DUKE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Digitized 
 
 by the Internet Archive 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 in 2015 
 
 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/sermons01elli 
 
SERMONS 
 
 BY 
 
 THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 STEPHEN ELLIOTT, D.D., 
 
 LATE BISHOP OF GEORGIA. 
 
 WITH 
 
 % Memoir, 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS M. HANCKEL, Esq. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY POTT AND AMERY. 
 1867. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 
 Mrs. Charlotte B. Elliott, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of 
 New York. 
 
 RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
 H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 
 
cf 1 S o t 
 
 The Right Reverend Stephen Elliott, for more than twenty- 
 five years Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia, and whom God has 
 recentlv called to his rest, was born in the town of Beaufort in the 
 Estate of .SWA Carolina, on the 31st of August, 1806. He was 
 the oldest son of Stephen Elliott of South Carolina, who was 
 known in that day as a scholar, an eloquent writer, and an en- 
 thusiastic student of science, especially of the beautiful science 
 of Botany ; and whose name and character are among the 
 grateful traditions of the society in which he lived. His mother 
 was Esther Habersham of Georgia ; and his family have always 
 maintained close and affectionate relations with that great State. 
 He himself claimed that he belonged to both States. Especially 
 after he was called to preside over the Diocese of Georgia, with 
 that gracious wisdom which was eminently characteristic of the 
 man, it was his habit freely and heartily to declare that he was a 
 true son of Georgia, and that he was ready to serve her with the 
 love of a grateful child, as well as with the zeal of a faithful 
 Bishop. 
 
 When his father removed to Charleston in 1812, young Stephen 
 Elliott came with him, and was prepared for College at the school 
 of Mr. Hurlburt, at that time a distinguished and successful 
 teacher in that city. In the Fall of 1822, he went to Harvard 
 College, and entered the Sophomore Class in that Institution. He 
 remained at Harvard until the Fall of 1823, when, at the desire of 
 his father, who wished him to graduate in his native State, he took 
 an ad eundem to the South Carolina College, and in November of 
 that year was there admitted to the Junior Class. Among his 
 classmates was the late Hon. James H. Hammond, afterwards 
 widely known as Governor of South Carolina, a gifted writer, and 
 an eloquent debater upon the floor of the Senate of the United 
 States. Another was the late Hon. Thomas I. Withers, who 
 became a distinguished jurist, and one of the ablest and most 
 learned judges of the Supreme Court of South Carolina. He 
 graduated in 1825, with the third honor of his class. Upon his 
 
 166609 
 
iv 
 
 Memoir. 
 
 graduation he studied law in the office of the laroeuted Jarnes L. 
 Petigru, the foremost lawyer of h?s day, who was the intimate 
 friend of his father, and for whom he retained through life a most 
 affectionate reverence and regard. He was called to the bar in 
 1827. 
 
 It was at this period of his life that the great political questions 
 of State Sovereignty and Free Trade arose, and shook the country 
 by the weight and magnitude of the argument. Subsequent events 
 have given grave importance to the opin ons he then formed on this 
 agitating subject. Our reader-* would be unable to understand or 
 appreciate a most eventful portion 'is life and a well-known 
 phase of his character, if we were to pass over fn-^ early imp*""- 
 sions. The ardent and talented young scholar and lawyer took a 
 keen and active interest, in the momentous issues of that high 
 debate. Upon clear conviction, he was a States' Rights man in the 
 highest and best meaning of those words, and was through life 
 the warm and unwavering supporter of that school of political doc- 
 trine. He believed in the simple scory of the Sovereignty of the 
 States of the Federal Union as he read it in every child's history 
 of the early settlement of the Colonies, and the later independence 
 of the States. He believed that this Sovereignty was the true and 
 almost the only conservative element of the Constitution, and the 
 only effective check upon the usurpations of the central Govern- 
 ment, when the latter should be controlled by the selfish interests 
 of classes, the mad passions of party, or the wild delusions of the 
 populace ; — that conservative element which alone made a free 
 and magnificent republic possible. He believed that the liberty 
 of the States was the Heaven-given shield of the liberties of the 
 peoples ; — that the freedom of the Union was the real strength 
 and perfect health of the Union. He loved his own State very 
 dearly, and he believed that an honest, genuine and practical love 
 of the country, was best felt and expressed in a just and generous 
 love of the State. Some will call this weak, will call it narrow ; 
 but let us consider if it is not that weakness and narrowness of 
 Nature itself, which is stronger and broader than the fictions of 
 men, which is deeper than the creed of the philosopher and wiser 
 than the calculations of the statesman. It is the sacred and un- 
 changeable love of the child for his home, and, through his home, 
 for his father-land. But let us not wrangle over his bier to pass 
 judgment on these opinions. There is enough else that all can 
 admire, and honor, and love. It were well, however, for Christian 
 people to remember, that these opinions have been held by men 
 
Memoir. 
 
 v 
 
 who have served the whole country with unquestioned devotion 
 and illustrious success, and of whom history must speak with un- 
 qualified honor. It would be wise, it would be happy, for the 
 country to respect at least the honesty and earnestness of their 
 convictions and their self-sacrificing devotion to what they believed 
 to be truth. 
 
 It was at this time also, that, as a junior colleague and one of the 
 younger friends and companions of the gifted Hugh S. Legare, he 
 shared in the fortunes of the renowned old " Southern Quarterly 
 Review," and the brilliant literature it illustrated. His father 
 had founded this Review, and he worked enthusiastically for its 
 success. He was probably too young at the time to have contrib- 
 uted many articles : it is known, however, that he wrote, and wrote 
 well, for its pages, and helped to make it what it was. In after 
 years he always spoke with pride and enthusiasm of the power and 
 brilliant though brief career of that famous journal, as a noble 
 monument of the scholarship of his native State at that day. 
 
 He practised law in Charleston for several years, when, upon the 
 retirement of a distinguished practitioner from the Bar of Beau- 
 fort, he removed to the latter place to succeed to his office and 
 business. His return to his birthplace was a happy hour for him. 
 He dearly loved the old place and its people. He loved the bright 
 waters and the broad bays of the country round ; and through life 
 it was the delight of the stately Bishop to come back among those 
 scenes from time to time, and, wandering along the neighboring sea- 
 shore, breathe again the boisterous breath of the Atlantic, while he 
 gathered with the keen zest of no mean naturalist the beautiful 
 shells and the curious things which the seething surf brought to his 
 feet: nothing loath, either, to join with eager energy in the bold 
 and stirring sports of the sturdy young boatmen around him. 
 
 He came back to Beaufort to practice law, but a different 
 destiny awaited him there. At this time, not long after the period 
 when the Church of England had roused itself from its lethargy 
 to a deeper and quicker sense of its high mission and duty, and 
 the teachers of a more active and energetic faith had become a 
 power in the Church, and when the eloquent energies of Chalm- 
 ers had begun to wake the Church of Scotland also from the 
 deep slumber of the " Moderates," the truths of religion known as 
 evangelical were preached with unusual fervency, power and effect 
 in the ancient and secluded town of Beaufort. Aside from the 
 mysterious breathings of the Divine Spirit, as accepted by many, 
 it was a community peculiarly open to impressions from such a 
 
vi 
 
 Memoir, 
 
 source. Thoroughly educated, cultivated and refined ; isolated 
 from the turmoil of life and from the tide of the world ; bred to a 
 high, self-reliant and unflinching sense of duty and a generous de- 
 votion to truth : the solemnity and pathos, the overwhelming obli- 
 gation, the supreme necessity and the self-sacrificing spirit of the 
 doctrines then preached, appealed with irresistible power to its 
 people. 
 
 Among a somewhat remarkable group of young men, not un- 
 known, who, at that time, made open profession of their faith and 
 high resolve, and have since truly kept the word and honor they 
 then pledged, was the gifted, accomplished and graceful young ad- 
 vocate who had recently come back to his early home. Not many 
 days later he turned away from the allurements of pleasure, and 
 the hopes, honors and emoluments of public and professional life, 
 to enroll himself as a teacher of the truths he believed, and a Min- 
 ister at the Altars of the Church in which he worshipped. 
 
 Early in the year 1833 he became a Candidate for the Ministry 
 of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and entered with character- 
 istic ardor upon the work of preparation for the duties of the 
 sacred office. He threw himself into his new studies with all the 
 devotion of a most earnest Christian, the vigor of a profound 
 thinker, and the high aims and disciplined tastes of a scholar. To 
 save the souls of sinful men he esteemed the greatest and noblest 
 work that could engage the energies of earnest men, — the most 
 necessary work, indeed, demanded of man by the piteous wants of 
 his race. To teach the truth and preach the Gospel of God's 
 grace and Christ's Atonement, he believed to be the ordained and 
 most effectual means of saving men and reforming the world. His 
 work of preparation for his duties, therefore, was honest, thorough, 
 varied, and unsparing, as knowing that the teacher and defender 
 of the Truth must win power over strong men. He was ordained 
 a Deacon by the Right Reverend Nathaniel Bowen, Bishop of the 
 Diocese of South Carolina, at Charleston in that State, in the Fall 
 of 1835. He officiated as minister in charge of the Parish of 
 Wilton, South Carolina, for one month, when he was elected by the 
 Trustees of the South Carolina College to the chair of Sacred Liter- 
 ature and the Evidences of Christianity in that Institution, to 
 which also the Chaplaincy of the College was attached. He was 
 ordained Priest in the year 1836. 
 
 Thus early was he called to high offices. And perhaps the 
 reader who never saw him will follow us more fully and easily in 
 what we have further to say, if we here endeavor to describe the 
 
Memoir. 
 
 vii 
 
 very striking form and presence of the late Bishop. Long of limb 
 and tall of stature, with a full and vigorous frame, thoroughly yet 
 easily erect, with full high brow, finely chiselled features and lofty 
 crest ; with a soft, beaming blue eye, and a complexion fair and 
 fresh, without being ruddy ; exquisitely graceful in his carriage, 
 and quiet and easy in his movement, with his thin dark hair float- 
 ing lightly around and from his head : his was a figure, as he 
 passed along the crowded thoroughfare, upon which men turned to 
 gaze, and the eyes of women rested with tenderness and venera- 
 tion. 
 
 His presence, though graceful, was eminently dignified and com- 
 manding. It quietly expressed a very sensitive deference for the 
 opinions and feelings of others, ready to hear and quick to appre- 
 ciate : yet a full and steady reliance on himself. It is told of him 
 that once, at a country tavern where he had stopped for the night, 
 a poor inebriate was recklessly bantering the bystanders, when his 
 attention was arrested by the appearance of the stately Bishop, 
 and awed and sobered for the moment by his commanding look 
 and towering form, he turned to him and exclaimed, " And who 
 are you? Are you a Judge? or a Member of Congress? or 
 Governor of the State ? Well, if you ain't any of these, you ought 
 to be ! " That which was felt by this poor fellow has been felt by 
 the highest and wisest and best in the land in the same presence. 
 Often have we watched that tall and graceful figure come swinging 
 along the College grounds in company with grave professor or 
 cheerful student, in serious talk, or with his rich, soft, hearty laugh 
 ringing out at some merry jest, and been conscious that a living 
 grace was added to the picturesque scene within the bounds of the 
 venerable school. 
 
 It must be left to his biographer to speak fully of his career as a 
 Professor, and of the manner in which he performed the duties of 
 his Chair. But we can say that each and every one of those whose 
 names stand upon the roll of the proud old College in those bright 
 days, as well as all others who watched and cherished its progress 
 at that time, learned to love, admire, honor, and revere him there. 
 He was the pillar, the pride and the ornament of the College. It 
 was his Alma Mater, and he took the deepest interest in its wel- 
 fare. Its students formed the congregation to whom he preached 
 the Gospel, and over whose expanding thoughts and hearts he 
 watched and prayed. He yearned to make it a school of high 
 learning, a rich source of truth and refinement, and the centre of 
 a generous intellectual citizenship to the State. " Will you let 
 
viii 
 
 Memoir, 
 
 other States breed your scholars ? " exclaimed he, on one occasion 
 to one of the classes, " and will you be content to be hewers of 
 wood and drawers of water to them ? " In his own person he 
 showed them how high and gracious and precious a thing was the 
 pure gift of learning and the culture of letters, the charm and the 
 power of the scholar. In the lecture room his clear and vigorous 
 analysis, and his rich, polished, and often passionate words, taught 
 them how to think, and how to utter their thoughts. His hopeful 
 voice cheered everybody. And he here exhibited a marked char- 
 acteristic of his whole life. He deeply and gladly sympathized 
 with every aspiration after a higher culture, however humble. He 
 encouraged each to do his best, although that best might be but 
 little. To him the aspiration itself was a grace, the effort itself 
 was elevating. To him there was every imaginable difference be- 
 tween the high aims of even the weak, and the dull recklessness 
 of aimless strength. Among the best scholars in the College, 
 there came at that time from the rural districts many uncouth and 
 awkward youths. No man had a keener sense of the humorous 
 than our lamented Bishop, the then Professor, or found it harder 
 to keep from laughing when moved by mirth. It was not in na- 
 ture, therefore, for him not to laugh heartily sometimes, at these 
 queer fellows. But while he laughed, he loved them. The very 
 grotesqueness of their simple and earnest strength seemed to 
 charm him. It was like the joy of a mother in the babbling blun- 
 ders of her brightest child. It was beautiful to see how tenderly 
 he protected them, how hopefully he guided them, how quickly 
 he felt the weight and caught the gleam of the pure gold in the 
 rugged ore. We here recall an incident which illustrates the ex- 
 quisite tact and kindness with which he cheered and guided his 
 scholars. A young student, little more than a boy in years, but 
 among the foremost in his class, was standing his first examination 
 in mathematics before the assembled members of the Faculty. 
 He was nervous and excited, and as he answered the questions 
 which were propounded to him, he kept snapping and wasting the 
 piece of chalk which he held in his hand, until there was but a scrap 
 left, with which to write his figures and draw his diagrams. Pro- 
 fessor Elliott was watching his examination with curious and 
 pleased interest, when he saw the predicament in which he was 
 placed. Rising quietly from his seat, he strolled down the room, 
 picked up a handful of chalk, which could neither be broken or 
 wasted, and with a droll and inimitable grace, handed it to the ex- 
 cited youth. A smile, a grateful look, a "Thank you, sir," in reply, 
 
Memoir. 
 
 ix 
 
 and the frightened probationer was at his ease before his exam- 
 iners, and passed triumphantly through the ordeal, without any 
 more faltering, or again scratching his nails on the blackboard. 
 It was but a little thing to do ; but it was kindly and wisely done, 
 and shows us, in miniature, the gracious arts, the gentle wisdom, 
 and the practical sagacity, with which afterwards, as a Bishop, he 
 governed his Diocese, and by which he won the confidence and af- 
 fection of all portions of his State, all denominations of Christians, 
 and all classes of men. He dearly loved books ; to be among them, 
 and to handle them. He was a connoisseur in print and paper and 
 binding. He took an eager and active interest in the new library 
 building, the foundation of which was laid under his auspices. He 
 sedulously watched and pushed forward its construction. And when 
 it was finished and all was ready, carefully were the books carried 
 under his eye from the old room where they had stood so long, to 
 a fitter resting-place. Right gladly he called his pupils around 
 him to help him to receive and arrange them. When the great 
 boxes which contained the recent importations of the best and 
 richest English editions of the best and greatest authors — brought 
 there by the prodigal bounty of the State to her favorite Institution 
 — were opened, his enthusiasm broke forth, and he dwelt with all 
 a scholar's delight upon their beauty and value. And when all the 
 work of arrangement was nearly done, he turned to the group 
 around him and said, in his own rich tender tones: "Now, young 
 gentlemen, I will expect in after years, each one of you who can 
 afford it, to bring some work of art, some statue, bust or picture to 
 adorn these alcoves." It was thus he taught the young novices of 
 his school to love books, and art, and letters, and learning. We 
 turn sadly away to think how many proud hopes and glad anticipa- 
 tions, which then swelled in his generous heart, have been crushed 
 and buried under the red floods of war, in ruin, grief, desolation 
 and blood. 
 
 But it was for a comparatively brief period that he was permitted 
 to fill the Professor's chair. The Church at whose Altar he served, 
 and to whose Ministry he had been ordained, summoned him to 
 her work. She called him to a higher and larger sphere of useful- 
 ness. He obeyed without a question. In the summer of -1840, he 
 was elected the first Bishop of Georgia. In December of the 
 same year, not without some natural regrets, he took leave of the 
 College which he had loved and served so well, and early in 1841 
 he was consecrated to his Bishopric at Christ Church, Savannah, 
 by Bishops Meade, Ives, and Gadsden. 
 
21 
 
 Memoir. 
 
 The limits of this Memoir will not permit us to speak fully of 
 the manner in which the duties of his holy office were discharged. 
 The task of organizing and building up a new Diocese was a try- 
 ing one. We know that his Dicoese loved him sincerely, and was 
 heartily proud of him. It has recently declared its sense of bereave- 
 ment at his death, " as too deep to find expression in the common 
 terms of grief and mourning ; " and that they " desire to place on 
 record their high appreciation of his remarkable qualifications for 
 the Episcopal office, exercised for more than twenty-five years ; his 
 profound acquaintance with human and divine learning ; his pre- 
 eminent power as a preacher of the Gospel of the grace of God ; 
 his keen insight into the motives and instincts of men ; his tact 
 and ability in administering his Diocese ; his watchfulness and ten- 
 der sympathy for all the flock committed to his care ; his interest 
 in the welfare of our colored population ; his careful avoidance of 
 party issues and all extremes in doctrine, discipline and worship ; 
 and his cautious endeavors to pursue the quiet, conservative paths 
 trodden by the wisest and most honored Fathers of the American 
 Church." 
 
 As a pulpit orator, without aiming to be subtle or metaphysi- 
 cally profound, he was clear, vigorous, eloquent, and often strik- 
 ingly original in the defence and illustration of accepted truth. 
 His style was passionate as well as exceedingly pure and graceful. 
 He had rather the rich, massive and commanding manner of Mil- 
 ton, South, and Jeremy Taylor, than that of the polished wits and 
 piquant essayists of Queen Anne's reign ; with some touch, also, 
 of the quaintness of those earlier worthies. To his students he 
 always commended the first as the better models. 
 
 It was in the earlier days of his Episcopal administration that 
 he sacrificed his private fortune, and reduced himself to poverty 
 and want, in his uncalculating efforts to establish an eminent 
 school for female education at Montpelier, in the centre of his 
 Diocese. No man had a higher estimate of the blessings of a 
 healthy and thorough education. His zeal in this work rose to 
 enthusiasm. He therefore established this school at Montpelier, 
 for the instruction of the young women of his Diocese in that 
 learning and those accomplishments which, according to his con- 
 ception of her character and duties, a Christian woman, whose 
 station in life permitted it, ought to know and acquire. Large 
 sums had to be expended in the erection of suitable buildings and 
 the necessary outfit of the Institution. It was his ardent wish that 
 every thing should be thoroughly done. When the funds at his 
 
Memoir, 
 
 xi 
 
 disposal were exhausted, he unhesitatingly pledged his private 
 property and credit for the completion of the undertaking. His 
 obligations were all faithfully met. and the debts he incurred were 
 all paid. But it left him without a dollar ; and he had scarcely the 
 means of providing the daily bread of his family. He had been 
 accustomed from early youth to the refinement, independence and 
 dignity of an ample fortune. He had never known what it was 
 to owe what he could not punctually pay. The cares, anxieties 
 and heavy burdens therefore of this period of his life were keenly 
 felt, and his spirit was deeply wounded. But he met them all 
 with the firmness, patience, gentleness, and humility of one who 
 had counted the cost of his holy service. Dp to this time he had 
 received but a comparatively small salary as Bishop, and this had 
 been chiefly expended for Church objects and for charitable pur- 
 poses. The people of his Diocese now came forward affectionately 
 and generously to his aid. and provided an adequate income for his 
 support. It was well done, and was gratefully received. We 
 spoke only the simple truth when we said that his people loved and 
 honored him. 
 
 At a later period, in the same spirit of generous and untiring 
 devotion to the cause of education, together with the heroic Bishop 
 of Louisiana and the gentle and eloquent Bishop of Tennessee. — 
 and when these three stately men stood together it was a group for 
 the painter's pencil. — he projected and labored earnestly to lay the 
 foundation of a great Southern University, which he trusted would 
 one day become a beneficent centre of learning and letters to 
 our Southern land. And this he did in no spirit of narrow preju- 
 dice against other sections or other seats of learning. As we have 
 said before, he did indeed dearly love the South. He cherished 
 and honored her traditional spirit of social order and conservative 
 republican liberty. He believed that there was much that was 
 peculiar and valuable in the life, society, character, traditions and 
 history of her people that ought to be fostered and sheltered. 
 But. besides this, he was also firmly persuaded, that even as re- 
 gards the development of a national life embracing all sections 
 and latitudes of the Union, a better, healthier and nobler national 
 life and character would be developed by the establishment of 
 many centres of wealth, power, education and influence, than could 
 be produced under a system by which whole territories — equal 
 each of them in extent to great European kingdoms — should be 
 overshadowed, provincialized, and materially, morally and intellec- 
 tually enfeebled and impoverished, by an abject dependence on one 
 
xii 
 
 Memoir. 
 
 stupendous, turbulent and despotic centre of commerce, arts, manu- 
 factures, publication, science, literature, learning and government. 
 It was in this faith that he labored so earnestly for the establish- 
 ment of a great Southern school as a balance of power in the 
 country. 
 
 The work was begun. But the fair prospects of the splendid 
 enterprise were blighted by the opening of that tremendous strug- 
 gle for the political independence of the Southern States — their 
 society, institutions, civilization, constitutional law, and traditional 
 policy — which was to agitate and overshadow the closing scenes of 
 his life. In this struggle, holding the views of public law and pol- 
 icy which he did, trained in the political school to which we have 
 referred, it was not difficult to see where Bishop Elliott would 
 stand. 
 
 But the story is too sad to dwell upon. He shared in the labors 
 of a thousand other heroes who suffered, or bled, or died, all 
 in vain. He placed his Church by the side of the State. He 
 cheered and comforted his suffering, bleeding, fainting people with 
 words of the deepest pathos and tenderness. He sent his sons to 
 the battle, with his pure kiss on their brows and a father's blessing 
 in their hearts. And when all was over — and all in vain — and 
 the cause was lost, he bowed his head without a murmur to the will 
 of his God, and turned to the new duties which lay before him 
 with the hope and energy of an unflinching faith, and the calm 
 dignity of an unconquered heart. 
 
 In looking back at the life of Bishop Elliott, there are one or two 
 points of his character upon which it will be grateful to touch. ' 
 
 In Church and State he was eminently conservative. He dearly 
 loved that which was old as well as excellent — the truth and the 
 practice that is taught by ancient precedent, and established by 
 ancient custom. But so ardent a temper, and a nature so sensi- 
 tive, aesthetic and enthusiastic, could not but sympathize with all 
 honest and genuine progress. In matters of religious faith he 
 rested in Revelation, believing that a Creed was perfect at the time 
 it was revealed. In questions of public liberty he rested immov- 
 ably in great principles. But in other matters of Church and 
 State he clung to the ancient landmarks of history, rather as tests 
 by which to measure the truth and the earnestness of the new and 
 progressive, than as impassable barriers to change. And in the 
 fields of science, and commercial and material progress, he was full 
 of enterprise and enthusiasm, and passionately anxious that his 
 fair Southern land should press forward with unflagging stride in 
 the great march of modern civilization. 
 
Memoir. 
 
 xiii 
 
 His. too, was an exceedingly happy temper. " The lines have 
 fallen unto me in pleasant places." were words which not unfre- 
 quently dropped from him in confidential intercourse. It was this 
 buoyant, happy nature which so often brought the healing of life 
 to the sad and wounded spirits of his people. Doubtless there was 
 in this a deeper, ghostly joy in his holy office, on which we dwell 
 reverently ; but there was also, we can see, a human and exulting 
 gladness in the vigorous exercise of his intellectual gifts, and in 
 the beneficent use of the graceful power which he wielded. 
 
 In harmony with this conservative yet aspiring nature, this stead- 
 fast yet progressive spirit, this faithful yet happy temper, this love 
 of the true combined with an enthusiastic appreciation of the 
 beautiful, was the grace, dignity, justice, and kindness of his per- 
 sonal and official intercourse with his colleagues on the Bench of 
 Bishops. They will gladly and affectionately bear witness, that he 
 was courteous and generous in debate ; that he was too well aware 
 of the imperfection of human language in the expression of spirit- 
 ual ideas, too profoundly conscious of the mystery of religious 
 thought, and yet too clearly convinced of the essential harmony of 
 -a Scriptural faith, to be indignant at formulas which were not alto- 
 gether like his own, or alarmed at methods of argument which, 
 while they embraced the whole circle of Heavenly truth, might 
 begin and end at a part of its circumference different from his own 
 stand-point ; that he was too earnestly devoted to fundamental 
 truth to be vindictive towards error that was less than heresy ; that 
 his was too great a heart and too noble a nature to suffer him to be 
 the adherent of a clique, or the follower of a party ; that in his 
 judicial acts, he was fair, wise, gentle, clear in his knowledge of 
 law and his perceptions of right, and utterly scornful of a shade 
 of selfishness or malice ; and that in counsel he was a peace- 
 maker among his brethren, and a bond of union amidst discordant 
 opinions and conflicting policies. The heart of many a venerable 
 prelate has been made sad by the thought that they shall see his 
 face no more. 
 
 Such is a brief outline of the life and the nurture, culture 
 and graces, of the distinguished Bishop for whom Georgia 
 mourns. 
 
 In contemplating his character, we feel that he was the repre- 
 sentative of much that is highest and best in Southern society ; 
 and we rejoice that so much at least of Southern history is safe 
 beyond danger or question. Such a life and character ought to 
 be the full and sufficient answer to those who believe or declare, 
 
xiv 
 
 Memoir, 
 
 that the traditional institution which has heretofore existed in the 
 South, and which has been made the occasion of so much grief 
 and agony to the country, was of necessity degrading to all classes 
 and conditions of its people. If we turn to the higher forms of a 
 cultivated social life and a beneficent civilization, and look at the 
 representative men of the South, the country may well remember 
 and rejoice, that nothing can strike from their history the life and 
 the labors, the name and the fame, of Georgia's great Bishop, and 
 men like him. If we consider on the other hand the results to the 
 African race, of the institution under which they lived, as it was 
 practically administered, even here, — whatever may be our ab- 
 stract opinions as to its policy or our moral judgments as to its 
 justice, — all right-minded and candid men who know the facts, 
 will admit that, under the providence of God, the negro has been 
 greatly benefited, his best qualities have been developed, and the 
 whole race has been greatly elevated. Whether that institution was 
 righteous or not, it has been mercifully administered. The South 
 received from the coast of Africa about one million of degraded 
 savages ; and under its generous and wholesome discipline, they 
 grew to be four millions of skillful, thrifty, cheerful and industrious 
 laborers, a larger number of civilized and christianized people than 
 have ever been directly reclaimed from the barbarian heathen, 
 since the early days of Christianity : — not wholly contented with 
 their lot, it may be, but as contented, perhaps, as the poor of any 
 country are contented with their poverty. The South received 
 them, a debased, brutish and repulsive people, to whom chastity 
 was an unknown virtue and a strange idea, and honesty was the 
 fear of punishment or the want of opportunity ; whose notion of 
 public justice was the trial by poison ; whose native tongue was a 
 barbarous gibberish ; who trusted in fetishes, believed in greegrees, 
 and alone of human kind worshipped the Evil Spirit. These are 
 the people whom their Southern rulers, by their mingled kindness 
 and discipline, by their justice and their gentleness, have made such 
 a people as to call forth the extravagant eulogies of those who 
 now have charge of their welfare, and who now claim for them 
 the full rights and the highest privileges of the proudest and most 
 enlightened American citizen. It is not our office nor is this the 
 place, to say whether these eulogies are wholly merited, or these 
 claims well founded. But what these people are, all men can see; 
 and such as they are, no man will deny that the South, under 
 God's providence, has made them. No other portion of the world 
 has contributed a man or a dollar to the work ; while eminent 
 
Memoir, 
 
 xv 
 
 scholars of the South like our gifted Bishop, as masters and teach- 
 ers, have been conspicuous laborers in the merciful though humble 
 task. He was earnestly devoted to the duty of preaching the Gos- 
 pel to the negroes of his Diocese. He summoned his whole people 
 to the work, as the great mission to which they were called, the 
 special field of Christian labor to which they were dedicated. 
 Some of his most eloquent and impassioned addresses were de- 
 voted to this theme. He spoke often and plainly, earnestly and 
 solemnly, on the subject. He held his people to a strict responsi- 
 bility for the spiritual and eternal, as well as the physical and tem- 
 poral, welfare of those over whom they ruled. He sent missiona- 
 ries and established missions among the negroes wherever he 
 could. He led the way by his personal labors. He founded 
 S. Stephen's Church for colored people in the city of Savannah. 
 He placed its secular affairs under the charge of a colored vestry. 
 They looked up to him as their firmest, wisest, and noblest friend. 
 At his burial they gave a touching and beautiful evidence of the 
 love and reverence they bore him. The colored vestry of S. 
 Stephen's asked to have the honor of carrying him to the grave ; 
 and it was granted to them. It did honor to them, and to their 
 Bishop. Considering the peculiar and momentous issues of the 
 time, we think it was the grandest and most instructive spectacle, 
 amidst all the solemn, mournful, and agitating ceremonies of that 
 day, on which the city of Savannah was hushed to listen to the 
 footfalls of those who thus bore their Bishop to the tomb. 
 
 We have paused to speak of this feature of Bishop Elliott's 
 character, because no readers of the following pages will be able 
 to forget that he was a Southern slaveholder, and a representative 
 of Southern society. The sinfulness or the righteousness of African 
 slavery, its evils or its wisdom, are no longer practical questions. 
 Under the Providence of God, the institution itself has been de- 
 cisively and forever ended. The questions pertaining to it belong 
 to the issues of the past, to be reviewed only at the judgment-seat 
 of God, and before the tribunal of History. But the real charac- 
 ter of Southern, society and Southern men is indeed at this time 
 a most practical question. It is of momentous import that the 
 country should see it as it is, and judge of it with wisdom and 
 with justice. 
 
 Since the close of the fearful struggle which has shaken the very 
 foundations of American society, the people of the South have ex- 
 hibited a kindly sympathy with their former dependents, an intelli- 
 gent submission to necessity, an obedience to law and a regard for 
 
xvi 
 
 Memoir. 
 
 social order, combined with a firm self-respect, which have merited, 
 we think, the approbation of all men. What it has cost them to 
 do this, is known only to God. That they have been able to do it, 
 has in some measure been the result of the habit of self-control, 
 the daily sense of responsibility, the patient encounter with neces- 
 sary evils, the carefulness for the welfare of their laborers, and the 
 frequent interchange of acts of kindness, to all of which they were 
 compelled by their Anglo-Saxon education, by the spirit of liberty 
 and Christianity within them, by the very necessities of their 
 anomalous institution, and by its practical administration in the 
 presence of Christendom. Of these great qualities, in their grace 
 and power, Bishop Elliott himself was a splendid example. And 
 when the representatives of these Southern Dioceses shall again 
 enter that august Council of the Church, which will meet not two 
 years hence, they will think mournfully and regretfully of him who, 
 by right of age and service, would have stood at their head. They 
 will recall the exquisite grace, the sensitive delicacy, the lofty wis- 
 dom and charity, the calm dignity, the unblenching crest, and the 
 commanding presence which could neither be overawed by the 
 disapprobation of others, nor yet could ever needlessly and unbe- 
 comingly offend their opinions or provoke their prejudices. May 
 the full and complete folds of his shining mantle fall on other shoul- 
 ders equal to the high office which would have devolved upon him ! 
 
 In looking at his completed life, there was one remarkable gift 
 of this remarkable man on which we dwell with deep and grateful 
 emotion, and which all who ever knew him will recognize at once. 
 We speak of the thorough humanity of his nature : and by this 
 we mean the wealth and strength, the breadth and fullness, of the 
 deep human sympathies in which the learning, wisdom and graces 
 of his nature were veiled — veiled as light is veiled in color, as 
 thought is veiled in words, as feeling is veiled in music. His life 
 seems to have been the rich, healthy growth of early training and 
 happy influences. He grew as the tree grows from the bursting 
 germ, outwards and upwards, year by year, circle upon circle, into 
 strength and majesty : yet with the life and form of the germ all 
 there, with the fibre and firmness of each circle there, all thor- 
 oughly sound, — sound to the core; all lending strength to its 
 growth, proportion to its column, and grandeur to its sheltering 
 arms. His childhood took on his boyhood, and his boyhood 
 his manhood, and his manhood passed into the wisdom of years, 
 all complete in the fullness of that great and bounteous na- 
 ture, whose deep, broad, human sympathies thus made him the 
 
Memoir. 
 
 xvii 
 
 friend and companion of young and old and of all classes and 
 conditions of men : made him, too, as mindful of the gentle cour- 
 tesies and sweet charities of life with little boys and girls 1 and 
 humble men, as he was easily at home amidst the grander graces 
 of social and official intercourse with the wise, the great, the 
 learned and honored in the land. 
 
 Doubtless to the eye of that Omniscience which heeds the life 
 and service, the death and fall, of the humblest sparrow among all 
 the feathered tribes that praise Him, the whole life of a man is the 
 man. As the spirit of the living man penetrates and is bounded 
 by every nerve and atom of his living body : so, to that Eye, the 
 soul of every man is incarnate in his life, from the first wail of the 
 infant to the last sigh before the grave which thus completes the 
 full measure of his being, and the perfect " image and superscrip- 
 tion " of his identity. So, to some special natures, it is given to 
 carry in their memory a clear and sensitive consciousness of each 
 period of their lives, and each vital shape of their humanity. 
 And thus did the gifted man whom we mourn seem to have 
 grasped the full outline of his own life, and with the sensitive 
 glance of genius, conceived and realized each part and character 
 in which he had lived, and was thus vividly conscious of himself 
 to himself. His merry childhood, his bounding boyhood, his lusty 
 youth and aspiring manhood, were all the familiar companions and 
 friends of the genial man, the allies and counsellors of the august 
 sage. And so the happy child that climbed to his breast laughed 
 and kissed with the happy child which, as from a mirror, laughed 
 and kissed back again ; and the gallant boy shouted to the bright 
 lover of fun within, who shouted back in echo ; and the vigorous 
 youth felt his outstretched hand clasped by the hand of compan- 
 ion whose steady grasp closed faithfully over his own. And the 
 pale and impassioned student met the answering glance of youth- 
 ful student with " eyes of speculation " rapt in study. And the 
 
 1 In a memorial sermon by the Eev. Henry K. Eees, Rector of Christ 
 Church, Macon, Ga., we find the following characteristic anecdote : — 
 
 " And well might children love him, for he saw in them the purest and 
 truest representatives of his Holy Master on earth. In illustration of his 
 reverent tenderness towards them, a touching and beautiful incident occurred 
 during his last visitation, when in an hour of home relaxation, he watched the 
 play of the little one of the household, who in her glee threw off her shoe. The 
 venerable Bishop knelt before the child and was replacing it, when the father 
 said, " Little Mary, you are greatly honored." " Honored," said the kneeling 
 Bishop, " O no, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose, for of such 
 is the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 b 
 
xviii 
 
 Memoir. 
 
 struggling man found, in this wise confessor, one who could un- 
 derstand the story of his life, because he retained a vivid mem- 
 ory of his own. Higher than all, he seemed to have kept the 
 memory of mother and sister ; and the shrinking maiden might 
 look into that loving heart without faltering, to see a pure, sweet 
 image of herself reflected there, and to feel that she shared in the 
 knightly tenderness for the ideal woman there enshrined. But 
 yet deeper and holier still was kept the memory of his own errors 
 and frailties ; and the penitent Magdalen and the contrite man 
 met, in that true soul, a fellow-sinner who knew how to forgive, as 
 he had known what it is to be forgiven. 
 
 It was this humanity of his nature, these pure, strong, earthly 
 sympathies, this veil of the flesh in which his piety was clothed, 
 which added so much to the power of his life and doctrine. His 
 was, indeed, a truly and deeply spiritual life, in the religious sense 
 of that word. But there was, besides this, a human soulfulness, a 
 sensitive sympathy with all that was charming in Nature, beautiful 
 in Art, inspiring in life, or useful to his country, which won for him 
 the regard and affection of men, who were afterwards subdued by 
 the teachings of his faith and the example of his piety. Thus it 
 often happened that the generous host or the genial friend who 
 received him as the gentleman, the scholar, the lover of art, the 
 student of science, or the unselfish patriot, learned to know that 
 there was something deeper and holier still ; and it softly stole 
 upon his consciousness that, in entertaining this gifted stranger, 
 he had " entertained an angel unawares." Nor was the grateful 
 influence of his teaching less felt because it was thus associated 
 with the human sympathies of common interests, the winning 
 courtesy of a gentleman, the charms of a graceful nature, and the 
 strength of a vigorous and comprehensive intellect. 
 
 We have thus endeavored to present to our readers a true likeness 
 of this faithful son of the Church, this noble child of her nurture, 
 this chosen ruler over an important portion of her heritage, this 
 Father in God to a large number of her people. It has been our 
 wish to describe him just as he was, — as he lived, and acted, and 
 spoke, and worked. Bishop Elliott held opinions which are not 
 held by some who will read this volume ; he believed it to be his 
 duty to do things which we know they have not approved. We 
 have not felt at liberty to disguise these opinions, or to pass over 
 these acts, or even to soften the sharpness of their antagonism. 
 We have endeavored to speak of them in words and in a manner 
 that might not offend the convictions or the feelings of others. 
 
Memoir. 
 
 xix 
 
 We have desired to be as respectful to their opposing opinions, as 
 we earnestly crave them to be respectful to his. But we have 
 deemed it our duty to present him, as he himself would have 
 wished to stand before them, — modestly, respectfully, but frankly 
 and manfully, himself. In these things he must be judged as he 
 stands. In how many other things can the whole country and 
 Church unite to praise and honor him ! 
 
 After a laborious life freely spent in the service of God, the 
 Church, and the country, Bishop Elliott, being in his sixty-first 
 year, died suddenly in the city of Savannah, Georgia, on the 
 evening of the 21st of December, 1866. He had been absent 
 from home in the discharge of his Episcopal duties, and had just 
 returned to the welcome of those who loved him so dearly and 
 reverently ; he had just taken his last meal with those who were 
 the objects of his tender solicitude : when, suddenly, he fell lifeless, 
 and was at rest. To close and dear friends, he had often dwelt 
 upon the blessedness of a sudden death to the faithful Christian. 
 This blessing was granted him. Amidst the cares and labors of 
 his holy office, amidst the yearnings of his heart for his country, 
 amidst the peace and beauty of his domestic happiness, "in a 
 moment, in the twinkling of an eye," his earthly life was ended, 
 and his soul was with God. 
 
 It is interesting to recall that thrice, during one year, has the 
 name of Stephen Elliott been borne in mourning through two 
 States, and each time with words of honor, regard, and profound- 
 est respect. On the first occasion, the young hero and soldier 
 and humble Christian "was laid gently and reverently upon the 
 bosom of the State he loved," with the eloquent words of genius 
 for his requiem. But a few days later, and the pious and scholarly 
 father of the noble youth, the Rev. Stephen Elliott, — who had 
 trained him for his high duties, and who could truly and proudly 
 say with Lord Ormond, " I would not give my dead son for any liv- 
 ing son in Christendom," — was laid by his side. And then, alas ! 
 the shining name of Georgia's great Bishop was added to the 
 fatal list. This last startling message carried gloom and sorrow 
 throughout the limits of Georgia and South Carolina, and to many 
 churches, hearts, and homes, in every portion of the country. Men 
 seeking for sympathy met and repeated the mournful intelligence, 
 and the mute but eloquent gesture of grief gave token of their 
 love and reverence for a great and good man thus snatched away, 
 and of their bitter sense of irreparable loss and bereavement. 
 
 It was keenly felt that a brilliant light and representative of 
 
XX 
 
 Memoir. 
 
 Southern life, society, tradition and history was suddenly gone ; 
 and that from Churches, and States, and disciples, and friends, a 
 prop upon which they had used to lean, had silently sunk away : 
 and that they must henceforth learn to stand in their own 
 strength, or look elsewhere for support. And in the first blind- 
 ness of their grief they knew not where to look. The Church 
 which he governed will mourn the loss of the calm, clear, just and 
 graceful wisdom which guided her, and the great heart which 
 cheered her. The society in which he moved will lament that its 
 pride and ornament is veiled. Many a younger man, struggling 
 in the battle of life, will miss his voice from among the good and 
 wise, whose approbation is reward, whose praise is wealth. And 
 hundreds have lost forever their friend, example, teacher, guide and 
 comforter — a comforter whose rich, sweet, happy voice of itself 
 brought cheer and hope amidst sorrow and despondency. 
 
 His death was very sudden. And yet, to those who knew and 
 considered the man, it was what might have been looked for. We 
 have said that his life was the rich growth of the cherished mem- 
 ories of the past. And the tempest of desolation and ruin which 
 had scourged the face of his loved Southern land had torn also 
 through the branches of this stately tree, and strained it to its 
 foundations. The scathing bolts of war had fallen deep amidst its 
 roots. Many ties of kindred had been broken. Many proud and 
 generous associations with the past had been destroyed. The 
 homes of many of his blood and lineage had been made desolate ; 
 the accustomed fires of their hearths had gone out in bitter ashes ; 
 and their sons and daughters were wandering among strangers. 
 His hopes of constitutional liberty had been defeated. His aspira- 
 tions for his country had been blighted. Thus, all unseen, the 
 great roots of his mortal life were snapped, and the rich sources of 
 his earthly strength were dried up. And although, like a beauti- 
 ful tree with its roots all broken and bruised, he still, for a time, 
 stood poised in the perfect balance of his character and the sym- 
 metrical proportions of his nature : yet the great props of his life 
 had been taken away. And so it happened that, stirred by some 
 cold, mysterious breath of the night, with the growth and foliage 
 of his life all heavy with the dew of heavenly cares, he tottered 
 and fell — fell with perhaps one last, loving pang, for the cruel 
 blow with which his sudden and resounding fall was to crash upon 
 the trembling hearts of Churches and States and friends and family. 
 
 And thus he lay in the majesty of death ; and little children 
 and pure women, young men and old, the meek and the gentle, the 
 
Memoir. 
 
 xxi 
 
 proud and the lowly, the rich and the poor, the great and the wise, 
 Bishops, priests, patriots, soldiers, scholars and statesmen, came to 
 mourn around the bier of Georgia's great Bishop. 
 
 Fortuna non mutat genus, was the rallying cry of the ancient 
 worthies. From father to son, is the law of Nature. From gen- 
 eration to generation, is the promise and commandment of God. 
 Amidst the private ruin, social change, and political disaster which 
 now surround them, let those that bear the unsullied name of the 
 soldier of Christ who thus in full armor has fallen on sleep, and 
 names like his, remember, — let every true Southern heart remem- 
 ber, — Fortuna non mutat genus. If their fathers, in their day, have 
 trusted in God, submitted to His will, and conquered difficulties ; 
 they, in the same faith and with like patience, can retrieve disaster, 
 bring good out of evil, and triumph over misfortune. 
 
 The time is surely coming when it will task all the virtue, wis- 
 dom, strength and courage of the whole country, to save the an- 
 cient liberties of the people, and to purge the administration of 
 the Governments from legislative corruption and official rapacity. 
 The time is not far distant when the true children of God's 
 Church, and the whole brotherhood of Christian men, will be com- 
 pelled to stand together for the defence of their faith, against the 
 assaults of an infidel philosophy and a material humanitarianism 
 on the one hand, and the narrow despotism of priestly power on 
 the other. Let the country remember that the people of the 
 South have always been ardently attached to the great principles 
 of constitutional liberty, social order and conservative law, and 
 that they can proudly and thankfully call the country to witness, 
 that their public men have ever been uncorrupted and incorrupti- 
 ble in the discharge of their public duties. Let the Church re- 
 member that her children of the South have been simple and 
 reverent in their Creed, honest in their piety, and the staunch de- 
 fenders of the great doctrines of Christ's Divinity, Resurrection, 
 and Atonement ; and that, like this beloved Bishop, " they have 
 endeavored to pursue the quiet conservative paths trodden by the 
 wisest and most honored Fathers of the American Church." Ere 
 the time of trial come, let the country and the Church remember 
 Fortuna non mutat genus. 
 
 T. M. H. 
 
Of the great mass of manuscript sermons left by the lamented 
 Bishop Elliott, nothing was prepared by him for the press ; nor 
 was there the slightest indication as to what selection from them 
 he would himself have preferred. Yet it was rightly judged by 
 all that the reputation of so great a Preacher should not be left 
 to go down to futurity only upon the unsubstantial basis of oral 
 tradition. 
 
 Of the few sermons printed during his life some were of too 
 transient an interest to justify their being inserted here : but others 
 are given, and among them are the Twelfth and Thirteenth, on Toe 
 Busy Man's and TJie Busy Woman's Religious Difficulties, which 
 were printed by request in New Orleans in the year 1859. The 
 Twenty- fifth, on Our National Sin o f Proud Boasting, is the second 
 of two sermons preached, and printed by request, in 1843, on the 
 occasion of the deaths of eminent personages occasioned by the 
 explosion of the Peacemaker ; and it is a discourse the predictions 
 of which will be read with singular interest in the light of the 
 present day. The extract on the Apostolic Succession is from 
 a printed sermon ; and the Pastoral Letter sent out by the House 
 of Bishops from the Southern General Council in 1862, and the 
 Address at the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs, were both printed. All the 
 rest of the volume is now first published from the Bishop's manu- 
 scripts. 
 
 In regard to the selection here made, it was impossible for the 
 Editor to read through the great mass of material placed at his dis- 
 posal ; and the cherished recollections of two happy years passed 
 under the Bishop's roof, from 1842 to 1844, were a very insufficient 
 guide amid the wealth of more than twenty years' subsequent work 
 in the very prime of his splendid powers. The larger part of 
 these Sermons, therefore, are such as were chosen by the various 
 members of his family, or by other relatives and friends, or by his 
 
xxiv 
 
 Editors Preface. 
 
 Clergy, and members of the Parishes in Savannah, as the dis- 
 courses which had printed themselves the most deeply in their 
 hearts at the time of their delivery. As to the rest, the choice has 
 been made partly with a view to give greater fullness to the imper- 
 fect outline of the Church Year, but especially to include as many 
 as possible of the sermons written during the last and ripest years 
 of the Bishop's life. 
 
 In regard to the arrangement, the sermons on general subjects are 
 placed first. Then, beginning with the Eighteenth, follow a num- 
 ber of discourses arranged in the order of the Church Year, though 
 its circle is by no means completed ; and of these, many were 
 written during the last year of his life, including those for Christ- 
 mas-Day, for the Epiphany, for the first two Sundays in Lent, for 
 Good-Friday, and Easter-Day, with others. From the Forty-third 
 to the Fiftieth inclusive have been grouped several which are 
 peculiarly interesting fromtheir connection with the closing scenes 
 of his own Ministry. \jPhe Forty-third is the first that was preached 
 by him on his return to Savannah after the War.^The Forty- 
 fourth, though written previously, is an admirable expression of his 
 own spirit, and of the spirit which he labored to promote in others, 
 under the calamities of the War. The Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth 
 are, unitedly, his " last will and testament " touching the great 
 question of the political troubles of the country, in which he had 
 been so deeply interested. The State of Georgia had appointed 
 a fast-day for the sufferings and deprivations of the people of the 
 State ; and the President of the United States had appointed a 
 Thanksgiving on the same day of the week following, in recogni- 
 tion of National blessings. Christ Church was open for Divine 
 Service on both days ; and these are the two sermons that were 
 preached by the Bishop on those two occasions. The Forty-seventh 
 is the last sermon preached by him in Savannah, on Sunday night, 
 December 9th. The Forty-eighth in the morning, and the Forty- 
 ninth at night, were preached by him on the last Sunday of his 
 life, December 16th, in Augusta. The Fiftieth was the last ever 
 preached by him, being delivered at Montpelier — the scene of his 
 heaviest sacrifices in the cause of Church Education — on Thurs- 
 day, the 20th of December, only the day before his departure. And 
 what more beautiful choice of subjects could be found to close the 
 career of a faithful Preacher ? The first of the four — that in Sa- 
 vannah — gives the triumphant key-note : Look up, and lift up your 
 heads ; for your redemption draweth nigh. Then, almost as with a 
 conscious apprehension of the coming glory : In Thy Light shall 
 
Editor s Preface. 
 
 xxv 
 
 we see light. Along with this light comes the great Cloud of Wit- 
 nesses — the 
 
 Bright array, 
 
 Round the altar night and day ; — 
 
 and the fall recognition of Christ as not only the Author but also 
 the Finisher of our faith. Last of all is the solemn repetition of 
 the Master's warning : Watch ye therefore : for ye know not when the 
 Master o f the house co?neth, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crow- 
 ing, or in the morning. And these were the closing words : - In- 
 stead of sleeping because the world is troubled and agitated, rather 
 stand upon your watch-tower, and await in faith and patience the 
 Coming of your Master." Almost while the voice of the Preacher 
 was yet sounding, the Master of the house came, " at even." and 
 found the Watchman not " sleeping." 
 
 The extract on the Apostolic Succession is valuable for its clear 
 doctrinal teachings, though a large part of the printed sermon 
 from which it is taken is of less general interest. The Pastoral 
 Letter of 1862 is inserted, not only because it is of so great beauty*; 
 not only because it breathes such a heavenly spirit in sending 
 forth, from the midst of the alarums of war, its " greetings of love 
 to the Churches of God all the world over ; " not only because it 
 declares in the most plain and pointed terms, what was taught and 
 held by Churchmen as their religious duty towards the colored 
 people even before emancipation : but rather because it was wholly 
 the work of Bishop Elliott's pen. written by him at one heat in 
 the course of an evening, and adopted the next morning by his 
 Brother Bishops with hardly the alteration of a single word. The 
 Address delivered at the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs is placed last, be- 
 cause so large a part of it is applicable, with wonderful exactness, 
 to Bishop Elliott himself, although his character was marked by 
 elements of commanding brilliance and intellectual power to 
 which the pure and gentle and lovely Bishop of Alabama could 
 lay no claim. The closing paragraph of that Address especially — 
 the utterance of a longing and yearning for rest — expresses the 
 dominant feeling of his own heart, no less than that of the saintly 
 Man of God over whose sleeping body they were spoken. 
 
 Bishop Elliott was a remarkably rapid and fluent writer. The 
 manuscript leaves of sermon after sermon of his may be turned 
 over without detecting the slightest sign of erasure or interlinea- 
 tion, and. with an evenness of hand as perfect as if written all at 
 one sitting and with one penful of ink. Certain cardinal words. 
 
xxvi 
 
 Editors Preface. 
 
 such as Heart, Life, Love, and Heaven, are invariably spelt by him 
 with a capital letter, as if to give them that prominence to the eye 
 which they hold in the mind. The date of composition or delivery 
 was not always placed by him upon his manuscript; but where given 
 it has been printed at the end of the sermon, and will be an addi- 
 tional element of interest to the reader. It was not often that the 
 Bishop repeated his sermons : yet one of those written in the last 
 year of his life — in this volume numbered the Sixteenth, on 
 " MphrairrCs Altars to Sin " — was preached no less than seven 
 times in different places during the course of a few months : a 
 striking proof of the degree to which the Bishop believed the 
 teachings of that sermon to be needed by the people. 
 
 It is with inexpressible sadness that we do our humble part in 
 laying before the Church these mute utterances of a voice that 
 shall be heard among us on earth no more : and with many a mis- 
 giving lest the selection may not be altogether such as shall do 
 him the most honor or the Church the most enduring service. But 
 there is one consolation ; and that isf that this volume contains 
 such singular proofs of his earnestness and eloquence ; such melt- 
 ing tenderness and terrible grandeur of spiritual power ; such a 
 mastery of the Word of God, which pierces " even to the dividing 
 asunder of soul and spirit, aud of the joints and marrow, and is a 
 discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart ; " such vivid and 
 graphic presentations of the Gospel of Christ, and the claims of 
 His Church : that a loving and a faithful People " will not willingly 
 let it die." 
 
 J. H. H., Jr. 
 
 New York, July, 1867. 
 
Contents 
 
 'FIRST SERMON. 
 
 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove I for then would I fly 
 away, and be at rest. — Psalm lv. 6 Pp. i-io. 
 
 SECOND SERMON. 
 
 And I said, TJiis is mine infirmity : but I will remember the 
 years of the right hand of the Most High, — Psalm lxxvii 10. 
 
 Pp. 11-22. 
 
 THIRD SERMON. 
 
 Pilate answered, What I haze written I hai'e written. — S. John - 
 
 XIX. 22 Pp. 23-33. 
 
 FOURTH SERMON. 
 
 And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink 
 of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate! — 
 2 Samuel xxiii 15., Pp. 34-43. 
 
 FIFTH SERMON. 
 
 For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ : for it is the power 
 of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the jew first, 
 and also to the Greek. — Romans i. 16 .... Pp. 44-54. 
 
 -t SIXTH SERMON. 
 
 He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night ? Watch- 
 man, what of the night 1 The watchman said, The morning 
 cometh, and also the night : if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, 
 come. — Isaiah xxi. 11, 12 Pp. 55-64. 
 
xxviii 
 
 Contents. 
 
 SEVENTH SERMON. 
 
 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, 
 and the well is deep : from whence then hast thou that living 
 water 1 — S. John iv. ii Pp. 65-74. 
 
 EIGHTH SERMON. 
 
 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a 
 kingdom, which shall never be destroyed : and the kingdom shall 
 not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume 
 all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. — Daniel ii. 44. 
 
 Pp. 75-84- 
 
 NINTH SERMON. 
 
 But go thou thy way till the end be : for thou shall rest, and stand 
 in thy lot at the end of the days. — Daniel xii. 13 . . Pp. 85-95. 
 
 TENTH SERMON. 
 
 For who knoweth what is good for a man in this life, all the days 
 of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow 1 — Ecclesiastes 
 vi. 12 Pp. 96-106. 
 
 ELEVENTH SERMON. 
 
 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. — S. 
 Luke xvii. 5 Pp. 107-116. 
 
 TWELFTH SERMON. 
 
 THE BUSY MAN'S RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named 
 Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom : and he said unto him, Fol- 
 low me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. — S. Luke 
 v. 27, 28 Pp. 117-127. 
 
 THIRTEENTH SERMON. 
 
 THE BUSY WOMAN'S RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, 
 and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to 
 serve alo?te? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus 
 answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful 
 
Contents. xxix 
 
 and troubled about many thi?igs : but one thing is needful: and 
 Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away 
 from her. — S. Luke x. 40-42 Pp. 128-138. 
 
 FOURTEENTH SERMON. 
 
 How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? — Jeremiah 
 iv. 14 Pp. T-W- 1 ^- 
 
 FIFTEENTH SERMON. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE HOLY COMMUNION. 
 
 And God requireth that which is past. — Ecclesiastes iii. 15. 
 
 Pp. 153-164. 
 
 SIXTEENTH SERMON. 
 
 Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be 
 unto him to sin. — Hosea viii. 11 Pp. 165-176. 
 
 SEVENTEENTH SERMON. 
 
 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be over- 
 charged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, 
 and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a s?iare shall 
 it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. — 
 S. Luke xxi. 34, 35 Pp. 177-189. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH SERMON. 
 
 SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 
 
 Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word is truth. — S. John 
 v xvii. 17 Pp. 190-200. 
 
 NINETEENTH SERMON. 
 
 FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT. 
 
 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness 
 of Judea, and saying, Repent ye : for the ki?igdom of heaven is 
 at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet 
 Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Frepare 
 ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. — S. Mat- 
 thew iii. 1-3 Pp. 201-2 1 1. 
 
XXX 
 
 Contents. 
 
 TWENTIETH SERMON. 
 
 CHRISTMAS— DAY. 
 
 As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing. — 2 Corinthians vi. 10. 
 
 Pp. 212-222. 
 
 TWENTY-FIRST SERMON. 
 
 THE EPIPHANY. 
 
 And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, 
 for a witness unto all nations : and then shall the end come. — 
 S. Matthew xxiv. 14 ......... . Pp. 223-233. 
 
 TWENTY-SECOND SERMON. 
 
 SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY. 
 
 And these are they which are sown among thorns ; such as hear the 
 word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, 
 and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it 
 becometh unfruitful. — S. Mark iv. 18, 19 . . . Pp. 234-244. 
 
 TWENTY-THIRD SERMON. 
 
 FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 
 
 O house of yacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. 
 — Isaiah ii. 5 Pp. 245-255. 
 
 TWENTY-FOURTH SERMON. 
 
 SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT. 
 
 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? saith 
 the Lord. — Isaiah i. ii Pp. 256-265. 
 
 TWENTY-FIFTH SERMON. 
 
 THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT. 
 
 Talk no more so exceeding proudly ; let not arrogancy come out of 
 your mouth : for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him 
 actions are weighed. — 1 Samuel ii. 3 . . . .Pp. 266-277. 
 
Contents. xxxi 
 TWENTY-SIXTH SERMON. 
 
 PALM SUNDAY. 
 
 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, 
 Hosanna to the Son of David : Blessed is he that co?neth in t/ie 
 name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. — S. Matthew 
 xxi. 9 Pp. 278-289. 
 
 TWENTY-SEVENTH SERMON. 
 
 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 TJien answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on 
 our children. — S. Matthew xxvii. 25 ... . Pp. 290-303. 
 
 TWENTY-EIGHTH SERMON. 
 
 GOOD FRIDAY. 
 
 To this end iv as I born, and for this cause came I into the world, 
 that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of 
 the truth heareth my voice. — S. John xviii. 37 . Pp. 304-315. 
 
 TWENTY-NINTH SERMON. 
 
 EASTER-DAY. 
 
 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping ; and as she wept 
 she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels 
 in white, sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, 
 where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, 
 Woman, why weepest thou ? She saith unto them, Because they 
 have taken away my Lord, and L know not where they have laid 
 him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and 
 saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. — S. 
 John xx. 11-14 Pp. 516-2,26. 
 
 THIRTIETH SERMON. 
 
 WHITSUN-DAY. 
 
 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with 
 one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from 
 heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filed all the house 
 where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven 
 tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they 
 
xxxii Contents. 
 
 were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with 
 other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. — Acts ii. 1-4. 
 
 Pp- 3 2 7-337. 
 
 THIRTY-FIRST SERMON. 
 
 WHITSUN-DAY. 
 
 Quench not the Spirit. — 1 Thessalonians v. 19 . Pp. 338-349. 
 THIRTY-SECOND SERMON. 
 
 TRINITY SUNDAY : FIRST PART. 
 
 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, — 
 Genesis i. 26. 
 
 Compared with 
 
 And jfesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the 
 water : and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the 
 Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him : and 
 lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom 
 I am well pleased. — S. Matthew iii. 16, 17 . . Pp. 350-361. 
 
 THIRTY-THIRD SERMON. 
 
 TRINITY SUNDAY : SECOND PART. 
 
 [The same texts.] Pp. 362-373. 
 
 THIRTY-FOURTH SERMON. 
 
 FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 
 
 They are of the world : therefore speak they of the world, and the 
 world heareth the?n. We are of God. He that knoweth God, 
 heareth us ; he that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know 
 we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. — 1 S. John 
 iv. 5, 6 Pp. 374-3 8 4- 
 
 THIRTY-FIFTH SERMON. 
 
 SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 
 
 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having 
 seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced 
 them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the 
 earth. For they that say such things declare plaifily that they 
 seek a country. — Hebrews xi. 13, 14 Pp. 385-396. 
 
Contents, 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 THIRTY-SIXTH SERMON. 
 
 EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 
 
 JVbt every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
 hingdo?n of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father which 
 is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, 
 have we not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy name have 
 cast out devils ? and in thy name done many wonderful works ? 
 And then will L profess unto them, L never knew you : depart 
 from me, ye that work iniquity. — S. Matthew vii. 21—23. 
 
 p P- 397-408. 
 
 THIRTY-SEVENTH SERMON. 
 
 SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 
 
 TJien said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved 1 And 
 he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate : for many, 
 L say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. — 
 S. Luke xiii. 23, 24 Pp. 409-419. 
 
 THIRTY-EIGHTH SERMON. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 
 
 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I 
 have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more 
 worthy to be called thy son : make me as one of thy hired serv- 
 ants. — S. Luke xv. 18, 19 Pp. 420-431. 
 
 THIRTY-NINTH SERMON. 
 
 TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 
 
 The heart knoweth his own bitterness ; and a stranger doth not 
 intermeddle with his joy. — Proverbs xiv. 10 . . Pp. 432-441. 
 
 FORTIETH SERMON. 
 
 Have I been a wilderness unto Israel ? a land of darkness 1 — Jer- 
 emiah ii. 31 Pp. 442-453. 
 
 EORTY-FIRST SERMON. 
 
 AT THE HOLY COMMUNION. 
 
 God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God 
 
 in him. — 1 S. John iv. 16 Pp. 454-464. 
 
 c 
 
xxxiv 
 
 Contents. 
 
 FORTY-SECOND SERMON. 
 
 AT THE ORDINATION OF A DEACON. 
 
 See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee 
 in the mount. — Hebrews viii. 5 Pp. 465-476. 
 
 FORTY-THIRD SERMON. 
 
 Be still, and know that I am God. — Psalm xlvi. 10. 
 
 Pp. 477-486. 
 
 FORTY-FOURTH SERMON. 
 In your patience possess ye your souls. — S. Luke xxi. 19. 
 
 Pp. 487-495- 
 
 FORTY-FIFTH SERMON. 
 
 ON THE STATE FAST-DAY. 
 
 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not 
 hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that 
 thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and brmg 
 it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it ? Neither is it beyond 
 the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, 
 and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it ? But the 
 word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that 
 thou mayest do it. — Deuteronomy xxx. 11-14. Pp. 496-507. 
 
 FORTY-SIXTH SERMON. 
 
 ON THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING-DAY. 
 
 Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in 
 the vines ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall 
 yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there 
 shall be no herd in the stalls : yet I will rejoice in the Lord, / 
 will joy in the God of my salvation. — Habakkuk iii. 17, 18. 
 
 Pp. 508-518. 
 
 FORTY-SEVENTH SERMON. 
 
 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift 
 up your heads ; for your redemption draweth nigh. — S. Luke 
 xxi. 28 Pp. 519-527. 
 
Contents. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 FORTY-EIGHTH SERMON. 
 In thy light shall we see light. — Psalm xxxvi. 9 . . Pp. 528-540. 
 
 FORTY-NINTH SERMON. 
 
 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud 
 of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth 
 so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is 
 set before us, looking unto Jesus the author a?id finisher of our 
 faith. — Hebrews xii. 1, 2 Pp, 541-553. 
 
 ^ FIFTIETH SERMON. 
 
 For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his 
 house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his 
 work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore : for 
 ye know not when the master of the house co?neth, at even, or at 
 midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning : lest coming 
 suddenly he find you sleeping. A?id what I say unto you I say 
 unto all, Watch. — S. Mark xiii. 34-37 .... Pp. 554-562. 
 
 THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. An Extract from a Ser- 
 mon preached at the Consecration of S. John's Church, Savan- 
 nah, in 1853 Pp. 563-566. 
 
 THE PASTORAL LETTER of the Bishops in the general 
 
 COUNCIL Of 1862 Pp. 567-580. 
 
 THE ADDRESS AT THE FUNERAL OF BISHOP COBBS 
 of Alabama Pp. 581-594. 
 
SERMONS. 
 
 first $2>ttmou. 
 
 And I said. Oh that I had wings like a dove ! for then would 
 I fly away, and be at rest. — Psalm Lv. 6. 
 
 A XD whither, 0 sweet Psalmist of Israel, could st tliou 
 
 fly, even if thou hadst the wiugs of the dove, aud be 
 at rest P Dost thou uot know that there cau be uo rest 
 for the soul of man, save in reunion with God ; and that no 
 flight, however distant, however far away from the haunts 
 of men, can give thee that heavenly boon ? Hast thou not 
 told us thyself, in thine own beautiful language, " I shall 
 be satisfied, 0 God, when I awake with thy likeness?" 
 And canst thou, with thy rich and deep experience, expect 
 the wings of a dove to carry thee away, not only from 
 trouble and trial, but from sin and its curse ? Alas, no ! 
 royal Minstrel : no wings can carry thee away from thyself, 
 — can separate thee from thine own heart, — can give thee 
 rest in a world like this. For unrest is not only in the 
 things outside of us, which harass and perplex us, but has 
 its throne in our own hearts. It is the fruit of our own 
 natures, begotten of the corruption in which we are born ; 
 and never to be quieted until the peace of God shall enter 
 into the soul, and calm its struggling' elements. And even 
 then shall there be, so long as life shall last, a law of the 
 members warring against the law of the mind, and ofttimes 
 
 i 
 
2 Oh that I had Wings like a Dove ! 
 
 bringing it into captivity to the law of sin which is in our 
 members. Hunt for rest in this world, with wings ! It 
 can never be found ! " Traverse in imagination the extent 
 of creation," — if I may use in this connection words applied 
 by another to a very different subject, — " wander over the 
 most beautiful landscape, pluck the most fragrant flower, 
 select the most costly gem, glide upon the surface of the 
 fairest lake, scale the highest mountain, soar to the further- 
 most star : still the question rushes back upon the mind, — 
 e How shall I find rest among these glories of creation P ' 
 Poor, anxious searcher for peace, all Nature unites in testi- 
 fying : 6 It is not in me ! it is not in me ! ' " 
 
 We cannot flee away, my beloved hearers, from trouble, 
 from temptation, from sorrow, from sin. They must be 
 met, and overcome. There is a rest promised to the chil- 
 dren of God ; but it is not to be found in this world. There 
 is a home, reserved for the faithful in Christ Jesus ; but it 
 is in heaven. God has prepared, for those who love Him, 
 mansions in which beauty will never fade, in which sorrow 
 will never dim the eye, in which love will never change : 
 but they await His children who have part in the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ. We can enjoy slight foretastes of their 
 happiness through faith and hope ; but it is like the sun 
 gleaming through a troubled sky, and only flecking the 
 landscape with spots of sunshine. All is bright to-day, — 
 but only to-day : to-morrow brings its shadow of trial or 
 of sorrow. All is quiet in the home and in the heart this 
 hour: the next, there rests upon both some dark cloud, 
 which scatters the fond dream of Peace or Faith. For 
 trouble comes alike to all. " There is one event to the 
 righteous, and to the wicked ; to the good and to the clean, 
 and to the unclean ; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that 
 sacrificeth not." 1 Such distinctions could not be made 
 
 1 Eccles. ix. 2. 
 
Oh that I had Wings like a Dove! 3 
 
 here without miraculous intervention, because the right- 
 eous and the unrighteous are so mingled in domestic and 
 social life, are so hound together by ties of association 
 and love and relationship, that the punishment of the one 
 reacts upon the other, and the sorrow of the one is the 
 affliction of the other. True justice can only be meted out 
 at the last. Rest — that may deserve the name — can only 
 be obtained when mortality shall be swallowed up in life. 
 
 This is the mistake which man is ever making, dream- 
 ing that he can find rest by flying away from the present, 
 Whenever harassed and perplexed, whenever sad and sorrow- 
 ful, his feeling is that of the Psalmist : "Oh that I had 
 wings like a dove, for then would I fly away, and be at rest." 
 He forgets that the trouble, or the trial, or the sorrow, or 
 the temptation, is not in the mere accidental circumstances : 
 but in the nature of things. He supposes that if he could 
 change this condition of things, or get rid of that evil, — 
 that if he could fly away from this place, or hide himself 
 from that calamity, — he should be at rest. But he ever 
 finds that the world is the same wherever he goes, because he 
 himself is the same. Ccelum, non animum, mutant qui trans 
 mare currant. He ever finds that the thing which has been, 
 is that which shall be ; and that which is done, is that 
 which shall be done : because Nature is ever the one un- 
 changeable impress of God. And when he has shifted all 
 the scenes of life, and played his part now in poverty, 
 now in riches, now in obscurity, now in power, now sur- 
 rounded by friends, and then deserted and alone : he learns, 
 at the last, that rest is nowhere, and can be nowhere, but 
 in himself ; that peace is not the product of earthly combi- 
 nations, but is the gift of Christ, — the quiet sleeping on 
 the pillow, while the winds are howling, and the waves roll- 
 ing, and destruction hovering around. But what a long 
 chase man has, ere he finds this out ; how he toils and 
 
4 Ok that I kad Wings like a Dove ! 
 
 sweats away the best years of liis life in looking for rest in 
 change ; how he chafes against the fetters which he sup- 
 poses are keeping him away from happiness and peace! Oh, 
 that I might be rich ! Oh, that I might reach this honor ! * 
 Oh, that I might win this object ! Oh, that this crook in 
 my lot might only be taken away ; that this skeleton might 
 be removed from my house ! These are the desires of men, 
 even when they have been so often disappointed in change ; 
 even after they have found no rest in any thing God has 
 done for them. And it will go on so forever. Nothing can 
 alter it, for it is in man himself, and in the condition which 
 sin has forced upon the world. The like cry arises from 
 rich and poor, from known and unknown, from peasant and 
 prince : " Who will show us any good ? " 
 
 When we hear this wish of the Psalmist uttered by those 
 who are not Christians, we are not surprised at it; for many 
 of them have not God at all in their thoughts, and look 
 upon the world as their only home. If they cannot find 
 rest here, they do not expect to find it at all. But when it 
 is uttered by the Psalmist, or when it is reechoed from the 
 lips of Christians, it does surprise us, for they ought to 
 understand the purposes and arrangements of God. It was 
 wrung from David under the pressure of troubles and ca- 
 lamities ; and it is wrung in like manner from Christians 
 by the sore trials which often come upon theni : but still is 
 it the cry of Nature, and not of Faith ! For whither could 
 the wings even of the dove bear any Christian, safer and 
 better than the place where God has put him ? Whither 
 could he go, to be further from himself, or nearer to his 
 God ? It is only God and himself that can give him any 
 irremediable trouble. Nature is alike everywhere, — cursed 
 and smitten. Man is alike everywhere, — unbelieving and 
 wicked. What use in flying ? Who has put you where 
 you are ? Who has surrounded you with the circumstances 
 
Oh that I had Wings like a Dove ! 5 
 
 which are your trial and temptation ? Who has planted 
 the crook in your lot, — the skeleton in your house ? Is it 
 not God ? And cannot He transfer them wherever you go, 
 or raise up worse in the place to which your wings have 
 carried you? You cannot escape from God. This very 
 Psalmist, who wished that he had the wings of a dove, 
 has told thee that " if thou take the wings of the morn- 
 ing, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ; even there 
 shall his hand lead thee, and his right hand shall hold 
 thee." 1 If you helieve that God rules and superintends 
 every thing, — that He has disposed the circumstances 
 which surround and harass you, — why fly at all ? They 
 must be best for you, because He has promised to make 
 every thing work together for good to them that love Him. 
 It is quite lawful for the Christian to pray, as S. Paul did, 
 that the thorn in his flesh, whatever it may be, may be 
 removed : but not to fly away, as Jonah did, from the cross 
 which has been laid upon him. In the one case he would 
 most assuredly receive the answer : " My grace is suf- 
 ficient for thee : " 2 in the other, he might find that it was 
 " as if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him ; or 
 went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a 
 serpent bit him." 3 In the anguish of some severe trial, 
 the words of the Psalmist might come as the strong cry or 
 wail of Nature from the lips of the believer ; but it would 
 soon be followed by the quiet of submission : " Not my will, 
 but Thine, 0 God, be done ! " 
 
 A Christian ought to know that rest cannot be found in 
 attempting to fly from God ; and flying from His allotment, 
 is flying from Him. It can be found only in submission to 
 God ; in doing faithfully that which He has given us to do ; 
 in suffering patiently that which He has called us to bear. 
 The Scripture speaks of the Christian life that now is, as of 
 
 1 Psalm cxxxix. 9, 10. 2 2 Cor. xii. 9. 3 Amos v. 19. 
 
6 Oh that I had Wings like a Dove / 
 
 something set and arranged for us by God, just as Christ's 
 life was set and arranged for Him. And if we would re- 
 ceive the rest which remaineth for the people of God, and 
 would catch now and then the foretastes of it which come 
 as streaks of light upon our hidden path, we must -— 
 
 " Trust in Him who trod before 
 
 The desolate paths of life ; 
 Must bear in meekness, as He meekly bore, 
 
 Sorrow and toil and strife. 
 Think how the Son of God 
 These thorny paths hath trod ; 
 Think how He longed to go, 
 Yet tarried out, for thee, the appointed woe ; 
 Think of His loneliness in places dim 
 Where no man comforted nor cared for Him ; 
 Think how He prayed, unaided and alone, 
 In that dread agony, Thy will be done ! 
 Friend, do not thou despair ! 
 
 Christ, in His Heaven of heavens, will hear thy prayer." 
 
 We do not understand the true philosophy of Christian- 
 ity. Where we ought to see it, in the life and character of 
 Christ, we do not look for it, thinking of Him always as 
 God our Redeemer, and not as Man our example, How 
 much divine wisdom we lose in this misconception ! His 
 was the true life of man upon earth. How clearly He saw 
 His work ; how bravely He went up to it ; how patiently He 
 labored in it ; how humbly He submitted to the will of God ; 
 how meekly He bore every thing which was laid upon Him ! 
 He had no rest, — in the sense in which man cries out for 
 it, — no rest, night nor day : but He had the peace of God, 
 which is, in this world, the foreshadowing of the heavenly 
 rest. And this peace — the peace arising from walking 
 submissively in the work assigned to us — is all that we 
 may look for here. And Christ made us no larger promise. 
 He never said that His disciples should have rest. He 
 could not say it ; for He said, " The disciple must be as his 
 
Oh that I had Wings like a Dove ! 7 
 
 Master ; " and the Master had no rest : but He did say, 
 " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." 1 
 And this peace is our exceeding great reward in this life ; 
 never to be got, however, by taking the wings of the dove 
 and flying away, but only by imitating Christ, and setting 
 our faces like a flint towards our work, leaving it with God 
 to portion out our happiness. And when we do appre- 
 ciate the glory of submission, when we in our work go 
 straight forward whither the Spirit leads us to go, when 
 we, in our sufferings, see God's love ever as a bow in the 
 cloud, and are led to say, "It is well, for the Lord hath 
 done it : " then do we read aright the lessons of Christian- 
 ity ; we know its meaning ; we understand its life ; we 
 snatch from it its blessings ; we look up and see Heaven 
 opened. We are no longer groping amid the beggarly ele- 
 ments of this world ; its philosophy we have cast aside as 
 fruitless ; its hopes we have trampled upon as vanity ; its 
 practice forever feeds unrest. We have found at last the 
 true happiness of man ; and we have found it, where man 
 had never looked for it, in labor, in duty, in suffering, in 
 humility, in looking to God's directions, as a maiden looks 
 to the hand of her mistress. Man had supposed that it lay 
 in ease, in wealth, in honor, in freedom of will, in indepen- 
 dence of action : but the Christian, in following Christ, has 
 found that his way to rest lay not among these, but turned 
 aside to the humble in heart, to the lowly in spirit, to the 
 meek in nature, to the suffering and the smitten; and ended 
 ofttimes in shame and the cross. But with all these was 
 peace, — peace that passeth understanding ; peace which 
 the world can neither give nor take away. 
 
 How hard it is to do our part in life patiently and sub- 
 missively, in the true spirit of the martyr ! Oh, how little 
 man knows wherein true greatness lies ! He is looking for 
 
 1 S. John xiv. 27. 
 
8 Oh that I had Wings like a Dove ! 
 
 it in action : God sees it in obedience. He is measuring it by 
 deeds : God is measuring it by suffering. He is embalming 
 it in song and story, because of its glitter and display : God 
 is embalming it in His book of life, because of its quiet 
 faith and its unmurmuring trust. Man sees not the truest 
 glory of his fellow-man : that is hid away in the secrets of 
 his own heart, and is known only to God. Man's noblest 
 and hardest conflicts are with himself, and his noblest vic- 
 tories are over his own nature. His temptation is to take 
 wings and fly away from whatsoever is painful, or irksome, 
 or self-denying. His victory is in overcoming this allure- 
 ment, and standing firm at his post of duty or of suffering. 
 We are surrounded by humble, unknown beings, whose lives 
 are truly sublime, whose triumphs over self are more glori- 
 ous in God's sight than all the victories of earthly conquer- 
 ors. When His books shall be opened, and His record of 
 goodness and of greatness shall be displayed to the world, 
 how many names of which the world has never heard shall 
 stand high upon that roll of life ? — here a young heart, 
 which smothered its affections that it might devote itself to 
 the duties which home exacted of it ; there a wife, who bore 
 in secret, scorn, contumely, contempt, persecution, for the 
 sake of Christ and His sacred cause : here a hero, who de- 
 spised the shame of the world, that he might bear the cross 
 of Christ unsullied through the world ; there a sufferer, who 
 lay for years without murmuring, in the hands of God, help- 
 less, desolate, with no comforter but his Saviour : here a 
 daughter of affliction, from whom has been stripped the 
 dearest objects of affection, and yet who, kissing the rod, 
 looks submissive into the face of God; there a victim of 
 calumny, who bears for a whole lifetime unmerited re- 
 proach, and leaves vengeance and vindication to the pleas- 
 ure of God. Oh, cases like these abound in the world ; 
 
Oh that I had Wings like a Dove / 9 
 
 are found everywhere in secret places of which that world 
 never hears ; are the true poetry of religion, sweet music 
 in the ear of God, rich fragrance of prayer and faith rising 
 up before His presence. Could the heart-life of such as 
 these be written, — obscure, nameless people, — it would 
 flash upon the world a moral heroism second only to the 
 life of Christ, — a sublime self-devotion, learned only from 
 that inimitable Master. These are the beings — sufferers 
 and martyrs though they seem to be — who know what rest 
 is. They have ceased their struggle with the world ; they 
 have subdued their own restless unbelief : and now they 
 have quieted themselves upon the bosom of God, just as 
 little children sink to sleep upon the bosoms of their moth- 
 ers, their hearts still sobbing out their griefs, their eyes 
 still wet with the tears of their young sorrow. 
 
 This is the path to rest, my beloved hearers, and the only 
 one which God has marked out for man. Even if the wish 
 of the Psalmist could be gratified, and you could have wiugs 
 like a dove, you could not fly anywhere that would give you 
 rest. That must be wrung out of labor, out of duty, out of 
 suffering, out of an imitation of Christ. That must be won, 
 not by flight, but by endurance ; not by a cowardly deser- 
 tion of the post at which God has placed us, but by stand- 
 ing to it through every privation and every suffering. Sub- 
 mission to God's will, whatever that may be, is the first step 
 toward it. In due time will come the fruits of this sub- 
 mission, — peace, and even joy: and then will man learn, 
 what is the true lesson of life, — that unrest is within him- 
 self, and is the child of unbelief and vain desires ; that it 
 has but slight connection with the circumstances of life ; 
 that it can never be quieted by change of scene or condi- 
 tion, or by gratification of its wishes ; that even the wings 
 of the morning cannot bear it away from the heart. David's 
 
io Oh that I had Wings like a Dove! 
 
 wish was vain ; it was one, nevertheless, in which we all 
 sometimes indulge. Let us drive it away from us as a temp- 
 tation ; and seek for rest — where Christ found it — in 
 running with patience the race that is set before us, look- 
 ing unto Jesus as the Author and Finisher of our Faith. 
 
ffeeccwt) Sermon 
 
 And I said, This is mine infirmity : but I will remember the years 
 of the right hand of the Most High. — Psalm Ixxvii. 10. 
 
 npHE Psalms are what may be termed, in modern phrase- 
 
 ■ ology, the "experience" of David. In them we are 
 permitted to trace the workings of a Christian heart as dis- 
 tinctly as if they were the pulsations of our own ; to exam- 
 ine minutely the dealings of God with a man whom He 
 declares to have been, despite his infirmities, a man after 
 His own heart. And an unspeakable privilege it is, to be 
 allowed to read a soul in which God delighted, and to 
 analyze feelings which were acceptable with Him. Left to 
 ourselves, we should often be sadly disturbed at our own 
 spiritual condition ; we should be tempted to believe that 
 no other Christian had ever experienced the sad variations 
 which disturb our religious life. But having before us such 
 an example as David ; possessing what may be considered 
 the daily journal of his feelings and emotions; studying 
 them as they are laid bare in their weakness, as well as 
 exhibited in their power : we can feel " the pulses of our 
 Psalmist's passions beating their ditties as we lay our 
 hearts unto them." 1 They become a standard for us ; a 
 spiritual mirror in which we may see our own affections re- 
 flected. His experience of God's dealings with his soul is 
 written for our instruction in righteousness ; and the phases 
 of his feelings are indications to us of what we may expect 
 in the progress of our spiritual life. Just as we see him 
 
 1 Jackson. 
 
12 This is mine Infirmity. 
 
 full of joy and peace in believing, to-day ; and then to-mor- 
 row cast into despondency and unbelief : so may we antici- 
 pate changes in our perceptions of God's relation to us. 
 Our comfort, our sorrow ; our fear, our confidence ; our 
 hope, our despair : are all exhibited to us in some one or 
 other of those exquisite Psalms which he poured forth as 
 indicative of his own emotions ; and their rapid and often 
 fearful variations are just as clearly marked in the vicissi- 
 tudes of our condition. Many a Christian heart has found 
 reason again and again to thank God for having conde- 
 scended to unfold to us, through His Spirit, the inner work- 
 ings of a human heart, as it was growing in grace and be- 
 coming assimilated to Himself. The sanctified heart, the 
 heart already made meet for the inheritance of the saints in 
 light, is not what the Christian craves for his contempla- 
 tion. He wants to study the heart in its struggles after 
 sanctification ; — in its throbs and pulsations as it battles in 
 the stern strife with temptation and sin, and the enemies 
 of its inner life. It is not the conqueror with the crown 
 upon his head and the palm-branches of victory in his hand, 
 that is the most useful exemplar to the warring child of 
 God : but it is the man of infirmity, and yet the man after 
 God's own heart, whom it craves to look upon, as he rages 
 in the midst of the battle-field, — now in the dust, and anon 
 flashing the sword of the Spirit in the face of the adver- 
 sary ; now crying for help with the feebleness of a child, 
 and anon shouting forth the praises of Him who hath deliv- 
 ered him from the power of the enemy. The soldier who is 
 girding on his harness for the field cares not to look upon 
 the triumphal car, save as it may prove an incentive to his 
 ambition ; but rather loves to fight over with the veteran 
 the battles he has won, and to learn the arts and contriv- 
 ances by which he overcame the foe and laid him prostrate 
 in the dust. It is in the Revelation only — the last and 
 
This is mine Infirmity. 13 
 
 consummating Book of the Gospel of our Lord — that we 
 find those pictures of victory and of Heaven which are so 
 glorious for the Christian : as if to teach us that the great- 
 est portion of our lives, like the largest portion of the Bible, 
 is to be occupied with the good fight of Faith ; while vic- 
 tory, triumph, rest, reward, are to be left for the consum- 
 mation of all things. 
 
 Hence is it so very interesting a feature in our Liturgy, 
 that such large portions of the Psalms of David are ap- 
 pointed to be read upon every Lord's day; — enough to 
 ensure to every Christian soul the " meat in due season " 
 which it requires. So intermingled are the Psalmist's joys 
 with his lamentations ; so rapid is the change from the full 
 assurance of hope to the deep despondency of a forsaken 
 soul ; so frequently does he run the gamut from the lowest 
 notes of a sinner humbled in the dust to the highest out- 
 bursts of thanksgiving and of praise : that almost every 
 selection of Psalms will furnish its tone for every heart, and 
 the mourning Christian and the peaceful Christian and the 
 rejoicing Christian will each find something that shall har- 
 monize with his own condition and satisfy the cravings of 
 his own soul. Sadly ignorant must be that mind, or miser- 
 ably dull that spirit, which can find no music in the tones 
 of David's harp ; which can pass uncheered through such a 
 flood of Christian light. Still more forlorn the condition of 
 those who can quarrel with the Church, because she brings 
 these glorious ditties so daily to her children's minds ; — 
 because, like a tender mother, she gives them line upon 
 line, and precept upon precept, from the song-book of the 
 sweet Psalmist of Israel. 
 
 How cheering to us that David had his infirmity ! — that 
 he was not a being of perfection, and that his infirmity was 
 just the infirmity which is most common to us all, — that 
 of distrusting God ; of not believing in His promises, because 
 
14 This is mine Infirmity, 
 
 they seem, for a little while, to lack fulfillment. The burden 
 of the Psalm from which my text is taken, is a declaration 
 of his distrust of God ; and he recovers himself by confess- 
 ing that it was his infirmity, and by casting himself back 
 upon the memory of God's mercy and loving-kindness in 
 the years that were gone. " I said, This is mine infirmity : 
 but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most 
 High. I will remember the works of the Lord : surely I 
 will remember thy wonders of old." I say, how cheering 
 this is, that it is not only we who have our infirmities, who 
 are filled with murmuring and distrust, who require to look 
 back to past experience for our comfort and our assurance : 
 but that this veteran servant of God, this chosen child of 
 grace, this man of Christian struggle from his boyhood, 
 this spiritually-minded saint, is compelled to make the con- 
 fession of his weakness, and to pursue the very course which 
 we must pursue for the resumption of his faith and his 
 peace. Such confessions are our life, not because we rejoice 
 in iniquity, not because we are glad over the infirmities of 
 the Saints, but because it gives us hope that as they con- 
 quered those infirmities, through grace, and " obtained a 
 good report," so may we overcome ours through the strength 
 which is in Christ Jesus, and rejoice through hope of the 
 grace of God. This feature runs through Christianity, and 
 makes it the precious Gospel which it is. The infirmities 
 of the Saints are never concealed, but are made manifest, so 
 that the struggling saints of God, conscious of their weak- 
 nesses, may not despair, but may rather rejoice that they 
 have a God who has unveiled the infirmities of His chosen 
 children ; that they have a Saviour who can be touched 
 with a feeling of those infirmities ; that a Spirit has been 
 vouchsafed them, who is promised especially to help those 
 infirmities. 
 
 It is frequently made an objection to the Bible that such 
 
This is mine Infirmity. 15 
 
 and such individuals, patriarchs, prophets, kings, apostles, 
 have been exhibited therein as men of very great infirmities, 
 and, in some instances, as men who have committed enor- 
 mous sins. The impression seems to be left upon certain 
 minds, that such individuals could not be accepted by a holy 
 God ; nay, more, that a religion must be worth very little 
 whose chief Saints could have been guilty of such weak- 
 nesses, — to use no harsher word. The fact I shall not con- 
 trovert 5 but that it ought to be an objection to the scheme 
 of religion contained in the Bible, I cannot admit. To me 
 it is one of the clearest proofs of the inspiration of the 
 Bible 5 for, if the Saints of the Bible had been represented 
 as faultless men, their conduct would not have harmonized 
 with the plan of salvation, with the scope and purpose of 
 the economy of grace. As I understand Christianity, it has 
 come to save sinners, and to change them into saints meet 
 for the inheritance of Heaven. These sinners are to be 
 saved through grace, not by any merit or deserving of their 
 own. And when this grace has worked upon the heart, it 
 is only the beginning of a growth in grace, which is to go 
 on through a lifetime of discipline until it shall be perfected 
 in glory. " And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a 
 man should cast seed into the ground ; and should sleep, 
 and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and 
 grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth 
 forth fruit of herself ; first the blade, then the ear, after 
 that the full corn in the ear." 1 If, according to the plan 
 of salvation, the children of God were to be perfect at once, 
 why a Saviour, continued in Heaven to be their Advocate ? 
 Why such a precious promise as this, " If any man sin, we 
 have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the right- 
 eous : and he is the propitiation for our sins ? " 2 Why a 
 Spirit sent to earth to witness with our spirits, to cheer, to 
 
 1 S. Mark iv. 26-28. 2 \ s. j olm ji. l, % 
 
1 6 This is mine Infirmity. 
 
 comfort, to sanctify us, to help our infirmities ? Why the 
 chastening rod of a Father held perpetually over us, and 
 the solemn declaration sounded in our ears, " Whom the 
 Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom 
 he receiveth ? " 1 Why the constant injunctions of the 
 Apostles to " work out our salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling," 2 — to " run, not as uncertainly," — to " fight, not 
 as one that beateth the air," — but to "keep under the 
 body and bring it into subjection, lest while preaching to 
 others," he himself " should be a castaway ? " 3 No ! this 
 manifestation of the infirmity of the Saints is just in har- 
 mony with the Gospel scheme ; — especially what ought to 
 have been expected in the development of a " salvation by 
 faith, through grace." It is only when we turn to a spu- 
 rious Christianity, that we find perfect saints. The Saints 
 of the Bible are all men of infirmity, and therefore it was 
 that they gloried in a " High Priest that might be touched 
 with a feeling of their infirmities " ; therefore it was that 
 they cried out for a " Spirit that might make intercession 
 for them with groanings, which cannot be uttered." 4 As 
 the religion, so the saints. A religion of grace : Saints 
 having infirmity. A religion of merit ; and, as a conse- 
 quence, saints pretending to perfection, — " whited sepul- 
 chres, full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." 5 
 
 Such is the harmony, as I feel it, between saints having 
 infirmity and a salvation through grace; and such is the 
 attitude which, as all analogy teaches us, should be occu- 
 pied by those who are in a state of tutelage. What is the 
 necessity of spiritual discipline, if we are already perfect ? 
 What of chastening, if we have no faults ? What of the 
 means of grace, if we have no evil habits to be rooted out, 
 no good ones to be built up ? All the instruction of the 
 
 1 Heb. xii. 6. 2 Phil. ii. 12. a 1 Cor. ix. 26, 27. 
 
 4 Eom. viii. 26. 5 S. Matt, xxiii. 27. 
 
This is mine Infirmity. 17 
 
 Bible, and all the institutions of the Church, teach us that 
 the Church of Christ is a school, planted in the world, in 
 which Christians have to he prepared for their places in 
 Heaven, — prepared through temptation, through weakness, 
 through suffering, through trial. And if this be so, is not 
 infirmity necessarily a part of the very being of a Christian ? 
 What the need of placing a child at school, unless it may be 
 trained in knowledge and in virtue? When praising the 
 management of a school, do we say that it is a school whose 
 scholars have no infirmities : or that it is one where those 
 infirmities are gradually cured ? Certainly the latter. And 
 we give our faith to it when we see the vicious reclaimed, 
 and the ignoraut enlightened, and the weak character made 
 strong; and not when we learn that the entrance to the 
 school has been debarred to all such ! When praising the 
 success of a parent's efforts, do we speak of his family circle 
 as well disciplined when we say that his children had no 
 faults : or when we show that very gross faults have been 
 cured under his arrangements ? And so with Christianity. 
 So far as the justification of a sinner is concerned, that is 
 the effect of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ; but after we 
 have received peace through that justificatiou, we must be 
 sanctified and made meet for Heaven. Now what should 
 be the praise of the Church, — and this brings us back to 
 the objection we are considering, — that there are no in- 
 firmities within the Church: or that she gradually cures 
 them ? that as soon as an individual crosses her threshold, 
 his sins are all laid down : or that she is a school in which 
 the teachings of the Holy Ghost are made responsive to the 
 infirmities of the creature, and thus weak sinful men are 
 gradually built up into the image and likeness of Christ ? 
 How futile, then, to make it an objection to the Bible, con- 
 taining the scheme of salvation which it does, that it por- 
 2 
 
1 8 This is mine Infirmity. 
 
 trays for our example, and for God's commendation, Saints 
 who have been men of like passions with ourselves ! 
 
 To return to our subject of rejoicing, — that we find such 
 a Saint as David confessing his infirmity, because each 
 one of us has our infirmity. Who that kneels at this Com- 
 munion Table, but has occasion to say of some weakness, 
 of some shortcoming, " This is mine infirmity 99 ? " The 
 infirmities of the believer," says a beautiful writer of the 
 present day, " are as varied as they are numerous. Some 
 are weak in faith, and are always questioning their interest 
 in Christ. Some superficial in knowledge, and shallow in 
 experience, and ever exposed to the crudities of error and 
 to the assaults of temptation. Some are slow travellers in 
 the divine life, and are always in the rear ; while yet others 
 are often ready to halt altogether. Then there are others 
 who groan beneath the burden of bodily infirmity, exerting 
 a morbid influence upon their spiritual experience ; — a ner- 
 vous temperament — a state of perpetual depression and 
 despondency — the constant corroding of mental disquie- 
 tude — physical ailment — imaginary forebodings — a facile 
 yielding to temptation — petulance of spirit — unguarded- 
 ness of speech — gloomy interpretations of Providence — 
 an eye that views only the dark hues of the cloud, the som- 
 bre shadings of the picture." 1 Such is the catalogue of 
 infirmities which a Christian of deep experience has drawn 
 up for our consideration ; and among them I fear that most 
 of you can lay your finger upon some one and say, " 6 This is 
 mine infirmity,' this has been the plague of my Christian 
 life, the enemy of my Christian peace. With this have I 
 battled ! Against this have I struggled ! Again and again 
 hath it cast me down ; again and again have I risen victo- 
 rious over it. But still c it is mine infirmity.' Shall it 
 
 1 Winslow. 
 
This is mine Infirmity. 19 
 
 conquer me. or shall I be conqueror, and more thau con- 
 queror, through Him that loved me ? M 
 
 Think not, child of God, whoever you may be, that you 
 are bearing this infirmity alone ! Think not that you are 
 unpitied in your lamentations over it, without sympathy 
 in your struggles against it. You have, thanks be to God, 
 a High-Priest who can be touched with a feeling of your 
 infirmities ; who is always ready to pour out, upon every 
 sincere straggler, of the fullness of His grace for that very 
 single infirmity which is distressing you. What is it ? " Is 
 it sin, is it sorrow, is it sickness, is it want ? " What is it P 
 " Is it some fault of temper, some levity of disposition, some 
 lust of the flesh, some temptation of the heart ? " What 
 is it ? " Is it unbelief, is it despondency, is it faithlessness, 
 is it coldness of spirit P " Xo matter what it is, my hearer, 
 if you feel it as an infirmity ; if you strive against it as an 
 infirmity ; if you mourn over it, and would cast it off, as 
 an infirmity : you have the burden carried for you, for the 
 Scripture tells us, u Himself took our infirmities and car- 
 ried our sicknesses. ?? " Wondrous view of the incarnate 
 God ! n as one has beautifully expressed it : « That very 
 infirmity which now bows you to the earth, by reason of 
 which you can in no wise lift up yourself, your Saviour 
 bore. It bowed Him to the dust, and brought the crimson 
 drops to His brow. And is this no consolation ? Does it 
 not make your infirmity even pleasant, to remember that 
 Jesus once bore it, aud in sympathy bears it still P " It is 
 a blessed consolation to feel that we have a Friend, closer to 
 us than a brother, who is touched with our infirmity ; who 
 instead of covering us with reproaches because we are weak, 
 bears those weaknesses for us. How tender is our Saviour ! 
 How beautiful our religion ! How wreathed is it with the 
 richest treasures of love and of sympathy ! How little do 
 they understand it, who would change it into a thing of 
 
20 This is mine Infirmity. 
 
 harshness, and transform the gushing affections of an 
 Emmanuel, a God with us, into the stern severity of a 
 God afar off! 
 
 And can you not, my fellow-Christians, imitate David, 
 and find in your own experience some consolation for the 
 infirmity which weighs upon you ? It was when he was 
 interrogating his gracious Lord in strains like these, "Will 
 the Lord cast off forever? and will he he favorable no 
 more ? Is his mercy clean gone forever ? doth his promise 
 fail for evermore ? Hath God forgotten to he gracious? 
 Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ? 55 that he 
 was fain to add : " This is mine infirmity ; hut I will re- 
 member the years of the right hand of the Most High." 
 And have you, my beloved hearer, no such years to remem- 
 ber? Can you not look back to the days that are gone, 
 and consider that in six troubles He has delivered you, 
 yea in seven that no evil has touched you ? And, consid- 
 ering this, can you not trust Him for the time to come ? 
 Hath He yet permitted your infirmity utterly to prevail 
 against you? Has it ever so cast you down, as that 
 you have let go the anchor within the veil? Then why 
 lament for the future ? Why distrust a God who has sur- 
 rounded you with mercies and blessings, because perchance 
 there remains one thorn in the flesh? Has He not told 
 you, " My grace is sufficient for thee ? " 1 Comfort your- 
 self in the past. Remember the works of the Lord, — 
 works wrought by the grace of God and the power of the 
 Spirit within your own heart, — wrought upon feelings, 
 upon affections, upon intellect, upon the whole creature, 
 soul and body, so that you know that you are a new crea- 
 ture in Christ Jesus. Remember His wonders of old, — 
 wonders that you have seen and rejoiced in, when the way 
 of the Lord was in the sanctuary. And even though now 
 
 1 2 Cor. xii. 9. 
 
This is mine Infirmity. 21 
 
 " His way be in the sea, and bis path in the great waters, 
 and his footsteps be not known," 1 still trust in Him, and 
 be satisfied that He will put upon you no greater burden 
 than you can bear. 
 
 And let the tenderness of God with our infirmities teach 
 us also to bear the infirmities of our brethren. Ah ! my 
 hearers, there is a large field of exhortation open for me in 
 this direction, but I can only touch it now. The bearing 
 the infirmities of the weak is a grace too little understood, 
 and yet it is the grace which assimilates us most nearly to 
 Christ. His distinctive mark in prophecy was, " A bruised 
 reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not 
 quench ; " 2 and by these emanations of tenderness — so 
 uncommon and so unknown in the world — was He to be 
 distinguished among the children of men. And shall His 
 disciples be distinguished by any thing so unlike this as 
 censoriousness, as fault-finding, as evil-speaking, as crush- 
 ing those who are already down, as shooting poisoned arrows 
 at the wounded and stricken heart ? The love of Christ 
 forbid! Are you, my hearer, strong in the Lord? Then 
 remember, " We then that are strong ought to bear the 
 infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." 3 Are 
 you yourself " compassed with infirmity " ? Then remem- 
 ber, that as you desire the Lord Jesus to bear your infirmi- 
 ties, so should you also bear the infirmities of others. Has 
 a Christian brother or sister been overtaken in a fault ? 
 44 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye, which are 
 spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ; 
 considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." 4 Let us in 
 all things strive to do unto others as we would do unto our- 
 selves. Our own weaknesses we confess to God, but we do 
 not trumpet them forth to men. " We unveil them," as 
 
 1 Psalm lxxvii. 19. 2 Isaiah xlii. 3. 3 Rom. xv. 1. 
 
 4 Gal. vi. 1. 
 
22 
 
 This is mine Infirmity. 
 
 one has exquisitely worded it, " to His eye, and He kindly 
 and graciously veils them from all human eyes. Be this 
 our spirit and our conduct toward a weak and erring 
 brother. Let us rather part with our right hand, than 
 publish his infirmity to others, and thus wound the Head 
 by an unkind and unholy exposure of the faults and frailties 
 of a member of His body, and by so doing cause the ene- 
 mies of Christ to blaspheme that worthy Name by the which 
 we are called." 
 
 There may be some one here present who keeps aloof 
 from the Church of Christ because of some infirmity which 
 may be weighing upon the conscience. Is this wise ? How 
 is the infirmity to be cured ? Whence is the power to come 
 which is to conquer the infirmity ? Is it not better at once 
 to place yourself, in all humility of spirit, in the school of 
 Christ, under the discipline of Christ, and endeavor there to 
 conquer in His strength? If you are kept away only by 
 some infirmity, will it not lighten that infirmity to roll it 
 upon Christ, to permit the Holy Spirit to share it with you ? 
 Oh, keep not away from Jesus because of the very weak- 
 nesses which He came to bear for you, which He has already 
 borne for you ! " Come unto me/' is His especial invitation, 
 " all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest.' 5 1 
 
 i S. Matt. xi. 28. 
 
€l)itt) Sermon. 
 
 Pilate answered, What I have written I have written. — 
 S. John xix. 22. 
 
 TJ OW often a man announces a great truth without be- 
 ing at all conscious of it. His words become words in 
 the mouth of all the world, while he spake them only as the 
 appropriate words of the occasion. In some critical mo- 
 ment of individual fortune, at some tirrning-point of events 
 whose greatness he does not appreciate, he utters a thought 
 which impresses itself upon the whole future of the race, 
 and is repeated from generation to generation as a solemn 
 reality. These are not inspirations, because they are not 
 suggested by the Spirit of God ; they are not the deduc- 
 tions of reason, for they are most often just the words 
 which the circumstances call for. They are not proverbs, 
 for they contain no particular antithesis of words. But 
 they have so shaped themselves, that they forever speak a 
 warning in our ears, and haunt us like a shadow which is 
 eternally connected with us, and which we must one day 
 meet when words shall become terrible realities. They 
 startle us, not because of the present, but because they 
 point us to an unending future ; not because they suggest 
 any thing which is immediately fearful, but because they 
 remind us of something which is to be eternally perma- 
 nent. Their awfulness is not of to-day, but forever. Their 
 sting gives no instant pain, but we feel that it is a worm 
 that shall never die. 
 
 "When Filate uttered the saying of our text, he had no 
 
24 What I have written I have written. 
 
 conception what it really imported. He spoke it in the 
 haughtiness of his heart and in the indolence of his tem- 
 per. He had no thoughts, when he said it, either of God 
 or man. He had no conception that he was fulfilling the 
 foreordinations of God ; or that he was putting upon record 
 words which should shake man's soul, whenever he might 
 ponder upon them. He was thinking only of himself ; and 
 when he said, " What I have written I have written," he 
 meant no more than that he did not choose to alter what he 
 had already done, or that he did not deem the matter of 
 importance enough to take any more trouhle about it. 
 
 And yet these words teach us two most solemn truths, 
 truths which I mean to dwell upon to-day, and which we 
 should all keep ever present with us as monitors of duty, — 
 as warnings of what is before us in the days which are yet 
 to come upon us. There are thoughts which are grand 
 enough to make us pause upon them, however little we 
 may be accustomed to think seriously about any thing ; 
 and such thoughts are these which arise naturally out 
 of Pilate's answer. If there is any thing which can startle 
 us in life, it is the fir ding that we are swayed by influences 
 which we have never counted upon ; that we are making 
 impressions which can never be eradicated. Both these 
 elements of responsibility are found in Pilate's answer. 
 
 The words which Pilate had written were, " JESUS OF 
 NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS." Against 
 this the Chief Priests of the Jews demurred, saying, " Write 
 not, The King of the Jews ; but that he said, I am King of 
 the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written I have 
 written." He had been unconsciously an instrument in God's 
 hands. Caring nothing about God, sneering at all truth, 
 considering the Messiah as a mere Jewish impostor, he was 
 nevertheless made to write the truth, the mighty truth of 
 the times, upon the Cross. The King of the Jews had come, 
 
What I have written I have written. 25 
 
 and they were ignorant of it ; but a Gentile and a skeptic 
 was made to proclaim it in the most conspicuous manner. 
 It was placed as a title right over the head of the Crucified. 
 It was attached to the Cross, as if to show that it was the 
 royal chariot in which to ride triumphant to his Kingdom. 
 It was written in three languages, that all the world might 
 understand it. And when it was objected to, the objection 
 was met by the stubborn answer, " What I have written I 
 have written." It was the overruling power of God using 
 this infidel as His instrument, and yet using him in such 
 manner as that he felt no consciousness of having been 
 necessitated. He had perfect liberty not to write it at all. 
 He might have altered it after he had written it. But yet 
 he did write it, and would not change it, even while he 
 cared nothing at all about the pretensions of Jesus of 
 Nazareth. Thus is it that God is ever making the wrath 
 of man to praise Him, and is compelling the indifferent and 
 the unbelieving to bring His purposes to pass. 
 
 And in like manner are we all the unconscious instru- 
 ments of God in working out His purposes. We are pur- 
 suing, whether believers or infidels, what we consider the 
 regular routine of life. One thing follows another in reg- 
 ular and natural succession, the thought of to-day follow- 
 ing as we suppose logically the thought of yesterday, and 
 the action of this hour treading consequentially upon the 
 action of the last. We can perceive no interference with 
 the sequence. Nothing comes violently to break in upon 
 our train of thought, or to change our course of action. 
 If there is any modification of either opinion or conduct, it 
 seems to be produced by circumstances which were alto- 
 gether ordinary, and in the course of a reasonable proba- 
 bility. No man can say that his will has been violently 
 overruled. No angel has stood — that he was conscious of 
 ' — in his path opposing him with the sword of the Lord. 
 
26 What I have written I have written. 
 
 No voice has come to him saying, " Go here," or " Go 
 there " ; " Do this," or " Do that." Every thing has gone 
 on with him as if he were his own master, the creature of 
 his own will. And yet has every individual of the human 
 race been silently working out the purposes of God in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 This Christians know and rejoice in. It is their delight 
 and their glory to know that God is so using them. It is 
 their heart's desire to aid Him in the whole mystery of 
 His will. Their exceeding great consolation is, that they 
 are not walking by the light of their own eyes, but are led 
 along paths of safety and of peace. Unbelievers do not 
 know it, and would not perhaps acknowledge it ; but it is 
 proved upon them by the persistent progress of God's pur- 
 poses in spite of all opposition, and by the perpetually 
 visible bringing of good for the Church out of the evil of 
 the world. We cannot trace the history of nations in its 
 connection, for example, with such an event as the advent 
 of our Lord, without being most forcibly struck with the 
 constant recurrence of this very thing. It was not Pilate 
 alone who was made to testify to the identity of Jesus of 
 Nazareth as the Messiah. Individuals and nations, all the 
 way back to the promise in the garden of Eden, had been 
 made to do the same. When Caiaphas, who was the High 
 Priest that same year, said unto the Jews in reference to 
 Jesus, " Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is ex- 
 pedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and 
 that the whole nation perish not : " 1 was it of his own will, 
 think ye, that he uttered this prophecy of the necessary 
 sacrifice and death of Christ ? Like Pilate he uttered a 
 divine truth ; he carried on the purposes of God : but did 
 he intend it ? Did not God overrule his wicked purpose of 
 the execution of an innocent Man, to the purposes of His 
 i S. John xi. 49, 50. 
 
What I have written I have written. 27 
 
 will ? When a decree issued from the court of the Caesars 
 that all the world should be taxed, and in pursuance of that 
 decree our Lord's Mother according to the flesh came up to 
 her own City and Tribe, and brought forth her Son in 
 Bethlehem, according to all the prophecies which had been 
 forecast upon Him : was it of his own unguided purpose, 
 think ye, that the Caesar conceived such a project of taxa- 
 tion P He issued an unusual, but still quite a natural, de- 
 cree. He ordained what he supposed should redound to his 
 own glory and his own emolument. He had no knowledge 
 of the divine prophecies, nor any idea of fulfilling them. 
 The last thing on earth he should have dreamed of, would 
 have been the giving countenance to a rival King. Never- 
 theless, this very decree did carry Mary to Bethlehem, and 
 did fulfill the prophecy of Micah : " But thou, Bethlehem 
 Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of 
 Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is 
 to be ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from 
 of old, from everlasting." 1 When Cyrus and Darius issued 
 the decrees permitting the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin 
 to return from their captivity at Babylon and rebuild the 
 city and Temple of Jerusalem, was it at all in their minds 
 to fulfill the prophecy of Jacob made a thousand years be- 
 fore, that the sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor a 
 lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh came ? Da- 
 rius performed what he considered a wise political act, put- 
 ting a strong people between him and Egypt. That was 
 all his motive. And yet it was the overruling hand of God 
 making all things work most naturally for His own wise 
 purposes. I might cite instance after instance of this sort ; 
 but it is unnecessary. These are enough to show the 
 course of God's dealings, and the mode of His operation. 
 The world goes on naturally ; each man seems to do as he 
 
 1 Micah v. 2. 
 
28 What I have written I have written, 
 
 pleases ; each nation appears to be working out its manifest 
 destiny : but yet in the end, that comes to pass which God 
 has foreordained ; and when man does not advance it will- 
 ingly, he is nevertheless made to advance it unconsciously. 
 He is God's instrument whether he chooses to be or not. 
 The only difference is that, if he cooperates with God 
 heartily and sincerely, he receives the " Well done, thou 
 good and faithful servant." 1 If he does not, he is still 
 made to work for God, even though, at the last, he receive 
 condemnation. 
 
 This is one truth which comes logically out of Pilate's 
 answer, and is worth a man's consideration. As I said be- 
 fore, an unbeliever may not acknowledge this truth, so far 
 as any consciousness of his own is concerned. But when 
 he perceives, from the whole history of the world, how every 
 thing has been overruled for the establishment and advance- 
 ment of Christ's Kingdom, and how naturally it appears to 
 have all come to pass : should he not consider this point, 
 whether he may not be an instrument in God's hand, with- 
 out being conscious of it? Pilate was not conscious of it. 
 Caiaphas was not conscious of it. Cyrus was not conscious 
 of it. And yet every one of them was the instrument of 
 God, — was a mere tool for the economy of Grace. What a 
 silly position, to be made an agent for doing the very thing 
 you are opposing and fighting against; to be clamoring out 
 your antagonism against the purposes of God, even while 
 you are made unwittingly to work in the traces of the char- 
 iot of the Redeemer ! If there is one thing more than an- 
 other that should make an unbeliever gnash his teeth, it is 
 the absolute certainty that God is making his wrath turn to 
 the glory of Christ, and is restraining that which He does 
 not choose shall break forth for the annoyance of the 
 Church. 
 
 i S. Matt. xxv. 21. 
 
What I have written I have written. 29 
 
 But there is another arid quite as solemn a truth con- 
 tained in these words of Pilate ; and it is, that we are all 
 perpetually making impressions which can never be changed. 
 We are all writing, writing upon most impressible materials, 
 upon hearts, upon feelings, upon affections, upon mind, upon 
 character, upon soul, words which we may never be able to 
 alter, and of which we shall be obliged to say in sadness 
 and with trembling, " What I have written I have written." 
 It is there stamped upon friends, upon society, upon de- 
 pendents, upon children, upon wife, upon all that have been 
 near my heart or have nestled in my bosom : and I cannot 
 change it. I may mourn over it. I may repent it in dust 
 and ashes. Tears, bitter tears, may have been shed to blot 
 it out. Prayers, earnest prayers, may have been poured out 
 to God for forgiveness. I may have felt the balm of comfort 
 and the assurance of pardon : but still, " What I have writ- 
 ten I have written/' and there it stands forever. It has 
 fallen from my lips ; it has been set down by my pen ; it 
 has been published by my conduct ; my example has given 
 it currency ; it has gone forth, from me : and I cannot arrest 
 it. It was in my power not to have written it in any of 
 these ways : but having done it, it is out of my power to 
 check the evil. My family has drunk it in. The circle of 
 my acquaintance has seized upon it as truth. I now know 
 it to be poison, rank poison : but I myself have infused it 
 into the circulation, and cannot check its fatal progress. I 
 see it extending and extending, like a circle in the waters : 
 and I stand impotent. The law of Nature about which I 
 have been indifferent or ignorant, is working its terrible 
 consequences : and that law is, that an impulse once given 
 must go on until its force is exhausted. And what is there 
 to exhaust the force of evil words, of evil examples, of 
 evil writings, of evil impressions ? They are communicated 
 from mind to mind, and from heart to heart, and from soul 
 
30 What I have written I have written, 
 
 to soul, unendingly. They begin from me, or from you, and 
 they cleave their evil track through the generations of men : 
 and they find their home in hell. 
 
 It is amazing that any thinking man can he indifferent 
 about the impressions he is making. If he truly considers 
 this expression, " What I have written I have written," he 
 cannot be careless of the consequences of his simplest 
 words. When I speak, or write, or act : my words, my writ- 
 ings, my deeds, are not thrown upon the desert air, are 
 not dispersed and scattered as the mists of a landscape. 
 They are received into pure and tender minds, — minds 
 made more tender by affection and kindred ; they are 
 taken hold of by hearts, loving hearts, that are trusting to 
 us and resting upon us ; they are caught up by souls, im- 
 mortal souls, which are looking to us for knowledge and 
 culture : and with these they incorporate themselves. They 
 grow into the nature, and we cannot get them out. Child- 
 hood assimilates them. Youth is guided by them. Man- 
 hood teaches them. Whatever that childhood becomes, 
 whatever that youth may lead to, wherever the teachings 
 of that manhood may reach to, or whatever they may end 
 in : I am the responsible party. The evil is upon me. The 
 sin is at my door. That mischief which I see expanding, 
 forever expanding, I set in motion. Alas for me ! " What 
 I have written I have written." 
 
 And ofttimes we are writing by authority. We are mak- 
 ing utterances (and you must remember that utterances can 
 be made by writing as well as by speaking, by acting as well 
 as by writing, by example as well as by action) which God 
 has commissioned us to set forth as parents, as masters, as 
 teachers, as citizens, as His own commissioned ambassa- 
 dors : and this adds greatly to the terror of those words, 
 " What I have written I have written." When a man has 
 no special authority, the things he writes upon the world 
 
What I have written I have written, 31 
 
 are not so important, do not carry so much force, have not 
 the immense influence which belongs to those who are stand- 
 ing in the position of domestic or social power. They may 
 do great mischief ; they may be seeds of evil that shall float 
 upon the air and drop their curse hither and thither : yet 
 they are not likely to make the mark which things written 
 by authority do make. But when it can be said, — This is 
 the writing of a Father upon my mind, upon my heart, up- 
 on my affections, upon my imagination, upon all my asso- 
 ciations, upon my soul ; — This is the writing of a Master 
 whom God has set to guide me ; — This is the writing of 
 a Teacher who is given the power to mould me as he can ; 
 — This is the writing of a servant of the Lord, who holds a 
 commission above all others : then can we understand the 
 mighty import of the words, " What I have written I have 
 written." Every thing given forth as opinion, as feeling-, 
 as truth, as example, sinks deeply into the nature. It be- 
 comes a mighty part of the influences which are making 
 up the present and the future of those who surround us. 
 We are graving into the character, we are stamping upon 
 the tender heart, what will remain there for blessing or for 
 curse. We are doing our part towards the making of the 
 generation which is to follow us. We are creating, in a 
 certain sense, the character of the times. We are repro- 
 ducing ourselves in those who are to come after us ; and 
 they will carry us down from generation to generation, 
 onward, onward to the judgment-seat of God. We may 
 choose not to realize this fearful responsibility. We may 
 be unwilling to permit such a load of authority to rest upon 
 our feelings. We may endeavor to laugh it off, or sneer 
 it off, or reason it off ; but it will be in vain. Even in this 
 world, when things begin to go wrong with those over 
 whom we have had authority, — when the poison is begin- 
 
32 What I have written I have written. 
 
 ning to show itself in outbreaking corruption in children, in 
 servants, among our companions, in society, — the thought 
 will intrude itself, " Is this my writing ? Have I planted 
 the seeds of this perilous evil? Have my opinions, my 
 words, my feelings, my writings, ended in this ? " I say, 
 even in this world, such thoughts will intrude ; but in eter- 
 nity, we shall find still more sternly the unalterable words 
 of truth, — " What I have written I have written." 
 
 And that indelibility of our writings is the most terrible 
 part of it. We can impress, but we cannot cut out. We 
 can write, but we cannot blot out. We can shape charac- 
 ter, opinion, feeling: but once shaped, we have no more 
 power over them. Man's nature is so arranged, that even 
 reason cannot afterwards modify what has been engrained 
 into character ; that even knowledge cannot scatter the 
 associations of childhood. It is a miserable mistake to look 
 at man as if he were a being governed by his understand- 
 ing. That is by far the least influential portion of his na- 
 ture. He is governed a thousand times more by his feel- 
 ings, by his affections, by those agencies which work upon 
 him through his heart ; and when these have been thor- 
 oughly impregnated in early youth, woe unto what is called 
 reason ! It is a most powerless instrument, weak unto death 
 against such influences as passion, as prejudice, as associa- 
 tion ! 
 
 We shall all have an account to give. All that we shall 
 have written will remain, and come up against us. Let us 
 therefore consider not only our present view of the writings 
 we have stamped upon man and society, but the view which 
 we shall have to take of them upon a dying bed. When 
 we shall be lying there, we shall feel most intensely the 
 power of those words, " What I have written I have writ- 
 ten." We are then preparing not only to leave them behind 
 
What I have written I have written. 33 
 
 us as seeds of good or of evil, as impressions which cannot 
 be eradicated : bnt we are preparing to meet them. They 
 remain in the world for all time, and then they follow after 
 us for judgment. What a terrible moment, — that moment, 
 when, lying powerless for all retrieval, we shall be obliged 
 to say, " What I have written I have written. 55 
 
 3 
 
•fourth Sermon. 
 
 And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink 
 of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate ! — ■ 
 2 Sam. xxiii. 15. 
 
 TT 0 W richly the spiritual evolves itself out of the natu- 
 ral ! They dwell together, as the soul with the body, 
 spirit within matter ; the one the substance, the other the 
 life; each necessary to the other, each harmonious with 
 the other, each illustrating the other. They coexist every- 
 where ; and while we are not to be led away by fanciful 
 analogies and a crude sentimentalism, a spiritual mind will 
 see in nature, and in its constitution and course, manifold 
 indications of its capacity for spiritual development and 
 spiritual instruction. Our Saviour seized hold of this ar- 
 rangement, and used it again and again in His divine teach- 
 ings. He made the fowls of the air, the lilies of the valley, 
 the corn in its progress from the blade to the ear, the 
 summer sky in its play of light, — all preachers of righte- 
 ousness, by bringing out of their natural developments 
 spiritual lessons of the highest practical value. And His 
 Apostles walked in His footsteps through the same rich field 
 of meditation, and have made plain to us the most abstruse 
 topics of life and immortality, by bringing the obvious pro- 
 cesses of nature to the help of divine revelation. Who can 
 see a grain of wheat planted in the earth, and run in 
 thought through its future phases of development, without 
 thinking of the resurrection of the body with which S. 
 Paul has forever linked it in delightful association ? Who 
 
The Well of Bethlehem, 35 
 
 can study the organization of the body with its union of 
 comely and uncomely parts, with its necessary subordina- 
 tion yet complete harmony, without remembering the like 
 adjustment of functions in the Church and the State, — 
 those two essentials of happiness for man, — with which the 
 same Apostle has indissolubly connected them ? Who can 
 guide a ship with a rudder, or manage a horse with the bit, 
 without recalling S. James's spiritual use of them in his 
 denunciation of the tongue '? And as they read in nature 
 these rich manifestations, and used them for public instruc- 
 tion, so may we, as we walk amid the works and wonders of 
 God, see Him and His revealed truth in every thing around 
 us. And this is just what we should look for in a world 
 ordered and arranged by Him who gave us His revelation ; 
 for if they did not in harmony develop the like truths, how 
 could they proceed from the same Author ? But we must 
 remember, in our handling of this beautiful principle, that 
 we are not inspired as were Christ and His Apostles, and 
 that we have no authority to derive from nature a new rev- 
 elation. We may study them as they lie infolded together 
 in the arrangements of things ; we may comfort ourselves 
 with the clearness which they unitedly give to infinite 
 ideas ; we may revel in the glories which they flash around 
 the future, as the mind is led step by step through the 
 gorgeous array of nature's most precious gifts up to the 
 Heaven where there shall be no more curse : but we must 
 follow the true laws of logic, and illustrate Xature by Rev- 
 elation, — the typical wisdom of God by the revealed wis- 
 dom. It is a beautiful study, if we are not fanciful ; a very 
 dangerous one, if we keep not the Word of God perpetually 
 in our hands. Mature is always true; but difficult to read, 
 because her greatest truths develop slowly, and mature only 
 after long observation : while Revelation gives us conclu- 
 sions from the Divine Mind, which we can receive at once by 
 
36 The Well of Bethlehem. 
 
 Faith, or have forced upon us by a bitter experience. And 
 it often happens that an imaginative temperament becomes 
 bewildered by attempting to rest in the religion of Nature ; 
 to look at God only in His poetical and not in His practical 
 aspect ; to worship Him as He manifests Himself as the 
 Architect and Ruler of the Universe : but to reject His 
 teachings when He comes to separate man's obligations and 
 duties from his wishes and fancies. 
 
 How beautifully is this connection of the natural and the 
 spiritual illustrated in the longing of David for water from 
 the well of Bethlehem ! Bethlehem was his birthplace, the 
 home of his childhood, and the spot around which all his 
 youthful hopes had gathered. Beside that well, he had 
 played as a child. From that well he had quenched his 
 thirst when heated by sport, or wearied with labor. At that 
 well he had watered his sheep at morning and evening, sur- 
 rounded by laughing maidens and joyous youths, when as yet 
 his mind knew no burden and his conscience no sin. And 
 now, wearied with life and tired of struggle, his thoughts 
 recurred to those days of innocence, and to that well whose 
 waters he remembered as the sweetest he had ever drank : 
 "And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me 
 drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the 
 gate ! " That well by the gate, — no other : for none had 
 its associations, none its memories. Other water might be 
 as sparkling, as cool, as pure : but not for him. In that 
 well alone could he see reflected, as in a panorama, all his 
 early life, his days of joy and peace. His heart went out to 
 that spot, and fastened itself upon it with a longing which 
 nothing else could satisfy. 
 
 And how that longing for the past of our boyhood cleaves 
 to us all ! As age creeps upon us, and we live in recollec- 
 tion more than we do in hope, how the heart goes back to 
 those places and circumstances which became dear to us in 
 
The Well of Bethlehem, 57 
 
 childhood ! We leap over the intervening gap, and fasten 
 our yearning hearts upon the days which have faded into 
 the distance. And such is life, unless we make it bright 
 with the hopes of eternity. In youth we look forward ; in 
 age we look back. In youth, ardent and joyous, our hearts 
 bound onward to action, as if we should surely find happi- 
 ness there ; in age, wearied and jaded, we go back to our 
 wells of Bethlehem, to drink there and be at peace. And 
 thus life is frittered away between anticipation and regret, 
 because we have not learned that its balance-wheel is in 
 Religion, — in re-union with God. If we fail to make that 
 union, we find that neither youth nor age will satisfy us. 
 In the one we shall be deluded by Hope; in the other we 
 shall be cheated by Memory. God has constituted 11? so, 
 and we cannot get rid of our nature. Without the living 
 presence of God in the soul, we cannot be satisfied in the 
 present. We create an ideal world, when we are young, 
 which we are ever hoping to realize ; and when we are old 
 we permit distance to give enchantment to the view, and to 
 gild all the past with a fictitious glow. 
 
 Is life worth its struggle under such conditions ? Are we 
 willing to live altogether without realities, and, like chil- 
 dren, to be clutching at the stars or running after the play 
 of the light and the shadow ? We are created for higher 
 things. We were never meant to be at rest amid illusions, 
 nor to spend our time in chasing them. A grand destiny is 
 ours ; and upon that it was designed that we should fix our 
 aims. We might find much to interest us by the way. — 
 much to love and much to enjoy. As we journeyed we might 
 pluck the flowers by the way-side, and drink from the wells 
 of Bethlehem; but God was to be ever before us, as the 
 purpose and end of all our movements. Those vast affec- 
 tions with which God had endowed us were not to be lav- 
 ished upon shadows ; but were given us for the reproduction 
 
38 The Well of Bethlehem. 
 
 within us of a life which should be eternal because divine, 
 having its centre in God, and its strength through Christ. 
 Those grand faculties of imagination, of hope, of memory, 
 were never designed to waste themselves upon dreams ; but 
 were bestowed upon us for the uses of life, and the gaining 
 of eternity. If we dwell in vain conceptions of the future, 
 or rest in false memories of the past, we are equally untrue 
 to ourselves. We are not grasping the divine idea of man's 
 existence. We are drinking water which will never quench 
 our thirst. We are preparing to lie down in disappointment 
 and sorrow. 
 
