content with his own, yet
without looking down upon any other. Each is to
do his own work, without either despising or covet
ing the other's work. This is what S. Paul goes on
to teach at large.
First, to the weaker and lessjhonourable members
he says, " You are not to be cast down nor discon
tented, as if no one cared for you, because others
have higher places than you. ' If the foot shall say,
Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is
it therefore not of the body ? And if the ear shall
say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body,
is it therefore not of the body ? ' " The meaning of
which is, Suppose you are a poor person, of little
understanding or instruction, and altogether in a low
place among Christians ; you will be apt sometimes
to say to yourself, " What signifies what the like of
me says or does ? - Who minds me ? If I were a
scholar, and had abundance of leisure to acquaint
myself with it all ; if I were a rich person, and had
many others depending upon me ; then it would be of
more consequence how I went on : but what differ
ence can it make now ? " In this way, or something
like it, I imagine, people are not seldom tempted to
make themselves easy, neglecting divine worship, the
Church and the Scriptures, the thought of God and
another world, because they are poor and needy, and
much taken up with some hard work. This is just
what S. Paul describes. For the poor or the igno
rant person to give himself up, as though it were

One Spirit, many gifts. 285
useless for him to try to serve God, is as if the foot
should say, "Because I am not the hand, I am not
of the body ; " or as if the ear should say, " Because
I am not the eye, I am not of the body."
"Nay," it might be said, " you surely have in you
the same life, the same blood, that any other limbs
of the body have. The pulse which beats in you
comes from the heart, the power and will which guides
you, from the head ; you are as much a member of
the man, as any of the limbs which are most precious.
If you hear instead of speaking, if you move instead
of ruling, if you act instead of ordering, you are not
therefore the less parts of the body."
So, should any weaker Christian, giving way to
discontent, become careless about his duty, because
he has but a low place in the Church, and imagines
himself to be thought little of, the Scripture seems
to say to such an one, " Know yourself better ; think
more worthily of God's great mercies towards you.
Eemember the very first lesson you learned in your
catechism, that you were made in your christening
a member of Christ, a partaker, by His Spirit, of the
heavenly life ; do not for a moment believe that He
can despise or neglect any of His members." We
feel it all over, if any the smallest portion of our
bodies is, but for a little while, in sharp pain : and can
it be that He Who came down from heaven to find
and save us when we were lost, He Who has joined
us to His very heart; has become bone of our bone,
and flesh of our flesh ; can it be that He should not
feel what happens to any one of His members? " Can
a woman forget her sucking child, that she should
not have compassion on the son of her womb ? yea,

286 One Spirit, many gifts.
they may forget, yet cannot I forget thee." These
are the promises with which Christians should con
sole themselves, when they feel low and desolate ;
when in their affliction it almost seems to them as if
both God and man had forsaken them.
And much more should we quiet with the same
gracious words all discontented and envious thoughts.
Are you not a member of Christ, a child of God, an
inheritor of the kingdom of heaven ? and what is it,
in comparison of so great mercies, if another man is
more learned, more respected, richer, or healthier
than you are ? God hath set us with other members
in the body, every one as it pleased Him. Enough
for our happiness, and infinitely more than we de
serve, that we are, any of us, there at all.
The weak then are not to envy the strong, and the
strong on the other hand are not to despise the weak.
" The eye is not to say to the hand, I have no need
of thee ; neither again the head to the feet, I have
no need of you." Those Avho are above others, either
in learning or in dignity, are of course in some dan
ger of becoming proud and contemptuous. There
fore the Gospel so distinctly says to us all, " blessed
are they that mourn : blessed are the poor : blessed
are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you,
and cast out your name as evil." Christ says that the
Gospel was especially preached to the poor ; and that
not the wisest and most honoured, but the humblest,
shall be great in the kingdom of heaven. And again,
since all Cliristians make one body, which is Christ,
and the members of the same body feel of course one
for another, it never will do for any Christian to deal
scornfully with any other Christian. We know that

One Spirit, many gifts. 287
in the natural body, "if one member suffer, all the
members suffer with it ; and if one member be ho
noured, all the members rejoice with it." Violent
pain in any one limb hinders the whole body from
being at ease : if the foot or the hand be throbbing
with anguish, the eye cannot take rest ; and, on the
other hand, if the aching eye, or any other member,
be relieved, it will give soothing and relief to the
whole body in every part. Thus does Almighty God
instruct us by our own constant feelings, how near
every Christian is to every other Christian : hoAV
we should sympathize all in one another's welfare,
should rejoice and sorrow with our neighbour, how
far soever he may seem beneath us in any respect.
Be he who he may, Christ died for him, and as a
Christian he is partaker of Christ's Spirit. We can
not say, we have no need of him : we need his prayers
as much as he ours. Our Lord and Saviour had need
of him, for He came down from heaven to save him^
and gave him His Spirit to make him a child of God;
and if we think we can do without our brother, if
we permit ourselves to scorn him, how have we the
mind of Christ ?
Let this then, Christian brethren, be the lesson
settled in our hearts at this great and holy time ;
to believe that we are Christian brethren indeed,
and to cherish in our hearts true brotherly feeling
one towards another. The coming of God the Holy
Ghost from heaven, to dwell in our hearts and bodies,
and unite us to Jesus Christ, is so great, so vast an
event, that it may well overwhelm and confound our
minds, if we try to think of it all at once, and to
feel all we might and ought from it : it is well that

288 One Spirit, many gifts.
we should select some one point of what it teaches,
and meditate on it with all our hearts : and let this
our subject to-day be, the One Holy Spirit, with
His differing gifts, abiding alike in every member
of Christ.
Consider, what a fearful notion this gives us of
our condition. To know that we are in God's sight,
that He looks on our heart, is exceedingly aweful :
to know that He looks on us as persons whom He
has called to be His own, whom He bought with
His own Blood, and for whom, therefore, He cares
with especial care, this makes our case still more
serious : but to be aware that the Most High and
Holy Spirit, by the covenant of our Baptism, is
really abiding within us : that we are, as S. Paul
said, "the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in us:" this, indeed, is aweful beyond all
awefulness. How can we be idle, thoughtless, ne
gligent of our souls ; how can we deal lightly with
any duty ; above all, how can we pollute our souls
and bodies with airy kind of wilful sin? we, to whom
Christ has said, "I will pray the Father, and He
shall 'give you another Comforter, and He shall abide
with you for ever."
Now, then, with this deep faith in Christ's Holy
Spirit, as having really been given to dwell in our
hearts, let us think on any other person, whomso
ever we will, as being also partaker of the same
Spirit. Consider ; if he were partaker of the same
blood with us, if it were our brother or sister after
the flesh, should we not be full of love for him ?
Should we not look on all he did with indulgence,
judge him as favourably as we could, pray for a

One Spirit, many gifts. 289
blessing on him heartily, and seek his good ahvays ?
How much more, Avhen the very same Spirit, which
is our life, is his life also ; binding us to him by
the same kind of unity, by which the Son of God is
One with the Father : for so He Himself prayed :
"dthat they," that is all Christians, "may be one,
even as We are one."
Again, because this Spirit deals not with all ex
actly alike, but divides " eto every man severally as
He will," hoAV should the remembrance of Him fail
to make us content in our places, orderly and diligent
in our duties ? Since wherever Ave are in God's work,
He assigned us our place : whatever we have to do,
He set us our task ; if we seem to have to do no
thing, but only to suffer, still it was He Who laid the
burthen upon us.
Are you then a rich and prosperous person ? Do
not trust in your own riches ; beware of thinking
that you can do without the poor, that you need
them not. You cannot do Avithout them : you have
the greatest need of them : you need their prayers
and blessings in return for your alms, to guard you
against the deadly snare of setting your heart Upon
this world, or any thing in it. If your alms obtain
you the prayers of the poor, this will, very likely,
by God's mercy through Christ, be a means of de
livering your soul from death.
Are you on the contrary, a poor man ? Then be
ware how you allow yourself to think sadly on the
rich, as being better off than you are. Such thoughts
are too likely to end in repining and envy : and there
fore we should never use ourselves to meditate much
a S. John xvii. 22. e 1 Cor. xii. 11.
TJ

290 One Spirit, many gifts.
on men's being above us, on their having more grace,
for example, on their being enabled to do greater
things for God, without deeply meditating also on
the mysterious ever-present Spirit by Whom such
differences were made. When it comes into your
mind, " How far such an one is from the wants and
doubts and troubles which annoy me," do not stop
there, lest you begin to grudge him his tranquillity ;
but go on saying to yourself, " God, Who knows
and loves us all better than we do ourselves, He saw
fit to make this difference between my brother and
myself, in just judgement perhaps, for my sins; it
is His doing : I dare not dispute or complain of it."
Again, are you in comparison learned ? are you
able to read the Scriptures ? yet do not trust in your
reading : do not think that you can make out your
duty, and save yourself well enough : you still need
the prayers of Christ's afflicted and poor, you still
need communion with His saints, both living and
dead. Seek that blessing in all charity.
Are you, on the other hand, an ignorant person,
and does it mortify you to see and feel that you
know much less than most others ? Care not for it,
but turn your thoughts to the infinite and wonderful
truth, which, as we all know, belongs to us and to
the very Avisest alike : turn your thoughts to the
Holy Ghost abiding in you : it will be a wonder if
you still go on envying and repining.
Are you so far blameless, as to have kept, by
God's mercy, your soul and body from wilful deadly
sin ? You know it is altogether the work of God's
Spirit : believe and think of this ; it will keep you
from pride and self-righteousness.

One Spirit, many gifts. 291
And last, and most mournful of all, are you a
guilty person, your conscience laden with grievous
sins, perhaps many sins, after Baptism ? Then, in
deed, the thought of the Presence of God's Spirit
must be precious in your heart, for it tells you of
your only hope; but that, please God, a sure and
certain hope ; namely, that He, unseen within you,
has still the power and will to enable you to repent :
and if you truly repent, He is faithful and just to
forgive you, for His dear Son's sake.
God keep us ever one, by His Holy Spirit in our
hearts ; and dispose us to be contented where we
fall short, and humble with what He gives us !

u2

SEEMON XXX.

GRACE WELL-USED ATTRACTS MORE GRACE.

MONDAY IN WHITSUN WEEK,
Ps. cxix. 55. 56.
" I have thought upon Thy Name, 0 Lord, in the
night season, and have kept Thy law ; this I had,
because I kept Thy commandments."
We know, by more than one expression of our Divine
Lord and Master, that there is a sort of character,
which, though it cannot entitle men to receive the
Gospel, yet prepares and fits them for it. No man
can possibly deserve so great a mercy : but some, by
God's grace, are worthier to have it than others are.
So Jesus Christ Himself teaches, where He says,
that "ano man, having put his hand to the plough, and
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." As
much as to say, that the temper of mind which dis
poses men to be content with mere beginnings and
good intentions, will never agree with the resolute
self-denying spirit, which they had need have in
them, who mean in earnest to take up their cross and
follow Christ. Upon which it would seem to follow
that the opposite disposition, the mind which urges
men to be constant, steady, persevering, does on the
a S. Luke ix. 62.

Grace well- used, attracts more grace. 293
contrary tend to make a man fit for the kingdom of
God. To the same purpose is the well-known and most
gracious declaration concerning little children, "bof
such is the kingdom of heaven." It is prepared es
pecially for trusting, affectionate minds : for those
who cling fondly to their friends and parents, and
love in every thing to resign themselves up to them,
instead of pretending to choose in all things for them
selves : to such the Gospel of Christ is especially
suited, and they in a manner are suited to it.
By these two instances (to mention no more at
present), we learn this lesson concerning the heaven
ly gift, in acknowledgment whereof this holy season
is appointed, the indwelling of the Holy Comforter
in the souls and bodies of believers, which is some
times called the kingdom of God : concerning this
best Gift, I say, we learn from such sayings as have
been now mentioned, that although the grace and
mercy of the Holy Ghost is indeed free, all-power
ful, sovereign; blowing, as our Lord said, "cwhere
it listeth," there is yet a certain frame and temper,
certain habits of conduct and behaviour, a certain
disposition and preparation of heart and mind, Avhich
is likely, if not sure, wherever it is found, to draw
down God's further blessing on him who has it. It
is itself the good gift of God ; and it prepares the
way for other and better gifts.
There are sundry examples of God's dealing with
His people of old, which tend to confirm this account
of our Lord's meaning. Abraham pleased God, by
following at once the voice which called him to leave
*> S. Matt. xix. 14. c S. John iii. 8.

294 Grace well-used attracts more grace.
his own country ; and God rewarded him, by giving
him grace to be willing, if need were, to sacrifice his
son in obedience to the same voice.
Moses shewed a loyal and devout spirit, refusing
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and boldly
interfering when he saw God's people oppressed :
and God rewarded him by making him their great
prophet and leader out of Egypt.
Samuel shewed himself a considerate and dutiful
child, and God called him to bear the burthen and the
strife of the people of Israel, in very trying times.
David, as a youth, was remarkable for courageous
trust in the Most High, for kindness and generosity
towards men, for boldness and fervent zeal in doing
the duty of his calling ; and he came to an exceeding
height of thankful devotion, so that his Psalms are
the Church's treasure of praise, and he is himself
known constantly by the name d, the man after God's
own heart.
And perhaps it might be truly said, that the verse
which I just now read to you out of the hundred and
nineteenth Psalm, contains in it the rule or principle
(as one should call it, speaking as a man) whereby
God vouchsafes to order, as it were, His own doings,
in encouraging generally the faint beginnings of good
ness. " I have thought upon Thy Name, O Lord, in
the night season, and have kept Thy law. This I had,
because I kept Thy commandments." Keeping the
commandments, as has been well said by a wise and
pious Bishop of our Church, is rewarded by keeping
the commandments. Because the Psalmist had so
much piety in him, as in a general way, all day long,
d Acts xiii. 22. 1 Sam. xiii. 14.

Grace well-used attracts more grace. 295
to do Avhat he knew was God's will : therefore God
gave him, as Job says, " songs in the night." He
poured into his heart grace to think on His Name,
to be full of holy meditations, in the night season,
when few can any how serve Him. He enabled him
to keep His law, during the hours which seemed
most unlikely to have allowed a chance of such a
sacrifice. Thus the Psalmist went from strength to
strength : and thus in all the saints of God, a loAver
degree of grace and obedience, faithfully improved,
is constantly rewarded by a higher one.
Now this rule and law of God's working is Avonder-
fully illustrated by the manner in which the Gospel
Avas first made known to the Gentiles, and the door
of the kingdom of heaven thrown open, by the ex
tension of the gift of the Holy Ghost to them also.
This we read in the history of Cornelius, part of
which is the epistle for this day. No one, with ever
so little thought, can help perceiving what great en
couragement that history gives to all endeavours to
be good, be they but sincere, however faint and im
perfect. With this vieAV one may gather, as it Avere,
into one, the several particulars related of him : the
many disadvantages under Avhich he served God ;
the sort of service which he rendered ; hoAV he Avas
employed at the very time the gracious offer was
first made him ; hoAV he improved that offer ; with
what special favours, one after another, it pleased
God to crown more and more his faith and devotion.
I will say a few words on each of these heads more
particularly. First : we see the sort of person whom the Lord de
lights to honour. When we look at Cornelius's con-

296 Grace well-used attracts more grace.
dition, and observe under how many drawbacks and
difficulties, the like of which are too commonly found
enough to discourage almost any one, he contrived
(if I may so speak) to be an acceptable worshipper.
He Avas not a Jew, but a Gentile ; not one of God's
people, but a heathen. Who can express the amount
of this disadvantage ? It may be comprehended, in
some degree, by considering, how much we think
is said in excuse of any particular sin a man falls
into, if it can be truly stated of him, that his friends
and parents were little better than heathens, and he
was brought up such altogether. When this can be
said, it is generally thought to go a good Avay towards
apologizing for the errors and vices of any one. How
much more in the case of a real heathen, brought up
altogether as such, and only thrown among Jews, by
God's Providence, as a soldier serving in their coun
try, and at a time when they were so very degene
rate, full of hypocrisy and iniquity !
Again, Cornelius was a soldier ; a pursuit and
way of life, not thought in general particularly fa
vourable to the exercise of true devotion. He was a
soldier in the Eoman army, a set of persons remark
able for pride, and for contempt of all but their own
will and pleasure.
Yet even this person, being stationed by the will
of God among His own nation, the Jews, within reach
of the Holy Scriptures and of the temple worship,
was so impressed with the truth and goodness of the
laAv and service of the Eternal God, that although
it does not seem as if he had become a regular pro
selyte, he yet devoted himself to the worship of the
Most High ; he became a devout man, and used him-

Grace well-used attracts more grace. 297
self to serve God Avith all his house ; giving much
alms to the people, that is, to the Jews, (whom most
Eomans so greatly despised,) and praying to God
always. This leads us to say something, secondly, of the
sort of service Avhich Almighty God is likely to bless
and approve, in persons unfavourably situated, as
Cornelius was.
First, he Avas a devout man ; that is, one who che
rished in himself the holy and reverential thoughts,
which came from time to time into his mind ; and
which, though he could not as yet know or dream
of such a thing, Avere the godly motions of that good
Spirit, which Avas preparing to come down and re
generate him, dwelling Avithin that heart which
shewed itself so ready to obey His calls from a dis
tance. Cornelius Avas a devout man, and lived in a
sense of God's Presence.
The next thing told of him is, that he served God,
with all his house. He did not, as some do, think
it enough to haAre pious Avishes in his mind; accord
ing to the expression which I have heard more than
once, when people were called to account for their
open neglect of religion : I have heard them say,
" Ah, nobody knows Avhat good thoughts I have
secretly in my heart." Cornelius did not so : he
felt that merely wishing is nothing, and therefore he
took care to serve God openly in his house : he strove
to make his servants also religious. No doubt he
brought on himself the wonder, and sometimes the
laughter, of his associates in the Eoman army ; but
still he went on praying himself, and teaching and
encouraging his servants to pray.

298 Grace well-used attracts more grace.
Does not this teach us something, as many as live
in a Christian country, and yet suffer any slight
excuse to hinder them either in their own regular
prayers, or in seeing that their families pray, morning
and evening ? And is it not the greatest encourage
ment to those, who put up with some little incon
venience, for the sake of securing a few minutes, for
the daily sacrifice of prayer and praise to the Most
High, in their own households, if they cannot attend
His Church ?
Observe, I say, the daily and regular sacrifice ;
for this," in particular, is noted of Cornelius, that he
prayed to God, not by fits and starts, but always,
He was glad when they said unto him, " Let us go
into the house of the Lord : let us worship and fall
down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker." He
was not, as we too often are, glad to have been to
Church in the morning, because we think ourselves
thereby excused from going in the afternoon. But,
as it is recorded of a good and holy man of our own
Church, and not far from this very neighbourhood,
two hundred years ago, "he would have rejoiced to
spend his life in that place, where the honour of his
Master, Jesus, dwelleth." "He prayed to God al
way;" that is, he never missed, if he could help it,
the occasions and opportunities of solemnly worship
ping Him.
And he added to his prayers both alms and fast
ing; the two wings, as they are called, of prayer.
"He gave much alms to the people," preferring in
his bounty those whom he had caused to think God
preferred: according to the rule of S. Paul: "eDo
<= Gal. vi. 10.