 How that longing of the heart for something we cannot 
 attain, breathes of our divine origin, and our assured im- 
 mortality ! Why is it that our conceptions are always more 
 perfect than our realizations, and that we are never satisfied 
 to live in the stern realities of our true existence ? Every 
 one has his dream, his fancy, his hope. Every one sits pen- 
 sive at times, and builds castles in the air. Every one has 
 an inner life which no one reads but himself, and which 
 goes on within his outer life, a wheel within a wheel. 
 While we toil and labor, we are dreaming. While encom- 
 passed by the ordinary routine of every-day life, we are in 
 some fairy land of the heart or the imagination. What we 
 are obliged to do in the way of labor or duty, we do me- 
 chanically in the sight of the world, and let it see the prose 
 of our existence : its poetry we keep for ourselves ; and thus 
 have always a witness within ourselves that we are more 
 than we seem to be, are born of a higher nature, are in- 
 tended for a sublimer sphere. And as these dreams are 
 successively scattered by the experience of life, — if we have 
 not found God in Christ, and taken that Keality home to 
 us, — we turn to the past, and long with David : " Oh that 
 one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth- 
 lehem, which is by the gate ! " 
 
The Well of Bethlehem. 
 
 39 
 
 But there is a much deeper meaning in that wish of 
 David than is contained in the train of thought which I 
 have been pursuing. David was a prophet, and saw in his 
 spirit the fulfillment of that prediction of Micah, then not 
 as yet even uttered, " But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, 
 though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet 
 out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler 
 in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from 
 everlasting." 1 And God's Spirit, as he lay there, old, faint 
 and wearied, showed him in vision that Fountain opened for 
 sin and for uncleanness in the house of David, and made 
 him to hear that Voice which declared to the woman of 
 Samaria : " Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst 
 again: but. 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 into ever- 
 lasting life." 2 And this water was typified by the well of 
 Bethlehem. And while the Psalmist's body longed for the 
 water in the well by the gate, and his mind clustered all its 
 rich memories and associations around it : his spirit was 
 longing for a draught of that divine Love which should 
 quench all the desires of the unsatisfied heart. Even as 
 Job, in his misery, cried out for a Mediator long before He 
 had come, saying, " Oh that I knew where I might find 
 him ! that I might come even to his seat ! " 3 so did 
 David, in the solitariness of his spirit, cry out for water 
 from that Well which yet lay hidden from the knowledge 
 of man. His lips, his affections, his soul, all longed for 
 water from that Well of Bethlehem, — true foreshadowing 
 of the unquenched thirst which still haunts the children 
 of men. 
 
 How often man longs secretly for spiritual water from 
 this Well of Bethlehem, and lets his want die unknown 
 i Micah v. 2. 2 g, John iv. 13, 14. 3 Job xxiii. 3. 
 
40 The Well of Bethlehem. 
 
 within him ! He sighs for something he has never had : 
 and he offctimes knows not what it is. It is a craving at 
 the heart for something that will fill his desires : and he 
 cannot find it. He supposes it to arise from some crook in 
 his lot, from some disease of temperament, from some ill 
 discipline of his character : when, all the while, it has its 
 origin in the soul, of which he has taken no account. 
 Body and mind are all he has been accustomed to consider ; 
 and when he can find no remedy for his longing in any 
 change he can administer to them, he thinks his case to he 
 hopeless. His philosophy is as much at fault as his religion. 
 He has left out of his calculation the highest constituent 
 of his heing : and yet hopes to he satisfied. When he has 
 furnished food for his hody, and literary or scientific nourish- 
 ment for his mind, and ohjects of an earthly kind for his 
 affections, he thinks that he has done every thing which he 
 can for the satisfaction of his nature : and yet he, an im- 
 mortal creature, has left hoth God and his soul without any 
 consideration. He has made no provision forever for that 
 part of his nature which is its living part. For that which 
 is corruptible and dying, he has exhausted luxury and pushed 
 science to its utmost verge of development : but that which 
 is incorruptible and undying, which is the breath of the Al- 
 mighty, which is to expand in greatness through eternal 
 ages, is left, without any spiritual food, to pine and perish 
 from utter inanition. And yet the man who does this, won- 
 ders that there is some unsatisfied longing in the heart, 
 some inward burning wish for " water of the well " of some 
 Bethlehem, that might revive his hopes. Why, my beloved 
 hearer, it is your soul longing for God ; craving to be united 
 once again to the Eternal Being from whom it sprang; 
 forcing upon you, if peradventure you may understand, its 
 claims to your notice, its influence upon your happiness for 
 time as well as for eternity. May you listen to it ; may you 
 
The Well of Bethlehem. 41 
 
 recognize the voice of the Divinity speaking" within you; 
 may you learn, ere it be too late, at what fountain its thirst 
 may be quenched, and its guilt washed out ; and may your 
 feelings find utterance in the burning words of David : " Oh 
 that one would give me drink of the water of the well of 
 Bethlehem, which is by the gate ! " 
 
 You can satisfy your longing, my immortal fellow-crea- 
 ture, at no other fountain than this of Bethlehem. It is 
 God's Holy Spirit that is causing you to feel that longing 
 for something higher and holier than you have yet attained ; 
 and it is God's Son giving you to drink of the Water of 
 Life which alone can satisfy your soul. Unless you can 
 procure water from that Well, you must perish in your un- 
 satisfied condition. Nothing but the Spirit of God can 
 quench the thirst of the spirit of man. And thanks be to 
 the grace and mercy of God, that Water is offered to every 
 thirsty creature ; and gushes a free, rich, abundant stream 
 of love and peace. When David uttered this wish, the well 
 of Bethlehem was in the hands of the Philistines, his ene- 
 mies ; and his valiant men of war were forced to risk their 
 lives to fulfill his desire. But this Well-spring of Christ, 
 springing up into everlasting life, can be approached with- 
 out fear and without hindraDce. Christ has conquered all 
 the enemies who made it unapproachable ; and every one, 
 — the poorest, and the meanest, and the most degraded, 
 and the most sinful — can come and drink of it, and be at 
 peace. Come all ye that are thirsty, all ye that are weary, 
 all ye that would know God, all ye that would fulfill the 
 purpose of God in your creation : and drink, and go your 
 way rejoicing ! 
 
 And do not we, my fellow-Christians, who have drank of 
 the water of that Well of Bethlehem, often utter in our 
 moments of spiritual declension : " Oh that one would give 
 me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which 
 
42 The Well of Bethlehem. 
 
 is by the gate ! " In the early years of our Christian expe- 
 rience, we were wont to go daily to that Well for refresh- 
 ment. Whenever joyous, we went there and found our 
 loved companions happy in its satisfying waters. Whenever 
 wearied, we went there and found our fainting fellow-pil- 
 grims reviving under its influence. Morning and evening 
 we carried there all our cares, and all our burdens; and 
 they lost their weight when we had drank its strength- 
 ening waters. It was the resort we loved most ; and oh, 
 how pleasant were those days of our early love, — how full 
 of innocence and peace ! But, like David, we have been 
 separated, perhaps, from the water of that Well, first by our 
 own sins, and then by the powerful enemies who seem to 
 stand between us and its waters. The battle of life has 
 carried us away from it. The cares, the anxieties, the col- 
 lisions of the world, have changed the Christian into the 
 man of war, or the man of many cares : and now, wearied 
 and battered, our hearts turn in earnest longing to our first 
 Christian love, to our haunts by that blessed Fountain, to 
 the refreshing and comforting draughts we have quaffed 
 from its waters, and the wish comes back to us, " Oh that 
 one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth- 
 lehem, which is by the gate ! " And why, my fellow-Chris- 
 tian, should you wish in vain? Like David you may be 
 hedged about for the moment. Lions may seem to lie 
 crouching between you and the object of your wish. En- 
 emies may look fierce upon you, and threaten you if you 
 dare to approach it. But fear not ! David's wish procured 
 it for him, through all these hindrances ; and your prayers 
 will obtain it for you, if you will cry to God in earnest. 
 " Fear not, 0 Jacob, my servant," is His language through 
 the Prophet Isaiah, " and thou, Jesurun, whom I have 
 chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, 
 and floods upon the dry ground." 1 All that He requires is 
 
 i Isaiah xliv. 2, 3. 
 
The Well of Bethlehem. 
 
 43 
 
 that you bring with, you a contrite spirit and a longing 
 heart, — a soul lamenting its departure from God, and 
 craving for the water of the Well of Bethlehem. If you 
 will act in the spirit of the backsliding children of Israel, 
 and say, " Come, and let us return unto the Loed : for he 
 hath torn, and he will heal us • he hath smitten, and he 
 will bind us up. After two days will he revive us : in the 
 third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 
 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord : his 
 going forth is prepared as the morning ; and he shall come 
 unto us as the rain, as the latter and the former rain unto 
 the earth." 1 
 
 1 Hosea vi. 1-3. 
 
tftftlj pennon. 
 
 For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ : for it is the 
 power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew 
 first, and also to the Greek. — Romans i. 16. 
 
 TT required two of the most elaborate chapters of Gib- 
 I) on's gorgeous work to display the grandeur and mag- 
 nificence of the Roman Empire under Augustus and his 
 immediate successors. With all that we may have seen of 
 modern luxury, and all that we may have imagined of con- 
 centrated power, we find it difficult to grasp the conception 
 which he there labors to embody, — the conception of 
 the whole civilized world united under a great military 
 despotism, with Rome as its heart, from which went forth 
 the irresistible decrees of power, and to which flowed 
 back, through innumerable, well-ordered channels, all that 
 wealth and luxury and art could furnish for its adornment 
 and glory. The world has never since seen so imperial a 
 city ; and pilgrims innumerable still wander there to muse 
 amid its unrivalled ruins, and dream of the greatness of 
 the past. It combined every thing which could win for it 
 veneration among its dependent provinces, which would 
 make them look with awe upon even its fashions and opin- 
 ions. It had the prestige of conquest, — nation after na- 
 tion, the most powerful and the most distant, having passed 
 under its yoke, and confessed its dominion. It was envel- 
 oped in that illusion which pomp and show cast around 
 their presence, especially when they surround the palaces 
 of a successful monarch and a time-honored nobility. It 
 
Not ashamed of the Gospel. 45 
 
 was the focus of literature and of art, the point whither 
 every thing tended which might minister to the senses or 
 the tastes of men. Rome was the Empire : every thing out- 
 side of its walls was provincial. To be great at Eome was 
 to be great at the remotest extremities of the world : to 
 meet the contempt of Rome was to ensure the contempt of 
 all that depended upon her. Her smile was power ; her 
 approbation was influence ; her condemnation withered the 
 hopes of statesmen, of orators, of poets, of philosophers. 
 To go up to Rome from the provinces and face its opinion, 
 — to plunge into that roaring vortex of the wise, the 
 thoughtful, the educated, the luxurious, the powerful, and 
 promulge a new and unheard-of doctrine, — demanded not 
 only a mighty confidence of Truth, but a physical nerve 
 over and above the Truth. It was like casting a die for 
 reputation and for life. If it succeeded, it ensured popu- 
 larity and power. If it failed, it brought down unmeasured 
 ridicule, and perhaps personal destruction. 
 
 No wonder, then, that when S. Paul was contemplating 
 a visit to Rome, — was about to preach the novel doctrines 
 of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this seat of power and of 
 sensuality, — he should have prepared his heart for the 
 struggle, and that some glimpses of hat preparation 
 should manifest themselves in passages of the Epistle 
 which he wrote to the Christians in that place before he 
 had ever visited them. It is one of these glimpses which 
 furnishes the text for my sermon, — one which draws from 
 him the remarkable disclaimer of being ashamed of the 
 Gospel of Christ. Having been hindered again and again, 
 by providential circumstances, in his intention of visiting 
 Rome, he seems to have feared that the Christians there 
 might suppose that he was kept away from shame ; that he 
 was unwilling to proclaim the new and despised doctrines 
 of the Cross in that centre of Roman influence. 
 
46 Not ashamed of the Gospel. 
 
 " Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren," is the 
 language of his explanation, " that oftentimes I purposed 
 to come unto you (but was let hitherto), that I might have 
 some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. 
 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians ; 
 both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me 
 is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at 
 Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of 
 Christ : for it is the power of God unto salvation to every 
 one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the 
 Greek." 1 It was not the ridicule which it might cost him 
 that hindered his coming. It was that the Spirit of God 
 had not yet opened the way for him, — that way which 
 afterwards carried him there a prisoner and an appellant 
 to the throne of the Caesars. 
 
 How little the world understands the difficulty which 
 there is in preaching the Gospel ! — the struggle which 
 the human heart undergoes in setting forth publicly and 
 faithfully those revealed truths which constitute what the 
 Scripture calls " the foolishness of preaching." It is easy 
 enough to be a philosopher or an essayist. S. Paul would 
 have found no cause for shame or contempt in announcing 
 from Mars 5 Hill at Athens, or from the tribune at Rome, 
 some novel or eclectic scheme of philosophy, — in uttering 
 any piece of human conception, however wild or fanciful. 
 Man will listen patiently to man's inventions. He will 
 weigh and consider the arguments and reasonings of his 
 fellow-creature, so long as there is any show of reason, 
 and even when there is none. But when you leave the 
 sphere of intellect, and attempt to take him into that of 
 Revelation, he mocks. And it is not only the hearer who 
 rebels against spiritual truth ; it is the preacher himself 
 who feels the temptation strong upon him to avoid the 
 
 i Rom. i. 13-16. 
 
Not ashamed of the Gospel. 47 
 
 Cross of Christ, and to dwell upon the evidences of Ee- 
 ligion, where he may reason ; or the morals of Christ, 
 which the common sense of mankind in a manner ap- 
 proves ; or the practice of life, which comes home to one's 
 every-day feelings and occupations. In these days of al- 
 most universal Christianity, when the Church of Christ is 
 a power in the earth, and the Ministers of the Church are 
 respected and esteemed, the question which suggests itself 
 to most minds upon hearing my text announced, is : " Why 
 should Paul have been ashamed to preach the Gospel any- 
 where? What is there in such glorious truth that any 
 man should shun to declare it to all the world P " And 
 when the answer is returned, that it was a novelty in the 
 world ; that it was contrary to all the received philosophy 
 of the times ; that it was exclusive and aggressive : such 
 answers are deemed to be sufficient. As if there was any 
 more temptation to be ashamed then, than there is now ; 
 as if the doctrines of the Cross have ceased to be an 
 offence 5 as if it is not just as unpalatable now-a-days to 
 be dependent upon the grace of God and the mercy of 
 Christ for salvation as it ever was ! No, my hearer. The 
 answer to that question lies much deeper, — stretches 
 down into the unbelief of the natural heart, and finds its 
 solution there. What tempted S. Paul to be ashamed of 
 the Gospel of Christ, and what tempts me as his successor, 
 and you as a Christian, to be ashamed of that same Gos- 
 pel, is the natural antagonism which there is in fallen 
 human nature to any thing which comes from God in 
 Christ. It is not a thing to be reasoned about ; contro- 
 versy can make it no plainer, nor any the more intelli- 
 gible. The Scripture declaration that " the carnal mind " 
 — that is, the heart which is born with a man before the 
 renewal of the Holy Ghost — " is enmity against God," 1 
 
 1 Rom. viii. 7. 
 
48 Not ashamed of the Gospel. 
 
 covers the whole ground. Sin has made it so : and sin 
 keeps it so, until the power of the Holy Ghost subdues that 
 sin, and gives Christ the dominion ! It is a thing that you 
 all feel and know, — not that you hate God, for that none 
 of you would admit : but that you despise, so long as you 
 are unconverted, what is called " doctrinal preaching " — a 
 dwelling upon the Atonement, and upon Regeneration, and 
 upon Justification, and upon Blood as the great cleanser 
 and purifier of the nature. And if you despise these doc- 
 trines, what are they but the Gospel ? What are they but 
 the very topics which are the glad tidings of great joy ? 
 You complain that you cannot understand them ; that they 
 are unintelligible (the very thing which the Apostle tells 
 us you would say) ; that they are foolishness (the very 
 words of the Apostle again) : and if they are pressed, — 
 why, then the preacher is " a fool " : or if his standing be 
 too high for that, " a fanatic." And when we who preach 
 the Gospel know all this, is there no temptation to be 
 ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ? — no allurement to pass 
 over these great and saving truths, and win your admira- 
 tion by rhetoric and philosophy ? There is enormous temp- 
 tation : for, besides the crucifixion which it really is to our- 
 selves to force upon unwilling ears ungracious topics, there 
 are plausible arguments enough to be found why we should 
 offer you other themes, and dwell more upon the duties of 
 life than on the doctrines of Christianity. 
 
 But while there is this temptation to preach morals 
 rather than doctrine, philosophy rather than Christianity, 
 we must nerve ourselves, as faithful Ministers of the Word, 
 against this shame ; because this very Gospel " is the power 
 of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth." It is 
 all in Christianity that has any power. The rest of the 
 system has no more power than any other scheme of morals 
 or philosophy. What power, for example, had the philoso- 
 
Not ashamed of the Gospel. 49 
 
 phy of Socrates over his age and nation ? I do not ask you 
 what intellectual force it had, but what 'power had it in re- 
 straining individuals or in leavening the mass, in even those 
 things which related to the conduct of this life ? And 
 surely it could have none upon the salvation of the soul, 
 when it left his most accomplished disciples doubtful about 
 even that soul's immortality ! And what power had the 
 ethical philosophy of Cicero over his times ? The moral 
 philosophers of Rome were very remarkable men in their 
 way, — unfolded the topics which they handled with great 
 clearness and completeness ; and yet what power had they? 
 Just none at all : and their compatriots went plunging on 
 in sensuality and lust, until Rome presented such a picture 
 at the incoming of Christianity as man has never seen 
 since, as the normal condition of his race. Well, if Chris- 
 tianity had not conjoined with it this power of God unto sal- 
 vation, its morals, and what might be called its philosophy, 
 should have no more influence in leavening the world than 
 that of antiquity. What man needs is not advice, is not 
 instruction in mere worldly duty, is not a constant lectur- 
 ing upon what he ought to do, or what he ought not to 
 do : but it is power to operate upon the will, to make it 
 desire to do right ; and then power to enable it to do right. 
 It would be very idle for me to employ myself twice every 
 Lord's day in telling such a congregation as you are, 
 about the duties of life. You know them quite as well 
 as I do ; and if that was all of Christianity, I should be 
 very glad to sit at the feet of many of you, and listen 
 to your instructions. But when the pulpit is fulfilling 
 its true design, — is calling you to repentance for sins 
 against God of which you are not conscious, and to faith 
 in our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may receive power from 
 on high to subdue sin, — then it assumes a very different 
 aspect. It becomes then a very distinct instrument for 
 4 
 
5<d Not ashamed of the Gospel. 
 
 spiritual good, and can be wielded only by those who have 
 been taught of God what is His wisdom and His will ! If 
 under this view of things you were to assume to become a 
 public teacher, I could no longer listen with patience to 
 your cold disputations upon morals and duties. I should 
 have to say to you, as our Saviour said to Mcodeinus when 
 he could not comprehend one of the leading doctrines of 
 Christianity : " Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest 
 not these things P " That is the difference ! Any one of 
 you who is a man of good morals and high social character 
 might be a preacher of Christianity, if instruction in mor- 
 als were all that it required : but when it embraces what S. 
 Paul calls " the Gospel of Christ," and concerns itself about 
 the salvation of the soul, it requires other elements of 
 knowledge than are possessed by a moralist ; elements of 
 knowledge attained not through the head, but through the 
 heart ; coming not from any thing which man teacheth, 
 but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. 
 
 This was the reason why S. Paul was not ashamed of the 
 Gospel of Christ, because it was the power of God unto salva- 
 tion ! God had appointed it so. He that commissioned 
 him had so arranged it. " For Christ sent me not to bap- 
 tize," writes he to the Corinthians, " but to preach the Gos- 
 pel : not with wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ 
 should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the 
 Cross is to them that perish foolishness ; but unto us which 
 are saved it is the power of God." 1 He needed no other 
 reason than this ; and when men cavilled at it and despised 
 it, his answer was : " For after that in the wisdom of God 
 the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by 
 the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 2 
 When they attempted to argue against it, to prove that 
 there could be no power in such foolish doctrines to affect 
 
 1 1 Cor. i. 17, 18. 2 Ibid. 21. 
 
Not ashamed of the Gospel. 
 
 5i 
 
 the world, his reply still was : " But God liath chosen the 
 foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and God 
 hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the 
 things which are mighty ; and base things of the world, 
 and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and 
 things which are not, to bring to naught things that are : 
 that no flesh should glory in his presence." "What more 
 could be said ? What further argument could be advanced 
 against a man making such assertions ? He was not 
 ashamed of the Gospel, and could not be made ashamed of 
 it, because it was the power of God ; and the very weak- 
 nesses alleged against it were met by the declaration that 
 they were made so of set purpose, to confound the wisdom 
 and the glory of man. Believing this, — and every man 
 who has experienced the converting grace of the Gospel 
 must believe it, — what can make him ashamed ? He is 
 God's messenger, and is wielding not his own power but 
 the power of God : is contending with man, not upon an 
 equal platform of intellect against intellect ; but with an 
 unknown and unreckoned influence, against the feelings 
 and the affections. 
 
 And it is just that unreckoned influence which gives 
 Christianity all its vitality. That unreckoned influence — 
 that influence which man does not recognize — is the Holy 
 Ghost ; and He will not honor any teaching with His pres- 
 ence and power, except the teaching which holds up and 
 dignifies the Cross of Christ. And this is the way in which 
 the power of God manifests itself in the salvation of the 
 soul. While " godliness is profitable unto all things, hav- 
 ing promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to 
 come," 1 its great purpose is to save the soul. " This is a 
 faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 2 The soul, the 
 
 1 1 Tim. ir. 8. 2 Ibid. i. 15. 
 
C2 Not ashamed of the Gospel. 
 
 sonl it was, that brought Christ down from Heaven, — that 
 " vital spark of heavenly flame " which is undying. He 
 came not to teach morals for the benefit of the few paltry 
 years that we spend upon the earth, but to prepare the soul 
 for reunion with that God from whom sin had violently 
 separated it ! For this end, he gave Himself a sacrifice for 
 sin. For this end, He put Himself in the place of man. 
 For this end, He bore upon Himself the full penalty of sin. 
 For this end, He shed His precious Blood, and made peace 
 between God and man. And when He had done all this, 
 and made the Atonement, then was the power which was to 
 give the Gospel its spiritual life sent down from Heaven ! 
 And when we look into the history of Christianity, we see 
 at once what is the meaning and force of this word, — u the 
 power of God." 
 
 Were the Apostles wiser than our Lord? Were they 
 more eloquent than He who spake as never man spake ? 
 Could they do more miracles than He did ? And yet their 
 first sermon converted some three thousand souls, while 
 the whole life and conversation and miracles of Jesus at- 
 tached to Him but a very small band of timid and hesitating 
 disciples ! How was this ? How do those who would take 
 away from Christianity the doctrines of the Cross, explain 
 this ? It has no explanation but that which the Scriptures 
 themselves give, — that these very doctrines are those 
 which the Holy Ghost applies and makes operative upon 
 the heart of the creature. And this is in direct fulfill- 
 ment of the promise of our Saviour : " Howbeit when he 
 the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all 
 truth : for he shall not speak of himself. .... He shall 
 glorify me : for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it 
 unto you." 1 And how shall He glorify Christ ? By mak- 
 ing His Cross, His Blood, His Atonement, the power of the 
 
 i S. John xvi. 13, 14. 
 
Not ashamed of the Gospel. 
 
 53 
 
 Gospel ! By giving His work the glory of salvation. By 
 proving to the world that there is none other Name under 
 heaven given among men, in whom, and through whom, 
 they may receive salvation, hut only the Name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. By finally bringing every knee to bow before 
 the Name of Jesus, and making every tongue confess that 
 He is Lokd, to the glory of God the Father. By gather- 
 ing together that great crowd of the elect, who are to make 
 Heaven resound forever with the new song of the redeemed : 
 " Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him 
 that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever 
 and ever." 
 
 How idle is it, then, where the soul's salvation is con- 
 cerned, to hope to do any good except through the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel ! We may not expect to have the power 
 of God with us, unless we make that the substance of our 
 instructions. We may have the approbation and admi- 
 ration of men, but we cannot look for the presence of the 
 Spirit unless we glorify Christ, and make His name honor- 
 able. " Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, 
 of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he shall 
 come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy 
 angels." And if our Lord will be ashamed of those in the 
 last day who are ashamed of His Cross now, think you that 
 He will honor them with His presence in the Church upon 
 earth ? No ! A Ministry which hides from the people the 
 doctrines of the Gospel because they are unpalatable or un- 
 intelligible, will have the light of God's countenance hid 
 from it, — will be shorn of all power for the salvation of the 
 soul ! And in like manner with the private Christian. He 
 will find, in his own experience, that he has no power 
 against the enemies of his soul, save in so far as he may be 
 living upon the Gospel. He will learn, perchance through 
 a sad experience, that his profession will not stand tempta- 
 
54 Not ashamed of the Gospel. 
 
 tion and seduction and the days of darkness, unless it rest 
 upon the corner-stone of the Atonement. He may be well 
 learned in all those things which make a Christian scholar 
 and a moral philosopher, and yet be weak as a child when 
 he comes to grapple with the great enemies of the soul, 
 unless he be washed in the Blood of Christ, and sanctified 
 and purified there. The Gospel is the power of God ; and 
 nothing else ! All the rest is the power of man. And the 
 power of man is nothing against the power of the Devil ! 
 It fades away before his wiles, as the morning dew before 
 the heat of the sun. It requires the power of God in 
 Christ to conflict with the enemies of the soul ! Therefore 
 is it that the work of the Ministry is, to lead the soul away 
 from itself, to the power of God ; to teach it where it shall 
 find true strength for the day of trial, and salvation in the 
 day of Christ's Judgment. 
 
^>irtl) pennon 
 
 He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night ? 
 Watchman, what of the night ? The watchman said, The morn- 
 ing cometh, and also the night : if ye will inquire, inquire ye : re- 
 turn, come. — Isaiah xxi. n, 12. 
 
 11 /TETHINKS it would strike a thoughtful man, when 
 his mind rested upon Christianity, for how long God 
 had been answering, through His commissioned watch- 
 men, the question of our text. If the religion which speaks 
 from the Word of God was a thing of yesterday, a man 
 might reasonably put it aside as unworthy of much consid- 
 eration. But when, however far back he may pierce into 
 the depths of antiquity, he shall find the watchman stand- 
 ing upon the walls of Zion, and replying to the anxious 
 question of bewildered reason, he may well pause and pon- 
 der over the startling fact. If he could get rid of it by 
 running it up through a few years, or even a few centuries, 
 until it was lost in obscurity, he might plausibly say, that 
 God would not have delayed so long a Revelation which 
 was meant for the world. 
 
 But the unbeliever has no such refuge as this. If he be 
 honest and true, he will find Revelation cleaving to him 
 through all the changes of the world's history, exhibiting 
 its landmarks wherever his researches may lead him, with 
 a faithful watchman for every age, with an earnest invita- 
 tion for every period since the Creation. Christianity is 
 not like the false religions of the earth, whose origin and 
 whose authors can be fixed in the mid ages of the world : 
 
56 Watchman, what of the Night? 
 
 but already have eighteen hundred years rolled away since 
 it received its fullest development, and was unfolded in 
 perfectness to man. That period, when we have reached 
 it, is called " the fullness of times," — " the latter days." 
 From that point we ascend four hundred years, beyond the 
 time of the Macedonian conqueror : and the Scriptures 
 which enfolded all the promise and prophecy of the Old 
 Dispensation are closed and sealed, waiting in silence the 
 coming of the Messiah. Even at that remote period 
 enough had been said by the watchman to satisfy the 
 questions of man, and to close up and seal the prophecy. 
 And if we open that volume, what a vista spreads away be- 
 fore us, carrying us up beyond Babylon and Nineveh and 
 Troy, and the fabled Argonauts : while yet Isaiah, and 
 David, and Samuel, and Joshua, were uttering immortal 
 truth, and looking with bright-eyed hope for the coming 
 Redeemer. And when we pass beyond any thing which 
 even human monuments can tell us, though dug from their 
 sepulchre of ages, we still meet Moses, and Job, and 
 Abraham, and Noah, and the men before the Flood, rest- 
 ing upon the promises of that Christ whom we worship 
 to-day. Unbelief, if it travel the path of history, will be 
 sorely harassed. It will meet its enemy at every point. 
 If it take Christianity upon its own hypothesis, — that it is 
 the flower of which Judaism was the bud, — it will find a 
 watchman wherever it turns, who will cry to it : " The 
 morning cometh, and also the night ; if ye will inquire, in- 
 quire ye : return, come." 
 
 And should not this arrest any man of reason ? Should 
 he not pause until he has satisfied himself about this 
 unique phenomenon? Before he can rationally pass on 
 with indifference, he must account for the origin, the 
 growth, the permanence of this persistent scheme ; he 
 must explain how that which was wrapped up in dark, 
 
Watchman, what of the Night ? 57 
 
 mysterious prophecies, canie all to be developed to tlie very 
 letter of tlie record ; how that which was the literature of 
 a peculiar nation, chanced to be all spiritual, and true to 
 the necessities of human nature ; how, while scorned and 
 rejected by the world until the moment when Prophecy 
 foretold that it would expand, it was taken to the heart of 
 humanity, and cherished as its comfort, its life, its hope ; 
 how, as the world continues to change, this religion alone 
 is unchangeable ; how, while kingxloins and nations perish 
 and pass away, this Christianity perishes not ; how the re- 
 ligious utterances of men as unlike us in every thing exter- 
 nal as the Prophets and Kings of Israel, should be the 
 very words in which we have this day, and in this holy 
 temple, poured out before God our religious feeliugs. 
 Could we use here the spiritual language of the Greeks 
 and Romans — if they had any spiritual language — with- 
 out jarring upon your feelings, and desecrating the holi- 
 ness of this sanctuary '? And yet they were much younger 
 nations than the Hebrews, and far more assimilated to the 
 world. Christianity may drive you off by the sternness of 
 its requisitions, and the purity of its life ; but history, tra- 
 dition, the monuments of the past, and, above all, your own 
 divine thirst, will force you back, and impel you to ask of 
 the divine watchman, " Watchman, what of the night ? " 
 When this question was asked out of Seir, it was asked in 
 reference to the heavy burden of prophecies which lay upon 
 that devoted country, — those prophecies which predicted, 
 when she was yet in the pride of her power and the abun- 
 dance of her riches, that Edom should be a desolation. It 
 may have been asked in scorn ; it may have been asked in 
 faith ; no matter which : the answer was alike suitable to 
 both : " The morning cometh," — the morning of light 
 and peace and opportunity ; " and also the night," — the 
 night of trouble and calamity. As one has beautifully ex- 
 
5 8 Watchman, what of the Night ? 
 
 pressed it : " Is it night ? Yet the morning comes, and 
 the dayspring knows his place. Is it day ? Yet the night 
 comes, and darkness steals over the world." It is thus in 
 nature, thus in life, thus in spiritual things. 
 
 Would to God, my beloved people, that you could be 
 aroused even so far as to ask your watchman, " What of 
 the night ? " He is set over you by the Lord. His duty 
 is to see that you are warned of peril to your souls ; his 
 pleasure to answer truly, when you ask your condition 
 while encompassed by the deep uncertainty of the present 
 and of the future. His position is one of deep responsi- 
 bility to you, of serious peril to himself. The Word of the 
 Lord to every Minister is this : " Son of man, I have made 
 thee a watchman unto the house of Israel : therefore hear 
 the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. 
 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die ; and 
 thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the 
 wicked from his wicked way, to save his life ; the same 
 wicked man shall die in his iniquity ; but his blood will I 
 require at thine hand." 1 You hear my peril, if I tell you 
 not the plain truth. Now listen to yours : 66 Yet if thou 
 warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor 
 from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity ; but thou 
 hast delivered thy soul." 2 This is our relation, — one cre- 
 ated by God, — one irrevocable in its nature, and eternal in 
 its results, — one that will follow us both to the Judgment- 
 seat of Christ. And while such a relation, so solemn and 
 so comprehensive, exists between us, we hold it in the 
 midst of corruption, of infirmity, of temptation, of dark- 
 ness. We should despair, unless the light of the glorious 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ had ushered in a morning, during 
 which we might return to God, and come back to the 
 Father from whom we had wandered, reckless prodigals ! 
 
 1 Ezekiel iii. 17, 18. Ibid. 19. 
 
Watchman, what of the Night ? 59 
 
 When one ont of Seir asked this question, " What of the 
 night ? " Christ had not yet risen, full-orbed, upon a sinful 
 world. The sky was brightening over Israel ; the rays of 
 prophecy were all converging and becoming a light in a 
 dark place : but the morning, the glorious morning, was 
 only coming. And even then, when the watchman dared 
 only to answer with the voice of promise and of hope, 
 " The morning cometh : if ye will inquire, inquire ye," he 
 felt himself constrained to add, " and also the night." As 
 if he said, " I can cheer you with the promise of a coming 
 Saviour; there are the beams of light thick gathering in 
 the chambers of the East. I can enliven this darkness 
 with glad tidings of great joy for you and for all mankind ; 
 tidings of redemption, of time and opportunity for repent- 
 ance, of the glorious hope of everlasting life. But beyond 
 that, I see approaching another night, darker than this ; a 
 night wherein no man can work ; in whose blackness of 
 darkness no watchman shall walk his solitary round and 
 cry, £ All's well ; ' where there shall be no question and no 
 answer, no life, no peace, no hope ; but all shall be swal- 
 lowed up in the wrath of the Lamb. Therefore I cry unto 
 you, c If ye will inquire, inquire ye : return, come.' " 
 
 Should the question be asked to-day, the watchman would 
 answer, " The morning is come." The Sun of Righteous- 
 ness has arisen upon a world lying in darkness, and there 
 is all around us the bright shining of truth and of salvation. 
 It flashes upon us from every thing in society, just as the 
 rays of the glorious orb of day are reflected to us from every 
 object in nature, the minutest as well as the grandest, the 
 grain of sand and the drop of water equally with the moun- 
 tain top and the ocean's bosom. Milton's prayer, when 
 through his blindness he would see the visions of the Al- 
 mighty, " What in me is dark, illumine ; what is low, raise 
 and support," has been granted to the world by Christianity, 
 
6o Watchman, what of the Night? 
 
 and comes assured to our feelings as well as our reason. 
 Christ lias sanctified every relation of life, even while he 
 was modifying the civilization of the world. He has exalted 
 poverty, and sorrow, and humility, and made them the ve- 
 hicles of his richest blessings, at the same moment that He 
 was scattering the vain philosophy of the schools, and was 
 overturning the temples and shrines of paganism. " Ob- 
 jects remain, and relations are still unbroken," is the rich 
 language of Butler, " but new and lovely lights and shad- 
 owings cover them. They move in the same directions as 
 before, but under an atmosphere impregnated with brighter 
 hues, and rich with a light that streams direct from 
 Heaven." 
 
 This then, my hearer, is your opportunity. Light is all 
 around you. Truth is sown broadcast. Hope spreads her 
 glittering wings above you. Society, home, your own un- 
 quenchable desires, your own thick coming affections, all 
 call you to Christ. You have no need of the watchman to 
 tell you of the morning. The Gospel cannot be hid from 
 you ; it seems impossible. Why, it is a part of all you are, 
 and all you love. It is the foundation of your happiness 
 and your peace. Even while you do not see it, you are feel- 
 ing it in every pulse of your manhood. Even while you are 
 indifferent to it, it is adorning your own nature, and show- 
 ering blessings upon your ungrateful head ! Oh ! it cannot 
 be hid from you, — it is too palpable in its glories and its 
 wonders ! Oh ! let it not be hid ; for " if our Gospel be 
 hid, it is hid to them that are lost : in whom the god of 
 this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe 
 not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is 
 the image of God, should shine unto them." 1 Are you then 
 among the lost ? Having eyes, can you not see P Having 
 ears, can you not hear ? Is your heart stone, that you can- 
 
 i 2 Cor. iv. 4. 
 
Watchman, what of the Night? 61 
 
 not feel ? Am I ploughing' with oxen upon a rock ? God 
 forbid ! Try and see. Try and feel. Put not yourselves in 
 the fearful category of the lost. Let not the bright rays 
 of the morning shine upon you without imparting to you 
 their warmth and cheerfulness. Let not nature and man 
 rejoice in sympathy with God, while you have no part in the 
 divine harmony. Let not the voice of adoration swell from 
 the choirs of the universe, from angels and archangels, and 
 the redeemed of every nation and kindred and tribe and 
 people, and yours be one of discord and of shame. Now is 
 your opportunity, — " the accepted time," " the day of sal- 
 vation." Let the Dayspring which has arisen upon the 
 world arise in your hearts, and bathe them in the sunlight 
 of heaven ! 
 
 This is your opportunity ; but even as the watchman an- 
 swered, " The morning cometh," he added, " and also the 
 night." Oh ! how true, — how true in every thing ! How 
 bright the morning is ! How every thing is rejoicing around 
 us ! How the blue heavens seem liquid with happiness ! 
 How the leaves of the forest quiver in the sunlight as if 
 they were dancing for joy ! How the birds are caroling 
 their morning hymns, and sending their unconscious music 
 up to the throne of God ! How vigorous is man, as he treads 
 the earth in the pride of his manhood, drinking in the 
 healthful sunshine, and reflecting it back upon every thing*, 
 as if in the superfluity of his blessings ! But the night 
 cometh ! Nothing can keep it from following the morning : 
 — not the glory of heaven ; not the rejoicing forests ; not 
 the music of the birds ; not the pride nor happiness of man. 
 It is the ordination of nature ! Night must settle over the 
 morning ; darkness must follow light ; obscurity must take 
 the place of brightness, and blot out all the beauties of the 
 day. And it is not confined to nature. Darkness treads 
 upon the heels of joy in the moral world. " If a man live 
 
62 Watchman, what of the Night? 
 
 many years," says the wise Preacher, " and rejoice in them 
 all ; yet let him remember the days of darkness ; for they 
 shall be many." 1 No matter, my hearer, how bright your 
 morning may be, the night cometh also. No matter how 
 long that brightness may continue, be not deceived : the 
 night cometh also. Are you exulting in youth, and beauty, 
 and the freshness of life : " Rejoice, O young man, in thy 
 youth ; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy 
 youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight 
 of thine eyes : 2 but know thou " that " the night cometh 
 also ; " — the night of sickness, the night of sorrow, the 
 night of death, the night of the grave ! Are you nestled 
 in quiet happiness in the bosom of your own home, finding 
 your peace and your rest in the hearts of the loved ones who 
 cluster around your hearthstone, and make it redolent with 
 love ? Oh ! if there is sunlight upon earth, it is there. It 
 has more the impress of heaven than any other image upon 
 earth. But even there " the night cometh also." Art thou 
 rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing? 
 Is the morning shining brightly upon thy overflowing barns, 
 and are its rays glancing gayly from thy silver and thy gold ? 
 " The night cometh also," when, if it has not been devoted 
 to the glory of God and the uses of mercy, " your riches will 
 be corrupted, and your garments motheaten, and your gold 
 and your silver cankered 5 and the rust of them shall be a 
 witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were 
 fire : " 3 when you shall hear the solemn cry, " Thou fool, 
 this night thy soul shall be required of thee." 4 
 
 Are you a Christian, a professed follower of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ? Is it morning with your soul ? Is all light 
 there ? Are you saying with David, " In thy light shall I 
 see light ? " 5 Christian, the night cometh also : the night 
 
 1 Eccles. xi. 8. 2 Ibid. 9. 3 S. James v. 3. 
 
 * S. Luke xii. 20. 5 Psalm xxxvi. 9. 
 
Watchman, what of the Night / 
 
 63 
 
 when no man can work ; the night when darkness mar rest 
 upon the soul ; the night when your dying bed shall he the 
 scene of unutterable struggles between vour spirit and the 
 Spirit of God. Oh ! think of these things, ye that hear me 
 this day ; and, while the light is with you. return and come. 
 " Give glory to the Loed your God, before he cause dark- 
 ness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, 
 and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of 
 death, and make it gross darkness/' 1 
 
 " If ye will inquire, inquire ye : " so answered the watch- 
 man to him that questioned out of Seir ; and so answer I. 
 Inquire ! — inquire into every thing I have told you this day, 
 and all the days that shall have to be accounted for between 
 us. Christianity fears no inquiry conducted in a logical and 
 earnest spirit. It dreads only indifference and the spirit of 
 the scorner. It has been subjected all along its course to 
 the most searching and malicious inquiry. — inquiry sug- 
 gested by the devil, and carried on in the spirit of the 
 devil, with the bitter hatred of the crucified Jesus : and it 
 has survived it all. " They shall perish, but Thou shalt 
 endure." 2 Inquire into it, — its history, its prophecy, its 
 wonderful development, its divine moral and spiritual fea- 
 tures, its suitableness to your own nature : and it will rise 
 triumphant from the search. Let not your days slip away in 
 apathy and unmovableness. That is your danger : not pos- 
 itive unbelief, but to-morrow — to-morrow — to-morrow. 
 " Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go 
 into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and 
 sell, and get gain : whereas ye know not what shall be on 
 the morrow. For what is your life ? It is even a vapor, 
 that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." 3 
 And inquire, likewise, into the experience of life. If the 
 days of darkness have never yet come upon you, inquire of 
 
 1 Jer. xiii. 16. 2 Psalm cii. 26. 3 S. James iv. 13, LL 
 
64 Watchman, what of the Night ? 
 
 your neighbors and friends whether the night does not come 
 also. Go from house to house, and search and see if there 
 be one in which there has been perpetual morning. The 
 mournful answer which the stories and the rafters will give 
 you, if the master refuses to unfold his griefs, will tell 
 you that " the night cometh also." 
 
 And when you have inquired and are satisfied, then re- 
 turn to the Father from whose love you have wandered. 
 Take up your pilgrim's staff, and, armed with the resolution 
 of going to your Father and confessing your sins, tread the 
 way back. It may be a rugged, thorny way, that way of 
 repentance ; but it leadeth to everlasting life. It may be 
 a way of humiliation and sorrow; but it leadeth to our 
 Father's house, where are peace and joy for evermore. 
 Return, come ! The voice of love is calling to you from 
 Bethlehem, and Gethsemane, and Calvary ! Its accents are 
 " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
 I will give you rest." 1 Come now, while the light of morn- 
 ing is leaping upon the mountains : for this same loving 
 Saviour said, "Yet a little while is the light with you. 
 Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you : 
 for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he 
 goeth." 2 
 
 1 S. Matt. xi. 28. 2 S. John xii. 35. 
 
^efccntl) Sermon. 
 
 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast not/wig to draw 
 with, and the well is deep : from whence then hast thou that livi?ig 
 water ? — S. John iv. n. 
 
 i^\XE day," say the Arabs, " King Xinirod summoned into 
 
 his presence his three sons. He ordered three urns, 
 under seal, to be set before them. One of the urns was of 
 gold, another of amber, and the third of clay. The king 
 bade the eldest of his sons to choose among these urns that 
 which appeared to him to contain the treasure of greatest 
 price. He chose the vase of gold, on which was written 
 the word Empire j he opened it, and found it full of blood. 
 The second took the vase of amber, whereon was written 
 the word Glory ; he opened it, and found it full of the ashes 
 of men who had made a great figure in the world. The 
 third son took the remaining vase, that of clay. He opened 
 it, and found it quite empty ; but on the bottom the potter 
 had inscribed the word God. 6 Which of these vases is 
 worth the most ? 5 asked the king of his courtiers. The 
 men of ambition replied, it was the vase of gold ; the poets 
 and conquerors, that it was the amber one ; the wise men, 
 that it was the empty yase, because a single letter of the 
 name of God was of more worth than the whole world." 
 
 How beautifully this legend illustrates the judgment of 
 the world in regard to Truth. They search for it, and think 
 they have grasped it, when they have laid their hands upon 
 the vases of gold and the vases of amber, — when they have 
 sat at the feet of the great men of the earth, the Con- 
 
 5 
 
66 The Well of Living Water. 
 
 querors, tlie Poets, the Philosophers, the Statesmen. They 
 take it for granted that if there is wisdom, it must be 
 found with those ; that if there is truth, it must be hid- 
 den somewhere among their treasures. They turn away 
 from the vases of clay, never dreaming that the name of 
 God may be written upon them ; they turn away from the 
 humble of heart, from the meek in spirit, from the suffer- 
 ing, from the lowly, from those to whom God is speaking in 
 silence and in sorrow, who are working out Truth in the 
 only way by which it can be won, — through the chastened 
 experience of life. These, with whom God loves to dwell, 
 they pass unnoticed. Nothing attracts them there. The 
 well of Truth is deep, and these seem to have nothing to 
 draw with. They press on, and instead of water to quench 
 their immortal thirst, they find blood; instead of food 
 which shall endure unto eternal life, they find ashes ! 
 
 And yet, methinks, God should have taught all Christian 
 men, through the life of His Son, where to seek for truth. 
 " I am the Truth," 1 said Christ : and Christ was " meek 
 and lowly in heart." 2 "I am the Truth," said Christ : and 
 Christ was " a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." 3 
 " I am the Truth," said Christ : and Christ was " brought 
 as a lamb to the slaughter, and opened not his mouth." 4 
 " I am the Truth," said Christ ; and He bowed His head 
 and cried, " Not my will, but Thine, 0 God, be done ! " 5 
 It seems strange, with such indications as these, that man 
 should not know where to seek for Truth, — that he should 
 be at all at a loss about the conditions of human life in 
 which he should be most likely to find it. To discover 
 Truth, we must walk in the footsteps of Truth ; and they 
 lead, in this world, through paths from which human 
 nature shrinks, unless it be sincerely earnest. The disciple 
 
 1 S. John xiv. 6. 2 S. Matt. xi. 29. 8 Isaiah liii. 3. 
 
 4 Isaiah liii. 7. 6 S. Luke xxii. 42. 
 
The Well of Living Water. 67 
 
 must be satisfied if lie be as his Master ; and this Master 
 we have introduced to us in the story from which niv text 
 is taken, as a weary traveller, seated upon Jacob's well, alone 
 and thirsty, having nothing to draw with, while the well 
 was deep, and the water unattainable. 
 
 The conversation which took place under these circum- 
 stances is full of interest and instruction. " There cometh 
 a woman of Samaria to draw water : Jesus saith unto her, 
 Give me to drink. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto 
 him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, 
 which am a woman of Samaria ? for the J ews have no deal- 
 ing's with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto 
 her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that 
 saith to thee, Give me to drink ; thou wouldest have asked 
 of him, and he would have given thee living water. The 
 woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw 
 with, and the well is deep : from whence then hast thou 
 that living water ? " 
 
 This is the question of man in all generations to Jesus 
 Christ. " The well is deep, — the well of Truth ; thou art, 
 to all appearance, an obscure man, of an obscure nation. 
 To the eye of sense, thou hast nothing to draw with. Thou 
 hast neither philosophy, — for we know not thy school; nor 
 power, — for thy father was a carpenter ; nor glory, — for 
 thou diedst a felon's death ; nor riches, — for thou hadst 
 not where to lay thy head : from whence then hast thou 
 that living water, — that truth which is to be a fountain 
 within us, opening up into everlasting life ? We know not 
 truth, unless it comes to us from the wise, or the mighty, 
 or the noble of this world. We look for it where glory 
 illumines the path, where gold glitters in its dust, where 
 learning stains it with its sweat, where poetry and philoso- 
 phy strew it with their creations. Thou art only a vase of 
 clay. Should we take the trouble to unseal thee, we should 
 
68 The Well of Living Water, 
 
 find thee empty." And the world sweeps on, never dream- 
 ing that the Almighty potter has written the name of GOD 
 upon that humble, weary, thirsty wayfarer. 
 
 Our Saviour, as He sat upon that well, was both man and 
 God. As man, He was, like man, powerless to reach the 
 water in that well of Truth : it was deep, and He had noth- 
 ing to draw with. He could see it lying far beneath Him, 
 calm and pure. He could perceive heaven in its bosom, re- 
 flected as in a mirror. He thirsted for it with an unquench- 
 able thirst : but all in vain. It was there, — but not for 
 Him ; not for Him, at least, in that way, and under those 
 circumstances. It had been there from the beginning, and 
 man had always longed for it : but it seemed unattainable. 
 Many a traveller, weary and thirsty, had come to it as to a 
 shrine : but not one had ever drawn water from its depths. 
 Each one had gazed into its beauteous face, had seen heaven 
 there, had stretched out his hands that he might clutch it, 
 and carry it to his burning lips : but they all grasped emp- 
 tiness, for the name of God had not yet been written upon 
 it. Truth was not yet for man. The fullness of times was 
 not yet come : and philosophy speculated in vain, and poetry 
 created in vain, and wisdom cried in vain at her portal. 
 There was no answer. Man described truth, bedizened truth, 
 counterfeited truth, adored truth : but all that was very (lif- 
 erent from drinking it in, and assimilating it to himself. 
 Yet this was what man wanted, — truth as a satisfying real- 
 ity, as a substantive good which should enter into his being, 
 and become a part of his nature, and give him assurance of 
 everlasting life. All this Christ represented, in His human 
 nature, as He sat upon the brink of that deep well. He 
 was the type of fallen man, weary and thirsty, with the 
 water gushing in his sight, and nothing wherewith he 
 might reach it. Sad image of our condition : until He 
 came and gave us another side to the picture. 
 
The Well of Living Water. 69 
 
 The vase of clay, which the woman of Samaria saw there, 
 had the name of GOD written upon it ! He looked like any 
 other man ; He was weary like any other man ; He was 
 thirsty like any other man : but He was nevertheless God ! 
 He might be poor ; He might be obscure ; He might be 
 suffering : but nevertheless, He was God. And as God, 
 Truth was His own, grew in His own bosom, was the very 
 essence of His Nature. He needed not to draw for it out 
 of any well, not even the well of Jacob. It was a fountain 
 forever gushing within Himself, wherewith He might sup- 
 ply all that should come. " If thou knewest the gift of 
 God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink ; 
 thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have giveu 
 thee living water." What glad tidings for man ! No more 
 vain hunting after truth ; no more vain yearning after its 
 pure refreshing waters ; no more sitting and gazing into 
 that deep well, from which we have nothing that can sat- 
 isfy us. Here is a man — a man like ourselves — who is 
 Himself the Truth ; who will give us, for the asking, enough 
 to create within ourselves a well-spring, springing up into 
 everlasting life. " 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 
 into everlasting life." And how lovingly he calls us to that 
 divine Fountain ! His prophet had foreseen it when he 
 sang, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 waters ; " 1 had foreseen this very Man of Sorrows, opening 
 a fountain in the house of David : but He Himself pro- 
 claimed it on that day when the Israelites sang their joy- 
 ful thanksgiving: "Behold, God is my salvation; I will 
 trust, and not be afraid : for the Lord JEHOVAH is my 
 strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. 
 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of 
 
 1 Isaiah lv. 1. 
 
jo The Well of Living Water. 
 
 salvation." 1 " In the last day, that great day of the feast, 
 Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him 
 come unto me, and drink." 2 
 
 What a blessed conjunction of Natures ! — as man, sit- 
 ting upon the well of Truth, as cheerless as any of us, hav- 
 ing nothing to draw with : but as God, having Truth at his 
 command, and ready to bestow it upon every one who will 
 ask for it as becomes a thirsty, dying creature. Why, oh ! 
 why will not man lay aside his pride and his unbelief, and 
 come to the feet of this loving human Brother, and receive 
 the treasures of His wisdom ? Because, like the Samaritan 
 woman, he thinks that truth can come only out of earthly 
 wells ; and whenever Christ proffers him truth, his question 
 is, " Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is 
 deep ; from whence then hast thou that living water ? " 
 
 And this brings up, as you perceive, the whole question 
 of a Revelation. The Jews had this trouble very early in 
 our Saviour's ministry. When He had been teaching* in 
 the synagogues, speaking as never man spake, they " were 
 astonished and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, 
 and these mig'hty works ? Is not this the carpenter's son ? 
 (the vase of clay, you see ; — that was the difficulty ! ) is 
 not his mother called Mary ? and his brethren, James, and 
 Joses, and Simon, and Judas ? And his sisters, are they 
 not all with us? (still harping upon the clay). Whence then 
 hath this man all these things? And they were offended 
 in him. " 3 How soon it began ! — and it has never ceased, 
 and never will cease. It is the question of Unbelief ; and 
 unbelief never dies, — unbelief in a God that cares for His 
 creatures, that will provide for His creatures : for what pro- 
 vision does man need so much as Truth? And where is he 
 to get it, unless it come from God? Has he not been 
 searching for it long ages, and is he any nearer to it by 
 
 1 Isaiah xii. 2, 3. 2 S. John vii. 37. 3 S. Matt. xiii. 54-6. 
 
The Well of Living Water. 
 
 those researches ? Have there not been as many schools of 
 Truth, as there have been men of ability ? Have not the 
 wise men of one age assaulted and overturned all that was 
 deemed truth by the wise men of another? Has it not 
 been overturning; overturning, overturning, from the days 
 when speculation was born in the East until now ? And is 
 not the warfare still going on ? Oh, how pitiful to see 
 those poor, worn, weary, thirsty men, struggling by the side 
 of that deep well of Truth, having nothing to draw with, 
 and striving to pass off the muddy water which they have 
 taken from their own cisterns, for the pure refreshing water 
 that has heaven always reflected in it ! They will not re- 
 ceive it from Christ. He seems to be but a man, for He was 
 born, and had infirmities, and suffered, and died : whence 
 then has He living water '? And why is this, my hearers ? 
 Why this reluctance to believe in a Eevelation ? Surely 
 now, after nearly six thousand years, you may give up any 
 hope for Truth from any source save God ! You have tried 
 long enough, 0 man ! to draw it up from the depths of the 
 earth. That has beeu your plan. Xow try God's, — to re- 
 ceive Truth from the heavens above, from God the fountain 
 of Truth ; and cavil not if He offer it to you in a vase of 
 clay, if so be you can only see His Xarue written upon it. 
 
 And is there not abundant proof that GOD'S Xame is 
 written upon Jesus of Nazareth ? Was that man, who sat 
 upon Jacob's well, wayworn and thirsty, unheralded ? A 
 whole nation, unique in its history and peculiar in its insti- 
 tutions, was set apart and miraculously preserved through 
 long ages to predict His coming. Epochs which mau could 
 not arrange nor modify, were fixed centuries before He came, 
 to declare His Birth. Miracles accompanied Him from His 
 cradle to His grave. Wisdom flowed from His lips, such as 
 man never spake, such as man can never imitate. His life 
 enlightened the world: His death converted it! "What 
 
72 The Well of Living Water, 
 
 mark does He want, to certify Him to be from God ? He is 
 not a vase of Gold, and has not Empire written upon Him ! 
 But remember, that vase was full of blood, — the blood of 
 the oppressed, of the conquered, of the murdered ; and He 
 came to bring peace on earth, good-will towards men. He 
 is not a vase of Amber, and has not Glory written upon 
 Him. But remember, that vase was full of ashes, — of the 
 ashes of hope, of desire, of love, of greatness; and He 
 came to renew hope, to satisfy desire, to enkindle love and 
 make it immortal ; to raise men to the true greatness of 
 being the sons of God. He came to give us beauty for 
 ashes ! How can you expect to see Him in any shape so 
 contrary to the purpose of His coming ? He could come 
 only as He did come, if He would redeem man and restore 
 him to Truth and God ! 
 
 Until He came, man was indeed a vase of clay, empty and 
 worthless. God had no part in him, save in his creation, 
 after sin had destroyed the likeness of God. How could the 
 Name of God be once again written upon him ? The Bible 
 tells us : Only by the Son of God taking our nature and 
 redeeming us back by His own Blood. He, as man, must 
 satisfy God for the race of man ; and because, in doing this, 
 He appears on earth as a man, are we to reject him ? Are 
 we to despise that humiliation, when we learn that it was 
 the only mode by which we might attain unto glory ? Sup- 
 pose you that humiliation is any the more pleasant to God, 
 than to man ? Was not, then, the form He took, the pov- 
 erty He endured, the scorn He underwent, the cruel death 
 He died, the most striking evidence of His love to us ? And 
 because of His love, are you so short-sighted, so earthly, as 
 to despise Him ? Can you not see the moral, the spiritual 
 glory of God, breaking out through that tenement of clay ? 
 Could a mere man have lived as He lived, without spot and 
 without blemish ? Could a mere man have placed Truth 
 
The Well of Living Water. 
 
 73 
 
 upon such a basis as that neither Philosophy, nor Science, 
 nor Time, can shake it ? Could a mere man have assumed 
 all the lowliness of His circumstances, and dignified them, 
 and made them honorable, — nay, sublime? Could a mere 
 man have died as He died, making the Cross a very chariot 
 of glory ? A vase of clay He was, because it was necessary 
 He should be : but on it was clearly written — too clearly 
 for any one to say he cannot read it — the Name of GOD, 
 the great unchangeable I AM. 
 
 And He has arranged in His Church the means whereby 
 we may attain to Truth. It is no longer necessary that any 
 human creature should thirst ; the living water can be his 
 for the asking. Christ is ready to communicate with us 
 through His Spirit, — that Spirit whom He sent into the 
 world when He took His place as our Advocate at the right 
 hand of His Father. " Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth 
 is come, he will guide you into all truth : for he shall not 
 speak of himself. He shall glorify me : for he shall receive 
 of mine, and shall shew it unto you." 1 Truth now comes 
 down to us. No more digging cisterns that can hold no 
 water ! No more peering into deep wells to look for Truth ! 
 No more watching of those old wrestlers after the good and 
 the beautiful, to see if perchance they might find out any 
 thing for guidance or for comfort ! We have now a better 
 well than Jacob dug ; one not of the earth, earthy ; but 
 " a pure river of water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding 
 out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb." 2 Let us drink 
 of that, and be satisfied. Let us bathe in that, and receive 
 new life. It is the true fountain of youth. " They that 
 wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall 
 mount up with wings as eagles." 3 And we are not without 
 something to draw with. " Say not in thine heart, Who 
 
 1 S. John xvi. 13, 14. 2 Key. xxii. 1. 
 
 3 Isaiah xl. 31. 
 
74 The Well of ' Living Water. 
 
 shall ascend into heaven ? (that is, to hring Christ down from 
 above ; ) or, Who shall descend into the deep P (that is, to 
 bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it ? 
 The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart : 
 that is, the word of faith, which we preach." 1 And not 
 only is it nigh us through the Spirit : but we have prayer, 
 the great instrument for drawing Truth out of the wells of 
 salvation. It was that which gave the weary Man who sat 
 upon the well of Jacob, power for all His work of love. 
 " Oh, my Father ! " was His constant cry. Whole nights 
 He spent in prayer. All His miracles were accompanied by 
 prayer. He prayed in the Garden, until great drops of 
 sweat, like unto blood, fell upon the ground. He prayed 
 upon the Cross, until He cried, " It is finished." That is 
 our instrument. It brings the Holy Spirit to us, and He 
 gives life to all the ordinances. We feel His Presence in 
 the House of God. We experience His power at the Sacred 
 Feast. We rejoice in the flood of truth which He strikes 
 from the Word of Truth ; and while we revel in the love of 
 God which He sheds abroad in the heart, we are made sen- 
 sible that although we are but vases of clay, yet neverthe- 
 less is the Name of God written upon us. 
 
 1 Rom. x. 6-8. 
 
etgljtl) Sermon 
 
 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a 
 kingdom, which shall never be destroyed : and the ki?igdom shall not 
 be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all 
 these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. — Daniel ii. 44. 
 
 /^\YID said of the Roman Empire in his day, which was 
 contemporary with the birth, of our Saviour, that when 
 Jupiter looked down from the pinnacles of heaven he could 
 not descry any thing throughout creation that was not Ro- 
 man. This was, of course, poetically extravagant ; but much 
 soberer writers than Ovid speak of the Empire under Augus- 
 tus as embracing all the world that was considered worth 
 having. It was the widest dominion which had been then 
 known ; and if it did not equal the great Empires of the 
 present day, — the Russian, the British, the American, — it 
 surpassed them all in the compactness of its power, in the 
 command of its resources, in the terror of its arms, in the 
 celerity and certainty of its blows of conquest or vengeance. 
 It was not the growth of a day. It had been consolidating 
 for seven centimes. And when Augustus closed the gates of 
 the temple of Janus, it numbered among its subjects all the 
 civilized nations of the earth, while the savages who hovered 
 around its frontiers were ready to acknowledge its dominion, 
 and careful to avoid its anger. It seemed, so far as man 
 then knew, to be limited only by the horizon ; and its 
 strength was of a piece with its extent. It was no loose 
 disjointed mass, without unity and harmony. Although 
 embracing within its wide circumference various climates 
 
76 The Kingdom of Christ, 
 
 and innumerable tribes, it had carried with it in its progress 
 its civil and military institutions, and had knit together all 
 these diversified nations with bands of iron, so that each was 
 made tributary to the fullest extent of its wealth and power. 
 And all this vast accumulation of riches and legions was 
 subject to a single will, and could be hurled with irresistible 
 force upon any point either of resistance or rebellion. The 
 world seemed to have reached that condition when all na- 
 tionalities were to be swallowed up, and one iron rule, fierce 
 and stern, was to mould every thing into its own shape, and 
 keep that hopeless of change. 
 
 Under this aspect of things there was born, in a remote 
 corner of this powerful Empire, a Child, seemingly of very 
 obscure parentage. His mother, it is true, was of the house 
 and lineage of David ; but so reduced in circumstances that 
 her husband was a carpenter. One of the decrees of Au- 
 gustus, expressive of his universal dominion, — that all the 
 world should be taxed, — brought this humble pair to Beth- 
 lehem, where the Child came to the birth, and was cradled 
 in a manger. From this time until John appeared in the 
 wilderness of Judsea, we hear no more of this Child ; except 
 that once, when a mere Boy, He strayed from His parents, 
 and was found in the Temple among the Doctors, amazing 
 them by His wisdom and answers. After He had been an- 
 nounced by John, we can follow His history for three years, 
 when we find Him accused before Pontius Pilate, the Gov- 
 ernor of Judaea, who permitted Him, — although he could 
 find no guilt in Him, — to be crucified between two thieves, 
 as a common malefactor. During His short career, He had 
 attracted great attention among His countrymen. But their 
 interest in Him was only short-lived ; and when He died, 
 He left but few friends, and they of the lowest classes of the 
 people in rank and consequence. To them and to all who 
 would listen to Him He declared Himself to be the Christ, 
 
The Kingdom of Christ. 77 
 
 the Anointed of God, the long-promised and prophesied Mes- 
 siah, who had come to set up in the world the Kingdom pre- 
 dicted by Daniel in the words of my text : " And in the 
 days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a king- 
 dom, which shall never be destroyed : and the kingdom shall 
 not he left to other people, hut it shall break in pieces and 
 consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." 
 
 What a contrast between these two kingdoms ! The one 
 throned in power, mighty in resources, surrounded with the 
 prestige of a thousand victories : the other, finding as its 
 only earthly support a few illiterate countrymen, and they 
 disheartened by the ignominious death of their Leader. 
 The one illustrious in its historians and poets and orators, 
 who scattered its fame broadcast among the people, and em- 
 balmed its glories in immortal verse : the other known only 
 to the few whom its preachers might attract, and whose only 
 literature was the volume of their Master's sad and painful 
 story. The one with a gorgeous worship, whose officers 
 were statesmen, and whose rites were national, and who 
 received into their tolerant Pantheon every deity who might 
 increase their popularity : the other with nothing to attract 
 save naked Truth ; whose temples were the desert and the 
 cave, and the blue vault of heaven ; whose priests were un- 
 learned men, save as God might inspire them ; whose faith 
 was a declaration of war — war to the bitter end of mar- 
 tyrdom — against idolatry and false philosophy, and every 
 thing that exalted itself against the Name of Jesus of 
 Nazareth. The one offering to its votaries pleasure, power, 
 rank, office, with the delights of the present life : the other, 
 concealing nothing of the ruggedness of the way of Life, 
 but sternly presenting to its disciples poverty, and humilia- 
 tion, and suffering, and often death. Could any one, who 
 looked upon these antagonists as they stood face to face 
 upon the day of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, doubt which 
 
73 
 
 The Kingdom of Christ. 
 
 would prove victorious, Caesar or Christ ? — which would 
 endure the longest, the Roman Empire or the Kingdom of 
 Righteousness ? If each was to depend upon what man 
 could see, the idea that Christ would prevail should have 
 been the merest mockery of human experience ! 
 
 Let us now overleap the centuries which have intervened 
 between the moment when Christ cried upon the Cross, 
 " It is finished," and our day, and see what has been the re- 
 sult of the conflict. Daniel, who called himself the prophet 
 of the Most High God, prophesied of this antagonism six 
 hundred years before these parties were arrayed against 
 one another ; prophesied of it while yet the Roman nation 
 was in its cradle upon the Tiber ; while yet the Son of God 
 was in the Bosom of His Father : and he said, after enumer- 
 ating the great monarchies of the earth which should suc- 
 ceed one another, the Babylonian, the Persian, the Mace- 
 donian, the Roman, " And in the days of these kings shall 
 the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be 
 destroyed : and the kingdom shall not be left to other peo- 
 ple, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these king- 
 doms, and it shall stand for ever." And in the preceding 
 part of the same prophecy he described that kingdom of 
 righteousness, figuratively, as a " Stone cut out without 
 
 hands, which became a great mountain, and filled 
 
 the whole earth." 1 Standing where we do to-day, let us 
 see what is the state of the world and what has wrought 
 the effects we perceive. 
 
 What has become of the two kingdoms of the Caesars 
 and of Christ ? We look around us in vain for the great 
 Empire of Augustus. It is utterly broken to pieces, as 
 Daniel foretold it should be, — broken into fragments, 
 whose greatest glory are its ruins. Its noblest monuments 
 are those which attest its utter destruction ! Its language 
 
 i Dan. ii. 34, 35. 
 
The Kingdom of Christ. 79 
 
 remains to us, dead to all the uses of life : unhonored, save 
 as it is embalmed in the inspiration of genius. A hundred 
 nations divide the heritage of Caesar's Empire : and the 
 imperial city, whose name was a terror to the world, is now 
 guarded by the nations, not because it contains the ashes 
 of the Caesars, but because he is seated there who calls him- 
 self the representative of Christ upon earth. How wonder- 
 ful ! The successors of that mighty man who strode our 
 world like a colossus, utterly lost, — clean forgotten: and 
 the successor of the Bishop of Rome, the representative of 
 the bumble Xazarene, seated in his place of power. The 
 simple fact is in itself an argument, not for the supremacy 
 of the Bishop of Rome, but for the supremacy of Christ's 
 Kingdom over Caesar's kingdom, the Kingdom of righteous- 
 ness over that of power ! The fact is patent. The one has 
 displaced the other. The strong has been broken in pieces, 
 and the weak has been exalted. The Empire which over- 
 shadowed the world has disappeared ; and the Kingdom 
 which was cradled in humiliation and sorrow has taken its 
 place. This single circumstance — were there none other 
 — should speak volumes to the thoughtful mind. This 
 issue to the contest, even upon its surface, is so unexpected, 
 so startling to all experience, that it wakes up inquiry, and 
 forces us to ask : " Has Christ really conquered in such an 
 unequal struggle ? 93 
 
 We cannot find the Empire of Augustus ; but we do find 
 everywhere the Kingdom of Christ. It meets us at every 
 turn. All Europe, with a very trifling exception, is Chris- 
 tian. All America, save the few wild tribes of the wil- 
 derness, is Christian. Half of Asia is Christian : and 
 Christianity is now thundering at the gates of the remain- 
 ing Empires of the East. Africa is encompassed with 
 Christian missionaries, who are gradually working their 
 way, through disease and ignorance and barbarism, into its 
 
So The Kingdom of Christ. 
 
 dark mysteriousness. And that still newer world than ours, 
 which lay so long hidden in its unique singularity, is rap- 
 idly rising into a great Christian nation. This is one view 
 which strikes us ; but there is another still more important 
 in this connection. Not merely is Christ acknowledged and 
 worshipped already over a surface ten times as great as the 
 Roman Empire, but all the rising nations of the earth — 
 those which are ordained to sway its destinies — are Chris- 
 tian. The Russian Empire, which is destined to blot out 
 Mahometanism and rule over all Northern Asia, is a part 
 of the Kingdom of Christ. The British Empire, which 
 already holds the sceptre of the East, and which will one 
 day rule over the whole Eastern Archipelago, is another 
 part of the Kingdom of Christ. The American Republic, 
 which even in its infancy is making itself felt throughout 
 this whole continent, is another part of the Kingdom of 
 Christ. And Rome, with her spiritual sceptre influencing 
 more minds than ever did Rome with her imperial eagles, 
 is, however corrupt, another portion of the Kingdom of 
 Christ. Every influence is tending to enlarge this King- 
 dom, and none to diminish it. What Daniel said of this 
 Kingdom is, to all appearance, true : " And in the days of 
 these kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom, 
 which shall never be destroyed." It has gone on enlarging 
 and widening through all the changes of the world ; and 
 to-day its sphere is larger, its glory brighter, and its pros- 
 pects fairer, than they have ever been during its eventful 
 history. 
 
 Daniel's prophecy embraced all the peculiarities of this 
 Kingdom. It occupies only three or four verses; but in 
 that brief space it is pictured in all its most striking char- 
 acteristics. He calls it a " Stone cut out without hands," 
 rising, spreading, increasing, without any visible means. 
 No man lent his power to it. All power was against it. 
 
The Kingdom of Christ. 81 
 
 No man carried it forward by his worldly wisdom. The 
 greatest scholar who was converted to its cause wrote to 
 the Corinthians : " And I, brethren, when I came to you, 
 came not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom, declaring 
 unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to 
 know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him cru- 
 cified That your faith should not stand in the wis- 
 dom of man, but in the power of God." 1 No one seized 
 upon it as his chariot in which to ride to Empire. For cen- 
 turies every one was against it : and yet, long before the 
 days of Constantine, Tertullian tells us that " Christians 
 filled the cities, the islands, the towns, the boroughs, the 
 camp, the senate, and the forum ; 99 and Origen said that 
 " there was not a nation, whether Greek or barbarian, or of 
 any other name, even of those who wander in tribes or live 
 in tents, where the religion of Christ was not triumphant : " 
 so that when Constantine advanced to power under the 
 Christian standard, it was not he who carried Christianity 
 to the ascendant, but Christianity which floated him to do- 
 minion. And this has been its peculiarity ever since. It 
 has ever been a Kingdom within kingdoms, — a spirit per- 
 vading nations, but independent of their forms or power. 
 Man has pretended to use it, — has usurped its holy name 
 to cast a sanctity around his ambition or his crime : but it 
 was only the name he could defile ; the spirit fled from his 
 contaminating touch, and vindicated itself by springing up 
 in some new soil, leaving him to corruption and decay ! 
 
 Another of its peculiarities was, "that it should not be 
 left to other people," but should remain forever under the 
 headship of Christ. All other kingdoms descend from 
 father to son, from one monarch to another, until they pass 
 away and are forgotten. But this should ever be the King- 
 dom of Christ : should know no change in its Ruler ; no 
 i 1 Cor. ii. 1, 2, 5. 
 
 6 
 
82 The Kingdom of Christ, 
 
 alteration in its principles ; no mutation in its heaven- 
 descended truths. And how strikingly has it been fulfilled ! 
 No matter what corruptions may have stolen in upon the 
 forms of Christianity, yet is Christ the Head of His King- 
 dom everywhere. When the Papist prostrates himself be- 
 fore the host, it is because he believes that Christ his King 
 is there. When the Protestant bows himself at the Name 
 of Jesus, it is because he worships Him as King of kings, 
 and Lord of lords, and places Him above all earthly rulers. 
 And wherever His Kingdom extends, it is still the same. 
 " It is not left to other people." It is His, and His only : 
 His in the frozen regions of the North ; His amid the palm 
 groves of the tropics ; His where " the spicy breezes blow 
 soft o'er Ceylon's isle." It is His, and His only : whether 
 the earthly ruler be Czar, or Emperor, King, or People. 
 No one disputes His supremacy. No one grasps His sceptre. 
 Although exalted to the right hand of His Father, with 
 none on earth to represent His royalty, He reigns supreme, 
 an invisible King, the Head of His Church, the Strength 
 and Rock of His people. 
 
 Another peculiarity is, that " it shall stand for ever : " 
 not for time only, but for eternity. It is not only to outlive 
 the kingdoms of this earth, but it is never to die ! And 
 while its past history and present vigor give us assurance 
 that it shall never be destroyed in time : its spiritual life, 
 its spiritual Head, its connection with the unchangeable, 
 all certify us of its future. Christ, its King, is already en- 
 throned. In the spirit world is gathering that multitude 
 which no man can number, of all kindred and people and 
 nations and tribes, which is to form His Kingdom. When 
 the economy of grace is over ; when He shall have gathered 
 His elect from the four winds of heaven : then shall the 
 end come ; and the Church Militant be changed into the 
 Church Triumphant ; and the Temple not made with hands, 
 
The Kingdom of Christ. 83 
 
 eternal iu the Heavens, be filled with worshippers who shall 
 worship Him in spirit and in truth. 
 
 It is this Kingdom which we ask you to-day to extend. 
 It cannot lay upon you taxes for its support, as earthly gov- 
 ernments do : it can only appeal to your gratitude and your 
 piety. It is a Kingdom : but its subjects are bound to it 
 only by the ties of love and duty. No coercion is used to 
 make you contribute to its maintenance or extension. You 
 give what you please, subject only to the future judgment 
 of God. Your connection with the Church Militant is one 
 of probation merely. You are undergoing here your trial 
 for futurity in the sight and under the supervision of God. 
 If you fail now in your duty, it may not seem to affect your 
 standing in the Church of God. No punishment imme- 
 diately ensues ; no mark is placed upon you : but it will be 
 brought back to you in the day when Christ shall judge His 
 people. Under the Jewish dispensation it was widely dif- 
 ferent. That was a spiritual kingdom, carried on upon the 
 same principles as an earthly kingdom. God was their 
 King : and taxes were laid upon them for the support of 
 His Kingdom and His Priesthood. Specific offerings were 
 to be made. Xothing was to be received from Nature, 
 without the return of a certain proportion to God. A tenth 
 of the income was required to be laid upon the Altar of 
 their heavenly King. Under the Christian dispensation, all 
 this specific taxation is done away, — done away, I mean, 
 by the Gospel scheme. Your giving to God is now a work 
 of love, — must spring now from a sense of duty. You are 
 to give, as you receive, — conscientiously, in the sight of 
 God; cheerfully, as from the heart; in faith that it will work 
 out God's purposes upon earth. While the decree has gone 
 forth that this Stone, the Kingdom of the Redeemer, will 
 become a mountain, and fill the whole earth, — will do so 
 whether you help it or not, — still God watches you to see 
 
84 The Kingdom of Christ. 
 
 if you take any part in the fulfillment of that decree, — if 
 you feel any interest in His work of love. Your active co- 
 operation may not make the issue any the more certain ; but 
 it testifies your faith and your love ! Never forget, in all 
 your Christian thoughts, that you are only educating here. 
 What you do, is of as little importance as is the literary 
 work of a child in the school-room. But, like him, you are 
 disciplining the heart ; you are acquiring habits for your 
 affections ; you are being made meet for the inheritance of 
 the saints in light. Giving is a part of this learning. It 
 represses selfishness ; it cultivates gratitude ; it enkindles 
 love ; it unites us more closely with God, through His great 
 work of Redemption which we are helping to speed forward. 
 Whether we give or not, the Church will go forward : but 
 we shall have no place in the triumph. " The Lord know- 
 eth them that are His : " and when He comes to judge, and 
 to reward, He will place the crown of glory upon those who 
 have been faithful in life, and unto death. 
 
jfttnt^ Sermon. 
 
 But go thou thy way till the end be : for thou shalt rest, and 
 stand in thy lot at the end of the days. — Daniel xii. 13. 
 
 A T the close of that series of magnificent and far-reach- 
 ing prophecies which make up the book of Daniel, we 
 find him asking " the man clothed in linen, which was 
 upon the waters of the river," — him who had been the 
 instrument of communicating to him the foreordinations 
 of God : " 0 my Lord, what shall be the end of these 
 things ? " The prophet had heard, but understood not. 
 Touched by the Divine Hand he had communicated to the 
 ear of the world the arrangements of God's will ; but, like 
 an instrument played upon, he had not comprehended his 
 own harmony : and restive, as human nature always will be, 
 under this condition of things, he asks that he may be per- 
 mitted to see as well as to believe, — to penetrate the myste- 
 ries of the future, as well as to proclaim them. An answer 
 comes to him, solemn and instructive, of which my text 
 forms the conclusion : " The words are closed up and sealed 
 
 till the time of the end But go thou thy way till 
 
 the end be : for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the 
 end of the days." 
 
 This seems to be very hard, this duty of the Christian, to 
 be always laboring, and never seeing the fruit of that labor ; 
 to be the instrument of God's dealings, and yet be obliged 
 to wait until the end before we can comprehend them : but 
 it has ever been the lot of the faithful. " The just shall 
 
86 Daniel in his Lot at the End of the Days. 
 
 live by faith " : and it has never been otherwise at any 
 period of the Church's history. The work of the Christian, 
 in his day and generation, has always been as much for 
 those who were to come after, as for himself. S. Peter 
 tells us that when the prophets who prophesied of the grace 
 that should come unto the world, inquired and searched 
 diligently into that salvation, " it was revealed " unto them, 
 " that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister 
 the things which are now reported unto you by them that 
 have preached the Gospel unto you." 1 And Daniel passed 
 through this trial, in common with all his fellow prophets. 
 Distinguished, as he was, for holiness and for wisdom, so 
 that he is twice selected in the Book of Ezekiel to be placed 
 in the very highest rank of the faithful ; given, as he was, 
 the power of looking into dark and hidden things, so that 
 he not only gave the interpretation of dreams, but evoked 
 the dreams themselves, when they had been forgotten, out 
 of the shadowy realms of night; honored, as he was, to 
 declare to the world its whole extended future, until it was 
 lost in the abyss of Eternity : God placed him upon no dif- 
 ferent footing from that of his other prophets ; nay, upon no 
 different footing from any one of ourselves, restricting him 
 to the simple faith and patience of the Saints, and bid- 
 ding him wait until the end should be. Enough for thee, 
 0 man, is it, that thou shouldst be permitted to work for 
 God, and then to take thy rest, satisfied to ' 6 stand in thy 
 lot at the end of the days." 
 
 How hard it is to learn this lesson of Christian experi- 
 ence ; — to understand that we have a work to do, some- 
 times of active labor, sometimes of patient suffering : and 
 that when it is done, we are to go our way, and take our 
 rest in the grave, and receive our reward in eternity. We 
 are so much accustomed, in the affairs of every-day life, to 
 1 1 S. Peter i. 12. 
 
» 
 
 Daniel in his Lot at the End of the Days. 87 
 
 look for immediate results, that we cannot be satisfied with 
 our labor, if we have to wait for its fruits, — that we are 
 impatient at an obedience which requires us to be led by a 
 guiding hand, and not by the light of our own eyes. We 
 are always for asking, " 0 my Lord, what shall be the end 
 of these things ? " instead of living in our work, and find- 
 ing our spiritual peace in that. And so we fritter our years 
 away, seeking for light and comfort in some imaginary 
 end : while God intends us to wring them out of our daily 
 toil, leaving the ultimate reward with Him. Could this be 
 truly understood, how much happiness would spring up 
 around our earthly homes ; how much light would be 
 shed upon our Christian path ! It would sanctify our most 
 irksome duties, and pour the oil of consolation over our 
 severest sufferings. Instead of writhing under our allotted 
 tasks, because we think them disagreeable, or unsuited, or 
 trifling, — because they weary us with their monotony, or 
 disgust us with their vulgarity ; we should feel that they 
 have been appointed of God for our discipline and our duty : 
 and, while we labored faithfully in them, would leave it 
 with God to weave these seeming trifles into harmony with 
 His glorious and comprehensive purposes. 
 
 What have we to do with results? No more than the 
 workman in some great manufactory, who, seated at his 
 bench, labors clay after day upon that particular portion of 
 the fabric which has been allotted to him. It may be 
 very wearisome to him, nay very painful to him, thus to 
 sit, through his whole life, doing that one thing ; and 
 yet, if he do it well and faithfully, however trifling it may 
 be, he is conducing essentially to the grand result, and 
 receives for it the reward of his toil, and the " well 
 done ! " of the master. And we can well understand how 
 his uninformed mind and his limited view may not per- 
 ceive the connection between his labor and the perfected 
 
88 Daniel in his Lot at the End of the Days. 
 
 manufacture; while yet the master-mind, which has ar- 
 ranged and regulates the whole, shall see that it is essen- 
 tial to the completeness of the work. How much happier 
 for that workman to do cheerfully each day his necessary 
 labor, and to find pleasure and hope in doing it, than to 
 rise up in rebellion against the arrangement of things, and 
 murmur at his allotted task, or refuse to perform it, be- 
 cause he cannot see — which it is no business of his to see 
 — how it is conducing to the grand design ! And this is 
 just our position. We are all workmen, busily employed in 
 carrying to perfection the glorious purposes of God, — those 
 purposes which shall have their consummation at the time 
 of the end. Each one of us has his appointed work ; and, 
 although it may seem to us trifling or wearisome, it is 
 couducing to the perfectness of the Divine Work, and is a 
 thread in the wonderful tissue which our Heavenly Master 
 is weaving for Eternity. Our Christian duty is to do our 
 part well ; to labor faithfully in that sphere wherein God has 
 placed us ; to bear with cheerfulness the burdens which 
 may be laid upon us : and not to be stubborn, nor wayward, 
 because we cannot work at just what we please, nor under- 
 stand how what we are doing is the necessary complement 
 of a Divine harmony. Our great error is, that we do not 
 rise up, as we should, to a clear perception either of the 
 wisdom or the love of our Heavenly Father. We say con- 
 tinually, in our public and in our private prayer, " Our 
 Father, which art in Heaven " : but never realize what that 
 word " Father " means. We forget His presence and His 
 care. We ascribe to a blind Chance, what has been all 
 arranged by Him. We murmur against man, and for- 
 tune; and remember not that man and fortune are but 
 His instruments. Oh, my hearers, if we are indeed His 
 children, — if we can lift our eyes to Heaven, and say with 
 true filial reverence, " Our Father 99 : we may rest assured 
 
Daniel in his Lot at the End of the Days, 89 
 
 that our work, and the way in which we are compelled to 
 do it, and the sufferings through which we pass in doing it, 
 are just the very hest for us ; and even though we may not 
 be able to see what is the meaning of our experience, nor 
 how our poor weak work can help along His mighty pur- 
 poses : when it is all finished, we shall receive no worse a 
 dismissal than his mightiest prophet : " Go thou thy way 
 till the end be : for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at 
 the end of the days." 
 
 The work of life is very wearisome, even when we feel 
 that it is allotted us by our Father. I do not speak now of 
 that holiday life which too many lead, — taking their por- 
 tion in this world ; but of that life of duty and of responsi- 
 bility which God has placed us here to live. It is very 
 wearisome to be ever schooling and disciplining one's self ; 
 very wearisome to be contending against natural infirmities 
 and besetting sins ; very wearisome to be swimming against 
 the world's current ; very wearisome to be guiding and con- 
 trolling those who are committed to our charge. But then 
 it is the work which God has assigned us, and we must 
 search for the blessedness which He has wrapped up with 
 the toil. And we can find it even here, in the very dust 
 and turmoil of the battle-field, amid the commonplace 
 cares and anxieties of life, in its severest duties and crud- 
 est sufferings, if we will live in the means instead of look- 
 ing to the end ; — if we will search for life and comfort in 
 the thought that all these things, — the most trifling and 
 the commonest, the most solemn and the sternest, — are 
 our part of God's work, and are conducing to His divinest 
 end. How changed is the whole aspect of life, if looked at 
 from this point of view ! What before was trivial and un- 
 important waxes into greatness, so soon as it becomes con- 
 nected with the purposes of God. What was bitter and 
 loathsome is deprived of its sting, when we find it a link in 
 
90 Daniel in his Lot at the End of the Days. 
 
 the chain of God's glorious love. So long as we are looking 
 to self, — to that connection which our lives may be hold- 
 ing with things around us, — we can find no comfort ; for 
 there is a crook in every lot, a skeleton in every house : but 
 when we can look away to God, and realize that our work, 
 our condition, our sufferings, are all from Him and of Him ; 
 are not things of caprice, or of fortune, but of His fatherly 
 appointment ; are not unnecessary and useless, working 
 sorrow to us while they work good to nobody, but are essen- 
 tial parts of His mighty and incomprehensible will : we 
 change the crook into a source of blessing, we clothe the 
 very skeleton with a divine halo, and we sing songs of glad- 
 ness even in the night. This is the true charm of life, — 
 to find our happiness in our work ; not to be looking for it 
 in the future, but in the present ; not to expect it to come 
 only out of great things, or out of prosperous things, but 
 to woo it from our commonest every-day occupations, and 
 to snatch it from the stern grasp of adversity. If we sep- 
 arate happiness from our daily and our present work, we 
 are turning it away from our homes, and reserving it for 
 seasons of excitement, or for a distant future which is 
 always rising — like the horizon — as we approach it. The 
 true peace of the Christian here on earth is in doing every 
 thing, and suffering every thing, as a part of the work he 
 is appointed to finish. In this view all responsibility is 
 rolled from him, because he is a mere instrument in God's 
 almighty hand; all murmuring is hushed, because he could 
 not change his work without an interference with God's 
 omniscient wisdom ; all anxiety is put to rest, because his 
 business is only to do or suffer, and leave the consequences 
 to God. 
 
 This is the Christian's happiness in life, — his only hap- 
 piness. But the time will come, when that work shall be 
 done \ when the books shall be sealed unto the end ; when 
 
Daniel in his Lot at the End of the Days. 91 
 
 the command shall come to each one of us, " Go thy way 
 till the end be : for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at 
 the end of the days." The time of work is over ; the sun 
 has set upon our day of labor ; the hour of rest is come : 
 and the Christian is given that blessedness, — the blessed- 
 ness of the transition state from the work of earth to the 
 work of Heaven. Oh the sweetness of that word Best! — 
 to cease from all the weariness of life ; to be done with its 
 cares, its perplexities, its miseries ; to have fought the good 
 fight of faith, and ended the struggle ; to have finished the 
 work which God has given us to do, and now to lie down 
 and be at peace ! But none can enjoy it who have not 
 labored. The self-indulgent know not what it means. It 
 belongs only to the workman, — to him who has borne the 
 heat and burden of the day ! " There remaineth a rest for 
 the people of God." 1 And why for them ? Because God's 
 people are expected to be a working people, — working for 
 their own salvation, working for the salvation of others ; be- 
 cause they are expected to be a struggling people, — strug- 
 gling against their own natures, and their indwelling cor- 
 ruption ; because they are expected to be a warring people, 
 warring against the world, the flesh and the Devil. For 
 such it is, — the true members of the Church Militant 
 upon earth, — that there remaineth a rest : for they need 
 it, they desire it, they deserve it. The Psalmist expressed 
 it when, in the weariness of his struggles, he cried : " Oh, 
 that I had wings like a dove ! for then would I fly away, 
 and be at rest." 2 " I would hasten my escape from the 
 windy storm and tempest." 3 S. Paul expressed it when, 
 aged and battered, he exulted in his approaching end : " For 
 I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure 
 is at hand. 1 have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
 course, I have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up 
 1 Heb. iv. 9. 2 Psalm lv. 6. 3 Ibid. 8. 
 
92 Daniel in his Lot at the End of the Days, 
 
 for me a crown of righteousness." 1 S. John proclaimed it 
 as an utterance from Heaven, when he said : " I heard a 
 voice from Heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are 
 the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea,, saith 
 the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; and their 
 works do follow them." 2 And these expressions come 
 home to the heart of every struggling Christian. He feels 
 that rest is what he craves ; — rest from sin, rest from war- 
 fare, rest from responsibility, rest from temptation, rest 
 from the solemn work of life : and God gives him the boon 
 when He dismisses him from his post : " Go thy way till 
 the end be. Thou hast finished thine allotted task : now 
 thou shalt rest. Go sleep in the grave, faithful warrior ; 
 when the end of the days shall come, then shalt thou 
 awake, like a strong man from sleep, and stand in thy 
 lot ! " 
 
 And this is the blessedness of Eternity ! The Christian 
 has had happiness in his work, rest after his work, and now 
 shall he have reward for his work. " He shall stand in his 
 lot in the end of the days." He had on earth his allotted 
 labor, and he shall now have in Heaven his allotted reward. 
 The same loving Lord who meted out the toil and the suf- 
 fering of the world, will mete out the joy and the glory of 
 his Father's mansions. All has been arranged for Eternity ; 
 all has been watched and guided through Time : and now 
 shall it be made perfect in God Himself. The Christian 
 lived by faith ; was permitted to see nothing but his work ; 
 was taught obedience, and submission, and humility, and 
 patience ; was made perfect through sufferings ; toiled on, 
 fought on, resting in nothing but promises, yet seeing God 
 in every thing : and now faith is swallowed up in sight, and 
 mystery in knowledge, and he can see how every thing 
 worked together for good. Until he stands in his lot, he 
 1 2 Tim. iv. 6-8. 2 Rev. xiv. 13. 
 
Daniel in his Lot at the End of the Days. 93 
 
 could not comprehend the work upon earth which was pre- 
 paring him for it ; until he enters upon the inheritance of 
 Heaven, he could not understand the training which was 
 making him meet for it. The one is the complement of the 
 other. God saw them both from the beginning, and fitted 
 them one for the other. Man could see only the work, and 
 had therefore to do it in Faith : until God introduces him 
 to the other, and manifests the glorious harmony. 
 
 And as it is with our individual work upon earth, so is 
 it with the Church's work. The Church is an aggregate 
 of Christian people ; and when they move and act in a mass, 
 they move and act upon the same principles as the individ- 
 ual. The Church has its appointed work, — a work given 
 it by Christ, its Head, through those who were its earliest 
 representatives : " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 Gospel to every creature." 1 And the Church has no more 
 right than the individual to ask, " 0 my Lord, what shall 
 be the end of these things ? " The Church has nothing to 
 do with the end, save to work for it. That belongs to God. 
 If He pleases that the Missionary labor of the Church 
 should seem to be spent for nought ; if it is His will — and 
 His will is signified by His command — that the blood of 
 the martyrs shall be the seed of His Church ; if it is help- 
 ing on His purposes that Missionaries shall go out to their 
 places of toil simply to die : He knows better than we do, 
 for His eye scans the whole field of battle, and sees the end 
 from the beginning. The duty of a soldier is simple, un- 
 questioning obedience, — to do whatsoever he is ordered, 
 whether to advance boldly, or retreat wisely, or stand in his 
 post of honor and be shot down. Many a battle has been 
 won upon earth by iron-hearted endurance. Napoleon 
 gained the victory at Wagram, and Wellington at Water- 
 loo, by permitting a portion of their troops to be cut to 
 
 1 S. Mark xvi. 15. 
 
94 Daniel in his Lot at the End of the Days. 
 
 pieces in their positions. To those who suffered, it seemed 
 a cruel fate merely to stand and die : but those master- 
 minds, whose comprehensive glance took in the whole field 
 of vision, saw that the sacrifice of the few was necessary 
 for the victory of the whole. Those well-trained, disci- 
 plined soldiers trusted in their commander, faithfully be- 
 lieved that no useless sacrifice was made of them, bravely 
 offered up their lives for the cause's sake : and shall Chris- 
 tian soldiers, the conscripts of the Cross, falter in their 
 obedience when such a voice as God's, and such a wisdom 
 as God's, utters His command : " Go ye into all the world, 
 and preach the Gospel to every creature ? " He does not 
 say what shall be the end of your obedience, what its re- 
 sults, or what its success : He merely charges you to do 
 it. He gives the Church her work. He does not ask her 
 to crown that work, but merely to do it. It is no matter 
 whether she sees no fruit of her work. Her life is not a 
 life of sight, but of faith. Still must she continue to do it. 
 No matter whether generation after generation of her chil- 
 dren pass away and go to their rest without any recompense 
 to sight : still must she continue to do it. When Abraham 
 was called to go out of his own country, and leave his kin- 
 dred, that he might possess the Land of Promise, he went ; 
 and died without any signs of its fulfilment. And Isaac 
 died, and went his way to his rest. And Jacob died, and 
 went his way to his rest. And Joseph died, and went his 
 way to his rest. And generation after generation died, 
 and went their way to their rest. Then came long years 
 of weary bondage : but, at the end of the days, Abra- 
 ham's children stood in their lot ! This record of faith is 
 given us for our example ; and not this alone, but the his- 
 tory, all along, of the Church. It treads an equal path. 
 It never offers any thing to sight. Its unchanging princi- 
 ple is, as generation after generation finishes its work : " Go 
 
Daniel in his Lot at the End of the Days. 95 
 
 thou thy way till the end be : for thou shalt rest, and stand 
 in thy lot at the end of the days." 
 
 And what, my beloved people, is the duty of every age of 
 the Church, is our duty. The command of our Saviour is 
 unrepealed. It stands there in all its imperative force, now, 
 to-day, as when the Apostles first received it. If it were 
 right to encourage you by what should never be your motive 
 of action, I might point you to much in the world that 
 looked favorable to the growth of Christianity; but I re- 
 frain, because I desire you to stand upon the one unchange- 
 able principle of obedience to Christ's commaud. If every 
 thing was as dark and dreary as midnight; if the gates of 
 the nations seemed barred and double-barred against the 
 admission of our Missionaries ; if storm and darkness raged 
 around the battlements of Zion : it would be none the less 
 our duty to send forth the glad tidings of great joy. Our 
 preachers might uever reach their fields of labor ; might 
 only reach them, to knock and be refused admittance ; 
 might be let in, only to be slaughtered : still have we done 
 our work, and must continue to do it ! Results, success, 
 have nothing to do with our duty. "We cannot tell how 
 necessary this darkness, this hindrance, this slaughter, may 
 be. That is not for us to judge. We must do our work as 
 a generation of the Church's children ; and, when we have 
 done it, be satisfied with nothing more than this : " Go 
 thou thy way till the end be : for thou shalt rest, and stand 
 in thy lot at the end of the days." 
 
Cent!) Sermon. 
 
 For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the 
 days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow. — Eccle- 
 
 SIASTES Vi. 12. 
 
 nnHE history of a man is very distinct from the life of a 
 
 man, — that outside portraiture which a biographer 
 gives, from that inward experience which is known only to 
 himself and God. What appears on the surface in the 
 shape of action, is all that is manifest to the world. The 
 deep uuder-current of motive and feeling, of weariuess and 
 disgust, of repentance and remorse, remains forever secret, 
 unless the barriers of the heart be broken down by the 
 weight which presses upon it, and it is poured forth for the 
 warning or the benefit of others. Every honest diary of the 
 heart-life of a human creature is a precious document for 
 man ; sometimes because of the true value of the world 
 which it sets before him, sometimes because of the dangers 
 against which it guards him, sometimes because of the 
 comfort which it affords him. "As in water face answereth 
 to face, so the heart of man to man : " 1 and when an hon- 
 est heart is truthfully opened with all its rich and sad de- 
 velopments, we read as it were our own hidden life, and are 
 startled at its portraiture of ourselves, just as the Samaritan 
 woman was when Christ told her all that ever she did. We 
 have dreamed perhaps that our experience was our own, 
 that it was a thing of individuality, that no one else had 
 ever travelled just such a road, had walked in the deep 
 
 1 Prov. xxvii. 19. 
 
The Vanity of Earthly Life. 97 
 
 shadow of weariness and satiety when the skies were bright 
 over us and the flowers seemed to grow in our path, had 
 been weighed down by a sense of the utter vanity of all 
 things earthly when others were enjoying our lot, had 
 mourned in bitterness of spirit over words and acts which 
 others applauded and imitated : and lo ! another heart 
 speaks, and tells our inner life as its own, and lays bare 
 before the world all our secrets, and anatomizes for the 
 gaze of mankind all that was most hidden and sacred 
 within ourselves. Well is it for us if we will learn from 
 the experience of another ; and, taking the chart which 
 another has sketched of the ocean of life, steer wisely and 
 thoughtfully through all its dangers and treacheries and 
 false appearances, into that haven of rest which is offered 
 to the prudent and the faithful. 
 
 How strikingly are these remarks exemplified by the two 
 aspects under which Solomon is presented to us in the 
 Bible. Were we to form our judgment of him from the 
 historical books of the Bible, we should conceive of him as 
 a monarch of surpassing wisdom and power, living proudly, 
 haughtily, luxuriously, magnificently : surrounding himself 
 with every enjoyment which life could give, and interested 
 only in matters of state, or art, or literature. We read of 
 him there as extending' the limits of his king'dom from 
 Egypt to the Euphrates, and from the Great Sea to the bor- 
 ders of Arabia ; as adorning Jerusalem with palaces, and a 
 Temple of surpassing preciousness ; as receiving homage 
 from nations and monarchs of remote and almost unknown 
 regions ; as promoting commerce and trade beyond all for- 
 mer precedent ; as winning admiration by his wisdom and 
 his knowledge; as floating in an atmosphere of sensual en- 
 joyment of the most Oriental cast. This is the Solomon 
 of history. But how different is the Solomon of the Prov- 
 7 
 
98 The Vanity of Earthly Life. 
 
 erbs and of Ecclesiastes ! How the mask falls off when we 
 follow him into his secret chambers, and watch him as he 
 lays aside his robes of state and his aspect of dignity and 
 his assumption of enjoyment, and listen to the deep sighs 
 which bnrst from his wearied heart, and witness the tears 
 of repentance which course their furrows down his cheeks, 
 and learn his honest judgment of himself and human life ! 
 The one is the true and proper complement of the other, — 
 the inner life laid bare as the commentary upon the outer. 
 And herein lay Solomon's wisdom, — that wisdom which 
 God had given him. He was the wisest man the world has 
 known, not because he was a consummate statesman, and an 
 acute philosopher, and knew all Nature's secrets : but be- 
 cause he gauged all this at its true value ; and when he had 
 flashed it in the eyes of an unthinking multitude, was hon- 
 est enough to inscribe upon it, " Vanity of vanities ; all is 
 vanity;" — was true enough to his own nature and his 
 common humanity, to record his own deep sense of his in- 
 firmities, and his disgust! And when, my hearers, you 
 would judge the character of this wise monarch, you must 
 combine the two aspects of his life, and remember that God 
 saw all the secret workings of his heart, its sense of vanity, 
 its heavy weariness, its deep contempt of outward show, its 
 repentance and remorse, as well as the pomp and luxury 
 which were open to the world. God knows that station and 
 office and rank require of men ofttimes what their own con- 
 science disapproves: but God alone sees the sorrow it in- 
 flicts, and hears the groans which are uttered heavenward 
 for forgiveness and for peace. Blessed be God that He has 
 given us one honest Book in which we may see our fellow- 
 creatures as they are, and learn what wretched inconsis- 
 tencies God can endure, what a mass of infirmity and weak- 
 ness God can forgive. But for this, a faithful reading of 
 
The Vanity of Earthly Life, 99 
 
 our own hearts would drive us to despair, and force us to 
 the question of S. Paul : " 0 wretched man that I am ! who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this Death ? " 1 
 
 It is among the wailings of this wise king that we en- 
 counter the sad confession of ignorance which we have 
 selected for our text : " For who knoweth what is good for 
 man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he 
 spendeth as a shadow ? " What an accumulation of epi- 
 thets and figures to express his deep sense of man's pitiful 
 condition ! Vain life, spent as a shadow ! All of it spent 
 so, — promising and not performing, alluring and deceiv- 
 ing, weaving bright webs of hope only as snares and 
 meshes ! — and mingled with all this, a profound obscurity 
 as to the blessing or the curse of every movement, as to 
 the good or the evil of every possession. Words could not 
 express a more forlorn prospect, especially when we remem- 
 ber that it was uttered by one for whom life had displayed 
 its most flattering visage, — around whose brows had been 
 wreathed the proudest chaplets of knowledge and of wis- 
 dom. If he, with his penetratiag and all-pervading wis- 
 dom, knew not what was good for man, who might expect 
 to know it ? If he counted all the days of man's life as 
 days of vanity, when every enjoyment of earth was his : who 
 might look for satisfaction in the days of the years of his 
 pilgrimage ? Sad sentence inscribed by honesty and wisdom 
 upon the life we are now living ! Sad shadow cast by Truth 
 oyer the path which the young, the gay, the ambitious, 
 the sensual, the wise, are now treading ! " Press on ! " — 
 is its sad accompaniment as the eager train comes sweeping 
 by — " but alas ! ye know not whether the good ye are 
 seeking may not turn to ashes in your hands and bitterness 
 in your hearts ; — whether the evil ye are lamenting may 
 not be the jewel in the head of adversity and affliction." 
 
 1 Rom. vii. 24. 
 
ioo The Vanity of Eartkly Life, 
 
 God alone knoweth what is good for man, and what is evil 
 for man : and the sooner ye commit yourselves to His om- 
 niscient guidance, the sooner shall ye experience the peace 
 of a child under the guidance of its Father, the confidence 
 of a voyager under the direction of his unchanging star. 
 
 The wisdom of the Greek, who answered, " that no one 
 could he reckoned happy until his life was closed," was 
 founded upon a dim perception of the truth uttered in my 
 text. I say a dim perception, for the philosopher was 
 only looking to the uncertainty of human affairs, and the 
 instability of fortune : while Solomon was embracing a 
 larger compass, and affirming man's ignorance of what was 
 good for him and what was evil, without any regard to its 
 permanence or its frailty. And it is this feature in my 
 text which makes it so sad, — that darkness is around the 
 path of life ; that ignorance hangs like a pall over the 
 results of our actions, our pursuits, and our hopes. It is 
 cruel enough to be so often disappointed, to be so long 
 laboriously rolling the stone up the steep ascent, to be 
 thirsting so many weary years with the fountain always 
 glittering before our eyes : but how much more cruel to be 
 told, as you rush along in eager and rapt pursuit, that even 
 should you reach the summit with your burden, you might 
 find a cold, thin atmosphere of oppressive misery; — that 
 even should you slake your parched lips and craving heart 
 in the waters you have sought, you might find them bitter 
 to the taste and unsatisfying to the soul. And this is just 
 what the wise monarch tells us is our condition, — that no 
 man knoweth what is good for man in this life ; that we all 
 play our game in the dark ; and that all the fondest objects 
 of man's desire wear a double face of good or evil, accord- 
 ing to God's arrangements. It is not therefore merely a 
 lesson of the uncertainty of human possessions, of the in- 
 stability and vanity of earthly pursuits, that the sacred 
 
The Vanity of Earthly Life. 101 
 
 writer is teaching- you : but a more striking lessou of man's 
 ignorance and dependence. The object may be won, the 
 goal may be reached, the prize may be grasped : but is it 
 for g"ood or for eyil ? — for blessing or for curse '? 
 
 And whether we look at this truth with the eye of expe- 
 rience, or with the teachings of Scripture, we reach the 
 same conclusion. If man's earthly condition be considered, 
 and that alone, it would be very hard to say whether the 
 objects of his pursuit brought more good or more evil to 
 him and his, even when most successfully achieved. Is 
 constant toil, is incessant care, is weighing every word and 
 action, is reckoning every cent, is sealing the fountains of 
 charity, is hardening the face and the heart, is rearing a 
 family of idlers, is introducing luxury and indolence and 
 vice into your domestic circle, good : and yet these are the 
 most usual results which follow an ardent pursuit and suc- 
 cessful attainment of wealth. Can man know what is 
 good, when he spends his days and nights for consequences 
 like these ? Is a brow wrinkled with thought, is a head 
 whitened with care, is a family neglected, is a home for- 
 saken, is a surrender of individual independence, is an 
 accumulation of envy and slander and calumny, is unceas- 
 ing abuse and misrepresentation, is the unsteady footing 
 of a fluctuating multitude, good: and yet these are the 
 fruits which the ambitious reap, when they devote them- 
 selves to the pursuit of power. Can man know what 
 is good, when he sows seed that will grow up into such 
 a harvest as this ? Is a body decrepid before its time, a 
 constitution broken and decayed, an old age of pain and of 
 sorrow and of inanition, a fortune wrecked, hopes blasted 
 and expectations crushed, good : and yet these are the bless- 
 ings which follow in the train of a life of pleasure. Can 
 man know what is good, when he sacrifices all the kindly 
 charities of life, all the chaste enjoyments of home and 
 
102 The Vanity of Earthly Life. 
 
 fireside, for such companions as these for his declining 
 years ? And even when these things, or any other earthly 
 objects, are bestowed upon man without these visible nat- 
 ural consequences, can he or any other man know whether 
 they will work good or evil for him ? Wealth suddenly 
 acquired is almost sure to destroy him who receives it. 
 Power rapidly obtained usually turns the head and corrupts 
 the heart of him upon whom it is bestowed. Idleness and 
 luxury enervate both soul and body, and sink those who are 
 permitted to indulge them into effeminacy and lethargy. 
 Whatever man considers good, has with it toil and care and 
 disappointment if he pursues it ; and, if it is thrust upon 
 him, almost certain corruption and ruin. The wisest father 
 who had any true experience, would hesitate long before 
 deciding upon what he would desire for his child ; and sel- 
 dom would he wish to heap upon him any of those things 
 which men count good, without first passing him through 
 those preliminary steps of discipline, which seem necessary 
 to chasten the desire and moderate the passions of men. 
 
 And as it is with good, so is it likewise with what men 
 call evil. Looking at this under its various forms of labor, 
 of poverty, of disease, of affliction, of humiliation, of dis- 
 appointment, it is hard to say, from one's own experi- 
 ence, whether those conditions of things have not been 
 most propitious to us. I know that in the world, — and I 
 know that Christians catch the tone and language, — the 
 man is pitied who is subjected to any of these conditions of 
 being : — pitied without any consideration how much his 
 character may need their discipline, or his habits their 
 restraining influence! Little do we know, while we thus 
 speak, but that these things are in the highest sense the 
 very best which could have come upon him ; — not for his 
 present and immediate comfort, but for that long future 
 which he may have to live here upon earth. The solemn 
 
The Vanity of Earthly Life. 103 
 
 experience of the world uniformly teaches us tliat good and 
 evil are not mere abstract and opposite qualities ; but that 
 good is often evil, and evil often good — paradoxical as it 
 may seem — according to the individuals around whom they 
 circle, or the circumstances under which they are cast upon 
 us. And the conclusion is the same as before : " Who 
 knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of 
 his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow ? " 
 
 If we look at this truth with the light of Scripture, it is 
 still more striking. Man may not acknowledge his experi- 
 ence, — may prefer to veil his consciousness from the eye 
 of his fellow- man, and persist in the assertion that he does 
 not call evil good, and good evil : but the Bible speaks 
 always frankly and honestly to man, and places before him 
 his full, true measure. It looks at life not simply in the 
 present, but also in the future ; gathers man's immortality 
 around him, and makes him take that into the account of 
 good and of evil : and when that union has been made, and 
 the conditions of his salvation are brought to bear upon 
 the question, no one can hesitate in his decision as to man's 
 ignorance of good and evil. When the Bible tells us that 
 it is harder for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of 
 Heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a 
 needle, and man counts riches one of his greatest goods : 
 well may we say, in the words of our text, " For who 
 knoweth what is good for man in this life ? " When the 
 Bible teaches us that not many wise, not many noble, not 
 many learned are called, and men toil for wisdom and honor 
 and learning like galley slaves, sacrificing bodily ease and 
 the comforts and tranquillity of life for their possession : we 
 may again ask : " For who knoweth what is good for man 
 in this life ? " When the Bible heaps its blessings upon 
 the meek, the pure, the merciful, the peacemakers, the 
 persecuted, and man reckons gentleness and purity and 
 
104 The Vanity of Earthly Life. 
 
 mercy and peace among the mean things and the base 
 things of the world : we may again ask : " Who knoweth 
 what is good for man in this life ? " When, in fine, the 
 grace of God is made in the Bible the highest gift pur- 
 chased for man by Jesus Christ, — is reckoned above all 
 things else in preciousness and glory, — while man con- 
 siders its possession as a token of weakness and imbecility : 
 we may put anew the question : " Who knoweth what is 
 good for man in this life ? " In the view of Inspiration, as 
 well as in that of our experience, we are satisfied that man's 
 ignorance of what is good for him is profound, and that 
 we may safely challenge human nature to answer : " For 
 who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days 
 of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow ? " 
 
 If it cannot be known by man, then, what is good for 
 him in this life, we are brought to several practical conclu- 
 sions of deep importance to us in the conduct of life. And 
 the first of them is this : " that we should place no inordi- 
 nate value upon those things which are counted among 
 men as good for them, nor should we too carefully desire 
 them, nor should we envy others the possession of them." 
 David himself was sorely beset by this temptation, and 
 details his experience and its cure in the 73d Psalm : — 
 " But as for me, my feet were almost gone ; my steps had 
 well-nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when 
 I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They are not in 
 trouble as other men ; neither are they plagued like other 
 men. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and 
 washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have 
 I been plagued, and chastened every morning. When I 
 thought to know this, it was too painful for me ; until I 
 went into the sanctuary of God ; then understood I their 
 end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places : thou 
 castedst them down into destruction. Thus my heart was 
 
The Vanity of Earthly Life. 105 
 
 grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, 
 and ignorant ; I was as a beast before thee." We must not 
 look at things in this world as they seem ; but we must 
 look at their end, and that in the light of the sanctuary. 
 What seems to flesh and sense to be good, may be good 
 only for the moment, — may be accompanied by troubles 
 and dangers of the most perilous kind, and may lead to 
 inevitable destruction. If we take only one view of them, 
 — what may be called the fleshly and earthly view, — they 
 wear the aspect of goodness : but only turn their other 
 visage, — place them under the eye of Scripture, — and 
 that aspect changes into one of evil and of curse. Those 
 who possess them are said by the Scriptures to stand in 
 slippery places, to be consumed with daily terrors; and 
 sudden destruction is their threatened doom. From such 
 things a prudent man, foreseeing the evil, would hide him- 
 self. 
 
 Another most important conclusion is the reverse of this : 
 " That we should not be too much cast down by what the 
 world calls evil, nor murmur against the lot which God has 
 assigned to us." When we hear one of God's servants 
 saying, " It is good for me that I have been afflicted," for 
 " before I was afflicted, I went astray ; " 1 — when we see 
 an Apostle deliberately writing to the Hebrews that " whom 
 the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son 
 whom he receiveth," 2 and that though " no chastening for 
 the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous ; neverthe- 
 less, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteous- 
 ness ; " 3 — when we find God's richest blessings associated 
 with lowliness, and humiliation, and suffering; — when, in 
 fine, our great Exemplar was a child of poverty, and had 
 not where to lay His head, and was deeply acquainted with 
 grief: well may we be satisfied with conditions of being 
 
 1 Psalm cxix. 71, 67. 2 He b. xii. 6. 3 Ibid. 11. 
 
106 The Vanity of Earthly Life, 
 
 which have such words of comfort and examples of holiness 
 connected with them. We cannot credit the Bible without 
 being satisfied that what man calls evil is ofttimes God's 
 richest blessing ; and that the school of humiliation, taking 
 the word in its broadest sense, is the discipline of man's 
 highest good. In our ignorance we cannot know this ; but 
 it must be learned, like all our other best lessons, through 
 faith and experience. The flesh revolts against it : but then 
 flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, which 
 is the inheritance we desire. Let us then be satisfied with 
 our condition, however lowly, however difficult, however full 
 of toil : for if it be blessed with faith, it must end in ever- 
 lasting life. 
 
 And lastly our ignorance of what is good for us should 
 teach us to place ourselves in the keeping of a Being who 
 is wiser and more far-seeing than ourselves. He has prom- 
 ised to make every thing work together for good to those 
 that love him: and how much better — where no one know- 
 eth what is good for man in this life — to place ourselves 
 under the guidance of a Father who will, by His divine 
 power, overrule every thing to good, whatever it may be in 
 itself, or however it may appear to flesh and sense. Good 
 and evil are indissolubly connected together in this world, 
 — good and evil, I mean, in the sense in which the multi- 
 tude use these words. They come alike to all, the just and 
 the unjust, the righteous and the sinful. But while we are 
 so blind — such "beasts," as the Psalmist calls it — that we 
 cannot distinguish between these: there is One who can 
 make every thing good for us, however marred its visage or 
 ominous its aspect. Upon Him, then, let us cast our care. 
 In His wisdom let us rest our judgments. Let Him decide 
 for us our course, and all its accompaniments : and whether 
 He dispense to us what the world calls good or evil, let us 
 feel that it is best for us, because the Lord hath ordered it. 
 
Clebentlj Sermon. 
 
 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. — 
 S. Luke xvii. 5. 
 
 TF we were to select from among men an individual who 
 had signally failed in life, and were to analyze the causes 
 of his failure, we should almost certainly find a neglect of 
 what he considered trifles, a disregard of what he deemed 
 unimportant circumstances, to have been really one of the 
 most prominent of them. While he had been preparing him- 
 self for great occasions, and waiting for large opportunities, 
 he had neglected the little things which make up the greater 
 part of ordinary life, and had thus, before trial, proved him- 
 self ignorant of the true conditions of his being ; and un- 
 fitted, because of that ignorance, for success in its conduct. 
 While another man had been carefully watching every occa- 
 sion of usefulness or advancement, however slight it might 
 appear, — had treated every circumstance, which involved 
 him at all in its effects, as if it might be the most important 
 of his life, — he had considered like occasions and like cir- 
 cumstances as too trivial for his notice, as too ordinary to 
 produce any material or permanent consequences. And 
 thus while the one, taking advantage of every little wave 
 which rippled to his feet, had launched his bark, and was 
 far off on his prospering voyage : the other was still waiting 
 for some extraordinary influx of the waters, which was to 
 bear him forth upon its swelling bosom, and sweep him at 
 once to fortune or to fame. And there will he stand until 
 
xo8 
 
 Increase our Faith, 
 
 his life shall end : and he learn — when too late — that 
 fortune, fame, nay, character itself, are made up not of acci- 
 dental or lucky chances, but of a steady and industrious im- 
 provement of those opportunities which come alike to all in 
 the usual course of human life. 
 
 And thus, my hearers, shall every one of us stand, unim- 
 proved in religious character, unadvanced in our soul's sal- 
 vation, waiting, waiting, upon the shore of the great ocean 
 of God's eternal love : unless we learn, at once, that our 
 advancement in spiritual things is made to depend, like our 
 success in worldly things, not upon any extraordinary mani- 
 festation of God's grace towards us, not upon any striking 
 exercise of our faith towards Him, but upon the improve- 
 ment of that grace which, the Apostle tells us, appeareth 
 to all men ; and upon the exercise of that faith which is 
 concerned about the circumstances and contingencies of 
 every-day life. 
 
 Christians are very prone to consider the increase of faith 
 as necessary for them upon great and important occasions 
 of human life, — when they are called upon to meet a great 
 crisis, or to wade through a sea of troubles, or to struggle 
 with a storm of temptation. And in this they are right, 
 and God has promised that upon such occasions and under 
 such necessity His grace shall be sufficient for them : but 
 they are wrong in supposing that they do not require a like 
 increase to meet the ordinary trials and temptations of 
 every-day life. For these they consider themselves fully 
 prepared by their consistent Christian life, and do not sup- 
 pose that such common and usual occurrences demand any 
 special supply of the Spirit's power and influence. And it 
 is just at this point that most of us make the great mistake 
 of our Christian life, and lose alike the comfort and the 
 power of Christianity. And this mistake is in supposing 
 that our duties — those duties in which God has promised 
 
Increase otir Faith. 
 
 109 
 
 us His help and support — consist in great things, in un- 
 usual efforts, in extraordinary sacrifices, in uncommon self- 
 devotion. And while waiting for these occasions, we are 
 undisciplined for those trials which we call petty because 
 they come daily, and stumble in our Christian walk because 
 unprepared for the exercise of our graces under circum- 
 stances which we deem common only because they are con- 
 stantly recurring. 
 
 The circumstances under which this prayer was offered 
 by the Apostles to their Lord furnish a felicitous elucidation 
 of our meaning. It was evidently an earnest prayer, — one 
 offered impulsively, in reply to what they considered one of 
 the hard sayings of their Master. Had it been one of those 
 hard sayings, — had it been offered in reply to His myste- 
 rious declaration that " Except a man be born again, he 
 cannot see the Kingdom of God," 1 or that other saying 
 which commanded them to eat His Flesh and drink His 
 Blood, — it would not have furnished us with the instruc- 
 tion we are deriving from it : because, under those circum- 
 stances, we should not have deemed it either a remarkable 
 or an unnecessary prayer. We should have confessed, at 
 once, that for the reception of such doctrines an increase 
 of faith was alike proper and requisite. But when, upon 
 turning to the context, we find that this prayer was uttered 
 in reply to such a simple, every-day duty as the forgiveness 
 of injuries, we feel at once that there is a meaning in it, 
 which it may be well for us to understand, — a lesson con- 
 veyed by it, which we ought to learn at the earliest possible 
 moment of our Christian career. 
 
 " Take heed to yourselves," are the words of our Saviour : 
 " If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him ; and if 
 he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee 
 seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn ag*ain 
 
 1 S. John iii. 3. 
 
no 
 
 Increase our Faith. 
 
 to thee, saying", I repent; thou shalt forgive him. And 
 the Apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith." And 
 well might they pray so : for it is not so much the great- 
 ness of an act which makes it difficult to a Christian, as its 
 frequent recurrence, coupled as it is with an antagonism to 
 flesh and hlood. When a great occasion offers itself, when a 
 mighty sacrifice for religion is forced upon us, when some re- 
 markable trial casts its dark shadow over our path, we nerve 
 ourselves for the struggle ; we put upon us the armor of 
 righteousness upon the right hand and upon the left. But 
 we are not habitually watchful against little sins, against 
 secret sins, against the trials and annoyances which are the 
 most dangerous, because they are the most frequent, and 
 come upon us unawares. 
 
 We run into great error both in life and in religion, 
 when we undertake to determine what are great things and 
 what are little things, — what actions are important, and 
 what unimportant. Our judgment is almost always false 
 upon questions like these ; and could those judgments be 
 seen by us as they are seen by God, we should find that we 
 were too often calling good, evil ; and evil, good : sweet, bit- 
 ter ; and bitter, sweet. We conclude that things are great 
 and important, when they are public, notorious, of wide 
 fame, of extensive interest ; when they are blown upon the 
 wings of the wind ; when they occupy the tongues of multi- 
 tudes ; when they adorn, or soil, the page of history. On 
 the other hand, we call things trifling and unimportant, 
 when they are frequent, ordinary, confined to small circles, 
 shut up within the heart and consciousness of individuals. 
 We forget that the daily recurrence of a thing, common 
 and ordinary, may make it of vast moment to our welfare 
 and happiness, while the rare occurrence of an uncommon 
 event may render it — however striking it may seem on the 
 instant — of very little consequence in its results. In 
 
Increase our Faith. 
 
 in 
 
 Nature, it is the unfailing recurrence of night and day, of 
 seed-time and harvest, of winter and summer; it is the 
 steady movement of the sun and moon and stars ; it is the 
 uniform and unchanging laws of attraction and repulsion, 
 of evaporation and condensation, of motion and inertia ; 
 which are most important and therefore greatest : and not 
 the portentous eclipse, nor the fiery comet, nor the extreme 
 convulsions of Nature, even though they leave for ages the 
 impress of their terror and desolation. The one goes on 
 forever, — quiet, silent, sublime, yet giving life, happiness, 
 joy, confidence to a world. The other is only for the mo- 
 ment, — terrible, fearful, overwhelming, exciting the mind, 
 astonishing the understanding, for years perhaps the theme 
 of science and of study : yet never working for man any 
 of the beneficent results which flow from the common, 
 every-day blessings of light and heat, of dew and rain, of 
 summer's breath and winter's blasts. 
 
 And as it is in Nature, so is it likewise in life. It is not 
 the poetry of life, nor yet its romance, which make up its 
 blessedness : it is its every-day prose. Wit, eloquence, wis- 
 dom, heroism, learning, beauty, — these are the idols of 
 the world. These make men and women great, place them 
 upon pedestals, shrine them in hearts, embalm them in song 
 and story. But when you come truly to weigh these gifts, 
 — to rate their value in the world's advancement or in the 
 world's happiness, — plain common sense outweighs them 
 all. And for the simple reason, that life is made up of 
 common and ordinary things, which demand none of these 
 qualities as essential to their proper conduct. They em- 
 bellish life; they constitute the fluting to the column or 
 the efflorescence of the capital : but coarser materials than 
 these must bear up the fabric of society. The qualities 
 which make the fireside peaceful and virtuous ; which train 
 the young in the paths of duty ; which furnish the examples 
 
112 
 
 Increase our Faith. 
 
 of industry, of obedience, of reference, of religion ; which 
 give stability to society and strength to government: are 
 those which are truly great, and most essentially impor- 
 tant. And these are the qualities which God dispenses 
 most freely, and which man despises because they are uni- 
 versally diffused. They give peace at home, but they do 
 not confer distinction abroad. They cast a halo around a 
 happy wife and rejoicing children ; but then it is not a 
 rainbow that spans the earth. They protect law, and pre- 
 serve justice, and keep society from anarchy ; but then their 
 names are not blown abroad by fame's noisy trumpet, nor 
 their effects recorded upon monuments of brass. They are 
 not great ; because man confounds greatness with notoriety, 
 sublimity with noise and ostentation. 
 