Grace well-used attracts more grace. 299
good unto all men, especially to them who are of the
household of faith."
This was the general course of his life, under all
his disadvantages. And to mark especially God's
approbation of it, observe how he was employed at
the very time the Angel came to him. He was
keeping a solemn fast on a certain day, having taken
nothing until the ninth hour, that is, until three in
the afternoon ; at which time he set himself to pray
the appointed service, which God's people used at
that hour in his house : for the ninth hour, that is,
three in the afternoon, Avas one of the regular hours
of prayer, constantly observed among the Jews, and
afterwards also among the Christians.
Such was Cornelius's employment, when an Angel
of God stood before him ; called him by his name ;
assured him (0 unspeakable reward for a whole life
of self-denial !) that his prayers and his alms had
gone up for a memorial before God ; and told him
where and to whom he should send, to receive in
struction as to God's purpose of grace ; and not only
instruction, but admittance into the kingdom of hea
ven, the Holy Spirit coming down to dwell in his
heart. And these blessings he was to receive, not
for himself only, but, as the first of believing Gen
tiles, for all who from all quarters of the world should
come in, and give their names to be servants of Christ.
And to make the favour still more signal, the Holy
Spirit at the same time instructed S. Peter, by a
wonderful vision, that it Avas His will to break
through, in the person of Cornelius, the partition
wall which had so long separated the Gentiles from
the people of God. And besides all this, when the

300 Grace well-used attracts more grace.
Apostle had come and had spoken to Cornelius and
his family, and they, (as they had no other thought)
were listening with humble and obedient and believ
ing hearts, the Holy Spirit Himself, in His visible
signs, fell on them that heard the word ; they began
to speak with tongues, and to magnify God : and
thereby S. Peter felt quite sure, that the Divine
Spirit had chosen them for His inhabitation, as en
tirely as those who had before been called to be
Christians from among the Jews : and no time was
lost in baptizing them, that they might be regene
rate, and have the Spirit, not only prophesying by
them, but dwelling in their hearts, and uniting them
to Jesus Christ.
Such is the rich, the unspeakable, inconceiArable
encouragement, which this history of the calling of
Cornelius offers, to all who humbly endeavour to
serve God under great worldly discouragements :
setting out (as one may speak) from the spot whereon
they now stand ; favourable or unfavourable ; and
trying to keep themselves, by prayer, by fasting, and
by works of kindness to their brethren, alive and
open to the influences of the Holy Spirit.
It is a part of Scripture particularly meant for
those, who for various reasons think religion nearly
out of the question for them ; for those who are very
destitute and ignorant, living perhaps on the charity
of others ; for those whose whole time seems en
grossed by hard work or by troublesome trade ; who
are made anxious by their families, or by the state
of their health : to all such the word is gone forth, if
they will but have the heart to receive it : " f God is
1 Acts x. 34, 35.

Grace well-used attracts more grace. 301
no respecter of persons, but in every nation," every
condition, under every sort of disadvantage, " he
that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness," will
surely be accepted of Him.
And when He says, "accepted of Him," it is no
ordinary blessing that He speaks of, but it is the
crown and sum of all blessings, the justification of
a Christian man. It is that which our Lord pro
mised when He said, "slf a man love Me, he will
keep My words, and My Father will love him, and
We" i. e. the Father and the Son, by the Spirit, "will
come unto him, and make Our abode with him."
e S. John xiv. 23.

SEEMON XXXI.

THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. I.

MONDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK.

Zeph. iii. 9.

" For then will I turn to the people a pure language,
that they may call upon the Name of the Lord, to
serve Him with one consent."
It is very clear from the book of Genesis, that lan
guage was the especial gift of Almighty God to our
first parents. God brought all things to Adam, "ato
see what he would call them : and whatsoever Adam
called every living creature, that was the name there
of." And it should seem that notwithstanding the
confusion and violence which brought on the flood,
yet this original gift continued until many genera
tions after Noah. When the whole earth had filled
with inhabitants again, it continued, as the first
lesson to-day declares, " of one language and of one
speech." This unity of language was a token that
it came from God, Who is One ; as all the other per
fections in which man was at first created, reason,
understanding, memory, foresight, dominion over
the creatures, immortality, were so many shadows
and images of His perfections. a Gen. ii. 1 9.

The universal language. I. 303
But when man had lost holiness, that perfection
Avhich Avas in a manner the grace and life of all the
rest, then these gifts all became dangerous, too often
fatal and deadly : they were but as weapons in the
hand of a strong bad man, to do the more mischief
with to himself and others : and it was therefore of
God's mercy that He took them away or lessened
them. Life He first made subject to death, and then very
much shortened its duration, partly in punishment,
partly also, as it may seem, that the evil-disposed
may have less time to fall away wholly and irrecon-
cileably from God. The understanding He made
dim, the body feeble and subject to disease ; the
earth was accursed, to bring forth no fruit without
labour ; the animals, the wilder part of them, seemed
to be withdrawn from man's dominion.
And even to our apprehension there appears but
too good reason for all this, in the sad abuse which
men, left to themselves, continually make of these
precious gifts. Their understanding they abuse, to
find excuses for sin and unbelief; their bodies, to
corrupt themselves and others ; the gifts of the earth,
to luxury and indolence ; their command over the
animals, to pride and cruelty. God was even forced,
by our ill use of His gifts, to withdraw from us more
or less of them : and so it was with the gift of lan
guage too, that gift, which is especially brought
before our consideration by the history of this time
of Pentecost.
The whole earth being of one language was a
great advantage to any one who could manage men
and get them all to act together in anything that

304 The universal language. I.
they set about. Now it seems, that in a certain num
ber of generations after the flood, they had again
so far revolted from the only true God, as to set
about building a city and a tower, in defiance of His
Majesty : as if to prevent His ever again destroy
ing the earth with a flood. "bThey said, Go to,
let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may
reach unto heaven ; and let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole
earth." This was their foolishness : it was a proud earthly
dream, like the projects of great kings and conque
rors among men : and the Almighty confounded them,
as He ever will confound all profane projects and
endeavours, that set out without His blessing. As
He had made us mortal, shortened our lives, clouded
our understanding, enfeebled our bodily strength ; so
now He took away the unity of our language. "cThe
Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which
the children of men builded. And the Lord said,
Behold, the people is one, and they have all one
language ; and this they begin to do : and now no
thing will be restrained from them, which they have
imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there
confound their language, that they may not under
stand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered
them abroad from thence upon the face of all the
earth : and they left off to build the city. Therefore
is the name of it called Babel," (i. e. confusion ;)
" because the Lord did there confound the language
of all the earth : and from thence did the Lord
scatter them abroad, upon the face of all the earth."
b Gen. xi. 4. c Ib. 5-9,

The universal language. I. 305
Thus we see, that as the other good gifts of the
Most High, so this great gift of one and the same
language to all, being greatly abused, was in process
of time taken away. And now, as you know, every
country has its own peculiar language : strangers
cannot understand us, nor we them ; and it takes a
very long time for one, nurtured and brought up in
one language, to be able to understand, much more
to speak, another.
But the kingdom of heaven, when in due time it
should be set up by the Incarnation, Death, Eesur
rection and Ascension of the Eternal Son of God, and
the coming of the Holy Ghost : this kingdom was to
bring with it a cure for the confusion of tongues, as
for all the other evil consequences of sin. So the
prophet tells us in the text : " Then " (i. e. in the
times of the Gospel) " I will turn unto the people a
pure language, that they may all call upon the Name
of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent." And
the prophecy of Isaiah concerning Egypt points to
the same thing: "dIn that day shall five cities in the
land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan." And
in another prophet: "eIn that day there shall be
One Lord, and His Name One: " as all shall worship
one and the same God, so all shall call Him by one
and the same Name. There shall be unity, both of
inward faith and of outward worship.
Such being the great and merciful purpose of
Almighty God concerning His Church : when that
Church was really set up in the world, a great sign
Avas presently given of the doing away with the dif
ference of languages, and joining all nations in the
a Is. xix. 18. e Zech. xiv. 9.
X

306 The universal language. I.
one service of God. The very first consequence of
the coming down of the Holy Ghost was their all
beginning to speak with divers languages, which
they had never learned : and also, as it seems, their
mutually understanding each other : that as sin had
separated men, so on their turning to God in Christ,
they might again be perfectly joined together. This
outward sign or gift of tongues seems to have lasted
but for one generation : but no doubt it was a sign
of that union of heart and tongue, inward and out
ward, which ought to be among all the members of
Jesus Christ. For what if we still -speak different
languages, and so, without particular instruction,
know not the meaning of one another's voices, and
are so far foreigners, or as S. Paul says, Barbarians,
to one another : still if we all knew that we served
the same Lord, with the same prayers and Sacra
ments, repeating the same Creeds, and reading the
same Scriptures ; if we prayed heartily for one an
other, and gave and received the outward signs of
communion, as often as we had opportunity ; the
difference of language would make no difference to
us as Churchmen : God's Name would still be One
over all the earth in reality, though it sounded dif
ferently in one country from what it did in another.
And this was the case for many generations and
ages, from the first publication of the Gospel at Je
rusalem. There was unity of doctrine all over the
world ; it was one Lord and one Faith : the Lord
Whom we honour and the Faith which we profess in
the Creeds of the Holy Church. All who professed
and called themselves Christians were then of one
mind and one mouth in these great things : or if any

The universal language. I. 307
one presumptuously differed, he was presently cast
out of the Body. There was also unity of Sacra
ments : it was one Baptism, as Avell as one Lord and
one Faith. And the soul of Christian religion being
thus exactly the same in every part of the Christian
world, no wonder that the body and outward form
of it was also in a great measure one : not supersti-
tiously and exactly, to every jot and tittle, but in
substance and in all great matters. For example,
the solemn prayers and method of offering and con
secrating the Holy Communion Avere undoubtedly
for many ages the same every where in all material
points. They remembered each other in their public
prayers ; not generally only, but particularly and by
name, when great need was, though at ever so great
a distance. And if a Christian had occasion to travel
in foreign parts, he had but to bring letters from his
Bishop and Pastor, to certify that he was a communi
cant at home, and he was presently admitted, all the
world over, to all the privileges of Christian brother
hood. Thus did the coming of the Holy Ghost in a great
measure undo the curse which fell on the world at
Babel : and though men still spake on worldly mat
ters with different languages, yet in the Faith and
Worship of God they might be truly said to speak
the same language, and to understand one another,
all the world over. And thus the Almighty, for six
hundred years, restored unto His people what they
had lost in Paradise : " a pure language," pure from
profaneness and falsehood, " that they might all call
upon the Name of the Lord, to serve Him with one
consent."
x2

308 The universal language. I.
How this great blessing has been in a great measure
lost among us, and what our duty is, whom God has
called to be His servants in times so unlike those
first, we may well consider another time : one thing
however is very plain, that we cannot be too earnest
in prayer to the One Lord that He would again make
His Name One throughout all parts of the Church :
nor too strict in watching our hearts and lives, that
we lose not the blessing held out to such charitable
prayers.

SEEMON XXXII.

THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. II.

Zeph. iii. 9.

" For then will I turn to the people a pure language,
that they may all call upon 'the Name of the Lord,
to serve Him with one consent."
Of all disappointments, there is none perhaps more
trying to a really good and dutiful mind than that
which is occasioned by the sad difference between
the promises and prophecies of Holy Scripture and
the actual state of the Christian world, as we see
it with our eyes. The Scripture says, "a All shall
know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest
of them :" and we see too many, of whom it may be
truly said, that they neither know nor care about
God. The Scripture says, " b Nation shall not lift up
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more :" yet wars and fightings have been going on
these many ages among Christians, as if they were
heathens. The Scripture says, " °The idols He shall
utterly abolish :" yet we have too much reason to fear
that a very large proportion of Christ's people every
where put a kind of idolatrous trust in one or other
of God's creatures, instead of depending on the great
Creator only.
a Jer. xxxi. 34. b Isa. ii. 4. c Ib. 18.

310 The universal language. II.
And to come at once to the example Avhich Ave
already began to consider : the Scripture says that
as there is One Lord, so His Name should be One ;
and that God would restore to all nations a pure
language, to serve the Lord with one consent : but
we see that some Christian nations are sadly se
parated from others ; some teaching as sacred truth
what others seem to reject, as heretical ; and that, in
stead of gladly remembering one another in their
prayers, they shut out on purpose all thoughts of
mutual communion, .the one sort fearing to be en
tangled in the heresy and error which they suppose
prevails among the other. And this, as matter of
fact, is equally certain, whether we blame all parties
or none, whether we blame these or those, still the
fact that we are divided and separated, remains, and
seems at first sight contrary to the other fact, that
God has promised all should be one.
This is most reasonably matter of great sorrow,
self-abasement, and disappointment, to all who love
God and His Church : but it need not be matter of
doubt and perplexity, because, if we look a little fur
ther, we shall find that these same comfortable pro
phecies are all of them uttered with a condition.
They are made to men as true children of the Church,
true members of the Body of Christ : and therefore
if persons, by wilful sin and unbelief, separate them
selves inwardly and spiritually from that Body, the
blessing is so far forfeited : they must not expect
still to partake of all the glories of their Christian
inheritance, any more than Israel might depend upon
the finest wheat-flour and the honey out of the rock
without hearkening to God and walking in His ways.

The universal language. II. 311
As far as we can trace the reasons, looking back
to former times, how the Church came to be so divi
ded as she is, it is but too plain that it was the just
Judgement of Almighty God on Christians for abusing
their privileges. For instance : near eight hundred
years ago, there was a grievous separation between
the Churches here in the West, and those of Asia and
the East : which those who have looked into history
say may be found clearly owing to the rash censures
and selfish ways of certain great persons of those
times, contending for the first place, and casting one
another out of the Church. And again : we have
all heard of the sad division which took place among
the Western Churches about three hundred years ago,
by which it has come to pass, that we in England
and the greater part of our brethren in other coun
tries are entirely separated from each other, as far
as visible fellowship goes : still, we hope, being one
in Christ Jesus, since we all hold the Faith of the
Apostles and the Baptism and Communion of our
only Saviour, yet cut off from the great privilege of
sharing in one another's worship and Sacraments :
possessed, we hope, of the Communion of Saints, but
deprived of the outAvard exercise of that Communion.
Now whichever way we look, there can be no
doubt of their having been grievous sin in all parties,
both in the Church of Eome itself, and among our
selves who have been ever since separated from her :
sin and irreverence, more than enough to account for
so heavy a judgement on both sides. And the way
to heal the mischief, and bring back the lost unity
of the Church, without falling away from what is
right in doctrine and worship, must surely be to re-

312 The universal language. II.
pent of our sin and irreverence, and win back by
earnest prayer and self-denial the forfeited blessing
of one pure language, wherein we may all once more
join in calling on the Name of the Lord, and serve
Him with one consent.
Were we to look at all the points in which Christian
Churches are divided one from another in doctrine
and worship, I suppose we might easily perceive in
every one, how sin and practical irreligion led in the
first instance to the error and division. Take the
example which the services of this time particularly
remind us of. One of our great objections to the
Church-services of many Christians abroad is that
they are offered in a language unknown to most of the
worshippers. We justly think that this appears con
trary to the directions of the Holy Spirit by S. Paul :
that a " person speaking in an unknown tongue
should keep silence in the Church, except there be
some one to interpret." But it is worth considering
how it first began. The Latin language, in which
the services are commonly performed in the Churches
abroad, was the regular language of the several coun
tries when they were first converted to be Christian.
In course of time the language altered, while the
services continued the same : and thus, almost before
people were aware of it, the custom was established
of worshipping in an unknown tongue. Now if care
had been taken to teach all children the meaning of
the several words and parts of the service, that ser
vice would not have been in a tongue unknown to
them, although on other occasions the same language
might not be known. And then, it may be, true re
verence might have continued to use it in church,

The universal language. II. 313
as putting the greater difference between a church
and a house, the service of God and ordinary employ
ments. But because those whose care it was, neglec
ted to teach people the meaning of their prayers, the
language came to be unknown, and much scandal and
irreverence followed ; which we in England, trying
to amend, have seemed to separate from them, and
no longer to be serving the Lord in the same lan
guage and with the same consent. Here is a plain
instance, of the unity of the Church suffering, in
consequence of the profane carelessness of those, who
were intrusted to bring up the youth of those times.
The same kind of remark may be made on other
matters, in which we are come to differ from our
brethren abroad.
Well then, if sin have so divided and scattered
Christians, is it not manifest that holiness must be
the one only secret for bringing them together again :
real holiness of heart and life, which will both set
men, by some good instinct, against false doctrine,
and will also give that virtue and prevailing force to
their united intercessions and prayers for unity, which
God (if one may so speak) shall hardly be able to
resist ? Some persons say, " never mind the divisions
among Christians ; there have always been such, and
they cannot be helped : it is well enough, if in spite
of them men go on holding a few, the very chiefest
truths of the Christian religion." But the Bible
holds out unity, we see, as one of the greatest pro
phecies : and the Prayer-book again and again most
solemnly enjoins us to pray for it. Let us do so with
all our hearts : being quite sure that there must be
some deep and mysterious blessing, more than we

314 The universal language. II.
know of, in the full unity of the Church. Otherwise
we should not in so many wayrs have been invited
and urged to make it the matter of our prayers. And
surely, when we do feel a little of the blessing of
Church unity, as He permits us to do now and then,
in Church services especially, the joy and consolation
is so great, that Ave may well believe it would be
quite overpowering, too much almost for this world.
When it is but one family dwelling together in unity,
but one congregation joining heartily and rightly in
the heavenly hymns and prayers of the Church ; how
keenly sometimes do we feel the blessing ! It is like
a cup running over. How much more, if we suppose
it carried over the whole earth, and continued on in
perfection, through eternity.
Surely strict lives are worth living, true self-denial
is worth practising ; surely in them, not after them
only, is great reward, if they keep us so joined to
Christ, that He will hear our prayers for unity, and
do something, how faint and secret soever, at our
supplications, for healing the wounds of His Church,
and restoring her pure language.

SEEMON XXXIIL

FESTIVAL JOY.

TUESDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK.

Eccles. ix. 7, 8.

" Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy
wine with a merry heart ; for God now accepteth
thy works : let thy garments be always white, and
let thy head lack no ointment."
This is one of those passages, so remarkable in the
writings of Solomon, in which the words of sinful
men in the world are taken up by the Holy Ghost,
to be applied in a Christian sense. As they stand
in Ecclesiastes, it seems very plain that they are in
tended to represent the sayings and thoughts of sen
sual, careless people, indulging themselves in their
profane ways, their utter neglect of God and good
ness, with the notion that this world is all. As if
they should say, " When people are dead, there is an
end of them : therefore all we have to do is to enjoy
ourselves as much as possible ; to eat our bread with
joy, and drink our wine with a merry heart ; to wear
always festival garments, and anoint ourselves with
the oil of gladness, while God still ' accepteth our
works,' that is, while it is yet well with us, and we
are capable of finding delight in life, according to the
order of God's providence." It is much the same

316 Festival joy.
as the unbeliever's saying, in S. Paul, "aLet us eat
and drink, for to-morrow we die."
But see the ever-watchful goodness and mercy of
God. The words which the dissolute, wild-hearted
sinner uses to encourage himself in his evil inconsi
derate ways, He teaches us to take up, and use them
in a very different sense : to express the inward joy
and comfort which God's people may find in obeying
Him. As thus : suppose a person giving himself up,
with his whole heart, to the service and obedience
of God : supposing him really withdrawing himself
from the sins which had most easily beset him ; sup
pose him making some great sacrifice, parting with
what he held very dear, or submitting to pain or
grief for Christ's sake : then the Holy and merciful
Comforter seems to say to him in the words of the
text, " Go thy way now, thank God, and take cou
rage ; the blessing of God is now restored to thee,
and will be upon all thou hast, and upon thine or
dinary employments and refreshments : now thou
mayest eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine
with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy
works." For, " whether we eat or drink, or what
ever we do," if we " do all to the glory of God," we
shall do it with His blessing and approbation : it
will be so much more of happiness, joy, and thanks
giving to us.
Thus we may understand the words to teach the
same lesson as the Apostle, when he says, " ^Eejoice
in the Lord alway, and again, I say, rejoice." They
are God's gracious word of permission to those who
fear Him, encouraging them to enjoy, with inno-
1 1 Cor. xv. 32. b Phil. iv. 4.

Festival joy. 317
cence, moderation, and thankfulness, the daily com
forts and reliefs, with which He so plentifully sup
plies them, even in this imperfect world. They bring
the same assurance from God as S. Paul gives to
Timothy : " °Every creature of God is good, and no
thing to be refused, if it be received with thanks
giving." Let us only think for one moment, what a hea
venly light it would throw over our ordinary works
and refreshments, if, being always careful to set about
them Avith a good conscience, we could seriously
bring it home to ourselves, that they are so many
tokens of heavenly and eternal love ; so many rea
sonable grounds of hope, that God really accepteth
our AVorks.
But there is yet a higher, a Christian sense of
these words, a sense in which they were taken of
old by the holy Fathers of the Christian Church.
The bread and wine, the white garments, the oint
ment for the head, are, according to this interpreta
tion, figures and types of our Christian privileges,
the blessings and favours of the kingdom of heaven.
It is, then, as if the Holy Word had said to us,
being, as we are, Christian men, members of the
mystical Body of our Lord and Saviour, " Now you
have been brought into the communion of saints;
now God has set His seal upon you ; now, to speak the
Apostle's words, ' d ye are washed, ye are sanctified,
ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and
by the Spirit of our God.' Go your way, then ; use
your privileges with all reverence, joy and fear.
Draw near as often as you can, to the holy feast of
c 1 Tim. iv. 4. d 1 Cor. vi. 11.

318 Festival joy.
that Bread and Wine, which,(to those who take it
with penitent and obedient hearts,*1 is the very Body
and Blood of our Saviour Christ. Aweful as such an
invitation is, you may yet draw near with holy
cheerfulness, having God's seal and mark upon your
forehead, and the earnest of His Spirit in your
hearts." And it would seem that if Christians were at all
such as they ought to be, the words might be well
and profitably understood with a particular reference
to this sacred season of Whitsuntide.
For at this time, as you know, the Blessed Com
forter came down, to set up the kingdom of Christ
on earth ; to dwell in men's hearts so as to unite
them to Christ ; by which union alone they can be
partakers of the great things which the Gospel pro
mises. This time, then, is the last of the Holy Sea
sons; it represents to us the full completion of God's
unspeakable plan for the salvation of the world.
Supposing, then, any humble, faithful Christian
to have rightly kept the former holy seasons : to
have " worshipped and served Christ, for His Con
ception, in faith ; for His Birth, in humility ; for
His Sufferings, in patience and irreconcileable hatred
of sin ; for His Death, by dying daily to sin ; for
His Eesurrection, by rising again more and more
unto righteousness ; for His Ascension, by a heavenly
mind:" may we not, without presumption, imagine
him to hear the voice of his approving conscience,
the certain yet silent whispers of the Holy Comforter
in his heart, " Go thy way now, receive the fulness
of the blessing of these sacred days, which thou hast
so dutifully tried to observe. Let the light and

Festival joy. 319
warmth of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide
spread itself in a measure over the rest of thy year.
Whatsoever God putteth in thine hand to do, in the
way of holy devotion and true Church-communion,
do it Avith all thy might, in the humble hope that
God now accepteth thy works."
Such is the kind of comfort, which the sacred
Scriptures encourage us, as Christians, to take to
ourselves, at every new return of these great days,
bringing home to us things which are the very
foundation of our hope. It is a comfort which would
be to us far more perfect than it is, and far plainer
to be understood, if we were less unworthy of our
privileges ; if we had not too generally fallen from
the righteousness of Jesus Christ, given to us at our
Baptism. But even as it is, the words have a sound
most comfortable to penitents, as well as to those
who, by God's help, have kept themselves from
wilful, deadly sin. They sound like words of abso
lution : "Go thy way, return again to that holy
Table, from which thy transgressions had for a time
separated thee : eat thy bread, and drink thy wine
with a courageous and hopeful heart : for now there
is hope that God accepteth thy works; that He
hears thee, since thou hast left off inclining unto
wickedness with thine heart. Thy case indeed is
alarming, from the continual danger of a relapse ;
and thy loss at best is great, penitency instead of
innocency being thy portion ; yet go on steadily and
cheerfully." Thus, whether to souls that have as yet preserved
the purity of their baptismal robe, or to humble
penitent souls, desirous of recovering it, there are

320 Festival joy.
in Holy Scripture, if we had ears to hear them,
most condescending invitations as well as warnings.
Christ, in His Sacraments, is held out to them as
their only but suflicient Hope.
Observe, however, the words which follow, which
to the hearing of a thoughtful Christian convey a
very serious admonition, telling us on what these
unspeakable privileges depend, so far as our own con
duct is concerned : " Let thy garments be always
Avhite, and let thine head lack no ointment." This
also would be felt by the Christians of ancient times,
as particularly suitable to the holy season of Whit
suntide. For that, as you know, was one of the
solemn times of baptizing, and the new-baptized were
always clothed in white, as a token of the " "fine
linen, clean and white, the righteousness of saints,"
and of Jesus Christ; the wedding garment, which
God had just put on them by making them mem
bers of His Son. To say, therefore, to Christians at
Whitsuntide, " Let thy garments be always white,"
was the same as saying, " Take care that at no time
you stain or sully the bright and clear robe of your
Saviour's righteousness, which has just been thrown
over you : according to the Apostle's saying, ' f As
many as have been baptized into Christ haAre put on
Christ.' As much as possible keep it clear from all
spot of wilful sin ; and if you have unhappily fallen,
give yourself no rest, until by your true and deep
repentance, all your life long, you have put the mat
ter entirely in your Saviour's hand, to wash out even
that wilful stain, if so it please Him, by His most
precious Blood."
e Rev. xix. 8. » Gal. iii. 27.

Festival joy. 321
Again, says the wise man, " Let thine head lack
no ointment : " and this again is an allusion which
would come with a particular meaning in early times
to the new-baptized Christians, and those who had
been present at their Baptism. For. both in that
Sacrament, and in Confirmation, which comes next
after it, they used in those days to anoint with holy
oil. And oil is in Scripture the constant token of
the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. Therefore,
to say, " Let thy head lack no ointment," would mean,
" Take care that thou stir up, cherish, and improve
the unspeakable Gift, of which thou art now made
partaker. Use diligently all the means of grace
which Christ has provided for thee in His Kingdom,
whereof thou art now come to be an inheritor."
Think not, that because we have received so great
a blessing freely and fully, without any merit, with
out any exertion of our own, therefore we have but
to go on quietly, taking no particular pains, and all
will come right at last. Nay, the very greatness of
the blessing is a call upon us to labour night and
day, that we lose not, after all, the fruit of such ex
ceeding mercy. It provokes the envy and spite of
the Evil one, to take all the advantage he can of
us : let it, therefore, encourage us to be more and
more devout and watchful. What a shame for us to
be negligent in prayer, who know that we have
Christ's Spirit abiding in us, to help our infirmities,
and pray for us and with us ! What sin, what
danger, what ruin, for us to be violently carried
away with any worldly thing whatever, who know
that " greater is He that is in us than he that is in
the world !" Y

322 Festival joy.
If we earnestly endeavour, and pray in Christ's
Name, to have such thoughts as these, when Ave are
reminded of our baptismal privileges, we may hope
that the care of the Church in appointing these holy
seasons will not be thrown away upon us : we may
hope, next year, to accompany her in her mysterious
round of holy feasts and fasts, from Advent to Trinity
Sunday, with more dutiful and prepared hearts than
we have done this year. But let us, above all things,
beware of growing faint and cold, and treating these
sacred things as matters of course. Let us remem
ber that "we have opened our mouth unto the Lord,"
and we must not, we dare not, " go back : " but we
shall undoubtedly go back, if we are not ahvays la
bouring to go forward.

SEEMON XXXIV.

CHRISTIAN. MINISTERS, TOKENS OF CHRIST'S
PRESENCE.

TUESDAY IN WHITSUNWEEK.

S. John x. 9.

' I am the door: by Me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find
pasture."
Persons Avho attend to the Church-Services must
have observed, that the lessons, epistles, and Gospels
for Whitsunweek, especially those of this clay, are
selected in some measure with a view to the mi
nisterial office, and to the doctrine of Holy Scrip
ture concerning it. Yesterday's morning lesson,
from the first epistle to the Corinthians, about the
manifestation of the same Spirit by variety of gifts ;
and also the evening lesson about the seventy elders
of Israel, who received a gift of the Spirit to assist
Moses, have both of them an evident reference to that
subject. So has one of the lessons for this morning,
beseeching Christians to know those who are over
them in the Lord, and admonish them, and to esteem
them very highly in love for their work's sake. But
most especially is this the case with the epistle and
Gospel of the day : the epistle giving an account,
y 2

324 Christian ministers, tokens of Christ's Presence.
how the Holy Ghost was given, and could only be
given, by laying on of the hands of the Apostles ;
the Gospel pointing out those Apostles, as the per
sons trusted by the Chief Shepherd with the whole
care of the sheep.
Nor are there wanting good and plain reasons,
why this particular subject should be so much in the
Church's mind, at this particular time.
First, this is, as you know, one of the Ember weeks;
next Sunday, the Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity,
is one of the Ordination Sundays. We are therefore
to fast and pray for a blessing on those who shall be
ordained. And that our fasting and prayer may be
accompanied with worthier notions of the blessings
we seek, it is well we should be reminded of certain
portions of Scripture, telling us shortly, but very
seriously, wherein lies the true greatness and sacred
ness of the ministry of Jesus Christ.
It is not that this ministry is sanctioned by the
law of England, rather than any other, to instruct,
and warn and guide us : it is not that the same
ministry always was, and is still, a mighty instru
ment in God's hand, for all the best works that have
been done in the world : it is not for the love of
peace and order, knowing there must be some minis
try in the Church, and thinking it best to hold by
that which is established. These are all reasons of
more or less weight ; but neither in each separately,
nor in all taken together, can they be truly called
the reason, why the ministry is so very great and
sacred. The reason is, that Christ only is the door
of the sheep ; that our spiritual life entirely depends
on a real, though mysterious, union with Him ; to

Christian ministers, tokens of Christ's Presence. 325
which union the ministration of the Apostles, or of
others ordained through them, is, ordinarily speaking,
quite necessary.
This being so, all the reasons which would other
wise make us to be greatly concerned for the well-
being of Christ's ministry among us, are unspeakably
heightened, and made more important and more af
fecting. And, of course, no more serious introduc
tion to hearty prayer for Bishops and Priests and
Deacons, could have been contrived, than the reading
of some of those Scriptures, which openly affirm
these great things concerning the ministry of those
whom Christ sends, as He has sent those three Orders.
But again, this subject of the Christian ministry
is connected very closely with the blessing of Whit-
Sunday ; is indeed a material part of that blessing.
For by that ministry the blessing is continued down
to these, and to all times. It was to the Apostles
that the Holy Spirit visibly came : through them
the promise was made to the Church, that He should
abide in us for ever ; and therefore, if there were
now no successors of the Apostles in the world, that
promise would seem to have become a dead letter,
to have passed entirely away from us. But thanks
be to Almighty God, that is far from being the case.
For as in the first days of the Church, the visible
gift of the Holy Ghost to the Apostles and some
other disciples, was the external token, to the very
senses of men, of His inward Presence and abode
in their hearts ; so now the presence of the Apostles
themselves, by their successors, the Bishops princi
pally, and under them the Priests of the Church, is
a like external token, addressed also to the senses, of

326 Christian ministers, tokens of Christ's Presence.
the same Spirit abiding in our hearts also. The Apos
tles knew for certain, that the promised Comforter
Avas present in their ministrations, to regenerate His
people first, and afterwards to strengthen and refresh
them ; because they saw the fiery tongues, they heard
the sound as of a rushing mighty wind, they felt the
power in themselves to speak with new tongues, and
to work various other miracles besides. We, in like
manner, the Avord sounds a bold one, but I verily be
lieve it is no more than Scripture plainly warrants
us in affirming, Ave are sure that the same Holy Spirit
is present also in our ministrations, for the same gra-
' cious purposes : we are sure of it, because Ave know
that the hands of those whom Christ commissioned
for that purpose Avere solemnly laid on our heads, and
the same commission, in part or in whole, given to
us. So that we, as Bishops or Priests, do really stand
in the place of the Apostles, and the word spoken
to them is spoken to us.
Thus we see there is a double reason, why Scrip
ture relating to <the Ministry and the Succession
should be read in this week particularly ;
First, to assist our prayers for those Avho are short
ly to be ordained :
Secondly, to remind us, that through this ministry
we have our portion in the precious gifts, brought
from heaven by the Holy Ghost.
This ministry is, in part, the token and the mean
of the continuance of the indwelling Spirit in the
people of God. It is our pledge, that we enter in by
the door ; according to that parable of our Lord which
forms the Gospel for the day. As in the epistle to
the HebreAvs Ave are instructed, that the onlv en-.

Christian ministers, tokens of Christ's Presence. 327
trance into the Holy of Holies is through the veil,
that is, the flesh of our Lord : we must be new-born,
and made members of His Body, (which, as the
catechism teaches, we are in Holy Baptism,) before
we can be said to belong to His Church and king
dom : so here, in His own parable, the Church is the
sheep-fold, and our Saviour is the door. It is only
through Him we must pass, if we would go in and
out, and find pasture. No irregular ways, no ways
of men, whatever good they may do us in other re
spects, will admit us to the fulness of the blessing of
the Gospel of Christ.
It is much to be observed, that our Lord distinctly
represents Himself as the door, by which both shep
herd and sheep must enter. He that climbeth up
some other way, is a thief and a robber : he only,
that entereth in by the door, is the shepherd of the
sheep. This is the leading idea of the parable.
And to give the key for explaining it, He adds
afterward, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the
door of the sheep ... I am the door : by Me if any
man come in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and
out and find pasture." By which it would seem,
that it is quite as necessary for the shepherds, in
their peculiar office, as it is for the sheep of the flock,
to enter in by the door. There must be some pecu
liar token and mean of grace, sealing the ministers
of Christ for their office, by immediate communica
tion with Himself, like as there must be the holy
Sacrament of Baptism, to seal every Christian for
spiritual union with Christ.
This is what we should expect by the parable : and
so in fact it has ever been in the Church. Men en-

328 Christian ministers, tokens of Christ's Presence.
ter into the fold of our Lord and Saviour, as sheep,
by Baptism ; as shepherds, by Ordination. In both
cases through Him, as the door.
Should it be said, by way of answer to this, that
too many of those, who are duly ordained, have in
all ages neglected or abused their privileges, and
some have behaved rather like thieves, who come on
purpose to steal, and to kill, and to destroy : and
should the question be asked, as it sometimes is,
"Are we to call these bad men shepherds, merely
because they have been ordained, and deny the name
to good and charitable teachers, merely because they
have not been ordained ? " the answer to this may
be perceived, on well considering our Lord's way of
speaking, concerning the sheep of His flock them
selves. " By Me if any man enter in, he shall be
saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."
Yet we know that too many of those, who enter in
by Jesus Christ, being baptized in their infancy, and
so made members of Him, do not continue in that
salvation : they neglect it ; they receive God's grace
in vain ; they refuse to go in and out and find pas
ture ; to walk quietly in the way of righteousness,
and beside the waters of comfort ; and yet all the
while our Blessed Lord's saying holds true concern
ing them also : they were saved, but they have for
feited their salvation. -
Thus He speaks of the sheep ; and the like turn
may with reason be given to His account of the
shepherds. " He that entereth in by the door is the
shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth,
and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own
sheep by name, and leadeth them out : and when

Christian ministers, tokens of Christ's Presence. 329
he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before
them, and the sheep follow him, for they know
his voice." This is the account of the natural and
intended effect of God's calling a man to be a shep
herd and Bishop in His Church ; but it may be for
feited as the baptismal privileges may : and yet
this will no more interfere with the reality and
necessity of Christ's call by ordination, than the bad
lives of too many Christians interfere with the neces
sity of Holy Baptism, and the reality of the grace
then given.
If the ministers of Christ are unworthy, and do
not their duty, let them look to it : but still they
cannot unordain themselves : they are yet ministers
of Christ; and the Sacraments of our Lord, the tokens
and means of our union with Him, are continued
among us through them. Their going wrong does
not destroy their commission, nor do away with the
spiritual and heavenly state of things, of which their
being among us is a token : it does not turn the
Church into the world, the neAV heaven and the new
earth into the old heathen or Jewish condition ; it
still leaves on every Christian the full burthen of his
baptismal promises, and of those high and unspeak
able privileges, which were sealed to him at the holy
fount of regeneration. It still leaves him a mem
ber of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the
kingdom of heaven; bound by solemn oath to re
nounce what God hates, to believe what He teaches,
to keep what He commands.
Such is the view which our Lord's parable of the
sheep-fold, compared with what we read elsewhere
in the Bible and Prayer book generally, would lead

330 Christian ministers, tokens of Christ's Presence.
us to take of our own condition, so far as it depends
on the presence of an apostolical ministry among us.
Whoever truly believes it, and lays it to heart, will
find that it will make an extreme difference in all his
notions and conduct on Church matters.
I do not mean simply in keeping him from schism,
and from any proceedings within the Church in the
spirit and temper of schism, that is, of self-confi
dence : but I mean, particularly ; in respect of those
who really love the Church, and wish to obey it ;
Avho desire and endeavour to walk conscientiously in
all Church-duties and ordinances. If such persons
will use themselves to consider this outward king
dom of God as a pledge of the inward ; the ministry
and Sacraments as sure tokens of the Father and the
Son dwelling in their hearts by the Holy Spirit;
surely that is a way of thinking, which will in an
unspeakable way ennoble and purify all they do,
both in the Church and elsewhere ; all their wishes,
prayers, and performances.
Particularly in .regard of devotional duties, and
Church-services, it will not so much set men on any
new practices, as it will put their old observances on
new and high ground. Thus in our dealings with
Christ's ministers, more especially with His Bishops,
when any come near us, we shall be full of awe,
considering them as living and visible tokens of Him,
under whose Cloud of Glory, though we see it not,
we live : we should receive them, as the Galatians
are praised for receiving S.Paul, "aas an angel of
God, even as Christ Jesus."
In our thoughts on public matters, and what is
a Gal. iv. 14.