 And as it is in Life, so it is likewise in Religion. It is 
 not upon the great fields of ecclesiastical strife that the vic- 
 tories of the Cross have been won ; but in the quiet, unob- 
 trusive walks of duty and of suffering. Catching the spirit 
 and language of the world, we call the martyr great ; we 
 call the reformer great ; we call the ripe and learned theo- 
 logian great ; we call the mitred dignitary great ; and we 
 connect with them the advancement of religion and the 
 fruits of the Spirit. For deeds such as they have per- 
 formed, for works such as they have done, for struggles 
 such as they have waged, for writings such as they have left, 
 we think the prayer of the Apostles, " Lord, increase our 
 faith," must have been appropriate and necessary. But God 
 sees not as man sees : and His eyes look upon many a mar- 
 tyr of whom the world has never heard ; and watch the dust 
 of many a reformer who lived before the Church knew any 
 reformation ; and behold the brows of many an humble and 
 obedient Christian encircled with the golden crown of im- 
 mortality, who knew no learning when on earth save the 
 learning of His Word, and wore no crown save the crown 
 
Increase our Faith. 
 
 of sorrow and of thorns. And He sees, too, that it is their 
 deeds of Faith and of humility which have subdued the 
 earth ; that it is the seeds which they hare planted of obedi- 
 ence and of reverence which have leavened the world; that it 
 is their works of love and charity which have sanctified the 
 Name of Jesus upon earth. Ask the proud man, who lies 
 in humbled repentance at the foot of the Cross asking for 
 mercy and for peace, what hath brought him there : and he 
 will point you, not to the martyr's ashes, not to the theo- 
 logian's wisdom, not to the preacher's eloquence : but to 
 the meek and holy life of a sainted mother, obscure to all 
 but him ; or to the patient endurance of a long-suffering 
 wife, unknown except by God and himself ; or to the uncon- 
 scious purity of some darling child, whose daily life has 
 breathed more of Christianity than all the forms of religion 
 which have surrounded him. Ask the rebellious youth who 
 is returning after his prodigal career to find comfort upon 
 his father's bosom, what is guiding him back to a long neg- 
 lected and long forgotten home : and he will tell you no tale 
 of wonder or of miracle, — of supernatural awakening or 
 angelic guidance. His polar star, through all his wander- 
 ings, has been his father's fireside, hallowed by affection, 
 endeared by tenderness, consecrated by prayer, made lovely 
 as Paradise by the graces of the Spirit which ever rested 
 over it ! These are the influences which keep Christ's name 
 divine in the eyes of the world, — which force even wicked 
 men to confess that His life and death have raised humanity 
 to a higher standard than it has ever before attained. 
 
 And who are they that have worked and are still working 
 such wonders for the Name of Christ, such blessings for a 
 cursed and smitten earth ? They are the meek and humble 
 saints of whom the world knows but little, — the merciful, 
 the pure in heart, the persecuted for righteousness' sake, 
 the imitators in suffering of Him who was the " man of 
 
 8 
 
ii4 
 
 Increase our Faith, 
 
 sorrows and acquainted with grief." They are those who 
 have patiently borne all the afflictions which a heavenly 
 Father has laid upon them, and have learned to comfort 
 others with the consolation wherewith God has comforted 
 them. They are those who have labored to cheer the drea- 
 riness of poverty, to speak peace to the accusing conscience, 
 to find rest for the wearied spirit, to revive the crushed and 
 despairing heart. They are those who have filled Heaven 
 with their prayers, and whose prayers have returned laden 
 with the blessing and the dew of Heaven, which they have 
 scattered all around them. They are those who have 
 washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and from 
 whose eyes God will forever wipe away all tears. 
 
 And what are the deeds which have made these saints of 
 God so precious in His eyes, — such a blessing to the whole 
 earth ? What are the conquests which shall enroll their 
 names so illustriously among the elect of God ? Just such 
 deeds, my fellow-Christians, as any Christian among you 
 may perform ; — just such conquests as every one of you is 
 called upon daily to achieve. The deeds of faith which 
 hallow the name of Jesus upon earth, the conquests of love 
 which make His religion indeed glad tidings of great joy 
 to the world, are not limited to great occasions, or unusual 
 opportunities ; have not to be waited for until some great 
 religious crisis shall arise, and give fitting scope to the ex- 
 cited energies : but meet us at every step of our Christian 
 life, cross our path daily and hourly, furnishing the means 
 of discipline and the prospect of heavenly glory. Oh ! how 
 fatal an error do we commit, when we wait for illustrious 
 opportunities in order to utter the prayer of our text, " In- 
 crease our faith ! " How fearful is our mistake, when we 
 consider nothing great but what is of public interest and 
 wide-spread renown. We need that prayer at every mo- 
 ment of our lives ; for we spend no day in which we are not 
 
Increase our Faith. 
 
 "5 
 
 called upon for deeds of faith, for conquests over self and 
 over the world. We glorify him who confesses his faith in 
 the midst of fire ; who bears, for a few hours, the physical 
 agonies of a body devoured by the flames : and think he 
 needs, indeed, the prayer, " Increase our Faith." But what 
 is his suffering compared with the martyrdom of a whole 
 life, — with the agony of carrying about day after day, year 
 after year, a crushed and broken heart. — crushed and 
 blighted for the sake of Christ. And yet many a private 
 Christian of whose sorrows the world knows nothing, does 
 this for Christ. We exalt the Xame of him, who leaves 
 father and mother and sister and brother, and bears aloft 
 the banner of the Cross in foreign lands, battling for Christ 
 against the powers of darkness ; and acknowledge that he 
 needs indeed the prayer " Increase our Faith." But what 
 is his self-denial compared with the self-denial of him who 
 remains in the midst of the world, surrounded by the hosts 
 of the proud, and the unbelieving, and the scoffing, and the 
 lukewarm, and battles for Christ against their indifference 
 and fierce opposition ? We place high upon the list of his- 
 toric fame him who separates himself from the world and 
 dwells in solitariness, devoting himself to prayer and self- 
 denial ; and we confess that he requires the prayer, " In- 
 crease our Faith." But what is his dreariness compared 
 with the weary spirit that goes forth to his daily cares, 
 tempted on every hand, perplexed, harassed, having to con- 
 trol his temper, to smother his indignation, to walk meekly 
 and humblv in the midst of a o-ainsavinor world. " Better," 
 saith the wise man, " is he that ruleth his spirit, than he 
 that taketh a city : " 1 and yet, who thinks that he needs 
 the prayer " Increase our Faith," when he has nothing more 
 to do than the simple work of ruling his temper. 
 
 Xo, my beloved friends, we have all reason to use this 
 
 1 Prov. xvi. 32. 
 
n6 
 
 Increase our Faith. 
 
 prayer every day of our lives, because it is the common and 
 ordinary duties of life which are indeed the greatest ; — the 
 greatest, because the most frequent and the most influen- 
 tial. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, whom we 
 should rather influence than all others upon earth, are the 
 witnesses of our daily walk. They see our inconsistencies ; 
 they watch our infirmities ; they mark our deviations from 
 Christian rectitude ; and impressions are made upon them 
 which work effects for a whole lifetime. Little eyes are 
 always fixed upon us ; little hearts are beating in unison 
 with ours ; little feet are treading in our footsteps ; little 
 characters are forming under our control. Christianity 
 stands forth daily for trial in our persons and conduct. 
 And when all this influence breathes from our walk, think 
 ye that we do not need the prayer, " Increase our Faith ? " 
 We need it always, for the government of our tempers, for 
 the ruling of our tongues, for the humbling of our pride, 
 for the control of our desires, for the subjugation of our 
 appetites. We need it for the increase of our trust in God, 
 of our reliance upon Christ, of our confidence in the power 
 of the Holy Ghost. We need it for that struggle with the 
 world, for that battle of life, which we are destined to wage 
 until mortality shall be swallowed up in Life. 
 
Ctcclftl) Sermon. 
 
 And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, ?iamed 
 Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom : arid he said unto him, Follow 
 me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. — S. Luke v. 27, 
 28. 
 
 rpHE longer the world rolls on, the more does it seem 
 to he involved in worldliness. Only a few years hack, 
 and we can remember the comparative quietness of things : 
 how much more time was given by everybody to matters 
 disconnected from business ; to amusement, to exercise, to 
 home, to rest. One part of the day sufficed for the trans- 
 actions of the world ; after that, care was rolled off, and 
 the body and the mind were relaxed from their extreme ten- 
 sion. The result of what was done had to he quietly waited 
 for until the operation could travel its required distance, 
 and return with its slow reply. The news of the world 
 came in by degrees, and one thing could he well considered 
 and well digested, before another was hurled upon it, con- 
 fusing and entangling the past and the present. The 
 thoughts of men were allowed some leisure from external 
 pressure to dwell upon the concerns of domestic life, and 
 they could find a little time to give to such trifling affairs 
 as wife and children, and their souls and eternity. The 
 young grew up then under the shadow of their father's 
 wing, and were taught around the domestic board and at 
 the fireside those lessons of morals and patriotism, which 
 made our forefathers so high-toned and illustrious, and 
 gave to the Republic a race of men which is fast passing 
 
1 1 8 The busy Mans Religious Difficulties, 
 
 away. But all this is now changed. A man of business 
 has no time for any thing except business. Space and dis- 
 tance are annihilated ; and news now travels, not upon the 
 wings of the wind, but upon the lightning's flash. There 
 is no rest for the anxious and excited mind. The whole 
 day is a continued succession of new and often startling 
 announcements ; and before the one care is disposed of, 
 another comes and thrusts its unwelcome presence upon 
 the harassed and wearied spirit. There is fast getting to 
 be no such thing as Home. It was once the boast of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race, that it had that word in its vocabulary, 
 — that there was a sanctuary for the feelings and the affec- 
 tions, — a consecrated spot, where the mind could be dis- 
 burdened of care, and the brow could smooth its wrinkles, 
 and the laboring spirit could find refreshment. But alas, 
 while the word still remains to us, the thing is rapidly 
 fading away before the increasing excitement of the world. 
 ~No place is now sacred, for business thrusts its haggard 
 visage upon every hour of the day, and into every private 
 chamber of the house ; and care and trouble cannot be kept 
 at bay, which come with the force and quickness of the 
 elements. Not only in times of difficulty, but at all times, 
 is the system kept in a condition of nervous expectation, 
 because no man knows what the next moment may thrust 
 upon him from the other end of the earth. The toil of the 
 day is never ended 5 the sweets of home are but half en- 
 joyed. Instead of carrying to that circle of love a calm and 
 cheerful spirit, he hurries there with a disturbed, and per- 
 haps irritated mind : and hurries back to his anxieties, hav- 
 ing left no word of comfort, no recollection of happiness, no 
 example of peace, for its unsatisfied hearts. His presence 
 has given no joy, his spirit has received no strength ; and 
 thus God's precious relations of husband and wife, of parent 
 and child, of home and love, are worn out under this un- 
 
The busy Mans Religious Difficulties. 119 
 
 natural condition of things. And when this has gone on 
 for years under the name of " necessary business," with the 
 sacred appellation of " duty " annexed to it, while so many 
 more precious duties have been neglected for it : what has 
 been gained for it all? Perhaps wealth, perhaps bank- 
 ruptcy; but in either case sure disappointment, because 
 the truest pleasures of life have been sacrificed for it, and 
 what is won is won too late for any true, rational enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 I have drawn this picture not with any design, of course, 
 of running a tilt against the world's so-called advance- 
 ment, for no voice of man, even should he desire it, could 
 ever turn that back; nor even of expressing the opinion 
 that it were better not to have been made : but rather to 
 show the extreme difficulty, under such circum stances, of 
 fixing the attention of men upon any thing not wrapped up 
 with their daily routine of business. A mind excited upon 
 one topic cannot be made to attend to another, and if busi- 
 ness keeps the mind, as is very much the case now, unceas- 
 ingly occupied, what is the chance for religious truth? 
 Where is the time, what the hour, for consideration, for 
 prayer, for repentance, for belief? When is the convenient 
 season to come, in which the soul is to be thought of? 
 Formerly, as I said before, there were hours every day which 
 a man might call his own, when he could retire withiu 
 himself and attend to his own dearest interests, without 
 neglecting, or even seeming to neglect, the interests of 
 others ; when, if a man did not attend to the concerns of 
 his soul, it was because he was careless or indifferent. He 
 could not plead the lack of opportunity. But now the case 
 of the man of business is really harder, and does demand 
 of him much greater resolution than of old. He seems 
 now almost compelled to be in a constant whirl of excite- 
 ment, — to have nothing left him but the necessary hours 
 
120 The busy Mans Religious Difficulties. 
 
 for his daily food, and his essential sleep, and God's blessed 
 day of rest. And oh ! how precious should that day of rest 
 be to him now, when things are so : and yet, with what a 
 jaded and wearied heart, with what an exhausted and col- 
 lapsed intellect, is he forced to come to it ! During the 
 week, — the busy, restless, excited week, — religion and 
 the soul can find no place ; and on the Sunday, even when 
 the worn out body does not cry, with nature's cry, for rest 
 and sleep, he brings to the sanctuary of God a heart either 
 unable to cast off its care, or else tired out with its tumult- 
 uous pulsations, and careless of every thing save the reac- 
 tion of quiet. It makes religion almost an unheeded topic : 
 and the minister of Christ feels that he is pleading for 
 men's souls either to a host engaged in the deadly strife of 
 battle, face to face, and hand to hand ; or else to that same 
 host when, wearied and exhausted, it has no power left to 
 fight, and is reposing only that it may recruit its strength 
 for the morrow's strife ! 
 
 The ministers of God have this great comfort, that the 
 Spirit of God is stronger than- man or his arrangements ; 
 that Christ has gone into the very midst of the marts of 
 commerce, and plucked a soul thence. " And after these 
 things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sit- 
 ting at the receipt of custom : and he said unto him, Follow 
 me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him." And 
 what Christ did then, His Spirit can do now, and it can 
 penetrate through all the excitement and turmoil of which 
 we have been speaking, and bring God's children home to 
 Him. This is our comfort, that we are not working alone; 
 that it is not only the voice of man that is crying aloud in 
 the places of concourse, but that a Spirit, subtler than air, 
 keener than lightning, stronger than interest, more absorb- 
 ing than avarice, is likewise busy there, speaking for Christ 
 with that small, still voice which pierces deeper than a 
 
The busy Mans Religious Difficulties, 121 
 
 sword, even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit 
 and of the joints and marrow. We should faint and grow 
 weary when we looked out upon the world and saw its seem- 
 ing inattention and complete absorption, if we did not trust 
 in that power of the Spirit, which has come into the world 
 as the gift of God in return for the sacrifice of His Son ; 
 if we did not know that He was moving everywhere, invit- 
 ing in season and out of season, pleading when man has no 
 power to plead, and pluckiug from every scene of life dis- 
 ciples for the Church on earth. Yes, my hearers ! even 
 when you think that you are escaped from the warnings 
 and the exhortations of the sanctuary, there follows you a 
 Preacher far more urgent than your minister, far more 
 intrusive than he can ever he, — a Preacher who shrinks 
 neither from your coldness nor your anger, who fears not 
 to tell you the naked truth, who presses not only into your 
 counting-rooms, and your offices, and your sanctuaries, hut 
 into your hearts and souls. And it is this auxiliary who is 
 our Strength and our Power, — who gives us hope when 
 . hope would otherwise die, — -who bids us be of good cheer, 
 even when all minds seem absorbed in business and gain. 
 It is this auxiliary who can call you, even as Christ called 
 Matthew, from the very midst of your business, and make 
 you leave all and follow Him. 
 
 It is very pleasant to observe how Christ went every- 
 where and found followers ; how no pursuit of life escaped 
 His grasp or eluded His love. Wherever He went, He 
 searched for spirits that would obey His voice, and took 
 His disciples from every condition in the world. Matthew 
 was, as we see here, a publican, Luke was a physician, John 
 and Peter were fishermen, Paul was a man of learning and 
 a zealot. No occupation seemed below His call ; none so 
 absorbing as to resist it ; none too high for obedience and 
 submission to His will. Christianity, my hearers, is for 
 
122 The busy Mans Religious Difficulties, 
 
 all: and Christ's example is meant to teach us that we 
 should not despise any, nor despair of any; should not 
 neglect to give the word of invitation to the lowest out- 
 cast, nor fear to cast it at the feet of the busiest and 
 most engaged. We know not who will hear it and obey. 
 Those whom we least look for may be the first to come out 
 from the worldly throng, and leave all and follow Christ. 
 Men's hearts are as subject to the will of God to-day, under 
 the dispensation of His Spirit, as they were in the time of 
 Christ ; and can be bowed down under His voice as quickly 
 as they then were. It is our want of faith which makes us 
 fearful of results. Nothing is more absorbing than was 
 the occupation of Levi, nothing more invincible than the 
 fanaticism of Saul; and yet the one instantly obeyed the 
 voice of Christ, and the other was subdued into humility 
 before His power. Why, then, should we be hopeless of 
 any ? Why should we tremble at the world's progress, and 
 be fearful of its influence upon the conversion of men ? 
 The Spirit of God is in the world, and He can pluck the 
 sinner thence, snatching him from its whirl and tumult as 
 easily as Christ drew Matthew from the receipt of custom. 
 
 But while this is so, and while the ministers of Christ 
 may feel this consolation, there is yet, my hearers, a very 
 great danger for you in this increasing absorption of the 
 world. The Spirit of God is among you, as He has ever 
 been, and is as strong to draw souls to Christ as He ever 
 was ; but are you likely to be as attentive to His voice, to 
 be as willing and obedient in the day of His power ? Chris- 
 tianity, it is true, is a thing of the heart ; but the heart 
 must be reached through the mind. God's complaint 
 against His people of old was, " My people will not con- 
 sider." And when S. Paul preached to the Bereans, we are 
 told that many of them believed, " because they received the 
 word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Script- 
 
The busy Mans Religious Difficulties. 123 
 
 ures daily, whether those things were so." And are the 
 times in which we are living, with their constant agitation 
 and excitement, with their rapid influx of new and ab- 
 sorbing matter, with their daily pressure of anxiety and 
 responsibility, propitious to consideration and Scriptural 
 examination *? Not at all so : nay, with all the increase 
 of knowledge and books, very adverse ; and they demand 
 much greater effort on your part to gain for Christ and 
 your souls the proper attention, than they have ever done 
 before. We talk incessantly of the greater religions facil- 
 ities and advantages of our day, of the increase of the 
 means of grace. And there is some truth in it, if we 
 measure it by the number of books and tracts which are 
 circulated, and by the accumulation of societies, and by the 
 diversity of benevolent schemes. But I question very 
 much whether more was not done among men for Christ, 
 when we had only the Bible and the Prayer-Book, and time 
 to read and study them, than is done now, with ail our 
 books, and tracts, and societies, and no time for any thing 
 but business and gain. TVe are fast coming to a sort of 
 compact between the Church and men of business, that if 
 the one will support the other, will give money freely for 
 religious objects, the Church will keep their consciences 
 and take care of their souls. Men seem ready to do every 
 thing and any thing for Christianity, except to give it their 
 thoughts and their time. " What do you want? 53 is the 
 language of the world to the minister of the Gospel : " to 
 build a church? Certainly, I give with pleasure. " " To 
 feed the poor ? Better still : here is money, as much as 
 you want." " To send missionaries to the heathen P I 
 do not exactly see the use of that, but still yon are my 
 pastor, and if you think it right, here is my contribu- 
 tion." " But," replies the minister. " I want something 
 more than this : I want you to give your attention to 
 
124 The busy Mans Religious Difficulties. 
 
 personal religion — to consider the salvation of your soul, 
 and its unprepared condition." " My dear pastor," is 
 the reply, " I have no time for that ; my purse is at 
 your service and the service of the Church, but not my 
 time ; I am too busy now for so solemn and grave a 
 matter." But, my hearers, there must be a time, and 
 when is that time to come ? The world is not going to 
 lose any of its excitement as it grows older. It will be 
 only more and more agitated, more and more restless, more 
 and more unquiet ; and if you are putting off this solemn 
 work for any less bustling period, you will find it only upon 
 a bed of sickness or in your graves ! The Church can 
 make no compromise for your souls ; for the word of God 
 tells us, " They that trust in their wealth, and boast them- 
 selves in the multitude of their riches ; none of them can 
 by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ran- 
 som for him : for the redemption of their soul is precious, 
 and they must let that alone for ever." 1 Christ is not sat- 
 isfied with that. He did not go to the receipt of custom 
 and ask Levi for his money : He called upon him to follow 
 Him. And so now. While He will not leave your good 
 deeds unrequited, that is not what He died for, nor what 
 He instituted His Church for, nor appointed His min- 
 isters for, nor sends His Holy Spirit into the world for. 
 He wants you to follow Him ; to spare time enough to 
 Christianity to save your souls; to give up whatever He 
 may deem necessary to require of you for His Name's sake. 
 To say that you have no time to follow Him, is to give up 
 the question of salvation : for in that respect you will never 
 be any more happily situated. You must make the time, if 
 you desire ever to be a Christian. You must break away, 
 if need be, from the receipt of custom. Any thing is 
 better than losing your soul. " For what shall it profit a 
 
 1 Psalm xlix. 6-8 (the last phrase is from the Prayer-Book version). 
 
The busy Mans Religions Difficulties. 125 
 
 man, if he shall gain the whole world, an J lose his own 
 soul '? 93 1 
 
 To return to the point whence we set out. Is there not 
 something radically wrong in the framework of a social state 
 which so arranges its work that in order to have it faith- 
 fully performed, the higher duties of domestic life must be 
 neglected '? This evil is not confined to one class of society, 
 nor to any one kind of pursuit : it is the pervading evil of 
 the whole country. The politician, the lawyer, the clergy- 
 man, as well as the merchant, are all so occupied with the 
 duties of their profession, that they must exercise a stern 
 resistance to the exaction of the times, if they would snatch 
 any hours for the blessing of their homes or the improve- 
 ment of themselves. And it will prove fatal to all the best 
 interests of society unless it he corrected, for there is no 
 authority which can he substituted for the father's. God 
 will not permit the honor nor the glory which He has de- 
 signed for the parent to he given to any other : and so the 
 child must bear the burden of the neglect, and feel it 
 deeply in himself, even though he does not disclose it to 
 the world in immorality and disgrace. Why is it pass- 
 ing into a proverb that the youth of this country. — which, 
 above all others, demands reverence and obedience, because 
 we have nothing else to protect us from anarchy but a 
 law-abiding education, — is taking things into its own 
 hands, rejecting control and despising authority ? Why is 
 it that our academies are scenes of disorder, and our col- 
 leges broken up year after year ? Why is it that our popu- 
 lation is ever growing more lawless and piratical '? It is 
 just because the fathers have not had time to give that 
 supervision to things at home, which God and Nature de- 
 signed them to give : and so the legitimate sceptre of the 
 patriarch is fallen from their hands, and lies dishonored in 
 1 S. MarkYiii. 36. 
 
126 The busy Mans Religious Difficulties, 
 
 the dust. And no natural relation can be violated with 
 impunity. The sin will find a man out, and a nation out, 
 as surely as effect follows cause in physical things. And 
 there is really no necessity for it. There is no busier land 
 than our Fatherland, no country under the heavens whose 
 commerce is more extended, whose manufactures are more 
 gigantic,, whose trade is more exacting, whose professional 
 men are more learned and assiduous, whose politicians have 
 heavier responsibilities upon their minds and their hearts. 
 And yet they do so manage to arrange their work, that 
 they neglect neither their homes nor themselves. Beauti- 
 ful as is the scenery of England ; beautiful as is its rich 
 and perfect cultivation ; beautiful as are its parks, its coun- 
 try-seats, its churches : still more beautiful are its Homes, 
 those nests of love and virtue, where are trained up the 
 men of dogged honesty and unconquerable principle, who 
 have carried her up, through trial and trouble, through 
 storm and tempest, to the topmost pinnacle of glory. And 
 this is just where we are going to fail. In looking at great 
 things, we are neglecting what we consider small things. 
 In our onward rush to greatness and power, we are over- 
 looking the natural laws of all our social relations; and 
 they will some day vindicate themselves before all the world 
 with a fearful retribution. Society must and will advance ; 
 man's dominion over nature must and will be enlarged ; 
 Science will be forever adding new force to our operations, 
 and placing new powers in our hands. But we must never 
 forget that morals and religion do not advance with them ; 
 that they are immutable ; that the great laws which God 
 has established and revealed to us are the same " yesterday, 
 to-day, and for ever." No matter how things may change 
 and advance, the man is still the father, the husband, the 
 master, with duties which none can absolve him from, 
 which none can perform for him. Any work which absorbs 
 
The busy Mans Religious Difficzrities. 127 
 
 hiin so entirely tliat he cannot fulfil these, is work more 
 than he ought to do, — work from which he should break 
 away rather than sacrifice his children to it. It cannot he 
 necessary. God will not permit it to he necessary, for 
 nothing 1 can he necessary which violates His laws. Noth- 
 ing is necessary in this world but duty : and one's duties 
 to home — his moral duties, the duties arising out of his 
 presence, his authority, his example, his instruction — are 
 far more important than the duty of procuring wealth or 
 even comfort for his family. 
 
 And then one's own soul ! What is to become of that ? 
 Is it to be sacrificed to this cry of necessary work ? Is 
 Eternity, as well as Time, to be laid at the foot of this 
 Moloch ? God forbid ! And yet it must be, if you can find 
 no time to pray that your soul may be saved. Xo time ! 
 and what was time given you for ? Merely to pass away ? 
 Merely to procure meat, and drink, and raiment ? Merely 
 to accumulate wealth ? Xo ! it was given you for none of 
 these : it was given to prepare for Eternity. The rest 
 should be all by-play, just as a traveller amuses or employs 
 himself while he has his eye steadily fixed upon his Home. 
 That is the end of his journey : other things are only 
 means or accompaniments. And so with Eternity. That 
 is the end of all, the great goal of life : and every thing, 
 save preparation for that, should be handled lightly, so that 
 when Christ passes by and calls you, you may be ready to 
 leave all and follow Him. 
 
^trtccntl) pennon. 
 
 But Martha was cumhered about much serving, and came to him, 
 and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to 
 serve alone 1 bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus an- 
 swered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou a?"t careful and 
 troubled about many things: but one thing is needful : and Mary 
 hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from 
 her. — S. Luke x. 40-42. 
 
 HENEVER we can find a question fairly put to our 
 
 ? T Saviour, we may be sure, if it be a practical one, of 
 having the proper answer to it for the use and blessing 
 of the world. Idle questions He always put aside with an 
 admonition or with a rebuke ; but those which really looked 
 to duty or to holiness received a solution which removed 
 them ever after from the sphere of doubt or difficulty. And 
 it is a great comfort that so many points have been decided 
 by our Lord Himself, — points which lie very near our do- 
 mestic and social happiness. Nothing perplexes a Christian 
 more, seeing that he is called upon to act amid complicate 
 duties, than to know how to frame his life, so that he may 
 fulfil them all : so that, while acting for God and for the 
 glory of religion in one direction, he may not bring reproach 
 upon that same cause by neglect in some other direction. 
 These cases are continually presenting themselves, and are 
 the cause of much embarrassment to the conscientious child 
 of God. If he knew his proper course, he would be most 
 happy to pursue it. His difficulty does not lie with his will 
 or his resolution to do what is right, but with his knowl- 
 edge. His duty is not plain before him ; he wants advice 
 
The busy Woman 's Religious Difficulties. 129 
 
 and counsel ; he desires the judgment of one more experi- 
 enced than himself in the Christian life. Happy for him, 
 if, under such circumstances, he can find a friend who will 
 guide him in his action ; — still more happy, if he can be 
 pointed to his Bible, and can read the solution to his diffi- 
 culty in the very language of his blessed Master. 
 
 It is surprising how little Christians look to the Script- 
 ures for a sure rule of duty. They take up the erroneous 
 notion that the teachings of Christ were meant more espe- 
 cially for the age in which He lived, and for that peculiar 
 state of society. Miserable mistake ! for the value of the 
 Bible consists in its enunciation of general principles, 
 meant for all people and for all times, and suitable for all. 
 It was impossible, in a Book intended for the world, to take 
 up every single case of conscience, every conflict of duties, 
 every point of casuistry, and settle it upon its merits. The 
 world itself, as S. John says, could not contain the books 
 that should be written after such a plan. Our Lord has 
 adopted the only possible course, — that of enunciating, 
 from a given case, a general principle, which may be after- 
 wards applied to all cases of a like kind. They are the 
 foundation of all Christian ethics, these sayings of Christ ; 
 and are to be applied to our doubts and difficulties, as they 
 may arise, for their settlement and removal. They belong 
 to us as much as to any period of the world ; they are the 
 inheritance of all Christian people ; and if any one fails to 
 use them, because they were proclaimed ages ago, and in a 
 different quarter of the world, he may just as well, for the 
 same reason, refuse to rest upon any of the promises or 
 hopes of the Bible. The morals of the Bible, its rules of 
 practical duty, were promulgated no earlier than the doc- 
 trines of the Bible ; and if we found our assurance of ever- 
 lasting life upon the Atonement of Christ, we may surely 
 rest our solution of practical duty upon the principles which 
 9 
 
1 30 The busy Woman s Religious Difficulties. 
 
 He laid down. Whenever He has spoken, that is enough 
 for man ; His sayings are divine, and therefore catholic ; 
 are the inspiration of God, and therefore the rule of duty 
 for man all the world over, and in all the changes of the 
 world. 
 
 In the verses from which I preach, a case was laid before 
 our Saviour of the simplest kind, and yet covering a vast 
 question, one which demands solution every time that any 
 conflict seems to arise between our domestic and our relig- 
 ious duties. It arose out of the common every-day arrange- 
 ments of a household, and may, therefore, be a question in 
 every family, concerning every member of that family. Its 
 very simpleness and universality make up its vastness, for 
 what it lacks in seeming importance, it makes up by its 
 wide embrace. Our Lord, it appears, was received by a 
 woman, named Martha, into her house. She seems to 
 have been the elder sister, and a very particular house- 
 keeper. She had a younger sister, called Mary, who em- 
 braced the opportunity — letting housekeeping alone for 
 the time — of sitting at Jesus' feet, and hearing His words 
 of truth and eternity. This vexed Martha, and she applied 
 to our Lord for redress : " Lord, dost not thou care that 
 my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore 
 that she help me." This gave occasion to our Lord to 
 place this domestic question, — one which concerns not 
 only every woman, but every man in this congregation, — 
 upon its proper footing. " And Jesus answered and said 
 unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled 
 about many things : but one thing is needful : and Mary 
 hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away 
 from her." 
 
 Nothing is more important for the comfort and happiness 
 of the domestic circle than that a house should be well or- 
 dered ; and this is generally supposed to be the province of 
 
The busy Woman s Religious Difficulties. 131 
 
 the woman. Public duties, professional occupations, the 
 necessity of providing for a family, all force the man away 
 from his home for a very large portion of his time. This 
 casts upon the woman the management of things at home, 
 of children, of servants, and generally of the social rela- 
 tions of the family. Upon her are supposed to depend the 
 neatness, the comfort, the happiness of home. If these 
 are not secured, she receives the blame ; and even when 
 they are secured, unless they be secured just in a certain 
 way, after a particular model, she is very apt to suffer from 
 the tongue of criticism. No wonder, then, that there are 
 many Marthas in the world, — mothers, or elder sisters, — 
 who are cumbered about much serving ; who are made 
 anxious every day, and almost every hour, lest every thing 
 should not be as it ought ; who are tempted to negiect, as 
 Martha did, their religious duties, for fear they may neglect 
 their domestic ones. To all such, Christ lays down the 
 important principle, that if one or the other has to be laid 
 aside, religion is the " one thing needful," and every thing 
 ought to be sacrificed for that. 
 
 The case of the woman is very hard in this world ; and 
 harder than it ought to be, because it is misunderstood. 
 Man expects very often from woman that which he has no 
 Scriptural right to expect. As a quaint old English writer 
 says : " The rib of which woman was made was not taken 
 from man's head, that she might rule over him ; nor from 
 his feet, that she might be his servant ; but from his left 
 side, next to his heart, that she might be his companion, 
 his friend, the dearest object of his affection." And S. Paul, 
 in his Epistle to the Corinthians, says : " But I would have 
 you know, that the head of every man is Christ ; and the 
 head of the woman is the man ; and the head of Christ is 
 God." 1 Now mark, the man is the head of the woman as 
 
 1 1 Cor. xi. 3. 
 
132 The busy Woman s Religious Difficulties. 
 
 God is the head of Christ : that is, she is subordinate to 
 him, nothing more 5 he is expected to deal with her as God 
 dealt with Christ, to exact of her her lawful duty and no 
 more ; not to make a servant of her whom God gave him 
 for a wife ; not to forget that she has duties, feelings, and 
 above all a soul ; not to require that she shall sacrifice her 
 conscience to his pleasure, or even comfort ; not to derange 
 every thing by his disorderly habits, and then require of her 
 all his own deficiencies; not to leave servants, children, 
 household economy, altogether to her weakness. She is 
 his helpmeet. She is only one half of the domestic admin- 
 istration : and unless he support her by his authority and 
 his presence, he is making her a drudge instead of a wife ; 
 he is degrading her from her true position, and returning 
 to her toil for her love, discomfort for her affection. Man, 
 too often, thinks that his duty is done, when he provides 
 the money for the expenditures of his household. As if a 
 woman's heart could be satisfied with that ! — as if it did 
 not yearn for love, for honor, for attention, for companion- 
 ship, for a heart into which to pour all its weaknesses, for a 
 strong arm on which to lean in all its trials. When man 
 remembers what woman is to him ; how much she is called 
 upon to bear and to suffer because of him ; how weak her 
 body is, and how inferior her authority : he ought to limit 
 his expectations, if he does not give her his support ; he 
 ought to be satisfied with some imperfectness, if he does 
 not strengthen her by his presence and counsel. 
 
 It is when a husband gives his wife this love and con- 
 fidence, that she feels most keenly the conflict of duties 
 which may sometimes arise between her domestic circle and 
 her God. When these are not given her, — when she per- 
 ceives that she is merely the head servant in the family, ex- 
 pected to minister to the pleasures and caprices of a master, 
 — she loses the sense of her own dignity, and becomes care- 
 
The busy Woman \y Religious Difficulties, 133 
 
 less of her duties either to God or man. She may, from 
 habit and training, preserve order around her : but the 
 spirit is gone ; the life of love has died out, and with it has 
 hope withered and fled. There is no longer any conflict ; 
 misery has either driven her entirely to God, or has hard- 
 ened her heart against him. But to the beloved and hon- 
 ored wife, to the caressed and cherished daughter, to the 
 sister made happy by a brother's affection, the temptation 
 is great to sacrifice God upon the domestic altar ; to put 
 His claims aside when the comfort or pleasure of those they 
 love are interfered with ; to be cumbered with much serv- 
 ing, when they should be sitting at the feet of Jesus, and 
 listening to His instruction. With them there is a real 
 conflict of duties ; and then it is that the conscientious soul 
 would fain understand what is the line of duty, and where 
 serving should cease and give place to religion. 
 
 A woman has a soul as well as a man ; and, therefore, 
 is entitled to save it. Its salvation depends upon the use 
 of the same means as those which rescue man from de- 
 struction. Unless, therefore, she performs her religious 
 duties, — those which are private as well as those which 
 are public, — she endangers her spiritual life. Any serv- 
 ing, therefore, which requires her to neglect those duties, 
 is too much serving. She is not bound to peril her soul 
 for her house. Her relations to God are prior to her rela- 
 tions to her husband, and are of a higher nature. When 
 they come, therefore, into any necessary conflict, her do- 
 mestic duties must yield. They can never be put as a sub- 
 stitute in the place of religious duties. God is before all, 
 and above all ; and husband, children, parents, brothers, 
 servants, every thing, must give way before Him, so far as 
 He has required it. He must be worshipped and served 
 before all others, up to the measure that He has required 
 worship and service. This is the general principle devel- 
 
1 34 The busy Woman s Religious Difficulties. 
 
 oped by the text : " Martha, Martha, thou art careful and 
 troubled about many things : but one thing is needful : and 
 Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken 
 away from her." 
 
 But while this is the general principle, it must be 
 guarded carefully and conscientiously on all sides. While 
 the wife, or the sister, or the daughter, has the right to 
 claim time and arrangements for all necessary religious 
 duties, for prayer, for private reading and meditation, for 
 communion with God, for public religious worship upon the 
 Lord's day, for the instruction of her children and ser- 
 vants : she has no right to neglect her domestic duties for 
 any thing like religious dissipation. Her husband and chil- 
 dren, and the happiness of her home, are not to be sacrificed 
 to societies and meetings, and all the array of benevolent 
 schemes. These are very good, and very necessary : but 
 good only for those who have no duties to interfere with 
 them, and necessary only so far as organization is required 
 for their accomplishment. While a truly harmonious 
 Christian character demands the full performance of all 
 our religious duties, it requires equally the fulfillment of all 
 the requirements of our station and position ; and while 
 the one cannot be neglected without danger, no more can 
 the other be thrust aside for the mere excitements of re- 
 ligion. The time for contemplative holiness may be right- 
 fully claimed, but only that it may surround the family 
 circle with the halo of practical religion. 
 
 Nor may the woman complain that she has not time for 
 her religious duties, when the want shall arise from her 
 own irregular habits. If by late rising, or a lack of order, 
 or a love of pleasure, she let the time slip for communion 
 with her God, — the precious time which she can never 
 overtake again through the day, — she shall not be able to 
 harmonize her duties. It will be a perpetual conflict ; but 
 
The busy Woman s Religious Difficulties. 135 
 
 a conflict of her own making-, a trouble of conscience of 
 her own creation. For this there is no remedy save refor- 
 mation, — save a judging of herself honestly, as in the 
 sight of God. For any neglect arising from this cause, 
 she will necessarily suffer in her feelings of remorse if she 
 be a true child of God ; or, if not, in her domestic happi- 
 ness. The thing is inevitable. The rule of God's govern- 
 ment, " Be sure your sin will find you out," will come home 
 under these circumstances, — will terminate in evil, and in 
 misery. 
 
 But there is another state of things which calls for a 
 different application of the same principle; and that is, 
 where the conflict does not arise from others, but from 
 within ourselves, — where our religious character is inter- 
 fered with by our own over-particularity, and by our too 
 great anxiety and carefulness about domestic matters. 
 Women are sometimes so anxious to have every thing 
 around them orderly and comfortable, as to make every- 
 body uncomfortable who conies within their reach ; and, in 
 the pursuit of this end, they violate many of the precepts 
 of the Bible, besides sacrificing their own comfort. For 
 life is a complicate thing, and has its duties in all direc- 
 tions ; and if we pursue those duties violently in one direc- 
 tion, we are sure to stumble over others in some other 
 direction. Now the Marthas of this world must not forget 
 that husband, children, servants, friends, all have rights in 
 the family ; and that towards them they have correlative 
 duties : that if this over-particularity makes them reproach- 
 ful to the husband, fretful to the children, threatening to 
 the servants, inhospitable to friends, it is a sin, and not the 
 fulfillment of a duty ; it is the sacrifice of the comfort of 
 home to a fancied order, which is really disorder in the 
 sight of God. The woman imagines that she is fulfilling 
 her duty ; and she finds that her happiness is disturbed, 
 
1 36 The busy Woman s Religious Difficulties. 
 
 that her home is made uncomfortable, and that her spir- 
 ituality is eaten out. What must she do ? Conquer herself 
 and not others ; learn to give up her habits, that others 
 may be comfortable around her; adopt the conclusion 
 that her much serving cannot be right, if it lead her to 
 quarrel with her husband, when the Bible says, " Wives, 
 submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the 
 Lord ; " 1 — if it induce her to provoke her children to 
 wrath, when the Bible says, " Provoke not your children 
 to wrath ; " 2 — if it disturb her to such a degree as to 
 make her unjust and unequal to her servants, when the 
 Scriptures have issued their commands against all these 
 things. Order, neatness, elegance, are very excellent 
 things, but too dearly purchased when paid for by the vio- 
 lation of any of the commands of God's moral law. A 
 notable Martha may make a home very comfortable within 
 due limits, but she may also make it very uncomfortable. 
 
 A woman is likewise serving too much when she is care- 
 ful and troubled about many things. In this case the prin- 
 cipal sufferer is herself. A nervous, anxious condition of 
 mind, while it distresses others, is a perfect self-tormentor, 
 eating out the comfort and peace of the soul. And this 
 will agitate itself about domestic matters, — for home is 
 woman's noblest sphere. This may be a natural tempera- 
 ment ; if so, it is unfortunate : but have you ever thought 
 that Christ has a feeling for infirmities of this kind, and 
 will help them ? It is not irremediable. It may be over- 
 come. Faith and prayer can accomplish much in a case 
 like this. But, apart from natural temperament, there 
 may be an unnecessary anxiety, a preying care, arising out 
 of much serving, which shall eat out the spiritual peace 
 and comfort of the Christian. This is more than duty 
 requires. The highest encomium which our Saviour ever 
 
 1 Ephes. v. 22. 2 Ibid. vi. 4. 
 
The busy Woman s Religious Difficulties. 137 
 
 passed upon a woman was, that "she had done what she 
 could.' 3 Be satisfied with this. Let not over anxiety affect 
 your spiritual life. Do your best, in humility and prayer, 
 and leave the consequences to God. You may not satisfy 
 man, but you will satisfy God. He sees your weaknesses ; 
 He knows your infirmities. Cast your care upon Him, who 
 careth for you. Sacrifice not your soul before any require- 
 ments of man. " But one thing is needful.'' 5 Choose that 
 part, and it shall never be taken away from you. Fault- 
 finding husbands, surly fathers, ungrateful brothers, shall 
 in the end acknowledge your meekness and your faithful- 
 ness, — shall, in the days of darkness, or in the hour of 
 necessity, or when you are laid in the grave, rise up and 
 call you blessed. 
 
 You thus perceive, my beloved hearers, that the rule of 
 Christ applies to all these cases, and to numberless others 
 which might be cited, and they must be regulated by it. 
 Serving is necessary, is woman's part of the household 
 economy ; and Christ did not blame that : it was only the 
 character and spirit of that particular woman, who was 
 cumbered with much serving, who was careful and troubled 
 about many things, — so cumbered that she could not at- 
 tend to her religious duties, so careful and troubled that 
 she had not time to sit at the feet of Jesus. Take this 
 principle with you, children of God, regulate your duties 
 by it, and you will find God's blessing to be with you in all 
 your labors, however insignificant. The position of woman 
 is a grand one, standing, as she does, the angel of the 
 domestic circle, the comforter of the husband, the guide of 
 the children, the mistress of the servants, the controlling 
 spirit of the household, the centre of love for the hearts 
 that cluster around her. How holy should she be ! how 
 full of the divine spirit ! How little does she understand 
 her greatness, when she expends all her energies upon 
 
138 The busy Woman s Religious Difficulties. 
 
 serving ! That is but a small part of her duty, — the very 
 smallest part. Her quiet spirit should be prepared to calm 
 the harassed and wearied mind of her husband, — harassed 
 and wearied by its conflicts with the world ; to drive away 
 the cares and the troubles which oppress him ; to impart 
 strength to his virtue, and courage to his soul; to win 
 him to the service of his God. Her loving heart should be 
 tuned to that Divine harmony which shall make it accord- 
 ant with the innocent heart of childhood, that she may 
 guide it in the path of truth and Holiness. Her firm prin- 
 ciple should be strung to that lofty justice which shall 
 make itself known throughout her retinue of servants, 
 until they shall feel it to be their highest privilege to 
 " look unto the hand of their mistress." And all this, 
 manifold as it is, high and holy as it is, can be done only 
 when she sits first at the feet of Jesus ; — only when she 
 is guided by the Spirit of God. Her presence is felt every- 
 where ; vibrates through every nerve of the holy circle of 
 Home : but, oh ! how beautiful is it, when she comes, ra- 
 diant from the presence of her God, her face shining as it 
 were that of an Angel ! 
 
fourteenth Sermon, 
 
 How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? — Jere- 
 miah iv. 14. 
 
 nnH OUGHT is usually looked upon as an airy and volatile 
 
 existence, running to and fro with the rapidity of 
 lightning, coming we scarcely know whence, and flitting 
 we scarcely know whither. We understand, in a general 
 way, that it has been made a matter of science ; that indi- 
 viduals, whom we sneeringly speak of as metaphysicians, 
 have endeavored to ascertain the laws of its operation, and 
 to establish rules for its government and guidance. We 
 also know, that in severely disciplined minds it is subjected 
 to regulations which control its wanderings and concen- 
 trate its energy. But we do not know, or else we do not 
 consider, that like every thing that exists thought has its 
 natural laws ; and that if it be not disciplined, it will obey 
 those laws as certainly as any thing else in creation answers 
 to the natural impulses which have been impressed upon it 
 by the hands of the Deity. And overlooking this most 
 important truth, we become unconsciously subject to a do- 
 minion which rules over us with a rod of iron, making us 
 very slaves to that over which God intended us to be mas- 
 ters and governors. Let us illustrate and justify the ex- 
 pression of the prophet in our text, by briefly considering 
 the laws of thought which stand connected with this sub- 
 ject. 
 
 In the question which Jeremiah asks of Jerusalem in 
 our text, his words are these : " How long shall thy vain 
 
140 The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 
 
 thoughts lodge within thee 9 " as if certain thoughts might 
 be spoken of as having taken up their abode in the mind ; 
 as being privileged residents there ; while all other thoughts 
 are treated as mere visitors. This expression seems, at 
 first hearing, to be contrary to our usual conception of 
 thought, — to make that fixed, which we consider variable ; 
 certain, which we deem uncertain. A little consideration, 
 however, will convince us that the expression of the prophet 
 is literally and philosophically true ; and a few illustrations 
 will satisfy you that there are thoughts — however uncon- 
 scious you may be of their power — which do lodge within 
 you, and look upon all other thoughts as intruders, whom 
 it is their duty to expel as quickly and as completely as 
 possible. 
 
 We habitually speak, in ordinary conversation, of a per- 
 son's thoughts running in a certain channel, — of their 
 being steadily fixed upon a given subject, — of a man's 
 having no thoughts for any thing else save that which, for 
 the time, absorbs him : and all this is but a truthful utter- 
 ance of the natural laws which direct and govern the 
 mind. When we speak, however, after this fashion, we 
 suppose all this to be voluntary. We never admit but that 
 these thoughts are entirely under the control of the person 
 of whom we are speaking, and that he can change their 
 train and current whenever he pleases. And here it is — 
 just at this point — that we are so mistaken ; — that we 
 are overlooking a natural law, which, operating at first in 
 agreement with our will, quietly gets dominion over us, 
 and rules that will with a terrible and fatal despotism. It 
 is like every other slavery to which we become subject. 
 The transition from freedom to slavery is never abrupt and 
 sudden. It is gradual and stealthy in its steps, seeming to 
 be the result not so much of another's as of our own will ; 
 and it is not until we feel the chains around us, and we are 
 
The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 141 
 
 anxious to snap them asunder, that we realize how much 
 we had been subject to controlling influences, even while 
 we supposed that we were altogether voluntary agents. 
 Precisely so with our trains of thought. At first these 
 trains are voluntary ; they are fallen into either from edu- 
 cation, or from interest, or because they are pleasant to us. 
 We indulge them ; we connect them with our every-day 
 feelings and affections ; they tinge by degrees every thing 
 we look upon or are connected with : and thus an influence 
 is given to them which they could never have attained, 
 save by our own consent. When first adopted, they could 
 have been controlled. We then admitted and dismissed 
 them at our will. But, not preserving our mastery, they 
 soon mastered us ; and, instead of visitors, coming and 
 going when their time was out, they now lodge within us, 
 as the prophet expresses it, and soon tell us that all other 
 thoughts are to be the visitors, while they retain possession, 
 and fully occupy the mind. The laws of habit and of asso- 
 ciation have done their work, and we become very slaves ; 
 unless we have the nerve, — which few possess, — to grap- 
 ple with the tyrants, and dethrone them. 
 
 It is the effect of this law of association upon the relig- 
 ious character, that I desire to develop ; and I will con- 
 fine my illustration of the imperiousness of these lodgers, 
 when once they get possession, to cases in which they in- 
 terfere with our religious duties. Let any one of you — 
 whether a professor of religion or not — be absorbed in 
 occupation of any kind, and I defy you, without an im- 
 mense struggle, to perform any religious duty, in which 
 these habitual trains of thought do not hurry off the at- 
 tention and the feelings, and interrupt, if not altogether 
 break up, your communings with God. Place the Word of 
 God before you, realize in large measure its divine Revela- 
 tion, determine that you will study and profit by that Book ; 
 
142 The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 
 
 but, before a very few minutes shall have elapsed, you will 
 be humbled by finding that your thoughts are upon your 
 cares, or your merchandise, or your pleasure, or your inter- 
 ests. You gather them back from the subjects after which 
 they have run astray. You renew your determination not 
 to be disturbed in your religious duties. But very soon 
 you find that thought is more uncontrollable than you 
 supposed it, and that habit and association have become 
 stronger than the will. Disgusted at this condition of 
 things, you suppose that you have not sufficiently realized 
 the sacredness of the Bible, and you determine to engage 
 in some closer act of devotion, — one that shall bring you 
 nearer to the awful presence of God. You fall upon your 
 knees ; you begin, in earnest, to pray and to supplicate. So 
 long as you are watchful over yourself, you are praying, you 
 are supplicating; but suddenly you find that some word 
 uttered in your prayer, some topic laid before God, some 
 want, or necessity, or infirmity, — nay, the very prayer you 
 are uttering against wandering thoughts, — has carried 
 away your thoughts upon their habitual train, and that you 
 are offering a lip-service and not a service of the heart. 
 And how terribly these wandering thoughts interfere with 
 the worship of the Sanctuary ! How they intrude them- 
 selves at every point, interrupting devotion, and deafening 
 the ear lest it should hear and understand, and the soul be 
 converted and live. In all these cases, the conclusion is 
 forced upon us that we are subject to these lodgers; that 
 they have become the possessors of our minds ; and that, 
 whether we will or not, we are dragged along by them con- 
 trary to our better feelings and holier desires. 
 
 These are thoughts, then, which lodge within us, — 
 which are the habitual occupants of our minds : and it is 
 against such that the prophet directs his inquiry. But he 
 asks not his question of all thoughts. He confines it to 
 
The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 143 
 
 vain thoughts ! " How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge 
 within thee ? " And you may ask, u Are all trains of 
 thought connected with the business or the interests of 
 Life vain ? How can life be carried on without such trains 
 of thought ? How can a man succeed, unless he fixes his 
 mind steadily upon a given purpose, and pursues it with 
 the energy of a resolute will ? " A very fair question, and 
 one which I will answer by gradual approach, keeping in 
 view, meanwhile, the pungent inquiry of the prophet. 
 
 What are vain thoughts? What are such trains of 
 thought as we should not permit to lodge within us ? This 
 is the first step to the answer of your question ; and it 
 must be settled by the balances of the Sanctuary. Provi- 
 dentially, we possess the writings of a man who has him- 
 self sounded all the depths of thought, and has deter- 
 mined, from his own experience as well as under the inspi- 
 ration of God, what thoughts are vain, and what useful, 
 and where the line must be drawn between these classes. 
 The Book of Ecclesiastes seems to have been written for 
 the very purpose of replying to this inquiry. Let us trace 
 the experience and note the decision of Solomon, and we 
 shall then be prepared to state the relation which trains of 
 thought connected with the business and pleasure of life 
 should hold to the mind and heart of the creature. 
 
 There are trains of thought which most of you would 
 agree with me in pronouncing vain, and we would deem a 
 man frivolous who made them his constant companions. 
 Even these, however, Solomon did not overlook. In sound- 
 ing the depths of human life, he turned first to those trains 
 of thought which seemed superficially to present the near- 
 est approach to happiness. He gave himself, he said, to 
 mirth and to pleasure ; those were the thoughts which he 
 first made to lodge within him. But these he quickly pro- 
 nounced to be vanity, and worse than vanity : " I said of 
 
144 The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 
 
 laughter, It is mad : and of mirth, What doeth it ? " 1 He 
 next attempted to combine pleasure and wisdom, to discover 
 if a proper proportion of ingredients might not take out 
 the sting of vanity from his pursuits. " I sought in mine 
 heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart 
 with wisdom : " 2 but these trains of thought he likewise 
 dismissed as vain. Failing here, he turned himself to the 
 pride of life. All the wealth which the gold of Ophir, and 
 the spices of Arabia, and the rich tributes of the East 
 could accumulate for him, he lavished upon houses and 
 gardens, and orchards and men-servants and maid-servants, 
 and all the delights of the sons of men. He surrounded 
 himself with pomp and luxury, and floated in an atmos- 
 phere of homage and idolatry that might have satisfied the 
 greediest imagination. But these he also pronounces as 
 vain thoughts : " Then I looked " — was his lamentable 
 confession — " on all the works that my hands had wrought, 
 and on the labor that I had labored to do : and, behold, 
 all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no 
 profit under the sun." 3 He then turned himself solely to 
 wisdom. He filled his mind with intellectual trains of 
 thought. He compassed all the knowledge of the sons of 
 men. Queens and nobles gathered to his feet to hear his 
 words of wisdom ; and when they heard, confessed that 
 they far surpassed his wide-spread fame. These noble 
 trains of thought — the highest certainly which can en- 
 gage the mind of man — he acknowledges to be as far 
 above all others, as spiritual trains of thought are above 
 them : " Then I saw," writes he, " that wisdom excelleth 
 folly, as far as light excelleth darkness : " 4 but at once his 
 clear spirit saw the weak point even of these, and he ex- 
 claims in bitterness of spirit : " As it happeneth to the 
 fool, so it happeneth even to me ; and why was I then more 
 1 Eccles. ii. 2. 2 Ibid. 3. 3 Ibid. 11. 4 Ibid. 13. 
 
The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 145 
 
 wise ? Then I said in niy heart, that this also is vanity. 
 Therefore I hated life : for all is vanity and vexation of 
 spirit." 1 
 
 How far you may go along, my beloved hearers, with these 
 conclusions of Solomon, I cannot pretend to say. Each 
 of you will have your own stand-point, beyond which you 
 will Dot admit vanity, — about which you will not consent 
 that trains of thought are vain. The grave student will 
 readily consent that the votaries of pleasure are altogether 
 occupied with vain thoughts, which ought to be dislodged ; 
 while the industrious man of business will peradventure 
 come to the same conclusion about the student's days and 
 nights of toil, over studies which make no money, and 
 books which bring no return save knowledge. But Solo- 
 mon includes them all in one sweeping denunciation ; al- 
 lows no exceptions : and, while he gives each its proper 
 grade, he concludes them all to be vanity. And he con- 
 cludes correctly, even according to man's own estimate 
 when made under circumstances in which all things can be 
 brought to their true proportions. 
 
 The first reason why all these trains of thought are vain, 
 is because nothing finite can satisfy the cravings of a crea- 
 ture made a living soul by the inbreathing of the Spirit of 
 the Infinite. The body of man, it is true, was made of the 
 dust of the earth ; but his living soul is the breath of God. 
 Nothing, therefore, can ever satisfy man, but reunion with 
 God. He may, like Solomon, drink every cup of excite- 
 ment to the very dregs, and he shall surely find Vanity in- 
 scribed within them all : and this, not only with trains of 
 thought that are conversant about the gratification of our 
 sensual nature, but with those also wherein the mind is 
 fixed upon higher and nobler topics. When we read that 
 Alexander wept because he had no more worlds to conquer, 
 iEccles.ii. 15, 17. 
 
 10 
 
146 The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 
 
 or listen to the wailings of Byron as he sweeps his lyre 
 with the hand of despair, confessing in the anguish of his 
 heart that the vulture of unsatisfied desires is gnawing at 
 his vitals, we perhaps feel that their pursuits were not such 
 as might lead to peace and to rest. And yet they were 
 only following with the impetuosity of Genius, what com- 
 mon minds pursue every day in their own laggard way, 
 and dignify with the name of " honorahle ambition " and 
 " rational pleasure." But when we turn to such a man as 
 Newton, and hear him — after a life spent in the acquire- 
 ment of the profoundest knowledge, in the discovery of the 
 hidden mysteries of things, in converse with Nature and 
 with Nature's God in their most glorious developments — 
 confessing that so far from being satisfied, he could only 
 compare himself to one who had picked up a few poor peb- 
 bles upon the shore, while the great Ocean of Truth lay as 
 yet undiscovered before him : we must feel, with Solomon, 
 that all our thoughts are indeed vain thoughts. Or if, leav- 
 ing him, we ask the acutest skeptic of modern times for his 
 estimate of intellectual absorption, the answer will come to 
 you in his own memorable words, — memorable, because 
 illustrating the vanity of a false philosophy; memorable, 
 because confirming the solemn truth, " Be sure your sin 
 will find you out ; " 1 memorable, because exhibiting the re- 
 action of skeptical teachings upon the skeptic's own peace : 
 " I know not," were the words of Mr. Hume, " what to 
 believe. I feel myself to be afloat upon an ocean of doubt, 
 without a compass, and without a rudder." If these be 
 the results of the highest trains of thought, the one hum- 
 bly engaged in the pursuit of Nature's truths, the other 
 presumptuously attempting to shut God out of His own 
 creation : well may we conclude that vanity and vexation 
 -of spirit are written upon all the pursuits of men. 
 
 1 Num. xxxii. 23. 
 
The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 147 
 
 Another reason, my beloved hearers, why all these trains 
 of thought are included by Solomon under the general 
 head of vanity, is because they cannot profit us in our hour 
 of greatest need. If there be a future, — if, beyond this 
 brief existence, there stretches an eternity of life, — oh, 
 of how little moment is the present, with all its business, 
 and cares, and pleasures, and petty interests ! How every 
 thing ought to look to that moment of departure, when 
 we shall cross the line between Time and Eternity, — when 
 we shall put off this mortal life, and begin the life of spirit 
 and immortality ! How every thought should overleap the 
 narrow interval of our threescore years and ten, and con- 
 centrate itself upon that solemn moment ! Vain must all 
 thoughts be, miserably vain — however seemingly necessary 
 for the conduct of life — all trains of thought, which can- 
 not profit us then. Think you, my hearers, when that 
 dread moment comes, — when, stretched upon your dying 
 bed, you shall be called to make that narrow field the scene 
 of unutterable struggles with your own spirit and the Spirit 
 of God, — that you shall be satisfied to gather about you 
 the thoughts which have lodged within you and made your 
 minds their homes ? They may and will intrude them- 
 selves, I know ; but will not your effort be to banish them, 
 that thoughts more suited to such a time may rest upon 
 your spirit? Is it man's wont, when dying, to summon 
 before him the trains of thought in which he has indulged 
 himself, and pass with them into the world of spirits ? 
 Here and there have instances occurred of such a course. 
 Mirabeau's was a striking example : but does not our nat- 
 ural instinct cry out against it as monstrous ? Man meets 
 Death, not like a brute, senseless and apathetic ; but like a 
 rational creature, who, whatever may have been his forg'et- 
 fulness of that dread hour, now that it has come, realizes 
 its deep importance. He summons to his bedside the min- 
 
148 The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 
 
 ister of religion ; he asks the prayers of the pious and 
 devout ; he grieves that so many precious years have 
 been wasted upon vanity; and acknowledges — when too 
 late, perhaps, for remedy — that the only train of thought 
 which was of any real importance to him, was the only one 
 in which he had not trained himself. Unless man's ordi- 
 nary thoughts were vain thoughts, could this be so? 
 Should he be loth to summon them about him, and die 
 with them in his heart and upon his lips ? Oh, that you 
 would heed the warnings of your fellow-creatures, and be- 
 gin at once to strip away the vain thoughts which lodge 
 within you ! 
 
 And now, my hearers, I am prepared to ask you the 
 question of the prophet. I have labored to illustrate the 
 natural law by which associated trains of thought take pos- 
 session of us and lodge within us. I have shown you that 
 all these trains of thought, unless they be thoughts of 
 God and of eternity, are thoughts of vanity, which can- 
 not satisfy the spirit while it is embodied, nor comfort 
 it when it is about to be disembodied, — which answer 
 neither for life nor for Death. And I now demand of 
 you, as rational creatures, " How long shall your vain 
 thoughts lodge within you?" How long will you consent 
 to pursue a course which promises you nothing either for 
 time or for eternity ? You desire happiness ; you are seek- 
 ing it hither and thither. Although baffled, you are still 
 pursuing; although disappointed, you are still hoping. Al- 
 though the peltings of the pitiless storm have beaten down 
 your web ; so soon as it has passed, you see the rainbow in 
 every drop that glitters on its broken threads, and weave 
 again. Although the heavens of your bliss are ever rising 
 as you advance, you still, childlike, expect to touch their 
 azure when you reach your point. Why, oh why, children 
 of the Divinity, will you waste your energies upon such 
 
The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 149 
 
 baseless Visions ? Why, when the Infinite calls to you in 
 love and mercy through the voice of his incarnate Son, 
 saying, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest," 1 why will you heedlessly 
 press on, seeking that rest in the finite and the perishing ? 
 Why, when the Fountain of living waters is bubbling forth 
 from the foot of Jesu's Cross — that Fountain of which He 
 said : " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give 
 him shall never thirst," 2 — ivhy will you needlessly hew out 
 for yourselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no 
 water ? Why, when Death is cleaving his ruthless track 
 through the generations of your fellow-creatures that he 
 may lay his inevitable grasp upon you, and usher you into 
 the Eternal world, — that world where nothing here shall 
 be of any importance, save the single question of time 
 improved or neglected, — why will you concentrate, upon 
 mind and heart and feelings, thoughts, vain thoughts, 
 which His presence will scatter, as dreams are scattered 
 when the awakening comes ? A mighty work is before you, 
 in the dislodgment of your vain thoughts. It is idle to 
 say to yourselves, " When the time of peril comes, we will 
 gather our strength, and battle with these thoughts, and 
 drive them from their place in our hearts." That time of 
 peril is your dying bed : for any man who reasons thus, can 
 mean only that. Alas, my hearers, you know neither your 
 own weakness, nor your enemy's strength ! Let not him 
 that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that put- 
 teth it off ! Grapple with that enemy now, while in health 
 of body and vigor of mind, whom you expect so easily to 
 triumph over when a tortured body and a weakened intel- 
 lect must be carried into the conflict. Try your strength 
 with the vain thoughts that lodge within you now, at this 
 present moment, and see if they can be so easily driven 
 
 1 S. Matt. xi. 28. 2 g # j 0 ^ n [ Yi 14, 
 
1 50 The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 
 
 from their stronghold. Are the habits and the associations 
 of a long life to be so easily broken ? Are thoughts that 
 have come with an every-day regularity for the years of a 
 lifetime, that have intertwined themselves with our very 
 individuality, to be so easily discarded at our wills ? The 
 very laws and proverbs of our language should teach you 
 another tale. What means " The ruling passion, strong in 
 death," save that the vain thoughts which lodge within us 
 assert their imperious dominion in that dread hour, and 
 reign supreme ? " How long, how long shall thy vain 
 thoughts lodge within thee ? " Let it be, my hearers, not 
 a day longer, lest it be forever ! 
 
 For you, professing Christians, this question has its deep 
 interest. You name the Name of Christ. You call your- 
 selves His disciples. You rejoice in the riches of His 
 grace. You partake of the bounties of His love. What 
 are your habitual trains of thought ? What classes of 
 ideas lodge within you ; and what classes merely come and 
 go as visitors of duty or necessity? Is the tone of your 
 mind spiritual ? Are your most usual trains of thought of 
 God, your soul, and eternity? or have you permitted vain 
 thoughts to take possession of the heart which belongs to 
 Christ, and to drive Him out? Are you mingling in such 
 scenes as foster vain thoughts ? Here lies the whole phi- 
 losophy upon which turn the objections of the Ministers of 
 God to the indulgence of His people in the pursuits and 
 amusements of the world. Too much absorption in any 
 thing not spiritual, creates and cherishes the trains of 
 thought which interrupt meditation, and prayer, and com- 
 munion with God. The Christian man who hurries ar- 
 dently into politics or literature or business, the Christian 
 woman who spends her nights in pleasure and her days in 
 the routine of the world, will find alike that vain thoughts 
 are rapidly lodging within them, to the obscuring of 
 
The Lodging of Vain Thoughts, 151 
 
 Christ's image, and the destruction of their own spirit- 
 uality. We cannot be too watchful over ourselves. Even 
 the most legitimate pursuits may be turned into thoughts 
 that shall deface our spiritual character. Hence the con- 
 tinual warnings of the Bible against lip-service, against the 
 chambers of imagery, against the idolatry of the heart. 
 My beloved hearers if any of you feel convicted of these 
 vain thoughts, let the question of the prophet, " How long ? " 
 be answered, in the words of the Psalmist : " Search me, 0 
 God, and know my heart : try me, and know my thoughts : 
 and see if there be any wicked way in me." 1 
 
 Herein, likewise, lies the philosophy of Christian educa- 
 tion. While these habits of thought are forming, while 
 the uncorrupted heart and the unoccupied mind are weav- 
 ing their associations, how essential that moral and relig- 
 ious ideas should form the materials of those associations ! 
 How ennobling to accustom the expanding thought to look 
 upon Nature as one vast Temple, in which are seen every- 
 where the footprints of the Creator, in which are felt every- 
 where the breathings of His Holy presence ! How purify- 
 ing to impress upon the fallen nature, ere yet its germs of 
 evil have sprung into life and gained dominion over the 
 soul, that the eye of God is ever upon His creatures, seeing 
 in the depths and in the darkness even as in the light of 
 day ! How consoling to be taught, in the very earliest 
 struggles with sin, that a Saviour has died to give us the 
 final victory; to be early strung with the hope that we shall 
 one day be " conquerors and more than conquerors through 
 Him who loved us and gave Himself for us." How elevat- 
 ing to keep ever before the mind, while the character is 
 forming, a perfect model such as Christianity has offered in 
 our Saviour. If such thoughts can only be made to lodge 
 within us in our early days, they will go far to prevent 
 
 1 Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24. 
 
152 The Lodging of Vain Thoughts. 
 
 the domination of those vain thoughts against which the 
 prophet warns us. They will introduce into the mind the 
 due subordination of thoughts of business or interest or 
 pleasure, to the more solemn thoughts of the soul and of 
 Eternity. They will become the basis of the character, the 
 lodgers within the man : while all else will be entertained 
 only as it may be necessary, or useful, or obligatory. And 
 when the time of struggle comes — the time that is to test 
 us all — of temptation, of trial, of adversity, of Death : these 
 holy trains of feeling will rise up from the depths where 
 they may have been overlaid, and assert their supremacy ! 
 " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is 
 old, he will not depart from it." Give him moral, pure, 
 noble, spiritual trains of thought when the mind is budding 
 and the character moulding ; and although vain thoughts 
 may seem, for a time, to lodge within him, they will be 
 found to have no dominion ; they will be able to exert no 
 permanent supremacy. Neglect not, I beseech you, Chris- 
 tian parents, the power God has placed in your hands for 
 the ennobling of your children, lest you be called to mourn, 
 in bitterness of spirit, over vain thoughts which you can- 
 not dislodge. Weeds will grow in the soil of human na- 
 ture without any planting, without any culture. Vain 
 thoughts will spring there fast enough, without your foster- 
 ing hands. Let your effort be to root out these with an 
 unsparing power; to plant in those thoughts which shall 
 connect your offspring with God and with Eternity. 
 
fitttmtl) Sermon. 
 
 And God requireth that which is past. — Ecclesiastes iii. 15. 
 
 TT requires a firm heart and an awakened conscience to 
 enable us faithfully to weigh our relations to God. For 
 it is not oniy in the present that we are concerned with 
 Him, nor yet only in the future ; but our text tells us that 
 " God requireth that which is past : " so that, while strug- 
 gling against the assaults of daily temptation, and while 
 casting into the future the glances of an anxious and trou- 
 bled soul, we have likewise to be trembling for all that 
 is past, knowing that for every work, and word, and even 
 thought, we shall be finally called into judgment. And 
 this accumulation of grave responsibilities too often drives 
 the disturbed spirit away from their steady contemplation ; 
 and, instead of meeting them face to face at once, and find- 
 ing a remedy for all their terrors in the love and mercy of 
 a reconciled Father, the trembling soul buries its painful 
 thoughts in the excitements of life, attempting to quiet 
 itself with the siren song of a future repentance, and a 
 future amendment ! It forgets, alas, that, in this very act, 
 it is adding one more to the already accumulated require- 
 ments of the past, and is every day making more difficult 
 that which must be atoned for through the blood of a cru- 
 cified Saviour, or else met, in irremediable sternness, at the 
 bar of an offended and holy God. The present, my beloved 
 hearers, is all that can retrieve the past and brighten the 
 future ; and unless you can muster resolution to act upon 
 the Apostolic warning, " Now is the accepted time ; behold, 
 
154 God requireth the Past. 
 
 now is the day of salvation/' 1 the present will be ever 
 swelling, — the pursuing past will be ever darkening the 
 impending future. 
 
 But many do not advance even to this point of consider- 
 ation, but press on from day to day amid the busy cares of 
 life, without at all thinking of the past. In their estima- 
 tion it is gone, forever gone ; — sunk into the abyss of 
 time, never more to be called up for use or for account. It 
 has been lived ; has had its pleasures, its sorrows, its plans, 
 its purposes ; and, having been lived, has no further end, 
 save as its consequences give shape and complexion to the 
 present. Living only for time and for the existing world, 
 the past is made to have reference only to the onward 
 course of things, and is merged, in the thoughts of such 
 men, in the circumstances or conditions which have grown 
 out of it. It is, in their view, like one of the ever chang- 
 ing scenes of Nature, in which the fantastic shapes of the 
 present moment are but the fragments of the images which 
 just now rivetted our gaze. What delighted us or terri- 
 fied us under the aspect of the sunshine and the storm, of 
 the light and the shadow, has passed away ; and we forget 
 it in the emotions of the present, and in the anticipations 
 of the future. We never dream that those images can be 
 recalled, that out of the chaos of those conflicting elements 
 the past can ever return with its impressions of terror or 
 delight. Vain man ! your reliance has no more foundation 
 than the baseless fabric from which you have woven your 
 imagery. And you will find, when too late, that every 
 passing scene of life, — nay, every detail of that scene, — 
 has been caught, as it passed, with the exactness of a stern 
 reality, and will be made to repass before your conscience, 
 with a distinctness of outline and an accuracy of partic- 
 ulars surpassing any power of nature, or any work of art. 
 
 i 2 Cor. vi. 2. 
 
God requireth the Past. 
 
 155 
 
 " For God requireth that which is past : " and, when He 
 requires it, who can doubt His ability to summon up from 
 the depths of by-gone ages their whole story of sin and of 
 shame ? If He can impart to you, one of the weakest and 
 feeblest of His creatures, the wonderful power of memory 
 by which you can evoke, from the years that are gone, such 
 scenes and words and acts and thoughts as you have treas- 
 ured there ; nay more, if He can make the Sun, one of His 
 inanimate creatures, to stamp upon material combinations 
 the images that are subjected to its power : think you 
 that He has not agencies at work that can bring back, 
 for His purpose and your account, every act, every word, 
 every thought, every imagination, every desire ? Surely 
 the powers that are in yourselves, vain mortals, — the agen- 
 cies that are all around you in Nature, — should teach you 
 that the God of man and of Nature has an infinite control 
 over the past, as well as over the future. 
 
 But let us reason this matter by easy gradations up to 
 the height upon which I desire to place you. In your own 
 experience of life, is not God constantly requiring that 
 which is past P I would remove you, for a moment, alto- 
 gether from religious grounds, and place you where there 
 is no demand for faith, save the belief of your own senses 
 and your own consciousness. And I would ask you, Can 
 you separate the present from the past ? Are not all the 
 circumstances, the events, nay the feelings of the present, 
 the offspring of the past, having the features, the impres- 
 sions, the very mould of their parent ? Is not your present 
 position in life the result of circumstances that are past ? 
 and if that position be infelicitous, is not God requiring of 
 you, in that position, the natural consequences of some- 
 thing which was deemed long buried among the years that 
 are gone ? We cannot walk through the circles of social 
 life without seeing this law of past requirement in almost 
 
156 God requireth the Past 
 
 every family. Here, past extravagance is required of its 
 victims, in irksome toil and struggling penury : there, 
 youthful sensuality is working itself out in flame through 
 flesh, and nerve, and muscle, and bone. Here, improvidence 
 demands its pay in anxious brow and whitening hair ; and 
 there, society is calling for the past of the criminal 
 through its jails, its fetters, and its gallows. No man is 
 rid of the past ! It pursues him from generations that are 
 gone ; and when those who gave us birth are buried in 
 their graves, it rises out of them and demands, in a natu- 
 ral way, its inevitable consequences. Independent of the 
 threat of God that He will " visit the sins of the fathers 
 upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of 
 them that hate Him," He has stamped the same unchang- 
 ing decree upon natural society ; and were there no God 
 to execute this threat, the constitution of things is such 
 that it would execute itself, and write its judgment upon 
 the history of individuals and of society. However man 
 and society may have been called into existence, — what- 
 ever his end and whatever his future, — this law of past 
 requirement needs no omnipotent arm to bare itself for 
 its enforcement. Man himself executes it upon himself 
 and upon his fellow-men, and society executes it upon the 
 masses which make up her aggregate existence. 
 
 Advancing from this position, the truth of which you 
 cannot deny, the next step brings us to all those evils and 
 miseries which life is heir to, and unto which man seems 
 as certainly born as the sparks fly upward. Many of the 
 conditions of human life may be traced, as we said just 
 now, to the operation of natural law, and the established 
 sequence of things; but there are others for which we 
 must seek a different solution. When we perceive the 
 family of a villain writhing under the consequences of his 
 criminality, we need no further investigation to enable us 
 
God requireth the Past. 
 
 157 
 
 to connect the effect with the cause ; but not so when we 
 see the innocent die, and the good suffer, and the noble ca- 
 lumniated, and a world rich in all the beauties of Nature and 
 the blessings of Providence covered with disease, and pain, 
 and suffering, and death. For these results we are obliged 
 to seek some other solution ; and we find it in the same 
 general law, but under a higher and more direct develop- 
 ment. In all this evil and in all this sorrow we see God re- 
 quiring that which is past ; but we know what that past is, 
 only by Revelation. We briug you, therefore, to Revelation, 
 and we show you, from the operation of the same natural 
 law, a sameness in the God of revelation and in Him who 
 has stamped the law of past requirement upon the constitu- 
 tion and course of Nature. The Bible tells us that in all 
 this misery God is requiring the sin that is past : and the 
 very analogy of the operation should make it more easy for 
 your credence. If you perceive God requiring, in a natural 
 way, the sins of the fathers from the children, to the third 
 and fourth generation, as far as your perception and knowl- 
 edge can trace the connection : why should you deem it 
 improbable that the same law should be extended backward 
 and backward in the past, till it reaches up to that fountain 
 of sin which has come into the world through our first 
 parents, and brought with it all its crime and woe ? And 
 how terrible a view it gives us of sin in its polluting and 
 destructive character, when we perceive that one fatal act 
 still pursuing a whole race from generation to generation ; 
 and what an awful aspect it gives to the character of God, 
 that He is still requiring that sin at the hands of man, 
 even while He has given His only beloved Son to die for 
 the destruction of sin, and to rise again for the justification 
 of the past ! And can you doubt what is before you in the 
 future, when you look at this development? What must 
 be the wrath of God, and what His vengeance against a 
 
158 God requireth the Past, 
 
 lifetime of sin, aggravated too by its commission in the 
 face of knowledge, of light, of mercy and of love ? If one 
 sin thus haunts the world, making it wretched, — a very 
 vale of tears : what must be the effect — upon character, 
 upon feeling, upon happiness, upon the future — of a life 
 of sin? Surely, when God comes to require the past of 
 such a life, it will be, it must be, a fearful reckoning. 
 
 Let us now take another view of this same subject, and 
 look upon it in the light reflected from the Cross of our 
 Redeemer. The saddest story in the whole history of life 
 is that which details the requirement by God of the past in 
 the Person of His Son, — His only-begotten and well-be- 
 loved Son. All other stories of suffering are qualified by 
 the feeling of error, or imprudence, or crime, on the part of 
 the victims ; but in Him there was no sin. Spotless inno- 
 cence was combined with meekness, with gentleness, with 
 submission, — all the qualities which excite pity and move 
 compassion. Nor was it the suffering of necessity, save as 
 that necessity had been laid upon Himself by Himself, out 
 of love for a sinful race. His was not the resignation of 
 one who could not help himself : it was the firm endurance 
 of unutterable woe by One who could have delivered Him- 
 self in the twinkling of an eye, had He been willing to 
 consign His brethren to hopeless destruction. His sub- 
 mission was not the submission of one whom fetters and a 
 prison and an armed soldiery could coerce : for He might at 
 any moment have called from Heaven whole armies of 
 angelic spirits, that could have burst all bars of man or 
 Nature for His deliverance. No ! It was the holy resolution 
 of Redemption ! it was the setting His face unmoved toward 
 the Cross, and enduring, in that progress, humiliation, 
 shame, ignominy, contempt, the desertion of friends, but 
 above all the desertion of His Father, while He was bear- 
 ing upon Himself the sins of a whole world ! And for 
 
God requireth the Past. 
 
 159 
 
 what ? For that same past for which humanity has been 
 groaning* since the Fall ; for that terrible past, which God 
 was requiring, and which could not be expiated save by the 
 sufferings and blood of the covenanted Victim. And this, 
 my hearers, is a more fearful illustration of that inexorable 
 law of which we have been treating this morning, — of 
 that stern, unyielding law of requirement by God which 
 forms the topic of our discourse, — than any which has 
 yet been offered, whether drawn from the course of Nature 
 or from the direct effects of it through the intervention of 
 God. In all other cases we see an indignant Deity requir- 
 ing the past from those who created that past, or who 
 derived their polluted descent from its creators: in this, 
 we see Him requiring it from one innocent Being, whose 
 past was sinless as His own; and that One His own 
 beloved Son, the delight of His Being from eternity ! Ah, 
 my hearers, as you gaze upon that Victim, — as you see 
 Him faint, haggard, bleeding, dying, with no eye to pity 
 and no arm to save, and in that agony contending with the 
 Devil for the souls of men, — can you hope to escape this 
 inevitable law? Can you dare to persuade yourself that 
 your past will be forgotten ? He placed Himself in the 
 room of sinful man, took upon Him the past of the race, 
 and bound Himself in covenant to bear all that the past 
 demanded : and yet, even He, God-Man, was for a moment 
 staggered at the terribleness of His undertaking, — that 
 moment when He said : " 0 my Father, if it be possible, 
 let this cup pass from me. " 1 How awful must be the bur- 
 den of the past, when such a sin-offering as our Redeemer 
 faltered on approaching His Father's stern requirement of 
 it ! Well may weak, erring, sinful creatures, such as we 
 are, tremble as we approach it ! 
 
 And now, my hearers, that I have illustrated my text for 
 1 S. Matt, xx vi. 39. 
 
160 God requireth the Past, 
 
 you, — that I have shown from your own experience, and 
 from the analogy of things, and from the miseries of the 
 world as it lies under the curse of sin, and from the Cross 
 of our Saviour, that God does indeed sternly require the 
 past, let me ask you, in all earnestness, what has been your 
 past ? You are aware that you form a link in that chain 
 which connects sin with the anger of God ; — that you are 
 an inheritor of that corruption which, commencing in 
 Adam, has been accumulating all through the past, taxing 
 to the uttermost the forbearance and long-suffering of God. 
 But it is not of that general corruption I now ask you ; it 
 is of your own peculiar past that I make my inquiry. 
 What has been — I ask it of every one here present — your 
 past ? If it were required of you now, this instant, what 
 should that past of yours offer to stay the indignation of 
 God, or to disarm His vengeance ? Putting it at the very 
 best, would even you dare to say that it was harmless? 
 But your partial judgment is not that which is to pass upon 
 it. It is God that requireth the past ! — God, such as He 
 is portrayed in the Scriptures ; God the Holy, in whose 
 sight the heavens are not clean, who chargeth His angels 
 with folly ; God the Just, who layeth judgment to the line 
 and righteousness to the plummet ! Nor is your fallible 
 and partial memory to call up that past. It is to be 
 dragged to light and burned in upon your consciousness by 
 a God who is omniscient, who searcheth the hearts and 
 trieth the reins of the children of men ; who has noted not 
 only your deeds, not only your words, not only your 
 thoughts, but every gleam of desire, every vain imagination, 
 every nascent motive ; who has recorded not only what you 
 have committed in the course of an active and busy life, 
 but what that very activity and business have caused you to 
 leave undone ! Oh ! how it will cumulate and accumulate 
 upon you, as it rises up from the abyss of the forgotten, 
 
God requireth the Past. 1 6 1 
 
 until you will stare in horror at the heap of transgressions, 
 and sink overwhelmed with the idea of meeting them face 
 to face ! Ah ! rny hearers, your actual deeds will form but 
 a small portion of your past. It is thought, feeling, desire, 
 motive, that will make up the hideous mass. You will never 
 realize until that moment comes what an active, busy, rest- 
 less, burning element of being was your heart ! how out 
 of it were the issues of life, while you were measuring only 
 acts ; how it was sinning against God in its own deep and 
 unfathomable recesses, while not a word was uttered, not a 
 work performed ! how it raged, like a concealed volcano, 
 bubbling and boiling within its own bosom, while, without, 
 it was covered with calmness and with beauty. When all 
 this shall be unveiled, — when that chamber of imagery 
 shall be turned inside out and all its linings displayed as 
 yours, — how unlike shall it be to the self-complacent pic- 
 ture of the past which you now conjure up ; as unlike as 
 the faint outline of scenes and circumstances which we can 
 recall in our conception, when compared with those scenes 
 and circumstances themselves as they occurred with all 
 their detail and ail their distinct coloring ! 
 
 Are you prepared, my hearers, to meet that past ? You 
 see how terrible it is like to be, how dissimilar from that 
 with which you satisfy yourselves : have you taken the very 
 first step towards meeting it ? Nay, have you ever even 
 considered that you will have to meet it ? I fear me that 
 every thing connected with your past has yet to be con- 
 sidered : that if you have been able at all to separate your 
 thoughts and affections from the present, they have only 
 turned from its cares and its enjoyments to revel in the 
 hopes of the future. I fear me that you have yet to be 
 convinced that the past is upon your track, that it is hunt- 
 ing you with slow unfaltering pace to the judgment-seat 
 of Christ. And if my fears be true, what a condition is 
 11 
 
l62 
 
 God requireth the Past. 
 
 yours ! Your boat is gliding swiftly down the current that 
 is hurrying you onward to the abyss. The deep, hoarse 
 murmur of the eternal cataract is sounding louder and 
 louder as you approach its awful brink. If once you are 
 swept into the rapids, nothing can save you from inevitable 
 destruction. The swift waters that are hurrying madly be- 
 hind you will go over your soul, — will press and break you 
 down under their overwhelming weight ! Your only hope 
 is, at once to be aroused to your true position ; — at once 
 to face that smoothly gliding current, and, ere it is too late, 
 to escape from its treachery and its doom! Let not the 
 calm present deceive you. Let not the gentle current of 
 life sweep you along, forgetful of what is behind you, forget- 
 ful of what is before you. Pause, I pray you, and seek some 
 haven of rest for your struggling, panting soul ! 
 
 But you may say, " God requireth the past," and how 
 can I meet it in the stern severity of which you have been 
 speaking? How can I meet so holy, so just, so omni- 
 scient a God, when He comes to weigh all my past in the 
 scales of His even-handed justice? Well may you ask, 
 "How? " Would to God that I could bring you to ask Him 
 in earnest, and with trembling ; that I could make you ac- 
 knowledge with Job, " I know it is so of a truth : but how 
 should man be just with God? If he will contend with 
 him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand." 1 " The 
 first step in the ascent to heaven," said the ancient in- 
 scription upon the Temple of Isis, " is downward to the 
 hell of self-knowledge." Could you only take that first 
 step, — could you be made to see yourself as God sees you ; 
 to feel that "if you wash yourself with snow-water, and 
 make your hands never so clean ; yet God shall plunge you 
 in the ditch, and your own clothes shall abhor you," 2 ah ! 
 then should I have hope ! Then might I point you to a 
 i Jobix. 2, 3. 2 Ibid. 30, 31. 
 
God requireth the Past 163 
 
 Saviour, who has atoned for the past, who has taken it all 
 upon Himself, and borne it already for you, in the mysteri- 
 ous purposes of the Godhead. But I dare not do it while 
 you are unconcerned about that past ; for I should per- 
 chance be adding to your terrible past this further sin of 
 crucifying afresh the Son of God. TVTiat a terrible strait 
 is this ! I know that there is none other Name under 
 Heaven given unto man whereby he may be saved but only 
 the Xame of Jesus Christ of Nazareth : and yet, to fear 
 that the preaching of that precious Xanie may only aggra- 
 vate the past ! May God of His infinite mercy arouse you 
 to a true sense of your condition, so that you may indeed 
 ask " What must I do to be saved ? " 1 and receive with 
 obedient hearts the joyful response : " Believe on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 2 
 
 And to you who profess the Naine which is above every 
 name, let me say a few words of advice and of love. " The 
 heart/' fellow-Christians, " is deceitful above all things, 
 and desperately wicked." 3 What a description ! Beware 
 of that heart ! It may deceive you as to your present con- 
 dition ! It may lead you to believe that your past has been 
 blotted out, while yet it may be pursuing you with all its 
 bitterness and malignity : or it may beguile you to say, 
 with the Antinomian, Let us " continue in sin, that grace 
 may abound." 4 Either of these would be destruction to 
 you ! For while it is true that there is a " fountain opened 
 to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem 
 for sin and for uncleanness, " 5 it is of no efficacy for those 
 who continue in sin — willful sin. Examine, therefore, 
 yourselves,j>efore the approaching celebration of the Lord's 
 Supper.] See that your hearts are right with God ; and 
 " so search your own consciences (and that not lightly, and 
 
 1 Acts xvi. 30. 
 4 Rom. vi. 1. 
 
 2 Ibid. 31. 
 
 5 Zech. xiii. 1. 
 
 3 Jer. xvii. 9. 
 
164 God requireth the Past. 
 
 after the manner of dissemblers with Godj hut so) that ye 
 may come holy and clean to snch a heavenly Feast, in the 
 marriage-garment required by God in Holy Scripture." J 
 Upon your sincerity and earnestness will depend God's deal- 
 ings with you. He will require the past of every sinner ; 
 but for those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity 
 and truth, there shall be no past at the judgment-seat of 
 Christ. His past shall become their past : and their sanc- 
 tified spirits will not be required to tremble for that which 
 is behind ; but will be filled with joy unspeakable and full 
 of glory for that which fills up all the future, — the love of 
 God in Christ, — in the blessed land where there shall be 
 no more curse. 
 
 1866. 
 
^tjteent^ Sermon. 
 
 Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be 
 unto him to sin. — Hosea viii. 11. 
 
 TTNBELIEF, while always the same in essence, assumes 
 
 ^ a thousand shapes to suit the times in which it may 
 be circulating. A form of infidelity, gross and sensual as 
 that which disgraced the court of the second Charles, could 
 have no currency in an age like this, when at least a show 
 of decency is necessary to give power to any thing which 
 calls itself Truth. Nor would the ignorance and flippancy 
 of the French infidelity find any more countenance among 
 us ; because the Scriptures, universally diffused and known 
 as they are, could no longer suffer from the garbling and 
 misinterpretation of shallow profanity. But while this is 
 true, unbelief may be none the less rife, and may be all the 
 more dangerous, because it assumes the cast of thought 
 which is prevalent among educated men. The serpent 
 which can put on the hue of the forest through which it is 
 gliding, steals the more surely and inevitably upon the 
 unwary traveller. While he sees only what appears to him 
 to be the natural motion of the leaves and the twigs, his 
 enemy is close upon him, and is already filling the atmos- 
 phere with the poison which is to fascinate and then de- 
 stroy him. And in like manner that form of irreligion 
 which assimilates itself most closely to the spirit of the 
 times, is the most perilous, because the most natural and 
 unsuspected. It approaches us in such accustomed lan- 
 
1 66 Ephraims many Altars to Sin. 
 
 guage, and at such happy moments ; it whispers in our 
 ears in such a familiar tone, and its whisperings are so 
 like the voices which we daily hear ; it involves us, hefore 
 we are startled at our danger, with such an enervating 
 atmosphere of corrupt and poisonous sentiment : that we 
 are in the coils of the old Serpent, that subtle Destroyer, 
 before we even conceive that peril is nigh us. And even 
 when we have been warned, — when the finger of experi- 
 ence and of love has pointed out to us the baleful eyes and 
 beauteous skin of the approaching enemy, — those eyes are 
 so like the glittering dew-drops, and that skin so like the 
 colorings of Nature, that we perish gazing upon the insid- 
 ious foe. Alas for man ! — that he cannot learn that the 
 natural stands forever linked, in this world, because of sin, 
 with that which is sensual and corrupt. 
 
 There is, perhaps, no form of ungodliness more rife or 
 more dangerous at this present day than that which tempts 
 us to believe that every kind of worship, if it be only sin- 
 cere, is acceptable with God. The tendency of the times is 
 to strike at every thing positive and distinctive ; — to put 
 all systems, all institutions, — nay, all men — upon an ig- 
 noble level. Every thing that was considered undoubted 
 and established, is to be once again placed in the scales of 
 judgment, and weighed anew by the present generation ; 
 and nothing is to be considered wisdom which is not de- 
 cided to be so by the charlatans of the current time. If 
 this spirit were confined to science and literature, or even to 
 politics and government, however we might deprecate it 
 even in these, we should leave it to taste, and experience, 
 and interest, to rectify the evil. But when it is unsettling 
 and confounding morals and religion, when it is encourag- 
 ing men to make experience and utility the basis of truth, 
 it is time for the wise to look about them, and for the 
 guardians of Revelation to strike for their Altai's and their 
 
Ephraims many Altars to Sin. 167 
 
 God. Woe to the world, when men learn, — and learn it 
 too from what are called " the churches of God," — that 
 right and wrong are not to be settled by the Bible ; that 
 there is nothing positive in religion ; that God has dictated 
 no form of belief as essentially necessary to salvation ; that 
 He looks with no more favor upon one worshipper than 
 another, provided each is equally sincere in his creed and 
 in his practice ! Woe to that same world, when such prin- 
 ciples as these become the prevailing sentiments of men ; 
 for it will inevitably be hurried back, through folly and 
 crime, to anarchy and barbarism ! 
 
 When we take our first step in sin, we little conceive 
 where that false movement will conduct us. It is only 
 after a sad experience that we come to understand the 
 effects which sin produces upon our own hearts, and appre- 
 ciate the difficulty which there is in resisting its corrupting 
 and downward tendencies. We imagine that the whole 
 mischief of a sin is in the sin itself ; that when it has done 
 its evil, of whatever kind, upon its object, its bitterness is 
 over: and thus it happens that we leave out of view the 
 most terrible consequences of sin, — those consequences 
 which this text indicates, and which I desire to bring dis- 
 tinctly to your notice. The progressive powers of sin are 
 its most terrible powers ; and when the restraining influ- 
 ence of God's hand is lifted from them, and they are per- 
 mitted to come in like a flood, woe to that people or that 
 individual upon whom they exert their overwhelming force ! 
 They are swept on, as by an irresistible fate, to utter cor- 
 ruption and destruction. And it is only necessary for God 
 to issue the decree of my text, " Because Ephraim hath 
 made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin," 
 and the work is fairly begun. There is nothing thencefor- 
 ward to check its career, either in the nation or the indi- 
 
1 68 Ephraim s many Altars to Sin. 
 
 vidual, until God's punishment be exhausted, and the en- 
 tail be cut off through His mercy in Christ Jesus. 
 
 When Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, raised a false wor- 
 ship in Bethel, and the children of Israel consented to call 
 upon God there, instead of at Jersusalem Where*God had 
 appointed that they should worship Him, he established a 
 precedent which, in consistency, he could never oppose 
 when it should be carried to an extent beyond his own in- 
 tention. It was not the purpose of Jeroboam to lead the 
 Israelites away from Jehovah ; he only desired to lead them 
 away from Jerusalem. His object was, not to declare war 
 against the Jewish religion ; but only to modify i{, so far as 
 was necessary to carry out the separation which he had 
 made of the Ten Tribes from the remaining Two. But the 
 moment that he committed himself to this line of action, 
 he had set the example of disobedience to God's express 
 command that His Temple and Altar and Priesthood 
 should be at Jerusalem ; and had infused into every man's 
 mind the principle that a seeming necessity justified the 
 abandonment of God's command, and the substitution, in 
 its place, of man's will and interest. And when this pre- 
 cedent was followed by Ephraim, so that many altars were 
 reared in Israel, these altars were permitted by God all over 
 the land, — altars upon every hill and mountain, and under 
 every green tree, until idolatry the foullest and the most 
 degrading usurped the place of the worship of Jehovah. 
 Altars to Baal and Ashtaroth, to Tammuz and Peor, defiled 
 the land; and it required the direct interference of God, 
 through His prophets, to bring Ephraim back to the wor- 
 ship from which he had thus gradually but surely wan- 
 dered. 
 
 And we can easily perceive, when the thing is brought 
 to our notice, how it comes to pass naturally and inevitably. 
 
Ephraims many Altars to Sin. 169 
 
 The very principle upon which it proceeds, is that by which 
 its final destruction is ensured. Like the brood of Error 
 in Spenser's allegory, the moment it is born it begins to 
 feed upon its own mother. The principle of disobedience 
 and self-will which justified the first deviation, will justify 
 all that follow; until no authority is left, and every one 
 judges for himself, according to his fancy, or his interest, 
 or his passion. If Jeroboam might modify the national 
 worship, so might Ahab, and Jezebel, and Joram, and 
 under cloak of the principle introduce the worst systems 
 of Idolatry. The progress was only natural. Change is 
 delightful to the human heart ; especially a change which 
 enables it to cast off established authority, and substitute 
 for what is stern and self-denying something which is ex- 
 citing and pleasurable. And, growing by what it feeds 
 upon, the appetite craves incessant gratification, and 
 presses on from one degree of licentiousness to another, 
 until Truth itself is abandoned, and every thing established 
 by God is swept away from the altars of men. " Because 
 Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto 
 him to sin." His act rebounds upon himself ; and he is 
 forced, from the necessity of consistency, not only to justify, 
 but to partake of, sins far more gross than any he ever 
 contemplated. 
 
 And are we not, in this country, passing through pre- 
 cisely this experience? Is not our religious history fast 
 verging upon this decree uttered by the prophet ? Are we 
 not dividing and subdividing into innumerable sects, each 
 one setting up its own altar, and each altar further and still 
 further removed from the doctrine and discipline of Christ ? 
 Where is the Unity of Christ ? Where is that one Faith, 
 one Lord, one Baptism, of which we read in the Epistles ? 
 Has not the progress been rapidly downward, striking in 
 turn at every thing distinctive in doctrine, and bringing in 
 
170 Ephraims many Altars to Sin. 
 
 arrangements of religious worship more and more radical ? 
 Is not God manifesting the law of His government by 
 permitting these altars to multiply; and, as they multiply, 
 to be more and more irregular and profane ? Are not 
 " churches " which we once hoped still clung to the truth 
 of doctrine, abandoning that truth article by article, and 
 adhering only to what suits their interest or their passions ? 
 Are not denominations of Christians which once com- 
 manded respect by their compactness and their firmness, 
 now losing even that by their innumerable subdivisions and 
 the reception of principles which must lead to still worse 
 and worse ? Look at the rapid deterioration of religion in 
 many parts of the United States, once the most rigid and 
 devout ! Look at the doctrines which are now publicly pro- 
 claimed throughout the land, — which are gathering dis- 
 ciples, — which are forming sects ; — doctrines of devils, 
 fit only for execration and condemnation. See the indif- 
 ference of the people to this rapid corruption of Truth, to 
 this denial of our Saviour, to this blotting out of the Holy 
 Ghost, to this contempt for doctrinal truth, to this irrever- 
 ence for the word of God and for every thing established by 
 it, to this abrogation of heaven and of hell ! Ephraim is 
 making many altars to sin, crowding them over the length 
 and breadth of the land : and, true to the principle of its 
 action, his law is being fast made the banner under which 
 idols of every hue and shape, — idols of imagination, of 
 sentiment, of will, of pride, of lust, — are to take the place 
 of Christ and His Church. And what is worse, Christians 
 themselves seem blinded to the condition of things, and are 
 comforting themselves with the idea that Religion is ad- 
 vancing through the land, when it is really fast running 
 into the foullest corruption. Could the mighty Edwards 
 rise from his grave, and cast his eyes over his own once 
 fruitful field of labor, where should he find the doctrines 
 
Ephraims many Altars to Sin, 171 
 
 which he preached, the discipline which he reverenced? 
 Could the eloquent Mason he given hack again to earth, 
 how would he thunder against the degeneracy of the times, 
 and ask in vain for the habits of devotion and the morals 
 of life which he adorned and illustrated ! Could Whitfield 
 and Wesley survey the masses which have congregated 
 around the altars they erected, how would they shudder at 
 much which calls itself by their name, and mourn, in bitter- 
 ness of spirit, that they ever turned aside from the good 
 old paths in which they had been trained ! And the worst 
 is not yet. It is only beginning : and if these things are 
 done in the green tree, what shall we look for in the dry ? 
 Ah ! my hearers, if you would only study the aspect of the 
 times, in its moral and religious point of view, you would 
 tremble at what is fast coming upon you, — tremble for 
 your Altars and your firesides ! But, instead of that, you 
 are carried along with the current ; and conceive that Eph- 
 raim has full right to create as many altars as he pleases ; 
 and to rend the seamless garment of Christ into shreds and 
 tatters ! 
 
 But it is not only by a natural law that this deterioration 
 will go on. After Ephraim shall have raised many altars 
 to sin, God's action will become judicial, and Ephraim's sin 
 will find him out in a still more terrible way. Up to a cer- 
 tain point, this erection of altars will be the product of 
 his own will. He shall be sinning- against li^ht and con- 
 science, against warning and the Holy Spirit ; but when, in 
 defiance of these, he shall have made many altars to sin, 
 "altars shall be unto him to sin." His appetite shall be 
 glutted to its fullest extent. Means and appliances the 
 most ample shall be furnished him for idolatry. Doctrines 
 more false and monstrous, opinions more profane and li- 
 centious, opinions more hideous and disgusting, shall meet 
 his eager mind, and he shall rush to their embrace with a 
 
172 Ephrainis many Altars to Sin. 
 
 greediness which will prove that the Holy Spirit hath left 
 him, and that he is bound up in the wings of the wind ! 
 Alas for us ! We are nurturing our worst enemy within 
 our own bowels ; we are breeding an innumerable spawn of 
 error that will finally consume us. God is our only refuge, 
 and His Church the only ark of safety amid these agitated 
 waves of self-will, of irreverence, and of ungodliness. Un- 
 less we turn to them, the sun which rose upon a people 
 who loved and honored the Altars of the living God, will go 
 down in blood upon altars reeking with every unclean and 
 unwholesome sacrifice. 
 
 But this text, while its primary reference is to sins 
 against religious worship, has also its stern application to 
 individuals. The Church of the Israelites is often used in 
 Scripture to represent the pilgrimage of the Christian, — 
 to furnish instruction and reproof to the individual as he 
 fights the battle of his soul. Every man may find in Eph- 
 raim a warning, — the dealings which God will exercise 
 upon himself, if he turn away and make altars to sin. The 
 like process goes on with the individual, as with the peo- 
 ple ; with the single Christian, as with the believing nation. 
 It begins in what we consider a necessity meeting us in 
 our path of life ; and ends in a desertion of the Holy 
 Spirit, the most hopeless which can befall a human 
 creature. 
 
 It is an exceedingly dangerous thing for a Christian to 
 tamper with Truth, — to make it at all subservient to any 
 of the interests or passions of life. Truth is one and fixed ; 
 revealed by God through his inspired messengers, and 
 written down for the use of man. It cannot be mis- 
 taken ; for it is united in Christ, with that Life Eternal 
 which we profess to be seeking for. " I am the way, the 
 truth, and the life," 1 said Christ ; and if we will walk in 
 
 1 S. John xiv. 6. 
 
Ephraim s many Altai's to Sin, 173 
 
 Christ, we cannot miss either Truth or Life. Many, and 
 they among- the poorest and plainest people, have found it 
 through simple obedience : have listened to the voice of 
 the Church, saying, " This is the way, walk ye in it/' 1 and 
 have thus drank in all Truth. God has revealed to us in 
 the Xew Testament a fixed, positive doctrine : " Neither is 
 there salvation in any other than Jesus Christ of Xaza- 
 reth." 2 "Without shedding of blood is no remission." 3 
 " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can- 
 not enter into the kingdom of God." 4 " There is one 
 body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of 
 your calling ; one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God 
 and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in 
 vou all." 5 A doctrine which, when combined, teaches as 
 settled a system as that of the Old Testament ; a system 
 having a Creed, and Sacraments, and Church institutions. 
 "What reason has any man who leaves all this solemn truth, 
 and devises a doctrinal system for himself, to expect any 
 other treatment than Ephraim received ? Xothing, my 
 people, excuses disobedience. It will always fetch down 
 the denunciation of the prophet : " Because Ephraim hath 
 made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin." 
 
 And what can sound more fearful, my hearers, than 
 such a declaration as this ? You are not Christians ; be- 
 cause you are trusting in altars of your own, and upon 
 which you are burning your various sacrifices. One builds 
 an altar, and calls it " Integrity," and offers upon it justice, 
 and honesty, and fair dealing between man and man. 
 Another follows his example, but calls his altar " Benevo- 
 lence," and trusts that the sacrifices which he makes 
 thereon to the poor and the widow and the orphan may 
 enter into the presence of God, and atone for his sins. 
 
 1 Isaiah xxx. 21. 2 Acts iv. 10, 12. 3 Heb. be 22. 
 
 4 S. John UL 5. « Eph. iv. 4-6. 
 
174 Ephr aim's many Altars to Sin. 
 
 Yet another designates his altar hy the name of " Good 
 works," and feels assured that the zeal and devotion and 
 bodily exercise which are spent thereon must be sufficient 
 to win the favor of God. Still another altar is seen to rise 
 before us and upon it is inscribed, " God is a spirit, and 
 they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in 
 truth ; " and its worshippers imagine that a service of the 
 heart, without outward profession, without forms or sacra- 
 ments, must find favor with a spiritual God. How sad that 
 these altars, with their noble inscriptions, with their frag- 
 ments of the truth, must all fall under the category of the 
 prophet's denunciation ; that these blessed truths, which 
 have been snatched from the consecrated Altar of the sanc- 
 tuary of God, should, by that violence, have been turned into 
 falsehood ; that these sightly altars, which rise so proudly 
 from the surface of society, should be altars unto sin ! 
 Where is then your hope ? You worship not as God has 
 commanded you to worship, because you are trusting in 
 this miserably delusive principle, — that one altar is as 
 good as another in the sight of God ; that " His can't be 
 wrong, whose life is in the right " ; that the sacrifice of 
 good deeds, of zeal, of devotion, of sincerity, of benevo- 
 lence, is as potent as the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ." 
 Alas for your fatal error ! You will find, at the last, that 
 Christianity is a positive thing; that salvation is by one 
 narrow road, through one straight gate ; and that all altars 
 save that One which has been stained with the Blood of 
 the Lamb, are altars unto sin ! 
 
 You may ask, What is my remedy when I find myself in 
 this condition ? If by any means you have placed yourself 
 in a wrong position in this matter, retrace your steps. It 
 may cost you some humiliation ; some sacrifice of feeling, 
 or of interest: but any thing is better than to plunge 
 through life in error, and then perhaps to lose your soul. 
 
Ephraims many Altars to Sin. 175 
 
 And you will lose it. just as certainly as you rest in the de- 
 lusion of being saved because you are "honest M and " sin- 
 cere." How can you be sincere when you refuse to obey 
 the plain written commands of your God and Saviour : 
 unless you place yourself in the category of infidelity, and 
 say that you do not believe them to be His commands ? 
 How can you be sincere when, ranking yourself as a Chris- 
 tian and hoping for a Christian's future condition, you are 
 yet not fulfilling a Christian's duty ? But you may answer : 
 " I am trying to live as a Christian, and to perform all my 
 obligations to my fellow-beings, my obligations of integrity, 
 of benevolence, of good works : and I am worshipping God 
 in spirit and in truth. " Running back to those old altars, 
 which I proved to you were altars to sin ! But have you 
 obeyed Christ's commands ? Have you been confirmed ? Do 
 you partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which 
 Christ commanded you to do in remembrance of Him ? If 
 you were a Christian, or wanted to be a Christian, you 
 would do as Christ commands you: — you would worship 
 God where and as He instructs you : you would connect 
 yourself with the visible Church : you would live upon His 
 Spirit. You may be sincere when you say you cannot be- 
 lieve ; but that sincerity will not avail you. because it is a 
 positive command : " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 thou shait be saved ; " 1 and equally as positive on the other 
 hand : " He that believeth not shall be damned/" 2 You 
 may be sincere when you say that you cannot repent : but 
 that sincerity will not avail you, because the declaration is 
 positive : " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." 3 
 No man can be sincere when, with the Bible in his hands, 
 he counts himself a Christian, and yet obeys not the posi- 
 tive commandments of Christ. You are trifling with words 
 and with your conscience. You are laying up for yourself 
 
 1 Acts xri. 31. 2 ^jark xyi> 16> s s. Luke xiii. 3. 
 
176 Ephraims many Altars to Sin. 
 
 the heaviest of all punishments, — the finding out, at the 
 last, that although you have made many altars and sacri- 
 ficed diligently upon them, they are only altars to sin. 
 Your remedy is to do with your altars as Elijah did with 
 the altars to Baal, — sweep them from your heart : and turn 
 in faith and humility and obedience to that only Altar 
 which has streamed from everlasting with the blood of the 
 Lamb " that taketh away the sins of the world." 
 
 1866. 
 
^cbcntectttl) Sermon. 
 
 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be over- 
 charged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and 
 so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come 
 07i all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. — S. Luke 
 xxi 34, 35- 
 
 TX many of the addresses of our Lord to His disciples He 
 — pursued the plan which had been arranged for the de- 
 livery of prophecy, giving His instructions a double sense, 
 the one applicable to the times which then were, the other 
 stretching into a distant futurity. While the substance of 
 His remarks, like the groundwork of prophecy, had its 
 reality in the circumstances which encompassed them, 
 they were couched in language which forbade their limita- 
 tion to the events of time. As the prophecy, for example, 
 which made David and his earthly kingdom its basis, was 
 at once transferred, by epithets of surpassing magnificence 
 and eternal duration, to the Messiah and His heavenly 
 Kingdom : so the words of our Lord, which applied imme- 
 diately to the destruction of Jerusalem and the terrible 
 calamities which should accompany its fall, were insensibly 
 passed over, by an intermixture of sublime imagery, to the 
 destruction of the world, and the awful scenes of the Judg- 
 ment Day. Thus it happened, that language like that of 
 my text was applicable not only to those who heard it, but 
 to those who should receive it until the end of time ; — 
 that the exhortation to take heed lest that day should come 
 upon them unawares, was a warning not only to the inhab- 
 itants of Jerusalem, but to the people of the whole earth. 
 
 12 
 
178 The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 
 
 The mode in which this coming of the Day of the Lord 
 is spoken of in the New Testament always embodies the 
 idea of suddenness, of unexpectedness ; and in our text it 
 has the additional idea of coming as a snare. " But as the 
 days of Noe were," says our Lord in S. Matthew, " so shall 
 also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days 
 that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, 
 marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe 
 entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, 
 and took them all away ; so shall also the coming of the 
 Son of Man be." 1 And as it shall be with all who shall be 
 alive at the second coming of the Lord, so is it now, even 
 to-day, with us who are living upon the earth. There is, 
 in the coming of Death, a suddenness, an unexpectedness, 
 and ofttimes an ensnaring, which is awful to the very last 
 degree. Take heed lest " that day come upon you una- 
 wares." 
 
 In this point of view does not the Son of Man find us 
 every day just in the same condition in which our Lord 
 foretells that the world shall be found at His second com- 
 ing, " eating and drinking, marrying and giving in mar- 
 riage"? Although Death hovers perpetually over us, 
 although we witness every day the strokes which he inflicts, 
 and follow, in slow funeral procession, his victims to the 
 tomb : we make but little preparation against his coming* 
 to ourselves. We are all living under the same sky, drink- 
 ing in the same atmosphere, engaged in the same pursuits, 
 subjected to like influences: but when Death takes our 
 neighbor or our friend, and leaves us, — not a whit more 
 worthy to live or less exempt from the power of Death, — 
 we never pause in the career of life to ask, " Why was he 
 taken and I left " ? We press forward mechanically, like 
 well-disciplined troops, who have to face a certain danger ; 
 1 S. Matt. xxiv. 36-39. 
 
The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 179 
 
 the gaps are filled up so soon as they are made ; and an 
 unbroken front is ever presented, even while an incessant 
 and unsparing carnage is going on around us. We step 
 directly into the shoes of those who have been taken off, 
 occupying the houses they have vacated, filling the offices 
 they have left behind, carrying on the business they have 
 suddenly dropped, never heeding the warning their absence 
 has given us. And thus we press forward, like wave suc- 
 ceeding wave, until we ourselves are broken upon the great 
 shore of Eternity, and we pass away amazed, if we have 
 time left us for amazement, at the unexpectedness of the 
 summons into another world. And yet why should we be 
 amazed? Every illness, every accident, every death of 
 friend or acquaintance or relation, was warning us that it 
 would be so ! But we somehow dreamed that we should 
 have some special notice, that disease or Death would creep 
 upon us gradually and give us full warning; that we 
 should see his dart poised at us, long ere it left his hand, 
 and have time for numbering our days and for laying aside 
 our every-day cares and concerns, for setting' our houses in 
 order, for making our peace with God, before it reached our 
 hearts. But as all others have found it, save the few to 
 whom God has granted wisdom to live as pilgrims and 
 strangers on the earth, so shall we find it : Death will come 
 on us " like a snare " ! 
 
 Let us look at this matter in a practical way, especially 
 now, when we seem to be living under a dispensation of 
 Death ! There are living in this city of ours many thou- 
 sands of our fellow-creatures, some of whom die every day, 
 every day. Which of those who die expects it ? Here and 
 there is one whose lingering disease would lead you to 
 expect to see him looking for his end ; yet even by such a 
 bedside do I find, ofttimes, as little preparation as by that 
 of him who has been arrested in the vigor of his age. 
 
180 The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 
 
 With a certainty upon the mind of every one else, that a 
 few days, or at most a few weeks, must end his course on 
 earth, the sick man is planning for the future ; and shows 
 to all who look upon him that when Death finishes what 
 disease has begun, he will come as unexpectedly as to the 
 child or to the healthful. And walk with me the market- 
 place, or the marts of business; thread the crowded 
 streets: and tell me which of those absorbed and eager 
 beings is expecting Death ? Which of them has thought 
 of it ere he left his home, and has asked God's protection 
 through the day ? Stop one, and tell him that within a few 
 days he will be tolled to his burial, and that he will die in 
 no extraordinary way, by no casualty, by no sudden stroke, 
 but in the common and usual course of disease : and he 
 will be as utterly incredulous as if God had made him 
 immortal ! convince him of it, and he will complain of the 
 suddenness of the stroke, and will supplicate for time for 
 preparation ! And yet how few have really any longer time 
 than this for preparation, taking the usual course of dis- 
 ease in our climate. And this is no exaggerated case. 
 Take the deaths which have occurred this very summer 
 among our acquaintances, and have they not all exhibited 
 this phase of suddenness, of unexpectedness, if that can 
 be called sudden and unexpected which is ordinary ? To- 
 day we meet an acquaintance as busy as ourselves ; and the 
 next notice we have of him is, that we are summoned to 
 pay the last tribute to his memory. Did he expect Death 
 any more than we ourselves? Had he any more cause to 
 look for it than we ? When we met him, the dart was act- 
 ually projected against him : but did we perceive that he 
 was the least conscious of it? Was his brow troubled? 
 Perchance it was ; — but with the cares of this world. 
 Was his cheek pallid ? Perchance it was ; — but with anx- 
 iety about his worldly interests. Was he setting his house 
 
The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 181 
 
 in order, and stripping himself of his absorbing thoughts ? 
 Perchance he was ; — but it was by laying up for his future 
 comfort and ease, or drowning himself in luxury and enjoy- 
 ment. Did he speak of Death to you ? " Death ! why, he 
 was not thinking of Death. He was telling me of his 
 plans and projects for years to come, of his hopes and his 
 anticipations in a long futurity. Death, why, yes ! he did 
 speak of such and such an acquaintance who was nigh 
 unto Death; but he had always some good reason why 
 such an one should die, which could not, he thought, be 
 brought home to himself. He had unwisely exposed him- 
 self ; or his constitution was naturally weak ; or he was a 
 stranger to the climate : " something that took him out of 
 the category of Death's victims. Is not this within the 
 experience of every one of you? Then why may not his 
 experience be our own very soon ? Xay, is it not certain 
 that it must be our own ere long? We shall go, as he 
 went, unexpectedly, to fill our grave, and give our account. 
 
 Let us leave the streets, where you may suppose there 
 would not be found much expectation of Death, and enter 
 into the Church, where the subject is unceasingly brought 
 to the notice of the people. Those whom you find upon 
 Sundays in the churches of Christ include probably all his 
 elect people, — those who, in imitation of the Apostles, 
 should truly feel that to them " to die is gain." 1 Which 
 of you, my hearers, — for, by your presence here, you 
 stand to-day in this category, — is expecting Death? — is 
 waiting and watching for him as your deliverer from trial 
 and trouble and sorrow ? To which of you, if the angel of 
 the Lord were now to say to you, " The Master is come, 
 and calleth for thee," 2 would the sound come as an alto- 
 gether welcome one ? Who would answer upon the in- 
 stant, with a shout of joy, as S. John cried, when Christ 
 1 Phil. i. 21. 2 s> j ohn xi . 28. 
 
1 82 The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 
 
 said " Surely I come quickly : " " Amen. Even so, come, 
 Lord Jesus " ? 1 I do not ask, Which of you would he pre- 
 pared to die ? That is quite another question ; and I an- 
 swer for you that, I trust, many : hut, Which of you is so 
 living, as that it would not come unawares ? There is such 
 a thing as dying in a state of faith, while yet we die not in 
 a state of preparation. We go to Christ, hut we leave not 
 behind us a testimony to His power over Death and the 
 Grave. We realize our reward; but we glorify not our 
 Saviour in our latter end. 
 
 But Christ tells us that this coming of the Son of Man 
 will he not merely unexpected, but " as a snare " upon 
 those that are upon the earth. And this requires a little 
 elucidation, that you may see how fully it is verified before 
 our eyes even in these days. 
 
 The snare which expresses the coming of the Son of Man, 
 and to which it is likened, is something which is laid so 
 like the appearance of Nature and the usual condition of 
 things, that it does not alarm those for whom it is spread. 
 And it has likewise another feature which constitutes its 
 peril, and that is, that it is baited with such allurements 
 and enticements as draw men into it, and entrap them to 
 their destruction. 
 
 That feature which will make the coming of the Son of 
 Man so sudden and so unexpected is that, as in the days 
 of Noe, the world will be found in its natural and normal 
 condition, eating and drinking, sowing and reaping, marry- 
 ing and giving in marriage. Every thing will be as it has 
 been every day for ages and generations. Men will be car- 
 rying on the same pursuits ; will be engaged in the like 
 occupations ; will be excited by the same passions, and 
 absorbed in the like pursuits. There will be no visible 
 changes in Nature. The Sun will rise each day as bright 
 
 1 Rev. xxii. 20. 
 
The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 183 
 
 and unclouded out of the chambers of the east, rejoicing as 
 a bridegroom to run his course ; and he will sink each 
 night into his bed of clouds, as unchanged as if the world 
 were to endure forever. The moon, which comes in her 
 appointed season, will shed her mild beams of softened light 
 upon stream and tower, upon forest and lake, upon the 
 crowded city and the desert wilderness, as if no change 
 were ever to take place in Nature or Nature's laws. Man 
 will ask, " Where is the promise of his coming ? for since 
 the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from 
 the beginning of the creation ? " 1 And this is the snare, 
 that men think that coming will be preceded by some 
 tokens which shall mark it, by some shadow forecasting 
 itself upon the world, which will indicate it to all observers. 
 But not so ! When it comes it shall have no sign that the 
 natural man can see, no forecast that shall give expectation 
 to the world. The spiritual mind will be looking for the 
 promise ; the student of the Bible will have the foreshad- 
 owing of Prophecy ; the signs of the times shall be such as 
 they have been foretold : but all natural, however intensi- 
 fied; all in the usual course of events, but still such as 
 they have always been, only aggravated. There will be 
 wars and rumors of wars : but when have they not been ? 
 There will be nation rising up against nation, but when has 
 that not been ? There will be overthrow of governments, 
 and dethronement of kings, and destruction of established 
 things, and the multitude triumphing over order and over 
 law : but all that will be considered as the triumph of pop- 
 ular wisdom, as the introduction of man to his coming age 
 of perfectibility and happiness. The spiritual mind will 
 understand it; here and there one faithful man upon the 
 watch-tower, as Simeon looked for Christ ; one faithful 
 woman serving God day and night in His Temple, and 
 
 1 2 S. Peter iii. 4. 
 
184 The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 
 
 waiting for the coming of her Lord, as Anna did for the 
 infant Jesns : but that will be all. And while the world is 
 rolling on according to its usual and customary course, the 
 Son of Man will come and take it as in a snare, because, 
 having the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shining 
 upon it, it had suffered the god of this world to blind its 
 eyes and stop its ears. And then the Judgment : and 
 then Eternity. 
 
 And what will make the snare more overpowering and 
 certain in its operation, will be the fact that all its usual 
 pursuits will be intensified and more absorbing as the 
 world approaches its end. Do you not perceive that al- 
 ready ? Are not the improvements, as they are called, in 
 physical science, the rapidity of movement, the constant 
 flashing of exciting news from the ends of the earth, the 
 never-ending pressure of business, the greed after money 
 as the one necessity of life, all making the snare more com- 
 plete, the world more enticing ? Is not man forgetting 
 that there is any God, much more that there is any second 
 coming of the Lord ; — of that Lord, whose first coming 
 he does not believe in ? And as the end approaches, shall 
 not this be more and still more the order of things ? — 
 wealth concentrated; luxury abounding; money grasped 
 at as the summum bonum, the one thing needful ; sensual- 
 ity overflowing ; life loved and cherished for the lusts of 
 the flesh ; the soul forgotten ; Heaven and Hell put aside 
 as idle dreams. And when this is so, — as it is fast get- 
 ting to be so, — shall not the world so absorb all thoughts 
 and all minds, as that the snare will be stretched over the 
 whole earth, in such wise that nothing shall escape ? Woe 
 to the world, — the blinded world ! All captured ; all so 
 fast bound in prison that they " cannot get forth " ! 1 
 
 And as it will be at the consummation of all things, so is 
 
 1 Psalm lxxxviii. 3. 
 
The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 185 
 
 it now with us who make the present generation, and who 
 stand in relation to Death as they stand to the second com- 
 ing of the Lord. Things go on so naturally around us ; 
 one day succeeds another so equably and quietly ; men are 
 pursuing so precisely the came courses ; we sleep, we eat, 
 we do business, we marry and give in marriage, day by day, 
 and year by year, as if there was no end : that it becomes 
 a snare to us. We do not think about any interruption to 
 the course of things. It seems so natural to live, that 
 we do not think of death. If there was any sign or token 
 to warn us, we might take heed ; but the world goes on 
 so steadily, and life flows so evenly, and home to-day is so 
 like to what it was yesterday, that we fail into the snare. 
 We cannot anticipate any harm from what looks so pleas- 
 ant and so agreeable. And therefore we float on upon the 
 tide and current, until Death comes upon us unawares, and 
 we find, when too late, that we have been caught in the snare 
 of natural sequences, and are swept away " unawares." 
 
 And just as in the case of the end of all things, the snare 
 was made all powerful through the concentrated interests 
 and lusts and passions and cares which the progress of the 
 world had accumulated and hurled upon its absorbed in- 
 habitants, — absorbing and blinding them : so is it with us. 
 The snare of natural sequences is made so tempting to us 
 through the lusts of the flesh and the interests of time and 
 sense, that we never pause to examine the real peril of our 
 position, but become enveloped in a cloud of pleasures, of 
 enjoyments, of cares, of duties, which swallow up all our 
 time, and enfold us in their ensnaring and seducing arms. 
 The present blots out the future. The cloud comes be- 
 tween us and God. We hope and trust that it will remove : 
 but it only grows thicker and thicker; until, forgetting 
 our religion, our future, our hopes, our fears, even our God, 
 we are taken in the snare, and swept off " unawares." 
 
1 86 The Coming of the Day of the Lord, 
 
 There are three temptations against which our Lord 
 warns us most particularly, surfeiting, drunkenness, and 
 the cares of this world. 
 
 Of the power of sensual indulgences to drug the soul 
 against any preparation for Death, I need hardly speak to 
 you. Surfeiting and drunkenness, or even smaller measures 
 of the same kind of viciousness, are so entirely contrary to 
 the graces of Christianity, that it does not require much 
 argument to show that they must be guarded against by 
 every one who would not have the Day of the Lord to come 
 upon him unawares, and as a snare. S. Paul speaks of 
 those whom he looked upon as the " enemies of the cross 
 of Christ" 1 because they indulged in such things. And 
 when we see how they unfit a man for any duty, whether 
 domestic or social or civil ; how they brutalize the charac- 
 ter, and injure the mind, and harden the feelings : we can 
 easily understand how entirely incompatible they are with 
 any thing like a spiritual state of mind. Indulgence in 
 them is fatal to all Christianity ; therefore take heed, my 
 hearers, lest they overcome your hearts. Be not entangled 
 again with the rudiments and beggarly elements of sensu- 
 ality ! 
 
 But take heed likewise to that which is a much subtler 
 temptation to most men, and especially most Christians, 
 because it comes wearing the garb of duty. I mean the 
 cares of this life, which are particularly singled out in my 
 text. Alas ! how many, without any vice that one can lay 
 his hand upon, wreck their spiritual hopes upon this rock. 
 And how striking it is that Christ should place these along- 
 side of surfeiting and drunkenness, as most likely of all 
 things to overcharge the heart. What a striking expres- 
 sion, overcharge the heart ! Not the mind, not the body ; 
 but the heart, the seat of the feelings and affections. And 
 
 i Phil. iii. 18. 
 
The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 187 
 
 how universal is the temptation ! It comes home to every- 
 body. Who has not something to do with the cares of 
 life ? The father to his business, the mother to her house- 
 hold, and both to the interests of their children ; — the rich 
 to their wealth, having really more care than anybody; 
 the poor to their need ; the old to the accumulation of their 
 lives; the young to their plans and their anticipations. 
 It is duty, some of it ; but duty which must be watched ! 
 No one can live without encountering, in some measure, 
 the duties of life, and therefore the cares of life ; but you 
 can live so as to prevent your hearts from being over- 
 charged: over-charged — mark the word ! — not "charged," 
 for the heart must, to a certain degree, be charged with 
 them ; but over-charged ! Christ rebuked Martha, not be- 
 cause she was engaged in household duties, for that was 
 her legitimate function; but because she was permitting 
 them to absorb her heart, and take that away from rich 
 opportunities of religious instruction. " But one thing is 
 needful." 1 Every thing must be subordinated to that. 
 
 The cares of this life must be strictly under the control 
 of a well-regulated heart, otherwise they will overpower 
 us. The temptation is the other way, — to apportion our 
 religious duties according to our worldly cares, diminishing 
 those as these increase : that is, to take less heed as our 
 peril increases. This is folly : for when cares increase, 
 which they always do with years, then are prayer, consid- 
 eration, thoughtfulness, and other religious duties most 
 necessary for us ; for they alone can turn the cares of life 
 into religion, and make that burden light and easy, which 
 would, under other circumstances, be intolerable. It is 
 dreadful to think of a Christian being taken by the coming 
 of his Lord, as in a snare ; and yet this will be his condi- 
 tion, unless he take heed of those things which over- 
 1 S. Luke x. 42. 
 
1 88 The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 
 
 charge the heart. Our Lord, you see, places the man or 
 the woman who is absorbed in the cares of this life upon 
 the same footing, as regards preparedness for Death or the 
 coming of the Son of Man, with the glutton and the 
 drunkard. And for this plain reason, that while they oper- 
 ate in different ways, they alike take the heart from God and 
 from eternity ; they alike overcharge the heart, and make 
 men forget their accountability, and wrap them in a dream 
 of security : until death enfolds them as in a snare, and 
 they perish ! Take heed lest " that day come upon you 
 unawares " ! 
 
 And to you, who have not yet attended to the concerns 
 of your souls, let me beseech you to secure their salvation 
 while you are in health. Besides the snare which the vigor 
 of life, and the natural sequence of things, and the cares 
 of this life, enwrap around you : even when you are sick, 
 friends, relations, physicians, all who love you and care for 
 you, will cherish and increase that snare. When you are 
 sick, they will not believe that you are going to be danger- 
 ously so ; when ill, they will not permit you to be disturbed, 
 as they call it, by religious thoughts and exercises, lest you 
 should be made more ill : and when you have reached that 
 stage in which they acknowledge the necessity of your 
 turning your thoughts to your soul, in what condition will 
 you be for preparation, — a preparation which you have 
 neglected ? Is the whole period of an ordinary sickness in 
 our climate sufficient for such a mighty work ? How much 
 less, then, its closing passages, when the body is weak, and 
 the mind clouded, and the spirit frightened and fluttering 
 at its approaching separation ! My hearer, if you would 
 not have Death come upon you " unawares " and " as a 
 snare," prepare for it while you are yet in health ! Christ 
 bade us watch, because, He said, we know not when the 
 Master of the house will come, whether " at even, or 
 
The Coming of the Day of the Lord. 189 
 
 at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning." 1 
 The pestilence " walketh in darkness." 2 Take heed, " while 
 it is called To-day," 3 lest Death come npon you unawares, 
 and as a snare ! 
 
 August 19th 1866. 
 * S. Mark xiii. 35. 2 Psalm xci. 6. 3 Heb. iii. 13. 
 
ei$)tzmit) Sermon. 
 
 Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word is truth. — S. John 
 xvii. 17. 
 
 Q< 0 far as individuals are concerned, the main object of 
 revealed religion is the formation of character. Chris- 
 tianity was never intended to be inoperative ; but in its very 
 birth was filled with the energy of the Holy Spirit, pro- 
 ducing changes which filled the streets of Jerusalem with 
 awe and astonishment. And that divine energy did not 
 expire with the day of Pentecost, but manifested itself 
 wherever the Cross was lifted up by the Apostles of Revela- 
 tion. Christians were made Christians, in the truest sense 
 of the word, out of every sort of material, — out of fanat- 
 ics, out of fornicators, out of idolators, out of adulterers, 
 out of thieves, out of covetous, out of drunkards, out of 
 revilers, out of extortioners ; for " such," says S. Paul, in 
 his first Epistle to the Corinthians, " were some of you : 
 but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified 
 in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our 
 God." 1 And this is still the purpose of our holy relig- 
 ion, — the sanctification of the individual character ; the 
 making such fallen creatures as we are, fit for earth and 
 then fit for Heaven. This was a part of that solemn 
 prayer which our blessed Lord made to His Father just be- 
 fore He took His farewell of earth, and was commending to 
 Him His beloved disciples : " Sanctify them, 0 Father, 
 
 through thy truth : thy word is truth Neither pray 
 
 J 1 Cor. vi. 11. 
 
Thy Word is Truth. 191 
 
 I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on 
 me through their word." He forgot us not in that hour 
 of His deepest sorrow ; but recorded for us in Heaven His 
 earnest supplication, that His work might produce in us 
 that richest of all its personal effects, holiness of character 
 and of life. 
 
 We should, as Christians, my beloved people, keep this 
 perpetually in our minds, — that unless Christianity sancti- 
 fies us, it falls short of its intended purpose. To make our 
 religion a matter of mere sentiment, a thing of feeling and 
 not of practice, is to emasculate it, to strip it of its power 
 and its glory. In the discipline of its children, the world 
 aims at the formation of characters which shall be suitable 
 for its purposes ; and so likewise in the Church of Christ, 
 characters are to be created which shall illustrate the mis- 
 sion of our Saviour on earth, and then glorify it in Heaven. 
 It is not rJL that merely crieth, " Lord, Lord," that is the 
 Christian ; but it is he that doeth the will of God. Profes- 
 sion and practice are very widely different things. The one 
 may satisfy man, and may blind the Church while militant 
 upon earth ; but it is only the other which can satisfy God. 
 He cannot be deceived by words and sentiment. He must 
 have the imitation of Christ in the life, — the advancing 
 holiness which tells that the Christian is growing in grace, 
 and in the knowledge of the Lord. To be a Christian, and 
 to stand still in character, are incompatible terms. To be 
 a Christian, and not to be struggling to overcome evil feel- 
 ings, bad habits, wrong temper, idle words, are inharmoni- 
 ous positions. " Onward," should ever be the Christian's 
 motto, for holiness should ever be the Christian's goal. 
 Without holiness, says S. Paul, " no man shall see the 
 Lord." 1 Even in the progress of life, one is expected to 
 grow wiser and more sober and more experienced as age 
 
 1 Heb. xii. 14. 
 
192 Thy Word is Truth. 
 
 creeps on ; and shall the Church expect less of her wor- 
 shippers? S. Paul says, "When I was a child, I spake as 
 a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child : but 
 when I became a man, I put away childish things." 1 
 Christians are not to be always children, to be fed on milk : 
 they must seek after strength ; they must search for wis- 
 dom ; they must rejoice in experience ; they must cultivate 
 the graces of Christianity ; they must learn to be able to 
 grapple with hard sayings, to digest strong meat. S. 
 Paul's rebuke to the Hebrews was : " For when for the 
 time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach 
 you again which be the first principles of the oracles of 
 God ; and are become such as have need of milk, and not 
 of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskill- 
 ful in the word of righteousness ; for he is a babe. But 
 strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even 
 those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to 
 discern both good and evil." 2 
 
 Sanctification of character is therefore an indispensable 
 requisite of every Christian, and he must search for the 
 means which have been arranged by God for his advance- 
 ment. Our discipline, during this first Advent of our 
 Saviour, is to fit us for His second Advent ; and the Word 
 of God is that means to which the Church especially calls 
 us to-day. The Collect which has been read to you this 
 morning concentrates in itself the full essence of my text : 
 " Blessed Lord, who has caused all holy Scriptures to be 
 written for our learning ; " and the Epistle reiterates the 
 same truth : " Whatsoever things were written aforetime, 
 were written for our learning." And what that learning is, 
 we ascertain by turning to the Epistle to Timothy, where 
 the Apostle says : " All scripture is given by inspiration of 
 God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc- 
 
 1 1 Cor. xiii. 11. 2 Heb. v. 12-14. 
 
Thy Word is Truth, 
 
 193 
 
 tion, for instruction in righteousness : that the man of God 
 may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 5 ' 1 
 When our blessed Lord, therefore, was supplicating His 
 Father for our sanctification, He was also designating the 
 instrument through which it was to be pursued : " Sanc- 
 tify them through thy truth : thy word is truth." Ifc was 
 truth which was to advance his people in character, and in 
 knowledge, and in spiritual understanding ; and that truth 
 was to be found in the word : primarily in Christ, The 
 Word ; and then secondarily in that which remains to us 
 as the transcript of Christ, the written Word, the Holy 
 Scriptures, the records left us by holy men speaking " as 
 they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' 5 
 
 How important then, my beloved people, is it to us, that 
 we should make ourselves intimately familiar with the Holy 
 Scriptures, when we find them presented to us by Christ in 
 this most solemn manner as the great means of our sancti- 
 fication ; and that, because they embody divine truth. Man 
 affirms perpetually that he is in search of truth ; that all 
 his efforts are to discover it ; that his struggles are hardest 
 when they lie between truth and error : and yet, when ab- 
 solute unmixed Truth is presented to him, how hard it is 
 to make him either admire it, or receive it. Christ says, " I 
 am the Truth : " and man turns away from Christ. He says 
 again, " Thy word is truth : " and man neglects and de- 
 spises that Word. What more can be done for man ? 
 " Buy the truth and sell it not," 2 is the injunction of the 
 wise man ; but we will not receive it when it is offered to 
 us without money and without price. Can any thing show 
 us more strikingly the evil heart of unbelief? What we 
 pretend to crave, what we affirm that we desire more than 
 we can express, we reject, when it is thrown at our feet, a 
 gift from God, purchased at the price of the Blood of His 
 
 1 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 2 p rov> xx iii. 23. 
 
 13 
 
1 94 Thy Word is Truth. 
 
 only-begotten and well-beloved Son ! Pilate sneeringly 
 asked, " What is truth ? " showing us how profoundly skep- 
 tical the world was in his day about truth : and when 
 Christ has answered that question for us, saying, " Thy 
 word is truth," we will not deign to receive it. We press 
 on, looking for that which lies in our pathway, and which 
 has become so precious a comfort to the world. Amazing 
 inconsistency ! incredible except upon the hypothesis of the 
 Bible : " But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that 
 are lost : in whom the god of this world hath blinded the 
 minds of them which believe not." 1 
 
 It is the study of the Holy Scriptures which is to sanc- 
 tify us. They are truth, and truth is God's agent. But 
 in order for truth to produce this transforming effect upon 
 the character, it must be received as truth, really and cor- 
 dially received, so that the heart can repose upon it with 
 confidence as Truth indeed. This therefore demands of 
 you, my hearers, that you should satisfy yourselves as to 
 the truth of the Holy Scriptures. You think that you 
 believe them ; you would be shocked to be counted as un- 
 believers : and yet. if you examine yourselves, many of you 
 would find that there is no such belief in the Scriptures as 
 makes you receive them as the infallible Word of God ; as 
 wiser than all ancients or teachers ; as uttering words 
 which no man should be bold enough to gainsay or contra- 
 dict. Your conduct proves this : for in practical conduct a 
 man's real faith comes out ; and when you come to practice, 
 you are found clinging to the laws and proverbs of worldly 
 policy more closely than to the Word of God. The doc- 
 trines of the Bible are many of them considered unreason- 
 able and fanatical, not to say foolish ; its precepts are 
 deemed not to be suited for life, however much they may be 
 suited to another and more spiritual world ; its graces are 
 
 1 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. 
 
Thy Word is Truth, 195 
 
 not reckoned to be such as could be safely depended upon 
 in the whirl and tumult of life. This is what many men 
 consider as belief, — a general acquiescence in the Bible, as 
 the Word of God in some form or manner : but no such 
 trust in it as should make them rest upon it as the guide 
 of their conduct, and the rule of their daily life. In such a 
 belief as this there can be no power of sanctification, for 
 that comes through the very struggles which truth forces 
 upon us when we come into conflict with the world. It is 
 a real, earnest heart-belief ; a thing to rest upon in opposi- 
 tion to, and contradiction of, every thing which opposes it ; 
 a reception of all which it affirms, — its hard sayings, it- 
 supernatural requirements, its spiritual life ; an active, liv- 
 ing faith in its promises and its threatenings : in fine, an 
 adoption of it as Truth not to be controverted or over- 
 turned. Such a belief in the Bible as this, gives it power 
 over the whole character ; creates in us a life of faith in 
 harmony with our sentiments ; and leads us onward iu the 
 divine likeness, and changes us from grace to grace into 
 the image of our Saviour. A vague acquiescence produces 
 nothing. It fades before every difficulty, and is turned 
 aside by every lion in the path. It has no foundation 
 stronger than the current opinion of the society in which 
 one moves; or the force of habit, or education. It may 
 produce a moral life, but never sanctification. That must 
 be the product of Truth ; divine, infallible, unchanging, for- 
 ever operating. To say, " I believe," and then never act 
 up to that belief ; to profess faith in Christ and His work, 
 and then never to show any fruit of that faith in one's con- 
 duct ; to speak of the Word of God as truth, and then to 
 live as if you had come to the conclusion that it was all a 
 lie ; is not Christianity : for it can never lead on to the end 
 of Christianity, which is sanctification. 
 
 Ere the prayer of our Lord can be fulfilled in us, there- 
 
196 
 
 Thy Word is Truth. 
 
 fore, my beloved hearers, we must be true believers in the 
 Word of God: otherwise we cannot be sanctified by it. 
 Therefore is it that in the Collect for the Day our prayer is 
 not merely that we may read, but that we may " mark, 
 learn and inwardly digest " the Scriptures ; may assimi- 
 late them to ourselves ; may make them a part of our daily 
 growth. In no other way can they produce in us the re- 
 sult which they are intended to produce. A mere cursory 
 reading of the Scriptures may ease our consciences, as 
 the performance of a daily duty ; may awaken interest, or 
 admiration of character, or style, or pathos : but will pro- 
 duce no effect in changing the character to a higher state 
 holiness. No one can understand the inner, life-giving 
 meaning of the Holy Scriptures, unless it be interpreted 
 to him ; and no one can interpret it so well as the Holy 
 Spirit who inspired it ; and that Holy Spirit can be brought 
 down to us only by prayer. To receive sanctification 
 through the Word of Truth, therefore, we must accompany 
 it by prayer, — earnest, faithful prayer for an enlightened 
 understanding and an obedient heart ; for willingness to 
 know the truth, and for still greater willingness to prac- 
 tice it ; for faith in it when we have learned to know it, 
 and for reliance upon it when we may be put to the test 
 through some deeper waters or more fiery trials. Some 
 holy men have never studied the Scriptures save on their 
 knees ; and such students have ever found the truth to be 
 sanctifying them, and making them more meet for com- 
 munion with their God. If we would be sanctified through 
 the truth, we must study it in this way. By no other pro- 
 cess can we reach the higher steps of the divine life. If 
 we would gain rich views of our heavenly home, we must 
 climb the heights which rise perpetually as we advance in 
 the Christian pilgrimage. There is no reward for indo- 
 lence, for lukewarmness, for indifference, for carelessness. 
 
Thy Word is Truth, 
 
 197 
 
 These traits of character will always make us slow trav- 
 ellers in the divine life ; and will mar our Christian happi- 
 ness here, as well as diminish our reward in the Kingdom 
 of Heaven. 
 
 God's Word, absolute Truth ! What a precious consola- 
 tion for us in a world like this, to know that there is such 
 a thing as Truth ! As we advance in life, we grow more 
 faithless in every thing, especially in our conclusions about 
 things intellectual and moral. In early life we form opin- 
 ions, which we think that nothing can ever shake; but 
 time, and experience, and a maturer consideration, make 
 all our fabrics to totter, and involve in one general distrust 
 every thing upon which we had determined to rest. What 
 can compensate us for such a condition of things P What 
 can once again revive faith and confidence within us? 
 Wliat can renew our youth, and roll us back to the precious 
 hours of believing innocence ? Nothing on earth. There 
 is naught that can give us back to ourselves, but the recep- 
 tion of God's Word as divine Truth. How the heart yearns 
 for something to trust in, to act upon, to cling to as a sure 
 anchor within the veil ! How the seared and callous spirit 
 longs to soar once more upon the wings of Faith and Hope, 
 and find peace in believing! Well, the yearning of the 
 soul and the longing of the spirit can both be gratified in 
 the Word of God; for, says our blessed Saviour, "Thy 
 word is truth." Oh precious declaration ! Oh divine an- 
 nouncement ! Well may the angels call it the Gospel, the 
 " glad tidings," and desire to look into it, and understand 
 it ! In this Word, 0 worn and jaded and deceived man, 
 may you find a resting-place ; nay more, a place in which 
 you may cast aside the garments soiled by a deceitful world, 
 and array yourself in the robe of truth and of holiness. 
 Your course is not finished because the world has deceived 
 you, because your own understanding has played you false. 
 
Thy Word is Truth, 
 
 Your life is not ended because one phase of it has been a 
 delusive play of error and falsehood. There is something 
 yet untried ; a new course to be entered upon, in which 
 you will find no deception and no falsehood ; a fresh life to 
 be begun, wherein truth will cause your path to shine 
 brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Come to the 
 Word of God ; study it under the guidance of the Church 
 and the Spirit ; embrace it as divine Truth ; let it sink into 
 your heart as life-giving and life-restoring: and you will 
 find that every thing within you will be changed under its 
 divine influence ; and that every thing outside of you will 
 catch the light which now illuminates you ; and will be 
 irradiated, no matter how dark and sombre your prospects 
 may have seemed, with the brightness which Truth reflects 
 upon them. You will then, for the first time, no matter 
 how long you may have lived the life of the world, realize 
 the transforming power of Truth, not only within, but with- 
 out the soul. 
 
 Is this sanctifying process going on within you, and 
 upon you, my beloved hearers ? Are you growing in grace 
 as you grow in years ? Is Christianity working upon you 
 such changes as it is intended to work ? Or are you rather 
 at ease in Zion, satisfied with your attainments and settled 
 upon your lees ? Beware of this condition ! If you are 
 not advancing in holiness, the probability — nay, almost the 
 certainty — is that you are moving backwards. Religion 
 in the heart needs constant cherishing. It is a plant in an 
 unkindly soil. Every thing is against it. It is like rowing 
 against the wind and the tide : constant exertion may urge 
 you forward ; but the cessation of exertion certainly places 
 you at the mercy of the contending elements, and you drift 
 backwards. Christ would never have called upon His 
 Father in that most solemn hour of prayer to sanctify us 
 with His Truth, if He had not known, as a man tempted in 
 
Thy Word is Truth. 
 
 199 
 
 all things as we ourselves are, what a struggle it requires 
 in us to advance in holiness ! Let us remember this, fellow- 
 Christians, that our aim should be sanetification, improve- 
 ment in Christian character, an onward movement towards 
 a higher perfection of holiness. Such injunctions as these, 
 " Be ye holy ; for I am holy," 1 u Be ye therefore perfect, 
 even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," 2 occur 
 in the Scriptures ; and suggest to us the point of attain- 
 ment after which we are expected to strive. How earn- 
 estly the Apostles looked towards perfection ! "I count not 
 myself to have apprehended," said the ambitious S. Paul, 
 — ambitious after the image of Christ his Lord : " but this 
 one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, 
 and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I 
 press forward the mark." 3 " Toward the mark," was ever 
 his motto ! Although humble enough to say, " By the 
 grace of God I am what I am," 4 he was yet enthusiastic 
 enough to look forward at the " prize of the high calling." 5 
 Let us endeavor to imbibe this spirit, to drink in of his ar- 
 dent zeal. Lukewarmness is peculiarly hateful to Christ, 
 the Head of the Church. He spues it out of His mouth ! 
 The Word of God is one of the great means whereby we 
 may get rightminded views upon this topic, for it " is quick, 
 and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, pierc- 
 ing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of 
 the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts 
 and intents of the heart." 6 What an instrument ! Sent, 
 too, not for destruction, but for our blessing and comfort ; 
 sent to sanctify us ; sent to bless us ; sent to comfort us ; 
 sent to give us the blessed hope of everlasting life ; sent to 
 prepare us in heart and soul for the fruition of those joys 
 
 1 1 S. Pet. i. 16. 2 g. v 48> 3 p hil> m i 3j 14i 
 
 4 1 Cor. xv. 10. 5 Phil. iii. 14. 6 Heb. iv. 12. 
 
200 
 
 Thy Word is Truth. 
 
 of which it is written : " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of man, the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love him." 
 
 1865. 
 
 1 1 Cor. ii. 9. 
 
Mmtzmfy Sermon 
 
 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness 
 of Judcea, and saying, Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, say- 
 ing, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way 
 of the Lord, make his paths straight. — S. Matthew iii. 1-3. 
 
 TT has struck me very forcibly, in studying the Bible and 
 comparing its prophecy with its narrative, that unless 
 the essential Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
 was received as its orthodox teaching, a very grave charge 
 might be brought against the whole Revelation, — a no 
 less charge than that of directly plunging the sincere and 
 the devout into the damning sin of creature- worship. I 
 say of directly plunging ; for a Revelation should be liable 
 to this accusation, which, not intending that those who 
 embraced it should receive its proffered Saviour as God, 
 should yet invest him with all the glory with which it sur- 
 rounds and describes the Godhead. What could the Rev- 
 elation, which we accept as from God, do more to mislead 
 us upon this point (if it be not the truth), than it has 
 done ? What more than give Jesus Christ all the titles of 
 God ? What more than clothe Him with all the attributes 
 of God ? What more than separate Him, as it has done, 
 from all human creatures and all angelic spirits, and place 
 Him alongside of Jehovah as His fellow and His everlast- 
 ing counsellor? What more than denounce all worship, 
 save that of God, as idolatry, and not only permit but 
 charge all things in Heaven and earth to worship Jesus ? 
 
202 
 
 John the Baptist, 
 
 All this is plainer even than so many direct affirmations 
 of the fact; for it is interweaving the Name of Jesus so 
 closely with that of Jehovah, that one cannot separate 
 them, and must be guilty either of degrading Christ far 
 below any thing which a fair interpretation of the Script- 
 ures will permit, or else of confounding God and Christ 
 continually, in thought, word and worship, to the destruc- 
 tion of his soul. It is impossible to do what the Bible 
 commands us, impossible to worship as the Bible enjoins us 
 to worship, impossible to administer and receive sacraments 
 as the Bible arranges that they shall be administered and 
 received, without being guilty of creature-worship, — if 
 Jesus Christ be not God; without bringing upon us the 
 curse of serving other gods, — if our Redeemer, the Mes- 
 siah of the Jews, the Christ of the Gospel, be not a Per- 
 son of that Triune Godhead, which is the great mystery of 
 earth and Heaven. 
 
 My text has led me naturally into this train of thought ; 
 for, in considering the prophetic and evangelic offices of 
 John the Baptist (to which the Church especially directs 
 our attention to-day), and using them as incitements to 
 urge upon you repentance and faith as the proper prepara- 
 tions for the coming of Christ, it is necessary to observe 
 how the Bible first exalts John the Baptist, and then how 
 it exhibits him as humbling himself before Jesus Christ as 
 his Lord and his God. 
 
 As between the Old Testament and the New, with the 
 exception of the Persons of the Godhead, John the Bap- 
 tist is the only individual noted in prophecy. All the 
 chosen servants of Christ under the Gospel were called 
 after they had reached mature life ; but nothing had been 
 spoken of them before in Holy Writ. Not so with John 
 the Baptist. Upon his birth and office and habits had holy 
 men of old spoken as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 
 
John the Baptist, 203 
 
 Isaiah had predicted him in those rich verses, " The voice 
 of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way 
 of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for 
 our God. Every valley shall he exalted, and every moun- 
 tain and hill shall he made low : and the crooked shall he 
 made straight, and the rough places plain : and the glory 
 of the Lord shall he revealed, and all flesh shall see it 
 together : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 1 
 Malachi closes the volume of Old Testament inspiration 
 with a prediction and description of him : " Behold, I will 
 send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before 
 me : and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to 
 his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye 
 delight in : behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of 
 Hosts." 2 And again: "Behold, I will send you Elijah 
 the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful 
 day of the Lord : and he shall turn the heart of the 
 fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to 
 their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a 
 curse." 3 And this at once places him above all the most 
 exalted characters of the Scriptures, even supposing that 
 there was nothing more to distinguish him from his 
 brethren. 
 
 But his birth and the inspired blessing of his father 
 Zacharias betoken that a most wonderful personage was 
 born into the world. His conception was supernatural, 
 seeing that his parents were both past age ; and that con- 
 ception was announced, as a special answer of God to 
 prayer, by the mouth of an angel : " Fear not, Zacharias : 
 for thy prayer is heard ; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear 
 thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou 
 shalt have joy and gladness ; and many shall rejoice at his 
 birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and 
 
 1 Isaiah xl. 3-5. 2 Mai. iii. 1. 3 Ibid. iv. 5, 6. 
 
204 John the Baptist. 
 
 shall drink neither wine nor strong drink ; and he shall he 
 filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womh. 
 And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the 
 Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit 
 and power of Elias, to tujn the hearts of the fathers to the 
 children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just ; to 
 make ready a people prepared for the Lord." 1 And when 
 the miraculous birth has taken place, and the Spirit has 
 filled Zacharias, he thus predicts the glorious career of his 
 son : " And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the 
 Highest : for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to 
 prepare his ways ; to give knowledge of salvation unto his 
 people by the remission of their sins, through the tender 
 mercy of our God." 2 Of no human being were ever more 
 glorious things than these spoken ; upon no creature could 
 be heaped more exalted offices. And when Jesus had occa- 
 sion afterwards to speak of him, He says emphatically: 
 " Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of 
 women there hath not risen a greater than John the Bap- 
 tist. " 3 Abraham, though styled " the friend of God," was 
 not greater. Moses, though permitted to speak face to 
 face with God, was not greater. David, though the man 
 after God's own heart, was not greater. And yet see in 
 what relation the Bible places this mighty prophet, to 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Even when honoring him most, the Bible but gives him 
 the place of a messenger or herald before some mightier 
 Being that was to follow ; and that Being is called " The 
 Lord our God ; " and the day of His coming, that " great 
 and dreadful day of the Lord." And when the children 
 were yet unborn, this babe leaped in his mother's womb at 
 the salutation of the Mother of Jesus, — leaped for joy; 
 and his mother was filled with the Holy Ghost, and she 
 
 i S. Luke i. 13-17. 2 Rid. 76-78. 8 S. Matt. xi. 11. 
 
John the Baptist, 
 
 205 
 
 spake out and said : " Blessed art thou among women, and 
 blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to 
 me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me ? " 1 
 And in the full tide of his popularity, when multitudes had 
 flocked to his baptism ; when the Pharisees and Sadducees, 
 the bigots and skeptics of that day, had combined to do 
 homage to him; when men were musing in their minds 
 whether he were the Christ or no : he cumulates epithets 
 to humble himself before Jesus. He is One mightier than 
 him; One that is preferred before him. His baptism is of 
 water : the baptism of Jesus Christ shall be with the Holy 
 Ghost and with fire. He goes before merely to prepare 
 the way: in the hand of Jesus is the fan, and He will 
 throughly purge His floor. Mighty as he is, — foretold, 
 announced by an angel in the Temple, filled with the Holy 
 Ghost from his mother's womb, — he is not worthy to un- 
 loose the latchet of the shoes of Jesus ; nay, not worthy to 
 bear them behind Him as He walks. How wonderful that 
 all this humiliation should have no effect upon men to 
 make them perceive the vast distance which the Bible has 
 placed between the greatest of its prophets and Jesus 
 Christ the Lord ! 
 
 If we examine the passages of the prophets which pre- 
 dict the coming of John, we shall find that in them which 
 bears strongly upon the same point, — the Majesty of the 
 Person whom John was to precede and herald. In that of 
 Isaiah, the office of the Baptist is designated as that of 
 one raised up to prepare the way of the Lord ; for what 
 purpose? That "the glory of the Lord" may "be re- 
 vealed, and all flesh " may " see it together." What is this 
 glory of the Lord ? 
 
 To us this term " Glory of the Lord " may mean any 
 thing; but to the Jews, to whom Isaiah was writing, it was 
 t S. Luke i. 42, 43. 
 
206 John the Baptist. 
 
 not so. In connection with His place of worship, it could 
 have but one meaning, — the meaning that had been af- 
 fixed to it under the Tabernacle and the first Temple. 
 When Moses had finished all the work of the Tabernacle, 
 and had set it up before the Lord, " Then," says the 
 inspired writer, " a cloud covered the tent of the congre- 
 gation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." 1 
 When all things were perfected in Solomon's Temple, and 
 all things had been arranged according to the pattern of 
 the Lord, and the priests were come out of the Holy place, 
 then the cloud filled the House of the Lord, so that the 
 priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud : 
 " for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the 
 Lord." 2 
 
 There can be no doubt, in either of these places, who it 
 was that filled those houses with His glory. In Exodus, the 
 context plainly indicates that it was the same Being who 
 had appeared to Moses upon the top of Sinai ; who had 
 overthrown Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea ; who had 
 covenanted with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; who had set 
 His bow in the cloud for the comfort of Noah ; who had 
 attempered the curse upon the earth in the garden of Eden 
 with the promise of the Seed of the woman. In Kings, 
 the Lord whose glory filled the House of the Lord was thus 
 addressed by Solomon, just after the cloud had filled the 
 Temple, in language which could never have been used, un- 
 der the Theocracy, save to Jehovah : "And Solomon stood 
 before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the con- 
 gregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands towards 
 heaven : and he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God 
 like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keep- 
 est covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before 
 thee with all their heart But will God indeed dwell 
 
 1 Exod. xl. 34. 2 1 Kings viii. 10, 11. 
 
John the Baptist. 207 
 
 on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens 
 cannot contain thee ; how much less this house that I have 
 builded ? " 1 The term must be interpreted under the pro- 
 phetic, as it was under the legal dispensation ; and can 
 refer, therefore, to none other in this passage, " that the 
 glory of the Lord " shall be revealed, than to that revealed 
 God who is everywhere in the Bible represented as distinct 
 in Person from the concealed God, and yet identified with 
 Him in titles, in power, in attributes. 
 
 Such is the personage before whom John the Baptist was 
 to go as a herald ; before whom he was to prepare the way, 
 and make straight the paths. Xo wonder that before such 
 a Being he should humble himself even to the dust. 
 
 In what manner, is our next inquiry, was John to pre- 
 pare the way of the Lord '? He himself explains it, and 
 thas casts the clearest light upon the passages of the 
 Prophets : " Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand," was the burden of his preaching. " Bring forth 
 therefore fruits meet for repentance ; 93 for " now also the 
 ax is laid unto the root of the trees." 2 Repentance, for 
 their sins personal and national, was what was necessary on 
 the part of the Jews, to precede faith in their coming Mes- 
 siah, — in the establishment of that Church of the Gospel 
 which is called, in the New Testament, " The Kingdom of 
 Heaven." 
 
 The same call, my beloved hearers, is that which the 
 ministers and stewards of the Gospel make upon you now, 
 in reference to the approaching Advent of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ in human flesh. Every year, as it rolls its course, 
 does the Church bring before us, in her seasons, the great 
 events which together worked out our redemption ; and 
 just now does she call upon us to contemplate the Xativity 
 of our Lord as the first manifestation of that " grace which 
 
 1 1 Kings yiii. 22, 23, 27. 2 S. Matt. iii. 8, 10. 
 
208 John the Baptist. 
 
 bringeth salvation." In view of its near approach do I say 
 unto you, as John said unto the Jews, " Repent ye, for the 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
 
 Repentance prepares us for the coming of our Lord, be- 
 cause it makes us dissatisfied with our own righteousness, 
 and drives us to look out of ourselves for some justification 
 before God. And this is evidently the meaning of John the 
 Baptist, when he tells those who came out to his Baptism : 
 " Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to 
 our father." Think no longer to place your justification in 
 your national election, u for now also the ax is laid unto the 
 root of the trees," and every individual " which bringeth 
 not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." 
 And this is the great object and end of preaching, — to dis- 
 satisfy you with your own righteousness ; to make you see 
 it as God sees it ; to tear you from every other refuge as a 
 mere refuge of lies, that you may take hold of Christ as 
 The Lord your Righteousness. So long as man can find 
 any thing to rest upon out of Christ, so long will he remain 
 out of Christ : for such is his nature since the Fall, that he 
 will believe any absurdity which demands not faith, rather 
 than the power of God and the wisdom of God when it has 
 to be received through faith. Repentance is the great 
 theme of the Apostolic preaching. " Repent " begins al- 
 most all their sermons. " Repent " precedes every direc- 
 tion which they give to the inquiring crowds. " Repent " 
 opens the door to Baptism, to Church membership, to a 
 participation in the Supper of the Lord. " Repent ye, 
 therefore," my hearers ; and for this reason especially, 
 because " the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Once again 
 is Jesus Christ brought before you by the Church, and the 
 mighty claims which He has upon your love and your devo- 
 tion are presented to you. He is about to be manifested to 
 you in that low estate which He put on for your sakes, 
 
John the Baptist. 209 
 
 when, " being in the form of God/' and thinking " it not 
 robbery to be equal with God : " He yet " made himself of 
 no reputation, and took upon him the form of a serv ant, 
 and was made in the likeness of men." 1 He is about to 
 act out before you that career of love and mercy which had 
 its consummation in His becoming " obedient unto death, 
 even the death of the Cross." 2 He comes " to finish the 
 transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make 
 reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting 
 righteousness." 3 All this, my beloved hearers, would not 
 have been undertaken for you, could you have worked out 
 for yourselves any righteousness that would suffice you in 
 the day of God's wrath ; — could you have found any refuge 
 to shield you, when "judgment" should be laid "to the 
 line, and righteousness to the plummet." 4 " Repent ye : " 
 pray the Holy Spirit, whose office it is, to convince you of 
 sin, and to give you that view of your own righteousness, 
 which shall make you cry in anguish of spirit, " What shall 
 I do to be saved ? " It is an awful sight to see a human 
 creature resting in a righteousness which the Bible calls 
 " filthy rags ; " which the holiest men of old abjured as 
 utterly insufficient for their necessities : when there is a 
 perfect Righteousness, wrought out for him by Christ, 
 which can be his when he may be made to see his own sin- 
 fulness and the glorious sufficiency of Christ. 0 fellow- 
 Christians, in view of this coming of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven, let us unitedly beseech the God of love to pour 
 down upon His Church the spirit of grace and of supplica- 
 tion, that the unbelieving may look upon Him whom they 
 have pierced, and may mourn for Him as one mourneth for 
 his only son, and may be in bitterness for Him as one that 
 is in bitterness for his first born. " Repent ye," all that 
 profess not the Name of the Lord, for the prophet calls it 
 
 1 Phil. ii. 6, 7. 2 Ibid. 8. 3 Dan. ix. 24. 4 Isaiah xxxviii. 17. 
 14 
 
210 John the Baptist. 
 
 " that great and dreadful day of the Lord ; 99 — great and 
 dreadful indeed, for it aggravates sin with the rejection of 
 mercy, and brings down upon the impenitent the additional 
 condemnation of having trampled under foot the Blood of 
 the son of God, and done despite to the Spirit of His grace. 
 
 " Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
 What a call to you, members of the Church of Christ 9 
 Hear the words of Malachi : " Behold, I will send my mes- 
 senger, and he shall prepare the way before me : and the 
 Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, 
 even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in : 
 behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But who 
 may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand 
 when he appeareth ? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like 
 fuller's sope : and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of 
 silver : and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them 
 as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an 
 offering in righteousness." Are you ready, my hearers, 
 for this Lord ? Are you prepared for the refiner's fire ? 
 This Lord will come near to you to judgment, and will be a 
 swift witness against all iniquity. How can you stand 
 when He appeareth ? Search and examine yourselves, ere it 
 be too late, and see that you are in the faith. Prove your 
 own selves ! If you will not, God must prove you : and 
 even though you stand in the day of His appearing, be- 
 lieve me that the trial of your faith, if you put Him upon it 
 in this world, will be like passing through the fire; and 
 the dross which shall be burnt away will be like the tearing 
 asunder of soul and body. When Christ sits as a refiner and 
 purifier, He will not leave His work until He shall see His 
 own image reflected in you. Refine yourselves at once, 
 therefore, lest He come upon you, and judgment be laid to 
 the line. Humble yourselves at once before His awful ap- 
 pearing, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. 
 
John the Baptist, 2 1 1 
 
 My beloved hearers, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. 
 Oh, in how many senses ! It is at hand, in that the Gospel 
 circle is once again begun to be run in the Church. It is 
 at hand, in that the means of grace are all around you, 
 freely offered, freely dispensed. It is at hand, in that the 
 Second Coming of our Lord is nearer than when ye be- 
 lieved. It is at hand, in that Death, which terminates our 
 probation, is overhanging us at every moment. Under 
 each and every one of these aspects, the cry is the same : 
 " Kepent ye." Despise not the voice of warning, lest the 
 Lord come upon you suddenly, like a thief in the night, 
 and ye find no place for repentance, though ye seek it care- 
 fully, and with tears. 
 
 1865. 
 
0 
 
 As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing. — 2 Cor. vi. 10. 
 T first glance, this sentence appears to involve a con- 
 
 v tradiction ; but the longer we think of it, the more 
 will it strike us as describing very faithfully man's condi- 
 tion while on his march to the Holy Land of Promise and 
 of Peace. Sorrow for the present, but joy coming in the 
 morning ; weariness as we tread the thorny road, but rest 
 awaiting us at its close ; tears spriukling our path, but our 
 God ready, when our work is done, to wipe away tears from 
 off all faces ; darkness embarrassing us, hindering us, put- 
 ting us out of the way, but light, light from heaven, shin- 
 ing more and more brightly as we fix our eyes upon the 
 Cross. It is the true picture of life as sin has made it, — 
 sin limited and restrained by the power of Man's divine 
 Champion. And we are assembled to-day to commemorate 
 the birth of Him, who has hindered life from being all sor- 
 row, all weariness, all tears, all darkness ! It is the true 
 festival of the heart and of the affections, for it awakens 
 every thing to love and joy, and then makes that love and 
 joy undying. It rises above all affliction ; and for the time, 
 so long as we can keep sense and memory subject to faith, it 
 places earth with its temporary trials and sorrows at their 
 true value. Every thing rejoices at its coming : from the 
 angels in Heaven who sing the song of " Glory to God in 
 the highest," to the trees of the field which come in hither 
 to clap their hands before the Lord. Every thing rejoices, 
 and ought to rejoice, for it celebrates the reunion of man 
 
Sorrowful, yet alway Rejoicing. 213 
 
 and God, of earth and Heaven, of the soul with that divine 
 Fountain whence it sprang when Jehovah breathed into it 
 the breath of life. 
 
 And what a rich blessing it is, my beloved people, that 
 there should be in a world like this something to break the 
 sad monotony of life ; something to relieve the mind from 
 the continued contemplation of trouble, of sorrow, of sick- 
 ness, of death ; to separate us from the necessary work of 
 life ; to remove us from the pressure of carking care, from 
 the degrading influence of worldly strife, from the deterio- 
 rating effects of selfishness and avarice. What a rich bless- 
 ing to find a centre of love, around which should be gath- 
 ered, if only for a little while, the kindliest sympathies of 
 human nature, — a fountain of real joy sending its refresh- 
 ing waters to cheer the weary path of the mourner, and 
 trickling through all the by-ways of the world, seeking 
 out the children of want and poverty, and creating green 
 spots even in a desert. It is hard to estimate the value of 
 such a season in its humanizing and softening tendencies. 
 How many elements have to be combined, ere we can ap- 
 preciate the festival we are keeping, even under this aspect. 
 We should be obliged to unlock all the secret doors of sor- 
 row and of shame, all the private recesses of affection and 
 delight, and combine them, ere we could understand how 
 the joys of this season pervade the whole frame-work of 
 society. The chamber of the sick is lightened by its com- 
 ing. The humble abode of poverty is cheered as this sun 
 rises upon it. The thousand firesides of the land are full 
 of words of affection and the merry laugh of childhood. 
 The whole Christian world rises up and calls Him blessed, 
 who has come upon this mission of love, and has humbled 
 Himself to lowliness, and to sorrow, and to suffering, that 
 the children of sin and death may have rejoicing mingled 
 with their sorrowing. 
 
214 Sorrowful, yet alway Rejoicing. 
 
 The coming of this Son of God in human form has been 
 the burden of hope from the beginning of the world. 
 From that moment when the promise fell upon the ear of 
 guilt in the garden of Eden, " The seed of the woman 
 shall bruise the serpent's head," until the morning when 
 the herald angels sang the song of His Birth, has every 
 thing been overruled for His Advent. Upon every thing 
 else in the world were change and decay permitted to place 
 their hand of destruction, save upon this promise. This 
 ever waxed stronger and brighter, even amid wreck and 
 ruin ; and was the rainbow that encircled the darkness. 
 Whatever else was overturned, this stood immovable, the 
 corner-stone laid in Sion. When a single family enshrined 
 the promise, that family was watched and guarded by 
 Heaven: for in its bosom was the Word of God and the 
 Hope of the World. When that Family swelled into a na- 
 tion, God Himself became its King, and guarded it as the 
 apple of an eye, leading it like a flock and protecting it 
 under the shadow of His wing ! When that nation sor- 
 rowed in captivity by the waters of Babylon, God heard the 
 cry of the people of whom, according to the flesh, His Son 
 should come : and led them back, with songs and rejoicing, 
 to their own land of promise. All the mightiest monarch- 
 ies of the world — Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Macedonia, 
 Rome — raged in their madness around the future birth- 
 place of this promised Seed : but each, in its turn, was made 
 to feel that a mightier power than itself had placed a curb 
 upon its fury, and had uttered the decree, " Hitherto shalt 
 thou come, but no further." 1 It was not until this promise 
 was fulfilled at Bethlehem, — until the Seed of the woman 
 was incarnate, — that the reins were thrown upon the neck 
 of these executioners of the Lord, and they were permitted 
 to make the Holy Land a desolation, to raze the Temple to 
 
 1 Job xxxviii. 11. 
 
Sorrowful^ yet alway Rejoicing. 215 
 
 its foundation, and scatter God's people over the face of the 
 earth. How firmly does this adherence to His promise 
 prove for us the truth of God ! How immovably does it 
 establish the future upon the basis of the past ! When we 
 follow this promise, struggling to its fulfillment through 
 four thousand years of clouds and darkness, can we doubt 
 but that all the promises of God are " Yea and Amen " in 
 Christ Jesus ? 
 
 The life of Jesus was an example of the life which is 
 shadowed forth in my text. He was a Man of sorrows and 
 acquainted with grief, yet had He within Himself a well- 
 spring of joy, which carried Him unmurmuring through all 
 He had to bear with for us. He was sorrowing, yet always 
 rejoicing : sorrowing for man, sorrowing under the burden 
 of sin which He was bearing, sorrowing in view of the suf- 
 ferings He was called to pass through ; yet rejoicing for 
 the joy that was set before Him, and for the glory which 
 was evermore to encircle His Xaine. He was poor, and had 
 not where to lay His head : yet He rejoiced ! He was 
 tempted in the lonely wilderness, and had to bear the pol- 
 luting approach of Satan : yet He rejoiced ! He was scorned 
 and despised : yet He rejoiced ! He was persecuted and for- 
 saken : yet He rejoiced ! He was made obedient unto death, 
 even the death of the Cross : yet He rejoiced ! He exhib- 
 ited to us the double life which it is intended for us to lead 
 on earth ; — the outer life by which we touch the world and 
 the things of the world, in which we are called upon to 
 bear and suffer and mourn, through which we are to work 
 out in the strength of Christ our salvation : and the inner 
 life, by which we touch God and heavenly things, in which 
 we are to reap the fruits of the Spirit, joy, peace, love ; and 
 through which we are to receive the adoption of sous of God 
 and the glorious inheritance of His eternal kingdom. This 
 double life, if we are Christians, we must all lead. There i& 
 
216 Sorrowful, yet alway Rejoicing. 
 
 no escaping it. Our joy, whatever it is, must go along 
 with sorrow : our sorrow, whatever it is, must be borne in 
 a spirit of rejoicing. We cannot separate them ; and 
 therefore does the Apostle enjoin upon us, to act heartily 
 up to what is allotted to us. Any other life will prove to be 
 a forced life, and will turn out to be an abortion — a life of 
 misery to ourselves, of hypocrisy to the world. To be truly 
 Christian ; to move in the spirit of Christ, and with the 
 mind of Christ, we must follow His footsteps whether in 
 sorrow or in joy. We must live in the world as not of the 
 world ; bearing whatever is laid upon us, as though it was 
 only by the way, and had but little to do — save in the way 
 of discipline — with the real purpose and end of our exist- 
 ence. 
 
 When we take the true view of life, — and this festival 
 really exhibits it to us, — I do not see why we should not be 
 always rejoicing even though for the present we go on sor- 
 rowing. In an elaborate and complicated piece of machin- 
 ery, there is a principle which pervades the whole structure, 
 and regulates its action and its use. In a musical composi- 
 tion, there is a key-note upon which depends all the har- 
 mony, and without attention to which all is discord and 
 confusion. Well, Life has likewise its principle, which 
 regulates it ; its key-note which gives it its harmony : and 
 unless we attend to these, it will be like jangling bells, 
 ringing noisily upon the ear, yet breathing no music either 
 for use or delight. The divine object of life — our eternal 
 future — must be kept in view ; or else we shall not be able 
 to understand fully the meaning of the Apostle when he 
 says, "As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing:" and what is 
 worse, we should not comprehend the life of Christ, into 
 which we are to grow, which was the foreshadowing of this 
 injunction. It was not this life of sin and sorrow that our 
 Lord rejoiced in : it was the joy that was set before Him. 
 
Sorrowful) yet alway Rejoicing, 217 
 
 And so with us. The true key-note of our life is that glory 
 which is laid up for us in Christ, and through Christ ; — 
 that crown which is to encircle our brow, when we shall 
 have triumphed over our spiritual enemies. This should rule 
 over every thing : over our sorrows, over our troubles, over 
 our temptations, over sickness and death, over corruption 
 and the grave ! — should be a bow of promise ever span- 
 ning the clouds and the storm, a thing of beauty and of 
 joy, even though it be made up of light and tears. Does 
 not any prospect of earthly bliss — future but sure — fill 
 the heart with joy, and sustain it through toil and weari- 
 ness and suffering P Are we not all borne up in life by 
 some hope that is before us, — some secret, hoarded bliss, 
 which goes along with us, and clothes with sunshine the 
 rugged path which we are appointed to tread ? Every indi- 
 vidual has this sustaining though secret joy; and none 
 can have it so surely and so brightly as the Christian. He 
 has a right to rejoice at all times, to keep a perpetual fes- 
 tival in his heart, to make a Christmas of his whole life : 
 for Christ, to him, has not only been born in Bethlehem, 
 but born within him ; has not only lived and died for him, 
 but is making his body a living temple, and dwelling there 
 by His Holy Spirit — the Spirit of peace and joy ! If he is 
 faithful to himself he can never be without joy : for deep 
 down in his heart is there a fountain always gushing, of 
 which nothing can deprive him but sinfulness and faith- 
 lessness. " Holding faith and a good conscience," he can 
 move forward in a spirit of rejoicing, however troubled he 
 may be in the flesh. Xo stranger can intermeddle with his 
 joy : for it is hidden from all but God, who gives it the full 
 warrant of His inspired Word. 
 
 And yet the sorrow of the world does press upon even 
 the most faithful of us, and does often turn us aside from 
 the rejoicing which really belongs to us. Nature leans one 
 
2i 8 Sorrowful, yet alway Rejoicing. 
 
 way : Inspiration directs us another way. Flesh and Blood 
 would dwell in the low valleys of despondency and depres- 
 sion : Faith summons us to the mountain -tops which look 
 out upon the unclouded skies, and bids us rejoice in spirit 
 and in hope. How shall heavy hearts and anxious spirits 
 be made to lighten themselves of their burdens, and to 
 obey the injunction of the inspired Apostle ? In whom 
 shall sorrow and joy be harmonized ? 
 
 My answer is, " In Christ Jesus our Lord." And the 
 error which pervades the reasoning of the world, and which 
 creeps in upon the Church, arises from a want of proper 
 discrimination between the joy of the world and the holy 
 joy of Christian belief. There is a rude vulgar mirth which 
 the world dignifies with the name of " rejoicing ; " and 
 there is a Christian grace which the Apostle entitles " re- 
 joicing in the Lord." These two species of joy differ from 
 each other in every particular, — in their origin, in their 
 occasions, in their nature, in their ends. The one is born 
 of the flesh, and is antagonistic of the other which comes 
 directly from the Spirit of God. The one arises out of 
 those gratifications of sense or of interest which absorb so 
 much our feelings and our affections ; the other springs 
 out of considerations connected with Christ's future domin- 
 ion. The one is dependent upon prosperity for its exist- 
 ence ; the other brightens and flashes just when clouds 
 and darkness lower upon us, and is like the lightning, the 
 more vivid because of the darkness out of which it seems 
 to dart. The one has its consummation in the very mo- 
 ment of its production ; the other awaits in patience the 
 time when it shall flourish in eternal peace. To be " sor- 
 rowful, yet alway rejoicing " the Apostle did not believe to 
 be possible for the world, and in the spirit of the world : 
 but to be " sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing " in the Spirit 
 of Christ, was his daily practice, and his exceeding great 
 
Sorrowful, yet alway Rejoicing, 219 
 
 reward. And what he had learned from his own wide ex- 
 perience, he exhorts us to learn who may be called to wade, 
 like himself, through a sea of trouble and of woe. " For 
 whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every 
 son whom he receiveth." 1 
 
 And how much we have to rejoice in, my beloved hear- 
 ers, even though we be sorrowful ! We can rejoice, because 
 we know that the world has not been left to itself to stag- 
 ger on in its sinfulness and misrule, but has been given to 
 Christ for His possession. " The Lord God omnipotent 
 reigneth," 2 — reigneth over all the kingdoms of the uni- 
 verse ; and He has promised to set His Son upon His holy 
 hill of Zion. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness 
 thereof ; and He ordereth all things according to the pur- 
 poses of His will. For this we can rejoice, no matter how 
 troubled the world may be. " I will overturn, overturn, 
 overturn it : and it shall be no more, until He come whose 
 right it is, and I will give it him," 3 is the decree of. God : 
 and the Christian, however sorrowing, may rejoice, that 
 every thing is working together to bring in the kingdom 
 of righteousness, and to place Christ, as King of kings and 
 Lord of lords, over every thing in Heaven and in earth. 
 The wrath of man is altogether under the control of Him 
 whose incarnation we are celebrating, and it cannot hurt 
 one hair of our heads without His permission. And in His 
 hands do we rejoice to leave all things, and to trust in Him 
 for the future, as we have for the past. In the midst of 
 the sorrow of the world, we can be ever rejoicing : because 
 we know that the Lord maketh every thing work together 
 for good to them that love Him. Sorrow, sickness, suffer- 
 ing, death, striking us in the current and rush of life, are 
 made to work, together with its events, for good. The ex- 
 pression is a very striking one, and conveys the idea of 
 
 1 Heb. xii. 6. 2 Rev. xix. 6. 8 Ezek. xxi. 27. 
 
220 Sorrowful, yet alway Rejoicing. 
 
 many threads interlacing and forming the web of a text- 
 ure ; of many rays converging and constituting a star of 
 promise and of hope. The single thread we often cannot 
 see the purpose of ; the single ray gives no positive light 
 amid the darkness : and in the same way any particular 
 act of God's providence may lack its meaning even to the 
 eye of Faith. But when these single threads are woven 
 together by a skillful hand, they form a pattern of order and 
 of beauty : and when these single rays are converged by the 
 unerring law of Nature, they become a centre of light and 
 of glory. So these movements of God's providence, which, 
 as single acts, seem mysterious and severe, change into 
 mercy and blessing when His all-wise hand shall have ar- 
 ranged them in their proper places, and united them with 
 others which are their complement and harmony. " Work 
 together for good ; " — not work singly for good, but to- 
 gether : teaching us never to judge hastily or rashly, never 
 to murmur inconsiderately, but to wait patiently ; and, 
 while waiting, to rejoice that, in the darkness and misery by 
 which we are encompassed in this world, our Lord is con- 
 trolling all things, and is holding in His hands the innu- 
 merable threads of our complicate Being, and is working 
 them up together for good to those who are the called 
 according to His purpose. And surely, no matter how fall 
 of care and grief the present may be, how inexplicable the 
 dealings of God with us : we may rejoice through it all, 
 and lift our hearts to Heaven, feeling that nothing can 
 separate us from a love which could give its only-begotten 
 Son for our redemption. 
 
 I trust that you can now feel, my beloved people, that 
 "although sorrowing, you may be always rejoicing," be- 
 cause, while the sorrow will pass away, the joy remains, not 
 only undying, but ever increasing in brightness and cer- 
 tainty ! No sorrow, however acute, however deep, can ex- 
 
Sorrowful, yet alway Rejoicing. 2 2 1 
 
 tend beyond this life. Death cuts it off; it has no longer 
 any influence over us. But our rejoicing passes with us, 
 through the grave, because Christ, who is our cause of re- 
 joicing, receives us there to the brightness of His Glory. 
 Our rejoicing here is by faith, that the day of this humilia- 
 tion will be soon ended, and that He will come again in 
 His glorious Majesty to raise us to the life immortal, and 
 glorify us with that glory which He had with the Father 
 ere the world was ! Who can think of sorrow when such 
 a vision rises in the future ? Who can count the griefs of 
 this world to be of any moment, when he remembers that 
 Christ has come, and has sanctified all this sorrow, and 
 made it holy ? When the angel-song reaches our ears, 
 " Glory to the new-born King ! " what other strain can 
 overpower it ? It swells from earth to Heaven, and our 
 hearts rise with it, and mingle in the shout which rings 
 through the arches of the skies at the wonderful declara- 
 tion. Him whom these angels had known in the Bosom 
 of His Father, whose brightness they could not look upon, 
 before whose presence they were compelled to hide their 
 faces with their wings : they now see an infant in His 
 Mother's bosom ! Sublime mystery ! Incomprehensible 
 work ! Angels desiring to look into it ; — yet all done for 
 man. The universe receiving it with songs of triumph ; — 
 yet all done for man ! done for him, — a fallen, sinful, cor- 
 rupt creature ; — for him, a child of shame and of the 
 curse ; — for him, born to trouble as the sparks fly up- 
 ward ; — done for him, that he may be rescued from all the 
 evils of sin, and all the penalties of the curse ; — done for 
 him, that he may be pardoned, and justified, and sancti- 
 fied ; — done for him, that he may be adopted into the 
 family of God ; — done for him, that he may be exalted to 
 Heaven, and made a king and a priest unto God. All this 
 done for him : and yet he going along to this glory, and 
 
222 Sorrowful, yet alway Rejoicing. 
 
 permitting 1 himself to be sorrowful and despondent, with 
 his knees feeble, and his hands hanging down, — with his 
 eyes fixed upon the earth, as if that were his home and his 
 treasure ! 
 
 For shame, Christian ! You should be " alway rejoic- 
 ing," especially to-day ! For shame, Christian ! Your eyes 
 should be turned with joy to Bethlehem, even though they 
 be filled with tears. For shame, Christian ! Lay aside all 
 private griefs, all public sorrow, and sing this morning with 
 the holy angels, " Glory to God in the highest, and on 
 earth peace, good will towards men." And you should sing 
 all through your life, and engrave upon your heart as your 
 motto : " Sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing." 
 
 1865. 
 
Z<mmtpftt$t Sermon. 
 
 And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the 
 world, for a witness unto all natiojis ; and then shall the end 
 come. — S. Matthew xxiv. 14. 
 
 rflHE Scripture has a depth of meaning which is dis- 
 
 covered only by those who will compare one portion 
 of its revelations with another portion, and weave out of 
 them a perfect pattern of the mind of God. If we read 
 those divine hooks hastily, or with preconceived opinions, 
 we may deduce from them conclusions diametrically op- 
 posed to their real meaning, and a practice of life which 
 will be contrary to our highest because eternal interests. 
 The mind of man, when spread over various works, it is 
 difficult always, at once, to understand. We are obliged to 
 compare utterance with utterance, and opinion with opin- 
 ion, and to elucidate them by the life and actions of the 
 writer, ere we can make out the exact meaning of the 
 writings through which he has made himself known to 
 the world. And if this be so with men of our own times, 
 when speaking upon topics familiar to us, and which are 
 made clear to us from our own experience : how much 
 more difficult must it be for us to take in correctly the 
 mind of God, delivered to us as it has been through so 
 many various authors, and treating of spiritual matters 
 not known to the natural understanding, and connected 
 with a scheme of grace which is progressive and perpetu- 
 ally expansive. It requires great attention, not great intel- 
 lect ; much meditation, not critical study ; a great deal of 
 
224 Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. 
 
 prayer, rather than a great deal of learning ; much personal 
 experience, more than the discipline of the schools. All 
 the great errors of the Christian world have come from the 
 wise, and not from the faithful ; from philosophy, and not 
 from experience ; from conclusions drawn from a priori rea- . 
 soning, rather than from the plain letter of the Scriptures : 
 and thus — like the more common opinions which are met 
 floating upon the current of the Church — they are almost 
 always found to have arisen from a lack of Scriptural 
 knowledge, — from a too narrow induction of the disclos- 
 ures of the Sacred Writers. An idea which is made prom- 
 inent at a particular moment and under particular circum- 
 stances is seized upon hy an ardent mind, and is advanced 
 holdly as the central idea of the Scriptures, and every 
 thing else is made to circle around it and is tinged with its 
 coloring. This has been the fountain of all sectarianism, 
 and will ever be the prolific source of error until the time 
 of the end. 
 
 Out of this springs the great value of the Church of 
 Christ, with its Creeds, its Formularies, its Liturgy, its 
 Ordinances. These have been gathered out of the Word 
 of God carefully, and through a long sequence of Ecclesi- 
 astical experience. They have been harmonized by com- 
 paring all portions of the Sacred Writings, and not by 
 grasping one utterance and making that the key to unlock 
 every thing else. They have been weighed, and proved, 
 and illustrated; they have been wet with the tears of 
 repentance, and dyed with the blood of martyrdom : and 
 now they represent, hoary as they are with the marks of 
 antiquity, the united consent of all the purest ages and the 
 holiest men of the Christian Faith. Upon them, stead- 
 fast and immovable, may the mind rest itself, and the 
 heart plant its belief : not because they are the teachings 
 of the Church, but because we are satisfied that they are 
 
Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, 225 
 
 « 
 
 the teachings of God's inspired Word, collected, by the 
 Apostles and the holy men who have succeeded them, out 
 of every book of that Revelation; and representing, not 
 some one idea of the Divine economy of grace, but all the 
 ideas in succession which make up the glorious body of the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those are grievously mistaken 
 who imagine that we love the Church because we receive 
 from her new developments of faith and practice (that is 
 Boman doctrine). We reverence the Church, and gladly 
 follow in her sacred circle of truth and order, for the ex- 
 actly opposite reason : because she maintains unchanged 
 and unchangeable the doctrines of salvation which the 
 Bible promulges, and teaches them in beautiful succession 
 as the year rolls round, never violating the proportion of 
 Faith, but presenting in turn all the features which make 
 Christ the Prophet, the Priest and the King of His elect 
 people in earth and Heaven. 
 
 One of the errors which has gained currency in the 
 Church, although it has never advanced to the dignity of 
 a sect, is one which naturally comes up at this season of 
 the Church's services, 3 and which it may be well to put at 
 rest just at this moment in our Ecclesiastical condition. 
 The manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles which the 
 Church now celebrates, and the command which Christ 
 gave to His Apostles to go into all the world and preach 
 the Gospel to every creature, have given rise, somehow, — I 
 I know not how, — to the idea that the world is to be con- 
 verted to Christianity, ere our Lord shall come a second 
 time to judgment. And this impression has worked evil 
 both to the believers in Christ, and to those who have been 
 looking about for grounds of cavil against Christianity. 
 The former have suffered sorrow and despondency, because 
 they have not seen our holy religion spreading rapidly and 
 
 1 Epiphany. 
 
 15 
 
226 Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. 
 
 embracing the whole earth in its arms of mercy and of 
 hope. The latter have triumphed over every discomfiture 
 of Gospel truth, and have rejoiced whenever the events of 
 the world have seemed to countervail this promise of the 
 world's entire regeneration. Both have proceeded upon 
 the erroneous idea that the Revelation of God had declared 
 any such truth ; and the one has suffered and the other re- 
 joiced for no reason at all, but because of a popular fallacy 
 derived from Millennial views finding no real support in 
 Scripture. 
 
 The influx of Gentiles to the Church of Christ was one 
 of the phenomena which were to mark the Advent of the 
 Messiah. It was the prophetic result of the fulfillment of 
 the work of Christ upon earth ; and while it was a stum- 
 bling-block to the Jews, was nevertheless their true glory 
 and triumph. That, just in the moment of their seeming 
 degradation, when the sceptre was departing from Judah 
 and a lawgiver from between his feet, — when a nation of 
 fierce countenance was sweeping over them, and destroying 
 nationality, Temple, Altar, Priesthood, and scattering them 
 over the whole earth, — all nations should flow unto them, 
 and find, amid those broken shrines and desolated homes a 
 spiritual worship before which their idolatries should all 
 vanish, a philosophy so much purer and more refined than 
 any which preceded it that wisdom bowed before it even 
 while it corrupted it : was a marvel which furnished 
 evidence for Jesus so strong that the Jews have ever found 
 it an unanswerable testimony. It was an epoch which 
 Prophecy had foretold ; to which their sacred writers had 
 all pointed with exultation ; which their own Rabbis had 
 interpreted and settled ere the Messiah came. It explained 
 numberless obscure passages in the Old Testament Script- 
 ures, and developed a consistency and beauty in the whole 
 Gospel scheme which one cannot perceive without being 
 
Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. 227 
 
 ravished at it. But while it promised that the death of 
 Christ should he " as floods upon the dry ground," 1 and that 
 the offspring of his work should " spring up as willows hy 
 the watercourses," 2 it did not promise that all the Gentiles 
 should he converted unto Christ, and that a spiritual do- 
 minion should he acknowledged then or at any subsequent 
 time over the universal earth. Its extent was precisely 
 that which has been accomplished, — that multitudes of all 
 nations, and kindreds, and people should flow up to Mount 
 Zion, and should receive instruction from its fountains of 
 life. And our Lord's command that the Gospel should be 
 preached to every nation went no further than this, and 
 must be interpreted by the text from which I preach : 
 " And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all 
 the world, for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall 
 the end come." 
 
 So far from there being any warrant for any such opin- 
 ion in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles, the very 
 reverse is clearly taught in many passages of the New Tes- 
 tament ; — so clearly that one wonders how they could 
 possibly be overlooked. Our Saviour's own description of 
 His second coming is decisive upon the point : " But of 
 that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of 
 Heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe 
 were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For 
 as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating 
 and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the 
 day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the 
 flood came, and took them all away : so shall also the com- 
 ing of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field ; 
 the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women 
 shall be grinding at the mill ; the one shall be taken, and 
 the other left. Watch therefore; for ye know not what 
 
 1 Isaiah xliv. 3. 2 Ibid. 4. 
 
228 Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. 
 
 hour your Lord doth come." 1 All this is entirely incom- 
 patible with the notion of a converted world living in faith 
 and watchfulness ; and brings strikingly before us exactly 
 such a state of things as exists about us in every Chris- 
 tian land, — the godly in contact with the ungodly, the 
 righteous man eating, drinking, working, in connection 
 with the unrighteous. Nay, parts of the Scripture lead 
 us to anticipate a very infidel condition of the world as im- 
 mediately preceding the second coming of our Lord. Our 
 Lord Himself asked : " Nevertheless, when the Son of man 
 cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ? " 2 And the 
 Apostles all foreshadow a state of great iniquity as preced- 
 ing the day of Judgment. One of them writes : " This 
 know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 
 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, 
 boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, un- 
 thankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, 
 false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that 
 are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures 
 more than lovers of God ; having a form of godliness, but 
 denying the power thereof ; " 3 — a goodly catalogue for a 
 world regenerated by the Gospel ! Another, in introducing 
 the scenes of the last day, opens his description in lan- 
 guage like this : " Knowing this first, that there shall come 
 in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and 
 saying, Where is the promise of His coining ? for since the 
 fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from 
 
 the beginning of the creation But the day of the 
 
 Lord will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the 
 Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the ele- 
 ments shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the 
 works that are therein shall be burned up." 4 These proph- 
 
 i S. Matt. xxiv. 36-42. 2 S. Luke xviii. 8. 
 
 8 2 Tim. iii. 1-5. 4 2 S. Pet. iii. 3, 4, 10. 
 
Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. 229 
 
 ecies might easily be multiplied, but these are enough to 
 show the teaching of the Scripture, and to remove the 
 error of which we have been speaking, — that obedience to 
 the command of Christ to go into all the world and preach 
 the Gospel to every creature, is to result in any thing like 
 an universal conversion of a world lyiug iu wickedness. 
 
 The question then naturally comes up: ""What is to be 
 the result of the Missionary work ? Why is the Church so 
 earnest in spreading the Gospel, and why does she press it 
 upon her children as their duty, especially at this season of 
 the year ? " Very proper questions, which I am glad to 
 answer : and the reply to which will put the Missionary 
 work upon its true basis, and will remove some of the diffi- 
 culties of Christians arising out of the slow progress of the 
 Church of Christ, and the continual interruptions which 
 occur from civil discords, and the tumults which unsettle 
 and overturn every thing from time to time in the history 
 of the world. 
 
 If there was no other reason why the Church should be 
 earnest and active in the cause of Missions than the com- 
 mand of her Lord, that alone would render it imperative. 
 It was His last and most solemn command to His Apostles. 
 Xay, it was the only w&rit which He gave them to do. They 
 were to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, teach- 
 ing them, and baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The Church work 
 which has grown up out of this, and which too much ab- 
 sorbs the energy of Christ's disciples, was merely secondary 
 to this command, — the fruits of its faithful performance. 
 The Missionary work was that which Christ Himself ar- 
 ranged, and made obligatory upon the ambassadors whom 
 He left behind Him in the world. And surely, obedience to 
 the arrangements and commands of her Lord is the first 
 and highest duty of the Church, — the token of loyalty 
 
230 Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, 
 
 which He loves best. Long ago, God said : "To obey is 
 better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams," 1 
 and it continues true to the end. And for this sufficient 
 reason, that the Head of the Church knows what is her 
 duty better than the members ; knows His own plan, knows 
 His means ; knows what will be most conducive to the prog- 
 ress and welfare of His purposes. The Church looks to 
 her own ease or dignity : Christ keeps His eye fixed only 
 upon the mighty work which the Church is subserving 
 through all her arrangements. The Church is tempted 
 continually to turn away from spiritual things, and to mix 
 up herself with the world and its concerns : Christ knows 
 the world only as an enemy, and treats it accordingly. The 
 Church is forever in danger of keeping her resources with- 
 in herself, and using them for her own aggrandizement : 
 Christ desires the Church to be as her Lord, humble, active, 
 working, looking to the real point of the Gospel, and not to 
 those things which have grown up out of its success and 
 power. The command of Christ is therefore enough to 
 guide and control the Church ; and where that is positive, 
 obedience is the virtue which most becomes her, and Faith 
 and Grace, which mark her spiritual condition. 
 
 But our Lord has condescended to give us a reason as 
 well as a command. This Gospel is " to be preached in all 
 the world for a witness unto all nations." It is salvation, 
 but it is also to be condemnation. It is to be not only a 
 savor of life unto life, but of death unto death. The com- 
 mand of Christ must be carried out, not only that the Gos- 
 pel of this Kingdom should be freely offered unto all men, 
 but that its offer might rise up against them in the great 
 day of Judgment, and speak for God against them. This 
 Gospel is glad tidings for all the world, and therefore must 
 be delivered in the hearing of all the world. Christ is the 
 
 1 1 Sam. xv. 22. 
 
Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. 231 
 
 Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world ; and 
 so He must be pointed out to every nation and people under 
 the heavens. It is a part of the dispensation of Grace 
 that in the fullness of times all things should be gathered 
 together in Christ, both which are in Heaven and which 
 are on earth ; and to the Church is assigned the high duty 
 of performing it. What the result of the Missionary work 
 is to be, is not for the Church to inquire. She has re- 
 ceived her Lord's command ; and whether the preaching of 
 this Gospel in all the world is to be only for a witness unto 
 the nations, or, besides that, is to be for salvation to them, 
 is no question for her. The economy of the Gospel is to 
 be worked out through the Church ; and this is a part of 
 the economy of the Gospel. Faith must preside over this 
 part of her work, as well as over every other part. She 
 cannot say, " I will not send this Gospel into the world, 
 and among the nations, because I cannot see such fruits of 
 its preaching as I think should follow it : " because the an- 
 swer would at once be given her by her Lord : " The preach- 
 ing of this Gospel is not always that it may produce such 
 fruits as you look for. It is sometimes sent that it may be 
 only a witness unto all nations." The Church must enter 
 into the whole mind of Christ, and must consider His pur- 
 pose in sending a Gospel. " Many be called," said our 
 Lord, " but few chosen." 1 Many are called in Christian 
 countries ; but alas, how few are chosen ! Many are called 
 in our cities, and towns, and villages ; yet how few are 
 chosen ! Many are called in our congregations ; but ye 
 yourselves can witness, how few are chosen ! And why 
 should it be any different among nations ? Why should 
 the Church expect that multitudes should at once flock to 
 her fold from among creatures who have had no Christian 
 teaching and training, whose habits of thought, of feel- 
 1 S. Matt. xx. 16. 
 
232 Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. 
 
 ing, of action, are all alien from Christianity? Among 1 
 nations the same rule holds : " Many he called, hut few 
 chosen." Nevertheless, this Gospel must he preached as a 
 witness, — must he sent among all nations, that they may 
 know the offer of mercy which God has made them accord- 
 ing to the purpose of His will, and may accept or reject 
 it. Christian hearts need not he distressed when they see 
 the Missionary work in which they have heen earnestly en- 
 gaged, and in which they have delighted, interrupted or 
 even broken up. As human creatures, where hopes have 
 heen disappointed they may feel the pangs of natural sor- 
 row; hut as Christians, looking to the great end and purpose 
 of the Gospel, they have no reason to he despondent. The 
 Gospel of the Kingdom has heen preached, at least as a 
 witness : and if God means it for no more, He knows best. 
 The conversion of the world has nothing to do with the 
 end of the world. They stand apart and distinct. The end 
 will come, not in the midst of faith, hut in the midst of 
 infidelity ; not when men are sober and watchful, but when 
 they are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in 
 marriage. The success of Missions is never that at which 
 the Church should look. It should rejoice when Christ ap- 
 pears to have many people in such and such a land ; but it 
 should never measure its work by its results. The Gospel 
 which has been sent and preached, — preached through 
 the Bible, preached through the living voice, preached 
 through martyrdom, — may appear to have accomplished 
 nothing. Grieve not ! it has done its work — it has been a 
 witness, and therefore has not returned void. It has done 
 that whereto Christ sent it. The Church is guilty, only 
 when she does not send it, — only when, wrapped up in 
 indifference and lukewarmness, she will not obey the com- 
 mand of her Lord, because He will not permit her to live 
 by sight. This is her guilt, — disobedience. Want of sue- 
 
Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. 233 
 
 cess, interruption through the civil convulsions of the 
 world, disturbance through the breaking up of Ecclesiasti- 
 cal unions : are all with the Lord. She must bow in sub- 
 mission to them, and be ready, at any moment that oppor- 
 tunity may offer, to resume her labors. She must witness, 
 even though she do it in sackcloth and ashes. She must 
 send the Gospel, even though it be for condemnation. It 
 is not for her to undertake to fathom the ways of God, for 
 they are past her finding out. She must fulfill her work in 
 silence and in awe, trusting to the wisdom of her Lord, and 
 remembering that of Him, and through Him, and to Him, 
 are all things : to whom be glory forever. Amen. 
 
 1866. 
 
Ctoent^jseconD pennon 
 
 And these are they which are sown among thorns ; such as hear 
 the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, 
 and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it be- 
 cometh unfruitful. — S. Mark iv. 18, 19. 
 
 f\F the three classes of unfruitful hearers exhibited in 
 this parable by our Saviour, the position of this third 
 class has always seemed to me the most perilous and the 
 most to be deplored. The first class is careless and indif- 
 ferent, and therefore has the seed snatched away that was 
 sown in the heart : but carelessness or indifference may be 
 cured. The second class is offended because of the word, 
 and with something like indignation casts it away : but 
 then they understand precisely the position of defiance 
 which they occupy. This third class, however, does not 
 acknowledge indifference, nor consent to occupy the stand- 
 point of defiance ; but they suppose that the seed which 
 has been sown in their heart is doing quite well, and will 
 in good time bring forth its proper fruit. It is a case of 
 dreadful self-deception, which is unconsciously sweeping its 
 victims to inevitable yet unnoticed destruction. The seed 
 sown in a heart of this class, has not been snatched away ; 
 neither has the plant which that seed produced withered 
 away : but a constant, silent process of emasculation is 
 going on upon a rooted plant and a growing blade, which 
 does not destroy it, but only renders it unfruitful. The 
 evil in the first two cases is seen at once, and may possibly 
 be remedied : the evil in this last case is not discovered 
 
The Seed sown among Thorns. 235 
 
 until we come to the harvest, and we find that the thorns 
 have choked the good seed, and have prevented the grain 
 from filling, and from producing fruit. Nothing worse is 
 said of this seed than that it is " unfruitful." 
 
 The hearers included under this class are not those only 
 by whom no profession of religion has been made, but com- 
 prise likewise that large body of Church communicants 
 whose piety is endangered by the affairs of life and of 
 the world. Many of those who worship regularly in the 
 Church of God, who fulfill all the external duties of religion, 
 who commune whenever the Lord's Supper is administered 
 in their presence, come, at times, under its perilous en- 
 chantment, and need constant self-examination lest they 
 permit themselves to be deluded by its snares. You must 
 not suppose therefore, while I treat this subject, that my 
 remarks are at all restricted to a class of hearers, who, 
 immersed in business or care or pleasure, take no account 
 except on Sundays of their soul's salvation ; but you must 
 understand them as referring to all, of whatever class or 
 whatever condition, who permit the word of religious truth 
 that is sown in their hearts to become unfruitful. And 
 indeed those who have made some progress in religious 
 things would seem to be more particularly intended in this 
 portion of the parable ; for the seed is represented as not 
 only sown in the soil, but as actually growing, and in ap- 
 pearance doing well. The effect produced upon it by the 
 thorns is not visible until the time of harvest comes, when 
 the master has a right to look for the fruit ; and then it is, 
 and not until then, that it is found to be " unfruitful." 
 
 Christianity, my beloved hearers, is intended to prepare 
 and fit us for the duties of life, at the same time that it 
 reunites us to God, and makes us at peace with Him 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord, Its sublime boast is that 
 it is entirely practical ; and that its great Teacher taught 
 
236 The Seed sown among Thorns. 
 
 us, not merely by moral precepts but by His own living 
 example, how we might at once serve God faithfully, and 
 yet fulfill all our domestic and social obligations : thus 
 developing the highest style of life for the human race. 
 With this example and these instructions, Christians err 
 when they would flee contact with their fellow-men, and 
 hide their light under a bushel ; — when they would bury 
 themselves away from the uses and employments of their 
 kind. Our Saviour Himself never retired from the society 
 of men, except only for a little time that He might med- 
 itate and pray ; and His command to His Apostles was to 
 go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every crea- 
 ture. In His prayer to His Father, in the seventeenth 
 chapter of S. John's Gospel, when He was committing His 
 beloved disciples, with all the earnestness of divine love, to 
 His Father's care, we find Him using language which indi- 
 cated plainly that He expected them to be in a state of 
 intercourse with the world : for His words are : " 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 I pray not that thou shouldest 
 
 take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep 
 them from the evil." 1 He supposed therefore, that His 
 people would be in danger from the evil of the world; and 
 His supplication for them is, not that they should be taken 
 away from contact with it, but that they should be pre- 
 served from the pollution of it, while moving in the midst 
 of it. And this is the true position of all Christians, — a 
 position which they cannot avoid without neglecting their 
 duty; for the most sacred obligations of life force them 
 into connection with it. How is a man to provide for his 
 family, unless he mingle among men, and carry on, in con- 
 
 1 S. John xvii. 11, 15. 
 
The Seed sown among Thorns. 2jj 
 
 tact with theni, the business for which he has been trained? 
 And yet the Apostle says : " But if any provide not for his 
 own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath 
 denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." 1 How is a 
 man to fulfill his relations to wife, to children, to servants, 
 unless he guides them along the path of life, and leads 
 them the way amid its intricacies ? Xay, how is he to prop- 
 agate the very Gospel itself, to spread among men the 
 saving doctrines and blessed precepts of his Master, unless 
 he meet his fellow-man face to face in the streets, in the 
 haunts of business, around the fireside, as well as in the 
 sanctuary of God? "This man receiveth sinners, and eat- 
 eth with them," 2 was the taunt which the Pharisees threw 
 out against our Lord, because He mingled with men, and 
 endeavored to win them from what was wrong by teaching 
 them what was right. All this proves that each and every 
 one of us must be placed in the midst of the evil of the 
 world; must hear and receive the Word into soil that is 
 more or less infested with thorns ; must be placed in peril 
 of having it choked and made unfruitful, when it has been 
 planted for the express purpose of bringing forth fruit to 
 the praise and glory of God. "We cannot perform our 
 Christian duties, and escape this trial. TTe must pass 
 through this ordeal, if we would be faithful to man, as well 
 as to God. 
 
 And the world, of which these thorns are the representa- 
 tive, is a terrible snare to all of us. At some weak point or 
 other, it touches every one of us. If what are called the 
 pleasures of the world and the lusts of the flesh have no 
 temptation for us, then perchance it is the acquisition of 
 riches, and their increase, which threaten to choke in us 
 the good Word. If none of these prove our infirmity, then 
 we are assailed in a subtler way : and the cares of life, aris- 
 1 1 Tim. v. 8. 2 g, Luke xv. 2. 
 
238 The Seed sown among Thorns. 
 
 ing ofttimes out of its most sacred duties, are made to 
 prey upon us. Any thing, — no matter how honest in its 
 purpose, no matter how pure in its inception, no matter 
 how necessary to the conduct of life, — may assume the 
 shape of thorns, and help to choke the seed of grace. It 
 cannot bring forth fruit where the heart is filled with the 
 world, and forgetful of God. It grows, because it is in a 
 soil that has been at one time prepared for it, and because 
 it receives the nourishment of the sanctuary, and such cul- 
 ture as an absorbed heart can give it : but that is all. The 
 food and the strength which it ought to receive from its 
 roots are lacking, because the thorns have been permitted 
 to absorb them all, and waste them in the service of the 
 world. 
 
 Our Lord puts forward two things as most likely to in- 
 terfere with the fruitfulness of Christians, — the " cares of 
 this world," and the " deceitfulness of riches." To these 
 He adds, " the lusts of other things," which will include all 
 those affections and passions of the mind towards earthly 
 things, which are not included under either of the other 
 heads. Let me warn you against each of these in turn. 
 
 That which our Lord places before all other things, and 
 which is of all thorns the most dangerous because the most 
 common, is what He calls " the cares of this world ; " and 
 that, because every one is obliged to bear some portion of 
 them. They are a heavy burden upon the spirits of men, 
 and an equally heavy one upon their souls. Deceitful as 
 riches are, — and they are fearfully deceitful, — these cares 
 are still more deceitful and treacherous. They assume 
 every form of duty and of obligation, at the same time that, 
 unless strictly guarded, they are alike injurious to the 
 growth of spirituality under whatever shape they may assail 
 us, whether of business or of politics, whether of anxiety 
 about public or private concerns, of restlessness over the 
 
The Seed sown among Thorns. 239 
 
 affairs of the world, or the household. The father is careful 
 and troubled, lest his family should come to want or to re- 
 proach ; and the mother is equally troubled about her chil- 
 dren, her house, and her servants. The poor man is bur- 
 dened with the thought of how he shall provide what is 
 necessary for those who are dependent upon him : and the 
 rich man is equally burdened with the thought of how he 
 shall preserve what he has already gained, and increase it. 
 The obscure man is worried by the effort of bringing him- 
 self into notice and position ; and the honored man by 
 the effort of keeping himself at the point which he has at- 
 tained. The parents are troubled about the education of 
 their children, and their preparation for life, and their set- 
 tlement in the world ; and the children are looking forward 
 with eagerness to the day when they shall begin the world 
 for themselves. The master is anxious and careful about 
 the conduct and industry of his servants ; and the servant is 
 equally anxious how he may please his master, and move 
 forward in the world. The husband is careful how he may 
 provide for his wife; and the wife is equally careful how 
 she may please and satisfy her husband. And so the world 
 rolls on, each one carrying his burden of real or imaginary 
 care ; and each one permitting it to weigh upon him to the 
 injury not only of health, of cheerfulness, and of usefulness, 
 but also of spirituality, more, far more, than is at all neces- 
 sary. And each one excuses himself upon the plea of its 
 necessity ; and often contends that it is only the perform- 
 ance of duty : thus endeavoring to convince himself that 
 those cares which are rapidly choking all his religion, are 
 a part of religion itself. How many are kept unhappy all 
 their days through this grievous weight of cares ; and how 
 many are wrecked by it, bodily, mentally, spiritually, be- 
 cause they will not proportion it to their necessity or their 
 ability! If they would only learn to see God's hand in 
 
240 The Seed sown among Thorns. 
 
 every thing which befalls them, God's mercy in every posi- 
 tion in which He may place them; if they would only 
 struggle after that which is necessary for comfort and for 
 sustenance, instead of grasping at earthly honors, or greed- 
 ily clutching at wealth ; if they would roll their cares upon 
 Him who has said, " I will never leave thee, nor forsake 
 thee : " 1 how full of peace would that heart be which is 
 now overwhelmed with anxiety, and in which the thorns 
 are rapidly choking the seed of grace which may have been 
 planted there ! 
 
 The next point upon which our blessed Lord dwells as 
 likely to choke the good seed of the Word, is " the deceit- 
 fulness of riches." The expression is a peculiar one. It is 
 not riches, but the deceitfulness of riches ; — as if there was 
 a quality in the thing which was peculiarly dangerous. 
 And so there is ; and it is just this quality of deceitfulness. 
 Riches are deceitful, iu that they tempt us to depend upon 
 ourselves, and not to look to God for our daily blessings. 
 They are deceitful, in that they lead us on to indulge in the 
 pride of life, and in the lusts of the flesh. They are deceit- 
 ful, in that they imperiously require us to devote the most of 
 our time to their preservation and increase. They are de- 
 ceitful, in that they promise us much good, and give us no 
 adequate return. They are deceitful, in that they hold out 
 the appearance of great blessing to our children, when they 
 bring forth for them, very often, nothing but misery and 
 ruin. They are deceitful, in that they take to themselves 
 wings and flee away, just when all our habits and tastes and 
 pleasures had been made to turn upon them. And their 
 deceitfulness is their danger. In themselves, they are no 
 more a bar to the Kingdom of Heaven than any thing else. 
 A rich man may so use what God has given him, as to lay 
 up for himself treasures in heaven. But the peril lies in 
 
 1 Heb. xiii. 5. 
 
The Seed sown among Thorns, 241 
 
 the quality which is singled out in our text. It is because 
 we find it so hard to place riches in their true relation to 
 God, and our own souls ; to gauge them at their proper 
 value ; to use them so as not to entangle ourselves in ruinous 
 pleasures or in overwhelming anxieties ; to cause them to 
 procure, for those we love, the blessings which they can 
 command, and yet not involve them in the idleness and the 
 ruin which the early possession of them too often induces : 
 it is because of all this that the Scriptures dwell very fre- 
 quently upon them as a great impediment in the way of 
 reaching heaven. But while they are an impediment; 
 while they constitute one of the most insidious snares of 
 the human soul : their deceitfulness may be so clearly per- 
 ceived and appreciated as to render them innocuous. But 
 this is all that can be said in their favor. If riches are 
 at all overvalued ; if they are eagerly sought after ; if we 
 make haste to get them ; if they are anxiously increased ; 
 if they are hoarded, so that their rust eats into them, and 
 their meanness into the heart and the soul : they immedi- 
 ately put forth all their power of deceitfulness, and choke 
 ail grace and all goodness in the heart. They are thorns, 
 which inevitably make a profession unfruitful. And yet, 
 how eagerly are they pursued, even by those who under- 
 stand all this ! The temptation which pleasure is to the 
 young, riches and the pursuit of riches are apt to be to the 
 more advanced in life. 
 
 Whatever ardent desires or affections of the heart may 
 not be included under the cares of the world and the deceit- 
 fulness of riches, our text sums up under the words " the 
 lusts of other things," — of other things than the grace of 
 God and the culture of the soul. Any thing which fills the 
 mind, and keeps it from thinking of God and Eternity ; any 
 thing which interests the heart, so that it is made an idol 
 of; any thing which inflames the affections and the pas- 
 
 16 
 
242 The Seed sown among Thorns, 
 
 sions, so that they cannot be restrained within the bounds 
 of sobriety and of prudence : are all thorns which choke the 
 Word of the Kingdom, and make it unfruitful. Clothed in 
 a nature weak and corrupt, surrounded by objects of inter- 
 est and desire, in a world whose very duties are full of care 
 and of anxiety, we meet these things at every turn : and our 
 only safety is, to grapple with them, and conquer them in 
 the Name of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Run away from 
 them we cannot ; evade them we cannot, without sinning 
 in some other direction ; overcome them we cannot, in 
 any strength of our own. If we are to be conquerors, it 
 can be only through His power, who has taught us how 
 to live, regardless of the world ; how to die, triumphing 
 over it. 
 
 These are the thorns which choke our religion, and which 
 make the people of God unfruitful, when they should be 
 glorifying God in their souls and in their bodies which are 
 His. And when we see, not only the careless of our con- 
 gregations, but even the professing part of them, so anx- 
 ious about the things of the world ; so troubled about gain 
 and profit ; so greedy to add house to house, and field to 
 field ; so deluded by the deceitfulness of riches ; so tossed 
 hither and thither by affection and desire : can we be sur- 
 prised that so little fruit is brought forth for the Church, 
 and in the Church ? Ought we to be surprised that there 
 is so little faith in the promises of God ; so little joy in the 
 prospect of the future ; so little peace in believing ; so little 
 charity in the heart and life ? Can it amaze us that so lit- 
 tle is done for the propagation of the Gospel, — for the 
 advancement of the Church ? Nay, should it not rather fill 
 us with wonder that religion and the Church exist at all ? 
 " The fruit of the Spirit," that which is to come out of this 
 seed of grace which the thorns are choking, " is love, joy, 
 peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
 
The Seed sown among Thorns. 243 
 
 temperance," 1 but how can they he expected to come to 
 perfection, when all the influences which should be exerted 
 for their production are expended upon things which are 
 adverse to their production, and which are killing them out 
 as fast as they push their blades into the light of day ? 
 Christianity, and the Church as the embodiment of Chris- 
 tianity, have the means of culture and the influences which 
 can mature the fruit, — such as the dew of the Spirit, and 
 the gracious rain from heaven ; the early and the latter 
 rain ; and the sunshine of Christ's presence : but the plant 
 will not flourish where the soil is overgrown with thorns. 
 A fountain cannot give forth, at the same time, sweet and 
 bitter waters; neither can the same heart be overgrown 
 with thorns, and bring fruit unto perfection ; be absorbed 
 in pleasure and business aud the acquirement of riches or 
 even the essential cares of life, and bring to any perfection 
 the graces of the Gospel. " No man can serve two mas- 
 ters." 2 
 
 You perceive, then, how fruitless hearing is, unless the 
 heart is not only prepared for it, but kept in a condition of 
 order and of culture. Relaxation is necessary for the body 
 and the mind ; business is necessary for the support of our 
 families, and for the comfort of our homes ; care always 
 rides behind us, wherever we may go ; anxiety is as certain 
 to cleave to us, as the sparks fly upwards : but there is no 
 necessity that any of these things should take entire pos- 
 session of us. All these occupations and pursuits will be 
 helped and relieved by the presence and the exercise of 
 religion in the heart. A merciful God knows our weak- 
 nesses, and our inevitable tendency to absorption in what- 
 ever we have to do ; and He has so arranged the means 
 of grace as to help us to overcome this tendency, and to 
 mingle our Christianity with the necessary duties of life in 
 1 Gal. v. 22, 23. 2 s# Matthew vi. 24. 
 
244 The Seed sown among Thorns, 
 
 such measure as will enable us to keep down the thorns. 
 He does not expect us to root them out entirely ; that is 
 beyond our power : but He does require of us that we 
 should keep them from choking off our religion, and mak- 
 ing us altogether fruitless. One simple rule has our Sav- 
 iour given us : "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the 
 same bringeth forth much fruit." 1 And there is no other 
 rule. Out of Christ the struggle is vain : the thorns will 
 be too much for you ; pleasure will entangle you ; business 
 will enwrap you ; riches will deceive you ; the cares of the 
 world will overwhelm and destroy you ! 
 
 1866. 
 
 1 S. John xv. 5. 
 
CtoentHIJtrti Sermon 
 
 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the 
 Lord. — Isaiah ii. 5. 
 
 TN the graphic account which the Bible gives us of Crea- 
 tion, — that account which, although brief, is compre- 
 hensive and distinct, — the production of Light is the first 
 outward act of the Divine power. In the beginning, ages 
 ago, — as long ago as man and Nature choose to place it, for 
 no distance of time can carry it beyond the existence of God, 
 — the heavens and the earth were created. The material 
 earth was there ; but it was without form and void. The 
 great deep was there ; but darkness was upon its face. And 
 there they lay, from the beginning, fermenting, seething, 
 rolling in space, undergoing such changes as their Creator 
 chose to work upon them, until such time as He was ready 
 to prepare them for the habitations of men. Then began 
 the movements of those Divine Persons, whose acts have 
 illustrated our world, and whose glory is to fill forever the 
 universe of God. The Spirit moved upon the face of the 
 waters, — the Spirit of life, — and impregnated it with the 
 germs of being which were afterwards to burst forth for the 
 use and comfort and blessing of His creatures. And when 
 that divine Spirit had brooded long enough to impregnate 
 the seeds of things, then went forth the sublime command, 
 " Let there be Light : and there was Light." 1 Its existence 
 was the prime necessity. Every thing depended upon it ; 
 and therefore it must precede every thing. Life sprang up 
 
 1 Gen. i. 3. 
 
246 Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord, 
 
 beneath its genial touch, — the life of plant and leaf and 
 flower. Life, in every existing being, depended upon it; 
 for when they leave it, they enter the realms of death, and 
 the darkness of the grave. Beauty came forth of it : for 
 without light there is no color ; and without color, one dull, 
 gray, leaden hue would enwrap every thing, and swallow up 
 all that rich variety of heavenly dies and earthly shadows 
 which makes our world so charming, even under the with- 
 ering touch of the curse. Happiness and joy flashed on 
 creation together with its brightness ; for what would life 
 be without light ? What would be the pleasure of existence, 
 if we were doomed to grope about forever in darkness ? No 
 vision to guide us in safety, or preserve us from destruc- 
 tion ; no change to gratify the sight, or give variety to life ; 
 nothing to satisfy the cravings of the affections ; no place 
 for friendship, or for love ; 110 human face divine to look 
 upon, and drink in the thoughts and feelings of the soul ! 
 — one despairing sense of hopeless, remediless darkness 
 would swallow every thing, — even hope! The wail would 
 go up alike from Nature and from man ; from field and 
 forest, from cave and den ; from the heavens above, and the 
 earth beneath, and the waters under the earth : " Roll 
 darkness from us, 0 Thou who gavest us our being, and 
 restore to us Thy Light ! " 
 
 And is there no such thing, my beloved hearers, as 
 spiritual darkness ? Is a creation, which would send up to 
 its God such an universal cry of anguish at being doomed 
 to unceasing natural darkness, content to abide forever in 
 a condition of corruption and moral disorder which the 
 inspired Word of its Creator designates as " gross dark- 
 ness " ? Have you ever noticed the wonderful analogy 
 which there is, even in language, between that first chapter 
 in Genesis which describes to us the creation of natural 
 light, and the first chapter of S. John's Gospel which gives 
 
Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord. 247 
 
 us what may be called the philosophical presentation of our 
 Saviour to the world as its spiritual Light ? Like the chap- 
 ter in Genesis, it carries us hack to those ages of the past 
 which the geologist is always demanding, and which the 
 infidel declares to be necessary for the harmony of things ; 
 and is opened with a like solemnity : " In the beginning was 
 the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
 
 God In him was life ; and the life was the light of 
 
 men. Aud the light shiueth in darkness ; and the darkness 
 comprehended it not." 1 It is literally the second Creation. 
 Every thing, save the rough material, was wanting in the 
 moral world, as it had been wanting in the natural. The 
 rude elements were in man, as in the old world of nature ; 
 and like them, seething, fermenting, undergoing all man- 
 ner of hideous change : but there was no spiritual life, no 
 moral beauty, no heavenly joy ; for darkness covered the 
 earth, " and gross darkness the people." 2 They groped in 
 the noon day as in the night ; they groped for the wall like 
 the blind, and they groped as if they had no eyes; they 
 stumbled at noon day as in the night ; they were " in deso- 
 late places as dead men." 3 Such is the gloomy description 
 which the sacred writers give of the condition of the world 
 when Christ our Lord arose upon it and said : " I am the 
 light of the world." 4 And the assertion of it was not con- 
 fined to their prophetic denunciations. The philosophy 
 of the Old World confessed that there was no life in the 
 darkness which enshrouded them ; that death ended every 
 thing; that the grave was a pit wherein was no water. 
 And there was no moral beauty in such a world ; no beauty 
 arising out of the highest sources of spiritual harmony, — 
 out of purity, out of faith, out of charity, out of holi- 
 ness : — the dyes of heaven intermingling with the shadows 
 
 1 S. John i. 1, 4, 5. 2 Isaiah lx. 2. 
 
 3 Isaiah lix. 10. * S. John ix. 5. 
 
248 Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord. 
 
 of earth ! And there could be no true joy ; for joy cannot 
 exist without hope, and a future, and an expanding glory 
 spreading away in the visions of promise and of covenant. 
 And that old Pagan world was sensible of it. The earth 
 groaned under the curse of God : " For we know," says S. 
 Paul, " that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in 
 pain together until now." 1 Nature acknowledges it to- 
 day, — even although Light has beamed upon the world, 
 and is waging fierce battle with darkness, — in the wild 
 fury of her elemental strife, and in the mad rage with 
 which she tears to pieces, and swallows up, and tramples in 
 her fury, the creatures who undertake to harness and con- 
 trol her. She buries navies in the depths of the Ocean ; 
 she engulphs cities in her womb of fire ; she sweeps away 
 multitudes, as she passes along with her pestilential breath ; 
 she disgorges from her bowels the materials out of which 
 man forges the instruments of cruelty. She manifests her 
 misery by her rage ; and echoes back to man the truths 
 which he tries not to believe because they come from the 
 inspiration of God : " Cursed is the earth for thy sake ; — 
 ihy sake, because of thy sin ! Tliou hast blotted out the 
 light ! Hwu hast brought darkness once more over the 
 earth." And man, too, in his wild restlessness, acknowl- 
 edges that Nature has just cause for her madness. His 
 own misery satisfies him of her's, and he too gnashes his 
 teeth against the darkness in which he is enveloped; and, 
 — while he springs upon his brother with the fury of a 
 wild beast, calling evil good, and good evil, deluging the 
 earth with his blood from the days of Cain until now, — 
 he hurls defiance into the face of his Creator, loving " dark- 
 ness rather than light." But thanks be to God, in spite 
 of all this, Light has come into the world, — moral light, 
 spiritual light, the light of the Lord, — and is growing fast 
 
 1 Rom. viii. 22. 
 
Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord. 249 
 
 in brightness, and bringing into its focus, for exposure and 
 final destruction, all the hidden things of darkness. The 
 Creator has said a second time, " Let there be light : " and 
 the primal source of life, of beauty, and of joy in the spirit- 
 ual world, has relumed the old Creation ! 
 
 And as with light in the natural world, so is it with light 
 in the moral and spiritual world. We cannot do without 
 it. It is a necessity. It is the ornament of man. It is 
 the joy of the world, and its glory ! It is a necessity, be- 
 cause we have a rugged, tangled path to tread in life, and 
 we must have light upon it, or we perish ; because we are 
 laborers in God's vineyard, and we must have light to do 
 our work aright ; because we are preparing for another 
 state of being, and we must have light to exhibit for us the 
 conditions of that being, and the mode by which we are to 
 fit ourselves for it. It is the ornament of man, because it 
 shines in upon our unsatisfied natures, and changes and 
 purifies them, and then fructifies the germs which have 
 been implanted in the heart and conscience by the Holy 
 Spirit, when He brooded over them even while they lay in 
 darkness ; because it changes us from grace to grace, caus- 
 ing all the faculties and capacities of our being, which were 
 dead in trespasses and sins, to reflect (as points in na- 
 ture — the leaf, the dew-drop, the grain of sand — do the 
 sun's rays) the radiance of righteousness, and illumine all 
 around us with the new life of the Spirit. It is the joy and 
 glory of the world ; for it opens to man's vision a glorious 
 futurity, when he shall enter upon a higher state of undy- 
 ing existence, in which he is to be a partaker of the Divine 
 Nature, and to grow eternally into the likeness of Him 
 who is the express image of His Father. Spiritual light 
 unfolds to us a new world : a new world outside of us, 
 causing us to look upon Nature and the world with un- 
 sealed eyes, finding in them a beauty which was never seen 
 
250 Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord. 
 
 before ; a new world within us, wherein the sated or crushed 
 affections may revive and flourish in a higher life, soaring 
 upward and upward until they fold their new-found wings 
 at the Throne of the Eternal. And yet man prefers dark- 
 ness to all this heavenly light ; would rather grovel on the 
 earth, and creep, in darkness, amid the beggarly elements 
 of an effete and worn-out world, the companion of impurity, 
 and sin, and crime ! Well might that beloved disciple, who 
 felt in the depths of his own loving heart the joy and the 
 glory of the Light of the Lord, utter, as if lost in amaze- 
 ment, " And the light shineth in darkness ; and the dark- 
 ness comprehended it not." 
 
 It is to this spiritual light, this light brought into the 
 world by Christ and now shining in His Word and in His 
 Church, that you, my hearers, are invited to come. " 0 
 house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the 
 Lord." How loving and sweet this offer of fellowship ! 
 " Let us walk," is the language which the prophet places 
 in the mouth of the Gentiles, who have flocked in to the 
 mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of 
 Jacob, to learn His ways, and to walk in His paths. Jacob 
 had been invoking them for long ages ; and now they are 
 invoking him. So full of comfort and joy and glory have 
 they found this light of the Lord which has arisen upon 
 them, the Gentiles, that in the exuberance of their new- 
 found happiness they are reflecting it back upon Jacob. 
 How amazing, that even before the Sun of Righteousness 
 had arisen upon the world, while as yet His coming rays 
 were only tinging the east with the early dawn, God should 
 have permitted His chosen heralds of salvation to catch the 
 glory of its hidden fires, and to flash them in prophetic 
 brightness into the besotted eyes of a wicked world ! And 
 yet we, now that yon Sun has fully risen and is manifesting 
 His glory all around us, are hiding from it and fleeing the 
 
Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord. 251 
 
 light, like owls and bats, — fearing lest it may make our 
 sins too manifest; preferring darkness rather than light. 
 Beware, my hearers, of that solemn warning of the Apostle : 
 " But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost : 
 in whom the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of 
 them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gos- 
 pel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto 
 them." 1 
 
 We belong to that Gentile Church, which Isaiah thus 
 saw in vision praying fellowship with the house of Jacob, 
 and inviting them to walk hand in hand in the light of the 
 Lord. How beautiful the picture — the old enmity between 
 Jew and Gentile done away in Christ, melted before the 
 fervent rays of the Sun of Righteousness, their swords 
 beaten into ploughshares and their spears into pruning 
 hooks, and they going up together to the house of the 
 Lord ! May that blessed vision soon be fulfilled, when all 
 nations shall flow up to Mount Zion, and the Mountain of 
 the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the 
 mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills : — 
 
 " Hail, glorious day, expected long, 
 
 When Jew and Greek one prayer shall pour ; 
 "With eager feet one temple throng, 
 With grateful praise one God adore ! " 
 
 Until then, may we, who call ourselves Christians, have 
 fellowship one with another, and call upon each other to 
 walk hand in hand in the light of the Lord ! 
 
 Can any thing be more exquisite than this conception of 
 a band of pilgrims walking together in the light of the 
 Lord ? Darkness all around, — gross darkness enveloping 
 the world : but one stream of light, flowing from the Cross 
 of Jesus; and they, clinging together in that Light, lest 
 they should be tempted out of it by the powers of darkness ! 
 1 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. 
 
252 Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord, 
 
 And yet it is true to the very letter. That is our condition ; 
 and this close gathering together in the stream of light 
 which flows from Christ, should be our attitude. Because 
 we are in the light, let us not suppose that we can never 
 any more be merged in darkness. Our Saviour was the 
 Light Himself : and yet was He tempted in the wilderness, 
 in the garden, on the Cross. He was tempted in all things 
 like as we are, save without sin. And if Satan dared to 
 undertake the task of putting out the Light itself, think 
 ye that he will permit any of us, who are only walking in 
 that light, to escape his wiles and sophistries? In the 
 Gospel for the Day 1 ye have heard read from the Holy 
 Scriptures the whole story of that daring act of the great 
 Tempter, how he struck at every human weakness : at the 
 infirmities of the body ; at the pride of the heart ; at the 
 aspiring ambition of the earthly spirit. And in the same 
 way will he probe the weaknesses of every one of us, taking 
 them in turn, if so be that he may plunge us once again 
 into darkness. Darkness ! that is the state he glories in. 
 He is the prince of darkness, even as Christ is the Light. 
 They are enemies for time and for Eternity. The one, 
 struggling to envelop the world once more in that gross 
 darkness which enshrouded it when he reigned triumphant 
 over the kingdoms of this world, when every faculty and 
 instrument of man was under his undisputed control : the 
 other, forcing the pure, bright beams of His own divine 
 Light into the dark places of man's habitation, through 
 His Word, through His messengers, through His Church, 
 through the example of those who call themselves the 
 children of Light. Every one of us is engaged in this 
 conflict ; is on the side either of light or of darkness ; is 
 helping Satan, or working with the Lord of Light ; is enlarg- 
 ing the confines of knowledge, of truth and of glory, or is 
 
 1 The First Sunday in Lent. 
 
Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord. 253 
 
 drawing the curtains of night closer around the world. It 
 is fearful to dwell upon our responsibility : for it extends, 
 beyond ourselves, to children and children's children, along 
 the stretch of time, until it mingles with Eternity. 
 
 The exhortation of my text is, " Come ye, and let us walk 
 in the light of the Lord : " and the Church echoes this 
 message at all times ; but especially now when she is ap- 
 proaching, nay, is already in the midst of, that exhibition 
 of the power of Satan, of which Christ said : " This is your 
 hour, and the power of darkness ; 99 1 and which culminated 
 in the Sacrifice upon the Cross. You are now called to 
 especial prayer and watchfulness ; to a closer study of the 
 Word of God ; to a deeper examination of your hearts and 
 lives ; to a renewed exercise of repentance, and faith, and 
 charity. You are invited to walk in the light of the Lord, 
 — in fellowship with his people ; in the communion of 
 Saints ; in the joy of God ; and in the blessed hope of ever- 
 lasting life. And unless we obey that invitation, we are 
 despising the teachings of our Holy Mother ; and we are 
 exposing ourselves on every hand to the encroachments of 
 that enemy who often presents himself as an angel of light, 
 and whispers sin into our ears so plausibly, so seduciugly, 
 that we are led away captive, with our eyes blinded that we 
 cannot see, and our hearts hardened that we cannot under- 
 stand. " Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while 
 is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest 
 darkness come upon you : for he that walketh in darkness 
 knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, be- 
 lieve in the light, that ye may be the children of light. " 2 
 
 And especially, my beloved hearers, is there great danger, 
 in these days, of mistaking the path of Light. Many are 
 kindling fires of their own, and calling them the Light of 
 the Lord. New doctrines are being hatched all the world 
 
 1 S. Luke xxii. 53. 2 g. John xii. 35, 36. 
 
254 Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord. 
 
 over, — doctrines of devils ; and they thrust themselves 
 across the pathway of the children of Light. Be watchful, 
 and strengthen the things that remain. Hold together, 
 children of Light, and walk hand in hand in the light of 
 the Lord. Edify and strengthen one another. Be valiant 
 for the Truth. " Warn them that are unruly, comfort the 
 feeble-minded, support the weak, he patient toward all men. 
 See that none render evil for evil unto any man ; but ever 
 follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to 
 all men. . . . Pray without ceasing. . . . Quench not the 
 Spirit. . . . Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good. 
 Abstain from all appearance of evil." 1 The Word of God 
 and the Church of God, — the two great instruments which 
 reflect the Light of Christ, — are being assaulted on every 
 hand. Cling to them only the more closely, for they are 
 your impregnable strongholds in the day of temptation. 
 Even our Lord himself, when tempted, answered Satan with 
 the word of truth : " It is written ; " " It is written ; " " It 
 is written." Although the Wisdom of God and the Light 
 of the world, He drew not upon His own Divine Mind to 
 answer Satan, but used only that weapon which is ready at 
 the hand of his poorest and weakest disciple. Bring every 
 thing " to the law and to the testimony : if they speak not 
 according to this word, it is because there is no light in 
 them." 2 And the Church, with her Creed and her formu- 
 laries and her teaching, is but a concentration of that Light 
 which flows from Christ, kept as a treasury for her chil- 
 dren. Keep ever before you the denunciation of the 
 prophet : " Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass 
 yourselves about with sparks : walk in the light of your fire, 
 and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have 
 of mine hand ; ye shall lie down in sorrow." 3 
 
 The end and purpose of all our Christian knowledge and 
 
 1 1 Thess. v. 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22. 2 Isaiah viii. 20. 8 Ibid. 1. 11. 
 
Let us Walk in the Light of the Lord. 255 
 
 exercise is, that we should reflect the Light of the Lord. 
 I close with the words of an Archbishop of Canterbury, one 
 of the holiest prelates that ever sat in that chair : " As the 
 darkest body, when brought near a shining flame, derives a 
 brightness from it ; so must it be with those who profess to 
 have been brought nigh to God through the Gospel of His 
 Son. c If we say that we have fellowship with him. and 
 walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.' 1 As He 
 is Light, so all who are united to Him must be Light. He 
 calls them to he partakers of His own holy Nature ; 6 and 
 every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, 
 even as He is pure.' 2 This is the proof that our hearts 
 are drawn to Him, and united with Him, that we £ cast off 
 the works of darkness,' 3 and walk in the light as £ children 
 of the day, 5 4 whose deeds will bear to be exposed ; nay, 
 which shine before men, and attract others to the Light 
 to which they owe their brightness. Then are we indeed 
 part of that family which God has created for Himself, 
 through Jesus Christ : f We have fellowship one with an- 
 other ; ' 5 we are joined together as brethren who have 
 c one Lord, one faith, one baptism:' 6 and -'the blood of 
 Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin/' 95 7 
 
 1866. 
 
 1 « S. John i. 6. 2 ^ 3, 3 R om> 12. 
 
 * 1 Thess. v. 5. 5 1 s. John i. 7. 6 Eph. iv. 5. 
 
 7 1 S. John i. 7. 
 
CtDcntHourtl) Sermon. 
 
 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? 
 saith the Lord. — Isaiah i. n. 
 
 T 1 1HIS question seems a strange one to be asked of the 
 people of Israel by their Lord and King, when we re- 
 member the very stringent command and the very minute 
 instructions which that people had received for the offering 
 of almost numberless sacrifices, and when we look forward 
 to the divine Saviour, whom those sacrifices foreshadowed 
 and typified. It appears at first sight casting contempt, as 
 it were, upon their obedience ; to be very inconsistent with 
 all that had gone before ; nay almost contradictory of the 
 institutions which Jehovah had Himself established. To 
 arrange a worship upon this very basis of sacrifices, and 
 then to ask "To what purpose is the multitude of your 
 sacrifices unto me ? " was, to say the least, a very startling 
 proposition, and one calling upon the Israelites to pause 
 and inquire hito the purpose and meaning of its enuncia- 
 tion. And this was just the effect which God designed to 
 produce by means of His prophets. The prophetical office 
 was altogether distinct from the priestly. The latter, the 
 priests, were set apart from a particular family to carry 
 on the regular and ordinary routine of the divine arrange- 
 ments : to offer sacrifices ; to mediate between God and His 
 chosen people; to offer atonement for public and private 
 sins. The prophets, on the other hand, were not necessa- 
 rily priests ; but were raised up by God, in an irregular 
 manner, to speak for Him to the people, and startle them 
 
The Spiritual Uses of Lent. 257 
 
 from that formalism into which all regular worship is very 
 apt to fall. The former were the unceasing line in which 
 the service of God descended from father to son : the lat- 
 ter were special messengers sent by God to stir up priests 
 as well as people to a clear comprehension of the spirit of 
 the work which they were, too often, smothering under the 
 letter of their performances. The one was necessary for 
 the preservation and due performance of the rites and cer- 
 emonies which were to be fulfilled in Christ : the other just 
 as indispensable to bring back the minds of all parties to 
 the gracious purpose which gave to those institutions their 
 true and only meaning*. 
 
 It is from this point of view that we must look at the 
 words of my text in order to understand them. They were 
 uttered by the Lord through the mouth of one of these 
 special messengers, the prophet Isaiah, and were therefore 
 intended to bring the careless Israelites back to a proper 
 sense of their duty. While fulfilling to the letter the com- 
 mandments of God ; while offering all the sacrifices and 
 bringing all the oblations ; while filling the Temple with 
 incense, and keeping the new moons and appointed feasts : 
 the tenor of the chapter proves that the Israelites were ut- 
 terly forgetful of the spirit which was intended to sanctify 
 these devotions, and were carrying to the Temple unholy 
 hearts, and were lifting up unclean hands to Jehovah. And 
 it was because of these misconceptions of His purposes and 
 will that their gracious Lord asked them the question from 
 which I preach : "To what purpose is the multitude of 
 your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord ? " Of what avail is 
 all this literal fulfillment of my commandments to either 
 of us, to you, or to Me, if you overlook, so entirely as you do, 
 the final cause of their institution ? Can you not perceive 
 that the sacrifice of bulls and of goats can be of no ben- 
 efit to Me, whose are all the beasts of the field and the cat- 
 
 17 
 
258 The Spiritual Uses of Lent. 
 
 tie upon a thousand hills, if you separate that sacrifice from 
 the holiness which it was intended to produce and main- 
 tain ? What care I for ohlations ; for incense ; for new 
 moons ; for appointed seasons : unless they are accompanied 
 by the spiritual results, with which I intended that they 
 should always stand connected ? And of what possible ben- 
 efit can they be to you, unless they lead you to those exer- 
 cises of repentance, of faith, of holiness, which they were 
 established to produce ? Away with them, if they are to be 
 mere forms ! Unless the heart is disciplined by them, they 
 are the merest husks, furnishing' you no spiritual food, yield- 
 ing Me no acceptable worship. 
 
 In all this, you will perceive, there is no contradiction ; 
 the contempt of God is not directed against His appoint- 
 ments, but against their misuse of them. Sacrifices, obla- 
 tions, incense, the appointed feasts, were full of their orig- 
 inal value, when offered aright, and understood aright: 
 still propitiated God ; still atoned for sin ; sti!l kept wrath 
 from bursting out upon them from between the cherubim ; 
 still pointed to a coming Saviour. But all this was made 
 valueless by themselves. They used them punctually as 
 forms, but did not permit them to exert the slightest influ- 
 ence upon their conduct. They went to the performance of 
 them superstitiously, as a task which God had set, expecting 
 110 spiritual benefit from them, and therefore receiving none. 
 They were consequently of but little use ; and no wonder, 
 therefore, that Jehovah said, though He had instituted 
 them Himself : " Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is 
 an abomination unto me ; the new moons and Sabbaths, the 
 calling of assemblies, I cannot away with ; it is iniquity, 
 even the solemn meeting." 1 
 
 And just as it was between Jehovah and His elect people, 
 shall it be between the Lord and ourselves, unless we are 
 
 1 Isaiah i. 13. 
 
The Spiritual Uses of Lent 259 
 
 careful in all our worship to preserve the spiritual meaning 
 which it is intended to convey. All regular devotion has a 
 tendency to run into formalism : and by formalism I mean 
 a system which quiets the conscience by the performance 
 of certain religious acts, without any reference to the spir- 
 itual meaning of them ; just as a child, to still its nightly 
 fears, might hurry over by rote its little prayer. And it 
 would surprise all of us, could we be made aware how much 
 of our worship, both private and public, does run into this 
 very formalism, — this "vain repetition," 1 as our Saviour 
 called it, of prayers without any spiritual exercise accom- 
 panying them. We need no better proof of this than the 
 little result which flows from prayer. We are told in the 
 Holy Scriptures, that God is a hearer of prayer ; that He 
 will grant any thing which is asked, in His Son's Name, 
 according to His will. And yet, where is the answer to 
 prayer? We are all of us asking: who is receiving? 
 Surely God cannot deceive us. The fault is with us ; and 
 lies in just this substitution of formal, customary prayer, 
 for that earnest, spiritual wrestling with God, which is 
 prayer in His view. Examine yourselves, my hearers, upon 
 this point ; consider your mode of prayer ; your prepara- 
 tion for prayer ; your faith in prayer ; your expectations of 
 a return of prayer. Judge yourselves honestly, as in the 
 sight of God, and determine how much of it is the mere 
 hurrying over of a form, so as to quiet conscience and feel 
 that you have knelt in prayer ; and how much is real com- 
 munion with God, to which you go with pleasure, and from 
 which you return laden with a blessing of the dew of 
 Heaven. 
 
 And as it is with private prayer, so is it likewise with all 
 religious exercises of whatever kind. Their tendency is to 
 formalism ; and the duty of your ministers is, like the office 
 
 1 S, Matt. vi. 7. 
 
260 The Spiritual Uses of Lent. 
 
 of the prophets of old, to rouse you up perpetually to a 
 consideration of the spiritual meaning which is enshrined 
 in all our ritual usages. They are valueless, unless they are 
 looked through, and God is seen as their life and purpose. 
 This very season which we are now celebrating, and which 
 calls upon us for unusual solemnity, can he of no service to 
 any one who keeps it as a mere form : who is satisfied by 
 an attendance upon frequent services. God might well ask 
 of such an one : "To what purpose is the multitude of 
 your services unto me ? Do I need your prayers or your 
 praise, when there are myriads of unfallen and glorious 
 spirits who offer it up to Me perpetually from hearts over- 
 flowing with gratitude and from lips sanctified by My Holy 
 Spirit ? " Its object is to deepen our repentance, to enliven 
 our faith, to stir up all our graces, to call us to the exer- 
 cise of self-denial, of humility, of holiness. Unless these 
 are the results of it, it is nothing but form : it is only the 
 utterance of an increased number of prayers for which, 
 when we come to reckon up the result, we shall find no 
 return at all. 
 
 Twelve days have already elapsed of the period set apart 
 for the observance of our holy solemnity ; and can you per- 
 ceive that you have received any special benefit from it ? 
 You have kept it, and perhaps kept it faithfully ; but are 
 you conscious of any spiritual improvement? Has your 
 heart been in the work ? Has Christ been made the end 
 of it, and your life in Christ its fruit ? Lent is not com- 
 manded that a certain amount of prayer may be offered to 
 God, nor that a fixed amount of bodily exercise may be 
 passed through ; but that your religious life may be solem- 
 nized. It is a wonderful provision of the means of grace, 
 that while God delights in the prayers and the praises of 
 His people, He has so arranged those exercises that they are 
 never acceptable unto Him unless they work spiritual bene- 
 
The Spiritual Uses of Lent. 261 
 
 fit to those who offer thein. And thus He unites our duty 
 and His blessing together, and fills us with grace at the 
 same time that He receives our humble offerings. 
 
 There are three blessings connected with Lent which we 
 ought to experience, and which at this period of the season 
 we should ascertain whether we have begun to experience. 
 The first is, its influence upon the general spirit of our 
 character ; upon the tone of our feelings as Christians ; 
 upon the atmosphere which surrounds our presence and de- 
 portment. This is independent of its effect upon any per- 
 sonal trait of character. The one is like the general sun- 
 shine which spreads itself over a whole landscape, giving 
 warmth and geniality to the entire scene : the other like 
 the rays shining upon a particular point of it, and matur- 
 ing the fruit which is ripening for the Master's use. Each 
 has its separate purpose and its separate glory. The first 
 is intended to diffuse itself over society, and to impart to it 
 a softness and a charity which are the true manifestations 
 of Christianity : the last, to concentrate itself upon our- 
 selves, and to make us more meet for that presence of the 
 Lord, when He shall come as our Master, and call us home 
 to His heart and His service. 
 
 A long and continued season of devotional exercises 
 ought to manifest itself in our whole temper and presence. 
 TVTien Moses came down from Mount Sinai, after his long 
 conference with God, his face shone so that he was obliged 
 to cast a veil over it while he conversed with Aaron and the 
 people. When our Lord was transfigured upon the Mount, 
 His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as 
 the light. And the Apostle tells us that " we all, with open 
 face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are 
 changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as 
 by the Spirit of the Lord." 1 These are the effects of com- 
 
 1 2 Cor. iiL 18. 
 
262 The Spiritual Uses of Lent. 
 
 munion with God, of dwelling in His presence in spirit and 
 in truth. We cannot be long in the presence of a fellow- 
 creature distinguished for virtue and nobleness, without 
 catching something of the tone which belongs to him : 
 how can it then be possible for us to commune daily and 
 habitually with God in Christ, without drinking in some of 
 the holy influences which flow down from His gracious pres- 
 ence? If we have sincerely communed with Him in 
 prayer; if our spirits have indeed risen up to Him upon 
 the wings of praise and adoration ; if we have truly sought 
 unto Him in our silent hours of meditation and thought : 
 we must have brought away from these conferences and this 
 intercourse something of the divine influence ; there must 
 breathe around us some of the spiritual atmosphere which 
 envelops His divine Presence. Neither we ourselves, nor 
 others, could exactly say what it consisted in, or wherein 
 it was particularly exhibited : and yet both might perceive 
 and acknowledge it ; — a more cheerful spirit ; a more lov- 
 ing temper; a diviner charity; a more manifest holiness. 
 Nothing in the individual has changed : the manner is the 
 same ; the face is the same ; the voice is the same ; just as 
 all the features of the landscape are the same. But the 
 sunshine is upon the one, tinging every point with beauty 
 and holiness: is upon the other, giving a softness and a 
 gentleness to every part of the human frame. 
 
 This is the first blessing of frequent religious exercise ; 
 and I would ask you, my fellow-Christians, whether the 
 season of Lent, so far as it has gone, has produced any of 
 this effect upon you? Are you conscious of having re- 
 ceived any general spiritual benefit from your frequent 
 religious exercises ? Is there with you a deeper glow 
 of spiritual life ? Has your heart been sensibly softened 
 towards man, and elevated towards God ? Has there come 
 over you any of that genial glow, which makes your face 
 
The Spiritual Uses of Lent. 263 
 
 to shine with the light from Heaven ? Has there been 
 awakened within you any higher aspiration towards holi- 
 ness ? Have those about you perceived that you have been 
 dwelling with Jesus, and basking in the sunshine of His 
 Spirit ? These are the results of a general kind which 
 ought to flow from a continued dwelling in the Sanctuary, 
 from the reaction of daily prayer and meditation. As one 
 has beautifully said that memory was the echo of percep- 
 tion, so ought holiness to be the echo of prayer and thanks- 
 giving. To give ourselves to devotion, and to exhibit no 
 results as the fruit of it, is the very condition in which 
 might be asked of you the question of my text : " To what 
 purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith 
 the Lord ? " 
 
 The effect of Lent upon our individual sins and infirmi- 
 ties is the second blessing which we should expect to derive 
 from its faithful observance. Every one of us has some 
 besetting sin : some weakness, some frailty, some dark 
 cloud that hangs over our spiritual life ; something that 
 can come forth, perhaps, by nothing but by fasting and 
 prayer. Are we endeavoring to bring this under the in- 
 fluence of the season ? Besides the general blessing of 
 which we spoke just now, are we striving to get this par- 
 ticular trouble under our control ? It is the fly in the 
 ointment, which is disfiguring its beauty and marring its 
 sweetness ; it is the discord in the harmony, which puts 
 every thing out of tune. Our spiritual being is made im- 
 perfect by it ; and our influence as Christians among men 
 is marred by it. It is some infirmity of temper ; some 
 insubordination of tongue ; some out-cropping of lust or 
 covetousness ; some love of the world and its applause ; 
 some affliction to which we cannot be reconciled ; some en- 
 mity, or jealousy, or injury ; some burden of unbelief. It 
 can take a thousand shapes, and molest us under number- 
 
264 The Spiritual Uses of Lent 
 
 less disguises. It is at special sins like these, — sins of 
 which we are convinced, and over which we mourn, — that 
 we should particularly strike, at this season. We should 
 make their subjugation, if not their extinction, an especial 
 object. We should strike such blows at them as they could 
 not well recover from, even though we did not quite extin- 
 guish them. What a glorious result it would be of our 
 efforts, if at the close of this Lent we could feel that we 
 had subdued some tyrant sin, some overpowering infirmity, 
 which had been disturbing us all through our Christian 
 life ! And thus should we be reaping the true blessing of 
 the occasion, so far as we are personally concerned, — the 
 deliverance of our souls from that thralldom which sin 
 ever inflicts, and the introduction of them into that true 
 liberty wherewith Christ alone can make us free. 
 
 Have we, my Christian friends, been combating sin after 
 this fashion, for so much of Lent as we have already passed 
 through ? Have we truly discerned our besetting sin, and 
 are we warring against it with heart and soul ? Or have 
 we been beating the air uncertainly ? Have we been going 
 through our increased services without a purpose ? If, so 
 far, you have been looking only to general ends, let me ad- 
 vise you, for the remainder of this solemn season, to keep 
 some special end in view ; to have some particular private 
 matter as that upon which your supplications and interces- 
 sions should be bent. Besides the general blessing which 
 will flow upon you from the faithful observance of this sea- 
 son, strive to secure some individual favor from God ; and 
 then will you understand the value of such an arrangement 
 as the Church has made for you at this season. 
 
 There is yet another blessing which you should endeavor 
 to secure through the fasting and prayer of Lent, and that 
 is, the favor of God upon His Church in general, and 
 especially upon the particular congregation to which you 
 
The Spiritual Uses of Lent, 265 
 
 belong. The Church has just passed safely through a great 
 trial and has come out of it, as we trust, purified and 
 sanctified. The Law of Charity has been triumphant, and 
 we give thanks and praise that the Spirit of God hath made 
 it so. Let us pray that this greatest of all graces may per- 
 vade her courts more thoroughly, and may enter into our 
 hearts, leading us to fulfill that new commandment which 
 Christ left to His Disciples, that they should " love one an- 
 other." Let us pray that all Christians may be so joined 
 together in unity of spirit and in the bond of peace, that 
 they may be an holy temple, acceptable unto God. And 
 especially let us supplicate Him to give to this congrega- 
 tion here present the abundance of His grace, that with 
 one heart they may desire the prosperity of His Holy Apos- 
 tolic Church, and with one mouth may profess the faith 
 once delivered to the Saints. The day is fast coming when 
 we shall celebrate the resurrection of our Lord ; and upon 
 that day there will be offered, to many in this congregation, 
 the opportunity, through the laying on of hands, of rising 
 from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness. Let 
 us pray that many may embrace it : and that they may 
 come as doves to their windows, bringing to God that sacri- 
 fice which He loves above all things, — a broken and a con- 
 trite heart. Of such sacrifices He will never ask the ques- 
 tion of my text : but will rejoice over them with that joy 
 which fills Heaven when one sinner comes, with true re- 
 pentance, and casts himself for mercy at the foot of the 
 Cross ! Such fruit as this will be the surest proof that we 
 have kept Lent well, and will be the sweetest incense that 
 can enter into the presence of the Lord of Hosts. 
 
 1866. 
 
Talk no more so exceeding proudly ; let not arrogancy come out of 
 your mouth : for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him ac- 
 tions are weighed. — i Samuel ii. 3. 
 