Christian ministers, tokens of Christ's Presence. 331
called the union of the Church of God with the State
in which we live, we should look chiefly, not to the
visible and immediate good done, but to the great
duty which lies on the kingdoms of this world, to
bow themselves down to the Church and Kingdom
of our Lord, and to offer up all their power and
glory, as a sacrifice, through her, to God.
In our use of the Prayer-book we should remem
ber, that this also, coming down, as it does in a great
measure, nearly from the day of Pentecost, is, like
the apostolical ministry, a sure token of God's won
derful presence in our hearts ; far more, therefore,
than any other set of prayers and lessons, however
good and edifying, could be.
Finally, this view, if we will steadily try to act
on it, will guide aright, and lift on high, the whole
course of our outward religion, both in word and deed.
It will help to make us feel, after our measure, that
Christ is not only the Saviour of all men, once for
all, by His precious Death on the Cross, but also a
Saviour, a present and abiding Saviour, to each of
us at every moment, by His Spirit inhabiting our
souls and bodies. It will make every day Sunday,
and Sunday like one of the days of eternity. It will
make every place a Church, and the Church a kind
of Heaven.

SEEMON XXXV.

WHY THE WITNESS OF GOD IS REJECTED.

TRINITY SUNDAY.
S. John iii. 11.

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, We speak that we
do know, and testify that ive have seen, and ye re
ceive not our witness."
These are the words of the eternal Son of God, de
scribing the manner in which His witness, and the
witness of His Holy Spirit, would be too generally
treated in the world. That behaviour, He says,
would be boldly practised towards Him, which men
can least endure, when practised towards themselves.
His positive declarations would be treated as false
hoods : His words of earnest advice and warning
taken no more notice of, by many, than if they had
never been spoken at all.
Now, men know what they feel when they are
used in that way, even by those who are as wise and
as good as themselves. They cannot very soon forget
or pass it over. How then can they think, without
trembling, of behaving in the same disrespectful way
to the Eternal Father, to the Judge of quick and
dead, to the Almighty Spirit, a in Whom they and
all creatures live, and move, and have their being ?
a Acts xvii. 28.

Why the witness of God is rejected. 333
They cannot suppose that God Almighty is, as
it were, too high above us to care how we behave
towards Him. For He has warned us in so many
words, "bThem that honour Me, I will honour; and
they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed."
That is, they who turn their thoughts, seriously and
humbly, to the message of their God, brought from
heaven by His Son Christ Jesus, and sealed after
wards by the gift of His Holy Spirit ; those He will
always bear in mind ; they will find Him a kind and
merciful God ; they will have His blessing both in
this world and in the next. But on the other hand,
" c surely He scorneth the scorners : " they who will
not remember Him, will find themselves left without
Him in the world ; and how then can ever anything
turn out well and happily to them ?
Neither can the scorners of the Almighty pretend,
that the things, which He teaches and they refuse to
hear, are such as do not nearly concern themselves.
On the contrary, the witness of the Son of God, the
Gospel, of which He speaks in the text, contains in
it all the particulars, on which depend the life, be
ing, and happiness of every one, both here and here
after. Can any thing possibly concern you more than
to know, that you have an immortal soul, a living
spirit which never can die, and a body which will
rise again after death, never more to return to corrup
tion ? And further, that God Himself has prepared
for this soul and body of yours a home of everlasting
peace and joy : things more blessed than eye ever
saw, or ear heard, or than ever entered into man's
b 1 Sam. ii, 30. c-Prov. iii. 34.

334 Why the witness of God is rejected,
heart to conceive? These truths, by His Gospel,
our Saviour brought to light. Before Him, they
might be darkly guessed at by a few good and wise
men : now they are known for certain facts by every
child in a Christian country. Can you, dare you,
pretend for a moment, that the certain knowledge of
these things makes no difference to you ? Can you,
dare you say, you have any excuse for running after
wild and low pleasures, in order to drown the cares
and sorrows of the world, now that your Maker has
made known to you a place of eternal comfort and
recompense ? Can you, dare you plead, when vexed
and disappointed, that you " do well to be angry,
even unto death," now that your eyes are divinely
opened, and you have it in your power, if you will,
to look on, over a very few years, to a place where
(1there will be no sorrow, nor crying, and where "God
shall wipe away all tears from your eyes ?"
But Jesus Christ brought also to light the doctrine
of eternal death : the chief evil, as well as the chief
good. They who Jive within reach of His Gospel
are inexcusable if they do not know how grievously
they and all mankind are fallen from that righteous
ness in Avhich God created them ; if they do not
think much of the danger they are in, lest they lose
their souls for ever and ever. " e The Avicked shall
be turned into hell, and all the people that forget
God." Surely, however painful it may be, it must
be good for a man to know this. Having been once
informed of it by our Saviour, we cannot be as if we
had never heard of it.
If, indeed, no more had been revealed to man,
d Rev. xxi. 4. ° Ps. ix, 17.

Why the witness of God is rejected. 335
than that there is a portion in heaven provided for
him by God Almighty, but that he, through sin, is
in great clanger of missing that happiness, and falling
into a place Avhere " their worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched : " if God had only made known
to us our condition, without distinctly telling us how
it may be bettered, something might have been said
for spiritual doubtfulness and despondency, though
nothing at all for wilful sin and disobedience. But,
in His infinite and unspeakable mercy, He has told
us much more than this : He has not only set life
and death clearly before us, but has said distinctly,
" Choose life," and has taught us hoAV to do so effec
tually. This is, emphatically, the Gospel of Christ :
namely, the way, revealed by Him from heaven, by
which lost and undone sinners may return, if they
will, to their heavenly Father ; may put off their
sin, and save their souls alive. All which our Lord
has fully revealed to us, by instructing us in God
Almighty's method of dealing with us by His Son
and Spirit.
First, whereas all mankind were guilty, before
God, of deadly sin, all had sinned, and come short of
His glory; He has revealed to us, in His Son Christ
Jesus, the only Name by which it is possible for a
sinner to obtain forgiveness of the past. The Son of
Man has been lifted up in our sight, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever
lasting life. The Son, which is the Word of God,
begotten from everlasting of the Father, Very and
eternal God, of one Substance with the Father ; He
has taken our nature upon Him, has suffered what
we deserved, and has purchased for us Avhat we never

336 Why the witness of God is rejected,
can deserve ; pardon and favour from a just and holy
God. Will any man say, " These are great and high
matters : they may be true, but I do not understand
them, and why should I trouble myself about them?"
If there be any such person, I can only answer him
by another question. Suppose you were a drowning
man, and your best friend came in sight, endanger
ing his own life to help you, and shewing how you
might make sure of deliverance, if you would only
look, and try to move, towards him with a steady
confidence in what he told you. Would that be "no
concern of yours ?" Would you refuse all attention
to him, because you could not exactly make out all
that he was saying and doing on your behalf?
Yet, if we are Christians at all, we must believe
that this is but a faint representation of the mercy
made known to us on the Cross, and our great need
of it. We must believe, that Jesus Christ is now and
evermore our Saviour ; that He has bought us with
His own Blood, to be His, both soul and body, for
ever; and, if we have any sense at all of gratitude
for unutterable love, or any fear at all of the unut
terable misery, which that love, slighted, is sure to
bring after it, we must think ourselves more concern
ed in this, than we can possibly be in any thing else :
we must see, that it is no high matter, fit for scholars
only to consider, but plain common sense and com
mon gratitude, which tells us, that Christ having
"fdied for all," we must not henceforth live unto
ourselves, but unto Him Who died for us, and rose
again.
1 2 Cor. v. 14, 15.

Why the witness of God is rejected. 337
And how are we to live to, or for Him ? In the
same sort of way, as when a dutiful child is said to
live to, or for his parent, or an affectionate wife to,
or for her husband, by looking to Him habitually and
continually, and making it the business of our life to
please Him.
But how is this possible to be done, considering
the frail bodies we have, the corrupt world we live
in, and the bad habits, most contrary to His will,
which too many of us are got into ? These are sad
and true considerations ; and yet it is possible for us
to please God ; for hear the other part of the witness
of His Son, the good tidings which He brought from
heaven. " I will pray the Father, and He shall give
you another Comforter, that He may abide with you
for ever : even the Spirit of Truth."
The Holy Ghost, Who is Very and eternal God, of
one Substance with the Father, proceeding from the
Father and the Son, He is ever present with Chris
tians, strengthening them, in the absence of their
Eedeemer, to walk, by faith in Him, so as to please
God. He is ready with His helping hand, to lift
our thoughts above earthly things, and fix them on
the Son of God, Who ought to be all in all to us.
He is ready to bless our prayers and Communions,
our good and humble thoughts and purposes, by
making us gradually purer and purer, more and
more fit to be received into heaven.
If any one can be found who is careless about
these blessings, (and it must be with shame acknow
ledged, that a great many seem as if they never
had "heard whether there be any Holy Ghost,")
they must he careless of all divine things ; they do

338 Why the witness of God is rejected.
not mind whether they are saved or lost : but those
who think on this doctrine at all, must allow, that it
supplies all a Christian need know, all the help he
need ask. Whether he be rich or poor, learned or
ignorant, the assistance of this Holy Spirit may be
obtained by him, on sincerely praying for it. And
when men once know this, one is as capable as ano
ther of perceiving, what of course must be his OAvn
duty. The simplest may understand as clearly as the
wisest, that the nearer God's Spirit comes to him, to
help him in well-doing, the more shameful and in
tolerable is his conduct, if he go on still in his sins.
Such is the witness of Jesus Christ, of which He
was speaking to Nicodemus, when He said, men
would not receive it, though made known to them
on the most certain of all evidence. "We speak
that We do know, and testify that We have seen,
and ye receive not Our witness."
You have heard the substance of what was spoken,
that is, of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour ; and
have seen how very nearly the whole of it concerns
every one of us. Observe now, Avho those are that
speak, and judge whether it can be safe to disregard
them. The Gospel, by which God speaks to us Christians,
was not, like former messages, entrusted to prophets
and Angels only : no, not to the highest Archangel
in heaven. But "sGod, Who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto
us by His Son;" His only Begotten, One with Him
self in Nature and in Glory. He did not only come
sHeb. i. 1.

Why the witness of God is rejected. 339
among us, in His good time, but actually became
one of us; "was made Man ;" condescended to all our
innocent infirmities; to thirst and hunger; to weari
ness and painfulness; to shame and sorrow; to wounds
and death ; and all this, though He was continually
in the habit of working the most astonishing mira
cles, enlightening the blind, cleansing the lepers, and
raising the dead to life. It is no great thing surely
that we ask, when we entreat you, for your souls'
sake, not to turn a deaf ear to a message thus re
commended to you : when we beg you to believe
that, to prove which, Christ rose from the dead; and
to have some care of those souls, to save which, He
came down from heaven.
Again, when the Son of God, having ended all
His humiliation, was to return to the Eight Hand of
His Father ; when He was to take to Him His great
poAver, and rule over the world and the Church, He
did not trust us to His Apostles only, nor to any of
the Angels in heaven, but He sent to us the Holy
Ghost the Comforter, to be, in His stead, God's wit
ness of eternal things. That gracious and conde
scending Spirit has ever since, night and day, in all
corners of the Christian world, been endeaArouring to
turn the hearts of men, and prevail on them to regard
the things which belong unto their peace ; first, by
the mighty works and wonderful prophecies of the
Apostles and early Christians ; and, in all following
times, by the godly motions which He puts into
men's minds, when they rightly use the Scriptures
and the Sacraments ; by the good examples which He
raises up, and the holy lessons which He teaches, in
the Church. z 2

340 Why the witness of God is rejected.
Do not imagine it can be a light thing, an ex
cusable oversight, to slight the witness of the Spirit.
He bears long with us; but He will "not ahvays
strive with man." The greater and more continual
His condescension now, so much the more frightful
and hopeless, be sure, will their sentence prove at
last, who shall be found to have received such un
speakable grace in vain.
Yet our Saviour gives us to understand, that such,
too commonly, would be the case : " We speak that
We do know, and testify that We have seen, and ye
receive not Our witness." So it was in our Saviour's
days, and so, too often, it is now. The Holy, Blessed,
and Glorious Trinity, Three Persons and One God,
comes down, as it were, from heaven, Avith all His
glorious attributes, to bear witness of the way of
salvation, and men refuse to receive His witness; to
be redeemed, renewed, saved by Him.
This is often, perhaps most often, done as a mere
matter of course. Men take, as it were, their full
swing of the world, indulge themselves without scru
ple in every passion of their corrupt hearts, and never
so much as ask themselves why. When you do get
them to think a little of religion, especially when
they are put in mind, as on this day, of the Catholic
Faith, without which they cannot be saved, namely,
that they " worship One God in Trinity, and Trinity
in Unity:" I say, when inconsiderate persons are put
in mind of these things, they are apt to say, " It is all
a mystery, a secret too high for us ; it may be very
well for people of learning and leisure, but we cannot
understand it, and therefore we have nothing to do
with it."

Why the witness of God is rejected. 341
And it is very true, that you cannot understand
how those Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, should be Three, yet One God. You cannot
conceive how it should be so : but then the most
learned and leisurely person in the world cannot con
ceive it any better. "h Canst thou by searching find
out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto per
fection ? " This question of Job may be asked of one
man as well as of another, and must receive from all
the same answer: "'It is as high as heaven : what
canst thou do ? it is deeper than hell : what canst
thou know ?"
If, then, your not understanding God's Nature is
a reason for your not thinking about it, it is equally
a reason to every other man in the world ; and all
piety, all goodness, towards God, may as well be let
alone together.
But the plain truth is, our not understanding the
doctrine of Three Persons in One God is not the small
est reason whatever, why we should leave it out of
our minds, nor the smallest difficulty whatever, in
the way of acting on it.
This may be made plain by a familiar instance.
Take that which S. Paul has referred to, and of which
many, no doubt, have thought more or less : " That
which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die."
We put the seed into the ground, dry, dead, and
hard as it seems to be, and a fresh living plant springs
out of it. Can we at all understand this ? Do we
know how it takes place ? Yet we do not account
our ignorance a reason, why we should leave off til
ling the earth. Why, then, should the like igno-
1' Job xi. 7. ' lb. 8.

342 Why the witness of God is rejected.
ranee, with regard to the manner in which the Three
Divine Persons are One only, ever-glorious God ;
why should our not understanding this be any ob
jection to our religiously remembering it ?
Men know not, as the wise man says, how the bones
do grow in the womb of her which is with child ;
but they do not think themselves the less bound to
love and honour the mother that gave them birth.
Take it, therefore, for a certain truth, that the
Catholic Faith, which you have heard to-day, of Three
Persons in One God, to be worshipped, served, and
obeyed in all things, this Faith is necessary to the
salvation of all alike, rich and poor, learned and un
learned, within whose reach God's providence has
set it.
But observe : it must be believed faithfully. You
must depend on the Son of God as your Eedeemer ;
you must welcome the Holy Spirit as your Comforter,
with the same kind of constant feeling wherewith
you depend on, and welcome, those whom you knoAv
to be your nearest and dearest friends. This you
cannot sincerely do, as long as you wilfully continue
in any thing that you know to be sin ; for so long
the thought of their being present, and watching
your very heart, will make you uneasy.
Consider, however, before it be too late, what it
must be to reject their witness, or (what comes, in
the end, to much the same) to turn carelessly away
from it. After all, you must die; and when you die,'
what pardon, what consolation can you hope for, if
you have refused to let your Saviour plead for you
to His Father, and hardened your hearts against the
Holy Ghost, the Comforter ?

SEEMON XXXVI.

THE SECRET OF THE LORD.

TRINITY SUNDAY.

Ps. xxv. 13.

" The secret of the Lord is among them that fear
Him : and He will shew them His covenant."
To tell a person our secrets, is generally considered
to be the greatest token of entire friendship towards
him. It shews that we have entire dependence upon
him, and that we quite reckon on his feeling for us,
and doing as we would wish him. It is the particu
lar mark of friendship, the difference between servants
and friends : as our Lord Himself pointed out to His
disciples. "Henceforth," said He, "aI call you not
servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord
doeth : but I have called you friends ; for all things
that I have heard of My Father, I have made known
unto you." And we know how naturally pleased we
are, to be entrusted with the secrets of those above
us ; to have our elders and betters explaining to us
what they mean to do, and why. It is a silent sort
of praise, which almost every person feels glad to re
ceive. We naturally think, that Avhen people do so,
they have confidence in us, both in our wisdom and
in our honesty : and this of course pleases all men.
a S.John xv. 15.

344 The secret of the Lord.
All too are gratified with finding or imagining that
they know something which others do not know ;
that they can explain Avhat others cannot ; that they
are trusted Avhile others are kept at a distance.
Now, Ave may reverently say, Almighty God has
His secrets. Wonderful and mysterious truths and
doings, the full and deep meaning of Avhich not even
the highest of His creatures can entirely understand.
For S. Peter saysb, concerning the great truths of the
Gospel, that even the "Angels desire to stoop doAvn
and look into them." Eyen those glorious spirits
know less than they desire to knoAV, of the great
love of God in creating, redeeming, regenerating us.
Much more of course must fallen man, here dn his
weak and low condition^ be distant from the full
knowledge of God's Avays. But as He in His mercy
reveals to those blessed ones -, continually more and
more of what He is about, so there are certain per
sons among men whom He favours in the same way,
trusting them, and telling them, His secrets. Who,
it may be asked, are those honoured and happy; per
sons? We may judge a little who are likely to be
so, by considering what sort of people among our
fellow-creatures we are most apt to entrust with our
own secrets, The great thing of all is Love. If we
see any one deeply attached to us, if we have no
doubt that he feels for us in every thing, we are
presently inclined to trust him. We know then that
he will feel for us, that he will attend earnestly to
whajfc we tell him, and Avill think earnestly of it after
wards; that he will put himself in our place, and
really endeavour to judge the best he can for us, not
b 1 S.Pet. i. 12.

The secret of the Lord. 345
being carried away by any interest or passion of his
own. This is Avhat we know a person will feel if he
truly loves us, and therefore to such an one we will
ingly tell our secrets ; hoping, if we get nothing more
by doing so, at least to obtain that relief, which goes
along with a mere opening of a full heart.
But then is love the only thing we look for in a
person, fit to be told of our secrets ? Clearly not :
for we do not trust children with them, nor other
people who are as simple as children, though they
love us never so well. Besides love, there must be,
in a trustworthy person, a respect and reverence for
ourselves, and for what we tell him, which will pre
vent his dealing lightly with it, or speaking of it
rashly where he ought not. When people neglect
this, and speak carelessly of all matters to any body
who seems good-natured and friendly, they can hard
ly expect their secrets to be kept, and no one pities
them, when trouble comes on them by those secrets
being known. Thus you see that a mixture of love
and something like fear is the temper which best
prepares a man to be trusted with his neighbour's
secrets. And the Scripture every where seems to
teach, that it is much the same kind of character
which makes a man fit to be entrusted with heavenly
mysteries, with the secrets of God Almighty. , "The
secret of the Lord is among them that fear Him."
" ° To this man will I look, even to him that is poor
and of a contrite spirit, and frembhth at My word."
"a Thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent^ and hast revealed them, unto babes." , Those
who approach God with a deep reverence, Avith an
e Isa. Ixvi. 2, ¦ d S. Matt. xi. 25.