 XT is neither an easy, nor yet a safe thing, to read the 
 judgments of God upon individuals, let alone upon 
 nations. The more complicated the subject upon whom 
 the judgment is inflicted, — the more the relations and 
 contingencies of which it admits : the more difficult is it 
 to determine, in many cases, the connection between it 
 and the dealings of God. But, nevertheless, there are such 
 judgments ; and there are many, many instances, in which 
 the connection between the sin of the people and the 
 avenging hand of the Lord is so plain, that it strikes at 
 once upon the moral sense of the land, and forces from 
 every tongue the acknowledgment of that connection. So 
 far as the moral feeling of the country has yet been borne 
 to us, in view of the successive strokes with which we have 
 been visited, it is wonderfully unanimous in its confession 
 of the hand of the Lord, and wonderfully harmonious in 
 the cause to which it ascribes these visitations. All, with 
 one accord, lay it at the door of our exceeding pride and 
 arrogancy ; and therefore we utter to you, to-day, the 
 words of the Scripture, words spoken in view of the ma- 
 jesty and supremacy of God : " Talk no more so exceed- 
 ing proudly ; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth : 
 for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions 
 are weighed." 
 
Our A T ational Sin of Proud Boasting. 267 
 
 This is the great lesson which we need to learn. — to 
 learn, not as a mere thing of the head, but to learn so as to 
 believe it, and feel it sensibly affecting our lives. — " that 
 the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are 
 weighed." As individuals we do not realize it enough, but, 
 as a Nation, we do not recognize it at all. Because we 
 could not adopt a State Religion, it almost seems as if we 
 considered ourselves as a Xation without any religion at 
 all ! And as the necessary result of our not acknowledging 
 God in Christ as a people, we have come to think that God 
 will not — nay, has no right to — interfere in our concerns, 
 either in the way of mercies or judgments. This view, 
 strange as it may sound, is much more nearly the truth 
 than one would imagine who has not weighed it well ; more 
 nearly the truth, because it is merely adopting and diffus- 
 ing throuo'hout the mass — making' that general which 
 before was individual — the common opinion of irreligious 
 men, that because they have not bound themselves to God, 
 in His Church, by direct personal vows, they are. to a great 
 degree, exempt from those spiritual responsibilities and 
 spiritual dealings which are operative between God and His 
 professing people. 
 
 But this is a sad mistake, both as it regards individuals, 
 and as it regards a Xation : — sad, because it leads, in both 
 cases, to misery and ruin. Whether man, in his personal 
 or in his social capacity, recognizes or forgets his God, still 
 is He — and no ungodliness of His creatures can ever make 
 it otherwise — "a God of knowledge, and by him actions 
 are weighed." And it is no fault of His that His creatures 
 will not know this and consider it ; for besides those mani- 
 fest strokes of His wrath, — of which we spake just now, 
 and which the Pagans acknowledged and trembled at, — 
 He has given us a plain account, in the Old Testament 
 Scriptures, of His dealings with peoples as well as with 
 
268 Our National Sin of Proud Boasting. 
 
 individuals ; with nations which recognized Him not, as 
 well as with those whom He chose and guided according 
 to the purpose of His own will. That record is history 
 written by the finger of God ; and as such should he studied 
 by all who desire to understand the ways of God, — by all 
 who are not satisfied to look upon history merely as the 
 relation of nation to nation, but as a narrative of all the 
 causes which operate to elevate or depress a people in the 
 scale of things. And in this record we see the hand and 
 the sword of the Lord forever at work, dealing righteous 
 judgment upon the right hand and upon the left, rooting 
 out, and pulling down, and destroying, and building, and 
 planting. 1 Before us does the inspired penman make all 
 the great monarchies of the earth to pass in review, and 
 upon their fate sheds a divine light, which the spiritual 
 mind appreciates, but which those who rule nations, for the 
 most part, scorn and ridicule. And as if to leave man no 
 excuse for disregarding Him in the affairs of nations, He 
 has beforehand written, in prophetic characters, the history 
 and fate of many of them, that, when it came to pass, men 
 might confess His hand; and, in their judgment of the 
 causes of their decline and fall, mingle His will and pur- 
 poses with the secondary causes that have operated to pro- 
 duce the effects which are seen upon the face of the earth. 
 But this will, and these purposes of God, men will not take 
 into the account, even when the event has fully and exactly 
 verified the prophecy : but will rest altogether in the prox- 
 imate causes which God has used merely as His means and 
 instruments, showing the aversion which they have to ac- 
 knowledge His immediate interference in the events of the 
 world ; and removing, at the same time, by their pertina- 
 cious assertion of man's free agency, the most plausible 
 argument wherewith the Devil could furnish them against 
 
 i Jer. i. 10. 
 
Our National Sin of Proud Boasting. 269 
 
 turning unto the Lord as the Supreme Ruler of the Uni- 
 verse in humiliation and prayer, — the argument of an 
 unchangeableness in the Divine decrees ! 
 
 If we believe the Bible, then, my hearers, we must be- 
 lieve that God weigheth the actions of nations ; for it is 
 there all done before our very eyes, and His judgment upon 
 those actions exhibited and executed. If we believe the 
 Bible, — and the great mass of the people throughout this 
 land professes to believe it, — we can resort to it and see, 
 as in a mirror, the sins which most provoked the wrath of 
 Jehovah ; and, in His punishment of those sins, read the 
 fate which awaits us, if we indulge ourselves in them. 
 God's ways are without repentance ; and the sins which He 
 hated then, He hates now ; and the sins which He pun- 
 ished then, will He punish now. The like pride and ar- 
 rogancy which brought down the stroke of His sword in 
 those days, will cause it to descend upon us ; and we shall 
 writhe under it until we confess the sin, and turn aside the 
 wrath. May we be prudent in time, as a Nation, and study 
 those records which can make us wiser than all ancients or 
 teachers ! 1 
 
 Among the sins which most surely brought down the 
 vengeance of God upon individuals and peoples, was proud 
 boasting conspicuous. It was one of those national ini- 
 quities which God seems never to have passed over. When 
 Pharaoh said, '-'Who is the Lord, that I should obey his 
 voice to let Israel go ? I know not the Lord, neither will 
 I let Israel go : " 2 he was soon made to know who He was, 
 in his own discomfiture and the overthrow of his hosts. 
 When Moses had brought the children of Israel to the bor- 
 ders of the land of promise, and was pressing upon them 
 his dying admonitions, how frequently he dwelt upon this 
 theme : " Beware," was his language, " lest when thou hast 
 
 1 Psalm cxix. 98-100. 2 Y.xod. v. 2. 
 
270 Our National Sin of Proud Boasting. 
 
 eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt 
 therein ; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and 
 thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast 
 is multiplied ; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget 
 the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the 
 
 land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; and 
 
 thou say in thy heart, My power and the might of mine 
 hand hath gotten me this wealth." And if they did, what 
 was the doom predicted against them ? " As the nations 
 which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye 
 perish ! " 1 And when David numbered the people, pro- 
 voked to it, as the Scripture tells us, by Satan, this seem- 
 ingly slight reliance upon the arm of flesh brought down 
 the displeasure of the Lord upon Israel, and He sent pesti- 
 lence upon Israel, " and there fell of Israel seventy thousand 
 men. And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it : 
 and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented 
 him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is 
 
 enough, stay now thine hand And David lifted up 
 
 his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the 
 earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand, 
 stretched out over Jerusalem." 2 Although God had led up 
 Sennacherib against Jerusalem, yet when he uttered blas- 
 phemous words against Him, despising God, and setting 
 himself above Him, saying to Hezekiah, " Let not thy God, 
 in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem 
 shall not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria. 
 .... Have the gods of the nations delivered them which 
 my fathers have destroyed 9 " 3 his answer was : " Whom 
 hast thou reproached and blasphemed ? .... By thy ser- 
 vants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the 
 multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of 
 the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon ; and I will cut 
 
 1 Dent. viii. 11-20. 2 1 Chron. xxi. 14-16- 8 Isaiah xxxvii. 10, 12. 
 
Our National Sin of Proud Boasting. 271 
 
 down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir-trees 
 thereof : and I will enter into the height of his border, and 
 
 the forest of his Carmel Because thy rage against 
 
 me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore 
 will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, 
 and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou earn- 
 est." 1 And in like manner, everywhere throughout the 
 Old Testament, is this sin of putting confidence in flesh, in 
 our own arm, in horses and chariots, instead of trusting in 
 the arm of the Lord, visited with the uniform, unvarying 
 displeasure of Jehovah. " The Lord thy God is a jeal- 
 ous God," is written upon every event of that most awful 
 record of God's dealings with His creatures ! 
 
 If there is one sin more than another for which we stand 
 conspicuous, as a Nation, it is this sin of speaking' exceed- 
 ing proudly. There is no limit to our vain boasting ! If it 
 were the boasting of a Christian people, rejoicing because 
 the God of Israel is their God, because the Redeemer prom- 
 ised to ages and generations is their Saviour, because the 
 laws and the statutes of a Holy God are the provisions of 
 their moral code, because all the blessings which Christian- 
 ity fetches in her train are richly showered upon their 
 heads : it would enter as sweet incense into the presence of 
 the Lord, and crown us and our children with a lasting and 
 a beneficial prosperity. But such is not our boasting ! It 
 is not in this God of Israel that we put our trust. It is 
 not in this Redeemer that we rest as our strong tower and 
 house of defense. It is not in the lofty morality of Jesus 
 that we look for our success. It is not in the ameliorations 
 of Christianity that we triumph and exult. No. Our idols 
 are our political institutions; our oracles are our frail, 
 short-sighted fellow-creatures ; our tower of strength is 
 our numbers 5 our shield is the immensity of our domain, 
 
 1 Isaiah xxxrii. 23, 24, 29. 
 
272 Our National Sin of Proud Boasting. 
 
 and the vastness of our resources ; our rule of life is a tyr- 
 annous public opinion. Every day is the ear of God vexed 
 with the arrogancy of our mouths, with our exceeding 
 proud talk. Let what may be the subject, it ends in self- 
 glorification ! Our public speakers, from him that ad- 
 dresses himself to his fellow-citizens of the same parish, to 
 him that speaks for the ears of a Nation, all indulge the 
 same exulting strain ; — nay, are obliged to indulge it, for 
 a national vanity craves it, and is not satisfied without it. 
 And worse, the pulpit too, that which should humble man 
 perpetually to the dust, prostitutes itself to the same vile 
 flattery, and fears to speak to man the truths which he 
 should hear and feel, if peradventure God may bless them 
 to his soul. For these things God will surely visit. Our 
 sins will surely find us out. And have they not already 
 found us out ? In what has our proud boasting of the per- 
 fectibility of human nature under free institutions ended ? 
 In our being the by-word of the world as repudiators and 
 faithless. In what has our arrogant talk of the superior 
 acuteness of our people resulted? In covering the land, 
 from the one end to the other, with cunning and roguery. 
 In what has our haughty maintenance of the freedom of 
 opinion terminated ? In every man's being afraid of hav- 
 ing any opinion of his own ; so that virtue and vice, justice 
 and injustice, morality and immorality, stand upon the 
 same platform, and are covered over with the same mantle : 
 and that, not a mantle of charity, but of fear. And so 
 will it go on, until we turn from these vanities to serve the 
 living God : until we trust, not in refuges like political 
 institutions, and mortal men, and public opinion ; but take 
 the arm of the Lord for our defense, and the Word of the 
 Lord for our rule of life, and the Spirit of the Lord for our 
 counsellor and guide. Subject after subject of boasting 
 will be snatched from us by the withering hand of the 
 
Our National Sin of Proud Boasting, 273 
 
 Almighty, until laws, institutions, country, shall all be min- 
 gled in one common ruin. And as the nations which the 
 Lord destroyed before our face, so shall we perish. 
 
 The natural effect of this exceeding proud talk is begin- 
 ning to be perceived in a growing contempt for the Word 
 of God, and the precepts of the Bible. Xo allowance is 
 made for the wisdom of a Being like God, who sees the end 
 from the beginning, and knows the effects of His positive, 
 as well as His moral arrangements, upon the characters and 
 conduct of His creatures : and the wisdom of a people so 
 exceeding wise, as we are eyeiy day told that we are, is pre- 
 ferred to that which dictated the Bible, and promulged its 
 morals. Xothing is bowed to, — eyen though it come from 
 the Bible, eyen though it be writ there with a pencil of 
 light, — unless it can be shown to be accordant with a lim- 
 ited reason, or a short-sighted utilitarianism. All the pos- 
 itive institutions of religion are beginning to be sneered at. 
 The Sabbaths are polluted, because man thinks one day as 
 good as another: although God has directly commanded its 
 being hallowed, and reckoned it among the chief sins of 
 Israel, as ye haye heard read in the Scriptures this day, 1 
 that they were not kept sacred. The Ministry is degraded, 
 because man thinks one religious person is as good as 
 another : although God has distinctly set apart an order of 
 men for that yocatiou, with whom He promised always to 
 be, to the end of the world ; and grieyously punished those 
 who assumed its functions, under that dispensation where 
 immediate rewards and punishments testified His approba- 
 tion or disapprobation. The Sacraments are despised, thou- 
 sands going to their graves without Baptism, or the Sacra- 
 ment of the Supper ; because man thinks faith in the heart 
 is all that is necessary : although Christ has said : " Except 
 a man be bom of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
 
 1 Ezek. xx. to v. 27, is the Morning Lesson for the 3d Sunday in Lent. 
 18 
 
274 Our National Sin of Proud Boasting. 
 
 into the kingdom of God ; " 1 and, " Except ye eat the flesh 
 of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in 
 you." 2 And, from the positive institutions of the Bible, 
 be assured we shall very soon pass over to the moral pre- 
 cepts ; — nay, have we not already assaulted them ? — and 
 shall pronounce murder, and adultery, and theft, not such 
 crying sins as God would make us believe. Alas for my 
 country, that it should so soon have run to such crying 
 corruption ! Not yet a century old, yet vitiated to the core 
 with unbelief and immorality ; and the people loving to 
 have it so ! 
 
 Whereunto will all this come? It will have first, my 
 hearers, — unless the Spirit of the Lord raise a standard 
 against the overwhelming flood, — a natural punishment ; 
 and then be visited judicially by the Lord. These are two 
 distinct results ; as distinct as the capital punishment 
 which awaits the murderer at the hands of the law, and 
 the remorse of conscience which he suffers as the natural 
 consequence of his crime. The spirit of pride, leading to 
 unbelief, to self-confidence, to a reliance upon human wis- 
 dom and natural virtue, will very soon cover the country 
 with the fruits of infidelity, and the works of the flesh, — 
 with lawlessness, with adultery, with fornication, with un- 
 ci can n ess, with lasciviousness, with hatred, variance, strife, 
 envyings, murders, drunkenness, and such like : until all 
 virtuous persons shall feel that the natural punishment is 
 so sore, they will long and pray for a judicial visitation of 
 the Lord, to purify and cleanse the foulness which is all 
 about them. And it will come, in some shape or other, 
 " for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions 
 are weighed," — in just such shape as shall be most humil- 
 iating to us, as shall cast our pride and our arrogancy to 
 the dust. God is not satisfied that evils shall run only to 
 
 i S. John iii. 5. 2 Ibid. vi. 53. 
 
Our National Sin of Proud Boasting. 275 
 
 tlieir natural results. Upon those results He superinduces, 
 in all the arrangements of His punishments, a positive 
 wrath, which will fall in judgment upon those whose 
 actions He has weighed, unless they deprecate His wrath 
 and turn away His fury. Although, for the moment, we 
 see not that wrath gathering around us, still all actions are 
 open before His eyes, all actions are weighed in His bal- 
 ances — the balances of the sanctuary ; and when the sins 
 of the people are filled up, the sword descends, and they 
 find the word " Tekel " written against them : " Thou art 
 weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." 1 
 
 That such may not be our fate, let us strive and pray, my 
 beloved fellow-Christians ! What should we do in an emer- 
 gency like this, — an emergency pressing every day more 
 aud more upon us, — but cry unto the Lord for help ? Al- 
 though the prophecy had gone forth against Xineveh, yet 
 when the people turned unto the Lord with all their heart, 
 in repentance, and in sackcloth, God forgave them the 
 wickedness of their sin, and removed His avenging angel 
 from over them. Although He had led up the Assyrians 
 against Jerusalem, yet when His servant turned unto Him 
 in earnest prayer, He sent His sword into the midst of his 
 ouemies, and delivered him. Let us turn in like manner 
 now. We know not what may be overhanging us. We 
 know not what the Lord, whose eyes run to and fro in the 
 earth, has seen in us for punishment and wrath. Our con- 
 sciences fain tell us that He has seen enough ! His succes- 
 sive strokes upon our rulers tell us that He has seen 
 enough ! Let us take warning from these glimpses which 
 we have had of His glittering sword! If the gleam of 
 that sword be so awful, what must be its full vengeance, 
 when it is poured out in fury upon a people ? God avert it 
 from us ! 
 
 1 Dan. v. 27. 
 
276 Our National Sin of Proud Boasting. 
 
 But " in vain shall we pray, if we do nothing/' says old 
 Bishop Hall. " Onr prayers serve only to testify the truth 
 of our desires ; and to what purpose shall we pretend a de- 
 sire of that, which we endeavor not to effect ? " Let us be- 
 g-in the remedy. Let us "talk no more so exceeding proudly. 
 Let not arrogancy come out of our mouths." Let us clear 
 our skirts, at least, of this vain boasting, of which the 
 country is so guilty. Ten righteous men in Sodom would 
 have saved it ; and a few determined Christians may avert 
 the wrath of the Almighty from this land. Will you 
 be these Christians ? Will you humble yourselves before 
 God, and give Him the praise and the glory of all the good 
 which we enjoy, and take to yourselves the shame and the 
 confusion of face which belong to the guilty ? If ye will, 
 that humiliation will give power to your prayers, and earn- 
 estness to your endeavors. If ye will, ye may set an exam- 
 ple that shall bless your homes for ages to come. 
 
 One question more : Will ye add to this prayer and this 
 humiliation, a Scriptural view of vice? Ah, my hearers, 
 we are all guilty in this particular, calling good, evil, and 
 evil, good, — sweet, bitter, and bitter, sweet. We do not 
 make the distinctions which we should do, in our conversa- 
 tion, in our actions, in our social intercourse, between vir- 
 tue and vice. Besides the punishment upon vice where- 
 with God has promised to visit it, there is a punishment 
 which Society is bound to inflict, — sternly to inflict, — else 
 will that Society itself reap the bitter fruits of its neglect ! 
 Every crime which Society lightly passes over, is, in so far, 
 encouraged by Society ; for ofttimes the severest punish- 
 ment of vice is the social punishment. Man can often bet- 
 ter bear death, than the stern severity of the social circle : 
 but that severity is needful, until repentance and a sufficient 
 probation shall have again opened the door for the re-ad- 
 mission of the contrite penitent. But the impenitent sin- 
 
Our National Sin of Proud Boasting, 277 
 
 ner should be frowned from its ranks. Its doors should be 
 closed in his face, as the virtue of our own firesides is re- 
 garded ! His name should never cross the lips of the vir- 
 tuous, save for reprobation, or for prayer. Hear, Chris- 
 tian, what the Epistle for the day prescribes as your duty : 
 " And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of dark- 
 ness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to 
 speak of those things which are done of them in secret." 1 
 Is this so ? See to it that it be so : for if it be not, God 
 will draw His sword against the righteous and the wicked 
 together, and then shall it not return into its scabbard ! 
 
 1844. 
 
 1 Ephes. v. 11, 12. 
 
Cttenty'gitfJ) Sermon 
 
 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, say- 
 ing, Hosanna to the Son of David : Blessed is He that cometh in 
 the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. — S. Matthew 
 xxi. 9. 
 
 rilHE entry of our Saviour into Jerusalem, described in 
 our text and in the parallel passage of S. Luke, seems, 
 to imaginations filled with false ideas of glory, to have been 
 a very mean and paltry affair. A meek and humble Man, 
 clothed in the every-day garb of the country, seated upon a 
 colt, the foal of an ass, appears but a poor representative 
 of royalty, preceded and followed though He was by multi- 
 tudes heralding His approach. Accustomed as the world is 
 to imperial processions very different from this, it cannot 
 associate greatness except with pomp and ostentation. 
 There must be tinsel, there must be show, there must be 
 something to strike upon the senses, ere even the most ed- 
 ucated and refined among us can be satisfied that we are in 
 contact with something above ourselves. Although the 
 mighty works of God, the most truly sublime with which 
 our experience has made us acquainted, have been per- 
 formed with a severe and studied simplicity, — although all 
 the mighty processes of Nature, processes confined not to 
 this world but pervading the whole universe of God, are car- 
 ried on with a quiet harmony which keeps us almost uncon- 
 scious of their action, — so unstrung are all our conceptions 
 of things that we pass by this natural and therefore true law 
 which has been impressed upon the works of creation and 
 
Christ's Triumphal Entry. 279 
 
 Providence, and frame one for ourselves, which shall be 
 more vulgar, and therefore better adapted to an uncrowned 
 and disordered manhood. When God would dispel darkness, 
 
 — would usher into being that agent which was to clothe 
 the world with beauty, — He merely spake the word, " Let 
 there be Light : " and " there was Light." When He would 
 bring order out of chaos, and wake into existence the vast 
 succession of beings that people His universe, " He com- 
 manded," says the Psalmist, "and they were created." 
 And now, how simply and yet how gloriously does the uni- 
 
 » verse roll on, obeying' the sweet influences of Pleiades, — 
 night and day, winter and summer, seed-time and harvest 
 following in their appointed times ! But because we only 
 feel their blessings, and their unostentatious grandeur is 
 not made to strike upon our senses, the lesson which they 
 should teach is unobserved, and fails to bring us back to 
 the divine idea of glory. And therefore when He makes 
 the advent of His Son to be of a piece with all His works, 
 
 — grand in its simplicity, and its grandeur only seen when 
 its vast influence and its eternal blessings are displayed, — 
 man cannot reconcile it with his distorted conceptions, but 
 turns into an argument for unbelief that which most strik- 
 ingly proves that the coming of Christ was not an im- 
 posture of man, but an ordinance of God, rising quietly, 
 grandly, sublimely upon a world of darkness and of sin. 
 
 This entrance of our Saviour into Jerusalem, was no 
 more humble than all the other visible accompaniments 
 of our Saviour's coming. He was humble in His birth, — 
 a carpenter's reputed son, and born and cradled in a man- 
 ger. He was humble in His training, — growing up among 
 obscure people in the land of Galilee. He was humble in 
 His life, — poor, separate from sinners, having not where to 
 lay His head. He was humble in His followers, — a few 
 fishermen of His reputed country forming His retinue, and 
 
280 Christ's Triumphal Entry. 
 
 His worshippers coming' from the ranks of the despised and 
 the unclean. He was humble in His language, - — speaking" 
 the words of gentleness, of meekness, of mercy, of charity. 
 To have cast off all this at once, — to have put on His di- 
 vine glory, and to have entered Jerusalem with royal pomp, 
 
 — should have been altogether inharmonious, should have 
 been to have confounded the glory of His Second Coming 
 with the humility of His first. He was to appear before the 
 world as the antitype and complement of all God's works, 
 
 — as His sublimest mystery, and most perfect glory ; and 
 was therefore to exhibit in Himself all the marks of the 1 
 Divine method of proceeding: and this, above all, of mani- 
 festing greatness not through that which dazzles, but 
 through that which blesses, — not by an encouragement 
 of human pride, but by sanctifying virtue, and making that 
 the greatness of the earth beneath as it is of the Heavens 
 above ! 
 
 As the true greatness of our Saviour's mission was to 
 consist in transferring, through His atonement and the 
 power of the Holy Ghost, man's idea of human excellence 
 from outward appearances to inward holiness, it was not 
 only of a piece with God's sublimest works that He should 
 come simply and unostentatiously before the world : but it 
 was likewise necessary that He should embody the lowliness 
 which He had come to teach. Had He been a mere man, 
 the simpleness of life and the meekness of carriage which 
 distinguished Him should not have been half so striking as 
 when, proving perpetually, although only by glimpses, that 
 He was u the Son of God with power," He yet maintained 
 it as the rule of His life and the legacy of His disciples. 
 There was no necessity laid upon Him that He should thus 
 live and thus die. It was a voluntary self-denial, from the 
 cradle to the Cross ! " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray 
 to my Father," was His rebuke to Peter when that disciple 
 
Christ's Triumphal Entry. 281 
 
 would have defended Him with the sword, " and he shall 
 presently give me more than twelve legions of angels ? " 
 But how then should His great mission have been fulfilled, 
 of being the Exemplar of life for those who could not com- 
 mand the heavens to pour out its embattled legions P He 
 was to teach the world how to be truly great, and that was 
 not by encircling Himself with the glory of His Father's 
 kingdom — which was to be the manifestation when the 
 economy of grace was ended, — but by exhibiting those 
 qualities of heart which were afterwards to be called " the 
 fruits of the Spirit/' — love, peace, long suffering, gentle- 
 ness, goodness, — under circumstances in which they should 
 be His only claims to glory. What the world would call a 
 lowly life, — lowly in all its phases and accompaniments, — 
 was the chosen life of Jesus. He humbled Himself, — put 
 away His glory that it might not impede His purpose, — 
 and in every act of His brief life on earth, was teaching us 
 that all that God called great lay in the soul, and that when 
 He should come a second time in His power, He should not 
 take to His glory the mighty of the world, but those who 
 had not been ashamed to tread in His footsteps of lowly 
 virtue and sanctified holiness. 
 
 Those, therefore, seem to me to be entirely at fault, who 
 would use this humble appearance of the Son of God while 
 on earth, as an argument against His divinity. It is, to 
 my mind, one of the very strongest in its favor. The sim- 
 ple yet sublime grandeur of His whole demeanor is so in 
 harmony with all that we know of the character and ac- 
 tions of God, that it points Him out, to the spiritual eye, as 
 the image of His Father's glory. And then that total dis- 
 regard of all human views, — that trampling under foot of 
 all human pride, — that new aspect which He put upon life 
 when He lavished the blessings of God upon the poor in 
 spirit, upon the meek, upon the pure in heart, upon the 
 
282 Christ's Triumphal Entry. 
 
 merciful, — that sanctity with which His example has in- 
 vested poverty and sorrow and humility, — that new ideal 
 of glory which He has impressed upon the world : all sep- 
 arated Him, by an immeasurable distance, from every other 
 who has assumed the character of a divine teacher. But 
 if any should fail to see, in these things, the marks of His 
 divinity, let me show them that while the advent of Christ 
 was ushered in quietly and unostentatiously to the vulgar 
 eye, and while His presence was unmarked save by its bless- 
 ings : it was preceded by a chain of the grandest evidence 
 which has ever been piled together, and followed by an in- 
 fluence which has revolutionized the world in its feelings, 
 its habits, its hopes, its religion. 
 
 If one were asked to arrange evidence for such a fact as 
 the appearance of the Son of God upon earth, he would 
 say, that the most striking proof of this mission would be 
 His descent from Heaven in august pomp, so that there 
 might be no mistake about His divine character and mis- 
 sion. This would seem to be such testimony as would sat- 
 isfy anybody. Now, passing by altogether the entire over- 
 throw that this would be of the principle of Faith upon 
 which Christianity is founded, and the complete change it 
 would produce in the Christian probation, it must be, after 
 the extinction of the generation which witnessed this de- 
 scent, only the testimony of tradition, which soon becomes 
 the vaguest and weakest of all evidence. Our Lord must 
 descend from Heaven for every generation of men, or else 
 the testimony, which, at first sight, seemed so desirable and 
 so complete, would soon vanish, and leave no impress be- 
 hind. For a mission like that of our Saviour, which was 
 to embrace in its benefits all people and all time, the evi- 
 dence must be peculiar and permanent. It must have a 
 local habitation, so that it should not be lost amid the rise 
 and decay of nations, amid the migrations of people, in 
 
Christ's Triumphal Entry. 283 
 
 the confusion and desolations of war : while it should be of 
 a diffusive character, capable of exhibition and appliance to 
 the furthest extremities of the world. While it should have 
 its central shrine, it should also have its temples, wherein 
 man might reason and be satisfied, wherever man should 
 exist upon the face of the earth. It should likewise be 
 germinaDt evidence, such as should produce its blade at one 
 period, its blossom at another, its rich clusters of fruit in 
 the fullness of times. It should be massive evidence, such 
 as man could neither create nor destroy, increasing in its 
 momentum as the world rolled on in years. It should be 
 permanent evidence, written upon the face of Nature, as 
 well as upon the history of nations and in the literature of 
 a chosen people. Such evidence as this should be as much 
 above the direct testimony of a visible and glorious descent 
 once made in the face of the world, as the daily rising of 
 the sun and shining in our very eyes would be a better evi- 
 dence of the existence of light, than any traditional testi- 
 mony which might come to us of its creation. Well, such 
 grand evidence has Christianity. Judea is its central 
 shrine, the hallowed spot around which has circled the his- 
 tory of the world; from which, when Christ had come, 
 floated upon the wings of the everlasting Gospel to every 
 nation and kindred and people, the evidence of his Messiah- 
 ship. And that evidence has found belief everywhere, has 
 built temples everywhere, has made its home in the human 
 heart everywhere, and that because of its nature. It had 
 in it qualities which fitted it for minds of every cast, which 
 adapted it to temperaments of every degree. If one was 
 not satisfied with the traditional testimony of miracles, he 
 could find rest for his spirit in that wonderful train of 
 prophecies which has been fulfilling through the whole his- 
 tory of the world, and is still fulfilling under his very eyes. 
 If the appearance of our Lord in His condition of humility 
 
284 Christ's Triumphal Entry, 
 
 upon earth was distasteful to the conceptions of a man of 
 peculiar mind, he might find contentment for his aspiring 
 thoughts, that around the cradle of that Child earth's 
 greatest nations had been made to play their parts and fulfill 
 their destiny. If one should doubt the records of the peo- 
 ple of whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, God has 
 stamped the corroboration of their testimony upon the face 
 of the very earth which they once trod, and upon the char- 
 acter of the nations which encompassed them. And if all 
 of these should fail to convince, there is evidence likewise 
 for the conscience, and the divine truth of the Scriptures is 
 made to pierce into its very recesses, and wring thence the 
 confession of the Samaritan woman, — He " told me all 
 things that ever I did." Every shape which evidence could 
 take, has the evidence for Christianity assumed; and if 
 human nature cannot detect the greatness of our Lord 
 under the garb of His lowliness, cannot see the divinity 
 breaking forth from beneath the shroud of His humanity, 
 he may, at least, find food for his admiration in the wonder- 
 ful tissue of proof which the Living God has woven to- 
 gether in richest harmony for the identification of His Son. 
 He could not put upon Him the vulgar greatness of pomp 
 and show, for that should have been alien from His nature 
 and works, and subversive of the lessons He was to teach 
 the world : but He could make Him, in His lowliness, the 
 focus of all the action of the world ; in His Crucifixion, the 
 radiating point for all its blessings ! 
 
 We are told by the Evangelist that the multitudes which 
 went before and that followed, cried " Hosanna to the son 
 of David : Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the 
 Lord ; Hosanna in the highest." And these voices were but 
 the commencement of that unceasing chorus which has 
 ever since been swelling up from the earth re-echoing these 
 hosannas, and which will go on increasing until it is 
 
Christ's Triumphal Entry. 285 
 
 merged in that triumphant song* of " Blessing and honor 
 and glory " which shall eternally roll through the Heavens. 
 And this, my hearers, is another direction in which God has 
 manifested the greatness of His Son, in that the influence 
 of His divine mission has heen felt and shall he forever 
 felt wherever there is a wounded spirit or a sorrowing heart 
 or a guilty conscience among the children of men. The 
 noble and the mighty and the prosperous may not have 
 acknowledged it, because they have been offended at the 
 ideal of greatness upon which it required that they should 
 dress themselves : but the multitudes of the earth, like the 
 multitudes of Jerusalem, have ever recognized in Jesus 
 their Friend, their Deliverer, their Saviour. For them — 
 the humble, the lowly, the oppressed, the weak — has His 
 coming been the harbinger of good. Their humility has 
 He exalted 5 their lowliness has He sanctified ; their weak- 
 ness has He changed into power ; the chains of their op- 
 pression, whether chains of ignorance, or passion, or lust, 
 or power, has He broken asunder. His example has nerved 
 the hearts of myriads to labor and to suffer for their bless- 
 ing. His teaching has purified the conscience of the world 
 so that oppression and crime are rebuked, abashed, even 
 though they be not destroyed. His death has opened the 
 portals of Heaven, and brought down the Spirit of God to 
 dwell with them as their Guide, their Sanctifier, their abid- 
 ing Comforter ! To Him are temples raised in every land 
 and by every people. At His name ten thousand times ten 
 thousand knees are bent, and voices which no man can 
 number confess the power of His presence. Under His 
 eternal wings are clustered the contrite, and the penitent, 
 and the returning prodigal. To Him the mourning flee for 
 comfort, and the sinful for pardon, and the dying for im- 
 mortality ! Unbelief may suggest its doubts. Wickedness 
 may hurl its taunts. The scoffer's laugh and the skeptic's 
 
286 Christ's Triumphal Entry. 
 
 sneer may grate upon the harmony of a ransomed world. 
 But they can avail nothing against the multitudes who 
 strew the path of His glory with their offerings, and cry 
 with the earnestness of ransomed joy: "Blessed is He 
 that cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the 
 highest." 
 
 By those who have opposed the religion of Jesus this has 
 been styled the voice of ignorance, — a clamor raised and 
 cherished by priests and hirelings, whose interest it has 
 been to keep alive this shout of divine praise. It is the voice 
 of suffering humanity, rejoicing in the coming of its great 
 Deliverer ; recognizing in His life and sufferings the very 
 Saviour whom they needed, one who might be touched with 
 a feeling of their infirmities. The multitudes of the earth 
 — for such are the poor and the lowly — do not ask for cold 
 philosophy or abstract teachings. They ask for sympathy, 
 for the voice of compassion, and the hand of relief! A 
 Saviour who should have come to them in the garb of 
 wealth, or with the pomp of power, should have been sep- 
 arated from them by all the conventionalities of life and the 
 associations of the world. But when the meek and lowly 
 Jesus enters their homes of poverty and suffering, simple in 
 His dress, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, His 
 heart yearning with love, and His hand mighty to save and 
 mighty to relieve; they spring to meet him, and shout, 
 " Hosanna to the Son of David : Blessed is He that cometh 
 in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna in the Highest." What 
 care they for evidence ? They have the evidence of a yearn- 
 ing heart, that this is the Saviour of their necessity! 
 What care they for cavillers ? They are immovable as the 
 blind man in the Gospel, and their cry is : " One thing 
 I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." What care 
 they that He did not put on, while incarnate, His divine 
 glory ? They feel that His greatness in Love, in Mercy, in 
 
Christ's Triumphal Entry. 287 
 
 Charity, in Forgiveness, in Kedemption, is far more to 
 them than the pomp which has ground them to the dust, 
 and the power which has forged the fetters of their dark- 
 ness ! 
 
 The greatness of our Lord and Saviour must, you per- 
 ceive, my hearers, be looked for somewhere else than in 
 any vulgar parade as king or conqueror while on earth. 
 If you search for it, you will find it in many directions, but 
 never taking this shape. The salvation which is through 
 Christ is a great salvation, but never in the sense of worldly 
 greatness. It is great, as having been the great mystery 
 of heaven from the beginning, — that which angels desired 
 to penetrate. It is great, as having brought from the 
 bosom of the Father, and shrouded in human form, His 
 only begotten Son, the glory of His Father and the express 
 image of His person. It is great, as having been the 
 charmed centre, around which every thing in creation has 
 been made to turn. It is great, in that nature, and na- 
 tions, and men, and angels, and devils, have all been con- 
 strained to form its chain of evidence. It is great, because 
 an influence has gone out from the Cross of the Crucified 
 which has changed the world, and turned it from idols to 
 serve the living God. It is great, because it is silently roll- 
 ing on to its consummation, and is moulding every thing to 
 the purposes of God's will. But none of these are effects 
 which the world cares about. There is nothing dazzling 
 about them. They are slow in their operation, silent in 
 their progress, natural in their course, gradual in their 
 effects. Generation succeeds generation, without much 
 apparent result ; and yet when those generations have 
 waxed into centuries, the world is seen to have grown in 
 the extent of its Christianity, and in the power of its influ- 
 ence. Three centuries ago, and this whole continent was 
 in the darkness of Paganism : and to-day its citizens stand 
 
288 Christ's Triumphal Entry, 
 
 among the foremost as the worshippers of Christ and the 
 heralds of His salvation. Five centuries since, and Chris- 
 tianity was limited to a single continent, and that corrupted 
 to its core : to-day there is no isle nor continent where the 
 name Jesus is not preached, and His example followed by 
 faithful disciples who for His name and glory's sake are 
 content to be lowly, and abased, and poor, and humble, 
 and suffering ! Eighteen centuries ago, and ail there was 
 of Christianity clustered around the Cross of the dying Naz- 
 arene : to-day, and voices of every kindred and nation and 
 tongue and people are joining in the loud Hosanna, 
 " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." 
 
 And will not you, my people, speed on this glorious 
 cause? Will you not join in this shout of the rejoicing 
 multitude, " Hosanna to the Son of David," and strew your 
 offerings under His advancing footsteps ? His greatness 
 it is, which has made your homes to be circles of refinement 
 and of virtue, of lofty culture and pure devotion. His 
 greatness it is, which has bound your firesides together 
 with the bond of immortality, and made your love undying. 
 His greatness it is, which has given to woman her holy in- 
 fluence, and transformed her from a plaything and a slave 
 into the wise mother, the virtuous wife, the loving child. 
 Great our Lord may not have seemed to be to the eye of 
 sense, when born in Bethlehem, or fleeing into Egypt, or 
 wandering through Samaria and Galilee, or riding into 
 Jerusalem upon an ass, or agonizing in Gethsemane, or 
 bound before the judgment seat, or dying on Calvary de- 
 serted and forsaken ; but great He was in all the mystery 
 that enveloped heaven ere He became incarnate ; great in 
 the promises and the prophecy and the types and the sacri- 
 fices which heralded His birth ; great in the sublime influ- 
 ence which He has diffused through every department of 
 life, from the private chamber to the royal throne : but 
 
Christ y s Triumphal Entry. 289 
 
 greater than all, when, at the consummation of all things, 
 He shall gather together His people from earth and sea 
 and the chambers of the dead, and glorify them with that 
 glory which He had with His Father ere the world was ! 
 Arouse yourselves in time, my people, and understand that 
 greatness ! Be not so blinded with the false glare of this 
 world's glory, as not to see this outspeaking Divinity of 
 your Saviour. Link not greatness forever in your minds 
 with pomp and power and earthly glitter ; but with the 
 refined qualities of the soul, — Virtue, Devotion, Holiness ! 
 
 19 
 
Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and 
 on our children. — S. Matthew xxvii. 25. 
 
 TT OW dreadful would be our feelings at times, if, just as 
 we had finished an action, all its consequences were 
 made to flash upon us ! What a change would there often 
 be, in a moment, from indifference to terror, from confi- 
 dence to dismay ! Things that under the present arrange- 
 ment of God seem but of trifling interest, would, under 
 such an operation, acquire an importance beyond concep- 
 tion. Events that appear but of passing moment, would 
 be seen to stretch away into an endless eternity. 
 
 How reckless is it, under a dispensation in which a finite 
 mind is moving in the midst of an infinite and incompre- 
 hensible scheme, for man to dash on without Scriptural 
 knowledge or a heavenly guide. How daring for him, sur- 
 rounded as he is by controlling spirits, invested as he is 
 with an immortal soul, capable as he is of infinite happi- 
 ness or infinite misery, to think or say or do any thing with- 
 out looking to its consequences. Consequences are eternal, 
 as well as temporal ; affect others, as well as ourselves ; 
 change their nature and become causes, and are prolific in 
 effects — glorious or dreadful — like themselves ; perpetu- 
 ating to generations yet unborn their blessing or their 
 curse. We do not see them. We cannot follow them. 
 They circle away beyond our view and beyond our concep- 
 tion. But still they are ours ; and one day shall they be 
 traced out for us, by the hand of our Judge, along their 
 
The Blood of God, 
 
 291 
 
 pathway of evil or of good, amazing us with their extent, 
 overwhelming us with their awfulness. 
 
 How little did the people of Jerusalem, who invoked, at 
 the judgment seat of Pilate, the blood of Jesus upon them 
 and their children, understand what they were doing ! 
 How little did they appreciate the consequences that were 
 wrapped up in that one rash sentence ! Could these have 
 passed before them, on the instant, in their terrible array : 
 their tongues would have cleaved to the roof of their 
 mouths, — their spirits would have melted within them for 
 very terror. The personal suffering, the national disgrace, 
 the terrible siege wherein for very straitness they did eat 
 the fruit of their own body, the abomination of desolation 
 standing in the Holy Place, Jerusalem ploughed over, them- 
 selves scattered upon the whole earth, ages of widowhood 
 and persecution and reproach and contempt and misery, — 
 no home, no ease, no rest : these in themselves would have 
 made up an appalling picture of evil, for parents to call 
 down upon their children. But when to these are added 
 their spiritual miseries, — that want of a Temple, of an 
 Altar, of a Sacrifice ; that absence of Jehovah from the 
 midst of them ; that darkness of soul that has settled upon 
 them ; that inscrutable purpose of God iu regard to their 
 salvation ; that trembling of spirit and fearfulness of heart 
 which Mosaic prophecy has fixed upon them : they would 
 at once have realized the woe denounced by the Lord Jesus 
 upon those by whom He should be betrayed ; they would 
 at once have cried out, in anguish of spirit: "Would to 
 God we had never been born ! 99 
 
 But hidden as these consequences were from their eyes, 
 
 — hidden by their unbelief, their malice, their contempt, 
 
 — their clamorous cry was, " Crucify Him, crucify Him ! " 
 And when Pilate washed his hands before them, saying, " I 
 am innocent of the blood of this just person : see ye to it ; " 
 
292 The Blood of God. 
 
 the reckless answer was : " His blood be on us, and on our 
 children." 
 
 It is a bold step for man to take any one's blood on him- 
 self and on his children ; for blood crieth unto the Lord 
 from the earth in a mysterious way, and fetcheth down a 
 curse : but to invoke such Blood as was found upon the 
 Cross, was unutterable madness. If they had the most dis- 
 tant conception that the Being standing with them before 
 Pilate was their Messiah ; if the vaguest doubt floated in 
 their minds that He might indeed be the Prince of Peace ; 
 if the slightest testimony witnessed to His identity with 
 Him of whom the Prophets had spoken from the beginning ; 
 their folly was inconceivable : for the Blood they were pre- 
 suming to take as a burden upon them and theirs, was 
 Blood which concentred in itself every thing that could 
 make it precious, and sacred, and vengeance-bringing. It 
 was the blood of the everlasting Covenant, — that which had 
 entered into the counsel of Peace as the price of man's re- 
 demption ; which had been accepted, when every thing else 
 in Heaven, and Earth, and the Universe of God, had been 
 reckoned valueless ; which had sealed the New Testament 
 of Mercy. It was the Blood that was the substance of all 
 their sacrificial blood ; which had given to their sacrifices 
 their whole value and efficacy ; which had made them, for a 
 season, mighty for the remission of sin and the sanctifica- 
 tion of the soul. It was the blood of God, according as S. 
 Luke tells us in his Acts of the Apostles, when he speaks 
 of the Church of God which He redeemed with His own 
 Blood : awful and mysterious theme, — incomprehensible 
 and soul-subduing thought, before which we must bow in 
 humble adoration, — the blood of God made Man, prepared, 
 infused, circulated for this very end. It was the blood that 
 is forever offered at the mercy-seat of God, pleading for 
 mercy, crying for vengeance, the Blood of the Lamb as it 
 
The Blood of God, 293 
 
 had been slain, which the Apostle of the Apocalypse saw in 
 the midst of the Throne and of the Elders, — snch was 
 the Blood which this maddened multitude invoked upon 
 themselves, and upon their children ; which has cleaved to 
 them as a curse forever since ; which still follows them, 
 saying, " True and righteous are Thy judgments, Lord God 
 Almighty." 1 
 
 What a burden for a human creature to bear ! The blood 
 of a fellow-mortal upon us subdues our spirit, quenches 
 our energy, furrows our brow, whitens our head, mixes bit- 
 terness in every cup of life : but the blood of God, oh what 
 a burden ! If Cain said, when the blood of his brother 
 was upon him, "My punishment is greater than I can 
 bear. . . . Every one that findeth me shall slay me:" 2 what 
 shall he say, upon whom is resting the blood of his God ? 
 Surely every thing in the Universe must rise up against 
 him, — Nature, which that Blood has freed from its curse ; 
 Saints, whom that Blood has ransomed from destruction ; 
 Angels, whom their King, clothed in a vesture dipped in 
 that Blood, leads forth as His avenging host ; God Himself, 
 before whom it is offered day and night unceasingly : — 
 Lord God of mercy ! May none of us ever have the Blood 
 of Thy Son upon us ! 
 
 But we can have it upon us ! we can bring it down upon 
 us, and upon our children. We can crucify Christ afresh, 
 and take upon us, and ours, the whole curse, present and 
 eternal. We cannot escape the contact of that Blood. It 
 has been shed for us ; and upon us, and ours, must it have 
 its operation. We cannot escape it. If we climb up to 
 Heaven, it meets us there. If we descend to hell, it has 
 been there before us. If we cover ourselves with darkness, 
 it tracks us as in the light, having itself shrouded the 
 world in darkness, even when it was laying its terrible 
 1 Rev. xyi. 7. 2 Gen. iv. 13, 14. 
 
294 The Blood of God. 
 
 grasp upon those who shed it. Christ died for the sins of 
 the whole world, past, present, and to come ; and our sins 
 formed a part of the load that pressed upon the Soul of this 
 God, and wrung the Blood from his lacerated Body. It 
 has been shed for us. The Covenant was, that He should 
 bear the sins of all ; and we must answer for our portion 
 of it. Our sins nailed Him to the Cross. Our sins pierced 
 His hands, His feet, His heart. Our sins brought down 
 upon Him the wrath of God, and the darkness of desertion. 
 And we must account for our share in the work. It will 
 not do to lay it upon those who stood around the judgment- 
 seat and cried for His Blood; nor even upon those who 
 gloated on Him as He hung upon the Cross. We are in 
 like condemnation with them. The Blood is upon us : and 
 it must either wash us, and place us among the ransomed 
 of God ; or else fetch down upon us the wrath and fierce- 
 ness of the Almighty. It is not voluntary with us whether 
 we shall stand connected with that Blood. From eternity 
 has that been settled. It is the blood of the everlasting 
 Covenant, and we must meet it everywhere and forever, in 
 the shape of mercy, or the form of vengeance. It remains 
 for us only to determine whether it shall glorify us and ele- 
 vate us to the rank of the redeemed, or whether it shall 
 press us down to utter darkness, the blackness of darkness. 
 
 And we can entail it upon our children. We can act so 
 that they, as well as we, shall bear the curse of this Blood. 
 We can hand down its burden from generation to genera- 
 tion, and it shall lie heavy upon our posterity, and they 
 shall writhe under it, until the grace of God cut off the 
 entail. 0 my beloved friends, deep and awful are the deal- 
 ings of God in Christ : but they should be looked at here, 
 in all their depth and in all their awfulness, before it be too 
 late to help ourselves or those we love. God has set before 
 us, in the Jewish people, a living example of His dealings 
 
The Blood of God, 295 
 
 in this regard. " His blood be on us, and on our children : " 
 and we see how it hath dealt with them unto this day, — 
 how it will deal with them, until God " pour upon the house 
 of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit 
 of grace and of supplications : and they shall look upon 
 him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him 
 as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness 
 for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." 1 
 And so are His dealings now. Unbelief, contempt for re- 
 ligion, vice, perpetuate themselves, pass down, from father 
 to son, and to son's son, until the horrible succession is lost 
 to the view of the mortal eye that has traced it ; but not 
 lost to the Eternal Eye, which never sleepeth. It was a 
 noble lineage of faith which the Apostle ascribed to Timo- 
 thy, when he spoke of the " unfeigned faith " that was in 
 him, " which dwelt first in his grandmother Lois, and his 
 mother Eunice : " 2 and how often, even with our short- 
 sightedness, can we trace the descent of infidelity from gen- 
 eration to generation, — can we trace the fruits of vice 
 as they break out, age after age, in the blood that hath 
 planted them in the race. The Blood of Christ cannot be 
 trifled with. It is destruction to ourselves, destruction to 
 all about us, — it is a plague upon our house : unless we 
 can turn it, through faith and prayer, into a blessing. 
 
 And how naturally is the dreadful result worked out. 
 Those who say unto God, " Depart from us ; for we desire 
 not the knowledge of thy ways ; " 3 who say of Christ, 
 " His blood be on us, and on our children : " themselves 
 produce the horrible result. Their principles, their pre- 
 cepts, their example, are all against religion : and the 
 watchful eye of childhood fixes itself upon its parent's 
 movements, drinks in his unguarded language of irreligion, 
 notes his open marks of scorn, imitates his neglect of all 
 1 Zech. xii. 10. 2 2 Tim. i. 5. 3 Job xxi. 14. 
 
296 
 
 The Blood of God, 
 
 sacred observances, and glories that he is like his father, — 
 a despiser of God, and a scorner of the Blood of Jesus. 
 And the father, too, glories in the manliness of his boy, and 
 chuckles, perchance, at his independence of thought and 
 of feeling, and rejoices — at what P That he has made his 
 child an unbeliever ; that he has helped to put the Blood 
 of Christ upon him ; that he has doomed him, so far as he 
 can do it, to eternal misery ! A man should be thoroughly 
 convinced that Christianity is a fraud, before he takes this 
 responsibility upon himself; should be assured that it is 
 nothing to trample the Blood of Jesus under his feet ; be- 
 fore he leads his children to do it. His children God has 
 given him for nurture, for admonition, for eternal as well 
 as spiritual guidance : and he uses his power to make that 
 child, with his own will, — for the child has as yet no will 
 in the matter, — indifferent about religion, if not a scoffer. 
 And even though he be not in himself an unbeliever or a 
 scorner, — even though he show outward respect to religion, 
 and treat its observances with attention, — yet ought he 
 to ask himself seriously whether the keen observation of 
 childhood does not mark the inconsistency between his ac- 
 tions and his feelings ; does not graduate his belief and his 
 action according to the example that is most venerated and 
 esteemed in his eyes. Without family worship, without the 
 religious instruction of the fireside, without the father's 
 hand of blessing upon his children's head, without the in- 
 vocation of the Holy Spirit upon his household, the child 
 will seldom carry into the world the truth as it is in Jesus ; 
 will seldom have the Blood of Christ sprinkled upon him 
 by the Holy Ghost, so that the avenging angel shall pass 
 by him in the day of destruction. 
 
 But there is yet another class that bring down upon them- 
 selves and upon their children the Blood of Christ. And 
 they are the hypocrites, — those who use religion as a cloak, 
 
The Blood of God. 297 
 
 and wear it as a garment for convenience. This was the 
 class against whom Christ uttered the only woes, — the 
 only language of harshness that is ascrihed to Him in the 
 Scriptures. The opposers of His doctrine He answered 
 mildly. The multitudes that cried out, u Crucify him, cru- 
 cify him ! " He wept for, with compassion. They that stood 
 around His Cross, nailing Him to it, He prayed His Father 
 to forgive. But of the hypocrites, who for a pretence made 
 long prayers, He asked, " How can ye escape the damna- 
 tion of hell?" 1 And for this very reason, — hecause they 
 have taken upon them the Blood of Christ, and use it for 
 vile purposes, desecrating that, which is the most precious 
 gift of God, to lust and to iniquity. And after the same 
 natural way of which we spoke just now, does this Blood 
 rest upon their children, who grow up learning to he hypo- 
 crites, taught to look upon the religion of Jesus as a mat- 
 ter of convenience or of interest, odious in the sight of all 
 spiritual souls, a stumhling-hlock in the way of the irre- 
 ligious. Lord Jesus, teach these deluded souls the way 
 to escape damnation ! — the way to cut off the entail of 
 this Blood from their offspring ! 
 
 When the people answered, and imprecated this Blood 
 upon themselves, and upon their children, He that was to 
 pour it out stood captive, and hound, at the judgment-seat 
 of Pilate. That was their hour, and the power of darkness. 
 But the Bible tells us that there shall come out of Heaven 
 one clothed with a vesture dipped in Blood, whose name is 
 called TJie Word of God ; and there follow Him the armies 
 which are in Heaven. " And out of his mouth goeth a 
 sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations : and 
 he shall rule them with a rod of iron : and he treadeth the 
 wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." 
 And on this same vesture dipped in Blood, " a name writ- 
 1 S. Matt, xxiii. 33. 
 
298 The Blood of God. 
 
 ten, " King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." 1 And when 
 " the wine-press was trodden," " blood came out of the wine- 
 press, even unto the horse-bridles." 2 What an awful har- 
 mony of sin and of punishment ! The garment of the 
 avenger, a vesture dipped in blood, — that very Blood which 
 they had despised and invoked upon themselves, and their 
 children : the punishment to be inflicted in the wine-press 
 of the fierceness of the wrath of the Almighty, — that same 
 wine-press which He had trodden alone, when the prophet 
 saw Him, in vision, coming " from Edom, with dyed gar- 
 ments from Bozrah," " glorious in His apparel, travelling 
 in the greatness of His strength : " 3 that punishment, to 
 be trodden under foot, until their blood should come out of 
 the wine-press, — even as they had trampled under foot in 
 this world the Blood of His Atonement. How shall they 
 appear at that day, upon whom is lying the Blood of 
 Christ ? If the Saints that have been slain for the Word 
 of God and for the testimony of Jesus, cry in the Heavens 
 with a loud voice, saying, " How long, 0 Lord, holy and 
 true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them 
 that dwell on the earth?" 4 shall the Blood of Christ, 
 wrung from Him in His sweat of agony, drawn from Him 
 by the nails in His hands and in His feet, forced from Him 
 by the thorns in His forehead and the spear in His side, cry 
 for vengeance in vain, vengeance upon those who have in- 
 voked it upon them and upon their children ? It shall, and 
 it will, be heard ! Prophecy has uttered the words ; and 
 prophecy never faileth. When " the day of vengeance is 
 in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come," " I 
 will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my 
 fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, 
 and I will stain all my raiment." 5 
 
 1 Rev. xix. 13-16. 2 Key. xiv. 20. 8 Isaiah lxiii. 1. 
 
 4 Rev. vi. 10. 6 Isaiah lxiii. 3, 4. 
 
The Blood of God, 299 
 
 My beloved friends, is not this an awful doom for one to 
 bring upon himself, and upon his children 9 I have not 
 exaggerated a single word. I have not left the language 
 of Scripture for an instant. All that I have said, and 
 more besides, is contained therein ; and over all there hangs 
 the feeling that it is language that fails to convey its whole 
 awful ness, and not that the theme is exhausted. What I 
 ' have given you is the description, such as it can be received 
 into a finite mind. The reality, when we shall become spir- 
 itualized aud capable of taking in the whole sublimity, will 
 far exceed our worst conception. Until that Day of Ven- 
 geance come, and we see the Almighty in His fierceness, 
 and the Lamb in His wrath, and we feel the meaning of 
 those words, " The Blood of God : " we shall not understand 
 the horror of imprecating it upon us, and upon our children. 
 Until then, we can only use the language of the Bible, and 
 — comparing Scripture with Scripture, and gathering the 
 materials of woe — warn you against the burden of this 
 Blood. And oh ! turn not away from the description ! 
 It is the part of true courage, and of true nobleness, to 
 look the matter in the face. Say not, " These terrible 
 things shall not drive me to religion." If they are true, 
 they ought to drive you there : and it is your duty, for your 
 own sakes and for your children's sakes, to determine 
 whether they are true. Why should not the terrible things 
 of God drive us to consideration ? Is it the part of wis- 
 dom to despise what it may one day have to meet ? — to 
 rush on blindly, involving with you in one common fate all 
 that you love most dearly, to what may be eternal death 
 and intolerable anguish? If there be a probability in 
 favor of the truth of Christianity, — and even to the most 
 skeptical mind there is a very great probability, — you 
 should at once adopt it and act upon it as if it were demon- 
 stration, so awful are the interests which are included 
 
The Blood of God, 
 
 under it. And believe me, that every day that probability 
 will increase in your mind until it becomes moral certainty, 
 and you feel as sure of its truth, as you do of your per- 
 sonal identity. 
 
 Men and brethren, strive to cut off this entail of the 
 Blood of Jesus ! Let it no longer cleave as a curse to you 
 and yours ; but, by the grace of God, change it into a bless- 
 ing ! Permit it not to rest upon you as a burden, sinking 
 you down to condemnation ; but use it as a fountain for sin 
 and for uncleanness ! It has been opened in the House of 
 David for that purpose. To invoke it upon you and yours, 
 is to abuse it, — to desecrate it : but to wash your robes in 
 it, and make them " white in the Blood of the Lamb," that 
 is to carry out the purpose of the Godhead. As we said 
 before, this Blood must have its effect upon you, for evil or 
 for good. You and yours cannot get rid of it. The world 
 cannot get rid of it. It hath been shed, and every thing 
 human and divine must submit before it. It is the mark 
 that shall designate for mercy or for slaughter. Let it be 
 upon you for mercy ! Let it be the blood of sprinkling, of 
 which the Apostle saith to the Hebrews, that it " speaketh 
 better things than that of Abel." 1 Invoke that upon you 
 and upon your children. Applied by the Spirit of God, who 
 hath the treasure in His keeping, it clean seth from all un- 
 righteousness ; it purgetb the conscience from dead works, 
 to serve the living God ; it purifies the corrupted nature ; it 
 turns aside the destroying angel, when he comes upon his 
 work of vengeance. Sprinkled upon your House, you need 
 fear nothing. Evil tidings shall not disturb you. The 
 afflictions of life shall only refine you, as gold tried in the 
 fire. Death, at his entrance, shall not dismay you : for the 
 Blood is upon your lintel and your door-posts, and at the 
 sight his sting grows pointless. The grave shall have no 
 
 i Heb. xii. 24. 
 
The Blood of God. 301 
 
 darkness : for He sprinkled the sepulchre with His Blood, 
 and light and immortality are there. The Judgment day 
 shall have no terrors : for you and yours shall all be marked 
 in the forehead, the water of Baptism having changed, 
 under this sprinkling, and shining there a blood-red Cross. 
 Pray, men and brethren, for this Blood to be sprinkled upon 
 you at once, lest some of you be cut off ere it be done, and 
 you go to Judgment with it witnessing against you. 
 
 And is not the preciousness of this Blood an inducement 
 to you to cry unto God for the sprinkling of it upon you ? 
 If it were doubtful in its efficacy, you might hesitate about 
 taking any especial pains to procure it : but its sufficiency 
 is pledged by the everlasting covenant of God. God hath 
 sworn, and will not repent ; that it shall be glorified in His 
 Kingdom ; that it shall be the badge of honor in those 
 realms of peace ; the token of past forgiveness ; the sign of 
 eternal bliss. Its efficacy reacheth from eternity to eter- 
 nity. It hath power to blot out every thing that is past ; 
 to assure every thing that is to come. Once sprinkled 
 upon you and your children, it is forever there ; and 
 nothing shall take it from you, — neither man, nor an- 
 gels, nor devils. 
 
 And is not the freeness of this Blood an inducement to 
 you to cry unto God for the sprinkling of it upon you? 
 " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, 
 that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 1 
 If this was a boon which God were unwilling to grant, there 
 were some better reason why you sought not after it, as 
 you might lose your pains. But nothing can be more freely 
 offered than is this Blood. " And the Spirit and the Bride 
 say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And 
 let him that is athirst come." 2 Christ has been lifted up 
 upon the Cross ; and if, instead of scorning Him, you cast 
 
 1 1 Tim. i. 15. 2 Rev. xxii. 17. 
 
302 The Blood of God. 
 
 upon Him a look of faith, you shall not perish, but have 
 everlasting life ! 
 
 And are not the mighty agents that are at work ready 
 to procure for you this Blood, an inducement to you to 
 strive after it ? The Throne of Grace is set up in the Heav- 
 ens. A way to it has been opened by the Blood of Jesus. 
 God sits more ready to hear, than we to pray. Go there ; 
 and ask, by the Agony and bloody Sweat, by the Cross and 
 Passion, by the precious Death and Burial, by the glorious 
 Eesurrection and Ascension, of your Saviour, for the 
 sprinkling of this Blood : and the Holy Ghost will come 
 forth and subdue your hearts of unbelief, and show you the 
 sufficiency of Jesus, and unite you to Him by a true and 
 living faith. And in making those prayers, we have an 
 Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous ; and 
 the Holy Ghost intercedeth for us with groanings that can- 
 not be uttered. The cry for mercy through the Blood of 
 Jesus will always be heard there. 
 
 Men and brethren, come unto Jesus ! He is waiting to 
 receive you ; and not only waiting, but He is abroad seeking 
 them that are lost ! He stretches out His arms over you, 
 invoking blessings from His Father upon you. He has 
 given you full manifestation of His willingness to save, in 
 the Christians that are now around you. Why should He 
 save us, and not you ? We are no better, no worthier ! 
 Each one of us has cause to say, with S. Paul, " Christ 
 Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I am 
 chief" 2 None of you can be worse than we were ; for God 
 does not reckon sin as man reckons it ! Be not afraid. 
 Cast yourself upon the Blood of Christ, and it will make 
 you all that you desire, all that you need ! Wait not until 
 you are worthier. " They that are whole need not a physi- 
 cian, but they that are sick." 3 Come as you are, burdened 
 1 1 Tim. i. 15. 2 Ibid. * S. Luke v. 31. 
 
The Blood of God. 303 
 
 with sin. It is safer that, than to remain burdened with 
 the Blood of Christ. Coming with the burden of sin, you 
 can but perish, having done your duty : remaining with the 
 burden of Christ's Blood, nothing shall ever avail to purge 
 you clean ! 
 
To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, 
 that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of 
 the truth heareth my voice. — S. John xviii. 37. 
 
 HEN we recall the events which have made this day 
 
 ? * the most solemn in the Church's calendar, the most 
 important in the records of our race, we turn with deep 
 anxiety to search in every direction if by any means we 
 may grasp something of the divine purpose for which such 
 a catastrophe was consummated. Why such an Incarna- 
 tion as this of Christ ? Why such a life of wondrous woe, 
 and such a death of terrible suffering ? Why such a long 
 array of promises, of types, of prophecies ? In answer to 
 this craving anxiety Christ Himself satisfies us, when He 
 saith to Pilate : " To this end was I born, and for this cause 
 came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the 
 truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 
 
 To creatures situated as we are, there is nothing so im- 
 portant as truth ; and at the same time nothing, I grieve to 
 say, so unpalatable. Without the Truth, placed before us 
 upon divine authority, we are in a most uncertain position, 
 alike ignorant of the present and of the future. Both in 
 the past, and in these days of accumulated knowledge, we 
 have enough of human speculation and man's conjecture ; 
 but what we need is a Divine voice, uttering words from 
 the fountain of wisdom and of truth. But while we need 
 it, and in a certain measure crave it, it is nevertheless, 
 when uttered, received with aversion and unbelief, because 
 
Christ the Truth. 
 
 505 
 
 it does not harmonize with our preconceived views and 
 wishes. But the value of Christ's incarnation is, that, being 
 the Son of God. He cared more for our good than for our 
 gratification ; and when He did speak, did not dally with 
 us, nor natter us, hut placed the truth fully before us, 
 whether we would hear or whether we would forbear. His 
 purpose was, to awaken us to our true condition, and then 
 to offer us the only remedy in Heaven or earth for that 
 condition. 
 
 Man disputes always the sinfulness of sin. There is no 
 point upon which he continues in such great error, — no 
 point upon which it is less easy to undeceive him. Every 
 thing within him and around him operates to keep him 
 wrong upon this point : his own corruption by the fall; the 
 custom of the world which calls good evil, and evil good ; 
 the habits and fashions which surround him from his birth, 
 and which all help to deceive him and to support his own 
 views. Wherever he can see sin breaking out and disturb- 
 ing society, — wherever he can feel it inflicting pain and 
 suffering upon himself or those he cares for, — he is ready 
 to confess its heinousness ; but beyond this, when it affects 
 only God and His spiritual universe, he does not under- 
 stand why so much is made of it by the Church, and by 
 those who call themselves the ambassadors of God upon 
 earth. "What have I done?" is the question which he 
 puts in connection with his own life. " TYhat is there in 
 my conduct to my neighbor that deserves the threatened 
 punishment against sin ? It is to enquiries like these that 
 the coming and life of Christ give the divine answer : the 
 first step towards truth. 
 
 How should God — who willed not the death of a sinner, 
 but rather that he should come into the light and life of 
 Truth — satisfy man of the odiousness of sin ; — of sin in 
 itself, abstracted from its injury to man and to society? 
 
306 
 
 Christ the Truth. 
 
 The effects of sin cannot always be traced. They are be- 
 yond onr power to follow. They are separated again, at 
 too long distances, from the sin which produced them. 
 They ofttimes do not strike the senses, and so are lost 
 upon us. How was sin to be so connected with its terrible 
 results, as to make its sinfulness in God's view manifest to 
 man ? Some striking exhibition of His abhorrence of it 
 must be made in the face of the world; some illustrious 
 example of its horrible criminality, and then of its merci- 
 less punishment, must be given to our race. And so God 
 arranged it, in His own Divine counsels, that when the at- 
 tention of His suffering creatures had been attracted by a 
 long course of events, unique and conspicuous, — events 
 connecting themselves with the most conspicuous nations 
 of antiquity, — He lifted up His own Son upon the Cross, 
 that, dying the death of a malefactor, He might testify to 
 this solemn truth, that sin could not be pardoned even in 
 His sacred Person ; — that God would not spare its odious 
 features, even though they must be struck at through 
 His only beloved Son. 
 
 Standing then, this morning, at the foot of the Cross, 
 learn, my hearers, your first lesson in Divine Truth : that 
 sin, however lightly you may think of it, will not be par- 
 doned by God, except upon the conditions of the Gospel. 
 If you have ever doubted the fearful nature of sin, because 
 you have not witnessed its dreadful effects, contemplate 
 them here. See in all that passed before the eyes of men 
 upon this day, long centuries ago at Jerusalem, and which 
 the Church brings back to you upon this its anniversary 
 through all her services, what God thinks of that, which 
 you commit so readily, and speak of so flippantly, and ex- 
 pect to obtain pardon for — if pardon be at all necessary — 
 so easily. See how God deals with it when He encounters 
 it in the Person of His only and well-beloved Son ; and 
 
Christ the Truth, 
 
 307 
 
 tremble lest he find you, at the last, subject to a like mer- 
 eilessness at His hands. Christ upon the Cross is the wit- 
 ness to you, and to the solemn truth, that sin is an evil and 
 a bitter thing 1 ! 
 
 In what spirit, my hearer, will you receive the truth ? It 
 is brought to your notice conspicuously to-day. Never 
 again can any one of you say that you knew not the odious- 
 ness of sin in the sight of a pure and holy God. When you 
 look at the Son of God, made Man, and born into the world 
 of a woman ; at Him whose glory was equal with the 
 Father's for eternity ; at Him whose birth made the Heav- 
 ens to shine with glory, and the Angels announced ; at Him 
 w T hose pathway was one of wonders and miracles ; at Him, 
 whose Death convulsed all Nature : and see Him smitten by 
 God for sin, and for nothing but sin ; and that sin borne for 
 us : every mouth must be stopped, and every conscience must 
 be satisfied that God will not look upon iniquity. When- 
 ever you feel inclined or tempted, my hearer, to consider 
 sin as a little thing ; to make a mock at it, like a fool ; to 
 despise its threatened punishment : only cast your eyes up 
 to the Cross, and you will see that all which the Bible says 
 to you ; that all which society, in its universal subjection to 
 the curse, attests to you ; that all which your Ministers 
 preach to you about the sinfulness of sin, is far less than 
 the truth : that Christ alone, as He expires upon the Cross, 
 can truly testify of its terribleness. 
 
 And should it not startle you, my hearer, when you thus 
 are made to understand with what a dangerous thing you 
 are trifling ; with what boldness you handle sin ; with what 
 presumption you approach it; with what indifference you 
 regard the committal of it ? " The wages of sin is Death," 1 
 the Apostle tells you : and you see Christ upon the Cross, 
 suffering that Death for sin. Are you believers? Can you 
 
 1 Rom. vi. 23. 
 
3 o8 
 
 Christ the Truth, 
 
 deem this spectacle, which the Church brings before you 
 this clay, of your dying Saviour, to be any thing more than 
 a fiction, and yet continue to sin recklessly P Ask yourselves 
 these questions ? Christ says : " To this end was I born, 
 and for this cause came I into the world, that I should 
 bear witness unto the truth." Do you believe His witness 
 upon this point ? You cannot evade the answer. Either 
 you must deny the faith of your fathers, abjure Christianity, 
 and cast yourself back upon natural religion, which never 
 yet satisfied anybody : or confess that in your dying 
 Saviour you see the certain foreshadowing of your own 
 fate, unless you repent of sin and turn to Christ for succor 
 and salvation ! 
 
 But perchance you may say : " I see in my crucified 
 Lord the punishment of accumulated sin, while I feel in 
 myself no such monstrous burden." Sin was accumulated 
 upon our Sin-offering, my hearer, because He was the 
 Sacrifice for the sin of the world : but you must remember 
 that it was a single sin which polluted creation, and made 
 that accumulation a necessary consequence. Could that 
 one sin of our first parents, which brought death into the 
 world with all our woes, have been arrested at its beginning 
 by a free pardon from God, — a pardon without an atone- 
 ment and without a mediator, — think you that He could 
 not, upon the instant, have blotted it out, and thus have rid 
 his guiltless creation of the curse? Your argument only 
 brings out more forcibly the intensity of the poison of sin, 
 showing that when once committed it could not be arrested 
 in its terrible career of guilt and curse and punishment, 
 save through the long process which led up to the Incarna- 
 tion, and suffering, and death of Christ. It rushed on, like 
 a pestilence, cleaving its hideous pathway through the habi- 
 tations of men, infecting every thing, polluting every thing, 
 cursing every thing, dooming all men to the fires of hell. 
 
Christ the TrtUh. 
 
 309 
 
 Until our High Priest could cast himself between man 
 and its fury, it threatened universal destruction. Comfort 
 not yourself, therefore, my hearer, with the soothing balm 
 of not being a great sinner ! A single sin was enough to 
 pollute the whole creation : and you surely will not say that 
 you have never committed a single sin. A single sin was 
 enough to accumulate all that guilt for which Christ died ; 
 was enough to bring about this bloody Sacrifice which the 
 Church exhibits before you this day. A single sin is suffi- 
 cient to bring down upon you the whole penalty of the Law. 
 Jesus Christ is my witness, for He has said in His Holy 
 Word : " Whosever shall keep the whole law and yet offend 
 in one point, he is guilty of all." 1 
 
 Another point, my hearers, about which you are all skep- 
 tical, and which you are most loth to admit, is the corrup- 
 tion of human nature. While you are all ready to admit 
 that there is a vast deal of vice and crime in the world, you 
 cannot consent to any such proposition, as that it is the 
 necessary product of that nature of which you yourself are 
 so fond and so proud. You ascribe it, in the individuals in 
 whom it is exhibited, to some unhappy taint of blood ; to 
 some unfortunate conjuncture of circumstances ; to some 
 special ill-training ; to some overpowering temptation ; or, 
 at least, to some natural badness of disposition peculiar to 
 the individual. But this is all false. Come with me again 
 to the Cross, and let your suffering Saviour be my witness. 
 Study that sight ! He that is dying upon the Cross is a 
 Being of two Natures, — a conjunction in one Person of the 
 human and the Divine. That which is human in Him is 
 suffering for the sin laid upon Him, — for the corruption 
 of man which has produced that sin. That which is 
 Divine is supporting and sustaining the humanity. The 
 manifestations of sublime thoughts and words which burst 
 1 S. James ii, 10. 
 
310 Christ the Truth. 
 
 from His dying lips, are all divine ; they belong to Him as 
 a part of the God-Man. You witness submission to God's 
 will ; humility under trial ; long-suffering under torture ; 
 love in opposition to malice ; forgiveness in the midst of 
 taunts, insults, and revilings. These manifest his Divinity ! 
 Now cast your eyes upon those who stand around that 
 dying Sou of God ! See those looks of hatred and scorn ! 
 Hear those taunts of ridicule ! Mark the joy which beams 
 from their infuriated eyes as He evinces suffering and de- 
 cay ! Behold that wretch giving Him vinegar and gall for 
 His thirst ! See that soldier thrusting his spear into the 
 side of Him that was already dead ! That, my hearer, is 
 your nature ! The sufferer is Divine, without sin, worthy to 
 win the crown of everlasting glory as a Conqueror. The 
 executioners and scoffers are human: and Christ is thus 
 made again the witness to you of a solemn truth, that man 
 cannot appreciate Divine goodness ; and that the only per- 
 fect Man who ever lived, perfect as his Father in Heaven is 
 perfect, was the Man of deepest sorrows, and of the cruel- 
 lest sufferings ; — sufferings even unto death, at the hands 
 of those whom He was sent to save ! 
 
 " Yes," may you say, " but these were the Jews ! " So 
 they were, but that only plunges you deeper into difficulty. 
 They were the elect people of God ; and from whom, there- 
 fore, should we have expected greater freedom from corrup- 
 tion than from the Jews ? Had Jehovah not committed to 
 them His oracles? Did not the covenant, and the adop- 
 tion, and the law, and the promises, pertain to them? 
 Was not our Lord Himself a Jew after the flesh ? Were 
 not His disciples and Apostles Jews ? Were not the great 
 company of believers, who first illustrated the Church, 
 Jews ? Is there any reply to this ? Because the Jews are 
 now blinded and under a curse for this very Crucifixion, 
 they were not always so. They were the only people then 
 
Christ the Truth. 
 
 upon earth in whom any thing approaching to spiritual life 
 and spiritual holiness could have heen found. Think you 
 that any of the Gentile nations of whom S. Paul makes 
 mention in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans 
 would have done better ! No, my hearers ; this is not a 
 door through which you may escape. These miserable 
 men around that Cross were Jews ; but as Jews they repre- 
 sented, at that time, the most enlightened and most di- 
 vinely instructed people upon the face of the earth ! It 
 was an exhibition of human nature ; of your nature, my 
 hearers, when excited by passion and sin ; of that broken 
 and defiled image of the Divine Spirit which was left you 
 when driven, a fallen and corrupted being, from the pres- 
 ence of the Lord ! 
 
 A third point, which some of you, and many in the 
 world, count foolishness, and upon which you are therefore 
 skeptical, and for which Christ came to be a witness, is the 
 necessity of an atonement for sin through the shedding of 
 blood. You cannot see, you say, how it is, or why it is, 
 that blood should expiate sin, and cleanse from all unright- 
 eousness. No more can I, my hearer, — although I may 
 see more clearly than you, — pronounce otherwise than 
 that so the Lord has ordered it : but this I say, that the 
 Cross of Christ testifies to us of the fact. Standing at the 
 foot of the Cross, I am forced to believe it : for I can find 
 no other solution of His sufferings and Death ; no other 
 explanation of the effects which flowed from that Death. I 
 cannot understand — if Jesus of Nazareth is a mere exam- 
 ple, or teacher, or philosopher — why He should have shed 
 His Blood upon the Cross; and especially why it should 
 have been connected, through long ages, with the blood of 
 bulls and goats, and with the morning and evening sacrifice. 
 Surely the Old Testament, the larger portion of the Bible, 
 has a meaning. God designed not to trifle with His peo- 
 
 21 
 
312 Christ the Truth. 
 
 pie. He did not descend upon Mount Sinai in the glory of 
 His sublime Majesty, and there detail the minute arrange- 
 ments of sacrificial offerings, for nothing. Until they 
 pointed to something in the future, they were unmeaning 
 and profitless, not to say foolish. Would Jehovah have 
 instituted these things in His Law, and then have permit- 
 ted His prophets, those whom He inspired through His own 
 Spirit, to expose their impotence in the letter, unless there 
 was an Antitype to interpret and ratify every thing ? All 
 this the Epistle to the Hebrews — especially that chapter 
 which has been read as the Epistle for the Day — argues 
 fully and elaborately and conclusively : " For it is not pos- 
 sible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away 
 sins. Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, he 
 saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body 
 hast thou prepared me," No, my hearers ; you must cut 
 out the larger part of the Revelation of God, you must 
 overlay His whole dealings with His elect people, you must 
 charge Him with unmeaning action, ere, standing under 
 the shadow of the Cross, you can deny that the shedding 
 of Blood is connected with His remission of sins ! 
 
 Nor is there any solution for the effects of Christ's death, 
 save in the sanctifying and converting power of His Blood. 
 Change the scene for a moment, but I will not carry 
 you out of Jerusalem. I will only ask you to advance the 
 time for a few weeks, and then to note the strange scene 
 which is enacting by that same multitude which hurried 
 our Lord so madly to Calvary, and there gloated upon His 
 sufferings. At His Cross, while suffering and dying, we 
 could find but one of His Apostles : the rest were scattered 
 from fear and disappointment. Peter followed, afar off. 
 In this scene to which I now invite your attention, we hear 
 those same Apostles, addressing an amazed and smitten 
 multitude ; so filled with a holy enthusiasm as to carry 
 
Christ the Truth. 
 
 313 
 
 them entirely away ; charging home upon them the Cruci- 
 fixion of Jesus ; calling them, to their faces, murderers ; 
 fixing His Blood upon them ! What means this P What 
 has produced this divine boldness ? Do you believe, with 
 the skeptical gainsayers, that they were filled with new 
 wine ? Could new wine teach them to speak in other 
 tongues ? Could new wine give them the power to make 
 that implacable multitude, stained with the guilt of the 
 death of Jesus, whom every word was piercing like a sword, 
 smite upon their breasts and say : " Men and brethren, 
 what shall we do P " As great a change has passed on 
 them as on the Apostles. From murderers they have been 
 changed into penitents ! From being vile sinners who had 
 dared to say, " His blood be on us aud on our children," 
 they were trembling supplicants, crying for mercy. From 
 being a rabble polluted with almost every sin, they were now 
 the baptized disciples of Jesus, the redeemed with that very 
 Blood which they had shed, laying broad and deep the 
 foundation of the Church. What is the solution for this ? 
 I cannot conceive why the Apostles should influence the 
 same men, whom Christ — the Example, the Model — only 
 drove to malice and persecution ; why ignorant and un- 
 learned fishermen and tax-gatherers should so suddenly 
 effect what all the miracles and teachings of Christ had 
 failed to do : unless I receive what I think that the Bible 
 clearly teaches, — that His Blood had cleansed and sancti- 
 fied both Apostles and multitude, and had worked within 
 them the new life of spiritual power. 
 
 Such was the way in which our Lord was a witness to 
 the truth. He was born for that end and purpose. He 
 was a witness to it through His whole life, using its force 
 to break up old opinions, to clear away traditional rubbish, 
 to develop the proper idea of God and His kingdom. He 
 bore witness to it in His death, exhibiting and enforcing 
 
314 Christ the Truth, 
 
 the sublime ideas which I have developed in the early part 
 of my sermon. And now He rules by the power of truth, 
 and witnesses to it daily and forever in the hearts of men. 
 It was foretold, in Isaiah, that He should be a witness to 
 the people, — a leader and commander to the people ; and so 
 He is. The whole foundation of Christ's kingdom is Truth, 
 Divine Truth : and therefore it is the Rock against which 
 all error is being perpetually dashed to pieces. Its spirit and 
 genius are truth. " Christ conquers," as one has well said, 
 " by the convincing evidence of Truth ; rules by the com- 
 manding power of Truth ; and in His Majesty rides pros- 
 perously, because of Truth. It is c with His truth,' as the 
 Psalmist says, that He shall c judge the people.' It is the 
 sceptre of His Kingdom. He draws men to him by its 
 cords, and brings their thoughts into obedience to it ; and 
 thus He rules over His subjects through conviction and 
 Love." Every one that is of the truth heareth His voice. 
 
 Solemn words are these of Christ, with which He closed 
 His answer to Pilate : " Every one that is of the truth 
 heareth my voice." What then of those who hear not 
 Christ's voice P — of the many, many who cling to the old 
 errors of the world's philosophy, or are carried away by the 
 current fancies of the day ? Remember that, in the Bible, 
 Satan is called the father of lies ; and is in direct antago- 
 nism to our Lord who is " the truth." If you hear not 
 Christ's voice, as it speaks to you through His Word and 
 the action of His Church (but especially from His Cross), 
 whose voice are you listening to ? The one tells you, by 
 all His sufferings for you, that this world is but a passing 
 show, full of illusions, a vale of misery through which you 
 must pass in darkness and much sorrow : the other, that it 
 is full of pleasures ; that it is the only reality of life ; that 
 you are certain of nothing better; and that if you give this 
 life up to God, you will be giving up every thing which is 
 
Christ the Truth, 315 
 
 really yours. Which voice will you hear ? To which king- 
 dom will you belong ? Truth and error are offered to you, — 
 the one by Christ, the other by the Devil. There is no mid- 
 dle ground. Truth is one and immutable. Error is man- 
 ifold, spewing out its horrid spawn in shoals ; and, like the 
 chameleon, changing its hue, that it may deceive and elude. 
 There was a time when Error had all the advantage ; but 
 the times of that ignorance are passed, and Truth is, for 
 you, manifest in the Person of Christ. The life of Christ 
 has taught the world that virtue, active virtue, finds no 
 favor in it ; has but little chance of life or influence ; wins 
 no prizes of riches or honor ; and often goes down in sor- 
 row to the grave. His Death has taught it, just as plainly, 
 that sin is the curse which is most odious to God, and 
 should be most hateful to man ; that we are all sinners, — ■ 
 corrupt, and dark, and allied to error ; that His Blood alone 
 can change us, and bring us from darkness into light. If 
 you will hear the Voice which cometh from this Life and 
 from this Death, then shall you be blessed, my hearer, for 
 time and for eternity. Be not satisfied until Truth is a 
 part and parcel of your being ; until you are ma de one with 
 Him who is the Truth, even as He is one with His Father, 
 the Fountain and Source of all things for the universe. 
 
 1866. 
 
Ctoentynmtfy Sermon* 
 
 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping : and as she- 
 wept she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two 
 angels in white, sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, 
 where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, 
 why weepest thou ? She saith unto them, Because they have taken 
 away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And 
 when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus 
 standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. — S. John xx. 11-14. 
 
 fipHE grave and a woman weeping over it, is the standing 
 -■- witness of the curse which sin has brought upon the 
 world. Wherever there is a home, there is a grave ; and 
 wherever there is a grave there is a woman weeping over it. 
 It would seem as if the keenest punishment visited upon 
 woman, because of her having been first in the transgres- 
 sion, has been inflicted upon her through her affections. 
 Because of the depth of them, she clings to those she 
 loves through every sorrow of life ; and because of their 
 permanence, she hovers, weeping, around their graves. 
 Mary, by the sepulchre of Jesus, was the type of woman- 
 hood ; and her attitude of sorrow, as she stands gazing 
 upon that burial-place of her hopes and her affections, was 
 that of woman wherever we meet her upon earth. Like 
 Mary, she often goes there without faith or hope, looking 
 at the earth which covers all she loves, yet comforting her- 
 self by weeping over it. She looked upon the grave as a 
 devouring enemy which had swallowed up all her present 
 joy, and separated her forever from the desire of her eyes. 
 And oh ! how long has she stood there without any ground 
 
Woman, why weepest Thou I 317 
 
 of hope, or any room for faith. Long weary years rolled 
 away, before Jesus came, and in His resurrection opened 
 for her the glorious vision of hope through the dew of His 
 blood ! We pity those who, in the ages of that ignorance, 
 stood " like Niobe, all tears : 93 but our pity gives place to 
 amazement when we see her still clinging to the inanimate 
 dust. For surely the coming of Christ has changed the 
 aspect of every thing connected with death, as well as with 
 life. The grave is no longer what the grave has been. It 
 still hides from us the bodies of those we love : but hides 
 them only as the earth hides the seed while it is preparing 
 to renew its life ; only as the chrysalis hides the worm while 
 it is changing into a thing of beauty, no longer to creep 
 upon the earth, but to soar in the atmosphere of Heaven. 
 Woman may still haunt the graves of those she loves and 
 may still weep there, but not as she wept of yore : for " I 
 would not have you to be ignorant, brethren," says S. Paul, 
 " concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, 
 even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that 
 Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep 
 in Jesus will God bring with him." 1 Once the grave 
 seemed indeed the end of all to man; and as the loving 
 heart stood by it, it had cause to weep, — to weep as those 
 which had no hope. It looked icy and impenetrable. It 
 appeared to bear the motto which the fancy of Dante in- 
 scribed over the portals of his Inferno : " Let all that enter 
 here leave hope behind." No wonder that even Mary stood 
 by the sepulchre weeping : for she had not yet learned the 
 glorious truth that the weakest Christian can now lay his 
 hand upon the dust of which he was formed and to which 
 he is doomed to return, and can exultingly ask, " 0 grave, 
 where is thy victory ? " and, in the very face of Death, can 
 utter over his dead the consoling strain of prophecy; 
 1 1 Thess. iv. 13, 14. 
 
31 8 Woman, why weepest Thou ? 
 
 " Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust : for thy dew is 
 as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the 
 dead." 1 
 
 But Mary was not satisfied with mere weeping. She 
 needed more comfort than tears could give her. She must 
 look into the sepulchre, and see the loved Body of Jesus 
 for herself. She must understand the secrets of that dread 
 grave which was closing up forever her heart, and cutting 
 off all the rich hopes which the life of Jesus of Nazareth 
 had waked within her bosom and the bosom of the Disci- 
 ples. She was not satisfied with the report of others ; she 
 would examine the sepulchre for herself. And her faithful- 
 ness received its due reward. She did not at first find 
 Jesus ; but she found Angels who instructed and comforted 
 her ; — messengers sent from God to do honor to His be- 
 loved Son, and to teach her that there was no gloom here- 
 after in the grave, no barrier that could not be broken 
 through, no stone that could not be rolled from the door of 
 the sepulchre. She saw them — for her eyes were now 
 opened to perceive them — " sitting, the one at the head, 
 and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain." 
 As one has beautifully said : " His resting-place was be- 
 tween two Angels, like the mercy-seat of old. Even in His 
 death He is found to have dwelt, as of old, between the 
 clierubiui." 
 
 If we, my beloved people, need comfort at the grave, we 
 must find it, as Mary did, by looking into the sepulchre. 
 We must not be satisfied to gaze upon the mound of earth 
 which covers our dead, or to look upon the sepulchre which 
 holds their bodies : but we must endeavor to look into it, 
 and to study it for ourselves. "We must not be afraid of 
 looking Death in the face ; nor of standing by the grave, 
 and demanding its secrets. If we go there boldly in the 
 
 1 Isaiah xxvi. 19. 
 
Woman, why weepest Thou ? 319 
 
 name of Jesus, we too shall find angels to instruct and com- 
 fort us. We must not trust to others in a matter like this : 
 we must search for ourselves. Death is too terrible an 
 enemy for us to pass him by without contesting his claims 
 to hold us in bondage. The grave is too dark a pit for us 
 to lie in, passive and submissive, without endeavoring to 
 throw light upon its darkness. And it rests now with our- 
 selves to understand it all, through faith. If, instead of 
 merely weeping at the sepulchre, we will pierce into it, we 
 shall find prophets and Apostles and the Son of God Him- 
 self, — messengers from God, angels, and more than angels, 
 — ready to enlighten us ; full of hope, and full of comfort : 
 shedding into its darkest recesses light and immortality. 
 We ought never, in these days, to stand by the grave with- 
 out the Bible in our hands. Instead of weeping there, we 
 should read the story of Jesus at the grave of Lazarus. 
 We should dwell upon his solemn words : "I am the Res- 
 urrection and the Life ; " and we should elucidate them 
 through these scenes which the Church illustrates to-day. 
 The Gospels contain the utterances of our angels ; and we 
 should never look upon a grave without seeing them sitting 
 there, and uttering to us the words of comfort and of hope. 
 Poor creatures of sense that we are ! because we do not see, 
 we cannot believe. Because the grave does not open for us, 
 and we do not behold the angels sitting there, we cannot 
 take in the glorious truth that the dust of those we love is 
 watched over by the eyes of Jesus, — is consecrated dust, 
 waiting only for the signal from its ascended Redeemer to 
 spring to life, immortal, glorious, spiritual ! And yet these 
 messengers of God tell us so ; point us to the empty grave 
 of Jesus ; and sound in our ears what ought to be the 
 words of the world's jubilee : £e Because I live, ye shall live 
 also ! " 1 Oh that we could have faith but as a grain of mus- 
 
 1 S. John xiv. 19. 
 
320 Woman, why weepest Thou t 
 
 tard seed ! — how should we then rise above these darkest 
 shadows of our life, Death and the Grave, and dwell in an 
 atmosphere of hope, sorrowing over those we love, because 
 they are separated from us, but yet rejoicing in the hope of 
 everlasting life ! 
 
 The question of the Angels to Mary when they saw her 
 weeping at such a scene of wonder and of glory, was just 
 such a question as Angels only would have asked : "Woman, 
 why weepest thou ? " Men would never have asked such 
 a question, when they saw a woman weeping at a grave. 
 They would have known too well its meaning. They would 
 at once have understood, from what themselves had wit- 
 nessed and experienced of life, the reason for her tears. 
 She was standing near a sepulchre : that was enough for 
 man. Tears and the grave had been ever associated in 
 their minds. But when the angels saw her weeping, they 
 only marvelled : for they had no knowledge of Death or of 
 the grave. No such curse had ever fallen upon them. No 
 such enemies had ever been known in Heaven among un- 
 fallen spirits. And what they now knew of death and of 
 the grave, was associated with victory and triumph, — with 
 the overthrow of him who had the power of death. They 
 saw her weeping, when she should have been shouting for 
 joy ; lamenting, when she should have been singing Alle- 
 luia to Him who had put under His feet the cruellest ene- 
 mies of her race. She found comfort, but no sympathy. 
 They could not even comprehend her tears : " Woman, why 
 weepest thou ? " Heaven is glowing with one universal 
 feeling of exultation. Its hosts are marshalling to wel- 
 come the Conqueror home ; and thousands and ten thou- 
 sands of Angels are tuning their harps to the refrain : 
 "Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye 
 everlasting doors : and the King of glory shall come in. 
 Who is this King of glory ? the Lord strong and mighty, 
 
Woman, why weepest Tkotc ? 321 
 
 the Loed mighty in battle." 1 " Why weepest thou ? " It 
 was not for Angels that He died ; it was for you. It was 
 not for the unfallen hosts of Heaven that He was laid in 
 this sepulchre ; it was for you : and yet thou weepest at 
 His victory ! If they are tears of joy, we can comprehend 
 them ; hut tears such as woman has shed in the past over 
 the grave, have no place here. The sepulchre is hence- 
 forth the burial-place of grief. Woman is to find here, 
 in the future, the source of all her hopes, — the fountain 
 of a love which is to he undying ! 
 
 And as the Angels asked this question of Mary, so may 
 we, the messengers of this risen Saviour, ask it of every 
 one of you who has a Christian hope. Weak as we are 
 ourselves ; trembling as we do before Death and the Grave ; 
 we feel, as the ambassadors of God, that we can yet ask 
 you : " Why weepest thou ? " I know that Love is strong 
 as Death ; that nature has a yearning which cannot be sat- 
 isfied with words ; but we have that here, in the incidents 
 of this scene, which are much more than words. They are 
 acts, — acts of the sublimest import, performed by the Son 
 of God Himself ; done for us his creatures ; wielded against 
 our bitterest and most cruel enemies. Weep not, woman, 
 at least for to-day ! Dry your tears, however full may be 
 your heart, while standing with Mary at the sepulchre of 
 Jesus ! What the angels implied in their question to her, 
 they implied for your sake. As old Bishop Andre wes said : 
 " They mean, that she had no cause to weep. She weeps 
 because she found the grave empty, which God forbid she 
 should have found full ! — for then Christ must have been 
 dead still; and so, no Resurrection. And this case of 
 Mary Magdalene is our case oftentimes : in the error of 
 our conceit, to weep where we have no cause ; to joy where 
 we have as little. Where we have cause to joy, we weep ; 
 
 1 Psalm xxiv. 7, 8. 
 
 21 
 
322 Woman, why weepest Thou ? 
 
 and where to weep, we joy. False joys and false sorrows, 
 false hopes and false fears, this life of ours is full of. God 
 help us ! " 
 
 And this, mourner, is one of the occasions upon which 
 you are weeping 1 , when you should be rejoicing ! You are 
 indulging a false sorrow, if you be weeping over one that 
 is asleep in Jesus. " He is not dead, but sleepeth." He is 
 taking rest after the sharp battle of life, awaiting in hope 
 the final resurrection. Jesus is guarding his dust, and 
 the grave is sanctified by angels' presence, because it is 
 sown with seeds of immortality. Strive to lay aside your 
 spirit of heaviness, and to receive the oil of joy for mourn- 
 ing ! Trust your dead to Him who Himself has died, and 
 can sympathize with the dead far more than you. Leave 
 their ashes with Him who Himself has lain for days in the 
 grave, and knows far better than you what the departed 
 spirit needs. The lesson we have to learn, and which we 
 find it so hard to learn, is that a loving God is with us at 
 all times and in all places : with us in life, with us in death, 
 and with us when sleeping in the grave as well as when 
 sleeping upon our beds. He never leaves us, nor forsakes 
 us. He breathes into us the breath of life ; He carries us 
 in His arms when we are weak or sick ; He guards us from 
 perils and dangers, both of body and soul ; He walks with 
 us through the valley of the shadow of Death ; He receives 
 our spirits as we pass under the yoke of our last enemy ; 
 and He commands the earth to hold our dust until the last 
 trump shall summon our bodies from this universal sepul- 
 chre. We are in no more danger in the grave than in our 
 beds. God takes equal care of us in the one as in the 
 other. " Woman, why weepest thou" at witnessing the 
 scene which has produced all this ? It is a false sorrow : 
 not a pretended, but a false sorrow ! 
 
 The answer of Mary showed that while her affection was 
 
Woman, why weep est Thou ? 323 
 
 strong, her faith was weak. " She saith uuto them, Be- 
 cause they have taken away my Lord, and I know not 
 where they haye laid him." She was thinking of the be- 
 loved Master for whom her heart yearned, and not of the 
 rising* again in three days which He had told them of. 
 She seemed to have forgotten every thing in her grief, — 
 His promises, His power over death, His Divinity, the signs 
 and wonders which had accompanied His Death. Her wo- 
 man's heart had driven out her remembrance of all these 
 things, and her simple cry was, " The Body, the Body ! " 
 As Matthew Henry says : " Mary Magdalene is not diverted 
 from her inquiries by the surprise of the vision, nor satis- 
 fied with the honor of it ; but still she harps upon the 
 same string : £ They have taken away my Lord.' A sight 
 of Angels and their smiles will not suffice, without a sight 
 of Christ, and God's smiles in him." He had been every 
 thing to her, for it was she out of whom He had cast seven 
 devils : and she had rather find his dead Body than hear of 
 any thing else. 
 
 And as with Mary, so with us in our grief. We forget 
 every thing in the intensity of our love. We crave the 
 body which has been taken from us, and are impatient at 
 any words which are used to divert us from our grief. Mary 
 would scarcely listen to the Angels : and thus too, the 
 grieved and smitten heart turns away, in the first bitterness 
 of its grief, from the messages of comfort which are writ- 
 ten for its balm in the Word of the Gospel. She grieved 
 for Jesus, who had life in Himself, — who could lay it down 
 and take it again. We grieve for those who can have no 
 more life save in the power of His resurrection. Instead 
 of seeking Him at once, and turning to Him, and clinging 
 to Him for comfort : we cry out for the body, — the body 
 that we loved ! Oh slow of heart to believe ! The body 
 could not help you, for the spirit of life is gone. Christ 
 
324 Woman, why weep est Thou ? 
 
 alone can help you, who is the Resurrection and the Life, — 
 who in the fullness of time will give you hack that body, a 
 new creation : changed, as S. Paul says, from corruption to 
 incorruption, from weakness to power, from dishonor to 
 glory, from a natural body to a spiritual body. How much 
 better to wait upon the will of the Lord, and upon the ap- 
 pointed process of change, than to permit your private griefs 
 to break through the bounds of His love and interfere with 
 His gracious purposes ! " In your patience possess ye your 
 souls," 1 Patience has its work in grief, as well as in trial 
 and temptation ; and must be allowed to have her perfect 
 work. If that Body for which Mary stood weeping had not 
 been taken away, what should have become of her, and us, 
 and all our race ? For " if Christ be not risen, then is our 
 preaching vain, and your faith is also vain/' 1 And as with 
 that body of our Lord, so likewise with those bodies after 
 which we are craving. Unless they were taken from us, 
 the order of the world could not go on ; Christ could not 
 make up the number of his elect ; the fullness of the Gen- 
 tiles could not come in ; and the whole purpose of the econ- 
 omy of grace should be impeded, if not frustrated. Are 
 we ready for these things ? Should we not rather add our 
 loved ones to the gathering crowd of the redeemed, than 
 clog the chariot wheels of the Redeemer's triumphal march 
 by our selfish wishes ? Surely the glory that awaits those 
 who die in Christ should help to satisfy our hearts ! 
 
 During the time that the Congregational churches of the 
 Eastern States were many of them insidiously passing into 
 Unitarianism, and the ministers were leaving Christ and His 
 atoning Blood out of their prayers and sermons, one of 
 these ministers, as he came from a service in which his 
 Saviour had been but little noticed or honored, met one of 
 his old communicants weeping in the porch of his meeting- 
 1 S. Luke xxi. 19. 2 1 Cor. xv. 14. 
 
Woman, why weep est Thou ? 325 
 
 house. He asked her the very question which the Angels 
 asked of Mary : " Woman, why weepest thou ? 93 And her 
 answer was, like Mary's : " Because you have taken away 
 my Lord, and I know not where you have laid Him.*' This, 
 my hearer, should be indeed to you a sufficient cause for 
 weeping, if indeed you should find that your Lord had been 
 taken away from you, — taken away from you because you 
 were not worthy of haying Him ; because you did not value 
 His presence : because you set up idols in your heart which 
 drove Him thence. Bitter cause have you for weeping, if 
 this be your condition : for now are you weeping, not at 
 the emptiness of the sepulchre, but at the desolation of 
 your own heart : not at one loved object taken from you, 
 but at the ashes and dust into which every thing Las 
 changed within you. Look to it lest your earthly grief pro- 
 duce this effect upon you, — lest the idolatry of your heart 
 for the dead, drive Christ away from you ! 
 
 The end of it was, that Christ rewarded her love by man- 
 ifesting Himself unto her : " And when she had thus said, 
 she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew 
 not that it was Jesus.*' As one has well said : " Before 
 they had given her any answer, Christ steps in Himself to 
 satisfy her inquiries ; for God now speaketh to us by His 
 Son : none but He Himself can direct us to Himself. 
 Mary would fain know where her Lord is ; and behold, He 
 is at her right hand. Those that will be content with noth- 
 ing short of a sight of Christ, shall be put off with nothing 
 less. Is it Christ that thou wouldst have ? Christ thou 
 shalt have." He may hide Himself for a little moment, so 
 that thou shalt not know Him : but nevertheless He is by 
 thee, even though thou dost not for the moment recognize 
 Him. He hid himself, that He might try Mary's love and 
 faith : but they stood firm through every test ; and she 
 found, not a dead Body, but a living Saviour ! 
 
326 Woman, why weepest Thou ? 
 
 And so will it always be, iny beloved people, with those 
 who seek Christ in sincerity, with earnestness and love. 
 They may not find Him at once : but they will surely find 
 Him at last. Sense may be no judge of the presence of 
 Christ. " Sometimes it pleases our Saviour to appear unto 
 his, not like Himself : His holy disguises are our trials." 
 But He is leading us on, often with tears in our eyes, 
 among the graves : but always to light and joy. Be not 
 afraid to follow Him : all will be right at the last. 
 
 We began with weeping, and end with joy. And thus 
 are fulfilled those rich words of Scripture : " He that goeth 
 forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless 
 come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." 1 
 Mary went to the sepulchre, loving, but hopeless : she 
 came back bearing the joyful tidings of Christ's resurrec- 
 tion. She went there rich in affection, but weak in faith : 
 she returned, her faith having been changed into sight. 
 And this is Life, if we use it aright. Begun in tears ; 
 spent weeping among graves : we may end it in the arms 
 of a risen and glorified Saviour ; asking, in the full assur- 
 ance of hope : " 0 Death, where is thy sting ? 0 Grave, 
 
 where is thy victory ? " 
 
 J J 1866. 
 
 1 Psalm cxxyi. 6. 
 
C^trtiet^ Sermon* 
 
 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with 
 one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from 
 heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house 
 where they were sitting. 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, and began to speak with other 
 tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. — Acts ii. 1-4. 
 
 rilHE fulfillment of the promise of the Father for which 
 Christ had commanded His Apostles to wait at Jerusa- 
 lem, found them all assembled upon the day of Pentecost, 
 with one accord, in one place. " Behold, how good and 
 how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ! 
 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran 
 down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard : that went down 
 to the skirts of his garments ; as the dew of Hermon, and 
 as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion : for 
 there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for ever- 
 more." 1 And not only is it like them, but it produces 
 them : for lo ! here upon these brethren, mingled together 
 in love and prayer, descends the Holy Ghost, — the Anti- 
 type of that very sacred oil which consecrated Aaron to his 
 priesthood, of that dew of Hermon which filled with life 
 and beauty the mountains of Zion. May the eye of the 
 Holy God, that Eye which searcheth the reins and the 
 heart, perceive in us such charity, such faith, such unanim- 
 ity, that at least a little of that oil may trickle upon us, 
 
 1 Psalm cxxxiii. 
 
328 The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 who are as it were the skirts of the garment of our Aaron, 
 — that something of the dew of Hermon may descend 
 upon us, reviving us unto life everlasting. " Now is the 
 accepted time," 1 for " the day of Pentecost " is " fully 
 come." 
 
 Every thing under the Old Testament was arranged for 
 the more perfect covenant which was to be made in the lat- 
 ter days, — that covenant which was designated by the writ- 
 ing of the law upon the heart : the event that we celebrate 
 to-day. Whatever was arranged by Moses was arranged 
 after the pattern in the Mount, after the directions uttered 
 by the mouth of Jehovah. Nothing was contrived by him- 
 self. When he spake to the Israelites, he was but the 
 mouthpiece of their God ; and that God, who saw the end 
 of every thing from the beginning, took in, in his disposi- 
 tions of the Old Testament ritual, that completer mani- 
 festation of the Godhead which was to be made when the 
 fullness of time was come. It was by no chance, then, that 
 the Holy Ghost came down upon the day of Pentecost. 
 No ! that was the day ordained, fixed upon, sealed, " from 
 the beginning, or ever the earth was." 2 Its meaning was 
 ' deep; and unless we read that meaning, much that is 
 beautiful in the correspondency and harmony of things is 
 lost. 
 
 The lamb that was slain at that first memorable Passo- 
 ver which the Israelites ate the night they were delivered 
 from Egyptian bondage, was typical of that " Lamb slain 
 from the foundation of the world," 3 whose death the 
 Church commemorates at a period correspondent with the 
 Jewish Passover. Reckoning fifty days from that Passover, 
 the Jews received the Law from Sinai, — received it on the 
 day of Pentecost, a day forever memorable in their annals 
 as linking them with Deity in the closest bonds of govern- 
 
 1 2 Cor. vi. 2. 2 Pro v. viii. 23. 3 Rev. xiii. 8. 
 
The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 329 
 
 merit. Thenceforward their whole polity was theocratic ; 
 God lived in the midst of them, and was their King : so 
 plainly such, that He said to Samuel, when that prophet 
 mourned in vexation that the Israelites would have a king : 
 " Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they 
 say unto thee : for they have not rejected thee, but they 
 have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." 1 
 
 Ever after that was He to be found over the mercy-seat, 
 the place of His abode with the children of men. 
 
 It was in rich harmony, therefore, that upon the day of 
 Pentecost the new Law, spoken of by the prophets, should 
 be written in fire, by the finger of the Holy Ghost, upon 
 the hearts of the Apostles. That which made the day 
 illustrious under the Old Testament dispensation was to 
 pass away ; but not so the glory of the day : for even as 
 the glory of the latter house was greater than the glory of 
 the former house, because it enshrined Christ when incar- 
 nate ; so does the day of Pentecost exceed in dignity and 
 majesty its ancient renown, because upon it the Godhead 
 removed from temples of wood and stone, and took up an 
 abode in the hearts of the faithful. A new Law, and a 
 new place of abode for the Godhead : but no new day. The - 
 day of Pentecost for both. God never changes that which 
 needs no change. Moses' law must be changed into 
 Christ's Law; the Covenant which gendered to bondage, 
 into that which was full of liberty : but both must bear 
 the same relation to the Death of the Lamb, to teach us 
 that while they differ in their terms, they are the same in 
 essence and in truth. 
 
 Another harmony is given us by S. Chrysostom, which is 
 full of beauty and fitness. At the feast of Pentecost, under 
 the law, was the sickle put into the corn, the first fruits of 
 which had been offered up just fifty days before, at the feast 
 
 1 1 Sam. vm. 7. 
 
330 The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 of the Passover. Under the Gospel, it was gloriously cor- 
 respondent that, at the same feast of Pentecost, the sickle 
 should he put into the harvest of souls, Christ the first- 
 fruits having offered Himself before the Lord just fifty days 
 before, when He burst the grave and rose triumphant to 
 His Father. 'The great spiritual harvest which began at 
 this Feast, and which has ever since continued, is but 
 the fulfillment, the reality, the substance, of that harvest 
 which the Israelites yearly gathered in : they, like men, 
 rejoicing over the weighty sheaves which filled their land 
 with plenty ; Jehovah, God-like, in the many souls that the 
 love of the Son, and the power of the Spirit, were to 
 gather into the Kingdom of Glory. How beautiful it is, 
 thus to see the invisible in the visible, to lay over against 
 the works of Nature and the operations of man, the works 
 of Grace and the power of the Holy Ghost! 
 
 Upon this day of Pentecost, then, came down the Holy 
 Ghost upon the Apostles. And as, upon the delivery of 
 the Law at Mount Sinai, the Israelites saw the majesty of 
 Jehovah in the Mount that burned with fire, and the light- 
 nings and tempest that burst over its awful summit, and 
 heard the voice of winds, and the sound of a trumpet : so, 
 upon this day, was the new Law ushered in with a sound 
 from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and the pres- 
 ence of the Godhead made visible to them in tongues of 
 fire resting upon their heads. They both were ushered in 
 with fire : but one was the fire of wrath, the other the fire 
 of mercy ; the one indicated the consuming fire which God 
 is, out of Christ, the other the purifying fire which God is, 
 in the Holy Ghost. They both were accompanied by a 
 sound. The sound of a trumpet — sad foreboding of the 
 Archangel's trump, that shall summon the wicked to the 
 mount of judgment — preceded the delivery of the Law : 
 the sound of a mighty rushing Wind — that Wind which 
 
The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 331 
 
 the prophet summoned to blow upon the dry hones in the 
 Valley of Vision, which the Church prayed might breathe 
 upon her to fit her for the presence of her Lord — an- 
 nounced the incoming of the Holy Ghost. May that gra- 
 cious Wind blow upon us this day, filling us with the full- 
 ness of its grace ! May the baptism of fire purge away 
 our dross, that so the fires of hell may have nothing 
 whereon to banquet ! 
 
 How careful is the sacred writer to note that this sound 
 as of a rushing mighty Wind came from Heaven ! Ah, my 
 hearers, there is many a wind which rushes by and through 
 the Church, that is not from Heaven ! Be not " carried 
 about," says the Apostle, " with every wind of doctrine." 1 
 " Try the spirits," says another Apostle, " whether they are 
 of God." 2 And nothing is there more important for us, 
 than to determine this matter, — than to be skillful to dis- 
 cern whether the sounds and spirits that are about us and 
 within us come from Heaven ! Satan is skillful in deception, 
 and will put on the garb of spiritual beauty to deceive. 
 But there is one dress which he cannot assume, — one test 
 which he cannot bear. He cannot put on holiness. Ho 
 cannot abide the test of Scripture. He can be, by turns, 
 every spirit save the spirit of holiness. He can withstand 
 every formula of abjuration, but that which Christ em- 
 ployed against him : " It is written." 3 Let us measure 
 every sound that comes into the Church by its results. 
 Does it lead to holiness ? Does it render Christians more 
 humble, more meek, more like Jesus ? Does it put them 
 upon the searching of motives, upon the correcting of 
 habit, upon the subjugation of passions ? Does it fill them 
 with good works? Then is it a sound from Heaven. Try 
 every spirit by the Scriptures, whether it be a spirit in our- 
 selves or in others, whether it be in our teachers or in those 
 1 Eph. iv. 14. 2 1 S. John iv. 1. 3 S Matt iv. 4. 
 
332 The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 we teach. Can it bear the scrutiny of the Bible ? Can it 
 harmonize with that Spirit which inspired the prophets 
 and the Apostles P All that is written in the Scriptures is 
 by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. There has He impressed 
 Himself ; there is His image. Place every spirit opposite 
 that mirror, and it will certify you whether it be a spirit 
 of purity or one of pollution. And let me pray you, my 
 Christian friends, not only to know but to use these instru- 
 ments for the detection of Satan. He is busy, awfully 
 busy, within the Church and without the Church. Exam- 
 ine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Try every spirit, 
 whether it come from Heaven. 
 
 When the Holy Ghost descended upon our Lord, He took 
 the shape of a Dove, — the emblem of gentleness, of purity, 
 of peace. Upon the Apostles He comes with the appear- 
 ance of cloven tongues, like as of fire. And there was fit- 
 ness in both these shapes. It was not meet that He should 
 come upon Christ as fire ; for He it was that the Baptist 
 foretold as coming to baptize with fire and the Holy Ghost, 
 not to be baptized therewith. Nor yet was it needful that 
 He, who could speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 
 should have His lips touched with a live coal from off the 
 Altar. Upon Him must the Holy Ghost descend in that 
 form which most expressed His distinctive Nature, his 
 Spirit of Holiness : and what so fit as a dove, the only fowl 
 that under the Law was clean, and allowed for sacrifice. 
 But the Apostles required to be baptized, and upon them 
 was poured out the Spirit foretold of Joel, in the manner 
 prophesied of John : it was the baptism of fire and of the 
 Holy Ghost, — of fire in the shape of tongues, that it 
 might be diffused on every hand to enlighten and warm the 
 nations into spiritual life. For the blessing of the nations, 
 for the indication to the world that the sound of the Gos- 
 pel was to go out into all lands, that the Holy Ghost was to 
 
The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 333 
 
 be given to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews, was the 
 curse of Babel turned into a blessing. There, God made 
 every man to speak in a different tongue, so that each was 
 severed from the rest : here, were " devout men, out of 
 every nation under heaven,'' " Parthian s, and Medes, and 
 Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, 
 and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pam- 
 phylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, 
 and strangers of Eome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and 
 Arabians," 1 hearing the Gospel preached every man in his 
 own tongue wherein he was born. There, were the coun- 
 sels of men discomfited, that they might not waste their 
 pains in striving to escape God's wrath : here were they 
 furthered, by rich powers from on high, that they might 
 teach their fellow-men how to find God's mercy. 
 
 " God can send," says one of our old English writers, 
 " from heaven no better thing, nor the devil from hell no 
 worse thing, than the Tongue : ' the best member we have ' 
 saith the Psalmist ; 6 the worst member we have ' saith the 
 Apostle : both, as it is employed. 
 
 " The best, if it be of God's cleaving; if it be of His 
 lightening with the fire of heaven ; if it be one that will sit 
 still, if cause be. The worst, if it come from the devil's 
 hands. For he, as in many other, so in the sending of 
 tongues, striveth to be like God ; as knowing well they are 
 every way as fit instruments to work mischief by, as to do 
 good with. There be tongues of angels, mentioned in 1 
 Cor. xiii. 1 : and if of good angels, I make no doubt but of 
 evil; and so the devil hath his tongues. 
 
 " And he hath the art of cleaving. He showed it in the 
 beginning, when he made the serpent ' a forked tongue,' 
 to speak that which was contrary to his knowledge and 
 meaning, 6 they should not die ; ' and as he did the ser- 
 pent's, so he can do others'." 
 
 1 Acts ii. 5, 9-11. 
 
334 The Descent of the Holy Ghost, 
 
 All this, while quaint, is deeply true ; so true, as to make 
 us pray fervently to God that our tongues may not be set 
 on fire of hell, but may be cloven of the Lord for the more 
 apt and fervent speaking of His praise. Truly, says the 
 Apostle, the tongue is a little member, but oh ! how great 
 a matter a little fire kindleth. Oh, that the Holy Ghost 
 would this day sanctify our tongues! For "if any man 
 offend not in word, the same is a perfect man," 1 says 
 S. James. 
 
 And lo ! another mark of the Holy Ghost : " It sat upon 
 each of them." Its permanence was to be a sure token of 
 its presence. "I will pray the Father, and he shall give 
 you another Comforter," says Christ, " that he may abide 
 with you forever." 2 Upon whomsoever the Spirit truly 
 lights, there He abides. He enters into the heart, and 
 makes it His temple, and fills it with peace and the graces 
 of Christ, and becomes its indwelling Deity. Nothing more 
 surely marks the absence of the Holy Ghost in any seeming 
 work of grace or revival, than evanescence. It is not the 
 Nature of the Holy Ghost to be here to-day, and there to- 
 morrow. Where He visits, there He makes His rest. " He 
 which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until 
 the day of Jesus Christ," 3 saith the Apostle Paul to the 
 Philippians. Eloquence may die away, and, with its tones 
 of power or of sweetness, may vanish its impressions. Sym- 
 pathy may wear itself away, and, with its decay of feelings, 
 the chords which it has touched may lose their Christian 
 harmony. Truth may again be overlaid with error, and, 
 with the rising of the cloud, the knowledge which for a 
 moment beamed in upon the soul may be obscured. But 
 when the Holy Ghost enters, He abides forever. His touch 
 scatters darkness, makes sin odious, manifests Christ Jesus, 
 plants a love for holiness which it is almost impossible to 
 1 S. James iii. 2. 2 S. John xiv. 16. 3 Philip, i. 6. 
 
The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 335 
 
 efface. The work of the Spirit in the individual is ordina- 
 rily a quiet, deep, abiding work. Jesus breathes upon the 
 soul, and says, " Receive thou the Holy Ghost : " while this 
 which we commemorate to-day was an extraordinary blast, 
 sudden, public, overwhelming, accompanied with miracles, 
 suitable to the first giving of the new Law needful to the 
 interests of the rising Church. 
 
 The result of this heavenly visitation was twofold. The 
 Apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake 
 with tongues. The fullness of the Holy Ghost may be par- 
 ticipated in by all, and the utterance with tongues was 
 peculiar to the few. But, like every thing' in Xature, the 
 most common of these gifts ranks, with the Apostle, as by 
 far the most valuable : " Though I speak with the tongues 
 of men and of angels, and have not Charity, I am become as 
 sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." 1 "Yet show I unto 
 you a more excellent way " 2 he said, when he had been 
 discoursing of miracles, and gifts of healing, and tongues ; 
 and that " more excellent way," is the way we are led by 
 the ordinary guidance of the Holy Ghost. There is no 
 bosom, however humble, — and the more humble the better, 
 — in which the Holy Ghost will not implant His fullness. 
 Tongues have been vouchsafed but to a few. and we see how 
 fatally some even of those few abused them ; but the fullness 
 of the Spirit hath been enjoyed from generation to genera- 
 tion, by the faithful of every age, each, in turn, witnessing 
 to its power and its preciousness. Let us aim to be filled 
 with this Spirit • not that we may speak with tongues, not 
 that we may win men to admiration by our gifts and spir- 
 itual powers, but that we may imitate the meek and lowly 
 Jesus, and walk humbly with our God. The fullness of the 
 Spirit hath always the impress of graces which the world 
 can scarcely understand, — graces which show themselves 
 
 1 1 Cor. xiii. 1. 2 Ibid. xii. 31. 
 
336 The Descent of the Holy Ghost 
 
 in an ever increasing holiness. That is the will of God, 
 even our sanctification ; and for that result will He fill us 
 with His Spirit according to our desires. 
 
 It was when the Apostles were engaged in prayer that 
 the Holy Ghost descended upon them : " And when they 
 had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assem- 
 bled together ; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, 
 and they spake the word of God with boldness." 1 It was 
 while Peter preached that the Holy Ghost fell upon the 
 Gentiles : " while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy 
 Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." 2 It was 
 when Christ ascended from the Waters of Baptism, that 
 " the Heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit 
 of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him." 3 
 It was in Confirmation that the Holy Ghost came upon the 
 disciples : " And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, 
 the Holy Ghost came on them." 4 See then, brethren, the 
 means which God has instituted in His Church for the 
 procurance of the Holy Ghost : Prayer, Preaching, and the 
 Sacraments. May we not with confidence look for His 
 presence, if we use them faithfully and diligently ? Nay, 
 must we not be condemned, condemned in our own con- 
 sciences, condemned in the eyes of each other, condemned 
 in the view of spiritual men, and angels, if the Holy Ghost 
 does not come upon us ? What shall hinder it ? Our 
 Saviour Christ has led captivity captive, and offers gifts to 
 men, and this His chiefest Gift. He has established His 
 Church upon earth; and we worship in that Church, ac- 
 cording to His own arrangements, — those arrangements 
 which He has sanctified everlastingly by the Descent upon 
 them of the Holy Ghost. What shall hinder His presence 
 among us ? Faithlessness, indevotion, uncharitableness, im- 
 purity. These shall deter Him from mingling His holiness 
 
 1 Acts iv. 31. 2 Ibid. x. 44. 8 S. Matt. iii. 16. 4 Acts xix. 6. 
 
The Descent of the Holy Ghost. 337 
 
 with our assembly ; and shall we prefer these guests to the 
 Holy Dove ? Oh no ! Let us watch for His presence : and 
 when He comes, let Him find the window of our Ark open 
 to receive Him, our hands stretched out to take Him in. 
 
 1843. 
 
 22 
 
C^trt^firjst Sermon. 
 
 Quench not the Spirit. — i Thessalonians v. 19. 
 
 "YTTE do not enough realize that we are living, in these 
 * * latter days, under the dispensation of the Spirit ; — 
 that the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the adorable Trin- 
 ity, is the active, life-giving Being, by whom and through 
 whom all the operations of God upon the heart of man are 
 carried on, whether those operations be individual and pri- 
 vate, or stand connected with the visible Church and its 
 public ordinances. We talk vaguely, and there is a great 
 deal of vague preaching about the Spirit, — the Spirit of 
 God, the Spirit of Christ, — not considering, or at least not 
 keeping the consideration very clearly before the mind, that 
 He is a Person of the Godhead, as real a Person as the 
 Father or the Son ; and that to Him is committed the 
 work of operating upon the heart of man in such wise as 
 to lead him to lay hold of the Salvation which is in and 
 through Christ Jesus ; or else put him to the terrible alter- 
 native of quenching the influences which are brought to 
 bear upon his understanding, his affections, and his con- 
 science. 
 
 We find in the Old Testament strong indications of a 
 very material difference between the covenant under which 
 the people of Israel were placed by Jehovah, and that which 
 was to be manifested at some future time, to which the 
 Jews were made to look forward as the period of promise 
 and of hope : " Behold, the days come, saith the Lokd, 
 
Quench not the Spirit. 
 
 339 
 
 that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, 
 and with the house of Judah : not according" to the cove- 
 nant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took 
 them hy the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt ; 
 
 but this shall be the covenant that I will make 
 
 with the house of Israel ; After those days, saith the Lord, 
 I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in 
 their hearts ; and will be their God, and they shall be my 
 people." 1 And again, in Ezekiel, speaking of the same 
 future : " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye 
 shall be clean : from all your filthiness, and from all your 
 idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, 
 and a new spirit will I put within you : and I will take away 
 the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an 
 heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and 
 cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my 
 judgments, and do them." 2 And in Joel more distinctly 
 still : " And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour 
 out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daugh- 
 ters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your 
 young men shall see visions : and also upon the servants and 
 upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my 
 Spirit." 3 And these prophetic promises plainly marked out 
 a new dispensation, which was to be distinguished by two 
 features : the first, a much more decided and universal op- 
 eration of the Spirit of God upon the world ; the second, an 
 influence of that Spirit, which besides its extraordinary 
 manifestations, was to be silent, inward, converting, so that 
 the creature who received it might be said to have a new 
 heart, — a heart changed from stone to flesh. During the 
 earth-life of our Saviour we begin to see the development of 
 this new covenant, — to see it however only in the reitera- 
 tion of the promises which had been made in the Old Testa- 
 
 1 Jer. xxxi. 31-33. 2 Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27. 3 Joel ii. 28, 29. 
 
34-0 Quench not the Spirit. 
 
 ment. Until His work was accomplished, the Holy Ghost 
 could not be poured out ; because it was the especial Gift 
 which He was to obtain from His Father for the children 
 of men. " I have a baptism to be baptized with," was His 
 expression while fulfilling His work upon earth ; " and how 
 am I straitened until it be accomplished ! " 1 His own part 
 of the plan of redemption He could carry out triumphantly 
 to its consummation. Every step in His onward progress 
 was a victory over some one of the enemies of man : but 
 until His final cry of triumph was heard from the Cross — • 
 that cry which rent in twain the vail of the Temple, which 
 made the earth to quake, which opened the graves, which 
 roused the dead from their corruption — the promise of the 
 Father could not be fulfilled. His command, therefore, 
 was laid upon His Apostles, " that they should not depart 
 from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, 
 which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly bap- 
 tized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
 Ghost, not many days hence." 2 This promise of the 
 Father was fulfilled upon the day of Pentecost, when the 
 Holy Ghost descended upon the assembled Apostles, appear- 
 ing in the form of cloven tongues, like as of fire, and filling 
 them not only with the ordinary, but with the extraordinary 
 gifts of the Spirit. This was the manifestation of the Holy 
 Ghost, prophesied of in Joel ; and was the indication to the 
 world, that, the testator being dead, the New Covenant or 
 Testament became of force, — that New Covenant which 
 was sprinkled with the Blood that speaketh better things 
 than that of Abel. But besides the miraculous exhibition 
 of the giving of the Holy Ghost, which was the manifesta- 
 tion to the Apostles of their having come into the full frui- 
 tion of the New Covenant, there was very soon after a 
 marked indication that some new and divine influence was 
 
 i S. Luke xii. 50. 2 Acts i. 4, 5. 
 
Quench not the Spirit. 
 
 34i 
 
 working extraordinary changes in the hearts of those, who, 
 until now, had exhibited an entire callousness to the divine 
 words and miraculous works of Jesus of Nazareth. In the 
 midst of Jerusalem, within view of the very spots where the 
 infuriated multitudes had forced him through all the forms 
 of suffering to which a mortal man could be subjected, the 
 very people who had cried out " Crucify him, crucify him," 
 were now pricked to the heart under the plain and pungent 
 preaching of the Apostles, and were asking, " What shall 
 we do to be saved ? " were receiving baptism, and rejoicing 
 in the Name of Jesus ; were confessing His Cross, even 
 unto martyrdom. Truly had the Saviour said, " I will not 
 leave you comfortless : I will come to you." 1 And again : 
 " Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; It 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. And when he is come, he will reprove the world 
 
 of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment He 
 
 shall glorify me : for he shall receive of mine, and shall 
 show it unto you." 2 
 
 As we proceed in the history of the Church, and reach 
 the time when S. Paul began to write his Epistles to the 
 Churches, we find a yet more distinct declaration of this 
 peculiarity of the New Testament, — the peculiarity of its 
 being distinctively the dispensation of the Spirit. In writ- 
 ing to the Corinthians, lest their false teachers should 
 charge him with vain-glory, he runs a comparison be- 
 tween the ministers of the Law and of the Gospel : " Our 
 sufficiency," writes he, " is of God ; who also hath made us 
 able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, 
 but of the spirit : for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 
 life. But if the ministration of death, written and en- 
 graven in stones, was glorious, .... how shall not the 
 1 S. John xiv. 18, 2 7^ xvi> 7> 8> 14< 
 
342 Quench not the Spirit. 
 
 ministration of the spirit be rather glorious ? " 1 And 
 again : " Wherefore I give yon to understand, that no man 
 speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed : and 
 that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the 
 Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the 
 
 same Spirit And there are diversities of operations, 
 
 but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the 
 manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit 
 withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wis- 
 dom ; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 
 to another faith by the same Spirit ; " and thus he runs 
 through the various gifts of the Spirit, ordinary and extra- 
 ordinary, concluding with the words : " But all these work- 
 eth that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man 
 severally as he will." 3 And in his Epistle to the Ephesians 
 he runs through the catalogue of the officers and teachers 
 in the Church, commencing with Apostles, and ending with 
 Pastors, tracing them all up to the Ascension of Christ, 
 and His giving unto men the gifts of the Spirit, which He 
 had purchased with His Blood : thus wrapping up every 
 thing, both private and public, both in the individual and 
 in the Church, in the Holy Ghost ; the Spirit which, in our 
 text, the Thessalonians are exhorted not to quench. We 
 are living then, as I stated in the beginning of my sermon, 
 under the dispensation of the Spirit, — under that New 
 Testament in which the Law was to be put in our inward 
 parts, was to be written in our hearts ; under which changes 
 of the most thorough description were to be made in the 
 inner man, so that what deserved to-day the appellation of 
 stone, might to-morrow be called flesh. And this is the 
 point I desire to impress upon you to-day ; and which I 
 further desire that you should keep distinctly in view 
 through all your Christian experience : for upon it will 
 1 2 Cor. iii. 5-8. 2 1 Cor. xii. 3, 4, 6-9, 11. 
 
Quench not the Spirit, 343 
 
 depend your growth in grace and in the knowledge of the 
 Lord ; your spiritual wisdom and understanding, your com- 
 fort, and joy, and peace in believing. Just as no man can 
 call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost, so can no man 
 move forward in the Christian life but through the divine 
 influences which are appointed to flow down upon him 
 through the Spirit : and therefore is it that, in the laying 
 on of hands, the prayer is offered that the candidates may 
 be " strengthened " with " the Holy Ghost, the Comfort- 
 er ; " that " the manifold gifts " of God's " grace " may be 
 " daily increased " in them ; — " the spirit of wisdom and 
 understanding, the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, 
 the spirit of knowledge and true godliness," and lastly 
 " the spirit of the Holy fear 99 of the Lord. How very in- 
 teresting and important, then, does the rite of Confirma- 
 tion become, when we consider that it distinctly and espec- 
 ially invokes upon the head of the candidate the very Spirit 
 under whose dispensation we are living, and by whose gifts 
 we are made more and more like Him who is first our Sav- 
 iour, aud then our Example ! 
 
 Every step in the Christian life, moreover, is made to de- 
 pend upon the Holy Ghost. The very first sense of sinful- 
 ness comes from Him : for " when he is come," says our 
 Saviour, " he will reprove the world of sin." 1 The very 
 faintest, as well as the most exalted, views of Christ come 
 from Him : for, says our Saviour, " He shall glorify me ; 
 for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." 2 
 The growth in knowledge, in wisdom, in faith, all come 
 from Him : " for to one is given," says the Apostle, " by 
 the Spirit, the word of wisdom ; to another, the word of 
 knowledge by the same Spirit ; to another, faith by the 
 same Spirit." 3 The sense of adoption comes from Him : 
 for " the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that 
 
 1 S. John xvi. 8. 2 1Ud ^ 14 _ 3 1 Cor , xiL 8j 9t 
 
344 
 
 Quench not the Spirit. 
 
 we are the children of God." 1 The security of our inherit- 
 ance conies from Him: for "ye were sealed/' says the 
 Apostle to the Ephesians, with that Holy Spirit of prom- 
 ise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the re- 
 demption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of 
 his glory." 2 From the beginning to the ending, from the 
 first faint sense of sin up to the full assurance of faith and 
 hope, the Holy Ghost is the giver of all those graces which 
 Christ has obtained for His people, — the dispenser of those 
 unsearchable riches, which are laid up with God for the 
 strength, the comfort, and the joy of all Christian hearts. 
 How deeply important then, and how universally important, 
 the exhortation of our text : " Quench not the Spirit : " — 
 deeply important, because upon the life of that Spirit within 
 the heart depends all personal religion ; universally impor- 
 tant, because the work of the Spirit extends over the whole 
 length and breadth and height and depth of the Christian 
 life. Nothing can be done at any point of the soul's his- 
 tory without the Spirit ; and there is no point at which He 
 may not be grieved and quenched if God's grace desert us. 
 And it becomes still more a matter of awe, when we remem- 
 ber that terrible things are spoken in the Scripture respect- 
 ing the Spirit, such as these : that " My Spirit shall not 
 always strive with man ; " 3 that " it is impossible for those 
 who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly 
 gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost ... if 
 they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance ; 
 seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, 
 and put him to an open shame ; " 4 that there is a sin 
 a.gainst the Holy Ghost, which " shall not be forgiven, 
 neither in this world, neither in the world to come." 5 How 
 any one, — with the knowledge of our entire dependence 
 
 i Rom. viii. 16. 2 Eph. i. 13, 14. 3 Gen. vi. 3. 
 
 4 Heb. vi. 4, 6. 6 S. Matt. xii. 32. 
 
Quench not the Spirit 345 
 
 upon this Spirit, with a proper sense of the exclusive au- 
 thority with which every thing is committed to Him in the 
 Church upon earth, with a remembrance of these solemn 
 warnings resting upon his heart, — can venture to quench 
 the Spirit, to trifle with such a Being, to vex Him, to grieve 
 Him, to drive Him from His work in the soul ; is past all 
 comprehension : and yet, strange as it may seem, this aw- 
 ful work is going on busily in the world, and in the Church ; 
 sometimes visibly, so that man can see and trace the prog- 
 ress 5 sometimes secretly, so that it shall never be sus- 
 pected until the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed. 
 
 One would suppose that the last person in the world to 
 quench the Spirit in a child would be a Christian parent, — 
 one who had tasted the preciousness of Christ, the joy and 
 peace in believing. And yet, unnatural and monstrous as 
 it may seem, parents are often the very first ; because to 
 them is committed the spirit of the child, during' its ear- 
 liest years. They bring it to the baptismal font ; they pray 
 that the Holy Spirit may be poured out upon it, that it may 
 be regenerate and born again of water and of the Spirit, 
 that it may be made an heir of everlasting salvation • they 
 hear the Minister declare that the " child is regenerate, and 
 grafted into the body of Christ's Church : " and they go 
 away, proving by their conduct that they have no faith in 
 the ordinance or in the promises of God, because they 
 forthwith conclude that the child cannot be and must not 
 be religious until it shall have reached a certain undefined 
 period of life, and has passed through a certain routine of 
 worldly experience. How much early piety is thus extin- 
 guished ! How many young spirits, yearning for a higher 
 life, are bound down by low views like these to the earth 
 and earthly things, when they should be soaring on the 
 wings of faith and love into the presence of their God ! 
 How many heavenward aspirations are quenched in those 
 
346 Quench not the Spirit. 
 
 of whom Christ said : " of such is the kingdom of God." 1 
 Why, Christian parents, are ye so doubtful and so afraid of 
 early piety ? Why cry out against such manifestations as 
 indications of undue excitement, of artificial feeling, of af- 
 fections that must die out ? Is it so unnatural that a young 
 soul should love its God? Is it so unaccountable that a 
 warm-hearted child should feel its affections kindling at 
 the tale of Christ's love and sacrifice for it ? Are the prom- 
 ises of God to go for nothing, which command the young 
 to remember their Creator in the days of their youth? 
 which declare that those who seek Him early shall find 
 Him ? which ensure parents a reward for the training of 
 their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ? 
 The Spirit of God deals with our children, my beloved peo- 
 ple, at a very early age ; nay, we have reason to hope, from 
 the very moment when we dedicate them to God in baptism. 
 Let it be our duty to guard and direct that influence, treat- 
 ing it as we should a tender and delicate plant, which 
 is just pushing its feeble blade through the earth which 
 nourishes and yet buries it. 
 
 Religion will not be in a child what it will be in an 
 adult ; and we must not expect it. It will be the piety of 
 a child, — simple, trustful, guileless, mixed up-with the fri- 
 volities of childhood : but still, piety with all the elements 
 of genuine Christianity, — sorrow for sin, confession of sin, 
 a looking to God for forgiveness through Christ, a deter- 
 mination to amend and do better for the future. Quench 
 all this, either through indifference, or inadvertence, or 
 harshness, and you are quenching a Spirit which may not 
 work again within that heart for many a long and weary 
 year which you may have spent in tears and sorrow over 
 an impenitent and ungodly child. Cherish it, and it may 
 grow up into a Christian character that shall give you 
 i S. Mark x. 14. 
 
Quench not the Spirit. 
 
 347 
 
 infinite comfort in this world ; — that may illustrate the 
 Church of Christ upon earth ! 
 
 As the children of the Church advance in age, they pass 
 from the parent's teaching under that of the ministering 
 servants of the Lord ; and they, too, must be very careful 
 not to quench the Holy Spirit in the young. They, too, 
 may fall into a like error with that noticed in parents, — 
 of not expecting the young to devote themselves to Christ, 
 of fearing to encourage their profession, lest they may 
 prove unsteady, inconsistent, or may fall away from their 
 profession. My own experience has rid me very much of 
 this fear. It has been my lot as a minister to have been 
 thrown very much with the young, and over the young ; 
 and in almost every instance of early profession, I have 
 found a very great consistency of Christian character, a 
 very great steadfastness in the love of the Church. And I 
 say this for the encouragement of any young persons who 
 may now be desirous of Confirmation in the Church of 
 Christ, and may yet be hesitating and fearing to profess 
 Christ before the world. " Quench not the Spirit." He is 
 striving with you now, — calling you at a most impressive 
 period of your life, when you have virgin hearts to offer to 
 the Lord. Listen to the call. Be obedient to His voice 
 of Love. Follow His holy and divine guidance. Meet Him 
 — where He loves to dwell — in the Church, and at the 
 Altar ; and you will lay up for yourselves a rich fountain of 
 happiness for your future life. And life, my youthful hear- 
 ers, needs such a fountain. It has its joys : but they are 
 intermingled with many sorrows. It has its sunshine, and 
 may much of it rest upon your heads : but the days of 
 darkness must come. Its path sometimes leads through 
 green pastures and smiling landscapes : but much of it is a 
 weary waste, in which the heart faints, and the strength 
 fails. Flee at once to the dear secret fountain of joy, 
 
348 Quench not the Spirit, 
 
 which Christ alone can plant within you ; and quench not, 
 for a single moment, even of thoughtless youth, the Spirit 
 who is guiding you to your eternal peace ! 
 
 It is a sad mistake into which men so often fall in regard 
 to the Church of Christ, as if it were a place only for the 
 perfect. Gracious Father of mercy, if this were true, 
 which of us could claim our places within its sacred pre- 
 cincts ? Which of us, from the highest in office to the 
 humblest in feeling, could dare to kneel at its Altars ? Oh, 
 no ! It is a sanctuary for all those who are penitent ; who 
 are believing, even while they tremble ; who are fighting 
 the good fight of faith ; who are resting upon Jesus, in 
 humility, for strength and for grace. To this sanctuary is 
 the Spirit of God endeavoring to lead every one of you; 
 and for this purpose is striving with your hearts to con- 
 vince you of sin, to manifest Christ unto you, to unite you 
 with Him through a means of grace which He has insti- 
 tuted in His Church. In whatever way the Spirit may be 
 dealing with you, quench Him not ! It may be that He is 
 striving to lead you to Christ through a thankful and grate- 
 ful heart, — thankful and grateful for mercies received. 
 Oh ! u quench not the Spirit," lest He afterwards say to 
 you : " I spake unto thee in thy prosperity ; but thou saidst, 
 I will not hear." 1 It may be that He is plunging you into a 
 sea of troubles, that you may sigh for rest, and find it upon 
 the bosom of Jesus. Oh ! " quench not the Spirit," lest 
 the waters overflow thee, and thou perish out of the Ark 
 of safety ! It may be that He has snatched from you the 
 pride of your heart, the delight of your eyes, and trans- 
 ferred them to Heaven, that your affections may soar 
 thither and find reunion in Christ. Oh ! " quench not the 
 Spirit," for " 0 Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth ? 
 thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved ; thou 
 
 1 Jer. xxii. 21. 
 
Quench not the Spirit 349 
 
 hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive cor- 
 rection : they have made their faces harder than a rock ; 
 they have refused to return. Therefore I said, Surely these 
 are poor ; they are foolish : for they know not the way of 
 the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." 1 It may he 
 that He is guiding you calmly along the path of life, open- 
 ing gradually before you the things of Christ. Oh, 
 " Quench not the Spirit ; " yield to His gentle influences ; 
 be guided by His divine counsel : and soon shall you find 
 your peace as a river, and your righteousness as the waves 
 of the sea. Whatever may be your circumstances, or 
 whatever your condition, whatever your age, whatever the 
 influences under which the Holy Spirit may be leading 
 you to Christ, Oh ! " quench not the Spirit : " for, once 
 quenched, He may never again cast the bright beams of 
 His glory within your heart ! 
 
 1865. 
 
 1 Jer. v. 3, 4. 
 
Qtyittpmovfo Sermon, 
 
 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. 
 — Genesis l 26. 
 
 Compared with 
 
 A?td Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the 
 water : and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the 
 Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him : and 
 lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Soji, in whom I 
 am well pleased. — S. Matthew iii. 16, 17. 
 
 [First Part.] 
 
 TT is roundly asserted and generally believed that the 
 doctrine of the Trinity is one of late introduction into 
 the Christian system, and was neither known nor exacted 
 as a matter of faith until the second or third century of the 
 Christian era. And yet, in the very face of this declara- 
 tion, the Lessons selected by the Church for Trinity Sunday 
 are chosen, the one from the first chapter of Genesis, the 
 other from the third chapter of S. Matthew's Gospel, as 
 exhibiting, with peculiar distinctness, the Personality of the 
 Godhead. How can a doctrine be of late introduction, 
 which manifests itself thus distinctly upon the very opening 
 scenes, the one of the world's economy, the other of the 
 Christian dispensation? How can that be new, which is 
 inscribed upon the very first page of the Revelation that 
 God made of Himself to His creatures, and which, after a 
 lapse of fourteen hundred years, during four hundred of 
 which there was silence between Heaven and earth, God 
 not speaking to the world, reappears at the very earliest 
 moment of the renewal of intercourse ? So far from its 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity, 351 
 
 being a novel doctrine, it constitutes, in my view, the very 
 foundation of the whole Christian scheme, and seems to 
 have been arranged by God for a peculiar purpose, — so 
 arranged, that while the Unity of the Godhead should be 
 impressed upon the world, that world should not be per- 
 mitted, even for a moment of time, to conceive of that 
 Unity, save as embodying the divine mystery of Three Per- 
 sons in that Unity. My reading of the Bible satisfies me 
 that the doctrine of the Unity of the Godhead was not 
 revealed an instant earlier than that of the Trinity; and 
 that it was the harder one to force upon the world. When 
 the inspired writers of the Old Testament reiterate the 
 declaration, " Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God is one 
 Lord." 1 When they press it home upon the gainsaying 
 Israelites, and seem never to tire of its repetition, it was 
 not against the Trinity that they were guarding and 
 warning the chosen people of God, but it was against the 
 corrupt tendency of human nature, which had developed 
 itself all the world over, and was rife around them, to make 
 Gods many and Lords many, and to people every mountain 
 and valley and river and forest with deities. The doctrine 
 of the Three Persons in the One Godhead, had it been 
 taught apart from its mystery of oneness and coequality, 
 would have been greedily caught at among the Pagans, for 
 it would have fallen in with their natural sentiment of 
 polytheism. It was the doctrine of the Unity of God 
 which was strange ; which was considered unnatural ; 
 which had to be forced upon the world, and then kept in 
 it, by the separation and perpetual discipline of a people set 
 apart for the very purpose ; which was preserved, only by 
 means like these, until such time as Christ became incar- 
 nate, and by the sacrifice of Himself introduced the Holy 
 Spirit to the world, through whose agency and power over 
 
 1 Deut. vi. 4. 
 
352 The Doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 the heart it finds belief and reception. Men of the present 
 generation can scarcely conceive the true state of this 
 question; can scarcely realize how much more unnatural 
 the doctrine of the Unity of God is to man, than that of a 
 plurality of Gods ; how much more difficult it is to keep 
 his affections fastened upon one object, than upon many. 
 Because, after an education of six thousand years, and after 
 the introduction into the world of the Holy Ghost, whose 
 sublime office it is to keep religion pure in the heart, Man 
 has learned at last to receive and worship God in His Unity, 
 he imagines it to be a natural sentiment. Never was he 
 more mistaken. Never was there a doctrine more distinctly 
 a matter of education. And even now, wherever man is 
 found without that religious training, there is found with 
 him the belief and worship of a plurality of Gods ; or, at the 
 least, of a duality, the two antagonistic principles of good 
 and evil, of light and darkness, of benevolence and malice. 
 
 There is no doubt that the word Trinity was not used as 
 a distinctly theological word until after the coming of 
 Christ : but it is not the word that is important, but the 
 thing 5 it is not the term, but the doctrine. What has been 
 revealed to us, upon this point, from the beginning? 
 What has been the doctrine taught by the Scriptures ? 
 What has been the faith impressed upon the world ? What 
 has been embodied in the Creeds of the Church from the 
 time when Creeds became necessary ? These are the points 
 to be settled, and not the time of the introduction of a 
 word adopted and used, for convenience sake, to express 
 compactly and forcibly a revealed and therefore existing 
 truth. If any man tells me that he believes what is 
 expressed by the word Trinity, I will not quarrel with him 
 about the word Trinity. If he will say, in the language of 
 our Article, — " There is but one living and true God, ever- 
 lasting, without body, parts, or passions ; of infinite power, 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity. 353 
 
 wisdom, and goodness ; the Maker and Preserver of all 
 things hoth visible and invisible. And in Unity of this 
 Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, 
 and eternity ; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost : " 1 
 — I shall not dispute with him about the word. The word 
 is not a thing of Revelation, and therefore is not essential : 
 the doctrine is a thing of Revelation, and therefore is essen- 
 tial. To dispute, consequently, about the mere word, is to 
 cavil against that which is not the material thing. Sup- 
 posing the term cr Trinity " to be given up, the doctrine 
 of the Trinity still stands, as it is believed and explained by 
 the Church, and will forever stand, until the Word of God 
 shall be of none effect among men. Nothing is gained, 
 then, by warfare against the term, more than the getting 
 rid of a convenient word which expresses briefly what is 
 taught diffusely and at intervals. All this is beside the 
 mark, is unworthy of a sensible controversialist, is making 
 a point of that which has really nothing to do with the 
 question. The true and earnest matter is : " What has 
 God declared from the beginning of His Revelation to be 
 His mode of existence ? And I answer emphatically, and 
 without all fear of contradiction : " Three Persons, the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, of one substance, 
 power and eternity, subsisting in the Unity of the God- 
 head." 2 
 
 We have no right, in the examination of any Christian 
 doctrine, to separate the Old and New Testaments from 
 each other. They together constitute one Revelation ; and 
 I am bold to assert that if the one is not a Revelation from 
 God, neither is the other. They stand or fall together. 
 The one is the complement of the other : and if it be nec- 
 essary at times to interpret the expressions of the older dis- 
 pensation through the disclosures of the new, it is essential 
 
 1 Article I. 2 Ibid. 
 
 23 
 
354 The Doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 to the newer dispensation to have the older to rest upon for 
 its defence against the assaults of infidelity and false philos- 
 ophy. Unless I had the New Testament to explain the 
 Old, I might often err in my inferences ; hut unless I had 
 the Old Testament to defend the New, I should find it very 
 hard to resist the sophistry of Mr. Hume, or the rational- 
 ism of the Neologists. It is because I have both that I 
 feel invincible, — that I am sure I can do every thing and 
 any thing which the reason may demand, or the intellect 
 call for ; — that I can wield from the treasury of the Bible 
 an array of argument that can do every thing, except con- 
 vert the heart of the creature and make it submissive. 
 
 Let us then, with this preliminary assertion, with this 
 postulate (without which I should think it useless to argue 
 at all), examine this very first chapter of Genesis, — this 
 very first page in the Revelation of God, — and see what it 
 asserts. Its very first words are : " In the beginning God 
 created the heaven and the earth." That is the very first 
 teaching man gets, — the first idea which is given him of 
 God, the Creator of heaven and earth. Until this revela- 
 tion, he knows nothing. God ! what then is God ? That 
 is the idea to be developed. Man knows nothing of Him 
 before Revelation, — knows not whether He is one or 
 many ; knows not His mode of existence ; knows nothing 
 of His intentions or purposes. He is altogether at large. 
 His mind is a blank, upon which is to be written the dis- 
 closures of the Deity. He has no prejudications one way or 
 the other. He confesses, like Confucius, a profound igno- 
 rance upon the subject. Can he, by searching, find out 
 God ? It is high as Heaven, what can he do ? deeper than 
 Hell, what can he know? He holds the attitude of one 
 receiving knowledge, and not disputing about it. God! 
 who and what is He ? And he is obliged to wait for new 
 disclosures. And the very next verse helps him: "And 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity. 355 
 
 tlie 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." " The Spirit of God : " 
 what is that '? Is it a quality ? is it an emanation ? is it a 
 something subsisting in God, or distinct from God? This 
 is certainly a fresh idea. Everywhere else, except in this 
 passage, up to the 26th verse of the chapter, the language 
 is, " God created," " God said," " God called ; " here it is 
 the " Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." 
 This fresh idea must therefore be reserved for considera- 
 tion, — must be kept weighed in the mind for further 
 development until such time as new revelations shall make 
 it more plain. Should it not be rash in a creature, when 
 he knew that he was the recipient of a Revelation which 
 was to be progressive, to decide hastily upon any point 
 which had not been entirely unfolded, — to say at once, 
 and presumptuously, that this Spirit of God was a mere 
 quality, emanating from God and returning to God, having 
 no personality nor separate existence ? Certainly it should. 
 His only proper attitude is that of cautious reserve, until 
 he shall hear more of this God ; until the Revelation shall 
 more clearly explain itself. He is a learner and not a 
 guesser ; an humble disciple to whom things are unfold- 
 ing themselves, and not a critic. He must wait upon the 
 will of God, in patience and humility. 
 
 The 25th verse of this first chapter of Genesis closes the 
 narrative of the creation of all animal life save the highest 
 earthly being — Man. The 26th verse introduces that 
 most important act, — introduces it with great solemnity, 
 and with an entire change of phraseology. In all the pre- 
 vious exertions of creative power, the language is, " God 
 said, Let such and such things be created." The 26th 
 verse opens in a very different and much more striking 
 way. The first indicates a mere exercise of will ; this indi- 
 
35 6 The Doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 cates consultation among Persons not yet known to us. 
 " And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our 
 likeness : " — a very remarkable change of phraseology, one 
 which may mean nothing, or which may mean a great 
 deal ; which may he a mere Oriental and regal mode of 
 address, or may embody a deep mysterious truth. Now 
 I do not ask you to admit that this teaches the Trinity ; 
 that will depend upon circumstances : but does it not call 
 upon an humble enquirer into truth, upon one who knows 
 nothing (except what he may be taught) about the mode of 
 Divine existence, to pause and reflect, before he concludes 
 any thing rashly ? — to keep his mind in a state of suspense 
 until further light shall be cast upon it from the Fountain 
 of light ? Once before, in the same chapter, has the nar- 
 rative passed rapidly from God to the Spirit of God ; and 
 here again it has passed, at a most critical moment too, 
 just when God is about to perform His greatest act of cre- 
 ation, from the singular to the plural form of expression : 
 " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Who 
 are included under this term "us"? To whom is God 
 speaking? With whom is God consulting? It may be 
 nothing, but are you sure that it is nothing ? Are you so 
 sure that it is nothing, that you can say that there is no 
 evidence of Persons in the Godhead in the Old Testament ? 
 It seems to me that the phraseology of this chapter leaves 
 the door open for much expectation ; that at the close of 
 this narrative, while I am well informed that God is the 
 creator of heaven and earth, I am not at all sure what sort 
 of Being that God is, what is His mode of existence, 
 whether as an unit, or as more than one, or as several in 
 one. I say that, from this chapter, the thing is left quite 
 open, and beyond any man to say how it will be developed 
 as the Revelation unfolds itself. 
 
 Now as we float along with the Revelation as it is devel- 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity. 357 
 
 oped from time to time, we discover very distinctly that 
 there are not more Gods than one. This is very clear, for 
 the expressions are frequent and impressive : " There is but 
 one God," — " There is no other God hut me," — " There 
 is not any God besides me," with a thousand assertions like 
 these, which settle that question. But because there is only 
 one God, it decides nothing about the mode of existence of 
 that one God. Tbe believers in the doctrine of the Trinity 
 do not say that there are more Gods than one ; nay, they 
 deny it most stoutly, as a misrepresentation of their belief : 
 their position is that there is but one God, but that in the 
 unity of that Godhead there are three Persons, Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost. This is a very different position, 
 one which does not in the least meet its denial in any of 
 the texts of Scripture which affirm God to be one God, but 
 which must look for its fulfillment in quite a distinct mode 
 of investigation. 
 
 While we find, then, in following the stream of Revela- 
 tion, that there is a clear denial of more Gods than one, 
 there is, all along, an intimation of Persons who are to 
 have a most wonderful influence upon the history and 
 development of religion. Besides this " Spirit of God " 
 who moved upon the face of the waters, we read of "a 
 Seed of the Woman who is to crush the serpent's head ; " 
 of " a King who is to reign in righteousness ; " of " a son 
 to be born, of a child to be given ; " of " a Being who was 
 to be the fellow of Jehovah : " and most wonderful appella- 
 tions are given to this Being, — appellations which can 
 rightfully belong to no human creature. All this keeps 
 the mind suspended as to God's mode of existence ; — all 
 this leaves it yet uncertain how the Godhead will be devel- 
 oped, when the Revelation shall have been fully made. 
 Enough is seen to satisfy us that there is an unsolved mys- 
 tery, that Beings are unfolding behind the veil who are one 
 
35 8 The Doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 day to occupy a most essential place in the economy of 
 grace : but what place, and in what precise relation to the 
 Godhead, it is not yet possible for man to decide. 
 
 But so soon as the fullness of time was come, when God's 
 plan of salvation was to be fully disclosed, the whole mys- 
 tery is made plain, and throws a flood of light back upon 
 all the dark passages of the Old Testament, and especially 
 upon this first chapter of Genesis. Let us now turn to the 
 second Lesson of the day, the third chapter of S. Matthew's 
 Gospel, and see how that illuminates and glorifies the first 
 of Genesis. We there see a person called Jesus of Naz- 
 areth coming out of Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be 
 baptized of him. " But John forbade him, saying, I have 
 need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ? " 
 Why did John forbid Him ? He had forbidden nobody else. 
 He had baptized all the leading people of the Jews, sol- 
 diers, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees : why forbid this Man ? 
 He, John, was by very far the greatest of all the Prophets ; 
 was heralded beforehand by prophecy itself, which no other 
 man had ever been ; had been conceived and born miracu- 
 lously, and then trained in a school of surprising austerity. 
 Who then was this to whom he said : " I have need to be 
 baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ? " 
 
 Let us see what the simple narrative says : — " And 
 Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now : for 
 thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he 
 suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up 
 straightway out of the water : and lo, the heavens were 
 opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending 
 like a dove, and lighting upon him : and lo a voice from 
 heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased." Here are evidently three distinct agents : A 
 voice from heaven, as the voice of a Father ; a being in the 
 form of Man, addressed from heaven as " my beloved Son ; 55 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity, 359 
 
 and that same Spirit of God which we encountered in the 
 first chapter of Genesis brooding" over Chaos, and now as- 
 suming the form of a Dove. This is, at the very first glance, 
 very striking, occurring., as it does, at the opening* of the 
 Christian dispensation ; but it becomes infinitely more so, 
 when we turn to other portions of the New Testament, and 
 compare them with the Old. Who is this beloved Son? — 
 and now that we find him announced from Heaven so pub- 
 licly, we remember that the Psalmist said, a thousand years 
 before : — " Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of 
 Zion. I will declare the decree : the Lord hath said unto 
 me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee. Be 
 wise now therefore, 0 ye kings : be instructed, ye judges of 
 the earth. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish 
 from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." 1 We 
 remember what Isaiah said : " For unto us a child is born, 
 unto us a Son is given : and the government shall be upon 
 his shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful, 
 Counsellor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The 
 Prince of Peace." 1 With these striking passages of the 
 Old Testament recurring to us, and with the recollection 
 of that remarkable phraseology of the first chapter of Gen- 
 esis, " Let us make man in our image," we open the New 
 Testament at the first chapter of S. John's Gospel, — the 
 Gospel of that Apostle whom Jesus was most familiar with, 
 — and we read : " In the beginning (the very time, you will 
 notice, of the Creation, for that also was "in the begin- 
 ning;" when, we do not know, ages ago, perchance, as 
 science teaches us) was the Word, and the Word was with 
 God, and the Word was God. The same was in the begin- 
 ning with God. All things were made by him ; and without 
 him was not any thing made that was made." If this 
 " Word " can be shown to be a Person, we have at last an 
 
 1 Psalm ii, 6, 7, 10, 12. 2 Isaiah ix. 6. 
 
360 The Doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 explanation of the words of the Old Testament, " Let us 
 make man in our image ; " and what do we find in the 14th 
 verse of this first chapter of S. John ? — " And the Word 
 was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his 
 glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,) 
 full of grace and truth." This " Word " then, who was 
 with God in the beginning, who was God, without whom 
 nothing was made that was made, is the person, Jesus 
 Christ, who was pronounced at his baptism by a voice from 
 the Father, saying, " This is my beloved Sou," who is called 
 elsewhere, "the only-begotten Son of God," 1 "the bright- 
 ness of his glory and the express image of his person," 2 
 " Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which 
 is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." 3 
 Is this a second God ? No ! for the Bible tells us, " I am 
 God, and there is none else." 4 Is this God the Father in 
 human flesh ? No ! for God the Father says of Him, " This 
 is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." What is 
 He then ? for He is called in Zechariah, " The fellow of 
 Jehovah ; " in Isaiah, " Wonderful Counsellor (mark that 
 word, and remember " Let us make man in our image "), 
 The mighty God ; " in S. John absolutely, " God," — " The 
 word was God ; " by S. Paul, in Colossians, " The image of 
 the invisible God," by whom " were all things created, that 
 are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, 
 whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or 
 powers ; " 5 and He Himself saith, " All things that the 
 Father hath are mine," 6 " I and my Father are one." 7 He 
 is precisely what the Creeds of the Church describe Him to 
 you : " And I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only- 
 begotten Son of God, Begotten of his Father before all 
 worlds ; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, 
 
 1 S. John iii. 18. 2 Heb. i. 3. 3 Rev. i. 8. 4 Isaiah xlv. 22. 
 5 Coloss. i. 15, 16. 6 S. John xvi. 15. * s. John x. 30. 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity. 361 
 
 Begotten not made, Being of one substance with the 
 Father ; By whom all things were made : " and this Person 
 we call, in the language of theology, the Second Person of 
 the adorable Trinity. 
 
 1866. 
 
€Ijirti?*t$ttf) Sermon. 
 
 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our like- 
 ness. — Genesis i. 26. 
 
 Compared with 
 
 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of 
 the water : and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw 
 the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him : 
 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in 
 whom I am well pleased. — S. Matthew iii. 16, 17. 
 
 [Second Part.] 
 In pursuance of the subject begun this morning, I would 
 now draw your attention to the fact, that in the first chap- 
 ter of Genesis we were informed that the " Spirit of God " 
 moved upon the face of the waters ; and our interest was 
 excited by it at the moment. Since we have found, in the 
 New Testament, so much light thrown upon the phrase 
 " Let us make man in our image," we feel inclined to trace 
 that expression, " the Spirit of God," and see to what it 
 will lead us. 
 
 We now perceive very clearly that Holy Scripture em- 
 braces a scheme which is unfolded gradually ; — that, while 
 it wraps up in the very first moment of its enunciation the 
 richest and most precious truths, it is a long time ere they 
 are fully developed. Why this is so, it would occupy far 
 more time than I have at my disposal to declare unto you ; 
 suffice it to say, that every doctrine of our holy religion 
 presents a like feature, and that it is in strict analogy with 
 the other arrangements of God, which all seem to be pro- 
 gressive, unfolding and maturing from time to time : not 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity. 363 
 
 developing in any way like that advanced in the La Marck- 
 ian system ; hut all perfect from the beginning, in the germ, 
 though only displayed to man when the fitting time was 
 come, and when he was ahle, through his previous disci- 
 pline and education, to receive and cherish it. Man him- 
 self, the heing whom all this most concerns, has to pass, 
 himself, through his various stages of embryo, of birth, of 
 infancy, of youth, of manhood. How much time is occu- 
 pied with all this ! Fully as much of his life is expended 
 in mere preparation for maturity, as afterwards in the exer- 
 cise of his faculties : — quite as much, in proportion, as the 
 unfolding of Christianity has occupied of the world's dura- 
 tion. It is not, therefore, at all strange that a Eevelation 
 from God should exhibit this feature : nay, it should be 
 unlike any thing else in creation, if it did not exhibit it. 
 Language has been progressive ; Law has been progres- 
 sive ; Government has been progressive ; Civilization has 
 been progressive : why not Religion ? It is only of a piece 
 with every thing else. 
 
 To return, however, to our point. We read in the first 
 chapter of Genesis, that " the Spirit of God moved upon 
 the face of the waters ; " and we perceive, as I said this 
 morning, that it is a change, and has a meaning. What 
 and who is this " Spirit of God ? " Is it a quality ? Is it 
 an emanation ? Or is it a distinct Person in the Godhead ? 
 This we can determine only by an examination of the fur- 
 ther records of Revelation. Just as we traced out the Son, 
 and found Him to be a Person coequal with the Father, 
 must we trace out this Spirit of God, and perfect the scheme 
 of the Almighty. We have nothing to do with the expla- 
 nation or elucidation of all this : we have only to show you 
 that it is contained in the Revelation, and that, being con- 
 tained there, it is not a late invention drawn from Platon- 
 ism, or from Christian philosophy ; but that its germs are 
 
364 The Doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 as much contained in the very earliest books of the Bible, 
 as the germs of any other doctrine. When this shall have 
 been done, I must leave it with you : with you must rest 
 the responsibility of receiving or rejecting God's Revela- 
 tion of His own mode of existence. As I told you this 
 morning, one is supposed to come to this inquiry knowing 
 nothing ; — utterly ignorant of who God is, or what He is, 
 prepared to receive whatever He may reveal. When I shall 
 have shown you, as plainly and as fairly as I can, what 
 that Revelation announces, my task will be finished. It is 
 for you to receive it, and take it to your heart : or to 
 reject it, and disbelieve it. That is your probation. The 
 contest will lie between what the world erroneously calls 
 reason, and what the Bible calls faith. For myself, I can- 
 not see the difficulty which some men pretend to : for the 
 simple reason that one mode of Divine existence is just as 
 possible as another, before Revelation ; and therefore, after 
 Revelation, should be received as truth under whatever 
 aspect it may be presented unto us. 
 
 We find in the third chapter of S. Matthew, — to which 
 we now turn in our investigation of this topic, — this 
 Spirit of God reintroduced in a personal shape : " And 
 Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of 
 the water : and, lo ! the heavens were opened unto him, 
 and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and 
 lighting upon him." The sacred writer does not say that 
 it was a material dove ; but " descending like a dove." 
 Here was the Son just ascending from the waters of bap- 
 tism; the Father uttering His voice from heaven, saying, 
 " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; " and 
 at the same moment, the Spirit of God, appearing from out 
 the riven heavens, descending " like a dove : " three agents, 
 most distinctly. And if we pursue the inquiry respecting 
 the Spirit, as we did respecting the Son, we shall arrive 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity. 365 
 
 at the same results: the results of Personality aud Di- 
 vinity. 
 
 The " Spirit of God/' being that Person of the Godhead 
 who was to be made manifest to man latest in the order of 
 time ; who, although operating from the beginning in vari- 
 ous ways, — moving upon the face of the waters in Creation, 
 speaking by the Prophets, inspiring the holy men of old, — 
 was not to be fully developed until Christ's departure from 
 the world : is brought before us clearly, just before our 
 Lord's Crucifixion. In the closing chapters of S. John's 
 Gospel, He is promised by Christ, and promised as a Per- 
 son : " But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom 
 the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all 
 things." 1 " He shall testify of me." 2 " He will reprove 
 the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." 3 
 " He will guide you into all truth." 4 And surely that 
 which teaches, and testifies, and reproves, and guides, must 
 be what we call a Person. These powers must subsist in 
 some substance ; for a quality cannot do these things, nor 
 an emanation: and wherever they do subsist, that is the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 As we proceed in the history of the Church, we find the 
 care of the Church committed to this Personal agent. 
 Jesus Christ, whom we showed you this morning to be the 
 second Person in the Godhead, is now ascended into 
 Heaven ; is acting there as Advocate and Intercessor ; is 
 pleading for man with God. The Holy Spirit has taken 
 His place on earth, and is speaking, acting, directing as a 
 Person : " The Spirit said unto " Peter, " Behold, three 
 men seek thee." 5 " The Holy Ghost said, Separate me 
 Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called 
 them." 6 " Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all 
 
 1 S. John xiv. 26. 2 Ibid. xv. 26. 3 Rid. xvi. 8. 
 
 4 Ibid. xvi. 13. 5 Acts x. 19. 6 Ibid. xiii. 2. 
 
366 The Doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 the flock," says S. Paul to the elders of Ephesus, " over the 
 which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." 1 And 
 whosoever speaketh, acteth, ordaineth, must needs have 
 with him Personality. 
 
 But this Spirit of God, when we come to investigate His 
 claims, is more than a Person : He is a Divine Person. 
 For we find our Lord Jesus Christ thus speaking of Him : 
 " Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blas- 
 phemy shall be forgiven unto men : but the blasphemy 
 against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. 
 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it 
 shall be forgiven him : but whosoever speaketh against the 
 Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this 
 world, neither in the world to come." 2 How could a dis- 
 tinction be made in blasphemy against the Son and blas- 
 phemy against the Holy Ghost unless they were distinct 
 Persons ? Could sin and blasphemy against a quality, or 
 an emanation, be unpardonable, while sin and blasphemy 
 against the Substance upholding that quality is pardonable? 
 But again, in another place : " The word of wisdom," " the 
 word of knowledge," " faith," " gifts of healing," " mira- 
 cles," " prophecy," " discerning of spirits," " tongues," 
 " the interpretation of tongues : " " all these worketh that 
 one and the self-same Spirit [the Holy Ghost] dividing 
 to every man severally as he will." 3 Would all these 
 mightiest operations of Divinity be entrusted to a creature ? 
 No ! if there be any thing in the Scripture that proves 
 Divinity, it is ascriptions such as these, which we find at 
 every step laid upon the Holy Ghost. 
 
 And in pursuing this investigation we can proceed yet a 
 step further. We can show that this Spirit, which was 
 found in the first chapter of Genesis moving upon the face 
 of the waters, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with 
 
 1 Acts xx. 28. 2 S. Matthew xii. 31, 32. 8 1 Cor. xii. 8-11. 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity. 367 
 
 the Father and the Son, is very and eternal God. Let us 
 pursue this. 
 
 Whatever we find ascribed to the Father and the Son, 
 we find also ascribed to the " Spirit of God." He is not 
 left in shadow and obscurity. He comes out into bold re- 
 lief, so soon as the moment arrives when His work is to be 
 performed. " In the beginning," says our first chapter 
 of Genesis, " God created the heaven and the earth." 
 " In the beginning," says S. John in his Gospel, " was the 
 Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
 God. All thiugs were made by him ; and without him was 
 not any thing made that was made." 1 The Psalmist beau- 
 tifully describes the rapidity of creation : " Thou sendest 
 forth thy Spirit, they are created." 2 How is this ? — three 
 Creators? No! for there is but one God. How then? 
 Three Persons in the Unity of the Godhead, acting in har- 
 mony. This is the only explanation which can make the 
 Scriptures consistent : and therefore is it the Creed of the 
 Church. 
 
 But again : " I the Lord," says God of Himself in Jer- 
 emiah, " search the heart, I try the reins." 3 But Christ 
 says, in Revelation : " All the Churches shall know that 
 I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts." 4 But 
 S. Paul places alongside of these the pretensions of the 
 Spirit : " The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep 
 things of God." 5 Are there three claimants to this divine 
 prerogative of searching into the deep things of man and 
 God ? No ! this power belongs only to God ; and if three 
 exercise it, then are they Persons of the one Godhead, act- 
 ing in fulfillment of the inherent privileges which belong to 
 each and all. There can be no other solution. They are 
 all Persons ; they are all Divine Persons ; they are all, as it 
 
 1 S. John i. 1, 3. 2 Psalm civ. 30. 8 Jeremiah xvii. 10. 
 
 4 Rev. ii. 23. 5 1 Cor. ii. 10. 
 
368 The Doctrine of the Trinity, 
 
 seems, possessed of equal powers : and yet there is but one 
 " God 5 " there " is none else." What is the necessary so- 
 lution ? It can be but that which our Article gives : " that 
 in the unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one 
 substance, power, and eternity ; the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost." 1 
 
 This is the result to which we are brought, when we take 
 hold of that phrase, " the Spirit of God moved upon the 
 face of the waters," and run it up to its entire development. 
 It introduces us to a Person, to a Divine Person, to a Per- 
 son having like attributes, faculties, powers, with the Son 
 and with the Father. Is there nothing, then, in that 
 phrase, " Let us make man in our image " ? I trow, I have 
 shown you that there was a great deal ; that it was a 
 most pregnant phrase ; that while, in the germ, it seemed 
 as if it might mean something or nothing : in the matur- 
 ity, it was the Power of God and the Wisdom of God unto 
 salvation. How it has expanded ! How it has thrown out 
 leaf, and flower, and fruit, on every hand, until it has 
 waxed into a growth overshadowing the whole earth and 
 bringing healing to the nations ! How the patient humble 
 inquirer has been rewarded for his long waiting ! What 
 before was mysterious, has been made plain for him ; what 
 hung in suspense, has become settled and assured. The 
 word " God," which was his first introduction to the idea 
 of the Divine existence, has been explained to him ; and 
 he now rests his spirit, with folded wings and in peace, 
 upon the wonderful truths of Revelation. He is no longer 
 stumbling in ignorance and darkness. The whole truth 
 has been placed for him in bold relief by the Church 
 of God: and God is with him, one God; yet related to 
 him through the blessed names of Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 1 Article I. 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity, 369 
 
 But it is said that the Jews never held the doctrine of 
 the Trinity, and that it is strange that they should not 
 have perceived it, if it was clearly writ upon the Old Tes- 
 tament. But I have not said that it was clearly written 
 there. I have only said, what is strictly true, that . its 
 germs were all there ; that the truths were infolded in such 
 passages as I have been commenting upon this day ; and 
 that, when the fullness of times had come, they would man- 
 ifest themselves to the world. It would be contradicting 
 myself to say, that those truths were clearly written there : 
 because I have already said that the Christian scheme was 
 progressive ; was a thing of steps and stages ; had its in- 
 fancy, its childhood, its maturity ; and, while " the child is 
 father of the man," no one will pretend that he can clearly 
 foresee in the traits of the child the future development of 
 the man. All that it is necessary for me to show, is, that 
 it was as distinctly there as any of the other most essential 
 doctrines of Christianity; and that, if the Jews did not 
 hold it, they treated it no worse than any of the other 
 truths committed to their keeping. 
 
 If there was one doctrine more than another upon which 
 the Jews rested all their hope and expectation, it was the 
 coming of the Messiah. This involved not only their indi- 
 vidual, but their national anticipations. It was not only 
 salvation they looked for through him, but greatness upon 
 earth, endurance as a nation, and supremacy. Let us then 
 turn back to Genesis (the third chapter this time) and note 
 the very obscure form in which that Messiah was first 
 promised to them. In the curse laid upon the serpent, God 
 says : " And I will put enmity between thee and the wo- 
 man, and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise 
 thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." 1 That is all. Is 
 the doctrine of the Trinity any more obscurely taught than 
 
 1 Gen. iii. 15. 
 
 24 
 
370 The Doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 that of tlie Messiah in its beginning ? Has not that to be 
 developed, step by step, just as the other doctrine was un- 
 folded ? It rested in that single expression until the time 
 of Abraham, when one leaf expanded itself, on which was 
 written : " In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be 
 blessed." 1 And after that, it was not until Jacob lay upon 
 his dying bed that another ray stole in to cheer him and his 
 family, and open the mystery more distinctly and gracious- 
 ly : " The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law- 
 giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come." 2 And 
 then another long pause, until the days of Moses, — al- 
 though the characteristics of the Messiah were, all the 
 time, being written upon the sacrificial arrangements of the 
 Jews, — when it was promised : " The Lord thy God will 
 raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy 
 brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken." 3 This 
 is all the progress that the doctrine of the Messiah had 
 made in five and twenty hundred years. He was to be born 
 of a woman, and in some mysterious manner to be her seed ; 
 He was to descend from Abraham, and be a blessing to the 
 whole earth ; He was to come of the tribe of Judah before 
 the sceptre should depart from that tribe ; and He was to 
 be a Prophet like unto Moses, and was to arise among the 
 Israelites. Was that any faster than the unfolding of the 
 doctrine of the Trinity, especially when we consider that the 
 coming of the Messiah was a necessary antecedent to the 
 unfolding of the doctrine of the Trinity ? And it took fifteen 
 hundred years from the days of Moses to develop that Mes- 
 siah in all His characteristics, so that He should be known 
 and recognized when He did come ! And who received him 
 after he came ? " He came unto his own, and his own re- 
 ceived him not." 4 So soon as the Persons of the Trinity 
 were made manifest every one who acknowledged Christ 
 1 Gen. xxii. 18. 2 Ibid. xlix. 10. 8 Deut. xviii. 15. * S. John i. 11. 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity. 371 
 
 acknowledged the Divinity of Christ, whether Jew or Gen- 
 tile. " Dost thou believe on the Son of God ? " " Lord, I 
 believe." 1 This was the confession exacted from all ; and 
 they received it one and all, simultaneously with their be- 
 lief that Jesus of Xazareth was the Messiah. 
 
 If we are to receive a doctrine only when the Jews be- 
 lieve in it, we shall strip Christianity very bare ! Who of 
 them seemed to understand the Scriptural doctrine of the 
 Messiah, at the time when our Lord became incarnate *? 
 Only two, that I read of in the Scriptures, were waiting for 
 the consolation of Israel, Simeon and Anna ; together with 
 those " that looked for redemption in Jerusalem." At the 
 close of our Lord's ministry, when He had been, for three 
 years, instructing the Jews by every means, both in the 
 nature of His office and in His identity with the Messiah : 
 a mere handful acknowledged Him. And why? Because 
 they had taken up wrong notions of the Messiah : because 
 they were expecting God to come in temporal power ; be- 
 cause they were looking for an earthly monarch, to lead 
 them to earthly dominion. And because they did not un- 
 derstand the Messiah, are we to reject Him ? Because 
 they in their blindness and madness cried, " Away with this 
 man," 2 " We will not have this man to reign over us," 3 
 are we to reject Him *? Certainly not. TTe have received 
 the light which they refused. We have learned through 
 the teachings of the Holy Ghost, that Jesus of Nazareth 
 agrees exactly with the requirements of the Prophets. 
 The Jews did not see it. because of their prejudices ; but 
 the Gentiles, of whom we are a part, saw and flocked 
 to the brightness of His rising. And if we do not reject 
 Christ as the Messiah because they did not understand the 
 doctrines respecting Him : why should we say that the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity is not a Scriptural doctrine, because 
 
 1 S. John ix. 35, 38. 2 S. Luke xxiii. IS. 3 Ibid. xix. 14. 
 
372 The Doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 they did not hold it ? It was of much greater difficulty to 
 them than the other; it was of much less necessity. In 
 the order of the divine manifestations, it could not be fully 
 unfolded until the Holy Ghost was given ; and He did not 
 come until after the Ascension of our Lord. Enough for 
 us is it, that the teachings of the Old Testament exhibit 
 its truth all wrapped up there, and give intimations, as they 
 ripen into the fullness of time, that there were Beings in 
 the Unity of the Godhead, who were to illustrate the Chris- 
 tian economy. 
 
 It would be as unwise, my beloved hearers, for us to 
 be regulated in our belief by the Jews, as for a man to 
 be directed or controlled by a child. " The Prophets," 
 says S. Peter, " prophesied of the grace that should come 
 unto you : searching what, or what manner of time the 
 Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it tes- 
 tified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory 
 that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not 
 unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, 
 which are now reported unto you by them that have 
 preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent 
 down from heaven ; which things the angels desire to look 
 into." 1 That is our position, — the highest in the scale 
 of advancement. All that have come before us, Patriarchs, 
 Prophets, Apostles, the incarnate Son of God Himself, have 
 ministered unto us. The truths which have been revealed 
 to us, Angels desire to look into. There is nothing more 
 to be revealed. The Book of Prophecy and of Truth is 
 "closed up and sealed till the time of the end." 2 We 
 shall receive no more voices from between the cherubim, 
 nor from out that higher sanctuary not made with hands, 
 eternal in the Heavens. The whole record of God's will is 
 before us. The Holy Spirit, that Spirit which moved upon 
 1 1 S. Pet. i. 10-12. 2 Daniel xii. 9. 
 
The Doctrine of the Trinity. ^73 
 
 the face of the waters and Drought order out of chaos, 
 must move for us over the face of this Revelation, and 
 make it harmony and peace for us : harmony in its truths, 
 peace in its fruits. He can make every thing clear to you, 
 can illumine all that is dark, and raise up all that is low. 
 Let us humble ourselves before Him, and cry for knowl- 
 edge ; let us utter the words which are suitable to our con- 
 dition, and say : 
 
 Eternal Spirit, by whose breath 
 The soul is raised from sin and death, 
 Before Thy Throne we sinners bend ; 
 To us Thy quickening power extend. 
 
 1866. 
 
They are of the world : therefore speak they of the world, and 
 the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God, 
 heareth us ; he that is not of God, heareth ?iot us. Hereby know 
 we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. — i S. John iv. 5, 6. 
 
 fTIHE Church, having led her children through all her 
 ■ circle of joy and of sorrow, from the Sundays which 
 proclaimed the Advent of her Lord up to the moment when 
 she wrapped up every thing in the glory of the eternal 
 Trinity, begins to-day her lessons of practical piety, the 
 true and genuine fruits of her doctrine ; and continues them 
 through many successive Sundays, until she has exhausted 
 the topics which make up the harmonious Christian charac- 
 ter. The facts of our Saviour's life, and the great conse- 
 quences of it, lay the foundation of the Christian scheme : 
 the life which is expected to grow out of those facts 
 through the working of the Holy Ghost, constitutes its 
 superstructure and perfectness. Until, therefore, the whole 
 scheme was placed before us, and each Person of the ador- 
 able Trinity was announced and unfolded and His part in 
 the economy of grace was distinctly set forth, the Church 
 could not logically press good works upon her children, be- 
 cause they were the fruits of Beings and of Agents not yet 
 clearly made known to the world. These good works are 
 called, in the Scriptures, the fruits of the Spirit ; and are 
 thus shown to be dependent upon the " Spirit of God " of 
 whom we treated in full on the last Lord's day. But now, 
 having developed fully the whole earth-life of our Saviour, 
 
Tests of Truth and Error. 375 
 
 and having commemorated the descent of the Holy Ghost, 
 and tanght us that all Church work has been vested in Him, 
 so that we are said to be living under the dispensation of 
 the Spirit : she begins to-day with a general proposition, — 
 how we may distinguish between a spirit of error and a 
 spirit of truth. This distinction is of the most important 
 kind, and precedes all personal action : for until we can be 
 certain that we are right, we will not press forward with 
 that zeal and devotion which are becoming to the Christian 
 character. 
 
 We must not suppose that when the work of Christ was 
 consummated, and His Church established in the world 
 through the operation of the Holy Ghost, and inspired men 
 wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of God and com- 
 mitted those writings to the care of the Church, that all 
 opposition ceased to truth and godliness. The Devil, 't is 
 true, had been vanquished by Christ in all the conflicts they 
 had waged ; Death and the grave had been conquered ; sin 
 had been made powerless against all who procured for 
 themselves the strength of Christ : but the Church was yet 
 militant upon earth, and each individual had yet his proba- 
 tion to pass through on his passage to Heaven. 'T is true, 
 for the comfort of us who are undergoing this probation, 
 that " greater is He that is in us, than He that is in the 
 world : 55 1 but nevertheless the Devil is still permitted to 
 rage, and " to contend against that which he cannot over- 
 throw ; to corrupt what is good, to pervert what is true, to 
 disseminate error, to disfigure the fair beauty of the Gos- 
 pel. Lord, didst Thou not sow good seed in Thy field? 
 From whence, then, hath it tares? . . . An enemy hath 
 done this." 
 
 It is this enemy that fills the world with spirits of error, 
 who mislead those whom they profess to guide. And these 
 
 1 1 S. John iv. 4. 
 
376 
 
 Tests of Truth and Error. 
 
 spirits of error assume a thousand shapes, — from the 
 grossest licentiousness and ungodliness, up to angels of 
 light, so as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. 
 It is a great mistake to suppose that error is always hid- 
 eous. Far from it : it is often very attractive, because it is 
 made to harmonize with the affections and feelings of 
 human nature ; to captivate the imagination ; to charm 
 the fancy ; to satisfy the lusts ; to counterfeit truth ; and 
 so to disguise itself as to require a keen spiritual discern- 
 ment to detect the cheat. Nor is it confined to the world. 
 It creeps into the Church, fomenting divisions, corrupting 
 the spirituality of the faith, overlaying the plain word of 
 Scripture with traditions, bringing into the sanctuary the 
 meretricious accessories which distinguished Paganism, 
 and giving power to unbelief by hiding the simple truth as 
 it is in Jesus. And all this is going on perpetually. It 
 never ceases. When driven away out of the Church under 
 one form, it creeps back very soon under another ; so that 
 no age and no individual is exempt from the trial. All 
 along the history of the Church, are spread out the various 
 heresies which have disfigured and perverted the Truth. 
 Her whole pilgrimage, from Calvary until these latter days, 
 is strewed with the victims of the deluding spirit of error ; 
 and in nothing is Church History more interesting and 
 more important, than in its faithful delineation and its 
 graphic exposure of this innumerable spawn of error. 
 Thick as locusts have they lighted down upon the fair fields 
 of the Church, and eaten up the good seed which has been 
 sown, or else so intermingled the seeds of untruth that the 
 harvest has been meagre and unwholesome. How impor- 
 tant, then, that the beloved disciple should, ere he left the 
 world, have warned — in his own loving words, with his 
 own loving heart — those who were to follow him, — " Be- 
 loved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether 
 
Tests of Truth and Error. 377 
 
 they are of God : " 1 and should have left to us in his in- 
 spired word the means of separation between truth and 
 error. 
 
 Every age has, of course, its own peculiar temptations ; 
 and S. John, in the beginning of the chapter from which we 
 preach, is guarding his contemporaries against a particular 
 form of heresy, connected with the personality of Christ, 
 which was rife at that time : but as he proceeds, he gener- 
 alizes his subject ; and it is from that generalization that I 
 preach to-day, and warn you against the spirit of error, 
 which — as I said before — is always rife, and very much so 
 in our times and in our country. And in that generaliza- 
 tion he makes these distinctions : " They are of the world : " 
 " We are of God." " They speak of the world, and the 
 world heareth them : " " We speak from God ; he that 
 knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth 
 not us. Hereby know we the spirit of Truth and the spirit 
 of error." 
 
 The great distinction between truth and error which is 
 made in this place, is that the one is only acceptable and 
 listened to by those who are of God, while the other is lis- 
 tened to by those who are of the world. The world refuses 
 to listen to any doctrine which requires a departure from 
 the ways of the world, or which proceeds upon principles 
 antagonistic to those of the world. If Christianity calls 
 for faith, the world rejects it : because that proceeds upon 
 sight and sense. If it demands its acceptance because re- 
 vealed by the Spirit of God, the world will not hear it : 
 because that rests its conclusions upon reasoning and in- 
 duction. If it requires self-denial and self-discipline, the 
 world turns away from it : because that loves ease and 
 indulgence. If it proclaims the heinousness and punish- 
 ment of sin, the world repudiates it : because it cannot see 
 
 1 1 S. John iv. 1. 
 
378 Tests of Truth and Error. - 
 
 the odiousness of sin ; nor how what it considers a slight 
 offense can deserve such penal infliction. If it call for re- 
 mission of sin through the shedding of blood, the world 
 flings it away with abhorrence : because that declares 
 repentance and amendment of life to be all-sufficient. If 
 it teaches the coming and presence of the Holy Ghost, the 
 world expresses disgust at such fanaticism : because that 
 deems the light of nature, of reason, and of conscience, to 
 be enough for man, in time and in eternity. If it points to 
 the Church and her ordinances and sacraments as necessary 
 to salvation, the world consents to it as an institution of 
 civilization and morality, but will go no further : because 
 that thinks such an institution is not necessary for man's 
 salvation. 
 
 And thus, from Alpha to Omega, from the very first doc- 
 trine of Christianity to that Church which is the pillar and 
 ground of the Truth, the world is opposed to the whole 
 spirit of Christianity, to all the doctrines which make its 
 distinctiveness, and to all the practices which are its orna- 
 ment and its power. And as it has been in the past, so 
 will it ever be to the end. And thus is furnished a test 
 between truth and error. For all this which the world 
 rejects and repudiates, the child of God receives and appro- 
 priates and lives upon. It is the very foundation of his 
 hope ; the very anchor of his soul ; the very life of his 
 spirit; the very comfort of the present, and the hope of 
 the future ; the confidence which he has, that he shall be 
 able to stand in the day of final account. What one re- 
 jects, the other hugs to his bosom ; what one considers as 
 the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation, 
 the other deems foolishness ; what one makes the rule of 
 his life, the other counts unnatural and ascetic. And so 
 they stand, hostile at every point ; in doctrine, in worship, 
 in discipline, in life : and so they afford a striking and 
 
Tests of Truth and Error. 379 
 
 pregnant standard for the decision of truth and of error, 
 that is, of truth in accordance and sympathy with the 
 Christian Revelation ; of error, in antagonism and antipa- 
 thy to it. If one wishes to try the spirit that is tempting 
 him, let him see whether that spirit is accepted hy the 
 world and is popular with it, or whether it is in harmony 
 with the Church, and is welcomed by the children of God. 
 Each has its own instinct, its rapid power of perception 
 and decision. Each knows its own, and rushes to its em- 
 brace. Those who are of the world drink in the teachings 
 of the spirits of error, and get drunk over them. Those 
 who are of God shrink from them, as a maiden from im- 
 purity, or an honorable man from shame. When a spirit is 
 not accepted by the children of God, beware of it ! When 
 it does not harmonize with the doctrinal teachings of the 
 Church, turn away from it ! It is false, and will run rap- 
 idly into error. 
 
 This is one test of truth. But there is yet another, 
 quite as important, which must be kept before the mind ; 
 and that is, that any doctrine is necessarily error, which 
 strikes at the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, or which 
 elevates any thing above Him in reverence and in worship. 
 It is His Divinity, which is the special object of hatred on 
 the part of the Devil. His Divinity it was, which drove him 
 headlong, " with hideous ruin and combustion dire," from 
 the precincts of God's holy habitation ; it was His Divinity, 
 which baffled all his designs against man ; it is His Divin- 
 ity, which holds him in a grasp of iron, and will one day 
 bind him in fetters of adamant in that bottomless pit 
 which is prepared for him and his angels. That Divinity 
 he therefore hates with all the intensity of his devilish 
 malice, and against it he hurls all the instruments which 
 he can wield through Nature and through man. Around 
 that Divinity has his fury always raged, and — sad to 
 
380 Tests of Truth and Error. 
 
 say — he finds in the world those who are ready to assist 
 him, and ready to cooperate with him, against Him who 
 came to earth to redeem and to save a fallen race. He 
 stirs up some to deny the reality of His personality, as in 
 S. John's day ; others to deny his Divinity, as in our day. 
 He incites some to lower His dignity and make Him no 
 more than a created being ; others to give Him Divinity, 
 but to refuse to acknowledge his coequality with the Father. 
 In our day this hatred is running into terrible excess, and 
 Christ is assaulted, in every form and shape, if so be that 
 He may be degraded in the eyes of the world, and men 
 be led to look elsewhere than to Him for salvation. He is 
 denounced as a myth. His miracles are all denied and 
 attempted to be explained by what are called — idly enough 
 — rational solutions. His Atonement is ridiculed as ab- 
 surd. His power to save is confined to His influence as a 
 man of wisdom and of goodness. His teachings are derided 
 as below the wisdom of the current times ; His philosophy 
 as too shallow for such an age of progress and advance- 
 ment. This is the current language of the world. And 
 while these taunts and reproaches are hurled upon Him 
 from the one side, on the other hand one of the oldest 
 branches of the Church is divesting Him of His honors and 
 His offices in favor of the Virgin Mary, whom they think 
 thus to honor by the degradation of her Son. It is hor- 
 rible to read the language which is used, upon this head, 
 in the practical working of the Roman Church. A few of 
 these expressions will I quote, using as my authority no 
 less a divine and scholar than Dr. Pusey, — a man never 
 considered an enemy to Rome, but who says, in his late 
 work, Tlie Eirenicon, that he is kept from any further 
 advance towards Rome by expressions such as these : — 
 
 " Her intercession (L e. the intercession of the Virgin 
 Mary) is held to be coextensive with His ' who ever liveth 
 
Tests of Truth and Error, 381 
 
 to make intercession for us' — our divine Lord, and to be 
 the access to His intercession. And this is taught, not as 
 the glowing expression of Southern feeling, but as the de- 
 liberate mind of the present Roman Church." " God/' it is 
 conceded, " could grant His graces without the intercession 
 of Mary," but it is asserted that He will not. It is one 
 of their most learned writers who says : "It is the univer- 
 sal sentiment of the [Roman] Church, that the interces- 
 sion of Mary is not only useful, but necessary, with a moral 
 necessity ; because the Church seems to think that God has 
 determined to give us no grace except through the hands 
 of Mary." So, then, it is taught in authorized books, that 
 " it is morally impossible for those to be saved who neglect 
 the devotion to the blessed Virgin ; " that " it is the will 
 of God that all graces should pass through her hands ; " 
 that Jesus has in fact said : " 2no one shall be partaker of 
 My Blood, unless through the intercession of My Mother ; " 
 that " our salvation is in her hands ; " that " whom the 
 justice of God saves not, the infinite mercy of Mary saves, 
 by her intercession ; " that " God is subject to the com- 
 mand of Mary ; " that " God has resigned into her hands 
 His omnipotence in the sphere of grace ; " that " it is safer 
 to seek salvation through her, than directly from Jesus ; " 
 that " God retain eth justice unto Himself, and granted 
 mercy to her ; " that " she is the Throne of Grace, whereof 
 the Apostle speaketh ; " that " she appeaseth the just 
 anger of her Son ; " that " she is the only Refuge of those 
 who have incurred the Divine indignation." And, to show 
 you the impression which this cultus of the Virgin Mary is 
 making upon heathen lands, Dr. Pusey states that " In 
 southern India and Ceylon, our churches are called by the 
 natives, 4 Jesus Churches ; ' the Roman Catholic Churches, 
 < Mary Churches. ' " 
 Does it not seem wonderful ? And does it not make us 
 
382 Tests of Truth and Error, 
 
 tremble at the power of Satan, and at his ability of placing 
 error in the room of truth, that a system of teaching like 
 this can be tolerated by people having the Holy Scriptures 
 in their keeping ? And yet it is not only tolerated, but 
 perverts are making to it in England and this country, — 
 perverts among the intelligent and the learned. For these 
 things, which I have quoted, are not accusations made in a 
 corner, but have been published in the face of the world by 
 one of the profoundest theologians of the day, and chal- 
 lenge confutation. It teaches us how we are all liable to 
 be deceived and blinded ; — how the same spirit of error 
 can exhibit itself in the boldest rationalism on the one side, 
 and in the most extreme Church worship on the other 
 hand : how Christ may be degraded by a denial of His Di- 
 vinity ; and still so much degraded by such an exaltation 
 of the blessed being from whom He was born after the flesh, 
 as to place the dispensation of His grace at her command. 
 The same result is produced by either process ; and each is 
 alike welcome to the world and the Devil. 
 
 Let us pause here, and furnish you with a second test for 
 distinguishing truth and error in Christianity. The first 
 was by noticing how any doctrine or practice was received 
 by the world and the Church respectively : the second is to 
 observe how any doctrine or practice which may come upon 
 you, deals with the character and offices of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. For the whole purpose of Christianity is to exalt 
 Jesus Christ ; is to teach that salvation comes only through 
 His Name ; is to place Him above all created beings which 
 are in heaven and which are upon earth ; is to glorify Him 
 up to an equality with the Father in the one eternal God- 
 head ; is to place every thing of mercy, of grace, and of 
 glory, within His gift ; is to crown Him Lord of lords and 
 King of kings. To divest Him of any of these preroga- 
 tives, or to place any one above Him, is to teach what is 
 
Tests of Truth and Error, 383 
 
 discordant with the whole scope and tenor of Scripture ; is 
 to indicate at once a spirit of error pervading the teachings 
 whether of individual or Church. It is an infallible rule, 
 one which I leave with you without any fear of abuse. 
 Christ Jesus, the only-begotten Son of the Father, must 
 stand in Christianity preeminent as its central Image : 
 crowned with thorns in this world ; but, in the hereafter, 
 crowned with the glory of all the hierarchy of Heaven and 
 all the redeemed of earth casting their crowns at His feet, 
 and crying : " Blessing and honor, and glory, and power, be 
 unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, 
 forever and ever." 1 
 
 These are the two tests which arise naturally out of our 
 text, and should be used freely and fearlessly in the deter- 
 mination of the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Men 
 often hide themselves from their convictions by affirming 
 that they cannot distinguish between truth and error. In 
 this are they mistaken, for in Christianity they are separated 
 by very marked lines. The world points them out to every 
 honest, sincere mind ; the Church points them out ; the 
 children of God point them out. All these have their fin- 
 gers pointed directly, the one to truth, the other to error, 
 just as fixedly as the needle points to the star. What is 
 wanted by man is, not the power to distinguish truth from 
 error : it is the mil. His own nature, in its state of cor- 
 ruption from the fall, is against the truth. He is glad to 
 be blinded ; and so the god of this world blinds him, now 
 by pride of reason, now by the deceitfulness of riches, now 
 by the lusts and cares of the current life, now by the evil 
 heart of unbelief. Truth and error are before him: and 
 others — those who have submitted to be guided by the 
 Spirit of God — clearly distinguish between them. He 
 cannot, because he must guide himself ; because he places 
 
 1 Rev. v. 13. 
 
384 Tests of Truth and Error, 
 
 reason above faith ; Nature above Revelation ; the delusions 
 and vanities of the world above truth and the reality of life. 
 The words of Scripture point out the way, — "I am the 
 way," says Christ ; point out the truth, — "I am the 
 truth," says Christ ; indicate the proper frame of mind to 
 attain it, — " Be not wise in thine own eyes : fear the 
 Lord, and depart from evil ; " 1 and crown all with the 
 glorious reward : "To him that overcometh will I grant to 
 sit with me in my Throne, even as I also overcame, and am 
 set down with my Father in His Throne." 2 
 
 1866. 
 
 1 Prov. iii. 7. 2 Rev. iii. 21. 
 
Zl)ivtptittt) Sermon. 
 
 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but hav- 
 ing seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced 
 them, and confessed that they were strangers arid pilgrims on the 
 earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek 
 a country. — Hebrews xl 13, 14. 
 
 HRISTIAXITY has its rolls of fame, as well as the 
 
 ^ world ; — its catalogue of wise and heroic men. who 
 have illustrated its annals and glorified the name of Jesus 
 upon earth. And these stretch hack to a period coeval 
 with the creation. — before whose antiquity all the records 
 of existing nations fade into utter insignificance. What is 
 the roll of Battle Abbey, what the lineage of the Caesars, 
 what the song of Troy, what even the cylinders of Assyria 
 or the obelisks of the Nile, compared with a monument like 
 that of the Bible, embracing the undying actions of such 
 beings as Abraham, and Noah, and Enoch, and Abel '? 
 Those are but of yesterday : these, the deeds which were 
 performed when the world lay in its primeval glory, — the 
 Golden Age, ere yet man had defaced its beauties with his 
 hand of ruthless violence. And although they tell not of 
 conquered nations and devastated countries ; although 
 their note of triumph is not swelled with the groans of the 
 dying and the curses of the slaughtered: although no 
 earthly pyramids nor colossal piles mark the spots where 
 they died — a holy baud of martyrs : still are they memo- 
 rials of the highest heroism the world has ever known ! 
 These heroes did not conquer man, but they subdued within 
 
3 86 
 
 These all died in Faith. 
 
 themselves the fear of man ; they did not trample upon the 
 necks of prostrate kings, but they put under their feet the 
 ivorld and the love of the world ; they did not found dynasties 
 and establish nations, but they planted in the earth the 
 seed of Faith, confident that it would, in God's own time, 
 become the salvation of the world ! Theirs was the hero- 
 ism of self-denial, — of conquest over things present, of 
 martyrdom for despised truth. Theirs was the glory of 
 seeing the end from the beginning ; of heralding, before 
 even the gray dawn of morning, — by starlight, as it were, 1 
 — the rising of the Sun of Righteousness : theirs the di- 
 vine privilege of living — before the example of Christ's 
 life was exhibited upon the earth — as men should live, 
 who are " born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
 nor of the will of man, but of God." 2 Their memorial has 
 been cast out by profane history, but it has been preserved 
 by holy men of old, speaking as they were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost. Their names have found no record among the 
 lyric songs of the Pierian spring ; but lips touched with a 
 live coal from off the Altar, have embalmed them in undy- 
 ing prophecy. They have received no glory here, but they 
 stand among the four-and-twenty elders, around the throne 
 of God, with their crowns, and with their harps, singing 
 forever the " new song " of the Redeemed. 
 
 Such men, and it is of these we preach to-day, were men 
 of like corruption and like infirmities with ourselves, and 
 yet have now their places upon this record of inspired fame. 
 And this, too, under enormous disadvantages. Like us — 
 for all the just must live by faith — they were required not 
 only to live by faith, but to die in faith ; and that faith rest- 
 ing only upon promises ! Verily may we blush when we 
 read their deeds of spiritual power, and remember the wide 
 difference between the promises in which they rested, and 
 i 2 S. Pet. i. 19. 2 S. John i. 13. 
 
These all died in Faith. 
 
 387 
 
 the fall light of Gospel fulfillment which shines upon us. 
 if they were faithful unto death, only seeing the promises 
 afar off : how shall we escape, if we neglect so great sal- 
 vation? If they confessed that they were pilgrims and 
 strangers upon the earth, with nothing to support them 
 but a persuasion that what God promised He would per- 
 form : how ought we to live, when our faith rests upon a 
 covenant spoken by the Lord Jesus Himself in person, con- 
 firmed unto us by them that heard Him, God also bearing 
 them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers 
 miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost ? Let us to-day ex- 
 amine their faith, aud our unbelief ! 
 
 Earth seems, to the eye of sense, to be man's home. It 
 is the ouly substantial thing which meets his eye, amid 
 things unsubstantial. The sea, the air, the heavens, are all 
 restless and unstable, unfitted for his resting-place. He 
 can use them for his purposes, but it is always at his peril ; 
 and his feeling of security returns to him ouly when he 
 finds himself once more upon the bosom of his Mother 
 Earth. 'Tis there he builds, and plants, and reaps; 'tis 
 there his plans are carried out ; his feelings are all bouud 
 up with it, his associations and his affections are twined 
 around it. Upon it, shall all he really knows of life be 
 spent ; and when that life is done, he will commit his body 
 to its keeping, and leave his children, his treasures, his 
 works, still to endure upon it. He has no real bodily con- 
 nection with any thing else ; and although his mind can 
 soar into regions of abstraction, and create unsubstantial 
 images : it is forced quickly to return to the earth, and at- 
 tend to the necessities of its daily life. The beings like 
 himself who inhabit its surface are those with whom his 
 comfort and his happiness are inseparably bound up. To 
 agree with them in opinions and interest, is to be at peace : 
 to differ from them, and to be peculiar, is to be in a state 
 
388 These all died in Faith. 
 
 of warfare. Contempt and ridicule are his portion when 
 his aims and purposes are contrary to the current views of 
 his fellows 5 and persecution and martyrdom, when he dares 
 to correct their errors, or himself pursue a better course of 
 life. This is man's connection with the earth. Every 
 thing* entices him to make it his rest ; and strong indeed 
 must be the motive which should induce him to rise in re- 
 bellion against its allurements, and walk, an independent 
 being, in an atmosphere above that which all around him 
 breathe. 
 
 Well, this was just what these men of whom I preach 
 to-day, dared to do. Not only were they bold to live upon 
 this earth, such as I have described it, as strangers and pil- 
 grims ; but they were willing to confess it. They were not 
 ashamed to acknowledge before an earth-loving generation, 
 — in the face of men who were adding field to field and 
 joining house to house, — that they had more confidence 
 in the Word of God, than in the sight of their eyes and 
 the experience of their fellows. They were ready, not only 
 to give up what of comfort and of happiness there was in 
 earthly permanency and earthly influence, but also to bear 
 reproach and ridicule for their conduct. They had nothing 
 to rest upon but the hare word of God : and yet, for it, they 
 were prepared to yield up every thing which their eye told 
 them was fair and pleasant, and to act contrary to what 
 every appearance in Nature seemed to warrant. All of you 
 who know any thing of human life, know how hard this is 
 to bear ; but it will be still more apparent when I shall have 
 selected two of the individuals named in the catalogue 
 which precedes my text, and shown you, in their cases, 
 what was meant by being strangers and pilgrims on the 
 earth. 
 
 If we attempt to reproduce the earth in the days of 
 Noah, we shall find it full of unbelief and vile corruption. 
 
These all died in Faith. 
 
 389 
 
 The touches of the Bible are few, but vigorous. It tells of 
 the intermarriage of the sons of God with the daughters 
 of men, intimating in an obscure way the yielding of the 
 righteous to temptation and to sin. It tells of the wanton 
 disregard of the Spirit of God, so that it " should not 
 always strive with man." 1 It speaks of giants in the 
 earth, and mighty men, men of reuown ; and coupling this 
 with the succeeding verse, that " God saw that the wicked- 
 ness of man was great in the earth," we shall not be far 
 wrong in conceiving these men to have been lawless aud 
 reckless, having neither the fear of God nor of man before 
 their eyes. And when to these is added the conclusion to 
 which a survey of the world brought a gracious and long- 
 suffering God, "And it repented the Lord that he had 
 made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 
 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have cre- 
 ated from the face of the earth : " 2 we may fairly conclude 
 that it was full of the most hardened infidelity, and the 
 most abandoned licentiousness. Now imagine in the midst 
 of such a world — surrounded by such giants in vice and 
 unbelief — a single individual setting his face against this 
 torrent of wickedness, and living in their daily intercourse 
 a peculiar life of belief, and setting an example of conduct 
 which was a constant reproach to them. And when, after 
 denouncing upon them the indignation and wrath of God, 
 he commenced building an enormous vessel, such as had 
 never been seen upon the earth before, — building it, too, at 
 a distance from any water which could ever float it, — their 
 ridicule upon him must have been immeasurable. And 
 when he told them its purpose — that it was to shelter him 
 and his family and the beasts of the earth from a deluge 
 which was to sweep off all living things — how they must 
 have taunted him, as year after year rolled away and no 
 1 Gen. vi. 3 2 Ibid. vi. 6, 7. 
 
390 
 
 These all died in Faith. 
 
 clouds gathered wrath over them, and the windows of 
 heaven were not opened, and the fountains of the great 
 deep were not broken up, and they were permitted to revel 
 on in sensuality and lust ! And what a trial of his own 
 faith, as he toiled through day and week and month and 
 year upon this huge structure, while yet the long-suffering 
 of God endured ! How his heart — for he was just such a 
 man as we are — must have ofttimes fainted within him, as 
 he measured the toil that was before him, and writhed 
 under the settled reproach of all his fellow-creatures, and 
 saw nothing which looked like any change in Nature ! How 
 often must he have felt doubts arise within himself, and 
 temptations to unbelief assail him, and weariness in well- 
 doing steal over him! How he must gradually have 
 weaned himself, and his, from all attachment to the earth, 
 and torn his heart from its associations with places and 
 with things, — the pleasant fields of the young earth in 
 which he had labored; the home of his love and of his 
 pride ; the green pastures in which he had fed his flocks, 
 and the still waters beside which he had made them to 
 repose : and looked upon them all as doomed to an impend- 
 ing and awful destruction ' And as he glanced from the 
 firm earth on which he stood, from its rocks, and the 
 strong foundations of its everlasting hills, to the Ark in 
 which he and all that he loved were to be embarked upon a 
 tumultuous sea — a sea of wrath and of destruction — the 
 trial of his manhood must have been sore indeed ! He re- 
 alized what it was to be a stranger and a pilgrim upon the 
 earth, to be on it but not of it, a traveller without a home, 
 a resident without a friend ! 
 
 In Abraham's days the world had renewed its prosperity 
 and its wickedness. It was now well peopled since the 
 Flood, and civilized and well-ordered communities — com- 
 munities abounding in wealth and in power — had over- 
 
These all died in Faith, 391 
 
 spread its surface. Among its countries, none was more 
 fertile, none more lovely, than the plains of Chaldea. Lux- 
 uriant grain waved its golden tresses over the land, and 
 herds and flocks innumerable revelled in its fatness. The 
 pastoral life — the pleasantest upon earth in a land of 
 sunny climes and watered valleys — regulated by the gentle 
 rule of the Patriarch (such a life as Theocritus loved to 
 paint), was that which diffused comfort and happiness 
 among its people. Plenty was there ; peace was there ; love 
 was there. Into this land of earthly joy came the word of 
 the Lord, and summoned from its pleasant homes a single 
 individual : " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy 
 kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I 
 will show thee : and I will make of thee a great nation, and 
 I will bless thee, and make thy name great ; and in thee 
 shall all the families of the earth be blessed." 1 Every 
 thing present was to be abandoned. The ties of a whole 
 lifetime were to be rudely snapped asunder. Country, kin- 
 dred, his father's house, were all to be left forever. His 
 wife, and his household, and his goods were all to be 
 dragged into a country of which he knew nothing, and 
 there were they to dwell, in tents and in tabernacles, pil- 
 grims in every sense of the word, strangers among a peo- 
 ple strange in manners, strange in customs, strange in lan- 
 guage, strange in their idolatry. And all this was to be 
 done openly and avowedly upon a bare promise of God, to 
 be fulfilled iu the distant future. No language can describe 
 it more forcibly than the language of Scripture : "By faith 
 Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which 
 he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed ; and he 
 went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he so- 
 journed in the land of promise, as in a strange country, 
 dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs 
 
 1 Gen. xii. 1-3. 
 
392 These all died in Faith. 
 
 with him of the same promise : " 1 and we can imagine the 
 earnest persuasions, the affectionate entreaties, the sad 
 forebodings, the dogged unbelief, with which his intention 
 was received by the kindred and the companions he was 
 leaving. As it would be now, so was it then. Just as the 
 Missionary spirit is sneered at and ridiculed now ; just as 
 the whole unbelief of the world is brought to bear upon 
 any one who determines to give up country, and kindred, 
 and his father's house, for the work of the Lord in strange 
 lands : so was it when Abraham determined to abandon all 
 that man deemed valuable upon earth, and confess the life 
 of a pilgrim and a stranger. Instead of his father's house, 
 he was henceforth to have no fixed habitation, wandering, 
 as the Lord commanded, until his set time was come. In- 
 stead of fields and estates, which he might name after him- 
 self, and hand down to his posterity, he was to possess not 
 so much as a foot of earth which he might call his own. 
 Instead of becoming a mighty man among the Chaldeans, 
 surrounded with the riches of his time, — a numerous pos- 
 terity, a devoted household, a band of bold retainers, — he 
 was to be unknown and unnoticed, fleeing hither and 
 thither, without a child to cheer his home or reassure his 
 faith, yielding up every thing — if so be that he might be 
 obedient to the Lord. And oh ! how his faith must have 
 been tried, when through long and weary years he saw no 
 sign of the nation that was to issue from his loins, no ap- 
 proach to the possession of the country which he had been 
 called to inherit, no token that he should ever become a 
 blessing to the nations ! And when we follow him as he 
 traversed the country to which the Lord had called him, 
 weaned from all earthly ties, bound to no local habitation, 
 having no communion with the idolatry that was about 
 him : we can understand that he, like Noah, was a pilgrim 
 and a stranger in the earth ! 
 
 i Heb. xi. 8, 9. 
 
These all died in Faith. 
 
 393 
 
 It was by actions like these that Noah and Abraham con- 
 fessed themselves to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 
 And what was the impelling power? What was strong 
 enough to induce them to despise the earth and earthly 
 things, and to separate themselves by a line so marked from 
 the rest of the world ? It was faith, — faith of the high- 
 est and purest kind ; trust in the word of God ; belief 
 that what He said, He would do ; that what He promised, 
 He would perform. They had nothing else to go upon. 
 Sight was all against them. The appearances of things 
 foreboded, in Noah's case, no unusual disaster to the stable 
 world ; in Abraham's case, no likelihood that a man with- 
 out a child should ever displace by his posterity the na- 
 tions of Canaan, or become a blessing to the world. Ex- 
 perience cried out against it with her utilitarian voice, for 
 the world had continued as it was from the foundation of 
 things. It was simply that they were persuaded of these 
 promises, and embraced them, because God had made them. 
 They knew in whom they trusted ; and were satisfied not 
 only to live by faith, but to die in faith ! 
 
 Living by faith, my hearers, is the hardest thing which 
 man is called upon to do : but to die in faith is the crowning 
 glory of the saint. To endure through a whole lifetime ; 
 to be patient unto the end ; never to faint nor grow weary ; 
 to lose no confidence by the way, and, when the end comes, 
 to irust in an unseen God ; to believe that all things are 
 working for your good, when every thing seems to the con- 
 trary ; to commit yourself to His care, who is at the very 
 moment permitting Death to overcome you : these are tri- 
 umphs which place the Christian in the roll of spiritual 
 fame ! And this was what these men achieved. They all 
 died in faith, and by this declared plainly that they sought a 
 country. Theirs was not a faith which expected any re- 
 wards here, — which hoped, when it had been tried, that it 
 
394 These all died in Faith. 
 
 would be permitted to enjoy its recompense in this world. 
 They died in it, confessing that they looked for nothing 
 upon earth, but that they trusted in God for that rest which 
 remaineth for His people. It is a beautiful expression, full 
 of deepest meaning, conveying the idea of martyrdom for 
 the sake of divine truth. A man may be a martyr, who 
 never sees the stake, — a martyr in the crucifixion of his 
 natural passions ; a martyr through a casting down of high 
 imaginations ; a martyr in bearing, unto death, reproach 
 and contempt. Fire is not the cruellest instrument of 
 man's torture : a daily humiliation is keener anguish to 
 a high-toned spirit; a life long-struggle with unbelief, a 
 heavier cross to a faithful soul. And then this glorious 
 consummation, " These all died in faith," conjures up, be- 
 yond the grave, that hope which never dies, that country 
 where there is no curse, that inheritance incorruptible, un- 
 dented, and which fadeth not away. So long as they were 
 only living by faith, they might have returned to that coun- 
 try whence they came out ; but when it could be said that 
 they died in faith, the fight was fought, the victory won ! 
 
 And now, my beloved hearers, how many of us are living 
 this life of faith ? How many of us are acting as though 
 we were strangers and pilgrims upon earth, and confessing 
 it before men? The command may not have been laid 
 upon us to manifest our faith in the same striking way as 
 it was exhibited by these Patriarchs, but the Apostles of 
 our Lord have told us, under the inspiration of the Holy 
 Ghost, that we must be a peculiar people, and in that pecul- 
 iarity is to consist our confession. And by this peculiarity 
 is not meant eccentricity, or rudeness, or moroseness, or 
 singularity in dress or voice, or any thing of that outward 
 sort : but a Christian firmness in opinion, and feeling, and 
 conduct, towards man and God. God has spoken to us as 
 plainly as He spoke to Noah and Abraham 5 for they saw not 
 
These all died in Faith. 
 
 395 
 
 His form, but only heard a voice : and He has instructed 
 us how to live, in view of His purposes for the present and 
 for the future. He has warned us against setting our af- 
 fections upon the things of this world, and commanded us 
 to fix them where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. 
 He has prayed for us to His Father, that, while we should 
 not be taken out of the world, we should be kept from the 
 evil. It is this being kept from the evil which is to be our 
 peculiarity, — the evil of a worldly life, the evil of covet- 
 ousness, the evil of ambition, the evil of following a multi- 
 tude into sin, the evil of being and doing as others because 
 it is the custom, or fashion, or the popular whim, of the 
 moment. And while we are not called upon to be offensive 
 in our language or harsh in our conduct, it is our bounden 
 duty to confess our own Christian life before the world ; to 
 act as becomes us ; and to say, if need be, that we so act 
 because we are Christians. Noah is called, in the Second 
 Epistle of S. Peter, a preacher of righteousness, although 
 we have no evidence that he went about exhorting and 
 warning the world before the flood. He preached by his 
 actions. The building of the ark was his sermon ; and by 
 it he condemned the world. It was the exhibition of his 
 faith, and their unbelief. And so to-day ; every truly con- 
 sistent Christian is a preacher of righteousness, and is a 
 condemnation to all who live ungodly. He may not say a 
 word, — he may not utter a rebuke or a reproach : but his 
 life is a standing rebuke, being his confession that he is a 
 pilgrim and a stranger, — in the world, but not of the world. 
 
 But we must not only live by faith: we must die in 
 faith. It is not enough that we begin to run well ; we must 
 persevere unto the end ! " 0 foolish Galatians," was the 
 expression of the Apostle, when he found that they had 
 been tempted to turn away from their faith in Jesus, — the 
 faith in which they had first walked, — " who hath be- 
 
396 
 
 These all died in Faith. 
 
 ' witched you ? V 1 What folly is this, that when you have 
 • been taught of God, you should turn again to the beggarly 
 elements of the world ? Is this folly the folly of any of 
 you ? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye going to end in 
 the flesh ? Your faith will avail you nothing, except you 
 die in it. " These all died in faith : " that was their praise. 
 They not only performed some splendid act of faith, but 
 they lived day by day through temptation, through trial, 
 through care, through reproach, through ridicule, and 
 never faltered. Let this be our example. Let us, like 
 them, live upon the promises, and steer by faith a steady 
 course, 
 
 " Through ruffling storms and swelling seas, 
 O'ercome the world, keep down our fear, 
 And still possess our souls in peace." 
 
 1860-3. 
 
 Gal. iii. 1. 
 
C^ttt^jstjrtt) Sermon* 
 
 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father 
 which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, 
 have we not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy name have cast out 
 devils ? and in thy name done many wonderful works ? And then 
 will L profess unto them, L never knew you : depart from me, ye that 
 work iniquity. — S. Matthew vii. 21-23. 
 
 rjlHE judgment of God upon our daily life, and upon that 
 
 character which is to entitle us to the Kingdom of 
 Heaven, is very different from the judgment of man. In 
 nothing are we more astonished in this world, than in the 
 dealings of God with His creatures ; and we shall he still 
 more amazed, when, at His Judgment, we shall hear Him 
 unmask hypocrisy, and expose deceit, and strip pretension 
 bare, and bring pride and presumption to the dust. Truth 
 will be made terrible in that day, and many of man's judg- 
 ments will be dreadfully reversed. So struck was S. Paul 
 with this certain aspect of things, that he said : " There- 
 fore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, 
 who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, 
 and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and 
 then shall every man have praise of God." 1 It is these 
 hidden things of darkness which man cannot see, and these 
 counsels of the heart into which he cannot pierce, that 
 make all the difference between sincerity and untruth, be- 
 tween purity and iniquity, between man's estimate of man 
 
 1 1 Cor. iv. 5. 
 
39S Reality in Religion. 
 
 and God's record in the Book of Judgment. We can judge 
 only by the appearance : God judges by the reality ; and 
 it is reality which is so rare and precious. Among our- 
 selves, we value it above every thing. When we find it in 
 man or woman, we prize it, and trust to it, and rest upon it 
 as upon a rock, giving it various names according to its use, 
 but all running into and concentrating upon that one word 
 reality. Sometimes we call it honesty, sometimes sincerity, 
 sometimes truthfulness, sometimes guilelessness, sometimes 
 simplicity ; but under all these diverse appellations we value 
 the thing, as something the opposite of man's general 
 characteristics, and as higher than the tone of the world. 
 We do not always admire the persons in whom this reality 
 is found, for it puts to shame very often our own artificial- 
 ness, and uncovers by its frankness our own insincerity : 
 but we nevertheless value it, and turn to it in the day of 
 trouble, and find in it the counsel which we need, and 
 the support which will sustain us. No quality in man or 
 woman grows so much as this of reality ; and, however un- 
 popular it may make its possessor at the first, it ends in 
 placing him high iu the esteem of all good and virtuous 
 people. And as with man, so with God. That which we 
 value in the experience and working of life, and which we 
 ultimately find to be a necessity for us, God values above all 
 things ; and reckons it as the test of profession, and the 
 touchstone of words and of actions. We cannot put Him 
 off with outward show, with boisterous words, with long- 
 faced pretensions. He is beyond all that; and while He 
 often permits it to prosper in this world, for His own wise 
 purposes, it never passes beyond the grave, except to be 
 exposed in the sight of all men, and to be sent to its own 
 place with scorn and everlasting contempt. 
 
 Not only to us, who openly profess Christianity, is the 
 rule of God's judgment most important, but also to every 
 
Reality in Religion. 399 
 
 man who expects to be held accountable in the future. It 
 is the rule of common sense, — a rule piercing* down into 
 the motives and counsels of the heart, and touching the 
 very bottom of every thing 1 which it pretends to judge. It 
 commends itself to the approval of every man of right feel- 
 ing, whether he may expect to be judged according to the 
 principles of Christianity, or according to some criterion 
 of his own, independent of revelation. If he be a true 
 man, what he would ask for would be honest judgment, — 
 judgment getting at the truth of every thing. And we 
 will perceive, by examining our text, that such is its pur- 
 port, — that it puts aside everything of mere outside show; 
 and that nothing can stand before it, but what is capable 
 of bearing the scrutiny of an Eye that cannot be deceived, 
 and of a Judgment that cannot be perverted. Any man 
 who is prepared for this judgment must approve it : for it 
 separates truth from falsehood, pretension from reality, 
 with a sternness which none can seduce, and with a justice 
 which cannot be gainsaid. 
 
 Our text brings under consideration two classes of pro- 
 fessors, which comprise nearly all of those who presume 
 upon that title : those who profess loudly, and do not the 
 works of God ; and those who do many things in the Name 
 of Jesus, and yet have not the spirit and mind of Him 
 whom they pretend to serve. 
 
 Christianity, as expounded to us in the New Testament 
 and in the life and character of Christ, is made up of a 
 mixture of feeling and of action. If the one exists with- 
 out the other, the harmony is not complete ; and the judg- 
 ment of Christ will bear hard upon the character. And we 
 see this lack of harmony exemplified everywhere in the 
 Christian Church, making us tremble for those we love, 
 when they shall come to stand at that bar of final Judg- 
 ment. Let us to-day look into this matter, and see whether 
 
400 Reality in Religion. 
 
 a judgment made here on earth, and in the Church, may 
 not arouse our living, active Christians, and prepare them 
 for that final Judgment in which there is no reversal, and 
 from which there is no escape. 
 
 " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the 
 will of my Father which is in heaven." This is the first 
 rule of judgment, which comes out of our text, and takes 
 to pieces a great many professors of religion, analyzing 
 them and stripping off that in which they are trusting. 
 
 They are crying, " Lord, Lord ; " they are making an 
 open show of their devotion to the service of the Lord; 
 they are attending upon the services of the Church ; they 
 are communing at the Lord's Table ; their names stand 
 upon the Church's record : but what are they doing for 
 Christ ? All these Church observances are to benefit them- 
 selves. But besides this aspect of Christianity, there is 
 another. There is a side which turns away from self, and 
 looks toward God, — to the advancement of the Kingdom 
 of Christ, to the edification of His Church upon earth, to 
 the vindication of His Name and glory, to the doing of 
 what is called in my text the will of the Father which is in 
 Heaven. They are fulfilling the one side of the requisition 
 of judgment, — crying " Lord, Lord : " but are they fulfill- 
 ing the other side ? This is the question to be settled, and 
 therefore the question to be examined. We will do it 
 plainly and fearlessly, and each one's conscience must an- 
 swer for itself. 
 
 There is nothing more common in the Church than an 
 empty profession, — a profession that begins and ends in 
 talk. And this takes shape according to the forms of re- 
 ligion in which they may have been bred and trained. 
 With those in whose practical systems there is much excite- 
 ment, it develops itself in a great parade of religious feel- 
 
Reality in Religion. 401 
 
 ing, and a great deal of talk about frames and affections ; 
 but disappears when they are called upon to put their hands 
 in their pockets, and advance the kingdom of Christ upon 
 earth. They will attend any number of services ; do any 
 amount of religious exercises ; talk, and groan, and shout : 
 at the same time that they are worshipping God in build- 
 ings in which they would be ashamed to live themselves ; 
 are starving His ministers, and are utterly refusing to con- 
 tribute any thing to the Missionary cause. With others 
 again, of a more quiet stamp, there is an exterior sanctity 
 that is truly edifying ; a carrying of religion everywhere 
 upon their persons and their faces ; a loud talking about 
 philanthropy, and human progress : but, accompanying it, 
 a very careful observance of their own interests, and not 
 much scruple about the nicety of morals which may regu- 
 late their conduct. Again, there are those brought up 
 under still quieter systems, who simply consider themselves 
 as doing their duty when they condescend to worship God 
 at all ; and suppose that their acknowledgment of Him be- 
 fore the world, — their crying, " Lord, Lord," — will be 
 quite enough for their future welfare. They do not any 
 thing which offends society, or defrauds man, or disgraces 
 the Church : they simply do nothing for God ; nothing for 
 Christ ; nothing for the advancement of Christianity. If 
 it depended upon them, the Church would make no progress 
 at all. They sustain it, for themselves ; but care not for 
 its extension to anybody else. They have none of the feel- 
 ing which actuated the early Christians, who, for Christ's 
 sake, sold their possessions, and laid the price at the Apos- 
 tles' feet, and lived in common with the disciples of Christ. 
 All these classes of Christians, no matter how diversely the 
 effect shows itself, are under the same delusion, imagining 
 that the mere cry of " Lord, Lord," will answer the requi- 
 sitions of the Gospel of Christ ; — the requisitions of that 
 
 26 
 
402 Reality in Religion. 
 
 Gospel which demands self-denial, self-devotion, alms- 
 giving, and above all the Missionary spirit, to make it at all 
 responsive to the will of the Father. And yet how many 
 go on just in this manner, never once enquiring what is the 
 will of that Father, or what duties and responsibilities be- 
 long to them as Christians ! If they can save themselves, 
 it is all that they care for : thus proving that selfishness, to 
 which the Christian spirit is most diametrically opposed, is 
 ruling over them. What a Christian is to look to in being 
 a Christian, is, that he should no longer work his own will 
 upon earth, but the will of the Father, whose love it is that 
 has led to his redemption through the Sacrifice of His Son. 
 If that is not considered, there can be no Christianity in 
 the matter. If, when considered, it is not followed, there 
 can be no hope of any place in the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 And that will is so clearly marked out in the Mission of 
 His Son, that every one that runneth may read. Even as 
 early as Isaiah, the Divine Mission of the Saviour was 
 pointed out, that Mission of which He said : "I seek not 
 mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent 
 me." 1 " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because 
 the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto 
 the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted ; 
 .... to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give 
 unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, 
 the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." 2 And 
 what was the will of the Father as manifested in the Son, 
 is the will of the Father as manifested in the disciples : for 
 " every one that is perfect shall be as his master." 3 How 
 can any one, who studies the life of Christ, expect to attain 
 the Kingdom of Heaven, without treading somewhat, at 
 least, in His footsteps? Believe me, there never was a 
 truer line in the Gospel than that uttered in my text : 
 
 1 S. John v. 30. 2 Isaiah lxi. 1, 3. 3 S. Luke vi. 40. 
 
Reality in Religion. 403 
 
 cc Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will 
 of my Father which is in heaven." 
 
 Let us pause at this point, and consider the position : 
 " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven." Who then shall enter it ? 
 No one but " he that doeth the will of my Father which is 
 in heaven." The question, then, meets every one of us, 
 full in the face : " Am I doing that will ? " I know that 
 I am doing a part of it, in having become a professor of 
 religion ; in having made a public acknowledgment of His 
 Name ; in having enrolled myself among His servants and 
 soldiers. So far, well ! But am I now doing any thing, as 
 a servant and a soldier ? Mere engaging to serve does not 
 make a good and faithful servant ; mere enrolling as a sol- 
 dier does not entitle one to honor or reward. The servant, 
 to be faithful, must do the will of his master. The soldier, 
 to deserve the name, must fight his master's battles, and 
 strive against his Lord's enemies. Inaction will do in 
 neither. And so with the Christian. He must show his 
 service ; his record must be clear of supineness and indif- 
 ference ; the scars of honorable battle must show them- 
 selves upon his person. Are these things so with us, my 
 fellow Christians ? Think well ; examine yourselves ; 
 reckon up what you have done for God, in return for what 
 He has done for you; consider in what respect you have 
 advanced Christ's Kingdom upon earth. Upon your treat- 
 ment of this subject may depend your title to Heaven ; for 
 " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord," shall 
 enter that Kingdom ! 
 
 But our text does not stop here. It goes very much fur- 
 ther, and arraigns another class of Christians, who seem to 
 stand upon a much higher ground than the inactive drones 
 we have been considering : " Many will say to me in that 
 
404 Reality in Religion. 
 
 day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name ? and 
 in thy name have east out devils ? and in thy name done 
 many wonderful works ? " High pretensions, you perceive ; 
 practising not only the ordinary duties of Christ's proph- 
 ets, but the extraordinary gifts of what would seem to pro- 
 ceed from the Spirit of God ; and pleading these things as 
 if they had done them in good faith, themselves believing 
 them to be acceptable with God ; — doing them in Christ's 
 Name, and under His banner. And yet, what is the awful 
 reply ? " And then will I profess unto them, I never knew 
 you : depart from me, ye that work iniquity." 
 
 And what is very striking in this passage is, that 
 " many " will speak these words to Christ. It will not be 
 one here and there, but many : as if such false prophets 
 should abound ; men deceived and deceiving ; blinded by 
 the spirit of evil, and blinding others. It is a very dread- 
 ful view of things ; and yet one that we can very well 
 understand ! The world abounds with such now. Society 
 is pestered with them ; the Church is hindered in her work 
 by them ; the Kingdom of Christ is impeded in its progress. 
 But for these, and the Gospel would have free course and 
 be glorified. But such as these are what Christ calls them : 
 " workers of iniquity ; " — men who have used His Name, 
 but have never known His Spirit : who have abused His 
 Name, speaking lies and hypocrisy. And yet, by such are 
 men deceived : good men, sober men, worldly-wise men ; 
 men with a Book in their hands which confutes all their 
 teachings ; with the life of Christ before their eyes, which 
 dazzles with its brightness and majesty all their falsehood. 
 Sad illustration of the corruption of the Fall, — that good 
 can be so easily perverted, and the aliment of the soul be 
 changed into destructive poison ! 
 
 How watchful does this sentence of Christ call upon 
 us to be, over ourselves ! Which of us is the true ser- 
 
Reality in Religion. 405 
 
 vant of Christ ? Who amongst us is illustrating the 
 spirit of the Gospel? is living with God the true life of 
 Christianity? We are all professing : which of us is work- 
 ing up to our duty and our responsibility; working, I 
 mean, in the Spirit and with the Mind of Christ? The 
 world is rushing on around us, and I fear that it has the 
 most of our thoughts and feelings. Life is vanishing like a 
 dream ; and those we love are perishing, one after another : 
 and yet we seem to forget that Judgment seat, at which 
 the very broadest distinction is to be made between those 
 who cry " Lord, Lord," and those who do the will of their 
 Father in Heaven. How few can tell what that will is ; 
 and how much fewer really know what it is ! Christ our 
 Lord came to- do that will : and you see what His life was. 
 The will of God is the same to us, as it was to Him, how- 
 ever different the acts required of us may be. His will is 
 the salvation of lost man, is the making the kingdoms of 
 this world to become the kingdoms of Christ ; is that the 
 Church should shine as a light in the darkness, filling the 
 earth with joy and peace and comfort. Our Saviour shed 
 His Blood to work out those results, — gave Himself a sac- 
 rifice that He might " purify unto himself a peculiar peo- 
 ple, zealous of good works." 1 We are not called upon to 
 shed our blood, perhaps: but we are called upon to be a 
 part of that peculiar people zealous of good works, who are 
 by those works to help to bring in the glorious Kingdom of 
 Christ. Are we doing it? Are we at work about it? Or 
 are we satisfied with receiving the blessings of the Church 
 and of the Gospel, without making any effort to extend 
 them to others ? These are grave questions, and we should 
 answer them to our consciences. Are we not getting weary 
 in well doing? are not the sadness and depression of the 
 times operating upon our Christian characters, and making 
 
 1 Titus ii. 14 
 
406 Reality in Religion. 
 
 us listless, and careless, and indifferent ! The dealings of 
 God with us are sent to try our faith, to enlarge our charity, 
 to purify our purposes : and not to paralyze our Christian 
 efforts. By showing us the vanity of earthly affairs, His 
 purpose is to fix our affections upon heavenly things, and 
 make us more earnest in their advancement. By showing 
 us how little dependence we can place on man, or on soci- 
 ety, His aim is to turn our thoughts more singly to that 
 Kingdom, which shall never end ; to that home, eternal in 
 the Heavens, from which is banished all change and all dis- 
 appointment. We misuse adversity, unless we turn it to 
 spiritual account, and use it for a blessing to ourselves and 
 to others. 
 
 The great moral lesson, however, which the words of my 
 text teach us, is, that we shall be judged and dealt with for 
 exactly what we are, and not for what we seem to be. We 
 ourselves are conscious of many sins and infirmities, of 
 which the world knows nothing ; of many omissions of 
 duty, of which our dearest relations are ignorant ; of many 
 shortcomings, which would be looked upon as guilt only by 
 an all-holy God : of how many more must an all-seeing 
 God be conscious, when He searcheth the hearts and trieth 
 the reins of the children of men ! All these things will He 
 bring unto judgment, — our secret thoughts, our hidden de- 
 sires, our coldness in prayer, our lukewarmness in service, 
 our self-indulgence : and the appearance which we wore to 
 the people around us, will be as nothing in His eyes. Re- 
 ality, truth, will then come to the surface. Our Christian 
 graces will then be weighed. Our faith in the efficacy of 
 the Blood of Christ, in the power of the Holy Ghost to 
 overcome sin and to bring man to repentance, will be ex- 
 hibited to all, especially to ourselves. Our self-denial for 
 the good of others, our willingness to endure hardship 
 for Christ's sake, our rejection of the allurements of ease 
 
Reality i7i Religion. 407 
 
 and indulgence, will be cast into the balances, and be rai- 
 ned at their true worth. Our charity for the infirmities of 
 others, our long suffering for injuries received, our kind- 
 ness to those who are in error, our efforts for the restora- 
 tion of the fallen, will all receive their real estimate, and 
 will be brought home to our confusion in that day of awful 
 account. There will be no deception there, no glossing 
 over of false and artificial pretension. Xo prophetical of- 
 fice will screen us in that day ; no wonder-workiug acts at 
 which men hare gazed in amazement and at which devils 
 have laughed, will cause any deviation from the straight 
 line of justice. Every one of us, no matter what our posi- 
 tions in life, what our pretensions as Christians, will be 
 stripped of every thing false, and be judged according to 
 the inexorable rule of right and wrong. God grant that 
 we may not hear the terrible words which " many ;? are to 
 hear: "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work 
 iniquity."' 
 
 We have, my beloved hearers, but one Refuge, — the love 
 and mercy of Christ. TVe can hide ourselves in Him, and 
 He will be our hiding-place in the tempest. His Blood can 
 atone for ail our sins ; His righteousness can cover all our 
 unholiness. In Him can we find wisdom, and righteous- 
 ness, and sanctification, and redemption. Remember that 
 it is what we are, and not what we do, that is to be the 
 question. And while it is a terrible ordeal, this reduction 
 to stem reality, it is likewise, if properly understood, a won- 
 drous comfort. To know that God will judge us, not by 
 our feeble efforts, not by our limited performances, not ac- 
 cording to our manifold infirmities ; but by what He can 
 see, — our love for Him, our devotion to Christ, our earnest 
 desire for the advancement of the Kingdom of grace : is 
 indeed a solace past all reckoning ! Let us cling to that, 
 and we shall be saved. Let us say with S. Paul, " By the 
 
408 Reality in Religion. 
 
 grace of God I am what I am:" 1 and if we can say it 
 sincerely, in the consciousness that we have trusted to that 
 grace, and cherished it in our hearts, and rested upon it in 
 faith and hope, we shall never hear the words : " I never 
 knew you : depart from me, ye that work iniquity." 
 
 1866. 
 
 1 1 Cor. xv. 10. 
 
Zl)ivtp$ttont\) Sermon, 
 
 Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved 1 And 
 he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate : for many, I 
 say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. — S. Luke 
 xiii. 23, 24. 
 
 HPHROUGH all the intercourse which our Lord held with 
 
 His followers, it was His persistent aim to turn their 
 thoughts in upon themselves. He never gave the smallest 
 encouragement to any thing like inquisitiveness into secret 
 things, or to speculations which did not concern their per- 
 sonal salvation. Life was too short, and the work of relig- 
 ion upon the heart too solemn, for any time to be wasted in 
 mere questioning. If an enquiry looked to practical per- 
 sonal religion, nobody was more prompt to explain, to sat- 
 isfy, to guide, to bless : but if it was asked merely for the 
 gratification of an idle curiosity, or the feeling of a pruri- 
 ent fancy, it was at once turned upon the enquirer, and 
 changed into a lesson of truth for all time to come. Wit- 
 ness His reply to those, who told Him of the Galileans 
 whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, with 
 the evident desire of drawing out His opinion respecting 
 the degree of their sinfulness. " Suppose ye that these 
 Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they 
 suffered such things '? I tell you, Xay ; but except ye re- 
 pent, ye shall all likewise perish." 1 Witness His answer to 
 S. Peter, when he asked Him of John's future career : " If 
 I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee '? Fol- 
 low thou me." 2 And in our text we perceive the like un- 
 
 1 S. Luke xiii. 2, 3. 
 
 2 S. John xxi. 22. 
 
410 Are there Few that be Saved? 
 
 willingness on the part of Christ to answer a question 
 which could lead to no practical result. " Lord, are there 
 few that he saved? And he said unto them, Strive to 
 enter in at the strait gate : for many, I say unto you, will 
 seek to enter in, and shall not he able." 
 
 An awful question, my hearers : and a still more awful 
 answer ! The question involving that which is most truly 
 important to a responsible creature : the answer implying 
 difficulty at every point of man's efforts. The question ren- 
 dering one almost breathless with anxiety to hear the reply 
 of such a Being as Christ: the answer making him feel 
 that, while it is evaded, enough of light is thrown upon it 
 to render every man certain that he must work out his sal- 
 vation with fear and trembling. If the gate be strait, — 
 that is, narrow : if strenuous effort be necessary to pass 
 through it into life eternal ; if many shall seek to enter in, 
 and shall not be able : well may every man feel that the 
 mere cry of " Lord, Lord," will not be sufficient in that 
 hour of necessity, and that he must begin, betimes, to pre- 
 pare himself for that hour when the question of admission 
 or exclusion is to be finally settled. 
 
 Our Lord answered this question, as He did every other, 
 in the very wisest manner. It is really of not the least 
 practical importance to us whether many or few are to be 
 saved ; and yet if our Saviour had answered it either way, 
 it might have worked very evil effects upon men. Had He 
 said that but few were to be saved : despair might have 
 taken the place of hope, and men might have run into " des- 
 peration, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living." If, 
 on the other hand, He had opened the door to every one who 
 claimed to enter, a flood of carelessness and ungodliness 
 might have rushed in upon the Church. His answer was 
 liable to neither objection. It left the question unsettled, 
 — except in this, that personal effort would be necessary 
 
Are there Few that be Saved? 411 
 
 for each man's own salvation ; — that whether many or few 
 were to be saved, no one need expect it in his own individ- 
 ual case, who did not strive after it earnestly and sincerely. 
 
 How continually do we see persons trifling away their 
 precious time upon questions just as unimportant as this 
 one of the disciples ! Instead of looking their own salva- 
 tion directly in the face, and being in earnest about it, they 
 are worrying themselves about points, which, even if they 
 could be settled, would have no bearing at all upon their 
 individual condition. Of what importance is the question 
 which is so often made about the origin of evil ? We know 
 every thing that is important to us. We are satisfied that 
 moral evil does exist ; that it has spread through the world, 
 and corrupted human nature ; that its poison is circulating 
 in our veins ; and that, unless an antidote can be provided 
 against it, we must perish. Suppose under these circum- 
 stances that it could be determined what was the origin of 
 evil, of what advantage should it be to us ? Should it 
 help our individual case at all ? Should it render our duty 
 any the more imperative, or our work any the more easy ? 
 Should we not have the same strait gate to enter ; the same 
 conflicts to pass through ; the same necessity for earnest- 
 ness and vigor ? When our minds had been satisfied upon 
 this very deep question, — one of the secret things which 
 belong to God, — should our hearts be any the more puri- 
 fied ? We do not act so in things pertaining to our phys- 
 ical welfare. When I am smitten by a sore disease, I do 
 not say that I will use none of the remedies which are pre- 
 scribed for me until I can be satisfied how I took the dis- 
 ease, or where it originated ? If my physician was imper- 
 tinent enough to pause over such questions as these, I 
 should say to him, " For mercy's sake cure me first, and 
 then afterwards you may discuss such matters to your 
 heart's content : but do not leave me to perish, while you 
 
412 Are there Few that be Saved? 
 
 are settling a matter of not the least practical importance." 
 This would be the impulse of any one who was in serious 
 danger from disease ; and yet, in spiritual matters, in the 
 fearful disease which perils the soul, a trifling — the very 
 reverse of this earnestness — is indulged in. Question 
 after question is started, if by any means the real, practi- 
 cal one of personal salvation may be avoided ; — if the 
 probe may be kept from the seat of the disease. Such a 
 course always satisfies me that there is no real earnestness, 
 no conviction of sin, no desire for a change of things, no 
 faith in the awful matters of which Christ is the Centre and 
 the Arbiter. These questions are started merely to get rid, 
 in a polite way, of any thing closer or more personal ; to 
 evade, if possible, the struggle which has to be entered 
 upon, the moment the real point of one's own salvation is 
 grappled with. 
 
 And as it is with this question of the origin of evil, so 
 likewise with all the other speculative questions which may 
 meet us as we approach the truly earnest one of our own 
 condition. They are strewn all along; meet us at every 
 point ; are suggested at the most critical moments of our 
 religious life ; rise up, one after the other, under the influ- 
 ence of the Devil, and mock us every step we take towards 
 salvation. We quell one, only to find another springing up 
 before us ; and it is not until we have the firmness to press 
 forward boldly, that they vanish from our path. They are 
 like the grotesque images which a dim, uncertain twilight 
 casts upon the path of the traveller. Were he to pause 
 upon his journey to examine each one of them, and ascer- 
 tain its origin and its insubstantialness : darkness should 
 come upon him, and his feet should stumble on the dark 
 mountains. His safety consists in pressing forward for 
 the home which is before him, looking neither to the right 
 hand nor to the left : trusting that the path of duty is the 
 
Are there Few that be Saved? 413 
 
 path of safety, and that the lions in the way will he found 
 either chained or having no existence save in the play of 
 the light and the shadow. 
 
 When one is ready to leave all this idle questioning and 
 come to the point, the real distinction which will he found 
 in this answer of our Saviour is, that many " seek,"' while 
 only a very few " strive." Our Saviour did not mean to 
 teach that any who really strive, should not be able to enter : 
 hut that vast multitudes would confound a listless seeking. 
 with such a strife as is necessary for finding Christ. Flatter 
 ourselves as we please, Heaven is not to he won as easily as 
 we imagine. Let us select a passage here and there from 
 the Bible, and in that way come to an understanding of what 
 is required of us for success in this matter of salvation. I 
 will take a few verses from Proverbs, to begin with, and 
 they will throw some light upon the matter. 
 
 " My son," says Solomon, " if thou seekest her as silver, 
 and searchest for her as for hid treasures ; then shalt thou 
 understand the fear of the Loed, and find the knowledge 
 of God.'"' 1 Xow mark the comparison, and then bring be- 
 fore your mind's eye men seeking for silver and searching 
 for hid treasures. What earnestness ! What greediness ! 
 What unceasing labor, day and night ! What indifference 
 about heat or cold, about hunger or thirst ? What follow- 
 ing np of every indication that seems to give promise of 
 success ! Oh ! those restless, unquiet diggers, how they 
 keep every thought, every look, every stroke of the pick 
 concentrated upon the one object of their pursuit ! Let a 
 mineralogist light among them and begin to speculate upon 
 the origin of gold, upon its matrix, upon the mode in which 
 the auriferous veins were molten : and they will tell him 
 that they have no time to listen to his speculations. If he 
 will take a tool and help them in their search, they will 
 
 1 Prov. ii, 4 ; 5. 
 
414 Are there Few that be Saved? 
 
 thank him ; if he will not, they cannot be disturbed by his 
 unprofitable talk. Work, work, is what they are engaged 
 in ; and they have no leisure for any thing else. This is 
 striving. This is what our Lord means when He draws this 
 distinction, — the difference between a man peering about 
 and talking, and striking a stroke now and then : and 
 another man putting forth all his effort and all his strength 
 to gain His treasure ! Let us take another passage, and 
 this time from the New Testament, to show the difference 
 here intended by our Lord. " Know ye not," says S. Paul, 
 in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, " that they which run 
 in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, 
 that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the 
 mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to ob- 
 tain a corruptible crown ; but we an incorruptible. I there- 
 fore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, not as one that 
 beateth the air : but I keep under my body, and bring it into 
 subjection." 1 The figure is changed : but the lesson is the 
 same. The Olympic race takes the place of the mining for 
 hid treasures : but when we bring our memory and our 
 conception to bear upon the simile, we perceive the like 
 earnestness, the like hard training, the like unceasing 
 effort, the whole soul cast into the struggle. That corrup- 
 tible crown put every candidate to his utmost strain ; no 
 time for trifling then ; no space for theory ; it was all stern 
 work. And thus again we have the difference between 
 striving and seeking ; — between a real struggle for the 
 prize, and a mere desire accompanied by a few, faint, irreg- 
 ular efforts. 
 
 This is the meaning of Christ, that mere seeking will not 
 do. Many shall seek, but shall not be able to enter in. The 
 mere wish of Balaam, " Let me die the death of the right- 
 eous, and let my last end be like his ! " 2 is not striving. 
 1 1 Cor. ix. 24-27. 2 Num. xxiii. 10. 
 
Are there Few that be Saved? 415 
 
 The mere question of the young man in the Gospel, 
 " What shall I do to inherit eternal life ? " is not striving. 
 The mere hearing the Word of God, as we find it illustrated 
 in the parable of the sower, is not striving. The mere 
 coming to he baptized and confirmed, as in the case of 
 Simon, 1 is not striving. And it is such as these, who think 
 Heaven worth such effort, but not a steady persistent 
 struggle, that Christ means, when he says that " many will 
 seek to enter in, and shall not be able." His remark is not 
 directed against the earnest, against the humble, against 
 the sincere, against those who hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness, however feeble and infirm they may be. It 
 is against the unstable, who wish to-day, and forget to-mor- 
 row ; who make vows in times of calamity, and break them 
 as soon as the storm of trouble blows over. It is against 
 the fickle, who are zealous to-day, and to-morrow are 
 driven from Christ by some hard saying which cannot be 
 swallowed. It is against the loaves-and-fishes converts, 
 who follow the Saviour in sunshiue and favor, but fall away 
 when aflliction and persecution come for righteousness' 
 sake. Christ said, " Seek, and ye shall find : M but it was 
 seek in the sense of strive, — seeking as for hid treasures, 
 seeking as for victory in a race ! 
 
 But not only must we strive instead of seeking, but we 
 must strive in the right way. " Strive to enter in at the 
 strait gate," implies that there may be a striving, and 
 yet it shall come to naught because it is in a wrong direc- 
 tion. It cannot too often be pressed upon the world, " that 
 there is none other Name given among men, whereby we 
 must be saved," 2 than the Name of Jesus Christ of Naza- 
 reth. Men are apt to imagine that there are many ways to 
 Heaven. Christ, our Lord, says emphatically, " I am the 
 way : no man can come unto the Father but by me." 3 
 1 Acts viii. 17. 2 Ibid. iv. 12. 3 S. John xiv. 6. ' 
 
416 Are there Few that be Saved? 
 
 Men are apt to suppose that if their lives are right in the 
 sight of their fellow-men, they cannot fail to enter the 
 Kingdom of Heaven. Christ, our Lord, says distinctly : 
 u Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can- 
 not enter into the Kingdom of God." 1 Men assert that 
 all that is necessary to secure salvation is, that they should 
 repent and amend their lives. The inspiration of God says 
 distinctly : " Without shedding of blood is no remission." 2 
 Men claim that God is a God of love, and that they may 
 safely rest themselves upon His mercy. The Bible affirms 
 that, out of Christ, " God is a consuming fire." It is these 
 declarations of the inspired Word of God which make the 
 gate of salvation so strait a gate ; — strait, not in the sense 
 of its being hid from any humble, holy child of God, who 
 rests in the mercy of Christ : but strait, because it binds 
 human nature down to the will of God ; because it forces 
 every soul to bow the knee to Jesus Christ ; because it de- 
 mands of him who would be saved a stern antagonism to 
 the world, the flesh, and the devil. And these are the 
 things which a proud heart rebels against. It loves noth- 
 ing so well as its own will ; it revolts at nothing more de- 
 terminedly than a restriction to one plan of salvation, and 
 that a plan wherein it can claim no merit to itself. It 
 loathes nothing more hatefully than the scheme of life 
 which places it as a pilgrim, passing through an enemy's 
 country, and overcoming as it advances the seductions and 
 allurements of the world. All this makes the gate very 
 strait ; — hard to find, and difficult to enter. How many 
 turn aside at some point or other of the way, and perish ! 
 How many are tempted, and destroyed ! How many put 
 their hand to the plough, and turn back ! How many 
 wander into the broad path of ease and lukewarm n ess, and 
 go down to hell ! And all these were seekers, — persons 
 i S. John iii. 5. 2 Heb. ix. 22. 
 
Are there Few that be Saved? 417 
 
 who at one period or another of their lives, seemed to be 
 in earnest ; did begin to run well : and yet are not found 
 when Christ ruaketh up His jewels. We see it verified 
 every day in the Church upon earth, as it will be more 
 strikingly exhibited in the Church triumphant : " Many 
 shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able." 
 
 And this in spite of our dear Lord's proclamations of 
 mercy. He says, " I am the door : " and has unceasingly 
 called upon sinful man to enter in and be saved. While we 
 listen to the words which He put, by His Spirit, into the 
 mouths of His servants, we cannot doubt but that the strait- 
 ness of the g*ate is due to our unwillingness, and not to His 
 want of compassion. When we remember the gracious 
 words of His prophet, calling the Gospel an highway of 
 holiness, and telling us that the wayfaring man, though a 
 fool, should not err therein ; when we catch the echo of 
 their words reaching to us over an interval of three thou- 
 sand years, saying even then, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, 
 come ye to the waters ; " when we bring to our mind's eye 
 the gracious Saviour standing on that last day, the great 
 day of the feast, and crying aloud in the hearing of the 
 multitudes : " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and 
 drink ; " when we linger about the departing spirit of the 
 last of the Apostles, — that beloved disciple who leaned in 
 deep affection upon his Master's bosom, if so he might 
 shield Him from the Cross, — and hear his last notes, 
 sweeter, like those of the swan, because they were his dying 
 notes, sounding to a sinful world the cheering music of free, 
 unconditioned grace : " And the Spirit and the Bride say, 
 Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him 
 that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take 
 the water of life freely : " 1 we cannot think of the gate of 
 entrance as strait. Our spirits rise at the remembrance ; 
 
 1 Eev. xxii. 17. 
 
 27 
 
41 8 Are there Few that be Saved? 
 
 and we feel, with the Psalmist : " For as the heaven is high 
 above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that 
 fear him. Like as a Father pitieth his children, so the 
 Lord pitieth them that fear him." 1 It is only when we 
 consider ourselves and our kind, — when we trace the rec- 
 ords of our race and see its hardness of heart, its perverse- 
 ness, its willful ignorance, its scorn of the meek and lowly 
 Jesus, its unwillingness to sit humbly at the feet of Jesus 
 and learn, its perversions of His Gospel, that we can under- 
 stand that the gate is strait, and that man himself makes 
 it so. As one has strikingly said : " When I look at men, 
 my wonder is that any are saved ; when I look at Christ 
 and hear the Gospel, my wonder is, that any one is 
 lost." 
 