346 The secret of the Lord,
earnest desire to please Him, and with a dread of
offending Him ; those are the persons, to whom He
will, by degrees, reveal Himself more and more.
He will open their eyes, that they7 may understand
"e wondrous things out of His law." It is not much
learning nor cleverness, nor being quick and ready7
to recollect the words of Scripture, which enables
men to think rightly of such aAveful mysteries as this
of to-day : but it is devotion and seriousness of heart.
The Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Three Persons, One God, reveals Himself in ways of
His OAvn, ways which no tongue can tell, no heart
imagine, to the humble and meek, the contented and
self-denying. Just such in the Old Testament are
those, whom we find the Almighty favouring with
especial knowledge of His will and purposes.
They Avere such as Noah, just and perfect, and
Avalking Avith God : to whom accordingly God de
clared His purpose of sending a flood upon the earth.
Or they were such as Abraham, Avalking by faith
not by sight, counting not his OAvn son too dear to
offer up Avhen God commanded; commanding his
children and his household after him to keep the way
of the Lord : Avhom consequently God honoured with
the title of His friend, and concerning whom He
said, "f Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I
do ? " Or again, those to whom God loves to reveal
Himself are, like Moses, very tender spirited and
afraid of sin : with whom " God spake face to face,
as a man talketh with his friend :" or they are like
the Apostles, who in faith and fear followed Christ,
giving up all that they had, and so by degrees He
e Ps. cxix. 18. f Gen. xviii. 17.

The secret of the Lord. 347
shewed them all the hidden and wonderful things of
His kingdom.
All these are witnesses, how our Lord from tho
beginning kept to the rule which He afterwards laid
down in the Gospel: " slf any man will do His will,
he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God,
or whether I speak of Myself." "He that hath ears
to hear," ears opened by sincere obedience and love,
of him only, Christ said, " let him hear." The rest
may answer well, and seem to know much, but they
cannot really understand, they cannot really have the
mind of Christ.
So again, you may observe, the Gospel tells us
more of the heavenly secrets than the law does, for
this very reason, because it brings men nearer to
Christ. Grace and Truth go together : where God
requires most entire love and fear of Himself, there
He offers to sheAV Himself most openly. Hear our
Saviour's own words. "Henceforth, I call you not
servants, for the servant knoAveth not what his Lord
doeth : but I have called you friends : for all things
that I have heard of My Father I have made known
unto you." The offer is most gracious : to reveal
to us the whole counsel of God : to keep back no
thing; but to make known whatsoeA'er the Son had
heard of the Father. But see on what it depends.
To have the benefit of it, we must be friends of our
Saviour: He speaks the word Himself: "hYe are My
friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." To
know our Lord's secrets we must be His friends, and
to be His friends, we must keep His commandments.
His secret "is with them that fear Him."
s S. John vii. 17. h Ib. xv. 14.

348 The secret of the Lord.
We may see how it is Avith children when they
say the catechism. Without doubt they answer at
once on points, which the wisest men of old, heathen
and Jews, knew nothing about. They acknowledge
the Most Holy Trinity, the Incarnation of Christ, the
creation and fall of man, the Eedemption of the world
by the Death of the Son of God, the sanctification of
the souls of Christians by His Holy Spirit dwelling
in our hearts, the regenerating power of Holy Bap
tism, the Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in
the Holy Communion. All these mysteries Christian
children acknowledge, as often as they repeat the
catechism : and who shall deny that if they be good
children, they acknowledge them in true faith, hoAV-
ever little they may seem to understand them ?
At all events, we are quite sure of this, that if any
such child be taken away, by God's merciful provi
dence, without having broken God's seal and for
feited His baptismal blessing, it will presently know
great things, greater than the Avisest and most en
lightened on earth. Such a child will depart and
be with Christ in paradise. Such a child will know
what the death of a Christian is, and what power in
the Cross of Christ to support His little ones through
that dark valley. Such will know, and will not only
imagine, what such promises as these mean, "'He shall
feed His flock like a shepherd, He shall gather the
lambs with His arms, and carry them in his bosom :"
and again, " Suffer the little children to come unto
Me, and forbid them not : for of such is the king
dom of heaven." These, and many more sweet and
aweful secrets are doubtless made known to the little
1 Isa. xl. n.

The secret of the Lord. 349
ones of Jesus Christ, as soon as they are taken out
of this world. Being absent from the body and
present with the Lord, they see His face with joy :
and they know for certain, what it should seem the
holiest can hardly know on earth, till near his end,
that they personally shall be saved for ever; that
they cannot possibly fall away. • While parents and
friends perhaps are mourning round their graves, and
missing their innocent and happy looks, they are
admitted in a moment, at once (we may believe), to
such a knowledge of God's secrets as shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes for ever. Thus it is with
children : and so too with all who live humble and
child-like before God, and do not cast away the trea
sure of their Baptism. However simple and ignorant
they might seem here, how much soever they might
want words or clear ways of thinking on Avhat they
believed, " the secret of the Lord is with them," all
the while, and will be with them after death in a yet
more blessed and unspeakable way.
One token of this great mercy, to be shewn after
death to such as fear God, is the wonderful way, in
which even now He guides them to understand His
providence, and their own duty. It is astonishing
how much even very simple persons, who have gone
on steadily in the way of goodness, seem to know of
the secret meaning of what happens to themselves
and others. Circumstances which ordinary people
see nothing at all in, they lay up like the blessed
Virgin Mary ; they keep and ponder them in their
hearts : and so they come to be silently prepared, no
one knows how, for trials and changes, which other
wise might be far too severe for them.

350 The secret of the Lord.
More especially with regard to their own duty,
God's Holy Spirit will never forsake any exact con
scientious humble Christian, who seeks Him heartily
in prayer and obedience, but He will always be se
cretly at hand to guide such a one in the most diffi
cult cases, so that he shall not fall into sinful error,
" If any man will do His will," if he have made up
his mind in all things, little and great, to do and
suffer, as he knows God Avould have him, God will in
time reveal to him the matters, of which as yet he
may seem doubtful ; or if not, he may have reason
able hope that the doubt is of no great consequence.
This is the kind of anchor, sure and stedfast, for
well-meaning people in times of doubt and perplexity.
As e.g. in the case of the greatest of the perplexities
of these latter times, not knowing for certain which
is God's true Church. It was the case in our Lord's
OAvn time : there must have been a doubt among good
Jews, when they first heard of the Blessed Jesus and
His Apostles, how far they could join with Him,
without forsaking the temple and the law of Moses.
He therefore tells them the way out of this doubt.
" Do His will, and you shall know of My teaching :"
Serve Him truly, with a good mind and heart, in all
things, and you will soon find that you are not far
from the kingdom of God. Thus was fulfilled in
our Lord's time the latter part of the promise in the
text: they that fear the Lord; " He will shew them
His covenant." He will not only " lead them in the
right way " in matters concerning their daily con
duct, but will also silently instruct them in matters
of belief and rules of Church communion, so that
errors, even deadly in themselves, shall not prove

The secret of the Lord, 35 1
deadly to them : the sting of them shall be taken
out by His overflowing grace : and bye and bye,
when the darkness of earth is past, He will bring
them to the full light, and they shall behold His
righteousness. Let no person's heart fail, because he does not see
all this with his eyes. Let us not say, hoAV should
this be ? Good people are not always knowing even
in religious matters ; and certainly knowing people
are very far from being always good. This indeed is
too true : but we must bear in mind that the knoAV-
ledge promised in the Scriptures is an inAvard, secret,
silent knoAvledge, and that to Avhich it is promised
is an inward, secret, silent disposition of the heart ;
neither are such as men can positively take notice
of. They that are good, shall know of the doctrine,
but we cannot say quite for certain who are good :
we know not what secret unrepented sin may be yet
lurking in a man's conscience, and causing his in
ward sight of holy truth to be false and dim, perhaps
Avithout his at all suspecting it himself: or his own
heart may justly smite him, without others at all
knowing of it ; and so, for all his good report, he may
be a very insufficient judge of divine things.
Again, they that are really good shall "know in
deed of the doctrine." That is promised: but it is not
promised that they shall be able to give an account
of their knowledge; it is not promised that they shall
have plenty of words, and a clear way of putting
them together : they may truly know, yet not as yet
be distinctly aware of their own knoAvledge : just as
any little child knows that its parents are its best
friends, and turns to them as a matter of course in

352 The secret of the Lord.
its troubles : yet it never did nor could say to itself,
"my parents are my best friends." So, whoever re
ceives from the Church, the Creed, the Lord's prayer,
and the ten commandments ; and believes the Creed
heartily, says the Lord's prayer devoutly, and prac
tises the commandments diligently ; that man has in
him a great deal more knowledge than he himself is
aware of: the whole "klaw of his God is in his heart,
and his goings shall not slide." Such persons have
that in them, which by God's mercy will teach them
the right way, when new difficulties come on, when
they are called on to do anything, or to give advice
to any one, suddenly. The Spirit which Christ pro
mised is in them, to teach them and guide them into
all truth. He will never leave them nor forsake
them. They will never be left destitute of His aid,
be the call never so sudden.
Would we then have a quiet heart, and be at rest
in our faith and practice ? Would we be free from
distressing doubt ? Would we have the best secu
rity, that can be had in this life, against false and
wrong notions of holy Truth? Let us keep steadily,
in thought, word and action, to that which we already
know to be truth : humbly commit beforehand all
we say and think about holy things to Him Who
came down at Pentecost to sanctify God's chosen
people : be very careful what we say about the
things of God, and to whom we say it. Let us not
think that what we say is of course right, because it
sounds serious, and relates to some sacred subject.
"Set a watch before your mouth, and keep the door of
your lips :" "Jbe not rash with your mouth, and let not
k Ps. xxxvii. 32. ' Eccl. v. 2.

The secret of the Lord, 353
your heart be hasty to utter anything before God."
Above all things, let us beware of getting into a way
of saying what we do not mean, of uttering devout
words as a matter of course, saying, " Lord, Lord,"
while we do not the things which He commands.
" mFear God and keep His commandments, for this
is" the whole comfort, as well as "the whole duty
of man."
m Eccles. xii. 13.

a a

SEEMON XXXVII.

HEAVEN OPENED.

TRINITY SUNDAY.
Rev. iv. 1.

" I looked, and behold a door was opened in Heaven."
When we were little children, and first began to
look upwards and around us, and wonder at the
meaning of Avhat we saw, I suppose one of our first
thoughts was, to imagine what might be in the in
finite deep of the blue sky, and to wish that we had
eyes to see beyond it. We naturally asked ourselves,
and others, who and what there is in that vast space,
where our sight loses itself as soon as we begin to
gaze. Our earliest notion indeed, when we Avere
quite infants, was that we could eAren touch the fir
mament : thus little children will sometimes reach
after the moon, and cry to have it given them ; and
it is only by slow degrees that Ave learn how very
far distant Ave are from those heavenly things. By
degrees only do Ave learn how conpletely sin has se
parated between us and our God: Avhat a deep gulph
is fixed between the glorious and happy place, and
such as we Avere at our birth. At first we feel as if
Ave could touch it : it seems to us no such very hard
thing to be good and to please God. Bye and bye
sad and shameful experience convinces us more and

Heaven opened. 355
more that we were born in sin, the children of wrath :
we feel more and more our distance from heaven,
and long more and more to have the door opened, and
look in and see who is there, how they are employed,
and what hope there is of our joining them.
By nature the door of heaven is shut against us,
because Ave are sinners, and nothing unclean can
enter there. We cannot even look in, for our very
looks are defiled and partake of sin. Our thoughts
and imaginations grovel on the earth : they have
no wings to mount up so high. Yet who can be
quite contented with what he sees and experiences
here ? Which of us, in his better moments at least,
has not longed for something better ? Who has not
noAV and then felt the longings of his childish days
returning upon him, and wished that he might see
heaven opened, and obtain some glimpse of a more
perfect happiness than any which he has yet known ?
Surely those plaintive verses of the Psalm do but
express what passes, from time to time, in every soul
of man. "aOh that I had wings like a dove; for
then would I flee away, and be at rest. Lo then
would I get me away far off and remain in the wil
derness." And then the thought comes grievously
over us, " It might be so, were it not for our many
sins, and for the deep corruption which hangs about
us; but now we are bowed down more or less by this
body of death, who shall raise us up ? Who can untie
our chains, which in too many parts of our behaviour
we have been wilfully forging for ourselves ? "
To these sad fears and misgivings, whether of the
natural unregenerate man, or of one who has sinned
a Ps. Iv. 6, 7.
a a 2

356 Heaven opened.
against grace and is trying to repent, God gives us
in His Holy Gospel a very blessed yet aweful an
swer. While we go about, thus weary and heavy
laden, let us, though our eyes fail in the endeavour,
let us still keep looking upwards, and in our measure
Ave shall receive the same mercy, which Christ be
stowed on His own beloved disciple. A door will
be opened to us in heaven, that we may see some
thing of the great unspeakable wonders of that glo
rious and happy place. Nay, this door has been
opened to us : it stands continually open : it is not
shut night nor day : if we had tried steadily to lead
Christian lives, we should not need but to shut our
eyes, and fall on our knees, and say the Lord's
prayer, or use any other good and holy act of devo
tion, Avith a devout and attentive heart, and presently
some one or more of the invisible things would be
more or less brought before us, some of the Avonders
Avhich shall hereafter be, or Avhich now are, but out
of sight, would be made present to us, for our warn
ing or our comfort; or both.
To believing and penitent eyes, I say, the Gospel
opens the door of heaven, and Avhen they raise their
eyes that Avay, and humbly look in, Avhat is it they
see ?
The first look shews them Almighty God on His
throne ; as the Evangelist goes on to describe it :
"Behold a throne was set in heaven, and One sat
on the throne." God's Holy Spirit helps those who
try to muse on Him in earnest : helps them to forget
for a while those ordinary things which they see, and
to fix their minds on Him Who is Invisible : Whom
no man hath seen, nor can see, Who yet is close to

Heaven opened. 357
each of us at every moment : Who is above all, yet
through all, and in all. We behold Him with the
eye of faith sitting on His throne in heaven, survey
ing and ordering all the things which He hath made,
and we feel that, while He thus seeth all things, His
Countenance is towards us individually, watching
what we say, do, or think, as exactly as if there were
no being besides for Him to regard. We tremble
before His Almightiness, Ave are dazzled by His un
speakable light and purity, we say in the deep of our
hearts, as one said of old, " Who can stand before
this holy Lord God?" Yet, while our hearts are thus
overwhelmed with aAve, He helps us, in proportion
to our true devotion and penitence, to rejoice in the
midst of our trembling : to rejoice and give thanks
for "His Name, which is great, wonderful and holy :"
to be comforted in our sorrow and fear, and even
amid the reproofs of our conscience, by the feeling
that the great Father of all has not quite hid His
face from us. He permits us to feel that we are not
left alone in the world, not left to be the sport of
blind chance or eA7il spirits : that He is with us, and
offers to hold us with His Eight Hand, if we will but
cling to it. He yet allows us to be in some sort
aware of His Presence, to call Him, hoAvever unwor
thily, by the gracious name of Father, to turn our
selves, however imperfectly, towards Him in all our
troubles and perplexities.
This is what He vouchsafes to shew us on our
first look into the door of heaven. Noav let us look
again, beseeching Him to fill our hearts with His
glory and His greatness, that we may not look alto
gether unworthily. As the first look into heaven

358 Heaven opened.
shews us One God sitting upon His throne, so the
second, if so it please Him, may shew us in that One
God, the Three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost ; distinct as Persons, yet in Nature un
divided ; of one Substance Power and Eternity, yet
so differing from one another, as that " the Father,"
the first Person, " is of none, neither made, nor creat
ed, nor begotten ; the Son is of the Father alone, not
made, nor created, but begotten : the Holy Ghost is
of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor
created, nor begotten, but proceeding." This most
Holy Trinity, we understand by faith to be reigning
evermore in heaven, and evermore present in all the
works of God. The manner how, none can under
stand, not the wisest : but the truth and certainty,
that so it is, all may believe, even the simplest :
and great indeed, and unspeakable is the help and
comfort which the faithful humble Christian derives
from the contemplation and worship of this adorable
Trinity. To' an unbeliever or a scoffer, or to a mere
worldly person, it cannot be explained : on such
matters the most charitable way is to say as little as
possible to such men : but the less men speak of
them the more they will naturally think : for this
doctrine of the Holy Trinity is like the secret of
some great king, which, being made known by special
favour to some holy and humble servant of his, fills
that servant's heart, so that he cannot get it out of
his recollection : and the less he is permitted to speak
of it, the more he thinks of it, night and day. And
the thought has a special power to keep him out of
mischief: he considers with himself, that this Blessed
Trinity is not only reigning in heaven, but also, by

Heaven opened. 359
the grace of Holy Baptism, abiding in each one of
our hearts. God has trusted us with this aweful
secret: if we are not quite hardened, surely we must
feel that we never can do enough to acknowledge
this miraculous loving-kindness ; we must feel that
the Holy Trinity, abiding in us, and known to be so,
is a seal and safeguard against all the enemies of our
souls : according to the saying of the wise man :
" b The Name of the Lord is a strong tower; the
righteous runneth into it, and is safe."
As the first look into the open door of heaven
shewed us the One God sitting on His throne, and
the second, the Holy, Blessed, and Glorious Trinity
of Persons, so the third may reveal to the eye of
faith the Holy Manhood and Humanity of Jesus
Christ, taken into God, and exalted to the Father's
Eight Hand. For thus we read in the continuation
of S. John's vision : " I beheld, and lo, in the midst
of the throne stood a Lamb, as it had been slain."
It was, I suppose, the same sight as appeared to the
blessed S.Stephen, whe'n he was in the act of his mar
tyrdom: "heaven opened, and Jesus the Son of Man
standing on the Eight Hand of God." What these
great saints and martyrs saw thus openly in this vi
sion, God in His great mercy permits all humble and
penitent Christians to see by faith, when they pray
to Him attentively. Only kneel down with a true
heart, either in Church or at home, and say the good
prayers which you have learned from those who are
set over you, especially at the end, when you say,
"Through Jesus Christ our Lord," and He permits
you to look in, as it were, at the door of heaven, and
b Prov. xviii. 10.