 If you will only strive, my beloved hearers, you cannot 
 conceive how much help you will receive. It will come 
 flowing in upon you from the Church, from the Scriptures, 
 from the influences of the Holy Spirit. The worldly maxim 
 " that God helps those who help themselves " is in nothing 
 more true than in spiritual things. If you sit, waiting for 
 the coming of the impulses which are to lead you onward 
 to Heaven, you shall be very apt to sit unmoved forever. 
 It is " the soul of the diligent " that " shall be made fat." 2 
 It is he who seeketh everywhere for his Beloved, that shall 
 find Him. The difficulty in Christianity is most often in 
 the very first step, — in saying, " I will arise, and go to my 
 Father." While that resolution is forming, Satan piles up 
 mountains of difficulty in the way of the sinner : but faith 
 scatters them all as clouds before the sun. Let him but 
 persevere, and he will find his faith tried : but in that trial 
 he will get knowledge, patience, godliness, charity. He 
 will have to struggle : but his path will shine brighter and 
 brighter ; and when his sun is about to set, the clouds of 
 
 1 Psalm ciii. 11, 13. 2 Prov. xiii. 4. 
 
Are there Few that be Saved? 419 
 
 doubt, of diffidence, of faithlessness, which may have fol- 
 lowed him to his rest, will suddenly be lighted up with the 
 love of Christ, and be changed into a retinue of glory 
 ushering him in triumph to his Heavenly home ! 
 
C^ut^eigljtty Sermon 
 
 / will arise and go to my father ; and will say unto him, Father, 
 I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more 
 worthy to be called thy son : make me as one of thy hired servants. 
 — S. Luke xv. 18, 19. 
 
 TT OW to become religious is quite as important a ques- 
 tion as what Religion is ; and as much more interest- 
 ing to us, as how to acquire an estate is more absorbing 
 than a mere description of it. Christianity is of moment 
 to us just in proportion to its being attainable ; and if we 
 were persuaded that it was out of our reach, it would at 
 once cease to excite any emotion in us. Formal, didactic 
 instruction about religion, or naked descriptions of its 
 beauty, however eloquent, are of very little concern to in- 
 telligent minds. They already know all that. Their taste 
 or their reading has satisfied them upon those points. 
 They consent at once to the purity of its morals, to the 
 Divinity of Christ's character, to the sublimity of His 
 promises. They come to Church, not to hear such abstract 
 questions discussed, but to be told how they themselves, as 
 individuals, may reap the benefit of this mercy, and may 
 attain the hope of everlasting life which is held out in the 
 Gospel. They want Christianity brought home to them- 
 selves ; and even though they be not ready to embrace it, 
 they desire to be persuaded that it can be laid hold of 
 whenever they may be prepared to make the effort. A busy 
 man has not much time to give to any matter treated in an 
 unpractical way, nor does he put much faith in rhetoric. 
 
The Return of the Prodigal Son, 421 
 
 He is accustomed to look at every subject in a business 
 point of view ; and bis mind gets to be so trained in tbat 
 way, tbat be is impatient unless one dealing witb him, even 
 about spiritual tilings, comes directly to tbe point. He 
 wants no descriptions ; be calls for reasoning. He turns 
 away from tbe imagination ; but is very ready to listen to 
 common sense. " All this," says be, " is very fine ; but tbe 
 interesting question for me is, Can I obtain tbis religion ? 
 If I can, bow sball I set about it ? Trace out for me tbe 
 steps wbich I am to take, to lead me to salvation. I do not 
 promise you to follow your instructions ; but I sbould be 
 glad to understand my logical position, — if I may use such 
 a term, — and to know wbat is tbe first move in tbis sub- 
 lime matter of salvation." 
 
 It is very striking bow exactly tbe sacred writers meet 
 tbese wants. Our Saviour was tbe most practical teacber 
 tbat ever lived. He came always directly to tbe point, and 
 never wasted a word or a moment upon any tiling tbat was 
 abstract or rhetorical. And this is tbe reason wby all tbe 
 greatest topics which can interest man for time or for eter- 
 nity are discussed and settled within a space incredibly 
 small. The life of Christ, and the teachings of Christ, are 
 included in the compass of what would be considered, now- 
 adays, a very moderate pamphlet : for we must remember 
 that the same story and tbe same teachings are given by 
 the several Evangelists, and S. John is the only one who 
 introduces much new matter into his narrative. A tract, 
 therefore, equal in size to two of the Evangelists, would 
 embrace every thing which He thought it necessary to ut- 
 ter upon such topics as morals, and Religion, and the true 
 philosophy of life. And in that same tract would be found, 
 besides, the whole story of His divine example, from His 
 conception to His resurrection. This assures us that there 
 is nothing superfluous ; nothing that could be omitted with 
 
422 The Return of the Prodigal Son. 
 
 safety to the soul or its interests : and it leaves the busiest 
 man without excuse, when it asks of him the study of a 
 Book so small that it might be read over every day without 
 the slightest interference with any of his duties. 
 
 The peculiar feature of our Saviour's teaching, as pre- 
 served for us in the Gospels, consists in His constant use 
 of parables and similitudes. " If we take any portion of 
 our Saviour's discourses in the first three Gospels," says a 
 beautiful writer of our day, " we are struck at once with 
 the richness of its texture. It is like a beautiful piece of 
 tesselated work, composed of rich designs of imagery, each 
 of which is beautiful in itself, but runs into the next; 
 while perhaps, in the midst, to continue our image, comes 
 a fuller and more finished picture, set as in a rich border. 
 There is scarcely a sentence that descends to what we 
 should call prose. Every thought is conveyed in a senten- 
 tious, proverbial, and easily remembered form : or it is a 
 beautiful and perfect simile ; or it is a more formal and com- 
 plete allegory, corresponding point by point with a more 
 solemn lesson. Now to every one of these forms of speech 
 the term parable is applied ; therefore the Scripture is lit- 
 erally true : " All these things spake Jesus unto the mul- 
 titude in parables ; and without a parable spake he not 
 unto them." 1 It is this solemn lesson, deduced from one 
 of these allegories, that I shall use to-day as the reply to 
 your practical questions. 
 
 There is no portion of Scripture which answers more 
 cheeringly your question, " Can I obtain this religion ? " 
 than the parable of the Prodigal Son. It combines the 
 things which seem to stand at the extremest distance, — 
 the holiness of God, and the reckless sinfulness of man ; 
 and teaches us how they can be reconciled. No one need 
 despair when he shall have studied this allegory ; for no 
 
 1 S. Matt. xiii. 34. 
 
The Return of the Prodigal Son. 423 
 
 one can have plunged himself into deeper sin or viler deg- 
 radation. Ingratitude, forgetfulness, lust, bestiality, loathe- 
 some vulgarity, were all united in him : and all found mercy 
 and generous forgiveness. He learned, — when he had 
 come to himself, when he used the proper means for restora- 
 tion, — that his Father's love had never been extinguished; 
 that his own wickedness had alone separated them so long. 
 For filthy rags, he received at once and unconditionally the 
 very best robe. Instead of rebuke, he was met with the 
 most joyous affection ; and every thing was done which love 
 could dictate, to do him honor and give him assurance of 
 unreserved forgiveness. 
 
 The verses from which I preach occur in that portion of 
 the parable, in which the Prodigal occupies the very stand- 
 point you do when you ask what is your logical position, 
 and what is first to be done in this great work of salvation. 
 You may not have reached the depth of misery and humil- 
 iation to which he had sunk. That feature of his condition 
 is immaterial, it being an extreme case, used to manifest 
 the great love and mercy of God ; but, like him, you find it 
 necessary to move towards God. What, according to the 
 scheme of the Gospel, is the order of things ? Must I ap- 
 proach God ? or shall I wait until He approaches me '? 
 
 This is, you perceive, a practical question : and we must 
 therefore avoid all the metaphysics which may be made to 
 play around it. Innumerable points connected with the 
 "Will might be discussed, which could only darken counsel 
 by words without knowledge ; but they are unnecessary 
 here, for Christ in His peculiar way, has passed them all by ; 
 and has made the Prodigal, out of the depths of his misery, 
 say, " I will arise and go to my Father."' Xo discussions 
 about liberty, or necessity, — no cavillings about the mo- 
 tives which influence the Will, — no question about power 
 or impotence ! The Gordian knot is cut at once by the 
 
424 The Return of the Prodigal Son. 
 
 common sense of a stern misery ; and he determines to do 
 that which he feels he can do, — arise and go to his father. 
 
 This is the answer to your question. The first move is 
 required on your part, because "God so loved the world, 
 that he gave his only-begotten Son " 1 to die for its salva- 
 tion. This sacrifice of His Son has reconciled Him to all 
 sinners conditionally, and has made it altogether suitable 
 with His character to receive any who will arise, and come 
 to Him, and humble themselves before Him. His position 
 is that of the father in the parable, who simply waits until 
 his son will arise and come to him. God's love has known 
 no cessation ; His feeling has been one of grief and com- 
 passion ; and He has authorized His messengers to pro- 
 claim that, to every one of you. The office of us who 
 preach to you is called " the ministry of reconciliation ; to 
 wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 himself." "Now then," says the Apostle Paul, speaking 
 for all of us, "we are ambassadors for Christ, as though 
 God did beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ's 
 stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 In this, you perceive, 
 the reality of the Gospel exceeds the imagination of the 
 parable. In that, the son makes up his determination 
 without any entreaty on the part of his father ; it arises 
 simply out of his misery. With you, there is added the 
 earnest message, sent by God through His Ministry be- 
 seeching you to come, — so earnest that the Apostle calls 
 it a prayer. What more can He do ? He has given His 
 only-beloved Son to death (as you see commemorated before 
 you to-day), that He may be enabled to occupy this position. 
 He has accepted the Sacrifice, and pronounced it sufficient ; 
 He has instituted a Church in which to welcome, strength- 
 en, and comfort all who may come ; and in that Church has 
 organized a Ministry as His ambassadors to pray you, — 
 1 S. John iii. 16. 2 2 Cor. v. 18-20. 
 
The Return of the Prodigal Son. 425 
 
 that is the term, — to be reconciled to Him. And with 
 that Church and with that Ministry has Christ promised 
 through the Holy Spirit to be, always, unto the end of the 
 world. 
 
 The first step, after all this, is on your part. God is rec- 
 onciled to you, and is ready to welcome you. He waits now 
 upon your determination. And it is just here that the of- 
 fice of the Minister as a preacher comes in. He addresses 
 you Sunday after Sunday, urging you to do — what ? To 
 determine to arise and come to God ! He sometimes ap- 
 peals to you by one motive, and sometimes by another. In 
 one sermon, your excuses for not coming are examined ; 
 ill another, the temptations to keep from God are laid open 
 before you. Now your fears are assailed; and then the 
 allurements of the Gospel are presented to you. But what- 
 ever form these addresses may take, they all look to that 
 single point, — to lead you to say, " I will arise and go to 
 my Father." If you will only say that from the heart, you 
 are safe ; for He has said, " Him that cometh to me, I will 
 in no wise cast out." 1 And until you say that, nothing 
 more can be done : for God cannot have mercy upon a 
 proud, impenitent, sullen sinner. He may love you, as 
 one of His creatures ; He may pity you, as one bent upon 
 everlasting destruction : but He will not permit either 
 that love or that pity to make Him swerve one hair's 
 breadth from His covenant of salvation. He cannot do it : 
 because it was a solemn covenant made with His Son, 
 — a covenant requiring the humiliation and death of that 
 Son ; and should He change its terms for you, or me, or 
 the whole world, he should acknowledge to the Universe 
 that He had made a needless sacrifice of His Son. That 
 Son gave Himself to the Cross, because man's sin could 
 no otherwise be forgiven; and when you imagine that it 
 
 1 S. John vi. 37. 
 
426 The Return of the Prodigal Son, 
 
 can be set aside for you, it plainly shows that you have no 
 proper conception of the mysterious awfulness of that 
 Crucifixion. 
 
 Nor is this demand upon you to arise and go to your 
 Father any interference with the sovereign grace of God. 
 5 T is true our Saviour said, " No man can come to me, ex- 
 cept the Father which hath sent me draw him : " 1 hut what 
 is meant by this " drawing ? " How was the Prodigal 
 drawn ? By his misery. His father permitted him to suf- 
 fer, until his sufferings could no more be borne : and then 
 he said, " I will arise and go to my Father." And how 
 was the Canaanitish woman drawn ? By the misery of her 
 child. And how were the multitudes who turned in the 
 days of the Apostles drawn? By the preaching of the 
 Word. And how were the Bereans drawn ? By searching 
 the Scriptures daily. And how was Timothy drawn ? By 
 the Christian instruction of his mother and grandmother. 
 So that this drawing is, you perceive, as various as the cir- 
 cumstances of the individuals, the Holy Spirit working in 
 and through them all. No matter what, then, may be the 
 motive which draws you to God, provided it be a good one, 
 the Holy Ghost is probably using it to bring you to a deci- 
 sion. It may be affliction ; it may be gratitude ; it may be 
 a feeling of satiety with the world, or perchance a heart 
 overflowing with love ; it may be sickness ; it may be the 
 fear of death. No matter what, — if it make you ready to 
 cast yourselves into the open arms of your Father, — listen 
 to it ; quench not the Spirit ; be not tempted away by any 
 fear or distrust. It is a Father who invites you ; who prays 
 you to be reconciled to Him ; who offers you in exchange 
 for your submission the noblest treasures of His house and 
 the richest graces of His own divine Nature. 
 
 And do not delay because you are not fit to come. Look 
 1 S. John Ti. 44. 
 
The Return of the Prodigal Son, 427 
 
 at the condition of the Prodigal Son, when he said, " I will 
 arise and go to niy Father." Look at his plight when he 
 reached that forsaken home. He rose right up from com- 
 pany with the swine, and went jnst as he was. He did not 
 try to deceive his Father hy assnming a better appearance 
 than he was rightfully entitled to. He did not think that 
 he would fare better for being " decent." Common sense 
 told him that a loving Father's heart would be more moved 
 by his misery and woful appearance than by any thing else ; 
 and he went, just as he was. And so with you. You are 
 many of you waiting until you can approach God more ac- 
 ceptably. And this you think meritorious ; when it is all a 
 device of the Devil. He is anxious to keep you from your 
 Father, and he whispers to you, as if in honor of that 
 Father : " Certainly you are not going as you are, to that 
 great and Holy God (mark you, how he keeps from you the 
 tender epithet of " Father "). He will not receive you, 
 miserable sinner as you are ! Amend your ways a little 
 more, before you press into His presence." Listen not to 
 any such advice. I am God's ambassador, knowing God's 
 will much better than the Devil does ; and I pray you, in 
 Christ's stead, " Be ye reconciled to God." The Spirit and 
 the Bride say, Come / 
 
 When you have made this resolution — "I will arise and 
 go to my Father " — you have included in the act the two 
 conditions of salvation. You have repented and believed : 
 — repented, in that you are sorry for having wandered 
 away from God ; believed, in that you have trusted the love 
 of God in Christ, and have cast yourself upon His mercy. 
 And this view may relieve you of some of the difficulties 
 which are made to surround the doctrines of Repentance 
 and Faith. They can be involved in much intricacy, and 
 made to perplex an anxious soul ; but here is our Lord's so- 
 lution of them. With this Prodigal, repentance is made to 
 
428 The Return of the Prodigal Son. 
 
 be a turning' away from a course of evil, and a turning unto 
 God. No measures of repentance are described : no degree 
 of sorrow or of tears is fixed upon. It is simply a deter- 
 mination to change from the world to God. Sorrow for sin 
 may accompany it, and certainly will be produced by it in 
 the end ; for the more we see of the holiness of God, the 
 more shall we mourn over our own corruption : but it may 
 not be very intense in the beginning of the Christian life. 
 Our whole change is produced by the Spirit of God : and 
 the degree of our compunction will be regulated by Him. 
 He may choose to work no further upon you at first, than 
 to lead you to determine to arise and go to your Father. 
 That is for Him to decide, and not for you ; and if you 
 have made up your mind sincerely to go to God, that is 
 enough. Leave the divine Spirit to deal with you as He 
 thinks best, touching the degree of sorrow you may feel. 
 And as with repentance, so with faith. It is made, in the 
 analogy of this parable, to consist in casting one's self upon 
 the love and mercy of God. It is independent of all frames 
 and feelings ; and is simply trust in God : such a belief in 
 His abounding compassion in and through Christ, as shall 
 lead you to go to Him exactly as you are, trusting that He 
 will make all the necessary changes within you. 
 
 Your next step is confession — confession to God, and 
 not to man. " Father, I have sinned against heaven, and 
 before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son : " 
 — that is, "I have sinned against Thee, my Father in 
 Heaven." When you will do this, my hearer, you are fast 
 making your peace with God ; because you have at last 
 recognized the real evil of sin to be its offence against God. 
 That is striking at the root of sin, when you see it in this 
 light. " For," as one has well expressed it, " we may in- 
 jure ourselves by our evil, we may wrong our neighbor, but 
 strictly speaking, we can sin only against God ; and the 
 
The Return of the Prodigal Son. 429 
 
 recognition of our evil as first and chiefly an offence against 
 Him, is of the essence of all true repentance, and distin- 
 guishes it broadly from many other kinds of sorrow which 
 may follow on evil deeds." The error the world makes is 
 precisely the contrary of this : it reckons sin to be heinous 
 exactly in proportion to its interference with the security 
 of life and property. It never considers the offence against 
 God, and therefore it is that we see Society and the Church 
 at such issues about sin. Many whom the Church con- 
 demns, the world upholds ; because their crimes are crimes 
 only in the eyes of religious people. Many on the other 
 hand whom the world condemns, the Church upholds ; be- 
 cause the world is persecuting them for Christian graces, 
 for meekness, for forbearance, for humility. TThen a con- 
 fession therefore, such as this, falls from the lips of a man, 
 it is a sure sign of grace, — a token that he has been moved 
 by the Holy Ghost to arise and go to his Father. 
 
 And this confession no man has a right to call upon you 
 to make to him. There is no more flagrant usurpation over 
 the conscience than the auricular confession of Rome, — no 
 greater engine of tyranny in the whole armory of its des- 
 potism. It puts everybody into the power of the priest- 
 hood. It gives the priesthood dominion over the individ- 
 ual, the family, and the nation. For there is no human 
 heart which has not its weakness ; no human family which 
 has not its secrets dearer to it than life. And when these 
 are all sucked into the confessional, and motives, and de- 
 sires, and imaginations, and weaknesses are all probed, and 
 the web of superstition is woven around them, how can 
 such a power be resisted ? And it has no warrant of Script- 
 ure. S. James exhorts Christians to confess their faults 
 one to another, and pray one for another : but this is al- 
 together a voluntary matter. Our own Church goes as far 
 as recommendation, in peculiar cases, of confession. It is 
 
430 The Return of the Prodigal Son. 
 
 contained in the close of the exhortation immediately fol- 
 lowing the Prayer for the Church Militant in the Commun- 
 ion Office, in these words : " And because it is requisite 
 that no man should come to the Holy Communion, hut 
 with a full trust in God's mercy, and with a quiet con- 
 science ; therefore, if there be any of you, who by these 
 means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requir- 
 eth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to 
 some other Minister of God's Word, and open his grief ; 
 that he may receive such godly counsel and advice, as may 
 tend to the quieting of his conscience, and the removing 
 of all scruple and doubtfulness." But this is very different 
 from compulsory confession. This is very little more than 
 asking the advice of a pastor. But to require confession 
 under penalty of an anathema is to usurp the place of God, 
 who has told us to come boldly ourselves to the throne of 
 grace, because we have an High Priest there who can be 
 touched with a feeling of our infirmities. 
 
 The last grace which is developed in these verses, is that 
 sweet grace of humility : " Make me as one of thy hired 
 servants." " I do not come to thee, 0 Father, that I may 
 have honor, or favor, or ease : I am not worthy to be thy 
 son. Put me in the very lowest place, as one of thy hired 
 servants. I come to thee in repentance and faith and love. 
 Do with me as Thou pleasest: only give me Thy mercy. I 
 do not claim the honor of a son. I do not ask even for the 
 place of a slave born in thy house, or bought with thy 
 money : because they can claim thine attachment, and thou 
 art bound to them by ties of interest and obligation and 
 feeling. But make me as one of thy hired servants, be- 
 tween whom and Thee there is no necessary tie ; — from 
 whom Thou mayest separate Thyself at any moment with- 
 out a pang. Even this place I will be satisfied with, if so 
 be Thou wilt only admit me into Thine house." This is 
 
The Return of the Prodigal Son. 431 
 
 true humility, — the very spirit of David, when he said, 
 " I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of ray God, 
 than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness : " 1 — any place, 
 0 Father, even the lowest, so I may dwell in Thy Pres- 
 ence, and bask in the beams of Thy Love. 
 
 These are your steps : Repentance, Faith, Confession, 
 Humility. I trust that I have made them plain to you. 
 May God give you grace, while you have time and oppor- 
 tunity, to say out of an earnest and sincere heart : " I will 
 arise and go to my Father." 
 
 1 Psalm lxxxiv. 10. 
 
C^ht^mntty Sermon 
 
 The heart knoweth his own bitterness ; and a stranger doth not 
 intermeddle with his joy. — Proverbs xiv. 10. 
 
 TT 0 W much we live to ourselves in this life, even though 
 we are perpetually surrounded by beings like our- 
 selves, many of them most closely united to us by the 
 strongest and sweetest ties of sympathy and love ! We 
 dwell together in the same house ; we eat together at the 
 same table ; we meet each other and interchange thoughts 
 and opinions at all hours of the day ; we mingle together 
 in the same pursuits, and think that we know each other 
 intimately : and yet each one has a life of his own, an in- 
 ward life, entirely distinct from every other, and known 
 only to God and himself. Every heart has its own sorrows 
 and its own joys, independent of those which are permitted 
 to mingle in the current of our ordinary life. Every spirit 
 has its own sanctuary, in which are cherished memories, 
 often of bitterness, dreams, hopes, fancies, never to be dis- 
 closed to any human eye. The outer life is carried on in 
 the sight of all men, while the inner life, that which shapes 
 and colors it all, is as much hidden as a stream running 
 through the bowels of the earth. We think we know each 
 other ; and thinking so, we judge and freely criticise each 
 other: when, if the truth were really known to us, we 
 should be amazed at our utter misconception of character, 
 and ashamed at our false and cruel judgments. Beneath 
 the smiling face the heart is often kept from breaking only 
 
The Heart knoweth his own Bitterness. 433 
 
 by the comfort of God ; and beneath a grave and saddened 
 aspect there is just as often a wellspring of joy swelling 
 and bubbling, which, were it seen and understood, would be 
 the envy of the world. When our blessed Saviour said, 
 " Judge not according to the appearance, but judge right- 
 eous judgment," 1 He appointed His disciples one of the 
 most difficult of all tasks : and for this very reason, that 
 we do know and can know so little of one another ; that we 
 see each other's actions but cannot know each other's mo- 
 tives ; that ail the springs of life are hidden from us ; that 
 the sanctuary is not open to us ; that a veil hangs before 
 our holy of holies, into which none can enter save He who 
 " may be touched with a feeling of our infirmities." What 
 caution should this teach us to use, in forming our estimate 
 of each other's life and character ! We never know the real 
 influences which are at work within, — the private feelings 
 which lie behind the conduct that we do rest our judgments 
 upon. Happiness and grief, smiles and tears, hope and 
 despair, are alike hidden from the public eye ; and man 
 lives an inner life within himself, baffling the judgment 
 of man, and ofttimes rejoicing in the judgment of God. 
 
 It is not strange that we should thus be appointed to live 
 alone, when we consider that we shall have to die alone. 
 Our last great conflict can be known to none save God. 
 Our friends may stand in numbers around our dying bed ; 
 those who love us more than they love themselves may pour 
 out their hearts in anguish and in supplication over our 
 struggling spirit : but they cannot help us ; the battle 
 must be within ourselves. We are in that moment alone 
 with God's Holy Spirit. He only knows the bitterness of 
 our heart in that moment of awful sorrow ; he only knows 
 its joys, when life is ebbing away, and heavenly visions are 
 rising upon us, and mingling themselves with the closing 
 1 S. John vii. 24. 
 
 28 
 
434 The Heart knoweth his own Bitterness. 
 
 scenes of earth. We are dying alone, just as we have lived 
 alone; and our heart-life is all that is important to us. 
 Actions tell but little, either in life or in death ; words still 
 less : it is the heart which is the only reality ; and none see 
 that, save the Eye which can look into it, and search it, 
 and try it. And thus we end as we begin, nobody knowing 
 us, save God ; nobody really helping us, save God ; nobody 
 able to comfort us, save God. In Him we live, and move, 
 and have our being in its truest sense : for our heart-life is 
 our real life, and that which alone can give us any true 
 happiness either in life or in death. It is but of little mat- 
 ter to ourselves what the world may think of us and say of 
 us. If we have the springs of true joy within ourselves, 
 no stranger can intermeddle with it ; and all his flattery 
 and adulation cannot take away the bitterness which may 
 have cleaved to the heart. Self-consciousness clings closer 
 to us than any judgment of the world ; and man has no 
 power to intermeddle with that joy which cometh from 
 the fountain of love and of peace. 
 
 It is wonderful that man does not think of this when he 
 is endeavoring, as he often is in life, to flee away from him- 
 self. He must die alone, — alone with God. He cannot 
 escape that terrible loneliness. However much he may 
 succeed in drowning his own true life in pleasures or in 
 cares while God allots him the privilege of living, he must 
 meet the reality at last. If he will not be alone with him- 
 self in life, he must be alone with God in death ! There is 
 no discharge in that war. However he may strive to es- 
 cape from the bitterness of his own heart in life, — a bitter- 
 ness which God perhaps has sent to turn him to Himself, — 
 he must meet it at the last. God cannot be gotten rid of. 
 He fills the spiritual world, pervading it with His presence 
 and His power; and it is the spiritual world into which 
 the dying man is about to enter. His inner life is being 
 
The Heart knoweth his own Bitterness. 435 
 
 laid bare, and that bitterness which only his heart was con- 
 scious of, and that joy with which no stranger ever inter- 
 meddled, are alike unveiled. He to whom all hearts are 
 open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid, 
 is looking into that heart and searching it to its depths. 
 By His judgment must man stand or fall, entirely inde- 
 pendent of all outward influences of friends or enemies, of 
 nature or the world. 
 
 And how kind and gracious it is in our heavenly Father 
 that we should be thus known only to ourselves and to 
 Him ! How blessed is it for us that, in our condition of 
 corruption, we should not be unveiled to each other ! How 
 much there is in every one's life that is better hidden from 
 every eye, save that of God, — how much of feeling, and 
 imagination, and motive, and purpose ! The bitterness of 
 the heart would be made tenfold more bitter by being per- 
 ceived in an un sympathizing world ; and its joys might 
 only bring down upon it, were they disclosed, ridicule and 
 envy. We are never permitted, in this world, to forget 
 that we are living under the curse, and that temptation 
 and sin are forever besetting us. Those pleasures which 
 will make up the felicity of Heaven, — the undisguised 
 heart ; the unrestrained feelings ; the pure and perfect 
 love ; the unfettered affections, — cannot be indulged in 
 here. Too much impurity cleaves to us to permit such in- 
 tercourse on earth. The heart must be very much shut up 
 within itself, and its bitterness and its joys must many of 
 them be hidden within itself. And well is it that it is so ; 
 otherwise there would be endless strife, and confusion im- 
 measurable. Even truth, were it universally spoken, would, 
 in a world like ours, produce disgust, and stir up the fiercest 
 feelings. How much more then were every heart unveiled, 
 and we were permitted to read each other in all the stern 
 reality of life, without any disguise or any palliatives ! It 
 
436 The Heart knoweth his own Bitterness. 
 
 would set the world on fire, and kindle such flames as onlv 
 death could extinguish ! The disclosure of the bitterness 
 of one heart would ofttimes steep another in gall ; and the 
 hidden joys which are now clothing the path of some poor 
 weary pilgrim with beauty and fragrance, would be withered 
 in a moment, *if they were brought to the light and made 
 the criticism of the world. No S we are doomed to live our 
 inner life alone; to carry our joys and sorrows in company 
 only with Christ. Even such an imperfect agency as the 
 confessional has to be kept under the sacred seal of invio- 
 late secresy, because the heart's life is there pretended to 
 be disclosed. There love, jealousy, hatred, remorse, are all 
 whispered into priestly ears ; and, though imperfectly, un- 
 fold a fearful view of earthly unhappiness : unhappiness 
 which can be remedied only by the Spirit of a Holy God. 
 Man can exhort his fellow to bear and to suffer ; to pray, 
 and to strive ; to endure and to trust : but he can do no 
 more. Even in this, man's struggles must all be alone : 
 and to get even peace in this world, he must commune 
 alone with God, and roll his burdens and his cares upon 
 Him who has " borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." 
 
 And this, my beloved people, is the great consolation of 
 our present existence, that we are not quite alone ; that we 
 have a Friend, human in form but Divine in Spirit, who has 
 condescended to call us brother, and to whom our bitter- 
 ness and our joys may alike be carried. 0 the terribleness 
 of suffering alone, — of carrying a laden, smitten, bursting 
 heart, without daring to ask for sympathy or for help, — of 
 smothering all our sorrows, of beating back upon the heart 
 its yearning desire for utterance and for consolation ! One 
 must know this loneliness to know the precious comfort of 
 a human Saviour, — of a Being coming to us with love and 
 the soothing balm of mercy dripping upon us from His lips. 
 " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
 
The Heart knoweth his own Bitterness. 437 
 
 I will give you rest," 1 are the gracious words which He 
 has proclaimed to all who are feeling their need of a bosom 
 to lean upon, and a heart to beat in unison with their own. 
 Xo longer is it the fate of any of us to suffer alone : all 
 have the blessedness offered them of friendship and of sym- 
 pathy ; and of more than these, of mercy, pardon, and peace. 
 We have not merely a priest to make our confession unto ; 
 a priest who cannot tell whether we speak truth or not ; 
 who may be deceived by a half-told tale ; who can give us 
 only that absolution which may be rendered void because 
 given upon unsound confession : but we have a High Priest, 
 one who has been tempted in all points like as we are, yet 
 without sin ; one who cannot be deceived, but looks into 
 the heart, and when He gives us peace, g-ives it to us with 
 a full knowledge of our condition, and with a divine power 
 of- making it good in the courts of Heaven. ''Let us 
 therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace," are the 
 concluding words of the Apostle, "that we may obtain 
 mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." 1 
 
 And as with the bitterness of the heart, so with its joys. 
 How much are they increased, when they can be partaken 
 of with one who feels with us, and is in harmony with our 
 spirit ! This makes up all the endearment of family rela- 
 tionship: but in this world, even at the very best, where 
 there is true love and genuine affection, there is much, in 
 the very current of life, to interrupt the joys even of the 
 purest kind. The curse stains every thing ; its slime is 
 upon every state of life ; and strangers can intermeddle 
 even with the highest condition of human happiness, un- 
 less it be that hidden joy which can exist between God 
 and the soul. That alone gives unalloyed pleasure. Every 
 other tie may be tampered with ; every other relationship 
 of life may be marred by scandal and calumny and jealousy 
 1 S. 3Iatt. xi. 28. » Heb. iv. 16. 
 
438 The Heart knoweth his own Bitterness. 
 
 and intermeddling: but no one can come where the true 
 joy of divine love is, and do us any mischief. Those joys 
 raise us above the earth, and make us independent of man 
 and the world. As one of our Hymns 1 beautifully ex- 
 presses it : — 
 
 A bleeding Saviour, seen by faith, 
 
 A sense of pardoning love, 
 A hope that triumphs over death, 
 
 Give joys like those above. 
 
 How many lessons we are called upon to learn, my be- 
 loved people, from this condition of loneliness under which 
 the curse has necessarily placed us ! And one of the most 
 important is a lesson of charity towards our fellow-crea- 
 tures. How little do we know of any one's real trials and 
 sufferings ! How little are we prepared to enter into any 
 one's position in the world. We walk among men in total 
 ignorance of them. We judge them by appearances. We 
 condemn them, knowing nothing of their temptations. We 
 solace ourselves with thinking how much better we are 
 than they ; when alas ! their bitterness, which is known to 
 God and against which they may have struggled long and 
 manfully, may place them far above us, who have had no 
 struggle and but little temptation. It is said of a clergy- 
 man of some notoriety who did not always control his tem- 
 per, that upon one occasion, when reproved by a friend for 
 an ebullition of this kind, his answer was : " Sir, I thank 
 you for your reproof ; but I have conquered more temper 
 than you ever had." This man knew and felt the bitter- 
 ness of his heart, and God may have seen in him a struggle 
 which was manful and true, and which placed him far above 
 one who judged him while he had had no struggle at all. 
 How Christ struck directly at this tendency of human na- 
 ture ! " Judge not, and ye shall not be judged : condemn 
 not, and ye shall not be condemned." 2 It was one of the 
 
 1 Hymn 148. 2 S. Luke vi. 37. 
 
The Heart knoweth his own Bitterness. 439 
 
 first lessons He taught His disciples ; and it is one of the 
 first lessons that every Christian should learn. We are too 
 short-sighted and too prejudiced to sit in judgment, even 
 though we were certain that we knew perfectly the facts 
 upon which we formed our judgments : but when we really 
 are so ignorant of every one's inner life, of his troubles 
 and trials, his temptations and embarrassments, we should 
 shrink from all judgment, and cover over with the mantle 
 of charity those things which may strike us as strange and 
 improper. As one has beautifully said : " God has been 
 kind enough to veil our infirmities from others ; let us be 
 equally careful to veil the infirmities of our brethren from 
 every human eye." 
 
 Another lesson which it teaches us is, that we should 
 deal gently with our fellow-creatures, and banish harshness, 
 as entirely as we can, from our manners and our language. 
 We know not the bitterness that may be resting upon the 
 heart of any creature we may chance to meet or be con- 
 cerned with. Kind words, a cheering smile, tender sympa- 
 thy, a gentle tone, may often produce effects upon the hu- 
 man heart far beyond what might be reckoned as their real 
 value, and do good not only for time but for eternity. We 
 should always keep resting on our memories the many, 
 many moments when a kind word would have cheered us ; 
 when a tone of sympathy would have sunk deep down into 
 our hearts ; when encouragement would have sustained us, 
 and harshness have driven us to despair. The course of 
 life is hard and harsh enough without our adding any thing 
 to its roughness. The evils of life are too many and too 
 heart-rending for us to accumulate them either in number 
 or in sharpness. Our task should be to imitate Jesus in 
 His love and gentleness ; to go about doing good ; to give 
 to the world beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning ; 
 the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Leave 
 
440 The Heart knoweth his own Bitterness, 
 
 harshness and severe judgment to the world. Let the 
 Church, and those who call themselves the children of 
 God, utter words of hope and peace for the worn and 
 weary children of sin and unrest. " Good will towards 
 men," was a part of the Angels' song when they an- 
 nounced the birth of Jesus ; and let us keep the motto 
 upon our hearts, and illustrate it in our lives and con- 
 versation. 
 
 Another lesson of our text comes nearer home, and 
 should be learned for our own comfort in life. " The 
 heart," says our text, " knoweth his own bitterness, and a 
 stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy." We may 
 have to live very much alone in this world, and some of 
 you may have bitterness almost more than you can bear. 
 Remember Christ. Do not attempt to carry your sorrows 
 or your joys alone. If you do, Satan will most certainly 
 tempt you in some shape or other. He will stir up discon- 
 tent with your lot in your heart ; or he will incite you to 
 harshness and ill will against the world ; or he may drive 
 you to despair and hopelessness. Or, on the other hand, 
 that joy with which a stranger doth not intermeddle may 
 make you selfish and egoistic ; may seduce you to morbid- 
 ness and neglect of duty. However your bitterness or your 
 joy may be or must be necessarily secret from the world, 
 let it not be partaken of without the constant presence of 
 Christ. His participation of it will very much relieve your 
 own burden, or increase your own happiness ; and will pre- 
 serve it from impurity or excess. Either bitterness or joy 
 which is obliged to be kept hidden from the world is dan- 
 gerous to the spirit ; and you must place it in Christ's 
 hands for regulation. He knows all through His divine 
 Spirit 5 but He will not interfere, unless you show your 
 confidence in Him, and come boldly to the throne of grace. 
 Be not afraid of Him. He is not come to judge the world, 
 
The Heart knoweth his own Bitterness, 441 
 
 to save the world. Although He knows all, yet may we 
 in the tender words of Keble : — 
 
 " Thou know'st our bitterness : our joys are thine : 
 
 No stranger Thou to all our wanderings wild : 
 Nor could we bear to think, how every line 
 
 Of us, Thy darkened likeness and defiled, 
 Stands in full sunshine of Thy piercing eye, 
 
 But that Thou call'st us Brethren. Sweet repose 
 Is in that word. The Lord who dwells on high 
 
 Knows all, yet loves us better than He knows." 
 
 1865. 
 
fortieth ^evmon. 
 
 Have I been a wilderness unto Israeli a land of darkness 1 — 
 Jeremiah ii. 31. 
 
 "V\THY is it, my beloved people, that Christianity is not 
 
 * * more willingly embraced by the intelligent and re- 
 fined men of our congregations, and enjoyed as one of the 
 richest blessings of God's mercy ? Why is it, that so many 
 of our very best people, looking at them as citizens, should 
 keep so entirely aloof from the ordinances of the Church 
 of Christ ? One would think, reasoning a priori and before 
 considering any thing contained in the Revelation itself, 
 that they would be the very earliest disciples of a system so 
 clearly intended to elevate man and exalt the standard of 
 social life ; that they would be the most earnest advocates 
 of a philosophy which inculcated the practice of whatsoever 
 things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
 things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
 things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report. 
 And our reasoning would be right, if the Revelation of God 
 ended with that philosophy. It fails because, over and above 
 its morals and its social blessings, it contains a doctrine of 
 spiritual life which demands a regulation of the inner as 
 well as of the outer man ; and makes us acquainted with 
 supernatural influences coming to us through Persons of 
 the Godhead, of whom the religion of Nature and of Reason 
 knows nothing. It is this part of Christianity which the 
 wise and the learned and the noble find it so hard to receive, 
 and which the Apostles of our Lord foretold would prove 
 
Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel? 443 
 
 their great difficulty. Every thing relating to domestic wel- 
 fare and social happiness they could receive and value ; but 
 when it turned to spiritual things, to the sublime topics 
 which alone render it of any eternal value, they ask with 
 Nicodemus : " How can these things be ? " and they reckon 
 it as foolishness. And they do this, not because they do not 
 appreciate the influence of morals and even of religion, — 
 for they know well enough what a mighty instrument even 
 superstition is, when it is wielded by society, — nor because 
 they would not desire for themselves the possession of an 
 interest with God, provided they could attain it by any 
 rational process : but because they are, to say the least, 
 doubtful about the truth of Revelation. They believe in 
 God as their Creator and moral governor (none but a fool 
 says in his heart, " There is no God ") ; they believe, for 
 the most part, in the immortality of the soul and in a 
 future state of rewards and punishments : but they have 
 not yet come to any decision upon the Revelation of God. 
 They are not willing entirely to reject the Scriptures, for 
 the teachings of their childhood, and the sacred memory 
 of a father's love and a mother's tenderness, are forever 
 associated with them : and yet they are not prepared to 
 subscribe to those doctrines of Atonement and Regenera- 
 tion and spiritual influences which stand connected with 
 the Persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. They are 
 not willing to admit that they have rejected these truths 
 of Revelation. They still acknowledge them, in a sort of 
 Ecclesiastical way, and use every Sunday a Service which 
 affirms and teaches them ; but they are not ready to take 
 any step which would place themselves in close spiritual 
 connection with them. They are feeling their way, many 
 of them, cautiously towards Christianity, and are watching 
 to see whether there is sufficient ground for them to rest 
 their feet upon in any movement towards the Altar of God. 
 
444 Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel? 
 
 They scorn hypocrisy, and have no desire to place them- 
 selves among the mere pretenders to spiritual illumination. 
 They love reality ; and, when they profess, they wish to 
 take hold of Christ and His religion with an earnest grasp, 
 which will admit no doubt, either with themselves or with 
 others, that they are Christians indeed. 
 
 It is a great error for Christians to entertain the opinion, 
 which is too frequent among them, that men who seem 
 careless and indifferent about Christianity have no secret 
 moments of reflection and religious effort. They have a 
 great many ; and they are looking out much more keenly 
 than Christians think, for grounds upon which to form 
 their judgments respecting the scheme of Christianity. 
 The external proofs of its being a Revelation from God 
 they admit to be very strong ; and those proofs cast a very 
 unpleasant doubtfulness around any conclusions they may 
 come to against it. They cannot satisfy themselves that it 
 is an imposture ; and yet they cannot reconcile themselves 
 to what they call the mysterious spiritual doctrines of the 
 Revelation. They have never experienced any of them ; 
 and they are doubtful whether anybody else has. They rea- 
 son, and they reason correctly, that such a doctrine as that 
 of Christ should have a most vivid effect upon the affec- 
 tions of those who profess it. Its declaration is, that its 
 aim is at the heart ; that, leaving every thing else to be 
 worked upon through the Spirit from this central point, its 
 object is to bring man's spirit at once into subjection to the 
 Spirit of God, to fill it with faith in God, — a faith which 
 shall afterwards work by love, and renovate the whole na- 
 ture. This is the true Christian hypothesis ; and every one 
 who names the Name of Christ receives Him upon this 
 foot, or else does not receive Him rightly. Unless this is 
 professed, the Christian has not taken hold of that which is 
 the distinct spiritual teaching of the New Testament, and 
 
Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel? 445 
 
 which the natural man calls foolishness. And, — whatever 
 these keen observers and critics may themselves do after- 
 wards when they become Christians, — for the present, 
 they hold those who do profess Christianity to a strict 
 account upon this very point. They say that Christ Him- 
 self has taught that " where the treasure is, there will the 
 heart be also ; " and that surely there is no greater treas- 
 ure than the love of God in Christ, and the hope of ever- 
 lasting bliss in a future world. They look to see, therefore, 
 whether the profession is one which bears out this very just 
 reasoning ; whether the heart seems to be really concerned 
 in the work ; whether the affections are fixed upon those 
 eternal interests which are wrapped up in Christ. And 
 they have a right, my beloved people, to judge us by this 
 criterion ; for it is a Scriptural rule of judgment, and one 
 of which we should be enabled to bear the test. The world 
 has a right to expect to see Christians deeply interested in 
 religious things, to find them earnest in all that concerns 
 the advancement of the kingdom of Christ ; nay more, to 
 find religion filling their hearts as a satisfying portion, giv- 
 ing them comfort in affliction, contentment under adverse 
 circumstances, peace in the midst of perils, hope when 
 thick darkness covers the people. They may well ask how 
 the life accords with the profession, how the effect harmo- 
 nizes with the promise, when they perceive Christians evi- 
 dently considering their profession a yoke of bondage, its 
 requirements a burden, its fruits a mere myth, its hold 
 upon the affections subservient to every thing else. The 
 bright promise of Christianity for this life is, that it fur- 
 nishes that which will satisfy an undying soul and immortal 
 lives ; that it gives, what the world cannot and does not 
 profess to give, quiet and rest ; that it supplies a want 
 which man universally feels, yet the satisfaction of which 
 he cannot find. And if this promise is not fulfilled in 
 
446 Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel? 
 
 Christians, how can men of the world be expected to be 
 attracted towards it? What have they to gain in giving 
 up the world, if they are not to receive in return some 
 treasure for the heart and the affections ? Man does not 
 live long before he finds out that happiness consists in em- 
 ploying the mind and absorbing the affections ; and there- 
 fore is it that we meet him, at every turn, pursuing some 
 one idea to the exclusion of every other, filling his heart 
 and his soul with it, and sacrificing every thing in its pur- 
 suit. No matter whether it be an object which the world 
 counts honorable, as glory ; or mean, as avarice ; or trifling, 
 as pleasure : the principle which lies at the bottom is the 
 same. It is, to fill the soul with something ; to give zest 
 to life, which would otherwise stagnate ; to give employ- 
 ment to the mind, which would else gnaw upon itself ; to 
 give play to the affections, which must make an idol of 
 something. If he could be convinced that religion could 
 give him a satisfying portion of the soul, there is many a 
 man who is now recklessly plunging through life, caressing 
 objects which he despises, solicitous only to get rid of it, 
 who might pause and seek after something more worthy 
 the absorption of infinite affections. But every thing con- 
 pires to make him despair : his own heart of unbelief, 
 the unwearying delusions of the Devil, and — last though 
 by no means least — the dishonor which Christians do their 
 Master's cause, by permitting the world to perceive that 
 their Christian profession gives their hearts no ease, and 
 their spirits no contentment. How many who grieve over 
 irreligious fathers, husbands, brothers, sons, seem to be un- 
 aware that they are helping on that unbelief, and riveting 
 upon the soul the motions of infidelity and the temptations 
 of the Devil ! 
 
 Truly may God ask of Christians what He asked of His 
 people of old, through his prophet Jeremiah : " Have I been 
 
Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel t 447 
 
 a wilderness unto Israel ? a land of darkness ? ,5 Have My 
 redeemed people found no joy in Me, no light in My pres- 
 ence ? Have there been no flowers along the path by which 
 I have led them, no green pastures, no still waters ? Dur- 
 ing the toil and wearisomeness of life, has there been no 
 bright sunshine upon the landscape, no sound of music by 
 the way ? When care or trouble or sorrow has pressed up- 
 on you, has no ministering spirit been near you to lighten 
 your burden and alleviate your pain ? When sickness has 
 brought you nigh to the gates of death, has there been no 
 spiritual Physician to soothe the soul, and to give it peace ? 
 When the days of darkness have brooded over the soul, and 
 there was no comfort in man or the son of man, has no 
 Comforter come to thee from Him who promised, " I will 
 not leave thee comfortless, I will come to thee " ? Has no 
 fresh glory come from Me, making the grave radiant with 
 the presence of Angels, and forever rolling away the great 
 stone from the door of the sepulchre? And are ye now 
 weary of Me? And are ye saying to the world, by actions 
 if not by word, " The way of the Lord is a wilderness ; the 
 land of the Lord is a land of darkness " ? " Be astonished, 
 0 ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid .... For my 
 people have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me 
 the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, 
 broken cisterns, that can hold no water." 1 
 
 You do not realize, my beloved people, how much dis- 
 honor you cast upon your Lord, how much suspicion you 
 bring upon yourselves, by finding no joy in your Christian 
 profession, no happiness in the exercise of the Christian life. 
 David's declaration was : " All my fresh springs shall be in 
 thee." 2 His fresh springs, — the water that was to satisfy 
 his loving heart, that was to quench his immortal thirst, 
 that was to refresh him when he was weary, that was to 
 1 Jer. ii. 12, 13. 2 p sa i m ixxxvii. 7. 
 
448 Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel? 
 
 give him new life when he was spent, — all flowed from 
 God. The world and its waters he left to those who knew 
 not his God ; but he could not find any comfort in them. 
 And when we put on Christ, my beloved people, this is our 
 declaration : that He is the source of all our true joy, that 
 all our springs are in Him, and from Him all our streams 
 flow. Why then should our practice be so different from 
 our profession ? Have we been deceived ? Has Christ and 
 His love been a wilderness unto us ? a land of darkness ? 
 God forbid ! We may not have enjoyed religion as we 
 should ; we may have permitted pressing temptation to 
 steal away our hearts from Christ for a little while ; we may 
 have been overwhelmed with cares or afflictions, and so 
 the deep waters may have gone even over our souls : but 
 I know that if the choice were given you now, — a final 
 choice, a choice which you should never be enabled to 
 alter, between Christ and the world, — that you would flee 
 to Christ, and hide yourselves in Him. Present temptation 
 must not be confounded with permanent decision, — a tem- 
 porary coldness of heart, with the declaration that Christ's 
 service is a yoke which galls and frets the wearer ! 
 
 And yet, hopeful as I trust that I may be, I must warn 
 you against the very appearance of evil. When a Christian 
 is perceived to be lukewarm in all that concerns religion, 
 and yet earnest and busy about every thing else ; inatten- 
 tive to the public duties of the Church save when it is en- 
 tirely convenient or agreeable, yet ready to be present at 
 every occasion of civil interest ; finding no time to read his 
 Bible or say his prayers, yet finding abundant leisure for 
 novels or newspapers or magazines ; asking nothing about 
 the warfare which is waging in heathen lands against the 
 enemies of Christ's kingdom, yet, like the Athenians, seek- 
 ing everywhere for some new thing concerning the war- 
 fare which is waging nearer home : to such an one I must 
 
Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel? 449 
 
 put the question, 011 God's part : " Have I been a wilder- 
 ness unto Israel ? a land of darkness ? " Is there nothing 
 to interest an immortal creature, in spiritual things ? 
 nothing to occupy the attention of a Christian pilgrim, 
 in the wondrous things of God's Law? Must he run to 
 the world for ail his pleasures, and come to Christ only on 
 Sundays, and even then only when he can find no excuse 
 to keep away ? Is there no life in Christianity for you, no 
 reality of joy, of hope, of divine meditation ? Beware, my 
 hearer, lest you not only wreck yourself, but become the 
 cause by which others shall be kept from Christ and His 
 salvation ! The judgment which has been recorded against 
 a lukewarm Church, is recorded likewise against a luke- 
 warm Christian : " Because thou art lukewarm, and neither 
 cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." 1 What 
 utter loathing this expresses upon the part of Christ ! 
 What danger it insinuates upon yours ! To be spued out 
 of Christ's mouth, and that for no striking or positive sin, 
 for no flagrant act of irreligion, but simply for being luke- 
 warm, indifferent about spiritual things ! How many there 
 are who think no harm of this ; who satisfy themselves 
 with the position that they are doing nothing to disgrace 
 their Christianity, even while they are doing nothing to 
 manifest it ! A more hateful state of feeling there is not 
 in the whole circle of Christian experience, for it argues 
 the absence of almost every Christian grace. There can be 
 no faith, where there is such a spirit ; no humility, no hope. 
 It presents one flat expanse of utter indifference. Any 
 thing is better than it ; — heat or cold, burning zeal or utter 
 deadness : but this dilettanteism Christ utterly repudiates. 
 Its basis is selfishness ; its superstructure is conceit. 
 
 Oh, my people, let me beseech you to rid yourselves of 
 this reproach. Let it not be said of you, " God has been 
 
 1 Eev. iii. 16. 
 
 29 
 
45 o Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel ? 
 
 a wilderness to this people, a land of darkness." God in 
 Christ, a wilderness ? what an utter contradiction of all the 
 promises of the Bible, of all the experience of God's saints ! 
 Long before Christ came, the Prophets were heralding 
 His coming, upon the very ground that He would make 
 the wilderness of the world (for In the Bible it is the world 
 that is the wilderness) a place of gladness. One of them 
 announced it as a new and wonderful thing : " Behold, I 
 will do a new thing," saith the Lord ; " now it shall spring 
 forth ; .... I will even make a way in the wilderness, 
 and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honor 
 me, the dragons and the owls : because I give waters in the 
 wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my ; 
 people, my chosen." 1 And the effects of that new thing 
 were to be, that " The wilderness and the solitary place 
 shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and 
 blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and re- 
 joice even with joy and singing." 2 And when the Lord 
 would comfort His people, this was to be their comfort : 
 " For the Lord shall comfort Zion : he will comfort all her 
 waste places ; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, 
 and her desert like the garden of the Lord ; joy and 
 gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice 
 of melody." 3 Ah ! my people, if you find God a wilderness, 
 then is there no hope for you, for you shall have turned the 
 source of all earthly consolation into bitterness and a curse ! 
 The glory of Christ was to be, that " a man shall be as an 
 hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest ; 
 as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great 
 rock in a weary land : " 4 and you find Him a wilderness ? I 
 fear me that you know not the spirit you are of ; and that 
 you have a name to live, while you are dead ! 
 
 i Isaiah xliii. 19, 20. 2 Ibid. xxxv. 1, 2. 
 
 8 Ibid. li. 3. * Ibid, xxxii. 2. 
 
Have I been a Wilderness tinto Israel ? 45 1 
 
 How sad that it should ever be intimated of any people, 
 that God was a land of darkness unto them ! Why, the 
 very object of coming to Christ was to get into a land of 
 light. " If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, 
 how great is that darkness ! " 1 Light is everywhere, in the 
 Bible, the effect of God's presence, the glory of Christ's 
 Advent. In the beginning God said : " Let there be light : 
 and there was light." 2 In the fullness of times He said 
 again, " Let there be light : " and Christ rose upon the na- 
 tions as the Light of the world. And when He was come 
 to scatter the gross darkness which covered the people, al- 
 most the very first utterance which He made to His disci- 
 ples was : " Ye are the light of the world." The light of 
 the world, and yet a darkness unto yourselves ! What a 
 contradiction in terms ! Our profession is, and the world 
 knows it, — for the Devil makes the world read the Bible, 
 when that reading is done in an evil spirit, — " For God, 
 who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath 
 shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of 
 the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 3 Can this 
 be true, and yet no light flow out from you upon the 
 world? no light kindle within you to cheer yourself? 
 
 How terrible it is, as Job says, to " meet with darkness in 
 the daytime, and grope in the noon-day as in the night." 4 
 We hoped for thee that even the sun was no more thy light 
 by day, but that the Lord was " unto thee an everlasting 
 light, and thy God thy glory : " 5 but, instead of this, the 
 world sees you groping " for the wall like the blind," and 
 groping as if you " had no eyes " : stumbling " at noon-day 
 as in the night." 6 And you were forewarned of all this by 
 Prophets and Apostles. Jeremiah said, in tones of deep 
 warning : " Give glory to the Lord your God, before he 
 
 1 S. Matthew vi. 23. 2 Gen. i. 3. 3 2 Cor. iv. 6. 
 
 4 Job v. 14. 5 Isaiah lxi> 19< 6 Ibid> Ux# 10 . 
 
452 Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel? 
 
 cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark 
 mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the 
 shadow of death, and make it gross darkness." 1 And S. 
 John reechoed the warning : " Then Jesus said unto them, 
 Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have 
 the light, lest darkness come upon you. . . . While ye have 
 light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of 
 light." 2 Christ's people have nothing to do with wilder- 
 nesses and with darkness. Their profession is one of rich 
 rejoicing. Their path is to shine " more and more unto the 
 perfect day." 3 
 
 Art thou in the wilderness, my heart ? Fear not, even 
 there ; for, if you search, you may find God. It is there 
 that God sometimes leads His people, to plead with them. 
 " And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, 
 and there will I plead with you face to face." 4 Do you feel 
 dissatisfied with your spiritual state, even while you mingle 
 with the world ? It is God pleading with you face to face. 
 Are you harassed and careworn in your service of the 
 world r> It is God pleading with you face to face. Do you 
 find no satisfaction in life, even after you have reached the 
 summit of your wishes ? It is God pleading with you face 
 to face. Are you afflicted in the land of your captivity? 
 It is God pleading with you face to face. He is asking 
 you : " Have I been a wilderness unto Israel ? a land of 
 darkness ? " Hear Him when He pleads ! God will not be 
 trifled with by His covenant people. " And that which 
 cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We 
 will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to 
 serve wood and stone. As I live, saith the Lord God, surely 
 with a mighty hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with 
 fury poured out, will I rule over you. . . . And I will cause 
 
 i Jeremiah xiii. 16. 2 S. John xii. 35, 36. 
 
 3 Prov. iv. 18. 4 Ezek. xx. 35. 
 
Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel? 453 
 
 you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the 
 bond of the covenant." 1 Beware of that rod ! It is a fear- 
 ful thing to fall into the hands of the living God ! " And if 
 thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things 
 upon me ? " the answer will be, unless you repent and turn 
 from the error of your ways : " This is thy lot, the portion 
 of thy measures from me, saith the Lord ; because thou 
 hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood." 2 
 
 June 16, 1861. 
 1 Ezek. xx. 32, 33, 37. 2 Jer. xiii. 22, 25. 
 
tfort^fittft Sermon. 
 
 God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and 
 God in him. — i S. John iv. 16. 
 
 HENEVER the Ministers of Christ turn aside from 
 
 ? " the rich promises and glorious hopes of the Gospel, to 
 speak of the awful threatenings which overhang its rejec- 
 tion, and the severe penalties which await those who despise 
 its mercy, the benevolent and the sentimental and the im- 
 penitent and the unbelieving at once take shelter, all of 
 them, however much they may differ from each other in 
 various particulars, under the declaration of our text, that 
 " God is love : " without any analysis of what love is, in the 
 sense in which it is used in the Scriptures; without any 
 comparison of this naked phrase with other declarations of 
 the Bible, which must limit and restrain it, being of equal 
 authority with it ; without any consideration that the prop- 
 osition may be literally true in its most unlimited extent, 
 and yet not true at all in the sense in which they interpret 
 it. They all deem it a sufficient answer to any appeals which 
 may be made to them upon the scope of God's present 
 anger and of His impending wrath. How far these parties 
 may put any real trust in this position, it is not for me to 
 determine. So long as it is advanced and made a refuge 
 against the terrors of the world to come, it must be treated 
 as if it was believed and trusted in ; and must be met with 
 such a reply as shall at least satisfy the ambassador for 
 Christ that he has declared the whole counsel of God, and 
 
God is Love. 
 
 455 
 
 delivered bis own soul. More than this it is not in his 
 power to do. The hearing ear and the understanding 
 heart must come from a higher source. Paul can plant, 
 and Apollos can water: hut God alone can give the in- 
 crease. 
 
 In discussing a point like this, every fair mind must at 
 once perceive that the argument must proceed upon things 
 as we find them. The character of God must be deter- 
 mined from what we can learn of it in the workings of the 
 world, and from what has been revealed to us in His in- 
 spired Word, — that Word which contains the proposition 
 "God is love,", on which their hope is based. These are 
 the only sources from which we can know any thing of God. 
 If we cannot find His character in these, we have no right 
 to say that " God is love," or that " God is not love." In 
 that case we can only with honesty say, " I know nothing 
 of the Gods or of their character : they have not spoken to 
 me." To say, therefore, that this or that is the character 
 of God, because, in your opinion, such ought to be His 
 character, is to substitute your ideal in the place of truth ; 
 is to make your hopes and your desires the standard of 
 God's revelation of Himself. In this matter, if in any, you 
 should subject your reasoning to the severest scrutiny ; for 
 a mistake in it is of vital, because everlasting, importance. 
 When you hide yourself, my hearer, under the wings of 
 God's mercy, crying out that " God is love," you should be, 
 above all things, certain that you are not abusing the 
 most precious and glorious of His attributes. 
 
 We all agree in the proposition which forms the text, 
 that " God is love," because with you it is the foundation 
 of your hopes ; with me, it is a truth of Revelation. The 
 point for discussion between us is, " What is the meaning 
 of the expression ? " How far does it permit you to rely 
 upon it as a ground of safety irrespective of the conditions 
 
456 God is Love. 
 
 of the Gospel ? This is the question which should be de- 
 termined; and determined not according to your fancy or 
 your desire, but according to the truth of things as they 
 are, and as they shall be. Only upon such a determination 
 of this question should a man of sense permit himself to 
 be at ease; for the time must inevitably come when nothing 
 but truth can stand, — when all refuges of lies must be 
 swept away before the clear exhibition of the character of 
 God in the day of His manifestation. u To the law," then, 
 " and to the testimony." 
 
 The first thing which strikes us in considering the char- 
 acter of God as shown to us from the sources whence alone 
 we can derive our knowledge of Him, is, that His " love is 
 never synonymous with weakness." Through whatever 
 channel it may be manifested, it is invariably connected 
 with a strict regard to justice and holiness. In the consti- 
 tution and course of Nature we see this as plainly mani- 
 fested as in the Book of Revelation. Very much around us 
 and within us speaks to us of the love of God ; but at the 
 same time there is mingled with those accents of Divine 
 affection, a stern adherence to the laws of an immutable 
 morality, which indicates that it is the love, not of a weak, 
 but of a wise, and therefore of a firm Parent. Vice, im- 
 prudence, folly, are permitted by this God of love to work 
 out their inevitable consequences; and His creatures never 
 find in Him, under His visible government of man in society, 
 any such weakness as shall tempt them to a repetition of 
 their sins through any vain dependence upon His forgiving 
 love. They may and often do repeat them, — just as a 
 poor silly moth may fly a second time into the flame that 
 has already singed its wings ; but with the sure conscious- 
 ness that their sin or their folly will find them out. No 
 Divine intervention ever conies, that we can see, between 
 God's creatures and their violation of His moral law ; those 
 
God is Love. 
 
 457 
 
 creatures for whom He has so lovingly decked this beautiful 
 creation, and upon whom he has lavished so much of ex- 
 quisite ornament that was not absolutely necessary for the 
 purposes of life. "We must be willfully blind not to perceive 
 how very much of consistent and unswerving law is mingled 
 with the love which governs the world ; how entirely the 
 Divine Benevolence is made dependent, in a natural way, 
 upon the character of our own lives : nay more, that no 
 sentiment of love, on the part of God, ever intervenes to 
 check the course of the moral law, even though it descend 
 upon children and children's children until it has worked 
 out its natural, and therefore Divine, punishment. So far 
 from there being any countenance, under God's natural 
 government of the world, to the proposition that " God is 
 love," in the sense of a Being who is too kind and benevo- 
 lent to punish : nothing seems to me to give a more terri- 
 ble and alarming idea of the nature of that love, than what 
 we see of it in our experience of life. If we would only 
 remember that the moral government of the world is under 
 the guidance and direction of this a God," who as we say, 
 and say truly, "is love," and then observe thoughtfully the 
 working of that moral government, we should very soon be 
 satisfied that the love of God is a very different thing from 
 what men vainly fancy it to be ; nay, that it had in it 
 elements very different from the passion which leads us so 
 continually to overwhelm with its burning and reckless tor- 
 rent all justice and all principle. 
 
 If we turn from a consideration of the love of God as 
 developed in the world around us, to that image of it which 
 we find reflected in our own natures, we are brought to the 
 same conclusion. We ourselves make a broad distinction, 
 in the judgments which we pass upon others, between 
 love and weakness ; and thus vindicate the true charac- 
 ter of God. We speak, every day, of the foolish affection 
 
458 
 
 God is Love. 
 
 of parents, of the improper indulgences in which they 
 allow their children, of the weakness which they display 
 in overlooking and forgiving their faults; and foretell, 
 with sure certainty, the consequences of such conduct. We 
 discriminate very clearly, especially when the case is not 
 our own, hetween that which is truly love and that which 
 is merely passion. And yet what we condemn through our 
 natural sense of propriety in our fellow-creatures, because 
 we perceive its present foolishness and its inevitable conse- 
 quences, we transfer without any scruple to God, as His 
 characteristic, and depend upon it for our future destiny. 
 The love which we acknowledge to be of all things the 
 most injurious to those upon whom it is lavished, which 
 our experience tells us ends almost invariably in the moral 
 destruction of its victims, we conclude to be the love which 
 the all-wise God has selected as His chief attribute, and 
 which He wields as the moral Governor of the universe. 
 We make God as weak as the most foolish and indulgent 
 mother, just because it suits our sentiment or our neces- 
 ity ; and are not ashamed, as men of sense, to look such an 
 argument in the face. How absurd, as if any government 
 could be carried on upon such a system, much less the 
 government of an Universe ! 
 
 Let us now pass on to the dealings of this God with His 
 Old Testament Saints and with His elect People, and learn 
 whether there is any more indication of a love which has 
 no firmness in His dealings with them, than we have found 
 elsewhere. We cannot read the truthful narrative which 
 we find in the Old Testament without observing the un- 
 changing love which God had for them ; the miracles which 
 He worked in their behalf ; the tenderness with which He 
 watched over them ; the fury with which He turned upon 
 their enemies : nor, at the same time, without likewise ob- 
 serving the undeviating rigor with which He insisted upon 
 
God is Love, 
 
 459 
 
 obedience and faithfulness, and the unsparing rod with 
 which He chastised their waywardness. They were the 
 people of His love ; but that love had in it no signs of 
 weakness. And as with the Nation, so with the individual 
 Saints. Those most honored and favored with His love 
 never found that love blinding Him to their faults, nor pass- 
 ing over their delinquencies. The Moses, whom He spake 
 with face to face, whom He considered as the Prophet next 
 in honor to His own Son, He would not permit to enter the 
 promised land, because he had committed what we should 
 be apt to call a very trivial offence. David, the man after 
 His own heart, whom He had raised from the sheep-cote to 
 the throne, He punished with a most terrible succession of 
 chastisements, so soon as he sinned against His law. Love 
 we find everywhere; but always bearing the like charac- 
 teristics of firmness and principle, of adherence to justice 
 and holiness. 
 
 Let us come now to the New Testament, and examine 
 the character of God's love as displayed in the great mys- 
 tery of godliness. According to Revelation, the second Per- 
 son of the adorable Trinity was the Only-begotten Son of 
 His Father, the brightness of His glory and the express 
 image of His Person. This Son covenanted to take upon 
 Him the sins of men ; to be the Lamb that should be 
 offered up in sacrifice for those sins. In such a case as 
 this, how did God's love manifest itself? — the love of this 
 God from whom you are expecting a free pardon because of 
 the tenderness of His Nature. Precisely as it manifested 
 itself in all the examples we have given you of it. He ac- 
 cepted the Sacrifice, as you see before you this morning : 1 
 but did not abate one jot or one tittle of the full demands 
 of justice ; did not relieve His own Son from any of the 
 punishment of sin ; but passed Him through all the humil- 
 
 1 Referring to the Holy Communion, for which the Altar was spread. 
 
460 
 
 God is Love, 
 
 iation and shame and suffering which belonged to the place 
 He had assumed. Although that Son appealed to Him : 
 " Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me " ; 
 although He cried in the depth of His anguish, as His 
 Father hid His face from Him : " My God, my God, why 
 hast thou forsaken me?" He was unmoved until the last 
 farthing which man owed for sin was paid ! Here was 
 love, — love for the human family, love for His Only-begot- 
 ten Son : but still that same unyielding firmness which 
 recognized not that love unless it harmonized with the 
 other attributes of His Divine character ; unless it cast no 
 shadow over the glory of His perfectness. 
 
 The next feature in this love of God as we see it in all its 
 manifestations, is, that it never winks at sin. This has 
 been, in some measure, mingled with the point we have just 
 discussed, but deserves nevertheless a separate considera- 
 tion. When you trust to the declaration that " God is 
 love," your meaning evidently is, that He is so tender and 
 merciful that He will overlook sin : for you cannot mean, 
 of course, that you have never sinned. But you have no 
 more reason for this idea than for the one which con- 
 founded love with weakness. The way of transgressors is 
 hard, even in a world where there is a fellow-feeling for 
 them ; and disease and pain and death and an evil conscience 
 all bear witness that the love of God is no impediment to 
 the natural punishment of sin. In the world there is sin 
 unspeakable and all-devouring ; and there is, along with it, 
 a horrid train of evil which proves that God hates it and 
 perpetually punishes it. Besides the common and ordinary 
 mischiefs which sin has introduced, — so common and or- 
 dinary that we forget, in their universality and regularity, 
 that they are punishments, — there are others, such as war, 
 pestilence, famine, oppression, which sweep the earth with 
 their train of horrors : punishments for sin, — God's voices 
 
God is Love, 
 
 461 
 
 in the earth, proclaiming that His love for man can never 
 blind Him to the justice which glorifies His character. 
 And although He loved the world so much that He gave 
 His Only-begotten Son to die for it, He did not love it so 
 much as to forgive sin until His justice and holiness had 
 been satisfied to the uttermost. In all the aspects under 
 which we can look at God's love, it bears one uniform ap- 
 pearance, the appearance of a love ready to manifest itself 
 for the good of His creatures, but only when that love can 
 be made compatible with His divine character. 
 
 It is very evident then, from all that we have said, that 
 when the proposition of my text, " God is love," is used in 
 any such manner as to place it about the sinner as a shield 
 against the righteous anger of God, it is used without any 
 foundation in the experience which we have of God's attri- 
 butes or dealings. Never do we find that love exhibiting 
 the weakness which is thus attempted to be attributed to it. 
 Never do we find it conniving at sin, or passing it over as 
 a matter which may be lightly treated. And this we see, 
 not only in the Revelation of Christianity, but in the gov- 
 ernment of God as exhibited through society, considered 
 merely as the moral Ruler of the Universe, putting revealed 
 religion for the moment altogether aside. But nevertheless 
 our text is true. " God is love : " only in a different sense 
 from that in which you understand it. 
 
 " In this," says S. John, " was manifested the love of God 
 toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son 
 into the world, that we might live through him." 1 His 
 love, then, is not to be found in any weakness of affection, 
 nor in any connivance at sin : but in providing a Saviour 
 from sin. In this sense our text is true : but not in the 
 sense in which you desire it to be true. You desire God's 
 love to be like human love, weak and passionate ; blind to 
 1 1 S. John iv. 9. 
 
462 
 
 God is Love. 
 
 all faults ; overlooking all immoralities ; partial to all in- 
 dulgences ; forgiving all sin unconditionally : but His 
 thoughts are not as your thoughts. He knows your na- 
 ture and its necessities ; the terrible evil and bitterness of 
 sin ; the fearful punishment which awaits those who com- 
 mit it ; the certain condemnation of those for whom no Sa- 
 viour is provided : and He manifests His love to you, by 
 providing, at a cost past all price, a Ransom for you, and a 
 Redemption in and through Christ Jesus. The contest 
 which is always going on, is, that you require one kind of 
 love, while He offers another. Which is the wiser ? Who 
 can look best into the past, and into the future ? Who can 
 judge what line of conduct is most necessary for the moral 
 government of His universe? You think that you ought 
 to be indulged in the propensities of your natures. He 
 tells you that those propensities are all sinful, and must 
 end in your eternal misery. You can see no love in a sys- 
 tem which checks your desires, and interferes with your 
 pleasures and interests. God, on the other hand, can place 
 His love on nothing which shall not be remedial of your 
 fallen condition, and conservative of your moral character. 
 You pretend not to understand a love which administers 
 punishment adequate to the sin. God cannot consider 
 any thing as love, which is not consistent with the moral 
 law of His creation and with the harmony of His charac- 
 ter. And thus are you at antagonism with a God of love, 
 because you will not consider that to be love which He con- 
 siders as the highest manifestation of love, and will substi- 
 tute for it a spurious counterfeit which He will disown at 
 the last, and leave you without hope through a wretched 
 eternity ! 
 
 Look before you. What are those emblems ? Emblems 
 of the love of God in Christ. Why have they taken that 
 tragic shape and form ? Why do they represent the me- 
 
God is Love. 
 
 463 
 
 morial of a Sacrifice ? and that the sacrifice of an only and 
 dearly beloved Son ? and that the Son of the Most High 
 God ? What need of a sacrifice at all, if God be love in the 
 sense in which you undertake to interpret the text ? Why 
 not a table covered with the flowers of the field, decked 
 and adorned with the gems of earth and ocean ? Why 
 not priests, crowned with garlands, pouring out libations 
 of perfumed wines before a God of simple indiscriminat- 
 ing benevolence '? The very institutions of the religion in 
 which you have been trained belie the idea of a God of love, 
 who is so weak that He cannot punish, so unprincipled as 
 that He will make no distinction between right and wrong. 
 J T is true, we do offer up at this Table, each time we meet, 
 here, a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving ; but for what ? 
 For a love which would satisfy an Universalist '? — which 
 would permit every man to expect salvation, no matter how 
 opposite his life may have been to all virtue and to all 
 truth ? Xo ! but for that manifestation of it which He 
 gave us when He offered up His Only-begotten for our sins, 
 that by such an offering He might make the forgiveness of 
 sins consistent with His divine character. " Herein is 
 love," said S. John, " not that we loved God, but that he 
 loved us, and " — did what ? Overlooked our sins ? winked 
 at our vices and immoralities '? declined to notice or punish 
 our wickedness '? Xo, none of these, nothing like these ; 
 for the Scripture tells us that He cannot look upon in- 
 iquity : but He " sent his Son to be the propitiation for 
 our sins." 1 What need for any propitiation for sin, if 
 " God is love " in your conception of the expression ? Pro- 
 pitiation is only necessary where there is an offended power, 
 whose anger has been kindled, and whose wrath requires 
 punishment and vengeance. Xo, my hearers ; every thing 
 contradicts your notion of God's love. The natural govern- 
 
 1 1 S. John iv. 10. 
 
464 
 
 God is Love. 
 
 ment of the world as carried on by God through social and 
 individual life contradicts it ; for in them, love does not 
 stay His hand from punishment, nor cut off the eutail of 
 sin from generation to generation. Your own feelings and 
 judgments contradict it; for you establish and support 
 governments, and laws, under which you do never permit 
 love to turn aside the sword of an evenhanded justice. 
 The Revelation of God contradicts it ; for, in that, you 
 find judgment laid to the line and righteousness to the 
 plummet against His beloved Saints and His elect people. 
 And the ordinances of the Church in which you are foster- 
 ing this notion, contradict it ; for they all point to the 
 shedding of the most precious Blood of the Son of God as 
 an atonement for sin which love could not pardon ; and 
 they keep it before you abidingly, that you may never be 
 permitted to lose sight of the sublime truth, that God's 
 holiness must be preserved inviolate. All these tell you 
 that " God is love ; " but that it is love as He has been 
 pleased to manifest it, and not as you may be pleased to 
 conceive it and insist upon it. Should you persevere in 
 your idea, and rest upon it, meanwhile continuing in sin, 
 you will find that " the bed is shorter than that a man can 
 stretch himself on it : and the covering narrower than that 
 he can wrap himself in it." 1 
 
 September, 1866. 
 
 1 Isaiah xxviii. 20. 
 
tfot%ssecottD Sermon. 
 
 See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to 
 thee in the mount. — Hebrews viii. 5. 
 
 TTTE cannot examine the works of God as they exhibit 
 
 • themselves in Nature and in the constitution and 
 course of the world, without perceiving very clearly that 
 one or two main ideas pervade the whole structure, and 
 give their hue and coloring to every thing which proceeds 
 from the Divine Mind. From the minutest zoophyte, 
 whose very being has to be determined by the strongest 
 glasses which the wit of man has contrived, up to the 
 mightiest Angel who stands hard by the throne of God, we 
 can trace one or two principles which are never deviated 
 from, and which mark the presence of an eternal and un- 
 changeable will. There is no anomaly anywhere, — no dis- 
 cord in the divine harmony. Every thing obeys laws which 
 are uniform and persistent, indicating unity of conception 
 and of purpose. All things seem to move around a divine 
 Centre, which shoots its rays in every direction to the re- 
 motest circumference, diffusing light and life and order, and 
 preserving the entire Universe in glorious unity and most 
 necessary adjustment. Nothing too insignificant to have 
 its own place in the series of things. Nothing too grand 
 or sublime to be under the rule and direction of the Great 
 First Cause. We can pierce no part of the chain which 
 extends from earth to the throne of the Eternal without 
 meeting these all-pervading principles ; and we can find no 
 point at which they begin, or in which they terminate* 
 
 30 
 
466 Subordination and Uniformity, 
 
 We find them ruling in Heaven, and earth, and even in 
 hell ; and when we are lost, either in the infinite minute- 
 ness which baffles our powers or in the dazzling glories 
 which shut in the presence of the Almighty, they have ac- 
 companied us to the confines which we could not pass, and 
 have penetrated the recesses of light and of darkness which 
 have shut out our senses and our conception. Types of the 
 Divine Mind, they manifest themselves everywhere, be- 
 cause His presence and His will are without limit, and 
 without change. 
 
 Among these all-pervading principles which indicate the 
 presence of a single governing Mind, there are two which 
 are especially distinct, and which can be traced without 
 difficulty through every part of the Universe of God. 
 These are subordination and uniformity : every thing in its 
 due place, and operating in its own appointed sphere ; and 
 every thing, moreover, obeying the law of repetition, — that 
 is, doing to-day what it did yesterday, doing this year what 
 it did last year, doing this century what it did the last cen- 
 tury, moving by a law which needs no change because it is 
 the very best. Nowhere in all God's operations can we find 
 any sphere of being which does not follow these invariable 
 rules, which does not manifest and work upon these univer- 
 sal principles. The two evils which God seemed most to 
 avoid in His arrangement of things, were insubordination 
 and novelty. Without order there could be no peace ; 
 without uniformity there could be no security. The ab- 
 sence of these principles would at once unhinge all govern- 
 ment and all domestic and social life. 
 
 If we begin at the very lowest point of creation, and ex- 
 amine inanimate nature as it is developed to us through the 
 researches of science, we find a due subordination even 
 among the masses of rock which form, as it were, the bones 
 of the earth. These all have their due subordination fol- 
 
Stibordination and Uniformity, 467 
 
 lowing each other by such certain laws that science can al- 
 ways at once determine their place in the series, and can 
 decide at a glance whether any thing useful to man or ne- 
 cessary to his wants is contained within their bowels, or 
 underneath them, or above them. In this subordination 
 those products which are most useful to man are always 
 near the surface, within his reach, so adjusted as that he 
 can procure them without insupportable toil. And when 
 we study the extinct life, which is brought to light through 
 the researches of geology, we discern the like subordina- 
 tion : animation exhibiting itself first in very inferior beings, 
 such as fish and insects ; and extending upward in ever-as- 
 cending gradation of excellence, until mau himself appears 
 upon the stage. And when we consider the arrangement 
 which Nature stamps upon man himself, we find the 
 woman subordinate to the man, and the children subordinate 
 to the parents, and the servants subordinate to the children, 
 and the inferior animals subordinate to man in whatever 
 state of social being he may chance to move. And if we 
 follow this law of subordination out of the visible world, we 
 find another series of being rising circle above circle, An- 
 gel and Archangel, Cherubim and Seraphim, Thrones, Do- 
 minions, Principalities, Powers, until we reach the Son of 
 God Himself, who, although Lord of lords and King of 
 kings, is yet, during the economy of grace, subordinate unto 
 the Father, and acting according to His will. As the family 
 cannot live in peace and harmony without due subordination 
 of its parts, so cannot the State, so cannot even Heaven 
 itself. It is the law impressed upon the Universe, manifest 
 everywhere, operating everywhere, necessary everywhere. 
 
 The other law, of Uniformity, which I shall only touch 
 in one of its most restricted senses, is quite as important 
 as that of Subordination which I have just exhibited. I 
 speak now of uniformity of action in natural and sensible 
 
468 Subordination and Uniformity. 
 
 things, in contradistinction to novelty and change. The 
 sun, for illustration, has risen, to mortal eye, in the eastern 
 heavens, ever since the creation, and has gone to its set- 
 ting at the same spot, upon the same day, and at the 
 same time of day, during every year from the moment 
 when God set it in the firmament of Heaven to rule the 
 day. The moon has, in her turn, exhibited the same 
 phases to the eye of man, waxing and waning, waning and 
 waxing, ever since her appointed place was given her 
 among the heavenly hosts. The stars, which make their 
 stately march around our little world, presenting to us, in 
 turn, all their forms of beauty and of glory, have made no 
 change in their celestial procession, since they sang to- 
 gether in the morning of Creation. Day and night are no 
 different now from what they were when God saw that His 
 works of creation were " very good," and when " the even- 
 ing and the morning were the sixth day." Winter and 
 Summer, Spring and Autumn, seed-time and harvest, have 
 never changed ; but they come and go with an unfailing 
 certainty and an unerring uniformity. And as with Nature 
 and her laws, so it is with all the laws which govern our 
 natural and intellectual functions. We eat, we drink, we 
 are born ; we speak, we think, we communicate ; we love, 
 we hate, we sympathize ; we are sick, and die : just as our 
 kind has always done. Our very sins and punishments are 
 uniform, and life itself is an unchanging cycle, in which all 
 things come round to their place, forever changing yet for- 
 ever the same, giving us experience and security. We ask 
 not for novelty in these things : so far from it, any change 
 in them produces alarm, shakes our nerves, disorders our 
 calculations, and makes us feel insecure and uncertain. 
 Uniformity is our delight, because upon it is founded all 
 our experience : and the moment that is lost, we are upon 
 an ocean without a compass and without a rudder; we 
 
Subordination and Uniformity. 469 
 
 know not what will come to us, or whither we shall go ; we 
 are adrift, having lost the guidance of God's law, and know- 
 ing not where the waves or the winds, or the poor pilot 
 which man is, will carry us ! 
 
 When this God of subordination and of uniformity was 
 pleased to reveal Himself unto man, and to arrange a 
 Church in the world, was it not likely, reasoning a 'priori, 
 that in that Church there should be strikingly manifested 
 these same principles, pervading* it thoroughly, and show- 
 ing very clearly that the God of Nature and of the Church 
 was one and the same Being ? Most likely : and accord- 
 ingly we find that what a reasonable analogy would anti- 
 cipate, did actually occur ; and that the Church which He 
 arranged in Israel and for Israel had, clearly stamped upon 
 it, these indubitable marks of having come from Him. The 
 law of subordination pervades every part of the Church 
 government of the Mosaic dispensation, and the law of 
 uniformity its whole ritual. In the one we find rank above 
 rank of officers, from those who performed the lowest offices 
 of the Church, up to the High-Priest who alone was quali- 
 fied, or might dare, to enter into the Holy of Holies and 
 meddle with the sacred mysteries of the Divine Presence. 
 No one dared to interfere with the office which did not ap- 
 pertain to his rank; and the terrible punishments which 
 destroyed Korah and his company, and which fell upon 
 Uzzah, and which were threatened against any who pre- 
 sumed to intrude upon the sacred offices of the Church, 
 plainly tell us how necessary did God deem order to be, in 
 the arrangements of the Church. Every man had his ap- 
 pointed place. One tribe furnished the officers of the 
 Temple. One family gave the priesthood to the Church. 
 And thus it continued, until He came who fulfilled the law, 
 and confirmed the promises, and made that ancient priest- 
 hood to pass away, having accomplished its work and fore- 
 
470 Subordination and Uniformity, 
 
 shadowed Him who was the Temple, and the Priest, and 
 the Altar, and the Sacrifice. 
 
 And as it was with the priestly arrangements of the 
 m Temple, so was it also with its ritual. That displayed the 
 uniformity which is so marked in Nature, and which we 
 should expect in a form of worship coming from God. 
 Every part of that ritual was prescribed. Every sacrifice 
 was arranged in its minutest details. Every formula was 
 written down. For each occasion words were prepared, 
 which were not deviated from. And all this continued, 
 without variation, from the time of Moses until He, whose 
 it all was, abolished it by His Almighty cry upon the Cross, 
 " It is finished." Then passed away all that ritual, save 
 as it might serve as furnishing a principle and a model for 
 the Church of Christ, which was to spring out of its preg- 
 nant ashes. 
 
 In that Church of Christ we might naturally anticipate 
 the same principles of subordination in the ministry and 
 of uniformity in worship to manifest themselves. And 
 so they do : and these principles lie at the basis of our 
 order and of our worship. That arrangement which sep- 
 arates the Ministry into a threefold order, Deacons, Priests, 
 and Bishops, was begun by Christ Himself, and was per- 
 fected by His Apostles, acting under the inspiration of the 
 Holy Ghost. As there was no parity in earth or Heaven, 
 so did Christ permit no parity in His Church. He ap- 
 pointed Apostles and Elders; and when He passed away, 
 His Apostles added to these Orders of the Ministry that of 
 Deacons, /the office with which we are to-day concerned. 
 Each of these had its respective functions, and each of 
 them performed only those. When the deacon Philip had 
 preached and done miracles and baptized at Samaria, he 
 dared not proceed any further. He sent to Jerusalem, and 
 laid his work before the Apostles, and they sent two of 
 
Subordination and Uniformity. 471 
 
 their number to Samaria to lay hands upon them. When S. 
 Paul called the elders of Ephesus together, he hade them 
 take heed to the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made 
 them overseers, he exhorted them to every act of faithful- 
 ness as pastors and shepherds : hut not a word did he say 
 to them about ordination. But when that same Apostle 
 directed his instructions to Timothy or to Titus, successors 
 of the Apostles and Bishops of the Church, his main ad- 
 dresses to them were upon this very point of ordination. 
 Each of these Orders in its place : Deacons for the lower 
 offices of the Ministry ; Presbyters for pastoral duties and 
 the work of the flock upon earth ; Bishops for ordination, 
 and the laying on of hands, and the government of the 
 Church. 
 
 And just as we should anticipate, in the Church, a sub- 
 ordination in the Ministry, because it was the type upon 
 which every thing had been modelled, so might we look for 
 liturgical uniformity as of a piece with all that had gone 
 before. And while we do not consider liturgical worship 
 as necessarily of divine institution, we do think that the 
 analogy of God's works, and of God's Church under the old 
 dispensation, would lead us to consider it as that mode of 
 worship which should be most likely to meet and satisfy 
 the wants of human nature. Why should our worship 
 change, any more than the thousand other things in Na- 
 ture and in society which go on perpetually in the same 
 routine ? Our wants are always the same : why not our 
 prayers ? Our relations to God and His Christ are un- 
 changeable : why not our mode of expressing them ? We 
 come together to confess our sins : is not one comprehen- 
 sive formula sufficient ? We come together to offer up the 
 sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving : are not a few psalms 
 drawn from the treasures of inspiration, and associated 
 with all the holiness of the past, and consecrated by the 
 
472 Subordination and Uniformity. 
 
 blood of confessors and martyrs, enough to embody those 
 utterances of devotion ? We come together to ask God for 
 those blessings which are always the same, for that protec- 
 tion which is uniform and essential, for that guidance which 
 needs no change in its power: why multiply words ? why 
 require novelty of expression ? God certainly does not ask 
 for them ; does not show us, in His Revelation, that He re- 
 quires them : nay, all the analogy of His Revelation and of 
 His natural arrangement of things teaches us that He pre- 
 fers uniformity. A well-ordered formula of prayer fulfills 
 all its requisitions, and permits the introduction of nothing 
 which may disturb the feelings or mar the solemnity of the 
 occasion. A Liturgy is not absolutely called for by the 
 Holy Scriptures : but the Church at a very early period is 
 found universally using Liturgies, adducing as reasons for 
 their adoption the fact that our Lord Himself had twice 
 given His disciples the same form of prayer, and had 
 guarded them against vain repetitions and much speaking 
 in prayer. It is, to say the least, in unison with that order 
 which we find stamped upon Nature, and the constitution 
 and course of things. 
 
 The office of Deacon, to which we are about to introduce 
 this young manj is the first step in that order which sepa- 
 rates the Ministry from the laity. It was instituted by the 
 Apostles, under the direction of the Holy Ghost, for the 
 purpose of freeing themselves from certain matters of de- 
 tail which interfered with the more important works of 
 preaching the Gospel and of prayer. It seems, however, 
 not to have been confined to those minor offices: for we 
 soon find Stephen confessing, exhorting, and denouncing, 
 for the sake of Christ, and giving himself up as the proto- 
 martyr of the Christian Church ; and Philip baptizing, and 
 performing miracles, and doing many things which stamped 
 him as a Minister of Christ. The Scriptures, therefore, do 
 
Subordination and Uniformity, 473 
 
 not warrant us in considering it as an office of but little 
 worth ; for it lias power to exercise many of the functions 
 of the highest. He who is permitted to preach the Gospel, 
 to baptize, to assist in the administration of the Lord's 
 Supper, cannot be said to occupy a low place in the Church 
 of Christ. He may have higher steps to take in the 
 Church, but even this first step is full of dignity and honor. 
 It brings him into contact with holy things ; it admits him 
 within the sacred precincts of the Altar ; it connects him 
 directly with Christ and His Church through the Sacra- 
 ments ; it invests him with the office of an ambassador 
 from God to man. Surely these are functions which may 
 satisfy any human being. Greater and more solemn other 
 offices may be, but this is grave and solemn enough for 
 one without experience and without practice. And the 
 people should look upon it in this light : not as measured 
 by its powers, but by its authority ; not as determined by 
 its functions, but by its origin and the commission which 
 lies behind it. All the disabilities of the office are but tem- 
 porary ; its authority is eternal and enduring. All its in- 
 feriority and present lowliness will pass away with time ; 
 but its acts will endure, for good or for evil, throughout 
 Eternity. 
 
 This office are you now about to take upon you, my young 
 friend ; — to take npon you at a time and under circum- 
 stances which will involve peculiar responsibilities, and re- 
 quire very earnest devotion. Those to whom you will be 
 specially called upon to minister, will be men standing in 
 constant jeopardy of life, to whom a day or an hour may be 
 of the very utmost importance. You will have no time for 
 trifling ; no moment that you can waste in theory or specu- 
 lation. With you, all must be work, earnest work; such 
 work as men do when life rests upon it, and the danger is 
 imminent. At any moment, those over whom you are 
 
474 Subordination and Uniformity. 
 
 placed by the Lord may be snatched away by the casualties 
 of war; and you must therefore work "while it is called 
 to-day." You will be where life is held very cheap, and 
 where a brief cry of compassion is all that can be uttered 
 over the fallen ; but you must keep alive to the fact that 
 the soul which wings its everlasting flight amid the storm 
 of battle, goes to its account as surely, and upon the same 
 principles, as that which is dismissed to its rest surrounded 
 by weeping friends and encompassed by all the soothing 
 processes of home and art. You, therefore, must speak 
 and preach as if you were always speaking and preaching 
 to dying men ; as if the words you were uttering were the 
 very last which you should utter to those who are listening 
 to you that they may receive direction and advice. Your 
 whole burden of work must turn upon a few brief sayings 
 of the Bible, which must be pressed again and again with 
 energy and with zeal ; such as these : " Neither is there 
 salvation in any other " than " Jesus Christ of Nazareth." 1 
 " Except a man be born again," " born of water and of the 
 Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." 2 " Be- 
 hold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of 
 salvation." 3 " Boast not thyself of to-morrow ; for thou 
 knowest not what a day may bring forth." 4 
 
 With these themes you must mingle such instruction as 
 can be given in the outskirts of a camp, and such a view of 
 the economy of grace as one can mingle with exhortation 
 and immediate turning to the Lord. Every Minister has 
 his own work to do, and must do it according to the posi- 
 tion in which he is placed, and the emergencies which en- 
 compass him. With you, as a Chaplain to the Army and 
 ministering continually to the sick and the wounded, there 
 must be great tenderness and a large-hearted charity ; but 
 
 i Acts iv. 12, 10. 
 8 2 Cor. vi. 2. 
 
 2 S. John iii. 3, 5. 
 4 Proverbs xxvii. 1. 
 
Subordination and Uniformity. 475 
 
 at the same time a stern adherence to truth and the re- 
 quirements of God in Christ. Offer salvation ; proclaim 
 the tidings of great joy ; press upon them the gracious in- 
 Titation to come to Christ and he saved ; preach grace, as 
 you see it developed in the Scriptures : hut at the same 
 time do not forget to rebuke sin, to declare the necessity of 
 the Spirit's work upon the heart, to announce fully that 
 without holiness no man shall see the Lord. You will have 
 no time to retrieve error. Once spoken, to those audiences, 
 forever spoken. It is a seed sown for life and for death. 
 
 Your present position, and the work for which you are 
 just now specially ordained, will carry you away for a time 
 from the routine of the Church, and will introduce to oc- 
 casions where you cannot fully carry out all her require- 
 ments. But, even there, you will find how beautifully her 
 arrangements are suited to the necessities of man, and how 
 rich is the Book of Common Prayer in furnishing prayers 
 and supplications and giviugs of thanks. And then its ob- 
 jective worship is very attractive to those who are earnest 
 and sincere ; and its successive steps toward commuuion 
 are great helps to those who are timid and distrustful. And 
 in the hospitals, its rich prayers are most highly prized and 
 its quiet earnestness goes to the heart and the soul. So 
 far from the liturgical work of the Church being a hin- 
 drance to you, you will find it, if judiciously used, a great 
 help, and a most potent auxiliary. But you must endeavor 
 to adapt yourself to all occasions and all circumstances, 
 and to act with the rites and ceremonies of the Church 
 upon the same principle as that upon which our Saviour 
 acted in regard to the Sabbath : that " the Sabbath was 
 made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." 1 You must 
 use them, but not abuse them. You must make them sub- 
 servient to the salvatiou of the soul, and not permit them 
 1 S. Mark ii. 27. 
 
476 Subordination and Uniformity. 
 
 to clog that salvation. And thus, by the use of a sound 
 judgment combined with an earnest devotion of purpose, 
 you will gain a rich experience, that will be of immense 
 service to you when the emergency which now presses upon 
 you shall have passed away, and you be called once more to 
 work in the ordinary channels of the Church. You are 
 being ordained for a life's work ; and that work will vary in 
 kind, according to the path along which your Master shall 
 lead you. What is required of you is, to be ready for to- 
 day. Leave to-morrow to Him who has said : " As thy days 
 so shall thy strength be." 1 Some positions require great 
 and immediate activity, such as this which you are now to 
 fill. Others call for careful culture : these may come, and 
 with them God will give the time and the opportunity. 
 What I wish to impress upon you is, to work in the present 
 and for the present. Do not neglect the duty of the day, 
 in preparing yourself for the possible duty of the hereafter. 
 If you have leisure, use it well ; if opportunity, grasp it 
 and turn it to account : but do not neglect the salvation of 
 the meanest creature upon earth, for any preparation that 
 is to suit you for an imaginary future in the Church. 
 " Work while it is called to-day." 2 " Gird up the loins of 
 your mind, be sober," 3 and " watch unto prayer." 4 God 
 will guide you along the path which He has ordained for 
 you to tread ; will give you abundantly of the treasures of 
 His grace ; will strengthen and support you in times of 
 weakness and infirmity ; will make the light shine more 
 and more distinctly upon your heart and life ; and will 
 finally give you the crown of everlasting glory. Cast all 
 your care and weakness and infirmity upon Him, and He 
 will carry it all for you. 
 
 June, 1863. 
 
 1 Deut. xxxiii. 25. 
 » 1 S. Peter i. 13. 
 
 2 Heb. ii. 13. 
 4 Ibid. ir. 7. 
 
Be still, and know that I am God. — Psalm xlvi. 10. 
 NE of the hardest trials of our faith is that which is 
 
 enjoined upon us by God in our text: to "be still," 
 when He has laid the heavy hand of chastisement upon us, 
 and " know that He is God." It is so much more natural, 
 when our prosperity has been blighted, and days of dark- 
 ness have blotted out the sunshine of our hearts and 
 homes, to look at the secondary causes of our misfortunes 
 and be angry with them, rather than see the rod in the 
 hand of God, and then submit in quietness to the will of 
 Him who has dispensed it : that it is justly reckoned one 
 of the sublimest trials of faith to be enabled to say, in sin- 
 cerity of heart, " Not my will, but thine, be done." 1 It is 
 a marked indication that things unseen are getting the 
 mastery over sense ; and that God is becoming to us a real- 
 ity, a present Deity, whose influence we joyfully recognize, 
 and whose interest in our concerns we humbly and thank- 
 fully acknowledge. 
 
 This trial of our faith is brought home to us, my beloved 
 people, at this moment of our reunion, in a most striking 
 manner ; and my earnest prayer both for you and for my- 
 self is, that it may end in a triumph of that faith, and that 
 we may have grace given us to " be still," and to know that 
 it is God who has overruled every thing to the purposes of 
 His will, and that without His permission nothing could 
 have happened which has happened. 
 
 1 S. Luke xxii. 42. 
 
478 
 
 Be stilL 
 
 To find any comfort in the consideration of human af- 
 fairs, we must ever acknowledge a present Deity. Without 
 Him, all is chaos, and all would be despair. Things would 
 seem to go on without any rule, and folly and vice and 
 wickedness to ride triumphant over the efforts of man. 
 But when we soar above the sensible and the visible, and 
 see Him seated upon His throne of righteousness and of 
 mercy, holding in His hands the complicated threads of hu- 
 man action, and guiding and governing all wills and powers, 
 as He thinks best for His creatures, we bow in humility and 
 with thanksgiving : in humility, that we should presume 
 to murmur when He is ruling over us ; with thanksgiving, 
 that the world has not been left to itself, but that He who 
 has foreordained all things, is driving them on to their 
 rightful consummation. So long as we fasten our thoughts 
 upon secondary causes, upon human agents, upon earthly in- 
 struments, our most dangerous passions are kept alive : our 
 anger, our wrath, our bitterness, our hatred, our un charita- 
 bleness ; — the very feelings which inspired men have com- 
 manded us, as Christians, to put aside. It is not until God 
 is permitted to fill our hearts, and to become — what He is 
 — the Ruling Spirit of all worldly movements, and to shut 
 out by His glorious Presence the human instruments 
 through whom He works and punishes, that these unchris- 
 tian passions can be soothed and quelled: soothed and 
 quelled by the magical words, " Be still, and know that I 
 am God." Just as Christ's words calmed the angry waves 
 of the sea, when He arose and rebuked the winds : so when, 
 in our peril and distress, we call upon Him, and He enters 
 upon the scene, saying with the irresistible voice of Divin- 
 ity, " Peace, be still," our passions sink before Him, and we 
 are quiet, because we know that " He is God." 
 
 What, my beloved people, is our belief? What is it that 
 we call our Christian faith ? Is it not belief in a scheme, 
 
Be still. 479 
 
 which, beginning in the cradle of the world, is to go on, 
 until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms 
 of Christ '? Every link in the history of nations is a link 
 likewise in the chain of events, which is to bring about 
 that result. We know not how ; we know not when : all 
 we can do is, to act our part as seems to us right ; to fol- 
 low that path of duty, which opens itself before us. When 
 we have done that, we have fulfilled our allotted task. The 
 results and the consequences are with God. Should they 
 be widely different from what we expected ; should things 
 take an altogether contrary course from what we thought 
 they would do, or ought to do : we may be lost in amaze- 
 ment, but nevertheless the direction comes to us, " Be still, 
 and know that I am God." We are not placed here upon 
 earth to direct the purposes of God. We are the mere in- 
 struments created to carry them out ; and while carrying* 
 them out, to save our own souls. We have only to look 
 back, to trace the history of the Church through all its 
 struggles with the world, to perceive how continually its 
 instruments must have been lost in consternation at the 
 dealings of God with them, and how their faith must have 
 been tried as event after event developed itself in such 
 seeming contradiction to their expectations and hopes. 
 Xoah must have been amazed when, as the fulfillment of 
 the promises made to Adam and Eve at the expulsion from 
 Eden, a flood covered the earth, and swept from it all living 
 things save his chosen family. God's satisfaction of his 
 amazement was no more than this, " Be still, and know that 
 I am God." Abraham must have been amazed, when, as 
 the fulfillment of the promise that in him should " all the 
 nations of the earth be blessed," he was commanded to of- 
 fer up his only son, the child of promise, as a sacrifice upon 
 Mount Moriah. God's voice to him was no more than that 
 which He still utters, " Be still, and know that I am God." 
 
480 
 
 Be stilL 
 
 The children of the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, that the Messiah should come from them, and that 
 " the sceptre should not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver 
 from between his feet, until Shiloh come," 1 must have been 
 amazed when both Israel and Judah were carried away into 
 what seemed a hopeless captivity. The commandment still 
 was, " Be still, and know that I am God." The followers of 
 our blessed Saviour must have been in amazement, when 
 He who proclaimed himself as the Son of God with power, 
 and upon whose head were concentrated the promises and 
 types and prophecies of all time as the Saviour of the world, 
 was led away to be crucified between two thieves. " Be 
 still, and know that I am God," was all the strength and 
 consolation which they received. Why multiply instances ? 
 This has been the Church's and the Christian's experience, 
 from the beginning. Man attempts to understand and 
 interpret God's dealings : but it is not in his province " to 
 know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put 
 in his own power." 2 Man's duty is, when he has labored 
 as God intended him to labor and has thus acquitted his 
 soul, to acquiesce in the results ; to have faith that God is 
 wiser and holier than himself ; and to be still, in contem- 
 plation of His dealings and in waiting upon His will. 
 
 We must not expect nor wish to be exempted from this 
 condition of the Christian life. We must encounter many 
 things, both in our national and personal experience, in 
 which God's dealings will be very different from our expec- 
 tations. His ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts 
 as our thoughts. We shall be called upon very often to 
 look on in amazement at a course of proceeding on His 
 part very contrary to what we supposed would be or ought 
 to be ; and under those circumstances, the attitude which 
 Christianity calls upon us to take, is that indicated in our 
 1 Gen. xlix. 10. 2 Acts i. 7. 
 
Be still. 
 
 text. " Be still, and know that I am God," occurs just 
 when He calls upon His Church to look upon the works of 
 the Lord : — " Come, behold the works of the Lord, what 
 desolations he hath made in the earth : " 1 so that it is no 
 violent wrenching of the words from their context, but an 
 application of them most suitable and appropriate. 
 
 And yet how hard it is to be still, in the full meaning of 
 the expression as used by God in this glorious Scripture ! 
 For stillness is more than a mere submission because we 
 cannot help ourselves ; is more than acquiescence in His 
 dealings, because He is the Author of them. To be still, 
 in the full meaning of our text, is to believe that our affairs 
 are in wiser and better hands than our own : and, while we 
 look on in wonder and amazement, not to doubt but that 
 we shall see and understand that He maketh all things to 
 work together for good to them that love him, — to them 
 that are called according to His purpose. We may be very 
 still under calamity and humiliation, and yet very rebellious 
 in our hearts against God ; may utter no complaints in the 
 hearing of man, while our hearts are swelling — and God 
 searcheth the hearts — with irrepressible indignation. This 
 is being still before man : but not still before God. The 
 whisperings of the heart, of which man knows and hears 
 nothing, are as loud before God as the surges of the ocean 
 when they lash the rocks in their fury ; and if those whis- 
 perings are rebellious, it is a conflict with God, which is 
 incompatible with Christian peace. The stillness of the 
 heart comes when passion has passed away, whether of 
 grief or of suffering ; when the spirit, quieted and soothed 
 by the presence of the Holy Dove, sees God's love in all 
 that has disturbed it ; and mingles with its submission, a 
 patient waiting upon the Lord for the manifestation of His 
 goodness and wisdom. 
 
 1 Psalm xlvi. 8." 
 
 3i 
 
482 
 
 Be still. 
 
 It is tliat patient waiting upon the Lord which is now 
 our duty, and at the same time our temptation. God says, 
 " Be still : " but our throbbing hearts beat high with im- 
 patience. God says, " Your present condition is but a link 
 in a chain of events which extends from eternity to eter- 
 nity, and which is as necessary to My purposes as your per- 
 sonal faith is to your salvation ; be still, and see the end : " 
 but we are not in a temper for waiting ; we are for judg- 
 ing and condemning God's dealings at once, — for it really 
 amounts to that, — and for finding fault with all around us. 
 This, my beloved fellow-Christians, is all very natural, very 
 much in keeping with the feelings of the world : but is it 
 very Christian? Is it in harmony with the teachings of 
 Christ and His Apostles ? Those teachings are the standard 
 of the Church, the rule of its life and conduct. Often did 
 they look in wonder at God's dealings with them, but their 
 spirits yielded at once before the presence of God. Our Sav- 
 iour Himself was " sore amazed " 1 at His Father's permis- 
 sion of the sufferings which He went through at the hands 
 of men ; but He never lost the divine charity which He came 
 to teach and illustrate. " Father, forgive them ; for they 
 know not what they do," 2 was His prayer in that moment 
 of His agony. Our being still, involves all this, — patience, 
 charity, forgiveness of injuries, the feeling that it is God 
 and not man with whom we are concerned. And how much 
 more noble and dignified it is — for true Christianity is the 
 highest and sublimest dignity — to believe and feel that we 
 are contending with God and not with man ; to carry our 
 cause from the battle-fields and courts of earth, and lay it 
 down at the foot of the throne of God, and leave it quietly 
 with Him. He knew our hearts ; He saw our motives ; to 
 Him we committed ourselves ; in His hands we placed 
 every thing that was dear to us ; we said in express words 
 1 S. Mark xiv. 33. 2 S. Luke xxiii. 34. 
 
Be still. 
 
 483 
 
 that we were willing 1 to abide by His decision and His judg- 
 ment. Unless we are still under His decrees, we are tak- 
 ing all this back : we are appealing from Him — to I know 
 not what, unless it be — to ourselves, as greater, wiser, and 
 holier than He. We have done up to this time what we 
 honestly and sincerely believed to be our bounden duty to 
 God, and therefore to man. Let us not now swerve from 
 what is the continuation of that duty. Quiet is to succeed 
 activity ; stillness to follow strife ; patience to tread upon 
 the heels of conflict. We were equal to the one : shall we 
 not be equal to the other? We believed that we were 
 Christians, while we labored for our cause : shall we not be 
 Christians when called upon to acquiesce in God's decision 
 upon that cause ? 
 
 Nothing which occurs on earth is an end. It is only a 
 means, leading on through antecedents and consequents, to 
 the great and final purpose of human redemption. While 
 that purpose is consummating, one thing follows another 
 according to God's arrangement, and we become involved in 
 them. Sometimes they are pleasing to flesh and blood ; 
 sometimes we suffer severely under them. But whether 
 agreeable or disagreeable, they come alike from His hand, 
 who has promised to make all things work together for 
 good to them that love Him. While passing through them 
 we have an end of our own, which is for us above all other 
 ends ; and that is, the salvation of our individual souls : 
 and we must take care that we do not perish in the wilder- 
 ness. Just as the preaching of the Word of God is the 
 savor of life unto life to some, and the savor of death unto 
 death to others, so are the events of God's providence — 
 this sequence of which I am speaking — temptations in- 
 volving our future condition far more than we are willing to 
 acknowledge. We are now in a very trying position ; one 
 requiring great soberness and watchfulness ; one in which 
 
4 8 4 
 
 Be still. 
 
 we may be tempted with great ease to unbelief, to luke- 
 warmness, to indifference, to coldness. Our besetting* sins 
 and temptations come to us, at this time, under such 
 specious names and fair exteriors, that it requires a diviner 
 touch, even that of Ithuriel — the touch of the Holy Spirit 
 of God — to make them assume their real shapes. In the 
 midst of it all, God calls upon us to " be still," and know 
 that it is He who is dealing with us. Let us hear Him. 
 Let us trust Him. Once when Christ was on earth, He 
 sent His disciples away from Him into a ship, while He went 
 up into a mountain apart to pray. But when the ship was 
 now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, Jesus went 
 unto them, walking on the sea. " And when the disciples 
 saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, 
 It is a spirit ; and they cried out for fear. But straight- 
 way Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer ; it 
 is I ; be not afraid." 1 Just so it is with us. We are in 
 the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves, and the wind 
 contrary. We see no horizon : all is dark and stormy. 
 God in Christ, Our Father, appears before us, planting His 
 footsteps in the sea, and riding on the storm. We are 
 troubled at His presence. We do not recognize Him as 
 God. We cry out for grief and fear. But His voice comes 
 to us across the tempest, saying, " Be still, and know that 
 I am God." Receive Me into your hearts, and you will find 
 that the winds will cease, and the waves be calm. Let us 
 welcome Him, my beloved people ; and be not afraid, for 
 He is our present help in every trouble. 
 
 But you may say, "It is easy to preach, but oh! how 
 hard to practice ! " But have I not, my people, to practice 
 what I preach ? am I not preaching to you that I may learn 
 how to practice P Has any one found it harder to be still 
 than I, and to admit that it is God ? I find it just as hard 
 
 i S. Matthew xiv. 26, 27. 
 
Be still. 
 
 485 
 
 to practice as you : but I feel it to be my duty, and I sball 
 always strive to do tbat. And I call upon you to do it, and 
 will endeavor to lead you in the way. And if you ask, How 
 is it to be done ? my answer is : By not looking at the 
 angry sea, or listening to the roaring winds ; but by looking 
 upon the God who is walking there, and listening to His 
 tender voice when it says to you, " It is I ; be not afraid." 
 We shall never be at peace so long as we keep our eyes 
 fixed upon the earth, and upon man. We must look up — 
 up to God where He " sitteth upon the circle of the earth, 
 and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers," 1 — ere 
 we can attain that equanimity which becomes the child of 
 God and the heir of heaven. 
 
 Our temptation is, my beloved fellow-Christians, that it 
 is not our duty to " be still," and to recognize God as in 
 the midst of our affairs. We rather think it our duty to 
 be impatient and angry. Does man, then, rule in the af- 
 fairs of nations ? Are poor, weak, corrupt creatures like 
 ourselves, the arbiters of the present and the future ? God 
 forbid ! and every one of you would echo " God forbid ! 93 
 For myself, if I were compelled to come to that conclusion, 
 I should be in despair. I should have no hope for man. or 
 for the world ! And if man does not rule the world, who 
 does ? We have no answer left us, but God : for assuredly, 
 while we acknowledge the power of the Devil and admit his 
 influence in the affairs of men, we cannot believe him to be 
 supreme over a world in which Christ's Church is en- 
 shrined. And if God rules over the affairs of men, and is 
 overturning, overturning, overturning, "until He come 
 whose right it is : " 2 why should we be angry because, in 
 the onward movement of His chariot wheels, we may suf- 
 fer, or even perish, in the flesh? Loss, suffering, chastise- 
 ment, even death, are no tokens of God's displeasure. All 
 
 1 Isaiah xl. 22. 2 Ezekiel xxi. 27. 
 
4 86 
 
 Be stilL 
 
 His chosen ones have suffered. All whom He ever loved, 
 He chastised. Many of His most glorious saints perished 
 by violence. Again and again were His chosen people sub- 
 jected to direful captivity. We have no ground for despair. 
 Things never stand still, either in the world, or in the 
 Church. The scenes are perpetually shifting : and what to- 
 day is encompassed with clouds and darkness, with mystery 
 and amazement, is to-morrow rejoicing in light and sun- 
 shine, God having lifted up the light of His countenance 
 upon it and made it clear ! " Be still, and know that I am 
 God," fills up the measure of our duty ; and promises us 
 the earliest relief, and the surest comfort. 
 
 " Be still, my soul ! Thy God doth undertake 
 
 To guide the future, as He has the past. 
 Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake, 
 
 All now mysterious shall be bright at last. 
 Be still, my soul ! The waves and winds still know 
 His voice, who ruled them while He dwelt below." 
 
 October 15, 1865. 
 
tf ortp fouttlj Sermon, 
 
 In your patie?ice possess ye your souls. — S. Luke xxi. 19. 
 
 nnHEEE are virtues which are suitable to all the eircum- 
 ^~ stances of life by which we may be surrounded ; duties, 
 becoming every condition which God may place us under. 
 There is a time, as the wise man tells us, for every thing : a 
 time to weep and a time to laugh ; a time to mourn and a 
 time to dance : and our conduct is to be in harmony with 
 our times. They are in God's hands ; and as He appoints 
 them, so must we adapt ourselves to them. What would 
 be appropriate under one set of circumstances would be 
 very inappropriate under another set. And this is very 
 much dwelt upon in the sacred Scriptures. Both in the 
 Old and the Xew Testament the people of God are com- 
 manded to watch carefully and thoughtfully the chain of 
 events in which they are for the time involved ; to examine 
 their purpose and bearing, to study their meaning and col- 
 oring : and to adapt their behavior unto a suitable agree- 
 ment with them. " In the day of prosperity," says the 
 wise man, " be joyful," 1 give thanks and praise to God for 
 His mercies and His blessings. Show forth gratitude by 
 sacrifices of every kind. On the contrary, " in the day of 
 adversity," when darkness lowers, and peril threatens, and 
 the light of God's countenance seems hidden from us, 
 "consider": 2 be sober and watchful, earnest and patient. 
 "When victory perched upon their banner and their enemies 
 
 1 Eccles. rii. 14. 2 Ibid. 
 
488 
 
 Patience. 
 
 fled before them, they were to sing the song of triumph 
 with timbrels and dances. When days such as those which 
 illustrated the reign of Solomon — halcyon days of peace 
 and plenty — smiled upon the land, they were to manifest 
 their sense of God's gracious mercy with festivity and a 
 profuse return to Him of the gifts which He had poured 
 into their bosoms. On the other hand, when dangers 
 threatened their homes, when enemies thronged in rage 
 upon their borders, they were to turn to God in humiliation 
 and prayer, and to hide themselves under the shadow of 
 His wings until their calamities were overpast. There was 
 a proper and befitting carriage and conversation for every 
 varying condition of events, and it was pressed upon them 
 by God Himself, through the mouth of Prophets and Apos- 
 tles and His own incarnate Son. 
 
 The verse from which I preach forms a part of the in- 
 struction which our Saviour was giving His disciples in 
 connection with the days of fearful darkness which were 
 approaching, — days which had been foretold ever since the 
 time of Moses. Soon after His death the abomination of 
 desolation was to stand in the holy place : the city and the 
 Temple were to be razed to the ground. And these sad 
 events were to be accompanied by unspeakable miseries and 
 woeful trials : miseries and trials so great that He could 
 find no fitter comparison for them than the horrors of the 
 Judgment Day. While preparing them for the unheard-of 
 calamities which should attend that catastrophe, He ex- 
 horts them to be firm and undismayed at their approach, 
 and to meet them as reasonable creatures and children of 
 the Most High. What were they to tremble at, seeing 
 that the Lord God Omnipotent reigned, and that they were 
 His chosen? After detailing the horrors of those days; 
 the commotions and tumults and terrors which should her- 
 ald them ; the convulsions of Nature ; the signs in heaven 
 
Patience, 489 
 
 and on earth; the famine, the pestilence which should ac- 
 company them : He closes with the calm injunction of our 
 text, " In your patience possess ye your souls." 
 
 What our Lord enjoined upon the disciples who walked 
 with Him when upon earth, does He likewise enjoin upon 
 all who, like them, may be passing through days of dark- 
 ness and of affliction. Those are always times which re- 
 quire special watchfulness and consideration on our part, — 
 special attention to our souls, and a cultivation of the grace 
 of patience up to the very highest point to which it can be 
 carried. " Affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither 
 doth trouble spring out of the ground." 1 They come from 
 God, whether they be personal or national, and are meant 
 to exercise our patience. At such times therefore, and un- 
 der such circumstances, — especially if they be long con- 
 tinued, if they extend over weary years and we can see no 
 prospect of their ending, — it becomes manifest that God 
 intends patience to have her perfect work, and the exhorta- 
 tion becomes most important, " In your patience possess ye 
 your souls." 
 
 In examining this text, you will perceive that its wording 
 is peculiar. It is not a simple exhortation, " In patience 
 possess ye your souls ; " but it implies that, having already 
 exhibited patience, you are, in the exercise of that patience, 
 to perforin a particular work, — you are to attain a point of 
 great importance to yourselves and to the glory of Him 
 who grants you the gift of patience. And that point is, to 
 " possess your souls," — to have them so in your own keep- 
 ing, that you will not only save them at the last, but be 
 masters of them while subjected to those evils which are 
 brought upon you for your discipline and trial. 
 
 There have been given us two instruments by which we 
 may be masters of ourselves, — reason and faith : the one 
 
 1 Job v. 6. 
 
49Q 
 
 Patience. 
 
 distinguishing us from the brutes, the other lifting us 
 above visible things. Either of, these, when properly exer- 
 cised, can place us above the frowns of fortune, and make 
 us rise superior to those calamities which come upon us 
 from the vicissitudes of temporal things. It shows but a 
 very scant exercise of our rational powers, when we permit 
 ourselves to lose the control of ourselves in the day of ad- 
 versity. " If thou faint in the day of adversity," is the lan- 
 guage of the Bible, " thy strength is small/' 1 — strength, 
 not only of grace but of reason : for reason is given us, not 
 merely to guide us in the path of life, but to sustain us 
 when peril encompasses us, when troubles surround us, 
 when fears harass us, when sorrow bows us to the ground. 
 It is not as sufficient as grace ; but among the Pagans it 
 went far to make many of them worthy examples of fortitude 
 and quiet possession of their souls in the hour of calamity. 
 Fear, agitation, trembling, forfeiture of principle, inconsist- 
 ency of conduct, loss of character in times of evil, are all 
 unbecoming a being who has nothing more than reason to 
 guide him : how much more unbecoming one who claims to 
 have faith in addition to reason ; who has not only the nat- 
 ural strength which comes with birth and culture, but the 
 supernatural strength which comes from the Holy Spirit of 
 God. Such persons fall short of the powers which God has 
 given them, and fail in the very moment when they most 
 need those powers. 
 
 The grace which we are to exercise in times like these 
 upon which we have fallen, is patience. God is working 
 out wonders of His own ; wonders which we shall see and 
 acknowledge in due time. We can show our faith in His 
 wisdom and goodness by waiting upon His will, and, while 
 waiting, by possessing our souls; keeping them calm and 
 trustful through all the changes which may occur around 
 
 1 Prov. xxiv. 10. 
 
Patience, 
 
 491 
 
 us ; hopeful through the darkest hour ; cheerful when all 
 things seem against us. .Our great advantages of civiliza- 
 tion, of education, and of Christianity, are lost to us un]ess 
 they give us these qualities when we need them. And 
 when special grace has been vouchsafed us to wait upon 
 God, we are recreant to our profession if we lose our Chris- 
 tian equanimity and fortitude because He delays the mani- 
 festation of His love and mercy. What is our discipline, 
 if every thing is to happen just as we think it should ; if 
 no crosses are to meet us by the way ; if no troubles are to 
 harass our path ; if no afflictions are to cast their dark 
 shadows upon our households ; if no desolation is to sweep 
 athwart the track of our country's prosperity ? What call 
 is there for the exercise of our patience, if that patience is 
 never to be tried either by man or God ? How can we esti- 
 mate its value, unless it be weighed in the balances with 
 adversity and temptation? We may have the grace, but 
 we shall not know it; we may be blessed with the ele- 
 ments of a high Christian character, but it will never be 
 manifested to the world for the glory of God. Calamity, 
 trouble, affliction, perplexity, are all necessary to bring out 
 the beauties of grace, just as a dark background throws 
 into prominent relief the beauties of nature and of art. 
 
 Patience has, like all other Christian graces, its grada- 
 tions. Its perfectness is not reached at once. Its first 
 step is in silent submission to God's will. We are quiet 
 under His dispensations ; we say nothing in contradiction 
 to them ; we do not murmur in words or in acts ; we are 
 dumb aud open not our mouths : but still are there heights 
 of patience above this, which we must reach ere we can be 
 said in our patience to possess our souls, to be masters of 
 them, to have them under our control. The second step is 
 when we accept with thankfulness the strokes of God's 
 fatherly rod ; when we can see His loving hand in every 
 
492 
 
 Patience. 
 
 blow He gives us ; when we can say, out of grateful hearts, 
 " It is good for me that I have been afflicted." 1 This is 
 patience refined, purified, rising to a clearer perception of 
 God's character as a God of love ; of God's dealings as a 
 Father, tender, pitiful, compassionate. This prepares us 
 for the highest attainment, when we may be said, in the 
 language of our Saviour, in our patience to " possess " our 
 souls. We have climbed to this height when we have 
 reached a serious cheerfulness under trials of whatever 
 kind, rejoicing in tribulation, and counting it all joy when 
 we fall into divers temptations. As faith gives us the pos- 
 session of Christ, so does this patience give us possession 
 of ourselves. An unbelieving man has no hold upon 
 Christ : so an impatient man has no hold upon himself ; 
 " for what title soever we have to our own souls, we have 
 no possession of them without patience." Then only are 
 we masters of ourselves (and our souls are ourselves), when 
 nothing can disturb us which is connected with the earth : 
 our treasures, our hearts, our hopes, being all in heaven, 
 whitber our souls will follow them, and find them in the 
 day of the consummation of all things. 
 
 This is our work, my beloved people, in the days which 
 are continuing to darken over us. The Lord has promised 
 us that " it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall 
 be light : " 2 but evening time may be yet distant ; and 
 meanwhile we must cultivate patience and possess our 
 souls, even though all our other possessions be taken from 
 us. Our souls are our own, out of the reach of any man, 
 and cannot be lost, unless we lose them ourselves. And 
 what is more encouraging to us than all, is the mysterious 
 fact, that days of sadness and of adversity are just those 
 which are most propitious to the saving of our souls. Man 
 seems to be so constituted that days of prosperity and of 
 
 1 Psalm cxix. 71. 2 Zechariah xiv. 7. 
 
Patience, 
 
 493 
 
 ease draw him away from any thoughts of his soul ; fix his 
 affections upon things of this world ; employ him in mat- 
 ters which are sensual and earthly ; turn his mind from his 
 most solemn relations, — those to God and eternity. But 
 when the world is tumultuous and agitated ; when sorrow 
 and distress are all around us ; when the dark clouds which 
 cover the heavens seem thick as night and gvm no signs of 
 breaking ; when Death is frequent and always threatening ; 
 when there is little joy to be found in home or society, and 
 no rest for the tired spirit : then is it that the soul looms 
 into importance both for this world and for the world to 
 come. It is felt to contain the elements of true greatness ; 
 to be the sustaining power of the whole man ; to rise supe- 
 rior to outward things and create a world of its own with- 
 in the bosom ; to be capable of serenity in the midst of 
 tumult ; of calmness in the fury of the storm ; of courage 
 when all hearts are failing ; of self-control when things are 
 combining to shake its constancy; of firmness when all is 
 tottering around it. Above all, it is found to have a re- 
 newed existence beyond the grave, where every thing which 
 made this life agreeable and desirable is offered to it as an 
 eternal inheritance, enhanced by charms which this earth 
 could not bestow, and stripped of those qualities which 
 made them perishable and corruptible. These powers of 
 the soul manifest themselves to us in our days of dark- 
 ness, just as the stars shine brightest when night descends 
 upon the earth and blots out the garish brightness of the 
 day. They constitute the whole glory of the time of sor- 
 row and affliction, and our eyes are riveted upon them as 
 our only light and joy. We find within ourselves the 
 source of our comfort and our hope ; and learn, perhaps for 
 the first time, that our real treasure of joy, both present 
 and future, is locked up within ourselves, and has but little 
 permanent connection with things outward and visible. 
 
494 
 
 Patience, 
 
 During the continuance of the circumstances under 
 which we are living, patience is the grace which most 
 becomes us. We can do no more than we are doing" to 
 change our condition, except wait upon God in cheerful 
 submission. If He designs patience to have her perfect 
 work, so be it. It is best for us, for He makes all things 
 work together for good to those who love and fear Him. 
 His purposes cannot be worked out in such brief time as 
 our impatience desires. Even though all His will be to 
 bless us and prosper us, — which I most firmly believe it 
 is, — He may not be able, consistently with His mode of 
 action, to bring His purposes to pass at once. We must be 
 patient ; and in our patience we must possess our souls. 
 We must possess them in the sight of all men, for the 
 uses of society. We must keep up the superiority of rea- 
 son ; must be sober, calm, earnest, resolute ; must not per- 
 mit passion to overcome us, nor fear to unnerve us, nor 
 grief to overwhelm us, nor the loss of worldly things to 
 cast us down. We are contending for great things ; and 
 we must be great ourselves, great especially in the posses- 
 sion of our souls. The greatest men of the earth have 
 been distinguished for this self-possession in the midst of 
 trial and adversity. It constituted the greatness of the 
 ancient Cato, and was the controlling power of our peerless 
 Washington. In such a conflict as this, passion is of no 
 moment. It only disfigures the scene of action. Patience, 
 endurance, self-control, self-possession, are our qualities for 
 this world. But above all should every one of us, in our 
 patience, see to the salvation of our souls, — to that 
 higher possession which makes them ours forever : ours 
 not only while we are struggling here, but ours while we 
 are resting from all conflicts in the grave. God has made 
 full provision for their salvation. He has given His most 
 priceless possession, His only and well-beloved Son, for 
 
Patience. 495 
 
 their redemption from sin and death and hell; and that 
 Son has proclaimed to the world : " Him that cometh to me 
 I will in no wise cast out." 1 cc In your patience " in these 
 days of trial and of adversity, employ yourselves in this 
 great work. If every thing else should fail, and you should 
 yet succeed in that, it will have been to you a work of 
 greatness far exceeding any thing you could have achieved. 
 Christ said, " What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain 
 the whole world, and lose his own soul ? " 2 and it is a ques- 
 tion which you should weigh, and ponder upon, in these 
 days when God is trying us in the furnace of affliction. 
 Whatever else you lose, do not lose your own souls ! 
 