360 Heaven opened.
see the great High Priest, Jesus Christ the Son of
God, ever living to make intercession for you. To this
you may turn, with this you may comfort yourself,
on this you may depend, when your heart is in heavi
ness. Here, in this lower and outer world, you may
have no place to flee unto; you may feel as if no man
cared for your soul. But there is One within the
veil, Who knows all and cares for all. He can be
touched with a feeling of your infirmities, for He
was Himself made in all points like as you are, sin
only excepted. Only, if you would preserve and im
prove this unspeakable comfort, take care that you
pray in faith, nothing wavering : take care and be
not double-minded, but resolve with your whole
heart that you will not again wilfully offend Him.
And as a great earnest and encouragement to the
devout worshippers of Jesus Christ, behold what He
allows us to see in the next look, which we are to
day invited to direct within the everlasting gates.
The great High Priest Himself is not the only7 child
of Adam Whom we by faith may behold in heaven :
but with Him, and beneath Him, and wholly, and
only for Him, we see those who are called His saints :
the best, and most favoured, and most severely tried,
of those who had served Him here on earth : in some
sense or other, the Scripture represents them as even
now rejoicing with Him in heaven. For S. John saw
"round about the throne four and twenty seats, and
upon the seats four and twenty Elders sitting, cloth
ed in white raiment, and on their heads crowns of
gold." These four and twenty are not Angels, for
they were heard praising our Lord as follows, " Thou
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy

Heaven opened. 361
Blood." They are therefore holy souls, redeemed
by Christ's Blood : and the number of twentyfour
seems to signify that they are the saints first of the
Jewish, and afterwards of the Christian Church : the
first twelve ansAvering to the twelve tribes, the
second to the twelve Apostles. All these, brethren
of our OAvn, and naturally and originally weak and
sinful as we are, Ave may now think of as making
part of the blessed company of heaven, and joining
with the Holy Church throughout all the world in
most high praise and honour, offered day and night
to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Our
Church instructs us so to think of the saints in hea
ven, in the hymn called the Te Deum, which we use
every day in the morning service. " The glorious
company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of
the prophets, the noble army of martyrs, praise" and
acknowledge the Three Persons in One Godhead :
" the Father, of an infinite Majesty; His honourable,
true, and only Son ; also the Holy Ghost, the Com
forter." And this goes on day and night, they are never
weary of their holy and happy work. With them
it is not as with the best of men on earth, to have
heaven's door opened, and see into those blissful
abodes, now and then only, by rare glimpses, seldom
coming and soon gone; but those favoured spirits
have no door between them and the glory of their
God and Saviour ; they behold Him with open face,
in His Light they see light, they are satisfied with
the plenteousness of His house, and He gives them
"drink of His pleasures as out of a river;" out of the
Avell of life, which can never fail.

362 Heaven opened.
These are the great and blessed things which Al
mighty God permits us dimly to behold, whenever
by devout meditation we are enabled to look in for
a moment at the door which His Son has opened for
us in heaven : the Lord of all sitting on His throne ;
the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity, Father, Son;
and Holy Ghost : Jesus Christ, the Son of God In
carnate, as a Lamb, which had been slain, standing
"at His Father's Eight Hand to succour all them that
suffer for Him ;" and round about Him the chief of
His saints, the first fruits of His redeemed. All this
and more He permits and invites us to behold, with
our mind's eye, in the times of solemn prayer, and
at all times when we are able and willing to give
ourselves up to such high and holy thoughts.
Why is it that we too commonly find so little in
ourselves to answer to this gracious invitation ? It
would seem as if we had but to shut our eyes to the
world, and this glorious Vision would presently ap
pear ; being, as it is, always close to every one of us,
had we but sight to behold it. But in the first place,
we are unwilling to shut our eyes ; too generally
there is something or other here, to which we so cling
that we will not give up the sight of it, no, not for
those sights which make the saints blessed in heaven.
And next, when we are at length brought to make
such an endeavour, when we do in earnest try to
think only of heaven, we find too surely the visions
of this world still haunting us : our works, our di
versions, our cares, our friends, our companions, keep
flitting across our minds, like so many earthly clouds,
and will not leave us alone, to meditate peaceably on
those joys and glories. In a word we must be pure

Heaven opened. 363
in heart, in order to see God. We must labour and
pray continually to be disengaged, in heart at least,
from these lower matters, if we would taste and see
how gracious the Lord is, and how good and blessed
a thing to be always in His Presence. "cEvery man
that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as
He is pure." Without such endeavours, real, hearty,
and persevering, any pleasure we may seem to feel
in meditating on God and on everlasting joy, will
prove but a dangerous dream, perhaps even a snare
of the Evil one. This way, therefore, let all our care
be turned; to keep our hearts and fancies pure, that
when we have leisure we may be free to look in at
the door of heaven; and when our earthly work ceases,
Ave may turn ourselves of course that way, and never
turn back again.
Noav to the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity &c.
0 1 S. John iii. 3.

SEEMON XXXVIII.

THE ANGELIC HYMN, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY,
OUR COMMUNION HYMN.

TRINITY SUNDAY.

Isa. vi. 3.

"One cried unto another, and said, Holy, Holy, Holy,
is the Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of
His glory."
About seven hundred years before our Lord came
down among men, there was, as is supposed, a silence
of prophecy for a time, on account of the sin of king
Uzziah, who had intruded on the priest's office. God
being angry withdrew Himself, and made no answer
to the inquiries of His people : even as He had with
drawn Himself from Saul. But when Uzziah died,
it pleased Him to break that silence : and in a very
wonderful way. He chose Isaiah to be His prophet,
and called him by a glorious and aweful vision. He
" saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted
up:" as it were a great King, Who reigneth for
ever, preparing to judge His people. His train, His
glory, filled the temple : as when He had been used
to appear to Moses or to Solomon, in brightness that
could scarcely be endured. Above it stood the Se
raphim, the bright and burning Angels, all on fire
Avith divine love : " each one had six wings : with

The Angelic hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy. 365
one pair he covered his face, and with one pair he
covered his feet, and with one pair he did fly : "
teaching us, perhaps, among other things, with what
intense fear and awe we ought to come near the great
God of heaven and earth, and how ready we should
keep ourselves to hasten wheresoever He may com
mand. And one of these blessed beings kept on
crying to another, and saying, " Holy, Holy, Holy,
is the Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of His
glory." Their employment was to keep up continual
ly their hymn of praise to the Most High : the one
side taking it up when the other ceased ; and so an
swering one another, and keeping up the strain day
and night : somewhat in the same way, as when the
Psalms are sung or said by course in our churches :
which custom Isaiah was probably used to in the
temple. And now both he and we after him have
the comfort of knoAving, that when we are so em
ployed, we are for the time companions of the Angels
in heaven : praising God as they do by alternate
chanting of holy words : yea, often, even in the very
same words which they use : " Holy, Holy, Holy, is
the Lord of hosts : the whole earth is full of His
glory." For that divine verse is both in our daily
service, and also our service for the Holy Commu
nion. It is in our daily service, as it is a part of the
hymn of S. Ambrose, commonly called the Te Deum :
"To Thee Cherubin, and Seraphiu, continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth ; heaven and
earth are full of the Majesty of Thy glory." It is
also in our Communion Service, in the most joyful
part of it, when we have been absolved from our sins,
and stand up to give thanks to God : " with Angels

366 The Angelic hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy,
and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven,
we laud and magnify His glorious Name, evermore
praising Him and saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord
God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy
glory." Well may the Church use it as her sacra
mental hymn, as she has always done, no doubt, since
she was a Church : seeing that not only was it taught
to the prophet Isaiah in so wonderful a way, but also
to the Apostle S. John. When he saw a door opened
in heaven, and the Lord sitting on His throne, then
also he heard the four beasts, i. e. the Cherubim,
joining in the same anthem which Isaiah had heard
from the Seraphim. " a They rest not day and night,
saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty :
which was, and is, and is to come." Whenever
therefore we recite the Te Deum, and more espe
cially whenever we receive the Holy Communion,
we have the happiness of knowing that, at that very
time, some or all of the blessed company of heaven
are reciting the very same words. They do it by
course, taking up the words one from another: for so
it pleases God that His creatures should praise Him.
So we read of His works here on earth, that " b one
day telleth another, and one night certifieth an
other : " and again concerning the continual succes
sion of His people : " ° One generation shall praise
Thy works unto another, and declare Thy power."
But whether the song be uttered in heaven or in
earth, whether it be Angels or men who sing, whether
it be heard by prophets before Christ's Incarnation,
or by Apostles after His Ascension into Heaven, still
it is the same song, " Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord."
a Rev. iv. 8. b Ps. xix. 2. c lb. cxlv. 4.

our Communion hymn. 367
Holy is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Fountain of all being in heaven and in earth : Holy
is the Only-Begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ,
God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God,
being of One Substance with the Father : Holy is the
Blessed Spirit, the Comforter, proceeding eternally
both from the Father and the Son : and these three
Holies are One Lord God of Hosts, " which was,
and which is, and which is to come.
The hymn is the same, only there is a little differ
ence between the last words of it as they stand in
Isaiah, and as we use them in our services now.
Isaiah heard the Seraphim sing, "the whole earth is
full of His glory : " but as we now recite it, it stands,
"heaven and earth are full of Thy glory." Because
Isaiah's soul was carried on especially to the time
of our Lord's Incarnation and humiliation on earth,
but the Church now considers Him as reigning in
heaven after His Sufferings. It is the same Saviour,
the same salvation, only more complete and more
perfect now than it was then.
Now, then, my brethren, on this great and won
derful Day, appointed for especial meditation on the
great secret of the Most Holy Trinity, ThreePersons
in One God ; I ask you, by God's help, seriously to
consider with me, what a thing it is to be invited
continually to take part with saints and Angels in
such a hymn as this ; what a blessing, if we use it
rightly : what a shame and condemnation, if we neg
lect or abuse it. Suppose that by your own fault
you were a friendless wanderer and outcast, turned
out of your home, and not knowing where to lay
your head : and suppose that in your wanderings

368 The Angelic hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy,
you should come suddenly to a place, from which
you heard strains of the sweetest and most heavenly
music, set to words full of comfort; so that you could
not but feel assured in your heart, "Here is the cure of
all my miseries : if I can once be admitted here, and
allowed to remain, I know I shall be always in peace
and in joy : " should you not anxiously look after the
entrance into that happy place ? Should you not re
joice if you found the door open, and press towards
it as eagerly as you dared ? And would it not be a
blessing, more almost than you could believe, if you
heard yourself called by name and invited to come,
with an assurance that the music and all the joys of
the place were expressly intended for you ? Well,
this is just our case: your case, my brethren, my case,
the case of us all, in respect of that great Angelical
hymn. We are outcasts from Paradise, wanderers
about the world, unable of ourselves to find any true
rest and consolation : and behold, a door is opened
in heaven, and we are invited to look in and see things
which shall be hereafter, and to hear the song of the
saints and Angels, and join in it : we know also in
the bottom of our hearts, that thus and thus only can
we ever be happy. What will you do ? Will you
turn away from the gracious voice, the voice of the
Gospel, the voice like a trumpet talking with you,
the voice which would welcome you to the holy and
joyful place ? Or will you not rather listen to it with
all your ears and all your hearts, and for that purpose
stop your ears to all the mean harsh sounds of this
earth, and get as near heaven's gate as you can? And
when you hear the gracious sound inviting you from
within, " Come unto Me, all ye that travail and are
heavy laden, and I will refresh you," will you chur-

our Communion hymn. 369
lishly turn back ? Will you not obey it with humble
joy and thankfulness ? It is true, you feel and own
yourselves quite unworthy : how can you help it ?
You know too well, how sadly your garments are
soiled by your long and inexcusable straying in the
wilderness of the world: yet trusting in His pardon
so mercifully, so largely offered, you may venture in :
only taking care to wait at the door long enough for
a reasonable hope that the stain and soil has begun
really to be worn away by your true penitence. 0,
venture in : do not depart, with so many, alas ! who
ought to stay : but do you offer and present yourselves
at Christ's Altar to receive the Holy Sacrament of
His Body and Blood. There we kneel down, we
confess our sins, we bow down our heads to receive
Christ's Absolution, pronounced over us by His ap
pointed Minister. He says, " Lift up your hearts:"
and we make answer, that "we lift them up unto the
Lord." 0 let us take care that this may be a true
answer : let us at least endeavour at that moment
to get rid of all vain, trifling and worldly thoughts,
and to see with our mind's eye somewhat of that
astonishing vision, which He in His favour shewed to
Isaiah and to S. John. In heart let us try to behold
Him sitting on His throne, and all the host of hea
ven standing before Him, and let us hearken to them,
how they cry continually one to another, " Holy,
Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts : the whole earth is
full of His glory." That glorious Angelical hymn
is meant by our gracious God to be our hymn also.
We are to take part in it : mean and unworthy as
we are ; He created us, He died for us, and He would
have us to praise Him accordingly. b b

370 The Angelic hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy,
But mark this well, my brethren. The word by
which we praise Him is "Holy." We do not repeat
three times the title Almighty, or Eternal, or All-
wise ; or any other of the manifold Perfections of
God. But He chooses rather to be called Holy.
That is now His title for ever, and His memorial to
all generations. 0 how plainly does this speak to
every one of our consciences, and warn us not to
draw near with unclean, unprepared, unholy minds !
The Angels and saints, who take up this song in
heaven, are all of them holy, very holy : they are
full of holiness, each according to his measure. He
Who knoweth whereof we are made, knows that we
cannot as yet be like them : yet He expects that
we should wish, pray, endeavour to be so : without
so much holiness at least as that, "dno man shall
see the Lord." That is the first and principal thing
for those who would partake in the song of the
Angels, and come worthily to the Holy Communion.
Again, whereas the word " Holy " is three times
repeated, it is requisite that the worthy communicant
should come in such faith as is implied in that three
fold repetition : faith in God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Ghost, Three Persons and One
God. We are not to imagine any difference nor in
equality in any of their Divine Perfections : but to
offer ourselves up, both our souls and bodies, alike
to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Ghost :
humbly hoping and earnestly labouring, that in His
good time we may be permitted (like Moses) to see
more of this great sight, how the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost are Three yet One : Three in
4 Heb. xii. 14.

our Communion hymn. 371
Person, One in Substance, and in all Divine Perfec
tions. That will be joy indeed; but in the mean time
He invites us to live and be saved by hope : and He
promises to keep us safe under the seal of the Most
Holy Trinity, which He put on us at our Baptism.
He accepts our song of praise, though as yet we do
not understand it. He allows us to say or sing it
after the blessed Angels, as children repeat some
holy lesson after grown people, with far less under
standing than they, but still with a dutiful and obe
dient mind : and bye and bye, the deep meaning of
our own sayings will dawn upon us. For the present,
we must all be content to be ignorant : ignorant, not
only in comparison of the Angels, but in comparison
also of many of our brethren, who know far more
than we do : but what of that ? We may take our
part, such as it is, in the great angelical hymn, and
not grudge our neighbour his part. We may take our
assigned portion, be it high or low, of thankful ser
vice to God here in this world, and we may add our
Amen, said or chanted, to the response of some great
congregation : and we need not fear its being lost or
drowned, as too insignificant to be heard in such a
sea of voices. He will hear it, He will treasure it,
He will take account of it at the last Day.
Especially He will observe and set down, whether
such as join in His holy assemblies are free from
jealousy towards another : whether they praise Him,
each in his station, with an unenvious, ungrudging
mind. The blessed Angels, we know, do so : they
make answer to one another, each in the part which
He has assigned them : they know their place and
have no desire to change it. When will it be so
b b 2

372 The Angelic hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy,
among us ? When shall we see but a single con
gregation worshipping Him in such perfect charity,
that neither the lower and more suffering members
repine, nor yet the more comely and honourable be
lifted up ? Certainly, if ever such a thing might be
on this side the grave, it would go a way towards
making the Holy Church, what it was always meant
to be, a heaven upon earth.
The heavenly company, S. John says, "rest not
day and night; " they are never tired of glorifying the
Holy Three in One : and we, for our short life here,
why should we think it so hard to continue honouring
God by holy obedience ? Why should we be so soon
weary of remembering loving and serving Him ?
Let us, this good day, make one good resolution:
that we will never again give way, knowingly, to
sloth, inattention, tediousness of spirit. We will
not, by our own consent, neglect our part in the
great never-ceasing Anthem.
And if it be a lowly part, yet let us believe, that
no part of such a service can be really low and mean:
since to wait, in the humblest station, on the great
God in His temple, is plainly far higher preferment
than to be the prime favourite of the greatest earthly
king. This is a great point indeed : that we should
know in our hearts the dignity of our common call
ing. This is, I suppose, what S. Paul asked so ear
nestly for his converts the people of Ephesus : that
they might know "the riches of the glory of Christ's
inheritance in the saints ; and the exceeding great
ness of His power to us ward who believe," that they
might "e be able to comprehend with all saints what is
o Eph. iii. 18, 19.

our Communion hymn. 373
the breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and
to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
Could our eyes but be opened for one moment to see
the high company we are in, and the glorious work
we are about, when we are praising God in His
Church, surely it would be harder for us to go back
to the miserable, contemptible follies which now
too easily prevail against us. We could not then
so lightly pass in a moment from holy things to un
holy. We should be frightened and ashamed, when
the temptation came, to look out for the praise of
men, or to favour ourselves in respect of bodily and
sensual comfort. The thought would keep fresh in
our heart, " Am I not a Christian? a companion
of Cherubim and Seraphim in glorifying God? How
then dare I give myself up to be carried away by
such childish unworthy things ?"
This is one use which God would have us make of
those glimpses of heavenly glory, which from time to
time He shews His faithful ones, whether in Church
services, or otherwise. They should help to put
down the earthly mind and to encourage the heavenly
mind. Endeavour, I beseech you, to use them so :
and your reward will indeed be great. Instead of
hearing only7 of God, how He was seen in visions by
the prophets, you will then see Him, as He is. You
will see Him face to face : and it will be, to all
eternity, your glory and your joy !

SEEMON XXXIX.

THE HOLINESS OF GOD, TOWARDS US AND IN US.

TRINITY SUNDAY.
Rev. iv. 8.

" They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord God Almighty, which ivas, and is, and,
is to come."
"They rest not day and night." It is remarkable
that these are the very same words which, further on
in the book of Eevelations, are used to describe the
torments of the damned. "aThey have no rest day
nor night, who worship the beast and his image,
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." As
much as to say, that after the sabbath of the grave
is over, and the body is once more awakened and
joined to the soul, there shall be no more sleep for
ever. The good shall never rest from their happi
ness, nor the wicked from their torment. The one
is as certain as the other.
And yet in another sense, the condition of the
saints in heaven is entire and perfect peace and
rest: as it is written, " h Great is the peace that they
have who love Thy law:" and our Lord's own promise
is, " Peace I leave with you, My Peace I give unto
a Rev. xiv. 11. b Ps. cxix. 165.

The Holiness of God. 375
you." Eest is their reward, and yet here we read,
"They have no rest day nor night." From care, from
wearisome labour, from anxiety, from all pain and
disquiet of mind and body, they are at rest for ever ;
but it is not the rest of sleep or of mere inactivity :
it is resting from all lower works, that they may be
at leisure to think of God, to adore and praise
Him, to draw nearer and nearer to Him, in heart and
spirit, for ever. "They rest not day and night, say
ing, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which
was, and is, and is to come."
My brethren, this is indeed too high and hard a
subject for sinful mortals, swallowed up with the
cares of this lower world. We cannot enter into it,
more than very faintly : but even the little we may
understand would be enough, were we but willing,
to lift our souls far above the things that we see,
and make us long, as the Psalmist did, for the wings
of a dove, that we might flee away, and enter into
that rest. For consider. When it is said that those
blessed spirits are for ever crying out, " Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord God Almighty ;" none of us, of course,
is so childish as to think only of the mere saying or
singing the words over and over again. Of course
we understand that the heart goes along with the
words : that each one of the heavenly spirits, in
every moment of the solemn services which they are
continually performing, is evermore thinking more
and more deeply on the meaning of those aweful
words. That is, the employment of happy souls,
now and for evermore, is to see God, and know Him,
and love Him, more and more perfectly. "They rest
not day and night," because the work they are upon,

376 The Holiness of God,
is so great and high that it can never be ended, and
so full of joy and comfort and refreshment, that they
can never tire of it. The Wisdom of God, that is,
God Himself, says, " c They that eat Me shall yet be
hungry, and they that drink Me shall yet be thirsty."
as much as to say, that in heaven it is far otherwise
than it is in regard to those things which most de
light our frail hearts. Here, we very soon come to
enough of a good thing, and from enough we pre
sently go on to too much : but of that true joy in
heaven God will so make us partakers, if we do not
prove unworthy, that Avhile we feel we always have
enough, yet more and more will ever be most wel
come to us. In one word, the joy of the saints is in
God, and therefore it has no end, for God is without
end. "They rest not day and night," nor ever desire
to rest, from praising Him.
And what is it, for which, most of all, they praise
and honour and adore Him, and desire to draw near
to Him ? It is His Holiness : their endless song is,
"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." Holiness,
in Scripture, seems to mean that perfect Goodness of
God, whereby He is most opposite to all sin and im
perfection. " d God is Light," says S. John, " and in
Him is no darkness at all: " as if he should say, " God
is Goodness, and in Him is no evil at all." " This,"
the same S- John adds, "is the message which we
have heard of Him, and declare unto you." This is
the great message of the Gospel, that God will have
nothing to do with sin, and that He has made Him
self a way, by His Son and Spirit, for freeing us His
people from all sin for ever. The joy then which
c Ecclus. xxiv. 21. d i S.John i. 5.

towards us and in us. 377
we hope bye and bye to taste in God's Presence, is
altogether a pure joy ; a joy in holiness, a joy in
Him who is most Holy. You cannot taste it, you
can have no true notion of it, as long as you give
yourself up to any kind of sin. A person who had
gone on for many years, singing entirely out of tune,
would be very ill-prepared to join in any perfect
harmony : so are we unprepared for heaven, if we
are living in any respect unholy lives. The chant
of the Angels is not for such : they could not join in
it, they could not understand it, even though by
some miracle they were taken up where the Angels
are. Oh may the good Spirit of God write this les
son deep in our hearts, and save us from the mad
ness of thinking to be ever happy without being
holy! May He teach us also to have in perpetual re
membrance what He has taught us of Himself, and
of the great things which He has done for us : that
we may love Him and serve Him and follow Him,
His very self, not an image of our own contriving,
which we vainly fancy to be like Him. For so the
heavenly anthem instructs us, by repeating the word
" Holy " three times, no more and no less : that we
might know Him Who is Holy, Him Whom the saints
and Angels are for ever praising, to be Three Per
sons, yet One " Lord God Almighty, which was, and
is, and is to come." Much in the same way does the
Church instruct us, every year, by the return of this
Feast of Trinity. After we have been keeping our
solemn days of remembrance of the wonders of God's
mercy, one by one, this Day is appointed to gather
them, as it were, all together, and to acknowledge

378 The Holiness of God,
Him Who wrought them, to be Three Persons in One
God. We know it is His will, that we should do so :
for so, in the beginning of our Christian life, it pleased
Him to reveal Himself to us, causing us to be bap
tized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost : and so in the crown and end of
that life, when we shall see Him as He is, we are to
praise Him with the word, Holy, thrice repeated, in
acknowledgement of the same Three Divine Persons.
From beginning to end, and all along, we are to look
upon Him as Three in One, each of the Three, Infinite
in Holiness. And therefore, from time to time, as
long as we live, we must praise Him in such hymns
as the Creed of S. Athanasius, and as the Gloria
Patri at the end of the Psalms. And when we en
deavour, in our weak way, to join devoutly in such
hymns, we may with humble courageous hope think
of the Angels who are now and ever singing them
in heaven, and of the promise given to the faithful,
"eI will hear thee, and thou shalt praise Me." The
beginning, the middle, and the end, of our praise,
our joy, and our love, must be for Him Alone, Who
is Holy, Holy, Holy, Three Persons, One Lord God
Almighty. Consider, how in the work of our salvation each
one of these Three glorious Persons has severally
manifested His own infinite Holiness, His hatred of
sin, and love of all kinds of goodness. God the
Father, Who made us and all the world, made us
pure and without spot of sin, and so declared how
perfectly Holy He is. And when we had sinned,
He again declared Himself Holy, by passing that
» Ps. 1. 15.

towards us and in us. 379
fearful sentence, which turned us out of Paradise,
out of God's Presence. And noAV being minded, in
His unspeakable mercy, to forgive us, He requires
no less a sacrifice than His Only-begotten Son, to
reconcile Him to sinners, and obtain them His bless
ing. Alas ! my brethren, what have we done ? to
think lightly of any known sin, and to think well of
ourselves after we had knowingly sinned, while yet
we had learned so much of the Holiness of the Eternal
Father : that He has prepared Hell for the impeni
tent, and will not save even the penitent but by the
Blood of His only Son !
Think now of the word, Holy, repeated the second
time ; and think withal of the holiness of the Only-
begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ : how pure and
undefiled He was, without blemish and without spot,
and how His very enemies and murderers were com
pelled to cry out, " I find no fault in this Man."
Think, why He took our nature upon Him at first.
It was because of His tender love towards us, joined
with His entire hatred of sin. He sought to save us,
but He knew and felt that our sins were so very
bad, that the only way for us to be forgiven would be
for Him to stoop from heaven to earth, become one of
us, and bear our sins in His own Body on the Tree.
So Holy is He, so unchangeably set against sin, that
He will dismiss those who have not repented in time,
and who will appear before Him at the Judgement
seat; — He will send them away once for all, His own
redeemed He will send away, if impenitent, — into
everlasting fire. How then can we hope to be ever
in His favour, so long as we permit ourselves to be
entangled in any known sin ?

380 The Holiness of God,
Think, once more, of the Third Person of the
Blessed and Glorious Trinity : think, Christians, of
God the Holy Ghost, the good and gracious Spirit
of the Father and the Son, how He condescended, as
on Whitsunday, to come down and abide in men's
hearts, for this very express purpose, that we might
be able to fight the Lord's battles manfully against
sin and wickedness. Think how near, how close He
is to you : dwelling in the silence and solitude of our
very hearts, counting your body His temple, your
members as so many limbs of Christ's own Body :
hating sin entirely7, and making you feel, when you
are tempted, that He really does hate it. Think se
riously, think earnestly of this. Is it not so, that
when evil comes in your way, you feel a certain in
ward whisper, deep down in your own hearts, " Why
will you do this ? God sees it, and entirely7 hates it."
You perceive this, and you call it, perhaps, the voice
of conscience, and you know that it is a very serious
thing. But will you now set your heart in earnest
upon this certain truth, that such inward whisper
ings, in you who are baptized, are indeed the voice
of God, not at a distance, but dwelling in your own
soul and body ? What a horror then, what a sin and
misery must it be, to go on with anything amiss, in
despite of that still small voice !
And remember this also, that when we say, the
Holy Ghost is dwelling in Christians' hearts, we do
not so mean it, as if the Father and the Son were
away. For these Three Persons, as the text teaches,
are One " Lord God Almighty." Their works are in
separable; so that where One is, there, in Presence
and in Power, are all Three : as our Lord Himself

towards us and in us. 381
gave us to understand, when He was taking leave of
His disciples before His Death. "fIf a man love
Me, he will keep My words : and My Father will love
him, and We," i. e. the Father and the Son, "will
come unto him, and make Our abode with him." The
Father and the Son will come by the Holy Ghost to
every Christian who does not throw away the bless
ing, and will dwell within him, so that his soul and
body shall be night and day full of God, a true temple
of the Holy and Glorious Trinity. Do not turn away
from this thought, because you cannot understand
how it should be so. Do not forget it, because the
wonderful Presence is all out of sight. Your own
soul is out of sight : but yet you know very well
what must become of you, if you forget and neglect
your own soul. In like manner, be careful, I beseech
you, to worship and adore the Living God, the Trinity
in Unity, vouchsafing to abide in your hearts. And
remember that, when you let your will go after any
thing sinful, you offend and affront not God the Holy
Ghost only, but God the Father likewise, and God
the Son : for where the Holy Ghost is, there are also
the Father and the Son, in all their glory, love, and
holiness: and so, when a Christian man sins willfully :
when he tells a lie, or looks on what is forbidden, it
is as if he said to the Father Who made him, "s depart
from me, for I desire not the knowledge of Thy
ways:" it is, as if he said to the Son Who redeemed
him, " I will not have you to reign over me : depart
from me, for what have I to do with Thee ?" If this
is almost too shocking to think of, what must it be
to live in the habit of saying such words, in heart,
f S. John xiv. 23. s Job xxi. 14.

382 The Holiness of God,
to the Most High God ? And yet, in heart and in
meaning, we do say such words, every time that we
consent to what He has forbidden.
This is indeed very terrible to think of: but on
the other hand what joy and gladness is it, when we
reflect on what Holy Scripture tells us of the Pre
sence of the Blessed Trinity in all our endeavours to
do good and obey our Saviour ! S. Paul says, " hI
can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
me : " and again, " ;Not I, but Christ liveth in me ;
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave
Himself for me." The Apostle says not this of him
self only, but of every one, even the simplest believer.
The prayers and alms and other good deeds, the faith
and patience of such an one, are not his own, but
Christ's. They belong not to the man himself, but
to the Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity, which
has abode in him ever since his Baptism. They are
therefore good and acceptable before God, as being
the works, not of corrupt human nature, but of the
Holy and good Spirit of the Father and the Son. The
simplest action wrought by a Christian in Christ's
Name with a good mind, is thus turned into some
thing very precious and holy, and will in no wise
lose its reward.
I do not of course mean, that good Christian peo
ple will themselves know, when they do things in
this acceptable way, and so as to have a blessing laid
up for them in heaven. The better they are, the
more they will humble themselves, and of course, so
much the less will they know of their own goodness.
h Phil. iv. 13. ; Gal. ii. 20.

towards us and in us. 383
Still however there will generally be in the bottom
of their hearts, a secret indescribable peace, a calm
courageousness of spirit, a deep conviction of their
Lord's unfailing mercy, which will carry them through
this world far happier, on the whole, than they could
be any other way : and bye and bye, in the other
world, they will find how all things have worked to
gether for their good. They will then perceive how
their constant endeavours to be indeed holy here,
have prepared them for the constant solemn services,
the praising God in His Holiness hereafter. They
rest not here, but according to their measure are try
ing day and night to be holy : therefore to them it
will be in comparison no strange thing, to find them
selves hereafter wholly taken up with such anthems
as that in the text, " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God
Almighty : " wholly employed in gazing on God,
their Creator, Eedeemer and Sanctifier : and in re
ceiving light from His Light, holiness and righteous
ness from His adorable Perfections.
So be it, 0 Lord, with us, Thy unworthy servants :
for His sake, Who died to purchase the blessing
for us !

SEEMON XL.

HEAVEN CREATED FOR US, WE RE-CREATED FOR IT,
BY THE HOLY TRINITY.

TRINITY SUNDAY.

Ps. xxxiii. 6.

uBy the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and
all the hosts of them by the Breath of His Mouth."
Why should the history of the creation of the world
be read in the Church on Trinity Sunday ? Because
Trinity Sunday, coming after all the great days, doth
as it were complete the Church's witness of God's
manifestation of Himself in the Gospel : and the
creation of the world, and more especially that of
man in God's own image, was the beginning of that
manifestation. The making heaven and earth out
of nothing, which is what we call creation, was, as
far as we are told, the first work whereby the Holy
Trinity began to reveal and make Itself known. From
all eternity God Almighty, the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost, had dwelt in His own Light, " a the
Light which no man can approach unto," rejoicing in
the glory and blessedness of His own Eternal Being,
the bliss and glory, of which the Son saith, He had
it with the Father before the world was ; living and
reigning with Him in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
a 1 Tim. vi. 16.

Heaven created for us, we re-created for it, 385
Thus it was, until it pleased the Father by His Word
and Spirit to create this visible world, and also the
invisible Avorld of Angels and spirits. God the
Father, the First Person in the Trinity, is especially
called the Maker and Creator of the world, because
He is the First Person, the Eoot, the Fountain, the
Beginning of all: as the holy Creed says "He is
made of none, neither created, nor begotten." " Of
Him are all things," therefore He is especially our
Creator : but not without His Son and His Spirit :
as we read, " The Spirit of God moved upon the face
of the waters ;" and God spake by His Word or Son,
the Second Person in the Everlasting Trinity, and
said, "Let there be light, and there was light:" and
so all along, all through the six days of creation
God said, " Let it be so, and it Avas so." It was His
Word, His Son, by Whom He brought all into being.
" bAll things were made by Him ; and without Him
was not any thing made that was made." By Him,
i. e. by Jesus Christ, " c were all things created, that
are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and in
visible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers : all things Avere created by
Him and for Him." Thus Scripture teaches that all
things were created by the Son ; and of the Spirit's
part in the beginning of the world it saith, "The
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters ; "
and again, " d Who hath measured the waters in the
hollow of his hand ? — Who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord, or, being His counsellor, hath taught
Him ? " And thus in part we understand the word
put into the mouth of the Psalmist, " By the Avord
b S.John i. 3. c Col. i. 16. A Is. xl. 12, 13.
C C

386 Heaven created for us, we re-created for it,
of God (i. e. by His Son Jesus Christ our Saviour)
were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by
the Breath of His mouth," i. e. His Spirit; of Whom
another Psalm told us last Sunday, "D When Thou
lettest Thy Breath go forth, they shall be made; and
Thou shalt renew the face of the earth."
By this we understand that the same holy Saviour,
Who is all in all to us sinners, is the great Lord,
Creator and Upholder of all things ; able therefore to
make all work for good to them that love Him ; and
that the same Holy Ghost, in Whom we trust to be
our Sanctifier, is the very Being, Who first began to
brood like a Dove over the earth, when it was with
out form and void, and to prepare it for all the order
and beauty, that God intended to bring out of it :
whereby we know that He is able to sanctify us to
the uttermost, able to change the fallen and corrupt
heart, and new-create it, after the image of God, unto
righteousness and true holiness.
Further (and this, my brethren, is the point to
which I would especially draw your attention to
day) as the very first words of the Bible tell us hoAV
that "in the beginning Ged created the heaven:" so
the Psalmist in the text teaches that " by the Word
of God were the heavens made, and all the hosts of
them by the Breath (or Spirit) of His Mouth ; " i. e.
the Blessed Son and Spirit were with the Father in
the beginning, and bore Their part with Him in the
creation of the heavens. The heavens, I say, and
the very heaven of heavens ; not only this deep blue
sky, this firmament with its sun, moon, and stars,
so vast bright and aweful to look up to, but the
e Ps. civ. 30.

by the Holy Trinity. 387
highest heavens and their inhabitants, the Angels
and Archangels, the Cherubim and Seraphim, the
Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers, and what
ever else there may be beyond sight and thought;
all, of which the Apostle speaks, Avere the work and
are the property of Jesus Christ, our Eedeemer, and
of the Holy Spirit our Guide and Comforter ; and,
belonging to Christ and His Spirit, they do in a man
ner belong to each good Christian. "All," saith hef,
" are yours," as surely as " ye are Christ's." Now,
my brethren, consider a moment ; Avhat a great un
speakable thought is this ! Suppose the child of some
great rich person, the son and heir of such a monarch
as Nebuchadnezzar, taken up to some high hill, in the
midst of a grand city like Babylon, and told, "Now
cast your eyes around : all these lands and houses
and gardens, all these streets and palaces, and the
treasures and wealth of every kind which they con
tain, all belongs to your father: he means it for you ;
it will be all yours, if you will only be dutiful, and
please him." What would be the thoughts of that
person ? We do not perhaps know exactly : the heart
of man is very Avay ward, and none of us, I suppose,
can tell quite for certain, what his own thoughts
would be in such a case : but one thing, I imagine,
is quite certain : we should any one of us, if we be
lieved the saying, think a great deal of it : we should
regard it as making a great difference in our condi
tion : we could not forget it : we could not be, as if
we never had heard it. Well : but this very thing is
true : the word, not of a man but of God, has really
come to each one of us with this very assurance, not
1 1 Cor. iii. 21. 23.
c c 2

388 Heaven created for us, we re-created for it,
concerning any earthly estate, or domain, but con
cerning the glorious heaven which we see above us.
Our Lord saith, as it were, to each one of us, " Is
not this the great and glorious home which I have
builded for the house of the kingdom of My people ;
I have builded it even for thee, by the might of My
power, and for the honour of My majesty ? " He
hath said — we heard it a very little while ago: "si go
to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again, and receive you
unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be
also." As in the beginning He, Who is the Wisdom
of the Father, established the visible heavens ; as He
said, " Let there be a firmament, and lights in the fir
mament;" so He is noAV, by His Intercession in His
kingdom, preparing the spiritual and invisible hea
vens to be our everlasting home. And when it is
prepared, and we prepared for it, He " will come
again, and receive us unto Himself; that where He
is, there we may be also." He will take His
Church, purified from earth and sin, released for
ever from danger and suffering, He will take it up
with Him through the everlasting gates, which will
be lifted up for Him and the hosts of His redeemed,
and they will follow after Him, and abide with Him,
and see His Face for ever.
But in the mean time they too (Ave cannot be
reminded of it too often) must have had their pre
paration on earth. For this is our Lord's word, con
firmed by His oath: "h Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God." Not every one is fit to be one of
% S.John xiv. 2. 3. i> lb. iii. 3.

by the Holy Trinity. 389
the Lord's host, the host of heaven, the happy com
pany who shall follow their Saviour through the ever
lasting doors, when He shall ascend the second time;
but those only who shall have been marked with
His mark, and transformed into His likeness, here
on earth : and that is a work which none but His
Spirit can accomplish : therefore we understand how
the prophet should say, all the host of heaven were
made by the Breath of the Lord's Mouth. As the
Angels, the good and pure spirits, were created in
the beginning by the Holy Spirit, or Breath, of the
Father and the Son, so Ave sinners, if ever we are to
become good and pure, and come to heaven, must
be new-created by the same Holy Spirit. His grace
is that blessed and heavenly Fire, which our Lord
came to send upon earth ; to kindle upon one defiled
soul after another, and purge and refine it as gold
and silver, that it may be a worthy offering to the
Father, through the merits of Christ, now in Com
munion, and hereafter at the Day of Judgement. By
the Word of the Lord, i. e. by His Son Jesus Christ,
are the heavens even now being prepared for each
good Christian, and all the host of them — all the
saints and penitents who are one day to be received
there, are being prepared by the Breath of His Mouth,
i. e. His Holy and life-giving Spirit.
Do we believe these things, my brethren? Do we
really believe in the Life everlasting, purchased for
us by the Blood of Christ, prepared for us by His
Intercession, sealed to us by His Holy Spirit ? Yes,
we believe it, one and all, we dare not deny it : we
know and feel in the bottom of our hearts that it is
the only way to be happy. But alas ! my brethren,

390 Heaven created for us, we re-created for it,
what signifles our belief, if we permit ourselves to go
on, almost or altogether, as if we had never heard of
these things ? Our Lord is in heaven preparing a
place for us ; the Holy Spirit is here on earth to pre
pare us for the place; and we; what are we ourselves
doing ? Here, in this our village, we are one thou
sand Christian souls : how many of us, being of
suflicient age, are seriously trying to obey the godly
motions of the good Spirit ? We are all in Christ's
school : how many of us are learning His lessons ?
0 how can we give ourselves up to these ordinary
things : a little more money, a little more worldly
credit, a little more amusement and pleasure : while
thrones are being got ready for us in the royal palace
of heaven, and the Holy Comforter close at hand, of
fering to shew us the way, and help us along it ?
Observe how it is when a person is possessed, as hap
pens not uncommonly, with a longing to be a sailor
or soldier, or in any other special profession: or with
a strong attachment to any particular person. In
such a case, men Jive upon the hope which possesses
them : it occupies their minds night and day : it
brings every thought into captivity : it is their meat
and drink : as He said, Who set us the great exam
ple of like zeal in the only sufficient cause, "'My
meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to
finish His work." 0 why should not we follow
Him ? Why should not we, every one of us, seek
and obtain grace to live upon the thought of heaven
and of Christ preparing it for us, as men, earnest in
any earthly desire, live upon the remembrance of the
person or thing that they long for ? Let no man
1 S. John iv. 34.

by the Holy Trinity. - 391
say, "It is not in me : I long for such a Christian
mind, I think those most happy who have it ; but I
cannot feel it, and I cannot force myself to do so."
Of course, no man can change his own heart : but he
may wish and pray that God would change it : and
in the mean time he may, by God's help, carefully
keep himself in word and deed from the things which
he knows God hates.
To such as faithfully endeavour this, He Who is
the Truth has promised full success. As surely as a
father would give good gifts to his children, so surely
will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him. And He can and will change
the heart, and teach you to love what now you can
not care for. The very season of Whitsuntide re
minds us what a change He wrought in the blessed
Apostles. They had been "unstable as water," for
saking their Lord as soon as ever they understood
that He was really to suffer : but when the Holy
Comforter had descended on them, they were all on
fire with boldness and fervent zeal, to do and suffer
all His Will : and he was happiesf who could give
up most for his Lord. He is the same Spirit that
He was then, and we in our measure have the same
need that they had. As He gave strength and energy
to S. Peter and the rest, so He hath ever since, and
will to those who shall come after, making each
generation of faithful men in its turn His hosts,
His soldiers, His angels, to serve Him duly in His
Church, and wage war courageously against His
enemies. Only, as was said to the hosts of the Lord
when they entered on the wars of Canaan, "k Only
k Josh. i. 7.

392 Heaven created for us, we re-created for it,
be ye strong and very courageous." Christian cou
rage — that is the virtue, the want of Avhich ruins so
many good beginnings. Young persons, we will sup
pose, have learned what is right, their hearts are more
or less touched ; they make good resolutions, and
enter on a better way of life : bye and bye comes a
strong temptation to commit Avhat seems but a little
fault : they know it is wrong, but they dare not be
so Arery particular as to shrink from Avhat so many
others do : it is so very unpleasant to be scorned or
pointed at : in short they are cowardly and give
Avay : and when they have done so once, it is but too
easy to do it a second and a third time. Noav all this
sin and misery Avould be effectually stayed, if per
sons would first make a good and brave resolution to
resist the first temptation with all their might; and
secondly, if they would humbly and regularly ask
the aid of God's good Spirit to keep their resolu
tion. Again, it is a point of Christian courage, in
Avhich Ave are most of us sadly wanting, to do the
right thing, when we know it, at once ; not to stand
parleying and doubting about it, but to strike your
blow at once, like a valiant soldier, who knows Avhat
his commander expects of him, and what will most
baffle his enemy. For want of this it is that so many
fall into a kind of irresolute, half-obedience ; even if
they do a good deal of their duty, they lose many a
blessing for want of doing it at the right time : but a
good and brave man will, as I said, act at once.
A third' point of Christian courage is the not
fearing to engage ourselves beforehand, by strong
resolutions and promises before God, when we are
quite certain of our duty. Fear not, by the help of

by the Holy Trinity. 393
tho Holy Spirit, to pledge yourself to what is right,
and to keep your pledge.
Fourthly, and very particularly, courage requires
of you to do without the countenance of men. It is
plain common sense : man cannot help your soul in
your need : man cannot change your heart, nor ob
tain forgiveness of your sins. Why will you think so
much of man, when you have the Eternal God offer
ing Himself to be your help and your refuge ? Have
pity on your own soul : do not so throw it away :
and have pity, too, on the souls of those whom you
are tempted to follow in the wrong Avay : your weak
ness is sure to do them harm ; your firmness might
do them a very great deal of good. Finally, pray
and strive to be courageous under long weariness
and disappointment. Let nothing daunt, nothing
dishearten you, when you may reasonably hope you
are folloAving Christ. Eemember what He endured,
and grudge not tedious waiting, grudge not missing
your earthly comforts, the sense of being helped,
sympathy from others, good done to them, and the
like : never mind missing all this, if such be His
will. Wherever you are, and whatever you are about,
remember, in all dangerous trials especially, that you
carry about you, as a holy spell and charm (if we
may use such a word) rather let me say, as a saving
seal and token of protection from the Lord, the Most
Holy Name of the Trinity ; the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, into which Name you were baptized.
With this, the weakest of us will be strong : strong
enough against the fiercest and most subtle tempta
tion, like David coming to Goliath in the Name of

394 Heaven created for us, we re-created for it.
the Lord God of Israel. You cannot fail, if in heart
and act you be true to yourself and to God.
Too sadly I feel, that as in former years, so it will
be also in this : too many will be found to have heard
the word of God, speaking to them in His great and
holy seasons, one after another, with little or no real
fruit. But whether men hear, or whether they for
bear, we must not cease to warn : and you know in
your hearts, every one of you, that it will be well in
the end for those who take our warning ; for every
one of them, and for them only.

SEEMON XLI

THE THREEFOLD CORD.

TRINITY SUNDAY.
Eccles. iv. 12.
"A Threefold cord is not quickly broken."
This must be an old proverb, taken from something
very familiar, and applied by the wise king, or rather
by the Holy Spirit guiding him, to a very deep and
high meaning. How deep and high, we shall better
understand, if we go back, as the Church does this
day, to the very beginning of our Bibles. He made
man in His own Image, and having made him, He
left him not long by himself, but made woman also,
to be an help meet for him. These two works were
Avorks of so great importance, that the Almighty
Lord is spoken of as even taking counsel about them :
considering beforehand how He should order them.
God said, "Let us make man in Our Image, after Our
likeness:" and again God said, "It is not good that
the man should be alone: I will make him an help meet
for him." As persons who are very much in earnest,
very full of any matter, often, in setting about it, talk
to themselves, without knowing that they do so : so
our great Creator here takes counsel with Himself,
to shew us what a weighty business He is taking in
hand. The first thing on which He thus counsels with
Himself, is the making man after His own Image,
the second is the not leaving him alone. Now we

396 The Threefold cord.
know that this saying, "It is not good for man to be
alone," relates in the first place to Holy Matrimony,
but no doubt it relates also to the need which men
have of one another, and each one of far better help
than his own, in all the concerns, both of this life
and of the next. See how this is set out at length
by the wise man. "aTwo are better than one, because
they have a good reward for their labour. For if
they fall, the one will lift up his fellow : but woe to
him that is alone when he faileth, for he hath not
another to help him up. Again, if two lie together,
then they have heat : but how can one be warm
alone ? and if one prevail against him, two shall with
stand him." Now all this we all understand at once
as far as relates to the concerns of this life, how im
possible it is for us to do without one another : and
the dullest of us can at once discern, what a lesson
it all teaches of love and good-fellowship, and the
duty of all caring for one another, since God has
made us so, that we cannot go on at all without one
another. All this we understand by the instances
given of two being better than one. But what is this
which comes after? "A threefold cord" — Why "three
fold?" Not merely because, union being strength, the
more there are in union, the greater the strength : not
merely that as two are better than one, so three are
better than two, although that might often be true
in earthly matters; and cordage, we know especially
is always threefold at least, else it will be quickly
broken ; but, as I said, there is a deeper meaning in
this, as there is, I believe, always in the Scripture,
Avhen the number three is mentioned at all parti-
a Eccles. iv. 9—12.

The Threefold cord. 397
cularly7. It always takes us back, if we consider it
well, to the number of the Divine Persons, the Holy,
Blessed, and Glorious Trinity. Thus in the text, it
is as if Solomon should say, "It is not good for man
to be alone : two are better than one : but a threefold
cord — that is best and strongest of all, for this is the
very nature of man, according as he was at first
created." He Avas made in the Image of God ; and
God, though He is One, is not alone. He is not single
nor solitary, but Three in One, and so hath been and
will be, for ever and ever. And man, being made
at the first in God's Image, after His likeness, was
not altogether single and solitary. Man, at the be
ginning, was in a certain sense three in one, and in
that, as in some other respects, was made after his
Creator's likeness. You may ask, how was Adam,
when first created, an Image of the eternal Three in
One ? Different answers might be given to this, all
more or less true ; but I will mention only one an
swer, and that I will take out of S. Paul. S. Paul
prays God for the Thessalonians, that their "b whole
spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Their
spirit and soul and body : see here three parts, three
separate principles, forming together one man : not
one man of any sort, but one spiritual Christian man.
For S. Paul, had he been Avriting to the heathen,
would not, I imagine, have said anything about spirit,
because the heathen had not the Spirit. Thus stands
the doctrine, as I understand it : As God is Three
Persons in one Substance, the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, so Adam when first created had
three principles (so to call them) in one person, the
11 1 Thess. v. 23.

398 The Threefold cord.
same three which the Apostle here mentions; the
body, formed out of the dust of the earth ; the soul
or breath of temporal life, breathed into his nostrils
by the Lord God after He had formed him, whereby,
as we read, " the first man Adam was made a living
soul ; " and the Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life,
given to the same Adam to join him in unspeakable
communion with his Creator, making him in some
way partaker of heavenly life, as his having a soul
made him partaker of this earthly life. Thus man
was made in the Image of God, in that being one
he was three, made up of body, soul and spirit, and
so he continued during his time of innocence. Too
soon, alas ! he sinned, grievously sinned, and what
was the consequence ? He lost the Image of God,
in which he was at first so happily created ; he lost
it, as in other respects, so in this particularly, that
the Holy, Life-giving Spirit departed from him, and
so he consisted no longer of body, soul and spirit,
but of body and soul only : the threefold-cord was
not broken, but in a manner untwined : one of the
lines, the principal one was removed, two only re
mained, and they were soon to be untwined also :
he was no more an image of the Trinity.
In this sad condition we are every one of us born,
without any portion or part in that blessed Spirit,
Who is the only Lord and Giver of eternal life. This
was our ruin by nature, what then is our restoration
by grace ? What but our being new-created in the
Image of God which we have lost? what but our
receiving anew the Blessed Spirit Whom we drove
away from us ? This might not be, until a Sacrifice
had been offered for us, able indeed to take away sin :
and such Sacrifice none might offer in heaven or in

The Threefold cord. 399
earth but He Who was made one of us that He might
offer it, God the Son, the Lamb of God slain from
the foundation of the world. He, by His meritorious
Cross and Passion, purchased for us remission of our
sins, and the gift of His good Spirit which we had
lost and forfeited, to unite us to the Divine Nature,
to create us anew after the Divine Image, by giving
us His own gracious Self, causing us to become spirit
soul and body, a likeness of the Holy Trinity again.
This blessing He purchased for us all on the Cross,
but He gives it to each one of us at Holy Baptism,
Avhen He sends His Spirit into our hearts to make us
members of Himself. At our Baptism, unless we
hinder it by our sins, the original Image of God, in
which Adam was created, is restored and renewed in
us, and, as I said, we are once more made body and
soul and spirit, instead of being only soul and body,
as we had been ever since Adam's sin. And this is
the threefold cord, which cannot be broken ; though
by wilful sin and unbelief on our part, it may be
again untwined, and too often is so. We are sure
it cannot be broken, we are sure the good work
Avrought for us in Baptism cannot be undone except
by our own sin, because it is the work of the Blessed
Trinity, it depends on the inseparable union of the
Three Divine Persons with each other, and on that
other inseparable union of the Nature of God with
the Nature of Man in the Person of Jesus Christ.
If the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost can cease
to be of one Substance, Majesty and Glory ; if Jesus
Christ our Saviour can cease to be for ever both God
and Man; then may the Holy Spirit depart from
the souls and bodies of Christ's redeemed and regene
rated, Avithout Avilful sin of theirs. But not else :

400 The Threefold cord.
the threefold cord, I say it again, may be untwined
but cannot be broken.
All our holy services and Sacraments are divinely
ordered to assure us of this. Our Faith, uttered in
the Creed of the Church, Avhether it be the Apostles'
Creed or the Nicene Creed or, as to-day the Creed
of S. Athanasius, begins with the Trinity and ends
with life everlasting; and the one is as sure as the
other; the threefold cord binds us to the Throne for
ever. Our Baptism, what is that but the seal of
the Trinity, Almighty God the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost, giving us Himself, to come unto us
and make His abode with us, giving us His Name,
the name of Christian, to be unto us a strong tower,
into which we may run and be safe ? The benedic
tions or blessings of Holy Church are all uttered in
the Name of the Trinity : when she dismisses us
after Holy Communion, it is with the blessing of the
Father, the- Son and the Holy Ghost, that we may
not lose the good thing we have received : when she
absolves us after^ confession of sin, it is still in the
same Name, to make sure of the untying of our
bonds : when she would place a guard on our mar
riages, that no unclean or morose spirit may enter
in and spoil them, her word is, "God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve and
keep you :" and not only in Churcli services, but in
all very serious matters it has ever been usual among
Christians to provide, as well as they might, for their
good success, by putting them under the care of the
Divine Trinity, beginning or ending them in the
Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Again, that our Psalms and hymns and solemn
thanksgivings may be indeed to God's praise and

The Threefold cord. 401
glory, Ave bind them also to His Throne by that other
threefold cord of the Gloria Patri : professing there
by, before men and Angels, that all our Avorship and
devotion is dedicated to Him Who is Three in One,
and to Him alone, for ever and ever. The Faith, the
Name, the worship of the Most Holy Trinity, meet
us every where in the Prayer-book, and will not let
us turn Avith dependence towards any body or any
thing else. 0 my brethren, let us hold fast by it,
for there is no other cord to lay hold of: if we let
this go, we shall assuredly make shipwreck of our
souls. And how may we hold fast by it ? The seal
of the Trinity will be in a manner worn out of our
foreheads, the Name of the Trinity will be no pro
tection to us, if we do not keep entire the Faith of
the Trinity. Many false prophets are abroad, saying
this or that against it : let us at once refuse to listen
to them ; let us put their books in the fire ; if they
attempt to discourse with us, let us say, " I cannot
talk Avith you; " and above all things let us pray: for
only the sacred Trinity Itself can teach and secure
our faith in the Trinity. Let us pray, as we do this
day, that as He hath " given us grace by the confess
ion of the one true Faith, to acknowledge the glory
of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine
Majesty to worship the Unity, so He may evermore
keep us stedfast in that good Faith." We shall do
well to consider that holy collect as a safeguard, an
antidote against all poison of profane unbelief, to
last us through all the- long months until the holy
seasons begin again. And He Who knows how
frail we are, how our nature shrinks from trials and
troubles, He permits us to hold by the same three
fold cord for protection against them also : He permits
d d

402 The Threefold cord.
us to say to Him, not only " keep us stedfast in this
Faith," but also, " defend us evermore from all ad
versities." What is this but putting the seal of the
Trinity upon our friends and families, our bodies
and estates and all our earthly interests, as well as
upon our souls ? Thus we put our very life and
limbs and all the comforts and conveniences of our
life, and more especially we put all who are near
and dear to us, under the protection of the Father
the Son and the Holy Ghost, till the holy seasons
begin afresh. And what can we do more or better
for them ?
Now all this which I have put you in mind of,
out of Holy Scripture and out of the Prayer-book, of
holding fast this threefold cord, which may be let
go, but neA7er can be broken : all this our profession
of relying on the Blessed Trinity is clearly one of
two things : it is either the most blessed of realities
or the most fearful of all pretences and mockeries.
There is no middle way : it must be one or the other:
to every one of us the faith we profess in the Trinity
is either salvation or increased damnation. It is far
too aweful to be treated lightly, to be dealt with as a
matter of course. It is the threefold cord which alone
sustains us and keeps us from dropping into the great
deep of a miserable eternity : as it often happens at
sea, that persons clinging to a single rope (which rope
is always at least threefold) are preserved from drown
ing by that and nothing else. If they let it go, they
are lost. Do you not see what madness it would be
for one in such a case to begin playing with the rope,
and trying whether he might not possibly let it go
for a moment and seize it again, or with how few
fingers he might hold it, or to indulge any other

The Threefold cord. 403
childish fancy about it ? And if there chanced to be
a spiteful enemy at hand, who kept throwing with
in one's reach things which he knew one would be
tempted to lay hold of, would it not be common sense
to make a strict rule with one's self, that, come what
would, one would not take hold of any of them, see
ing that in order to do so, one must either in whole
or in part let go the rope which alone kept one from
drowning ? Just such an enemy is the devil : just
such common sense is Christian, evangelical self-de
nial, the rules which serious men, taught by our
Saviour, impose upon themselves, that they may not
be tempted to let go the Threefold cord, faith, living
faith in the Blessed Trinity, for the sake of laying
hold of any thing, pleasant, wise, strong, rich or glori
ous, which that Wicked one may cast in their way.
Do not then listen to any one, who would persuade
you not to be strict and particular. Be sure there
is something very wrong, when you hear or read, or
your own heart whispers to you, "Such great exact
ness, such continual watching, cannot surely be al
together necessary. If I keep from grievous notorious
sin, and have real good feelings at times, and look
to Christ only as my Saviour, I need not fear but it
will come right at last." Do not, I say, get into
this way of thinking : for only imagine how it would
sound to one hanging by a rope over a precipice, were
some one from below to call out to him, " You need
not hold so very hard, nor keep such continual hold :
you may let go for a moment and rest yourself, or
pick that beautiful flower from the rock : see it is just
within your reach." Would he be a friend or an
enemy who should so counsel ?
Be sure then, dear brethren, that he will be your

404 The Threefold cord.
best friend, who shall, by God's help, most effectually
prevail upon you, not, of course to be dismal and
melancholy, but to be always in earnest, always
careful, always religious, in your cheerfulness as
well as in your graver thoughts, in your business as
well as in your devotion, in your pleasure as well as
in your business : to keep up tlirough the rest of
the year, any good thoughts and purposes Avhich His
grace may have put into your hearts during the holy
Seasons which end with this clay. For this is in fact
nothing else but keeping hold of the Threefold cord
which your Saviour put into your hands, when He
baptized you into the Name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost. It is watching over the pre
cious seal, the Threefold stamp, which He then and
there fixed on our foreheads. Very soon He will
be here, to see if we are holding by that cord, if Ave
are watching to preserve that mark. As He then
finds us, so will He judge us. Hoav will it then
be, when He shall ask, "Why have you let go My
Threefold cord, why have you suffered My Threefold
seal to Avear out?" and you shall have nothing to say,
but, " It was too much trouble to mind them ? "

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