 August 22, 1864. 
 1 S. John vi. 37. 2 S. Mark viii. 36. 
 
» 
 
 tfort^fiftlj Sermon. 
 
 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not 
 hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou 
 shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto 
 us, that we may hear it, and do it ? Neither is it beyoiid the sea, 
 that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and 
 bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it ? But the word is 
 very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest 
 do it. — Deuteronomy xxx. 11-14. 
 
 OELDOM, my beloved hearers, have we been summoned to 
 ^ humiliation and prayer under more impressive auspices 
 than those which have gathered us together this day in this 
 sanctuary of God. The Representatives of a Sovereign 
 State, newly come from their constituents, and carrying up 
 to the Capital the detail of their sufferings and their trials, 
 " Resolved," as their first complete act of legislation, that 
 this day should be set apart as a day of fasting, humiliation, 
 and prayer, upon which the people of the State should re- 
 turn thanks for God's mercies and blessings, should confess 
 their sins, and should importune His favor. In addition to 
 this " Resolution," the Legislature requested the Governor 
 to issue his Proclamation calling upon the whole people to 
 observe this day of solemn supplication, and with one heart 
 and one voice to humble themselves at the Mercy-seat. 
 And this Proclamation has been set forth in most eloquent 
 and Christian language, giving us the key-note to the ser- 
 vices of the day, and furnishing the materials out of which 
 we are to weave our roll of lamentation and of woe. Our 
 
On the State Fast-day, 497 
 
 State authorities have done their duty in most solemn 
 fashion. God grant that the Churches and the congrega- 
 tions of this Christian country may not be one whit behind 
 them in their appreciation of the necessity and value of this 
 universal humiliation. 
 
 Such an authoritative and earnest appeal would not have 
 been made, my hearers, to the people of our State, unless 
 there had been ample ground for it in the condition of the 
 country. Legislative bodies are not wont to occupy them- 
 selves with the arrangement of religious services, as their 
 earliest act of importance. Their hearts, at their first 
 meeting together after a long separation, are generally 
 more full of friendly greeting and cheerful memories ; and 
 their minds, of the earthly topics of interest which concern 
 themselves and their constituents. Each legislator brings 
 with him some favorite measure which he deems most im- 
 portant for the welfare of the State ; and he rushes at once 
 to put in motion the machinery which is to give it success. 
 The Message of the Executive, and the documents which 
 accompany it, throw at once before them matters of new 
 and deep importance, which usually absorb their attention, 
 and give rise to immediate discussion. When therefore, as 
 in this case, all these matters of private interest and of 
 public concern are unanimously put aside for the sake of 
 urging upon the people a solemn religious exercise, it is a 
 striking proof that these legislators must have left their 
 homes deeply impressed with the calamities which threat- 
 ened their friends, and with the necessity of a public invo- 
 cation of God's help in saving their desolated country from 
 still further sufferings. Man had labored and struggled in 
 vain: he must now turn to God; and, humbling himself to 
 the dust, and confessing his guilt, must implore His Divine 0 
 mercy. 
 
 And surely there is enough in our present condition ttb 
 
 32 
 
49 3 0# ^ .SV^afe Fast-day. 
 
 humble us into the very dust : and in nothing more than 
 in our own conduct. As the Governor tells us in his Proc- 
 lamation, we are in the wilderness, suffering, and yet sin- 
 ning; under the covenant mercy and guidance of a God of 
 truth, and yet forever distrusting Him ; receiving many 
 tokens of His loving-kindness, and yet murmuring the 
 moment any thing seems to be against us. For this un- 
 faithfulness and impatience is He chastising us ; and, until 
 we are more submissive to Him and more resigned under His 
 rod, He will continue to chasten us. We will not see that 
 it is with God we have to deal, and not with man. We will 
 not recognize, as fully as we should, that our controversy 
 lies at the foot of His Throne, and has nothing to do with 
 any earthly power. We will descend into the miserable 
 arena of political strife, instead of looking up to Him who 
 sitteth in the Heavens, and in whose eyes the nations of the 
 earth are but as the dust in the balance. We will permit 
 our hearts and our spirits to be agitated and irritated by 
 matters with which we had better have no concern, instead 
 of soaring quietly above them, and dwelling in the atmo- 
 sphere of dignity and of peace which most becomes us. 
 We should have no longer any thing to do with man, in the 
 way of strife or contention. We should consider ourselves 
 in the hands of God, our Father, and our providential 
 Euler; and should patiently await His dealings with us. 
 A child might as wisely quarrel with the rod in a parent's 
 hand, as we with the agents whom God is using to punish 
 and to humble us. A man might as well endeavor to break 
 in pieces the stone against which he has hurt his foot, as 
 we to kick against the pricks which God has put in our 
 way, to make us walk in the path He designs for us. 
 When we act in this senseless manner, we are not only 
 warring against our own prosperity, but against the pre- 
 ordinations of Him who ruleth every thing to the purposes 
 
On the State Fast-day, 
 
 499 
 
 of His own will. By such action we run against the thick 
 bosses of God's buckler, and are destroyed. 
 
 For, if you will consider the words of the Proclamation 
 under which we are here gathered together, you will per- 
 ceive that the great causes which have led to this day of 
 fasting and humiliation have come directly from His hand 
 who rules the natural world, and at whose bidding the rain 
 descends upon the evil and upon the good, and the sun 
 shines upon the just and upon the unjust. " Our corn and 
 our oil have failed of their abundance ; our flocks and our 
 herds are diminished. The cry of want is heard in our 
 land : the manna and the quails come not yet." These are 
 the motives which have induced our legislators to call us 
 to humiliation ; and these, surely, come from God. Man 
 has no control over the Seasons : they are altogether be- 
 yond his influence. In our own beautiful prayers, we say : 
 " 0 God, our Heavenly Father, who by thy gracious provi- 
 dence dost cause the former and the latter rain to descend 
 upon the earth, that it may bring forth fruit for the use of 
 man " : and again : " 0 Lord God, who hast justly hum- 
 bled us by thy late visitation of us with immoderate rain 
 and waters ; " and again, in our service of Thanksgiving 
 for the labors of the husbandman : " 0 most merciful 
 Father, who hast blessed the labors of the husbandman in 
 the returns of the fruits of the earth : " so that, in our Li- 
 turgical Services, we have beforehand ascribed plenty and 
 want, scarcity and abundance, to God and not to man. 
 And it is the same with sickness and with death, which 
 have visited our State very severely during the past year. 
 They come, most assuredly, from God ; and are used by Him 
 as instruments for the chastening of His children, — of 
 those whom He loves, and cares for, and would keep near 
 unto Himself. Man is far below any power of this sort. 
 He may rule in the policies of earth. He may regulate 
 
500 On the State Fast-day, 
 
 such things as trade and commerce, as economy and wealth, 
 as Law and Government : but thus far can he go, and no 
 further. The heavens are out of his reach. The clouds 
 which float in the heavens obey not his commands. Pesti- 
 lence moves not at his decree ; and Death submits not to 
 his bidding. When Dearth, and Famine, and Poverty, and 
 Disease are concerned, man has to contend with a higher 
 Power than his fellow-man, — is being chastised by a rod 
 which a fellow- mortal's hand is not permitted to wield. 
 And when our fasting and our humiliation and our prayers 
 are called for, to help us under calamities springing from 
 these sources, we ought to know at once in Whose hand the 
 rod is, and Who hath appointed it. In other respects, things 
 have been better with us than they promised to be. Much 
 of our landed property has been restored to its owners ; our 
 industry has been less interfered with than it was, and our 
 trade and our commerce have resumed, in some measure, 
 their ancient channels ; our civil courts have been reopened 
 and are administering a measure of justice. For these 
 things we should be thankful ; and if it be said, that a 
 dark cloud seems to be gathering over us in the future, my 
 answer would be : " Leave the future to take care of itself. 
 We are concerned to-day with humiliation for the past, 
 and with prayer under the sufferings of the present. Let 
 us not look at the clouds, but at Him who rideth upon the 
 clouds. Let us not fear the darkness, but enter into it, — 
 if it be our duty, — knowing that God often dwelleth in 
 the thick darkness. 
 
 Our controversy, therefore, my beloved people, is with 
 God, and not with man : for it is He who has frowned upon 
 our labor, and who has permitted our atmosphere to be 
 laden with disease. And it is a great point to have satisfied 
 you of this ; for it removes from your hearts much of the 
 pride and bitterness which might hinder you from humbling 
 
On the State Fast-day. 301 
 
 yourselves in the House of God this day. Man is much 
 more unwilling to bow himself down before his fellow-man, 
 than before God. With his fellow-man he enters into con- 
 troversy about right and wrong, about justice and injustice, 
 about merit and demerit : but with God, if he be at all 
 right-minded, he raises no such questions. He bows his 
 head and his heart at once before an all-wise and all-merci- 
 ful God, who knoweth what is best for His creatures ; and 
 who has promised to make every thing work together for 
 good to them that love Him. He quarrels with men : he 
 dares not quarrel with God. Being satisfied then that it is 
 God who has been inflicting upon you the successive blows 
 under which you are suffering, you come to-day in a teach- 
 able temper, acknowledging that you have, in some way, 
 offended God ; and praying that He may send His Holy 
 Spirit upon you, to search your hearts as with the candle 
 of the Lord, and manifest to you your unfaithfulness. 
 
 Our being assembled together in this place this day, is 
 an evidence to us that we ourselves acknowledge and feel 
 the need of humiliation : and yet, each one may be a little 
 doubtful what has been our offence as a people. As indi- 
 viduals, we are all conscious of our own particular sins; 
 and of those we must repent : but it is not about those 
 that we are to-day concerned. We are in the temples of 
 God this day as a people, not as individuals. We have met 
 to inquire of God wherein we have sinned against Him as 
 a people, and to make our confessions and regain His favor. 
 I will endeavor, so far as I have received light, to point out, 
 with great diffidence and humility, some of the things in our 
 conduct which may have offended God, and kept upon us 
 His hand of chastisement. 
 
 Have we submitted to God's decision of the conflict in 
 which we were, for so many years, eng'aged ? This is the 
 first question which comes up ; and it has reference simply 
 
502 On the State Fast-day. 
 
 to God, and to the spirit of our minds towards Him. 
 Without entering at all anew into the merits or demerits, 
 the right or the wrong, the justice or the injustice, of that 
 controversy, which have passed out of our hands into the 
 hands of God, and have hecome a matter of eternal and 
 immutable morality, we will all acknowledge that the con- 
 flict is ended, and ended by God, in a manner adverse to our 
 wishes and to our interests. God has permitted it to end 
 in one way, and not in another ; and we must be convinced 
 of that. The circumstances which accompanied its end 
 were so plain and palpable, that God's hand could not be 
 mistaken as being in it. Have we, my question is, acqui- 
 esced in our hearts in God's decision, or have we mur- 
 mured and rebelled against His action, and counted it un- 
 just and injurious ? I do not ask whether it has changed 
 your opinion of the justice or injustice of your action \ — 
 that has nothing to do with it : or, whether it has caused 
 you to alter your views about the institution of slavery, 
 which it overturned ; — that likewise has nothing to do 
 with it : but, whether you have submitted to God's will 
 about the termination of the conflict. I know that, in 
 many places and in many hearts, there has been an open 
 quarrel with God upon this point; — that He has been 
 charged with injustice, with a false view of right and 
 wrong, with cruelty to the innocent and the godly. And 
 while such feelings as these, and such language as this, 
 have not been, to any common degree, openly indulged in, 
 may there not have been enough of it seen by God, in the 
 recesses of the heart, to arouse His indignation and excite 
 His anger. For, to say the least of it, such murmuring 
 and want of acquiescence in God's dealings argue faithless- 
 ness, and distrust in His love for His people. We have 
 only to turn to the narrative of the exodus of the Children 
 of Israel and their wanderings in the wilderness, to per- 
 
On the State Fast-day, 503 
 
 ceive how continually God's anger was aroused, and His 
 indignation excited, because His people would not submit to 
 His guidance, and acquiesce in His acts. God's people must 
 be always tried ; they will never be fit otherwise to be His 
 people : and acquiescence in His dealings, — perfect trust 
 and faith in His proceedings, — is the test of their faith. 
 For God is working out larger ends than those which con- 
 cern us as a people. His ends embrace the Universe : His 
 purposes are co-extensive with Time. What may happen 
 to us, is of great moment to us, because it is a trial of 
 our faith : but is, at the same time, only a link in the 
 chain of events which is working out a grander and 
 sublimer purpose, in which we ourselves are at last to 
 be most intimately concerned. The lesser end — our con- 
 cerns — is absorbed in the greater : and if we have a sound 
 and truly Christian trust in God, and in His purposes in 
 Christ Jesus, we should feel that He is right in all He 
 does, — gloriously right, divinely right ; and that our duty 
 is, however much His action may militate against our feel- 
 ings or our hopes, to say : " It is well ; for God has done 
 it." It may be that we have not toned our hearts to this 
 Christian submission ; and that our heavenly Father may 
 see in us an unbelief, and a mistrust, which have excited 
 His anger and renewed His indignation. Let us this day 
 examine our hearts upon this point; and if guilty, let us 
 bow before His footstool, and say in sincerity of soul : 
 " Not my will, but Thine, 0 God, be done." 
 
 Have we not cherished in our hearts a feeling of bitter- 
 ness and uncharitableness against those who have been 
 God's human instruments in bringing upon us humiliation, 
 shame, poverty, exile, the various evils to which we, as a 
 people, have been subjected ? Have we not deemed it right 
 to be unforgiving ? Have we not cherished in our hearts a 
 desire for their being punished in their turn, by God or by 
 
504 On the State Fast-day. 
 
 man? And if so, can you suppose that God will permit His 
 children — those who are the professed followers and imita- 
 tors of His Son — to indulge such feelings, without inflict- 
 ing further chastisement upon them ? How did our Messed 
 Saviour act, when there was heaped upon Him every shame 
 and every injury which man could inflict ? " Father, for- 
 give them : for they know not what they do." 1 What was 
 His teaching, persistently, and the teaching of His Apos- 
 tles ? " But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them 
 that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for 
 them which despitefully use you and persecute you." 2 
 " For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward 
 God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is 
 it, if, when ye he buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it 
 patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take 
 it patiently, this is acceptable with God." 3 This is the 
 Christian's example ; and this is what God expects from us ; 
 and if He find it not, and care for us, will produce it in us, 
 through chastisements. The more right we may think we 
 have been, the more incumbent upon us it is, if we desire 
 to be acceptable with God, to imitate these feelings of the 
 Master and His Disciples. It is hard, I know, upon flesh 
 and blood : but grace is stronger than these ; and neither 
 flesh and blood, nor the feelings of flesh and blood, can ever 
 inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. It is for yourselves, my 
 people, that I am pleading, — for your own Christian char- 
 acters; for your own earthly peace and welfare; for your 
 deliverance from the rod; for your eternal salvation. Con- 
 quer these feelings ! Look above the instruments ; and see 
 a loving Father's face, — loving while He strikes, pitying 
 while He bruises. Hear the words of the Lesson which we 
 have read to-day : " But if ye be without chastisement, 
 
 1 S. Luke xxiii. 34. 2 S. Matt. v. 44. 
 
 8 1 S. Pet. ii. 19, 20. 
 
Oji the State Fast-day. 505 
 
 whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not 
 sons. " 1 Let this day's humiliation place yon right before 
 God, with purified hearts, and spin ts filled with charity for 
 all men : — Charity, that divinest gift, which is above even 
 Faith and Hope. 
 
 Have we not rushed back, as a people, to the worship of 
 onr old idols, — to an adoration of pride, of haughtiness, of 
 position, of worldly-mindedness ? Has not our deep adver- 
 sity intensified these feelings ? Has not our keen poverty 
 made us still more sensitive than we ever were ? There are 
 no idols which God struck at, in his late humiliation of us, 
 more openly than at the qualities of the carnal heart : have 
 we learned the lesson ? Have we endeavored to overcome 
 these sins — for they are sins in the eye of God; or have 
 we not rather thought it our duty to cherish and cultivate 
 them more carefully than before ? I am afraid that many 
 of us have said : " Men may despoil us of our property, of 
 our homes, of our rights, of our privileges : but they shall 
 not deprive us of our pride, or our associations, or our 
 memories. We will make these our idols, and will cherish 
 and worship these in our inmost hearts ! " Is not God vis- 
 iting us for these things ? Remember His language of old 
 to Edom : " Whereas Edom saith, TTe are impoverished, 
 but we will return and build the desolate places ; thus saith 
 the Loed of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down. 
 . . . . And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Loed 
 will be magnified from the border of Israel.' 3 2 
 
 These are the main points in our conduct, for which, 
 perhaps, God is still laying His heavy hand upon us. 
 There are others which time requires to pass over ; such as 
 the inordinate desire for wealth, which still clings to us as 
 a people : the keeping back from the Lord of His offerings 
 and His tithes ; the permitting His houses to lie in ashes, 
 1 Heb. am. 8. 2 Mai. i. 4, 5. 
 
506 On the State Fast-day. 
 
 while all other things are being reconstructed ; the seem- 
 ing necessity for every thing save the sending forth of the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ. All these things are crying into 
 the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth, and will be heard : 
 and what you will not give, shall be taken, — taken through 
 rains, and drought, and caterpillar, and fire ; and every 
 purse shall have holes in it, through which ill-gotten or 
 ill-hoarded gains shall leak out. God cannot be mocked, 
 and will not be mocked ! He will have what is His ; and 
 if not given for His sake, it will be taken for your own 
 sake. 
 
 And He will not deal with a Christian State as with the 
 heathen. " Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wil- 
 derness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, 
 saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under 
 the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the cove- 
 nant." 1 For His will and His commandments are not hid- 
 den from you, my beloved people, neither are they far off. 
 His " great commandment " is, " to love the Lord thy God, 
 to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, and 
 His statutes, and His judgments : " 2 and " it is not in 
 heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to 
 heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do 
 it ? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, 
 Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, 
 that we may hear it, and do it ? But the word is very 
 nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou 
 mayest do it." That is your privilege as a Christian peo- 
 ple, — that God's commandments are in your keeping, fa- 
 miliar to you as household words ; and that you have no 
 excuse of ignorance, or of darkness. You sin in the broad 
 light, when you do sin : you sin in the face of knowledge, 
 of conscience, of the Church, of the Holy Spirit: and 
 i Ezek. xx. 36, 37. 2 Deut. xxx. 16. 
 
On the State Fast-day. 507 
 
 therefore is it that God thinks it worth while to chasten 
 you. For chastisement, and humiliation, and adversity, 
 and trouble, are often God's most faithful servants ; — sent 
 to you in love and mercy, to call you to the marriage sup- 
 per of the Lamb. Continued prosperity is much more a 
 token of God's displeasure than severe adversity : for pros- 
 perity, unbroken and unchecked, leads to the accumulation 
 of wealth, to luxury, to immorality, to a carelessness of 
 virtue and religion; and at last, passing from private to 
 public life, to corruption and destruction. It is better to 
 be chastened, than to be let alone. It is better that your 
 land should be smitten with blasting and mildew; that 
 the palmer worm should destroy your gardens, and your 
 vineyards, and your fig-trees, and your olive-trees ; better 
 that the pestilence should come among you; better that 
 your young men should be slain with the sword : than that 
 you should hear the awful words, " Ephraim is joined to 
 idols : let him alone." 1 May we never, my beloved people, 
 hear that dread edict, either as a state, or as individuals. 
 Eather let us pray, that we may be always kept in God's 
 eye and under God's discipline, and that He may guide us 
 as a people in the path He desires us to tread. Humilia- 
 tion is good for us when it comes upon us from God's wis- 
 dom and God's rod. It is evil, only when we bring it upon 
 ourselves through a fear of man, or through our own fool- 
 ishness, or through looking at consequences when we 
 should be looking at duty. Fear God, and keep His com- 
 mandments, and your path will shine brighter and brighter 
 unto the perfect day. 
 
 November 22, 1866. 
 
 1 Hosea iv. 17. 
 
tfort^strrt) pennon. 
 
 Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in 
 the vines ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall 
 yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there 
 shall be no herd in the stalls : yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will 
 joy in the God of my salvation. — Habakkuk iii. 17, 18. 
 
 WEEK ago we assembled ourselves together in this 
 
 - place, under the solemn bidding of our State Author- 
 ities, to humble ourselves under the chastening hand of the 
 Almighty, and with supplications to implore His forgiveness 
 and mercy. To-day are we met again for prayer, but under 
 very different auspices. Then we were urged to fasting 
 and humiliation, because our fields had yielded no meat, 
 and our flock had been cut off from the fold. Now we are 
 called upon to keep a holy day of thanksgiving and of praise 
 because, as a Nation, there has been a plentiful harvest and 
 an almost universal prosperity. Then we were summoned 
 to weep as a State with those who were weeping ; now we 
 are required to rejoice, as a Nation, with those who are re- 
 joicing : and both upon the same principle, of obeying 
 those who have the rule over us, and submitting ourselves 
 " to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake." 1 And 
 these positions seem, at the first glance, very antagonistic 
 to one another, and very difficult to be reconciled ; but 
 they may be harmonized, as I trust I shall be able to show 
 you, upon the very highest Christian principles. For it is 
 a law which pervades all the works of God, of whatever 
 
 1 1 S. Peter ii. 13. 
 
On the National Thanksgiving-day. 509 
 
 kind, that things which, under a contracted view, appear 
 at variance with each other; under a broader and more 
 comprehensive one, are seen in beautiful harmony, the one 
 being the natural complement of the other. Iso two things 
 are seemingly more opposed to each other, when separately 
 looked at, than the dark storm cloud and the brilliant rain- 
 bow, — the one the frowning type of wrath, the other the 
 covenanted symbol of promise : and yet when the one lies 
 upon the bosom of the other, bathing the last mutterings 
 of the receding tempest in its hues of glory, they exhibit 
 the perfection of heavenly beauty and the assurance of 
 divine peace. The one was darkness, the other was light : 
 together they figure righteousness and peace kissing each 
 other. 
 
 Christ our blessed Saviour came into the world, not only 
 to redeem us by His blood, but to introduce into it a prin- 
 ciple at utter variance with the selfishness of human nature. 
 This principle He was first to teach, as the true spiritual 
 meaning of the commandments given by God to His chosen 
 people ; and then to exhibit in His own Person, by His hu- 
 miliation, sufferings, and death for His brethren after the 
 flesh. The world before His coming had heard enough of 
 law and judgment, of sin and punishment : but nothing of 
 love and sympathy ; save as it came, in flashes through the 
 clouds, light out of darkness : the Patriarchs and Proph- 
 ets and Kings of the old dispensation giving the world 
 faint glimmerings of what they knew themselves only 
 through inspiration. " But grace and truth came by Jesus 
 Christ ; " 1 — the grace of divine mercy, the truth of God's 
 immeasurable love ! For " in this was manifested the love 
 of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten 
 Son into the world, that we might live through him." 2 
 He gave His most precious and priceless possession, not 
 iS.Johni.17. 2 1 S. John iv. 9. 
 
5 io On the National Thanksgiving-day. 
 
 only to rescue fallen man, but to teach him, as I said just 
 now, that most divine of all lessons, the lesson of sympa- 
 thy. Before Christ, man was an individual, or a part of a 
 family, or perchance of a tribe, or even of a Nation : but 
 since His coming", man has been taught that he is truly 
 bound in bonds of love and sympathy with the whole world. 
 As we say in our Creed that we believe in the Holy Catho- 
 lic Church, meaning the Universal Church, so did Christ 
 come to teach us that we must be catholic in our feelings 
 towards all men ; — must no longer measure our relation- 
 ship by the old limits of blood, or interest, or earthly un- 
 ion, but by the limits of God's Love and Christ's Sacrifice. 
 This is the broader and more comprehensive view, which 
 corrects the narrowness of selfishness, and which makes us, 
 while we weep for ourselves, still rejoice with the world 
 where it rejoices, even though its joy may not extend to us 
 in person or in interest. The same Heavenly Father who 
 sends to us want and sorrow, sends to others plenty and 
 joy: and shall we not sympathize with the dealings of 
 God ? The Prophet tells us, in my text, what his feelings 
 were, and what his actions ; and he comes to us as one of 
 the accredited Messengers of the Most High, speaking as 
 he was moved by the Holy Ghost : " Although the fig-tree 
 shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the 
 labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no 
 meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there 
 shall be no herd in the stalls : yet I will rejoice in the 
 Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Here is, 
 first, faith in God ; trust in His wisdom and judgments ; 
 reliance upon His goodness and loving kindness: and then, 
 satisfaction in what He was doing ; no envy because He 
 was giving to others and withholding from him ; no jealousy 
 because his neighbors were prospering and he was in ad- 
 versity or suffering ; no murmuring, because His hand lay 
 
On the National Thanksgiving-day. 5 1 1 
 
 heavy upon him, wliile others were eating and drinking and 
 making merry.: but an acquiescence in the love and mercy 
 of the God of his salvation. His God had given him the 
 assurance of that, at least. Whatever was in the present, 
 the future was at least safe. However he might lack com- 
 forts or even necessaries in this world, he was assured that 
 "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but right- 
 eousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." 1 And 
 this is the first lesson of the day, — to " rejoice in the 
 Lord." 2 The powers that be have called us to thanksgiving. 
 We think that we have but little to give thanks for (God 
 knows how much mistaken we are in that, as I shall show 
 you presently), and that there is no room for rejoicing in 
 earthly matters. Be it so. Grant the position, for the 
 present. Let us, then, " rejoice in the Lord," let us " joy 
 in the God of our salvation." It is not much to give one 
 day to spiritual joy — to thanksgiving for such a God as we 
 have, the God of our salvation ! 
 
 Salvation ! Oh, the joyful sound, 
 
 Glad tidings to our ears ; 
 A sovereign balm for every wound, 
 
 A cordial for our fears. 
 
 If we cannot rejoice in earthly things, let us rejoice in 
 heavenly things. Let us leave Man, and his policies, and 
 his devices, and let us climb up, on the wings of faith and 
 love, and sing before the Throne and Him that sitteth on 
 the Throne our song of thanksgiving and of praise. And 
 our song might well take this shape: "We thank Thee, 
 Father of Heaven and of earth, that Thou hast sent into 
 the world Thine only begotten and well beloved Son, to die 
 for us and our salvation ; and that Thou hast, in His Per- 
 son, spread over us the banner of love. We thank Thee 
 that Thou hast separated the Nation to which we belong 
 1 Rom. xiv. 17. 2 Phil. iii. 1. 
 
512 On the National Thanksgiving-day. 
 
 from those nations which are lying in darkness and the 
 shadow of Death; that Thon hast placed us where the 
 Gospel is preached ; and that, though Thou hast given us 
 the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Thou 
 hast not removed our teachers into a corner ; hut that our 
 ears still hear a word behind us, saying, " This is the way, 
 walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye 
 turn to the left." 1 " We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we 
 worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for 
 Thy great glory, 0 Lord God, Heavenly King, God the 
 Father Almighty." And should we not rejoice — whether 
 we think of the living or of the dead, of the past or of the 
 future — that we can raise such a note of thanksgiving ; and, 
 leaving the world behind and all in it that is not agreeable 
 to our views or harmonious with our desires, can revel in 
 the great truth that " the Lord God omnipotent reigneth ? " 
 " Rejoice in the Lord alway," 2 is the injunction of the 
 Apostle, and comes to us as a voice from Heaven, when we 
 think we see nothing to rejoice in on earth. Prophets like 
 Habakkuk teach us the same glorious truth as Apostles 
 like S. Paul ; and the Church impresses it upon us when, 
 every Lord's day, no matter what may be its livery, whether 
 clothed in the garment of praise or the spirit of heaviness, 
 she commands us to lift up our voice and unitedly to sing, 
 " Praise the Lord, 0 my soul ; and all that is within me, 
 praise his holy Name." 
 
 This is one lesson of our text : but there is another and 
 a harder lesson to learn, and that is, giving thanks for the 
 prosperity of others, in the spirit of Christian sympathy. 
 To rejoice in the Lord, to joy in the God of our salvation, 
 comes easily to a spiritual mind ; it is its daily food ; it is 
 the song which swells up from the heart while it draws 
 water from the wells of salvation. But to overcome self- 
 i Isaiah xxx. 20, 21. 2 Rev. xix. 6. 
 
On the National Thanksgiving-day, 513 
 
 ishness so far as to rejoice with those who do rejoice, with 
 people whom we have never known nor seen, who are 
 united to us simply by a bond of governmental onion, who 
 have heen lately in arms against as, who have inflicted 
 upon ns much suffering, who are still keeping us under the 
 saw and the harrow : this requires not only the understand- 
 ing, hut the feeling of Christ's spirit : not only the percep- 
 tion of what He came to teach, hut the assimilation to 
 ourselves of the divine principle of sympathy which He 
 illustrated in His Sacrifice and Death. And this is the 
 mission of the Church : to produce, in those who name the 
 Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and who call Him Lord and 
 Master, this wide-spread charity ; this love which suffereth 
 long and is kind : which envieth not : which beareth all 
 things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
 things. The world utterly rejects it ; but the Church can- 
 not, so long as she breathes the Spirit of her Lord, and 
 holds Him up for worship and imitation. He made no dis- 
 tinctions in His love : His sympathy was wide as the Uni- 
 verse. He died for all, and prayed, even when suffering 
 cruel death at their hands, for their forgiveness, — the for- 
 giveness of those very ones who were taunting and mock- 
 ing and crucifying Him. And think ye that He did not 
 mean the disciple to be as his Master ? Surely He did : 
 for, in that moment when He ceased giving His disciples 
 His own form of prayer — our " Lord's prayer " — in which 
 occurs the petition. K Forgive us our trespasses, As we for- 
 give those who trespass against us, v He returns to the 
 subject, and selects that one alone of all the petitions to 
 comment upon and enforce, saying, " For if ye forgive men 
 their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you : 
 but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your 
 Father forgive your trespasses." 1 That certainly is plain 
 1 S. Matt. vi. U. 15. 
 
 33 
 
514 On the National Thanksgiving-day, 
 
 enough ; and I would ask you, Who has more trespasses 
 to forgive than your Heavenly Father ? Who has sins as- 
 cending to Him day and night more unceasingly from you, 
 — from each one of you, from every one of you, — than 
 your Lord and Master ? While man sins against you once, 
 you sin against God a hundred times. While man ruffles 
 your temper or your peace of mind now and then, you are 
 exciting His indignation, and arousing His wrath, unceas- 
 ingly ; and nothing but the Blood of Christ keeps that 
 wrath from bursting forth against you. You must forgive, 
 if you hope to be forgiven. There is no alternative : and 
 if that true spirit of charity is in you, and with you, then 
 can you keep your thanksgiving and your rejoicing, if not 
 for yourselves, at least for your fellow-creatures. Christ 
 said to His disciples : " Ye shall weep and lament, but the 
 world shall rejoice ; " 1 and therein was displayed the true 
 genuine status of the Christian. He may be called upon 
 to weep and lament ; but he must so teach and so act as to 
 make the world rejoice, and to rejoice with it himself, 
 through his tears. " This is an hard saying ; who can hear 
 it ? " 2 — but it is a true saying, and the only one which 
 can ever leaven the world with love and peace. 
 
 It is only this sympathy, this Christian sympathy, of 
 weeping with those who weep, and rejoicing with those 
 who rejoice, which can meet the difficulties of our position. 
 We are in a very painful position. Our hearts are sore 
 with our troubles ; our cheeks are yet wet with the tears of 
 our mourning ; our brows are wrinkled with care and anx- 
 iety ; our feelings are daily harassed with the sufferings of 
 those we love. Under these circumstances, we are called 
 upon to give thanks and to rejoice, because, as a Nation, 
 considering it as a whole, there is plenty and prosperity. 
 What chord is there in the human heart that can vibrate 
 1 S. John xvi. 20. 2 Ibid. vi. 60. 
 
On the National Thanksgiving-day, 5 1 5 
 
 to sucli an appeal ? The chord of Christian sympathy, and 
 none other : that chord upon which the Spirit of Christ 
 alone can play, and bring forth music. God has given us 
 the principle, in His Divine love. Christ has commanded 
 us to exercise it, and put it in practice. The Holy Spirit 
 comes down upon the heart, and softens it, and bedews it 
 with its own dove-like sweetness. And thus all the Persons 
 of the adorable Trinity are combining to produce in us that 
 state of feeling which belongs to the children of God. 
 For " I say unto you," were the solemn words of Christ, 
 " Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to 
 them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully 
 use you, and persecute you ; that ye may be the children of 
 your Father which is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to 
 rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the 
 just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love 
 you, what reward have ye ? do not even the publicans the 
 same ? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye 
 more than others ? do not even the publicans so ? Be ye 
 therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is 
 perfect." 1 A lofty standard : a standard to which we may 
 never attain, but nevertheless the standard to which we 
 should be forever aspiring. It will not do to say : " It is 
 unattainable ; it is beyond flesh and blood ; it was not meant 
 for us ; it is unnatural ! " These propositions may all be 
 true in themselves; and yet should have no weight in a 
 Christian heart, or with a Christian spirit. We are making 
 no appeal to flesh and blood, — no exhortation to the pow- 
 ers of nature. Our expectations of your improvement do 
 not come from them. " I can do all things/' 5 said S. Paul, 
 not through flesh and blood, not through the powers of na- 
 ture, not through any strength of his own, but " through 
 Christ which strengthened me." 2 That is his source of 
 
 1 S. Matthew v. M-48. 2 Phil. iv. 13. 
 
5x6 On the National Thanksgiving-day. 
 
 all Christian graces, and especially of this grace of love. 
 He did not say, " I cannot be charitable ; I cannot be for- 
 giving ; I cannot feel sympathy with so corrupt a mass of 
 humanity as the world," and then rest upon his lees : but he 
 turned to Christ, and strove in Him, faithfully, earnestly, 
 prayerfully, to attain unto perfection, — the perfection of 
 sympathy; for love is the fulfilling of the whole law. 
 
 But, my beloved people, you are mistaken when you say 
 that you have nothing for which to be thankful in a na- 
 tional point of view. God is not to be looked at simply in 
 the politics of a nation. He is to be considered as He rules 
 Nature, as He restrains the actions of men, as He governs 
 the Church, as He puts the bit in the mouth of the wicked 
 and turns them about as it pleases Him. And surely we 
 can be thankful that, while pestilence has touched us, it 
 has not raged in its fury ; that while want is felt, it has not 
 reached the confines of famine ; that while our industry 
 has been, in a measure, blighted, there is still enough left 
 to give us hope for the future. Turn to the records of pes- 
 tilence and famine which are now coming to us from un- 
 happy India, 1 and learn what we have escaped. We may 
 again find cause of thanksgiving in that God's Spirit has 
 soothed and calmed the spirits of many who were once bit- 
 ter against us ; and that friends have been raised up for us 
 in high places, who have stood, and are still standing, as a 
 tower of strength between us and those who would inflict 
 upon us further evil. And then, surely, we who sit here 
 should be unfeignedly thankful that the Spirit of God has 
 been poured out upon His Church, and that we are seen 
 to-day once more at unity over all this broad land, ad- 
 vancing with serried ranks against the enemies of Christ, 
 " fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an 
 army with banners ; " 2 putting the world under our feet, 
 
 1 The Orissa famine of 1866. 2 Solomon's Song vi. 10. 
 
On the National Thanksgiving-day. 517 
 
 and loving the Kingdom of Christ more than the kingdoms 
 of this world. And finally, we may rejoice that we are a 
 part of a Christian Nation ; and that prayer is forever as- 
 cending to God, from North and South and East and West, 
 that He would guide us according to His wisdom, and as it 
 seems best to Him ; and that those prayers will be an- 
 swered by Him in His all- wise Providence. There are good 
 people everywhere, who are praying, " Thy will be done on 
 earth, as it is in Heaven : " which is, at last, leaving things 
 to His disposal, and placing them where they will most 
 rightfully be ordered. All this is cause for thanks : and 
 well may we unite therefore in giving thanks ! 
 
 Let us never, my beloved people, turn away from giving 
 thanks to God. His blessed Word says : " In every thing 
 give thanks ; " 1 in the darkness, as well as in the light ; 
 when the tear is trickling down the cheek, as well as when 
 gladness rules the hoar. We know very little, in this 
 world, of the ways of God. He dwelleth often in the thick 
 darkness. He plants His footsteps in the sea. We cannot 
 follow Him : we must only trust in Him, and thank Him for 
 such good as He clearly gives us. And that good is always 
 more than we deserve ; for it is visited upon us in a thou- 
 sand ways that we do not notice. Every breath of air 
 which fans our faces and brings health upon its wings ; 
 every movement of our bodies which is made without 
 pain ; every feeling and affection of the heart which gives 
 us satisfaction and joy ; every comfort of life which is per- 
 mitted us : comes from His hand. " Do not err, my be- 
 loved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is 
 from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, 
 with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turn- 
 ing." 2 We cannot pass God by, if we have true spiritual 
 1 1 Thess. t. 18. 2 S. James i. 16, 17. 
 
5 1 8 On the National Thanksgiving-day. 
 
 sensibility. He is with us, and around us, at every mo- 
 ment of our lives, blessing us in Nature, in Society, in our 
 homes, and in our hearts. Therefore, in all things, let us 
 give thanks ! 
 
 November 29, 1866. 
 
tfort^sefcetttl) Sermon. 
 
 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and 
 lift tip your heads ; for your redemption draweth nigh. — S. Luke 
 xxi. 28. 
 
 nnHEIiE have been periods in the history of the Church 
 
 of Christ upon earth which have well deserved the 
 title of Ages of Faith, — periods in which the disciples of 
 Christ have carried out in their daily practice the hardest 
 sayings and the severest injunctions of their Master, — 
 when they have verified the striking language of S. Paul, 
 that c< 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/' were able to 
 separate them from the love of God, which was in Christ 
 Jesus their Lord. It has been with these giants in Faith 
 as it has been with the giants of science and of literature. 
 They have come in groups, come to meet great occasious 
 or great opportunities, being raised up and filled with the 
 Spirit of God to spread the Church through the blood of 
 martyrdom, or to beat down heresy through valiant conflict 
 and patient suffering for the Truth's sake, or to make ut- 
 terance before the unbelieving nations of the deep things 
 of God, — those things which the natural heart despises 
 and rejects. These have been God's chosen witnesses, men 
 who learned at the foot of the Cross to understand the 
 value of the soul, and the sublime mystery of redemption, 
 and the awfulness of Eternity; and to gauge all earthly 
 things at their real price. The future was their point of 
 
520 Your Redemption draweth nigh. 
 
 observation, and not the present. The coming of Christ 
 was their hope and consolation, not the coming of any 
 thing worldly. Heaven and its promised glories filled up 
 their hearts, and not man and his poor attempts at show 
 and happiness. All the events of the world ; all the cir- 
 cumstances which surrounded themselves ; all the signs in 
 nature, and all the confusion of the civil state : affected 
 them only as so many portents which were to be interpreted 
 in their relations to Christ's work upon earth. They 
 looked above man, ever, to the Finger of God. They 
 pierced through the darkness and the clouds which ob- 
 scured this lower world, and saw the fire that was infold- 
 ing itself, and the brightness that was round about it : and 
 just when the hearts of the ungodly and the unfaithful 
 were failing them for fear, they lifted up their heads and 
 rejoiced in the tokens which announced the presence and 
 the dealings of God. It was only when the world was 
 left to itself, that they trembled. It was only when God 
 seemed to be hiding Himself and giving up the nations to 
 their own ways, that they were afraid. 
 
 These Ages of Faith, as I said just now, lie scattered all 
 along the Church's path of life ; and it was while creating 
 the greatest of them that our Saviour uttered the words 
 which I have selected for my text. His disciples were yet 
 immature Christians ; had most of them but lately entered 
 the school of Faith ; had none of them as yet received the 
 power of the Holy Ghost; were more or less tinctured 
 with the national error of supposing Him, their Messiah, 
 to be coming soon to set up the reign of righteousness 
 and of peace upon earth. They had no conception, in that . 
 early period of Christ's manifestation, of the long ages 
 through which His Church was to be militant ; of the many 
 kingdoms which must rise and fall ere the Kingdom of 
 Christ should come ; of the strife and warfare and persecu- 
 
Your Redemption draweth nigh, 521 
 
 tion and confusion which must reign over the world, ere 
 their redemption should be accomplished. All this they 
 had to learn : for if they knew it not, their faith might be 
 shaken, and their love wax cold. And while schooling 
 these early fruits of His divine Ministry. He has instructed 
 us through them ; and caused the lesson, which their ne- 
 cessities required, to reach even to us, and to comfort us in 
 the midst of the chauges and calamities which are forever 
 disturbing the Church and the world. 
 
 It is the manner of the Scripture to convey its comfort 
 or its warnings through words that have a double applica- 
 tion, first to the times in which they were uttered, and 
 then to any events in the future which might correspond 
 with those in circumstance and import. And it is tnis 
 method of teaching which makes the Bible a book for all 
 times, an expanding voice, — if I may use the expression, 
 — speaking to men of every age and suiting itself to the 
 necessities of every period. What was comfort to the early 
 Christians, becomes comfort for us. What was explanation 
 to them, is explanation for us. And expressions which had 
 reference in their delivery only to matters that were local 
 or temporary, become, through this presence of an inspir- 
 ing Spirit, applicable to events of a more general and ex- 
 alted nature, reaching from earth to Heaven, and embrac- 
 ing within their grand development events as remote as the 
 ending of the whole Christian economy. 
 
 Our text is a passage from one of these remarkable dis- 
 courses, — partly a word of coinfort, and partly a word of 
 prophecy. It was spoken by our Lord when preparing His 
 disciples for the wonders and tribulations which should ac- 
 company the destruction of Jerusalem : and it hurries on, 
 in the fullness of its comprehensiveness (for with the Lord 
 a thousand years are as one day) until it includes in its 
 warnings and exhortations all Christians, even to the mo- 
 
522 Your Redemption draweth nigh. 
 
 ment when He Himself shall come a second time in the 
 clouds of Heaven to judge the world. And His lesson to 
 both them and us is, that Christians have nothing to fear 
 even in the worst times ; nay, that their moment of exulta- 
 tion and of glory shall he when others are trembling with 
 fear, — when there is " distress of nations with perplex- 
 ity." 
 
 If we examine our text in connection with the whole dis- 
 course of our Saviour, it will sound strangely in the ears 
 of unbelief, and even in the ears of many who profess to be 
 the followers of our Lord. These last will find it almost 
 as hard a saying as those who disbelieve the Gospel, and 
 will confess that they have not reached up to that height of 
 faith which will make them exult amid such scenes of awful 
 terror. For Christ bids them, " when these things begin 
 to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads." 
 What things ? The world at peace around them, persecu- 
 tion having ceased, and humiliation and shame having 
 taken their flight ? What things ? Christianity victorious, 
 and seated in the pride of power ? What things ? Their 
 Lord, the conquering hero they had expected, beginning to 
 reign upon Earth ? None of these : for looking up and 
 lifting up their heads at such things would not have con- 
 stituted them a peculiar people, nor made them giants in 
 faith. But they were commanded to look up and lift up 
 their heads, just when every one else was trembling with 
 fear, and calling upon the rocks and the mountains to fall 
 upon them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb: 
 " And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, 
 and in the stars ; and upon the earth distress of nations, 
 with perplexity ; the sea and the waves roaring ; men's 
 hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those 
 things which are coming on the earth : for the powers of 
 heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son 
 
Your Redemption draweth nigh. 523 
 
 of man coining in a cloud with power and great glory. 
 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look 
 up, and lift up your heads ; for your redemption draweth 
 nigh." What a religion, that can give comfort amid such 
 convulsions of nature and such lamentations of man ! 
 What Faith, that can make a human creature face such 
 omens of destruction, and exult amid the wreck of the 
 heavens and the earth ! 
 
 And yet if we really only were what we profess to be, 
 believers in Christ and in His work, why should we be 
 moved at any thing, save the victory of Satan ? If he 
 could once again turn back the tide of battle which Christ 
 rolled upon him when He came from Bozrah in garments 
 dyed with blood, travel-ling in the greatness of His strength, 
 a Christian might be shaken to the depth of his soul : but 
 nothing else can harm him ! All things else are but links 
 in that chain of events which stretches from the Cross of 
 Christ to His second coming in glory ; — are but onward 
 movements in that redemption of our race which, beginning 
 in the love of God, shall end in the exulting* triumph of 
 Christ, when death and hell shall be cast into the lake of 
 fire. What are signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in 
 the stars, to a Christian when his Lord has told him that 
 they are hung out in the heavens as tokens of His love to 
 him, of His divine work in his behalf? They are like the 
 signal-fires which were flashed in ancient days from tower 
 to tower, and from mountain to mountain, heralding on 
 wings of light the advent of some mighty conqueror, car- 
 rying joy to the hearts of all his faithful followers, and 
 striking terror only into those who had proved traitors 
 to his cause. It is but right that the morning stars, 
 which sang together when the Almighty laid the corner- 
 stone of the Earth and planted its everlasting foundations, 
 should once more signal forth their joy at its re-creation 
 
524 Your Redemption draweth nigh, 
 
 in righteousness. It is but fitting that the sun, which was 
 shrouded in darkness when the Son of Man was crucified, 
 should blaze with redoubled glory when He comes in the 
 Majesty of His Godhead. And what, to the Christian, is 
 " distress of nations with perplexity ; " is " men's hearts 
 failing them for fear : " when he remembers that those na- 
 tions have been the stern opponents of Christ's Kingdom ; 
 those men, the scoffers who have said unto God in the pride 
 of their hearts, " Depart from us ; for we desire not the 
 knowledge of thy ways ? " Is not their humiliation his 
 glory ? Is not their terror — the only time, perchance, 
 that they have truly feared God — his hope ! What has he 
 been struggling for, all his days ? Upon what have his fee- 
 ble yet earnest efforts been concentrated ? The consumma- 
 tion of the work of the Lord, — the in-bringing of that 
 glorious Conqueror, when every eye shall see Him, and 
 every knee shall bow before Him, and the shout of glory 
 shall ascend, of blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, 
 unto Him who hath redeemed us out of every nation and 
 kindred and people, and hath made us to be kings and 
 priests unto God ! And shall he be afraid of the accom- 
 paniments of this his crowning desire and prayer? 
 Strangely inconsistent should he be, to tremble when he 
 should look up with joy and hope, — to be of a fearful 
 heart when his Lord has commanded him to lift up his eyes 
 and see the glory of His Cross ! 
 
 It may seem strange that the reason given in my text 
 for the exultation of Christ's followers in that day should 
 be " because their redemption draweth nigh." And those 
 who have not well considered the economy of Grace may 
 ask : " Was not our redemption procured when our Saviour 
 died upon the Cross and rose again for our justification ? 
 Have not all those who have died in faith gone to the land 
 of peace and of rest ? Are not we, who still live, rejoicing 
 
Your Redemption draweth nigh. 525 
 
 in the hope of our deliverance from sin and death and 
 hell ? " I would not, my beloved hearers, mar a single joy, 
 or blight a single hope, in your Christian life ; but I must 
 nevertheless tell you that your redemption, and the re- 
 demption of those who have gone before you, will not be 
 consummate until the second coming of our Lord. " For 
 we know," says the Apostle S. Paul to the Romans, " that 
 the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together 
 until now. Aud not only they, but ourselves also, which 
 have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan 
 within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the re- 
 demption of our body." 1 ' T is true that we can never 
 again, save by our own consent, be made the servants of 
 sin and the captives of Satan : for Christ has conquered 
 through His blood. ' T is true that all who have died in 
 faith are living in an assured hope of everlasting glory. 
 ' T is true that we can raise the cry of victory even here 
 upon earth, and ask, " Who is he that coudemneth ? It is 
 Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is 
 even at the right hand of God, who also maketh interces- 
 sion for us." 'T is true that we can face our fiercest ene- 
 mies, and triumphantly challenge death and the grave. 
 But nevertheless, " the last enemy that shall be destroyed 
 is death," and he holds and will hold all bodies in his grasp, 
 until the trump of the archangel and the voice of God 
 shall summon all the bodies of all the dead from earth and 
 sea, and the faithful shall be caught up to meet their Lord 
 in glory. This will be our redemption. This was the re- 
 demption which drew nigh, when these signs in sun and 
 moon and stars, and this distress of nations, burst upon 
 the watching eyes of Faith. We must not mingle con- 
 fusedly the steps of our redemption. We must watch upon 
 the Lord, and rejoice that He is bringing us nearer every 
 
 1 Rom. yiii. 22. 
 
526 Your Redemption draweth nigh, 
 
 day to the period when He shall set His Son upon His holy- 
 hill of Zion. 
 
 And this is the comfort which is offered to us, my fellow- 
 Christians, when we see signs in the heavens and signs in 
 the earth, when distress of nations with perplexity is visi- 
 ble in the world, when men's hearts are failing them for 
 fear. They are tokens that God's work is speeding to its 
 consummation, that the curtain is rolling up which is to 
 introduce another act in the drama of the world's spir- 
 itual history. Keligion, Christianity, are too much wrapped 
 up in all the questions now agitating the world, to he left 
 out of our calculations in weighing events and anticipating 
 consequences. And although I am not silly enough to 
 suppose that such events are indicative of the immediate 
 coming of our Lord to His final Judgment, still they are 
 enough to render Christians thoughtful and watchful ; and 
 to comfort them, when trouble may come upon them in the 
 future, with the belief that their redemption draweth nigh. 
 
 I trust, my beloved people, that there are many of you 
 who are longing for that redemption, — who, weary of sin 
 and sorrow, are looking, with anxious hearts, for their rest. 
 How mournful it is to see immortal creatures weaving for- 
 ever new webs of hope, and fastening them to objects 
 which are actually crumbling while they rest upon them. 
 What is this world, with all its noise and tumult, with all 
 its seeming importance and majesty, but a stage upon 
 which God is moving its actors to and fro according to the 
 purpose of His will, and dismissing them at His pleasure 
 when their parts have been played out ? And yet most of 
 them think only of themselves, and forget Him who is over- 
 ruling every thing, and who has said : " I will overturn, 
 overturn, overturn, until He cometh whose right it is." 
 But there are some, I know, who see and acknowledge an 
 overruling Providence ; who can perceive an order in the 
 
Your Redemption drawetk nigh. 527 
 
 midst of apparent confusion ; who can trace a divine plan 
 through all the complications of human affairs. To such 
 there can be no fear. In the hearts of these children of 
 God there can he no distress. They can see God in the 
 whirlwind^ and in the storm ; and they can trust to Him 
 who is forever working to bring in their redemption. 
 Man is looking only at man. God is looking at sin. and 
 death, and hell, and him who has the power of death. Man 
 is contending for power, for territory, for right-, for lib- 
 erty : God is overrulino' all that, to g'ive His Son dominion 
 over all, and to bring in that liberty wherewith Christ hath 
 made us free. THien the nations are distressed and per- 
 plexed, when men's hearts are failing them for fear, when 
 the sea and the waves are roaring : then may God's children 
 look up and lift up their heads, for they may rest assured 
 that their redemption draweth nigh, — that their salvation 
 is nearer than when they believed. 
 
iffortv ctglKI) pennon* 
 
 In thy light shall we see light. — Psalm xxxvi. 9. 
 [HE peculiar and unceasing boast of the present time is, 
 
 that it is an age of light. All our public declaimers, 
 whether they take for their platform the rostrum, the 
 lecture-room, the legislative hall, or the pulpit, invariably 
 strike the same key-note, and congratulate their audiences 
 upon the wonderful advancement of the world in knowl- 
 edge, in intelligence, and in right reason. It is a thing 
 taken for granted ; about which there can be no dispute ; 
 which needs only to be enunciated, to be assented to : and 
 if any question should arise upon the subject, that question 
 would have no reference to the matter of fact, but only to 
 some special difference about the kind of light which has 
 streamed in most plenteously, or has weighed most in the 
 scale of interest or importance. In proof of its great im- 
 provement in knowledge, one is pointed to the modern dis- 
 coveries in physical science ; to the marvellous achieve- 
 ments wrought through the application of steam; to the 
 yet more wonderful applications of electro-magnetism ; to 
 the labor-saving machines which are reducing man to a 
 mere regulator ; to the exquisite beauty and finish of the 
 arts ; but above all to the universal comfort which has spread 
 itself through society. In order to demonstrate this ad- 
 vancement in intelligence, its school-systems, its lyceums, 
 its lecture rooms, its teeming press, its ever increasing 
 libraries, its general diffusion among the masses of truths 
 and secrets and privileges which used to be confined exclu- 
 
Christ our Light. 529 
 
 sively and mysteriously to the favored few, are triumphantly 
 advanced as incontrovertible evidence. The growth of 
 right reason is marked, in the public estimation, by the 
 superiority of its arrangements in Government ; by its in- 
 ventions in Religion ; by its assertion of rights which have 
 been long kept under the foot of political or ecclesiastical 
 or domestic tyranny ; by its universal outcry against every 
 thing old and established. To controvert these pretensions, 
 is to place yourself out of the pale of acknowledged truth, 
 and to be assuming a position contrary to the conclusions 
 of the advancing world and the glorious spirit of the age. 
 To deny that all this stuff is light, seems, to the rushing 
 world, like the denial of a first truth ; like the contradic- 
 tion of something obvious to the very senses of mankind. 
 And so the world dashes on, flattering itself with its pro- 
 gression, exulting in the brightness which encircles its 
 onward career, and promising itself an approaching per- 
 fectibility which is to fulfill the predictions of Poets, 
 Philosophers, and Statesmen. 
 
 How startling, or else how ridiculous, it must sound to 
 such a world, to be told that it is lying in darkness ; that 
 so far as all true light is concerned, these references and 
 illustrations are of no account, because they do not touch 
 the question which is of most interest to an immortal 
 creature, the question of moral and religious advancement. 
 That there is a vast and daily progression in physical knowl- 
 edge ; that there is an unceasing application of the princi- 
 ples of science to the comfort of life ; that there is a vast 
 multiplication of the apparatus of literature and of the 
 means of intelligence ; that the intellect is active and busy 
 beyond all precedent ; I will not deny : but no more can I 
 admit that these things necessarily increase man's knowl- 
 edge of God, and of that true Light of which He is the 
 Fountain and eternal Parent. " That which hath been is 
 
 31 
 
530 Christ our Light. 
 
 now ; and that which is to be hath already been," 1 saith the 
 wise man. And, while the investigations of modern travel- 
 lers and antiquarians are satisfying us that we know very 
 little of luxury which the ancients knew not, and possess 
 very little of the security of life and property which they 
 possessed not, and are very little advanced beyond them (if 
 we be advanced at all) in literature and the arts, while yet 
 they lay imbruted in foul idolatry and in the blackness of 
 darkness upon religious topics : I cannot acknowledge that 
 the improvement in our day, in these respects, necessarily 
 involves a like improvement in matters relating to the heart 
 and to the spirit. The Christian, and above all the Chris- 
 tian Minister, cannot be too cautious about confounding 
 progress in physical science and in social life, with progress 
 in morals and religion. They do not always go together ; 
 and illustrations innumerable, did time permit their intro- 
 duction, might be furnished from the events of the current 
 time, to satisfy any reasonable man of this truth. The 
 statistics of crime have established the fact beyond all con- 
 troversy, that a diffusion of education, as it is called, — 
 where that education was merely intellectual, in which 
 there was not a decided admixture of religious instruction, 
 — had invariably produced an increase of villainy and cor- 
 ruption. And with reason ; for man's nature being strongly 
 inclined to evil, mere intellectual culture only sharpens cor- 
 rupt faculties, and furnishes them with means and appli- 
 ances of wickedness. And these statistical results, brought 
 out by individuals having no alliance with religion, coincide 
 strictly with the a priori reasonings of true philosophy ; and 
 are just such as a Christian would have anticipated, with 
 no other basis for his foresight than the simple truth of 
 man's fall and consequent corruption, as revealed by the 
 Holy Scriptures. No, my hearers, the world may reach, and 
 1 Ecclesiastes iii. 15. 
 
Christ our Light, 531 
 
 probably will reach, a yet higher position in physical power 
 and physical comfort ; will attain still loftier flights in in- 
 tellectual eminence ; will improve still more in social organ- 
 ization : while yet it shall fulfill what S. Paul said of the 
 Romans in their Augustan age of luxury and literature : 
 " Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not 
 as God, neither were thankful ; but became vain in their 
 imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Pro- 
 fessing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and 
 changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image 
 made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed 
 beasts, and creeping things 1 or what the same Apostle 
 said, with equal truth, of the refined Ephesians : " having 
 no hope, and without God in the world." 2 All these mani- 
 festations of physical and intellectual progression do not 
 in the least degree forbid my saying that the world, even 
 in its active and progressive advancement physically and 
 intellectually, is lying in darkness. 
 
 But you may ask : " How can such a position be recon- 
 ciled with the fact of a Christian Revelation, with the 
 apparatus of Religion staring us in the face at every turn ? 
 How can the world be lying in darkness, when the Sun of 
 Righteousness has arisen upon it with healing in His 
 wings ; — when He who called Himself £ The Light of the 
 world,' has scattered the beams of truth over the groaning 
 and travailing creation ? " Ah ! my hearers, as well might 
 you ask how the inmates of an asylum for the blind can be 
 said to be lying in darkness, when the sun of Nature has 
 arisen with brightness in his train, and has diffused the 
 glory of his effulgence over earth and air and ocean. What 
 is all the radiance of the heavens, — what the rainbow hues 
 which are painted with the pencil of the Almighty in rich 
 luxuriance upon the outspread creation, — to beings defec- 
 1 Eom. i. 21-23. 2 Eph. ii. 12. 
 
532 Christ our Light. 
 
 tive and deprived of the organ of perception ? Light is all 
 around them, and beings like themselves are rejoicing in 
 that light : but to them, it is as though it were not. They 
 hear of it with the hearing of the ear, and perchance give 
 it the credence of the understanding : but they can form 
 no conception of it. And as it is with them, so is it, I 
 grieve to say, with by far the larger proportion of those 
 who are living in the Light of the Gospel, and under the 
 very shadow of Christian institutions. The glorious Light 
 of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is irradiating the world ; is 
 blessing with its preciousness the children of God ; is cloth- 
 ing with the anticipated robes of heavenly glory those who 
 have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb: while, to 
 these blinded multitudes, — blinded by the God of this 
 world, — there is neither Light, nor preciousness, nor beauty 
 in the revelation of the Almighty. " Eyes have they, but 
 they see not." 1 
 
 It is in this sense, my beloved hearers, that I am bound 
 to preach the broad distinction which there is between that 
 wisdom which is earthly and sensual, and that wisdom 
 which cometh from above ; between a world pressing for- 
 ward in the race of physical advancement, and that same 
 world lying in religious darkness : and to labor to impress 
 upon you the truth of our text, addressed by the Psalmist 
 to the Lord God of Israel : "In thy light shall we see 
 light." This distinction is beautifully drawn in the twenty- 
 eighth chapter of Job, where this very train of thought 
 seems to have been passing nearly four thousand years ago 
 through the mind of the man of Uz : " Surely," writes he, 
 " there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where 
 they fine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is 
 molten out of the stone. ... As for the earth, out of it 
 cometh bread : and under it is turned up as it were fire. 
 1 Psalm cxxxv. 16. 
 
Christ our Light 533 
 
 The stones of it are the place of sapphires, and it hath dust 
 of gold." 1 This, you perceive, is a knowledge of nat- 
 ural things ; is the development of physical science as 
 known in his time : but the inspiration which lighted upon 
 him would not permit him to stop there, — to confound 
 this with true wisdom and religious light. " But where," 
 goes he on to ask, " shall wisdom be found ? and where is 
 the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price 
 thereof ; neither is it found in the land of the living. The 
 depth saith, It is not in me : and the sea saith, It is not 
 with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver 
 be weighed for the price thereof. . . . Whence then Com- 
 eth wisdom ? and where is the place of understanding ? 
 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close 
 from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, 
 We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. God un- 
 derstandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place 
 thereof. . . . And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of 
 the Lord, that is wisdom ; and to depart from evil is un- 
 derstanding." 2 He knew well that natural knowledge was 
 one thing, and that religious knowledge was quite another 
 thing ; and his rich and magnificent summary concluded at 
 the same point with that of David in our text : "The fear 
 of the Lord, that is wisdom." " In thy light shall we see 
 light." 
 
 Supposing now, for a moment, that I have persuaded you 
 to receive this distinction, and to acknowledge that there 
 is a wide difference between the onward march of the 
 world in intelligence and knowledge, and the progress of 
 that same world in religious light : it will still seem incred- 
 ible to you, that you can be living in the midst of such a 
 system as Christianity, supporting its institutions, partak- 
 ing of its blessings, and yet not be a recipient in any 
 
 1 Verses 1, 2, 5, 6. 2 j ob XX viii. 12-15, 20-23, 28. 
 
534 Christ our Light. 
 
 degree of the Light which is its distinctive glory. " I 
 believe," you may say, " upon evidence, the truth of the 
 Christian religion, and its divinity ; I have been instructed 
 in its truths from childhood ; I read my Bible, and admire 
 its moral teachings and its profound wisdom ; I practise, 
 as fairly as I can, the duties which it inculcates : and am I 
 to be told that I am lying in darkness, and have no relig- 
 ious light ? " You may have more my hearer, than I am 
 aware of. I stand not here to judge you : I rather desire 
 that you should judge yourself. In answer to your indig- 
 nant question I have only to say, as one who desires you to 
 be a partaker of that Divine Light, that you may have pro- 
 ceeded quite as far as you represent yourself to have done, 
 and yet be in darkness about all that relates to spiritual 
 things. For, as to your believing in the Revelation of God 
 as a matter of fact, S. James tells us that " the devils also 
 believe, and tremble." 1 And as to the reading of your 
 Bible, there were those in the Apostles' days who read 
 them, and yet wrested them to their own destruction. 2 
 And as to your performance of the moral duties of the 
 Bible, you can read there of a young man who was so good 
 that when our Saviour saw him He loved him ; who could 
 answer to a very strict catechism upon these points : and 
 yet to whom He was compelled to say, " One thing thou 
 lackest." 3 And as to your baptism and youthful instruc- 
 tion in these things, we have S. Peter saying to Simon 
 Magus, whom Philip had baptized upon a profession of 
 faith, and who had seen the wonderful works of the Lord : 
 "Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. . . . For 
 I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in 
 the bond of iniquity." 4 A remembrance of these Scriptur- 
 al examples forces me to say, that you may have proceeded 
 
 1 S. James ii. 19. 2 2 S. Pet. iii. 16. 
 
 3 S. Mark x. 21. * Acts viii. 21, 23. 
 
Christ our Light. 535 
 
 all this length, and jet may not be in the Light. But 
 mark ! I say " may not be ; " — I say that it does not fol- 
 low as a matter of course, that such religious exercises as 
 you plead must necessarily determine that you are in the 
 Light. That must depend upon other tests drawn from the 
 Bible itself, which must at last settle ail the questions 
 relating to our spiritual life. 
 
 The Bible proceeds throughout upon the position that 
 the Godhead has been revealed to man only in and through 
 Jesus Christ. " Xo man hath seen God at any time," saith 
 S. John ; " the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom 
 of the Father, he hath declared him." 1 And S. Paul 
 speaks of Him as " dwelling in the light which no man can 
 approach unto ; whom no man hath seen, nor can see." 2 
 So that when the Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed Himself as 
 the " Light of the world," He developed the true meaning 
 of the Psalmist : " In thy Light shall we see light." Just 
 as in Nature, we see not light by looking into the dazzling 
 brightness of the orb of day, but rather gather darkness : 
 so is it ordered that we shall not drink in religious light 
 directly from the glorious Fountain of Light before whom 
 Cherubim and Seraphim veil their faces, lest we be over- 
 powered by its effulgence and perish : " for there shall no 
 man," saith Jehovah, " see me, and live." 3 But when that 
 light of Nature is reflected front the myriad points on 
 which its rays impinge, and comes to us a liquid molten 
 flood of glory, mellowed and softened to our senses, how 
 perfectly in that light do we see light! What, in itself, 
 when we dared to raise to it our presumptuous eye, was too 
 dazzling for our weakness, is now, in its diffusion, mild, 
 beneficent, beautiful, precious above all price. What, in 
 itself, destroyed our vision, now fills it with perfect satisfac- 
 tion and unalloyed delight. And just so is it, when we turn 
 
 1 S. John i. 18. 2 1 Tim. vi. 16 3 Exodus xxxiii. 20. 
 
536 Christ our Light, 
 
 from the ineffable, invisible and unapproachable Godhead, 
 to " God manifest in the flesh," 1 — to Him who took upon 
 Him our weaknesses and carried our sorrows, who calls 
 Himself our Brother, and gathers about Him all the ten- 
 derest affections of our nature. 0 how mild, how benefi- 
 cent, how precious does the Divinity shine forth in Him ! 
 How quickly do we learn from Him, and in Him, and 
 through Him, the character and the attributes and the 
 purposes of that Godhead which we cannot otherwise ap- 
 proach ! What words of wisdom flow from His lips ! He 
 speaks as never man spake. What floods of light are cast 
 upon life and immortality ! How all the mysteries of our 
 being open under His Divine teachings, leaving nothing 
 mysterious, save the great mystery of godliness itself! 
 How all the wants of our nature are satisfied : wants man- 
 ifested by man in the thousand devices he has adopted to 
 bring the Godhead down to earth, and put into words by 
 Job when he said : " 0 that I knew where I might find 
 him ! that I might come even to his seat ! 0 that one 
 might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his 
 neighbor ! " 2 Truly can we say that the Psalmist uttered 
 the truth of prophecy when he said : " In thy light shall 
 we see light ; " and that the Mcene Fathers expressed 
 most happily the idea of Scripture, when, in the Creed 
 which is called after their Council, they designated our 
 blessed Lord as " Light of Light." 
 
 My answer, then, to your question of mingled wonder 
 and indignation, will depend, as I said just now, upon your 
 capability of meeting the tests of Scripture which are 
 placed by inspiration right across your pathway. In that 
 sublime introduction to his Gospel, in which S. John opens 
 so magnificently the essential Divinity of our Lord, "In 
 the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
 1 1 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Job xxiii. 3, and xvi. 21. 
 
Christ our Light, 537 
 
 and the Word was God : " 1 he says, " In him was life ; and 
 the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in 
 darkness ; and the darkness comprehended it not." 2 Here 
 is your first test. Do you comprehend the light which has 
 been brought in through Jesus Christ, to wit, His wisdom, 
 His righteousness, His sanctification, His redemption? 
 Do you perceive and confess the Cross of Christ to be the 
 power of God, and the wisdom of God, unto salvation ? 
 All light short of this is no Light at all. Salvation is 
 what Christ came to procure. Whatever may be the col- 
 lateral blessings of Christianity — and they are many — this 
 is its absorbing purpose. And though you understand all 
 mysteries, and all knowledge, if you understand not this, 
 you are yet in darkness. The promise was : " Howbeit, 
 when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you 
 into all truth. ... He shall glorify me : for he shall 
 receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." 3 Hath this 
 Spirit of Truth dealt with you, my hearer ? Hath this per- 
 ception of Light been given you, so that you can say, " One 
 thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see"? 4 
 If it has not, then are you still in darkness, although en- 
 compassed with light ; and you have yet to beseech God 
 to enable you to say : " In thy Light do I see Light." 
 
 Let me apply another test. S. John tells us very plainly 
 concerning the Son of God : " He that believeth on him 
 is not condemned : but he that believeth not is condemned 
 already, because he hath not believed in the name of the 
 only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, 
 that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness 
 rather than light, because their deeds were evil." 5 Here, 
 again, belief in Jesus Christ is made salvation, and unbe- 
 lief condemnation. Now apply this test to yourself, my 
 
 1 S. John i. 1, 2. 2 Ridt 4) 5< 3 lud. xvi. 13, 14. 
 
 * Ibid. ix. 25. 5 fad. iii. 18, 19. 
 
538 Christ our Light. 
 
 hearer, and do it honestly : apply it in no superficial way, 
 in no such way as shall permit you to deceive yourself. 
 Frame not out of your imagination a system which you 
 may choose to call Christianity, and then, comparing that 
 with your feelings, tell me that you have no unbelief in 
 Christianity, no dislike of the Light of Truth, no love for 
 darkness ! That will not do. David did not say, " In our 
 Light shall we see light." He appealed to a Holy God, 
 who searcheth the heart, and said : " In thy Light shall 
 we see light ; " and therefore, when you would understand 
 your spiritual condition, you must place your feelings 
 under the blaze of that Kevelation, which our Lord, Light 
 of Light, has given us for our instruction. A man cannot 
 serve two masters, for he will certainly love the one and 
 hate the other : and no more can you dwell in two such 
 states, at once, as Light and Darkness. The one will ex- 
 tinguish the other. And you will find, when you are forced 
 to make the choice between Light and Darkness, that, un- 
 less enlightened by the Spirit of God, you will confess that, 
 if this be Light, you prefer darkness, and embrace condem- 
 nation. 
 
 Taking these two tests as our rule of judgment, let me 
 ask you, of what avail will progression in physical science, 
 will improvements in the comforts of social life, will ad- 
 vancements in the arts and refinements of civilization be to 
 you, in removing your darkness, and giving you Light? 
 What perception can they give you of spiritual life ? 
 " For what man," says the Apostle, " knoweth the things 
 of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so 
 the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of 
 God." 1 The more you strive to find out God through in- 
 tellectual processes, the more will you have to acknowledge, 
 if you are really in earnest in your search : " Such knowl- 
 
 1 1 Cor. ii. 11. 
 
Christ our Light. 539 
 
 edge is too wonderful for me ; it is high, I cannot attain 
 unto it." 1 Your progress will be like that of a child, who 
 thinks that he could touch the heavens by climbing to the 
 summit of some lofty mountain. He would find to his dis- 
 may, could he compass his desire, that the higher he 
 climbed the further would the skies seem to withdraw 
 themselves from him, and leave him in a cold, thin atmos- 
 phere, where there would be no comfort, no ease, no peace, 
 and where he might find destruction. You, my hearer, 
 may pile reason upon reason, and argument upon argu- 
 ment, but you will not be able to compass your vain desire. 
 God will be as far away from you when you shall have done 
 all this, as He was when you began your toilsome search ; 
 and your intellectual efforts will place you every moment 
 in a more comfortless and hopeless positiou. Think you 
 that you are the first who has tried this experiment ? We 
 have the experience of one who tried it near four thousand 
 years ago, and his record is : " Canst thou by searching 
 find out God ? .... It is as high as heaven ; what canst 
 thou do ? deeper than hell ; what canst thou know ? " 2 
 Light, as the Psalmist tells us, is sown for the righteous : 
 but nowhere are we told that it is sown for the intellectual, 
 or the refined, or the civilized, merely as such. 
 
 And now, in conclusion, let me point you to Him, who 
 proclaimed from that central spot of earth which God had 
 chosen for His Temple and His Altar : " I am the light of 
 the world : he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, 
 but shall have the light of life." 3 Let me beseech you 
 to lay aside this useless struggle after Light through nat- 
 ural processes ; and at once, while you have the light, pray 
 to God to give you His Holy Spirit, that He may manifest 
 Christ unto you. Out of Christ there is no Light for man. 
 " The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick dark- 
 
 1 Psalm cxxxix. 6. 2 Job. xi. 7, 8. 3 S. John viii. 12. 
 
540 
 
 Christ our Light. 
 
 ness ; " 1 and what He said, He will perform in any case 
 where His Light is attempted to be put aside. In Christ is 
 Light : out of Christ is darkness, gross darkness. God has 
 no light for the proud : He " resisteth the proud," 2 says 
 S. James. " Behold, all ye that kindle a fire," are the 
 words of Isaiah, " that compass yourselves about with 
 sparks : walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks 
 that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand ; 
 ye shall lie down in sorrow." 3 But, on the other hand, 
 he says: "For thus saith the high and lofty One that 
 inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the 
 high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite 
 and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and 
 to revive the heart of the contrite ones." 4 
 
 And let us not forget, my fellow-Christians, who profess 
 that we are in the Light, that we ourselves were " some 
 time in darkness," and that by the grace of God we are 
 what we are. Let us not be high-minded, but fear. Re- 
 move that grace, and our candle would go out. Depend 
 for a single day upon ourselves, and darkness will begin to 
 gather around us. Let us keep abidingly with us the 
 glorious truth of our text, "In thy light shall we see 
 light," and strive to walk unceasingly in the stream that 
 radiates from the Cross of our Saviour. " The path of the 
 just, " says Solomon, " is as the shining light, that shineth 
 more and more unto the perfect day : " 5 and that was be- 
 fore the Sun of Righteousness arose upon the earth. How 
 much more now, when that Sun is casting its full sunshine 
 upon the world ! While we have the Light, let us walk in 
 the Light: lest darkness come upon us, and our "feet 
 stumble upon the dark mountains." 6 
 
 August 12, 1866. 
 
 1 1 Kings viii. 12. 
 4 Ibid, lvii. 15. 
 
 2 S. James iv. 6. 
 5 Proverbs iv. 18. 
 
 3 Isaiah 1. 11. 
 6 Jer. xiii 16. 
 
tfort?*mntl} Sermon . 
 
 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a 
 cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which 
 doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is 
 set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our 
 faith. — Hebrews xii. i, 2. 
 
 TT is exceedingly difficult for us as Christians, struggling 
 after victory, to conceive how it is possible for us to 
 finish our course with joy. We read of such conquerors in 
 the Bible ; we see their names embalmed in the pages of 
 Inspiration ; we hear their songs of triumph as they enter 
 into rest : but we separate them from ourselves by a dis- 
 tance as great as that which separates the heavens from 
 the earth. Abraham, and Isaac, and Moses, and David, 
 and Paul, it is true, have fought the good fight, have kept 
 the faith, and deserve the crown of righteousness which is 
 laid up for them. But while we admit this, we do not, 
 in reality, consider these Saints of the Bible as flesh and 
 blood. We elevate them, as ideal beings, into some imag- 
 inary condition ; and take neither example nor comfort 
 from their struggles, and their success. We consider them 
 as a part not of the history but the machinery of our re- 
 ligion ; ■ — not as men born in sin, heirs of corruption, and 
 redeemed by the Blood of Christ : but as superior beings, 
 occupying a higher sphere, breathing a more spiritual 
 atmosphere, and holding a closer and more intimate com- 
 munion with God. As the books of the Bible were instru- 
 mentally composed by them, we invest them with the awe 
 and the veneration which properly surrounds the inspiration 
 
54 2 The Cloud of Witnesses, 
 
 of God ; and, in spite of our own understanding, give them 
 a place in the scale of being something akin to that which 
 intermediate deities hold in the systems of paganism. It is 
 only after a great struggle that we can be brought to ad- 
 mit any likeness in nature or situation between them and 
 ourselves, and to look upon them as witnesses of the 
 promises and hopes of the Gospel. 
 
 This is unfortunate ; for, in running the race which is set 
 before us, we do need all the encouragement which we can 
 receive from man as well as from God. The Bible will not 
 permit us to consider the acquisition of the crown of right- 
 eousness as an easy victory. It places it within our reach ; 
 it surrounds it with all the glory which language or con- 
 ception can give it ; it invites, it encourages, it entreats us 
 with all the eloquence of tongues touched with a live coal 
 from off the altar, to strive after it : but tells us at the same 
 time, in language which cannot be misunderstood, that it 
 is no easy conquest. All the words which express a great 
 struggle are used to convey to the mind of the Christian 
 the understanding and the experience of the sacred writers 
 in regard to it. It is a fight, in which Christians are urged 
 to put on the whole armor of God ; it is a race, in which 
 they are warned to cast aside every weight and the sin 
 which doth most easily beset them; it is an agony, in 
 which we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against 
 principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the 
 darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high 
 places. Descriptions like these do not look as if the au- 
 thors of them considered victory as a very certain or a very 
 light thing; and therefore is it that they surround the 
 arena with all the light, and hope, and promise, that they 
 are permitted to heap together for the encouragement of 
 the combatants. For this purpose S. Paul, in writing to 
 the Hebrews, summons up from the past all the heroic men 
 
The Cloud of Witnesses. 
 
 543 
 
 who had fought the good fight of faith, and passes them 
 before his readers as witnesses to the great truths of the 
 Gospel, — as palpable evidence of the power of grace in 
 sustaining men like ourselves in the unequal strife which 
 they were called to wage. u Seeing then," says he, " that 
 we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, 
 .... let us run with patience the race that is set before 
 us." Now it would be no encouragement at all, if these 
 witnesses were not men of like infirmities and like condi- 
 tion with ourselves. The success of an angel would give 
 no warrant of success to us. The triumph of an imaginary 
 being would ensure no triumph to a being of flesh and 
 blood. The whole force of the illustration rests upon the 
 truth of the position that these Scriptural witnesses were 
 as sinful, as frail, as weak as ourselves, and have conquered 
 through like means with those which are placed within our 
 grasp. They stand as a connecting link between us and 
 our Saviour, breaking the awful distance, and bidding us 
 hope, that as they have conquered in His strength, so may 
 we, if we are patient and watchful, one day carry the palm 
 branches of victory in our hands. 
 
 The truth is, that so far from these witnesses not being 
 real and proper examples to us, we really enjoy higher 
 privileges of a religious kind than they did. " These all," 
 says the Apostle, after enumerating by name some of this 
 cloud of witnesses, and grouping a multitude of others 
 under various titles of suffering, " 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." 1 They lived under the Law ; 
 we live under the Gospel : " for the Law," says S. John, 
 " was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
 Christ." 2 They were partakers of the Old Covenant : we 
 
 i Heb. xii. 39, 40. 2 S. John i. 17. 
 
544 
 
 The Cloud of Witnesses. 
 
 are the partakers of the New, according to that rich prom- 
 ise of God in Jeremiah : " Behold, the days come, saith the 
 Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of 
 Israel, and with the house of Judah. ... I will put my 
 laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." 1 
 They had earthly priests and an earthly tabernacle : priests 
 who needed daily to offer up sacrifices first for their own 
 sins and then for the people ; — a tabernacle which, though 
 made according to the pattern showed to Moses in the 
 mount, was yet made with hands. We have an High 
 Priest with an unchangeable Priesthood, consecrated for 
 evermore, and ever living to make intercession for us ; — 
 and a Tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. 
 Surely, therefore, if these conquered under all these disad- 
 vantages, much more may we hope to conquer, if we follow 
 them as they followed Christ. If they, resting merely upon 
 promises, had grace and strength sufficient to overcome the 
 world : we, who have the fulfillment of that promise in the 
 outpouring of the Spirit of God, may ask with confidence, 
 " 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. Who shall sep- 
 arate us from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation, or dis- 
 tress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or 
 sword ? . . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than 
 conquerors through him that loved us." 2 
 
 This cloud of Saints surrounds us, then, as a cloud of 
 witnesses, testifying to us for example, for encouragement, 
 for comfort ; testifying as men testify when they sympa- 
 thize in each other's troubles and struggles, and cheer each 
 other up against adverse fortune. They are represented by 
 the Apostle as a cloud compassing the living, struggling 
 Church of God, animating their weary and desponding 
 i Heb. viii. 8, 10. 2 Rom. viii. 34, 35, 37. 
 
The Cloud of Witnesses. 545 
 
 spirits not merely by words, not merely by promises, but by 
 their presence, — a presence seen by the eye of Faith, even 
 as the servant of the Prophet saw, when his eyes were 
 opened, horses and chariots of fire innumerable round his 
 master : and when the Christian asks, — 
 
 Who are these in bright array 1 
 This innumerable throng, 
 
 Round the Altar, night and day- 
 Tuning their triumphant song 1 
 
 the answer comes, — " Sir, thou knowest : " 1 this is that 
 great cloud of witnesses mentioned by S. Paul as com- 
 passing the struggling Church. These are they which 
 came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, 
 and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 2 It is as 
 when a poor shipwrecked creature, who is buffeting with 
 the waves and is almost ready to perish, sees those who 
 were in like condition with himself standing in safety upon 
 the shore, and hears their cheers of animating hope ring- 
 ing above the blasts of the tempest, — " Fear not ! When 
 thou passest through the waters, they shall not overflow 
 thee : for His everlasting arms are underneath thee." 
 
 And what do they bear witness to ? What says this 
 cloud of witnesses to the struggling soul ? " As thou art," 
 Owen has beautifully worded it, " so were we ; so guilty, so 
 perplexed, so obnoxious to wrath, so fearing destruction 
 from God. And what way did you steer, what course did 
 you take, to obtain the blessed condition wherein now you 
 are? Say they, we went all to God through Christ for 
 forgiveness, and found plenty of peace, mercy, and pardon 
 in Him for us all. The rich man in the parable thought 
 it would be a great means of conversion if one should rise 
 from the dead and preach. But here we see that all the 
 Saints departed and now in glory do jointly preach this 
 fundamental truth, that there is forgiveness with God." 
 
 i Eev. vii. 14. 2 Ibid, 
 
 35 
 
546 The Cloud of Witnesses. 
 
 And have you, my hearer, no personal interest in that 
 cloud of witnesses ? Are there no sacred forms there that 
 hare once upon earth guided you in the ways of virtue and 
 religion ? Are there no familiar voices coming to you 
 from that land of spirits, and cheering you onward to 
 Heaven ? Are there none there who have walked side hy 
 side with you in this vale of tears, and talked with you of 
 the land of rest and peace ? See you no mother there ? 
 Recognize you no tone that carries you hack to the fresh- 
 ness of childhood, when in innocence and in faith you 
 looked up into that beloved face, and drank in the teach- 
 ings of Truth? See you no wife there? Hear you no 
 gentle voice, sweet as the memory of love can make it, 
 whispering* to you words of urgency and of hope? Are 
 there no cherubs amid that group beckoning to the smitten 
 hearts from which they have been torn, calling, in those 
 accents of tenderness which can never be forgotten, upon 
 father and mother to look to Jesus and be saved ? They 
 are all there : although unseen, — unheard perhaps for 
 lack of faith, — still there, a portion of that cloud, witness- 
 ing to you through memories dearer than any present joys, 
 speaking to heart and to conscience of the love of God in 
 Christ. If the Patriarchs are there ; if the sweet Psalm- 
 ist is there ; if the great Apostle to the Gentiles is there : 
 then are all of ours who have died in faith there, and we 
 may realize in their spiritual presence the encouragement, 
 the hope, the joy, which their triumphant victory can give 
 ius ! 
 
 " Poor souls," says the author from whom I quoted a 
 'little while ago, " are apt to think that all those whom they 
 read or hear of to be gone to Heaven, went thither because 
 they were so good and holy." Are not these your present 
 thoughts, my hearer? Does not this rise up in your mind 
 whenever this cloud of witnesses is mentioned ? " And yet," 
 
The Cloud of Witnesses. 547 
 
 continues Owen, " not one of them, not any one that is 
 now in heaven, Jesus Christ alone excepted, did ever come 
 thither any other way but by forgiveness of sin ; and that 
 will also bring us thither, though we come short of many 
 of them in holiness and grace." Those witnesses are not 
 sent, my hearers, to discourage us by their imaginary ho- 
 liness. They are sent as illustrations of the great truths 
 of the Gospel ; as bearing testimony that mercy and grace 
 have come by Jesus Christ ; as examples of the patience, of 
 the long suffering of God. They encompass us, so that 
 which ever way we look we may see the image of the glory 
 of God in the face of Christ Jesus reflected from the beam- 
 ing, triumphant looks of those we have loved, and taken 
 sweet counsel with, upon earth. 
 
 How little do we realize this privilege ! How the earth 
 and things earthly shut out these divine visions ! We need 
 every help and every encouragement which the Bible can 
 give us, and we permit sense to obscure the most cheering 
 prospects which it opens before us. Alas for our weakness ! 
 Let us no longer use this cloud of witnesses to dishearten 
 us, but to animate us. Let us henceforward be taught by 
 it the practical lesson of our text, — " to run with patience 
 the race that is set before us." 
 
 When we take up this cloud of witnesses individually, 
 and separate one of them from the group with which he 
 stands connected, we perceive that he has reached his pres- 
 ent position of triumph by having passed, in faith and with 
 patience, through the course along- which God has led him. 
 A being of like infirmities and passions with ourselves, 
 born in sin, clothed with flesh and blood, a citizen of the 
 same world we contend against, hunted by the same adver- 
 sary who goeth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he 
 may devour : he has so lived, and so acted, as to have been 
 made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light. He 
 
548 The Cloud of Witnesses. 
 
 had a life to live upon earth, having 1 the like temptations., 
 the like duties, the like trials with those which beset us : 
 and his position among the cloud of witnesses teaches us 
 that he has been enabled to say, " I have kept the faith." 
 As with them, so with us. A race is set before us. A 
 course is marked out for us. Not a temptation there, from 
 which He has not made a way of escape. Not a trial, in 
 which His grace is not sufficient for us. Not a burden, 
 which He has not promised to carry for us. Our part is, 
 not to quarrel with our lot, not to murmur against the 
 arrangements and dispensations of Providence, not to im- 
 agine concerning the fiery trial which is to try us as 
 though some strange thing happened unto us : but to run 
 with patience whatever race may be set before us. It may 
 prove a severe struggle. We may have to win the crown 
 through much suffering. Tears and groans and agony 
 may mark much of the way. But this should not move 
 the Christian from his integrity, — should not shake the 
 faith of the combatant in his final victory. His Saints 
 have all suffered. It has been their universal lot; nay, it 
 is made the very condition of reigning. " It is a faithful 
 saying : For if we be dead with him, we shall also live 
 with him : if we suffer, we shall also reign with him." 1 
 " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we 
 are the children of God : and if children, 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." 2 
 " Take, my brethren," says S. James, " the prophets, who 
 have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of 
 suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold we count 
 them happy which endure." 3 Job knew this well when he 
 said, " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." 4 Our 
 
 i 2 Tim. ii. 11, 12. 2 Rom. viii. 16, 17. 
 
 3 S. James v. 10, 11. * Job xiii. 15. 
 
The Cloud of Witnesses. 
 
 549 
 
 work is to press forward in the race : not halting to weep 
 over the ruggedness of the way ; not fainting because diffi- 
 culties beset the path, not turning back because there is a 
 lion in the track : but if we must needs weep and groan 
 and tremble, let us do it while we yet run, if so be it end 
 in patience. God knows better than we do what is our ne- 
 cessary share of chastisement, and what form it shall put on ; 
 and He sees likewise, what we find it very hard to see, how 
 much of it is brought upon us by ourselves. If any thing 
 should teach us patience, it is this consideration, — that 
 while there is much of affliction and of suffering which is 
 trial, there is also a very large share which our Heavenly 
 Father puts upon us as chastisement for our sins. Let us 
 not faint nor grow weary, therefore, when we are rebuked 
 of Him ; for afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of 
 righteousness to them who are exercised thereby. 
 
 This patience in running the race that is set before us is 
 not attained, however, unless we observe the injunctions of 
 the Apostle in our text. This cloud of witnesses inspires 
 us with hope, renews the ardor of our first love, kindles 
 afresh the zeal which urged us to enter upon the Christian 
 race. Let us therefore cast aside every weight, and the 
 sin which doth so easily beset us ! The candidate for the 
 olive crown at Olympia stripped himself of every incum- 
 brance that might for an instant clog his movements. He 
 cast every thing away that might hinder, in the least, his 
 chance for triumph in the contest he was waging. Earnest 
 in his purpose, single-minded in his object, heart and soul 
 absorbed in the hope of victory, he counted every thing as 
 a weight which impeded his onward movements. In like 
 manner does the Apostle enjoin upon us who desire to fin- 
 ish our course with joy, to cast aside every thiug which 
 may hinder our heavenly race, and especially that besetting 
 sin of unbelief. But alas ! how different is our practice ! 
 
550 The Cloud of Witnesses. 
 
 Instead of stripping off and casting aside feelings, tempers, 
 habits, desires, imaginations, which are adverse to the life 
 of God in the soul, we are perpetually renewing them, even 
 when God has again and again smitten and crushed them. 
 He says to us, as plainly as he said of Edom of old, — " They 
 shall build, but I will throw down : " and we weave afresh, 
 in the very face of the tempests which are beating upon us, 
 the webs of fancy and of hope which keep us on enchanted 
 ground ! How sad it is to see the children of God taking 
 up burdens instead of laying them down, — twining their 
 affections around objects which hinder them in their race, 
 and from which they must be violently torn, with suffering 
 and anguish, ere they can run with patience their allotted 
 race ! And yet nothing is more common than this struggle 
 against God ; — this putting on as fast as He strips off ; — - 
 this adding weight to weight, while He bids us cast every 
 weight away. There can be no patience while this contest 
 is going on. It is our will against God's will. It is a 
 strife in which there will be murmuring, and perchance 
 rebellion, against the arrangements of God. Patience 
 comes when this strife is ended ; when the will of man is 
 merged into the will of God ; when, humble as a little child, 
 the Christian yields implicitly to the guidance of his Heav- 
 enly Father, sees all his idols broken without a single mur- 
 mur, and through tears of thankfulness acknowledges with 
 David, — " It is good for me that I have been afflicted." 
 
 The hardest of all hindrances to our patience is the sin 
 which doth most easily beset us ! It is not, as it is often 
 carelessly understood, some particular besetting sin of the 
 individual : but it is the sin that doth so easily beset every 
 one of us, the sin of unbelief! Men often flippantly say 
 when the Gospel is preached, when grace is magnified, 
 when Faith is held up and pressed as the sole instrument 
 of justification with God, that it is making religion too easy, 
 
The Cloud of Witnesses. 551 
 
 Heaven too attainable, — encouraging sin, that grace may 
 abound ! Alas ! my hearers, there is a dead faith that it is 
 easy enough to lay claim to, and to boast of : but the faith 
 which worketh by love is the hardest thing in heaven or 
 earth to procure or maintain. Unbelief is natural to us. 
 It besets us, as the Apostle intimates, on every hand ; and 
 at all times, it is forever assailing us, from the cradle to 
 the grave. ~No matter how graciously God may have 
 dealt with us, in how many ways we have experienced His 
 loving-kindness : we are perpetually doubting His love and 
 mercy ! We cannot believe that He has sent His only 
 Son to die upon the Cross, that we, through faith and the 
 sprinkling of Blood, may find forgiveness and acceptance ! 
 When that is forced upon us by irresistible evidence, why, 
 then we cannot believe that forgiveness will be given of 
 grace, without money and without price ! When, through 
 a grateful experience, we become convinced of this, we 
 cannot believe that we shall be guided along our path 
 to Heaven by the same love which hath placed us in it ! 
 Every dark hour that lowers upon us, — every fiery trial 
 through which God passes us, — all the deep waters 
 through which He makes us wade, — are so many evi- 
 dences of His having forsaken us ! The richest processes 
 of His love are converted, through this alchemy of the 
 natural heart, into causes of distrust ; and we go, halting, 
 through our whole pilgrimage, because we cannot rise up 
 to the height of that love of Christ which passeth knowl- 
 edge. Although He tells us : " My thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are your ways My ways : " 1 we will clothe 
 Him with the attributes of our own wretched natures, for- 
 getting that He is God and not man, and that He has pro- 
 claimed His Name as " The Lord, The Lord God, merci- 
 ful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness 
 
 1 Isaiah lv. 8. 
 
552 The Cloud of Witnesses. 
 
 and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity 
 and transgression and sin." 1 This sin, the Apostle espe- 
 cially declares, must be cast away ere we can run with 
 patience the race that is set before us; for the heart of 
 unbelief transforms the Gospel into a yoke of bondage, 
 — our Father into a consuming Fire, — the very throne 
 of Grace itself into a throne of Judgment ! 
 
 But you will say, How is all this to be done ? — Whence 
 is to come the power that will enable me to cast aside 
 every weight, and especially the sin of unbelief? The 
 Apostle answers : " Through Jesus : " — " Looking unto 
 Jesus as the Finisher, no less than the Author, of our 
 Faith." It was He, by His Spirit, who awoke within us 
 the first glimmerings of belief. It was He, who roused us 
 from the death of trespasses and sins, saying, " Awake 
 thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ 
 shall give thee light." 2 It was He, who changed the heart 
 of stone into a heart of flesh, and wrote upon it the super- 
 natural words of faith and of love. It was He, who by that 
 same Spirit has been working persistently with that same 
 heart, sanctifying and purifying it, and changing it into 
 His own image, from glory to glory. And having begun 
 in the Spirit, shall we end in the flesh ? Having received 
 the Lord Jesus as our Wisdom, our Righteousness, our 
 Sanctification, our Redemption, shall we turn again to the 
 beggarly elements, and desire again to be in bondage? 
 God forbid ! Jesus Christ must be the Finisher as well as 
 the Author of our Faith ; must perfect that in glory which 
 He has begun in grace ! If you need faith, look unto Jesus. 
 In Him is the fullness of that grace which freely giveth 
 Faith ! If you need spiritual strength, look unto Jesus. 
 You can do all things through Christ strengthening you ! 
 If you need mercy, look unto Jesus. Mercy and Truth 
 1 Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. 2 Eph. v. 14. 
 
The Cloud of Witnesses. 553 
 
 came by Him. Keep your eye fixed upon Him, and all else 
 will prove easy ! Weights will fall off, and not tarry to be 
 cast away. Unbelief will wither under the brightness of 
 His light, and shrink away abashed before His glory ! 
 Keep your eye fixed steadily upon Him : for He is the 
 brightness of His Father's glory, and the express image of 
 His Person ; and " we all, with open face beholding as in 
 a glass the glory of the Lord," shall be " changed into the 
 same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of 
 the Lord." 1 
 
 1 2 Cor. iii. 18. 
 
ifftfttety Sermon. 
 
 For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left 
 his house, a?id gave authority to his servants, and to every man his 
 work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore : 
 for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at 
 midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning : lest coming 
 suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say 
 unto all, Watch. — S. Mark xiii. 34-37. 
 
 /~\UR Saviour had taken occasion from an observation of 
 
 one of His Disciples as He went out of the Temple, 
 — " Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings 
 are here," — to foretell the destruction of Jerusalem ; and 
 to mingle with the sufferings of that time, and the heed of 
 watchfulness against them, the still more awful terrors of 
 the Judgment day, and the still more urgent necessity of 
 a constant preparedness for it. It was one of the secret 
 things of the Almighty, — the coming of that day, — 
 known to no man ; but for that very reason made more ter- 
 rible, for it might burst at any moment with its accom- 
 panying doom upon their heads. " Take ye heed," there- 
 fore, " for ye know not when the time is." 
 
 But our Lord never taught only for one time or for one 
 occasion ; and in this case, so soon as He had pressed upon 
 His Disciples the instruction He would give them, He 
 transforms the topic into the parable which forms my text, 
 and addresses it to all future generations, closing with a 
 solemn admonition : — " And what I say unto you I say 
 unto all, Watch." 
 
Watch ye therefore. 555 
 
 How little the world looks as if it was watching for any 
 such event as the corning of Christ ! To look at it as it 
 sweeps along in its fullness of life, it appears as if its in- 
 habitants expected it, with themselves, to endure forever. 
 How many ties of affection are daily forming ! How many 
 plans, extending- far into the future, are arranging and ex- 
 ecuting ! How many hopes, cherished in the sanctuary of 
 the heart, are looking for their fulfilment to long years 
 ahead ! The world is eating and drinking, marrying and 
 giving in marriage, buying and selling, as if nothing was 
 ever to change it from its usual routine. Ask its people 
 what they dread, why their hearts are fainting within them : 
 and they will answer you : — " We tremble at the loss of 
 property : at the loss of office ; at the loss of position : at 
 the loss of reputation : 93 but seldom u Because we remem- 
 ber the coming of the Lord." That has hut little influence 
 over their minds. TVhenever it crosses their thoughts, it 
 is like a far-off thing 1 , floating in dim uncertaintv. Al- 
 though it is quite as much in the ordinary and probable 
 routine of things as any event before which they tremble, 
 they cannot see it, and will not dwell upon it. They are 
 borne along by the swelling, rushing tide of life, and fear 
 nothing so much as being separated from its roar and tu- 
 mult. But few seem to be considering whence they came, 
 or whither they are going, — who placed them here, or for 
 what purpose. They act for the most part as if they were 
 mere bubbles, rising by chance out of the bosom of Life's 
 Ocean, to float for a time upon its surface, and then to 
 burst and vanish forever ! Xo thought of the past ; no 
 thought of the future ; but little thought of God : the world 
 and the present make up every thing. 
 
 From this unsound and untrue condition of things Christ 
 would arouse those for whom He died, and would press 
 upon them consideration and watchfulness. He would dis- 
 
556 Watch ye therefore. 
 
 abuse you among the rest, my hearers, of the idea that you 
 are without responsibility to God; that you have merely 
 to pass through life as it pleases you; and at the end 
 lie down in peace without any accountability. He would 
 awake you to a higher, nobler view of things, point out 
 to you your true work on earth, and impress you with 
 a full sense of your glorious destiny. He cannot consent 
 that those for whom He shed His precious blood, for whom 
 He opened an access to the throne of God, for whom He 
 prepared a future of unspeakable glory, should pass through 
 life without a single spiritual aspiration, and then die 
 without a well-grounded hope of everlasting life. He 
 speaks to you, therefore, this parable, and tells you that 
 you all have a work to do, and an account to give : a work 
 not simply for yourselves, but for God ; an account to be 
 rendered not when you may please to be ready, but at any 
 moment He may choose to call for it, whether in youth, or 
 in life's prime, or in the ripeness of old age. 
 
 The great mistake we all make is in confounding the 
 work we do for the world and for ourselves, with that 
 which we are required to do for God. Work for ourselves 
 and for the world is as much our duty as any other moral 
 or social obligation which God may have laid upon us : but 
 it is not all of our duty. We hold two relations in life, one 
 to this present world, the other to the world which is to 
 come ; and we perform our duty aright when we harmonize 
 the two, and while, living for our families and for society, 
 live also for God. If we err on either side, we are wrong. 
 If we permit the one rod, even though it be the rod of 
 God, to swallow up the rest, we run into error. When 
 our Saviour was asked, " Which is the greatest command- 
 ment of the Law?" His answer was: "Thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
 and with all thy mind : this is the first and great com- 
 
Watch ye therefore. 557 
 
 mandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments 
 hang all the law and the prophets." Mark! on these two 
 commandments : not on one, but on both. And the error 
 man is constantly committing is to seize on one of them, 
 and make that every thing. The work which God gives us 
 to do is a happy conjunction of these ; — is to love Him so 
 that a devout character shall be carried into all the rela- 
 tions of life ; and then to do our duty in that station to 
 which He has called us, so as to glorify His name upon 
 earth. When we achieve this harmony, then are we indeed 
 the true children of Him, the combination of whose attri- 
 butes is holiness. 
 
 The difficulty which we encounter in directing the minds 
 of men aright in religion, is in persuading them that they 
 have an especial work to do for God, — a work in which He 
 is to be glorified for Himself. The work which is laid upon 
 you by your earthly relations is so forced upon your notice 
 by the conditions of life, treads so pressingly upon your 
 heels, that you cannot overlook it. If you do, the world 
 clamors at you so loudly that you are fain, for very com- 
 fort's sake, to take up your burden and travel under it. 
 But not so with the work which you have to do for God. 
 That stands upon a different footing. It is a work, at least 
 in its springs, very much of feeling. It is occupied with 
 prayer, with supplications, with thanksgiving, with praise, 
 with ascriptions of glory. If not performed, you do not 
 hunger, nor thirst, nor lack raiment, as a necessary conse- 
 quence. The world does not reprove you, nor cry out upon 
 you. You appear to go along as usual, without suffering 
 any of those immediate ill effects which flow from the neg- 
 lect of your worldly work. And therefore it is that you 
 forget it,^ancl overlook it, and imagine that it will never be 
 required of you. But Christ explains the law of God's 
 
55^ Watch ye therefore. 
 
 government by the parable which we are considering 1 . He 
 tells you that the Son of Man is as a man taking a far 
 journey, who left His house, and gave authority to His ser- 
 vants, and to every man his work. " Watch ye therefore : 
 for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at 
 even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the 
 morning." The work is left you to do : but it is a work of 
 the will. God obliges you to work for yourselves, that you 
 may keep famine from your doors, vice from your house- 
 holds, evil from yourselves : but He does not force you to 
 work for Him. His service, to be of any value, must be a 
 willing one, a service of the heart ; and so no temporal 
 punishment of an immediate kind is laid upon your neglect 
 of it. David frequently in the Psalms complains of the 
 prosperity of the ungodly. This work therefore has to be 
 perpetually enforced upon your remembrance. You have 
 to be reminded that you have duties distinct from the duties 
 of life, not having their beginning nor their end with man, 
 but with God. God is a Father, and He will not have all 
 the love and service of His children given to the world. 
 He forces them to go abroad and fulfil their work of social 
 duty; but they must return home and cheer Him with 
 their love, their gratitude and their devotion, in return for 
 all that He has done for them. He wants you, when you 
 have finished your lawful and necessary work, to turn your 
 thoughts to Him, and praise Him for all His benefits. 
 
 Much of our work is common to us all. The curse of 
 labor is upon us, and labor we must, in some way or other. 
 But each individual and each position in life has something 
 peculiar to itself, and our duty is to understand what that 
 work is. And whatever it is, it stands connected with that 
 which is the paramount work of man, — the salvation of 
 his soul, and the glorifying of God upon earthy It can 
 never be fully performed unless that element is developed 
 
Watch ye therefore. 559 
 
 in harmony with it. For however pressing the necessity 
 of daily and worldly work, Christ has Himself told us that 
 there is hut one thing absolutely needful, — but one thing 
 which, if neglected, has no remedy ! 
 
 Our Lord has given every man his work, — every man 
 his own peculiar work. Sometimes it is a work of active 
 service ; sometimes of patient endurance. Now it is a work 
 to be done in some very obscure position ; and then again 
 are we called to fill and illustrate some lofty station. In 
 one instance, that work is confined to the quiet monotonous 
 routine of domestic life ; and in another, it is performed in 
 the public eye, with all men gazing upon us. In all, God 
 may be glorified, and the name of Christ honored ; and in 
 all God must be glorified, if we would perform our work as 
 He intends that it should be fulfilled. Our primary task, 
 therefore, is to ascertain what our peculiar work is, and 
 how we may perform it so as to carry out the purposes of 
 God, and secure the benefits and blessings of its faithful 
 performance to ourselves. For who gains by the salvation 
 of the soul, my hearer ? " Look unto the heavens, and see ; 
 and behold the clouds which are higher than thou. If 
 thou sinnest, what doest thou against Him? or if thy 
 transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto Him ? 
 . . . Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art ; and thy 
 righteousness may profit the son of man. 5 ' 1 Is not all tbe 
 benefit to inure to yourself? Are you not to be the recip- 
 ient of that life and immortality which your Saviour has 
 brought to light ? Are you not to escape that fearful doom 
 which is denounced against those who lose their souls ? 
 How many days and nights you spend for the attainment of 
 objects which are insignificant when compared with those 
 which are to be attained through salvation ! How much 
 ease do you sacrifice ! How much danger do you risk ! 
 1 Job xxxv. 5, 6, 8. 
 
560 Watch ye therefore. 
 
 How much hardship do you encounter ! And all willingly 
 and cheerfully. If you would only give half the pains to 
 the soul which you give to the body, you would find that 
 your work of life would he far easier, while your soul would 
 he rejoicing in its redemption from the bondage of sin and 
 the fear of death. 
 
 My hearer, have you ever asked yourself what is your es- 
 pecial work ? What is that which the Lord has given you 
 to do, while He has gone upon that far journey from which, 
 at any unexpected moment, He may return ? Some work 
 you have to do for the Lord. What is it ? If you do not 
 know ; if you have never yet paused in the advance of life 
 to find out ; if you are plunging forward in darkness and 
 in ignorance : woe unto you ! — for your Lord will surely 
 come back and search into your life and actions. For we 
 are only servants, and must give the account which masters 
 require of their servants. He will come upon us unexpect- 
 edly ; and then shall we be questioned of the past. Oh, 
 that terrible past ! It has been told us by those who have 
 been recovered from the unconscious state of drowning, 
 that in the few moments when they were passing from life 
 into that condition, every event of the past came over them 
 in distinct succession. They saw vividly, as in a moving 
 panorama, every act of the life which they deemed long 
 buried in oblivion. They had themselves forgotten them ; 
 yet there they were, evoked from the mysterious chambers 
 of the mind by the agony of that moment. And so shall it 
 be when our account is called for. " God requireth that 
 which is past." And His power will be greater than even 
 the power of Death. Not only shall events come before us 
 then, but every thing which can in any measure stand con- 
 nected with sin ; — words, thoughts, imaginations, desires, 
 motives, all shall be summoned to testify of your life and 
 your work : — " What have you done in fulfillment of the 
 
Watch ye therefore. 
 
 561 
 
 work which I committed to you ? What return is there for 
 the trust which I reposed in you ? How have you acted in 
 the station of life in which I placed you ? " It will not do 
 to say, " Lord, I was not idle ; I husied myself day and 
 night at my counting-house, or in my shop, or with my 
 worldly work of whatever kind, and I made my family com- 
 fortable, and I left my children well to do in the world." 
 The answer will be : — " That is all very proper to a certain 
 extent ; but that was not all the work which I appointed 
 you to do. I commanded you to love Me, and you have en- 
 tirely forgotten Me ; to believe in My Son Jesus Christ, and 
 you have neglected or despised His claims to save your 
 soul ; and you have never thought of it, but have left it to 
 decay, perhaps to destruction." There will be no discharge 
 in that war. We shall all have to come up to that bar, and 
 be judged according to the works done in the flesh. No 
 plea shall be of any avail then, except that we have done 
 our work, — the work appointed us, — in great weakness 
 perhaps, and with much infirmity, but trusting in the love, 
 mercy and grace of Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
 
 And is it not well that our Saviour bids us watch ? Who 
 can foresee when the Master will come ? His messenger 
 Death is busy all around us, summoning our fellow-crea- 
 tures to His presence. His darts are ever falling in the 
 homes which stand so thick around us ; why not in yours, 
 my hearer ? No week passes but some familiar name comes 
 wafted to us in connection with that terrible Destroyer. 
 When each week begins, who can tell whose name will fol- 
 low next? It is the darkest of all lotteries. We know 
 only this, that his harvest is forever going on ; that his 
 sickle is never idle ; and that he is gathering in the fields 
 of the world for judgment. Shall we, for this, live always 
 in the fear of Death ? No ! but for this reason we should 
 live in preparedness for it. We should measure life ; num- 
 
Watch ye therefore. 
 
 ber our days ; examine our work ; see that all is ready for 
 the Master. Life is too solemn a thing to be trifled with. 
 Death is too terrible an enemy to be met unexpectedly. 
 Both demand watchfulness : life, that we may spend it 
 aright, and do our allotted task ; Death, that we may meet 
 it calmly, feeling that it has no sting. 
 
 Are there any of you, my fellow-Christians, who have 
 permitted the circumstances of the times to tempt you into 
 carelessness, — to cause you to cease your watchfulness and 
 your expectation of the sudden coming of your Lord ? Let 
 the solemn warnings which you have received, from time to 
 time, arouse you from your lethargy and bring you back to 
 watchfulness ! These are no times for sleeping ! Death 
 seems unsatisfied with the carnage of the past, and is gath- 
 ering himself for fresh slaughter among the children of 
 men. Pestilence often follows war, and already it is hov- 
 ering upon our coast. Winter may check it for a time, but 
 if it has its work to do, the breath of spring will come 
 laden with its poison. The sorrows of the time, which 
 have overwhelmed and made torpid so many hearts, are sent 
 by God to prepare you for coming evil. Of all times, the 
 present calls for watchfulness and not for apathy ! Arouse 
 yourselves, children of God; and while you humble your- 
 selves under the mighty hand of God, forget not that you 
 are Christ's servants, bound to do His work in the Church 
 militant upon earth, and to advance His kingdom wherever 
 He may spread the banner of the Cross. Instead of per- 
 mitting suffering to overcome your faith, let it rather lead 
 you on to perfection. Instead of fainting in the day of 
 adversity, gird up your loins, and be sober, and strong in 
 the Lord. Instead of sleeping because the world is 
 troubled and agitated, rather stand upon your watch-tower, 
 and await in faith and patience the Coming of your Master. 
 
An Extract from a Sermon preached at the Consecration of S* 
 Joh?i's Church, Savannah, on Saturday, the ph of May, 1853, on 
 the words : " And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
 the world, Amen." — S. Matthew, xxviii. 20. After matters of 
 local ifiterest, and enlarging on "soundness in the faith " and the 
 " due administration of the Sacraments " as two " A'otes " of the 
 Church, the Preaclier thus continued : — 
 
 rilHE third note which we offer as evidence that we are 
 
 - 1 - of that Church with which Christ has promised alway 
 to he, unto the end of the world, is the Ministerial Succes- 
 sion. Nor is this an idle matter, for it involves no less 
 than the whole question, whether there be any Ministry at 
 all. If the authority which Christ left with His Apostles 
 has been suffered to expire, whence hath it been renewed ? 
 And if it hath not been renewed, where is the Ministry? 
 What right hath one man more than another to baptize, to 
 preach, to administer the sacraments, to absolve from sin? 
 Why may not each say to his neighbor, " Come and bap- 
 tize me " — " come and consecrate the elements, and give 
 me to eat and drink of the Body and Blood of my Saviour " ? 
 This seems preposterous ; nay, blasphemous : and yet, if 
 there has not been a Succession in the Ministry from the 
 time of the Apostles, — if the golden chain has ever been 
 broken at any point, at any time, — this very thing must 
 have occurred ; and having occurred, all ministerial author- 
 ity has ceased : for an assumed authority can never have 
 become rightful, through how many soever links it may have 
 
564 The Apostolic Succession, 
 
 been transmitted. Unless each Minister can trace up to 
 the Apostles, he must reach a point at which the authority 
 he exercises was usurped ; and that usurpation must vitiate 
 all that has succeeded. But there is unbroken ministerial 
 Succession. There is a chain that can be followed, link by 
 link, up to the Apostles, along which hath descended the 
 authority which Christ intended should be vested, for the 
 ordinary purposes of His Church, in the sacred Ministry. 
 We can give you name by name, Bishop after Bishop, until 
 we touch S. John at Ephesus, and S. James at Jerusalem, 
 and S. Mark at Alexandria ; — until we join on to the very 
 men on whose heads Christ laid His hands, when He sent 
 them out and commanded them "to preach, to heal the 
 sick, to cleanse the lepers, to raise the dead, to cast out 
 devils." The arrangement of the three Orders is broken 
 nowhere. It commences with the first establishment of 
 the Jewish Church, when the High Priest, the Priests and 
 the Levites made up the ministry of the Temple. It con- 
 tinues when Christ with His Twelve and the Seventy made 
 up the Orders of the nascent Christian Church. The gap 
 is instantly filled, when Christ, having ascended to the 
 right hand of the Father, left the Twelve and the Seventy 
 on earth, by the appointment of Deacons. And as the 
 Apostles died away, we find holy men selected to fill their 
 places, and Timothy and Titus performing those offices 
 which Paul and Peter and James had performed, and bid- 
 den to transmit them to others who should stand in their 
 room : so that the Fathers of the third and fourth centu- 
 ries could boldly affirm that there was not a See of any 
 magnitude that could not trace its Bishops up to the Apos- 
 tles themselves. And what they said then, we can affirm 
 now. And however the Succession may have run at times 
 through unworthy channels, that no more proves that it 
 came not from the Apostles, than the muddiness or even 
 
The Apostolic Succession, 565 
 
 filthiness of a stream in some particular part of its course 
 would satisfy us that the pure water which we are drinking 
 cannot be traced, through that very polluted spot, up to its 
 crystal fountain in the mountain top. How vain is such 
 argumentation against the truth ! Was Jesus Christ not 
 the Messiah because He came through Tainar and the wife 
 of Uriah ? Did these unworthy wombs pollute the Promise 
 so that the Seed of the Woman did not bruise the serpent's 
 head ? Why, the first principle of Protestantism is, that it 
 is the office and not the man which has authority ; and 
 that, so there be faith in the breast of the recipient, the 
 unworthiness of the Priest can effect no more than his own 
 condemnation ! 
 
 These are the tokens and signs of such a Church as our 
 Saviour has promised to be with alway, to the end of the 
 world. But this promise is not unconditional. In the Epis- 
 tle to the Romans, the Apostle, in writing to them, says : 
 — " And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, 
 being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and 
 with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive 
 tree ; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, 
 thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt 
 say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be 
 graffed in. Well ; because of unbelief they were broken 
 off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but 
 fear : for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed 
 lest he also spare not thee." 1 The only Church which 
 shall stand forever is that which is called in these verses of 
 S. Paul, the Root of the Olive Tree. Particular Churches, 
 such as the Jewish Church, or the Roman Church, or the 
 Anglican Church, are only branches from that Root : the 
 first, the natural branch ; the latter, the branches graffed 
 in when the other was broken off and cast away. When 
 
 1 Rom. xi. 17-21. 
 
566 The Apostolic Succession, 
 
 Christ therefore promised that He would be with His 
 Church alway, to the end of the world, it was to no partic- 
 ular Church that He made this promise : it was to any and 
 every branch of the Root, which He might please to graff 
 in. It gives warrant to no particular branch of this 
 Church of God to say that Christ will be with it alway, to 
 the end of the world, unless it preserve within itself the 
 faith of Abraham, — the righteousness of faith, as it is 
 called in the Scriptures. Take, for example, the very 
 Church to which this Epistle was written, the Church of 
 Rome, the very Church to which the Apostle wrote the 
 words: "Be not highminded, but fear. For if God spared 
 not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not 
 thee," and see why it is that God's people were obliged 
 to come out of her. It was not because she had not the 
 Ministry, for that she certainly has in all its Orders. It 
 was not because she had not the Sacraments, for she has 
 preserved both those which Christ ordained. It was not 
 because she did not hold the great doctrines of the Trinity 
 and the Atonement, for nowhere are they more decidedly 
 taught than within her bosom. It was not that she did 
 not possess and retain the Scriptures as the Word and Truth 
 of God, for she has faithfully kept them for the Churches 
 which have purged themselves of her abominations. It 
 was because she had overlaid the righteousness of faith, 
 and had thus become a corrupt branch, although God has 
 not yet broken her off from the root of the Olive Tree. It 
 was upon this ground the Reformation planted itself, that 
 Rome had abandoned the righteousness of faith; and to 
 sustain that abandonment, had added to all these charac- 
 teristics of a true Church — the Ministry, the Sacraments, 
 the Scriptures — novelties not authorized by the Word of 
 God or the customs of the Churches which had been 
 planted by the Apostles and their immediate successors. 
 
pastoral Letter 
 
 From the Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church to the Clergy 
 and Laity of the Church in the Confederate States of America ; 
 delivered before the General Coimcil, in S. Paul's Church, Au- 
 gusta, Saturday, November 2 2d, 1862. 
 
 A T your request, brethren of the Clergy and Laity, 
 
 we conclude the session of our First General Council 
 by presenting to you and reading in your presence a Pas- 
 toral Letter, addressed to the members of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church scattered throughout the Confederate 
 States. By the mighty power of the Holy Ghost we have 
 been permitted to bring our deliberations to a close in a 
 spirit of harmony and peace which augurs well for the 
 future welfare of our branch of the Church Catholic ; and 
 our first duty is to thank Him who has promised to be with 
 His Church to the end of the world, for His presence with 
 us during our consultations, and for the happy conclusion 
 to which He has brought our sacred labors. 
 
 Seldom has any Council assembled in the Church of 
 Christ under circumstances needing His presence more 
 urgently than this which is now about to submit its con- 
 clusions to the judgment of the Universal Church. Forced 
 by the Providence of God to separate ourselves from the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, — a 
 Church with whose doctrine, discipline and worship we are 
 in entire harmony, and with whose action, up to the time 
 of that separation, we were abundantly satisfied — at a 
 moment when civil strife had dipped its foot in blood, and 
 
568 Pastoral Letter. 
 
 cruel war was desolating our homes and firesides : we re- 
 quired a double measure of grace to preserve the accus- 
 tomed moderation of the Church in the arrangement of 
 our organic law, in the adjustment of our code of Canons, 
 but above all, in the preservation, without change, of those 
 rich treasures of doctrine and worship which have come to 
 us enshrined in our Book of Common Prayer. Cut off 
 likewise from all communication with our sister Churches 
 of the world, we have been compelled to act without any 
 interchange of opinion even with our Mother Church, and 
 alone and unaided to arrange for ourselves the organization 
 under which we should do our part in carrying on to their 
 consummation the purposes of God in Christ Jesus. We 
 trust that the Spirit of Christ has indeed so directed, sanc- 
 tified and governed us in our work, that we shall be ap- 
 proved by all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in 
 sincerity and in truth, and who are earnest in preparing 
 the world for His coming in glorious majesty to judge 
 both the quick and the dead. 
 
 The Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
 the Confederate States, under which we have been exercis- 
 ing our legislative functions, is the same as that of the 
 Church from which we have been providentially separated, 
 save that we have introduced into it a germ of expansion 
 which was wanting in the old Constitution. This is found 
 in the permission which is granted to existing Dioceses to 
 form themselves, by subdivision, into Provinces ; and by 
 this process gradually to reduce our immense Dioceses into 
 Episcopal Sees, more like those which, in primitive times, 
 covered the territories of the Roman Empire. It is at 
 present but a germ, and may lie, for many years, without 
 expansion ; but being there, it gives promise, in the future, 
 of a more close and constant Episcopal supervision than is 
 possible under our present arrangement. 
 
Pastoral Letter. 
 
 5^9 
 
 The Canou Law, which lias been adopted during our pres- 
 ent session, is altogether in its spirit, and almost in its 
 letter, identical with that under which we have hitherto 
 prospered. TTe have simplified it in some respects, and 
 have made it more clear and plain in many of its require- 
 ments : but no changes have been introduced which have 
 altered either its tone or character. It is the same moder- 
 ate, just, and equal body of Ecclesiastical Law by which the 
 Church has been governed on this continent since her re- 
 ception from the Church of England of the treasures of an 
 Apostolic Ministry and a liturgical form of worship. 
 
 The Prayer Book we have left untouched in every par- 
 ticular, save where a change of our civil government and 
 the formation of a new nation have made alteration essen- 
 tially requisite. Three words comprise all the amendment 
 which has been deemed necessary in the present emergency, 
 for we have felt unwilling, in the existing confusion of 
 affairs, to lay rash hands upon a Book consecrated by the 
 use of ag'es, and hallowed by associations the most sacred 
 and precious. TVe give you back your Book of Common 
 Prayer the same as you have entrusted it to us, believing 
 that if it has slight defects, their removal had better be the 
 gradual work of experience than the hasty action of a body 
 convened almost upon the outskirts of a camp. 
 
 Besides this actual legislation which we now submit to 
 you, our assembling together has given us a view of the 
 condition of the Church throughout the Confederate States 
 which renders it our duty to speak to you as Chief Pastors 
 over the flock of Christ : reminding you of the peculiar 
 encouragements which surround us ; specifying the points 
 towards which our efforts, as a Christian Church, should be 
 directed ; and pointing out the deficiencies which require 
 instant correction and amendment. Xo moment seems so 
 propitious for the performance of this duty, as that in 
 
570 Pastoral Letter. 
 
 which we are beginning a new life in the Church, and are 
 preparing to stamp ourselves upon the world for good or 
 for evil. 
 
 Our highest encouragement is derived from the fact that 
 we hold the sacred trust of the Faith once delivered to the 
 Saints, and that we hold it in connection with a Ministry 
 whose succession from Christ and His Apostles is un- 
 doubted, and with a form of worship simple and pure yet 
 sublime and Scriptural. These are not gifts to make a 
 boast of, but to use for the glory of God and the advance- 
 ment of Christ's kingdom. Far from filling us with vain 
 glory, their possession should humble us to the dust, unless 
 we approve ourselves faithful stewards of such inestimable 
 treasures. To whom much has been committed, from him 
 will much be required ; and it remains for us to prove whe- 
 ther we have deserved so spiritual an inheritance. But pos- 
 sessing them, we may rightfully feel that we enter upon our 
 warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil, having all 
 the strength that Divine Truth and a Divine Commission 
 can give us. We can press on, without any doubts resting 
 upon our hearts as to the Truth which we are teaching, as 
 to the validity of the Sacraments which we are administer- 
 ing, or as to the authority of the Orders which we are 
 transmitting. Upon all these points we are secure; and 
 we can go forward offering to all men, with boldness and 
 confidence, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the 
 fellowship of the Saints. Whatever hindrances we may 
 meet, or whatever contradiction of men we may encounter, 
 we can rest assured that truth will finally prevail, and that 
 God will set His Son upon His holy hill of Zion. 
 
 Our next source of encouragement is that we enter upon 
 our work with our Dioceses fully organized, and with the 
 means which Christ has instituted in His Church well dis- 
 tributed throughout the Confederate States. When we 
 
Pastoral Letter, 1 571 
 
 remember the very different auspices under which the ven- 
 erated Fathers of the American Church began their work, 
 and mark how it has grown and prospered, we should in- 
 deed take courage and feel no fear for the future. In their 
 case all their ecclesiastical arrangements had to be organ- 
 ized : in our case we find these arrangements all ready to 
 our hand, and with the seal of a happy experience stamped 
 upon them. In their case every prejudice of the land was 
 strong- against them : in our case we go forward with the 
 leading minds of our new Republic cheering us on by their 
 communion with us, and with no prejudications to over- 
 come, save those which arise from a lack of acquaintance 
 with our doctrine and worship. In their case they were 
 indeed few and separated far from one another in their 
 work upon the walls of Zion : in our case we are com- 
 paratively well compacted, extending in an unbroken chain 
 of Dioceses from the Potomac to the confines of the Re- 
 public. Despite all those disadvantages, " the little one be- 
 came a thousand and the small one a strong nation," and 
 shall we despond P If we be watchful, and strengthen the 
 things that remain, our God will not forsake us, but will 
 " lengthen our cords and stretch forth the curtains of our 
 habitations." In visible token of this fact, we have 
 already, since our organization, added to the House of 
 Bishops the Rt. Rev. Dr. Wilmer as Bishop of Alabama, 
 and received into communion with the Church the Diocese 
 of Arkansas. 
 
 Another source of encouragement is that there has been 
 no division in the Church in the Confederate States. Be- 
 lieving, with a wonderful unanimity, that the Providence of 
 God had guided our footsteps, and for His own inscrutable 
 purposes had forced us into a separate organization, there 
 has been nothing to embarrass us in the preliminary 
 movements which have conducted us to our present posi- 
 
572 Pastoral Letter. 
 
 tion. With one mind and with one heart we have entered 
 upon this blessed work ; and we stand together this day a 
 band of brothers, one in faith, one in hope, one in charity. 
 There may be among us, as there always must be, minute 
 differences of opinion and feeling, but there is nothing to 
 hinder our keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of 
 peace. We are all satisfied that we are walking in the 
 path of duty, and that the light of God's countenance has 
 been wonderfully lifted up upon us. He has comforted us 
 in our darkest hours, and has not permitted our hearts to 
 faint in the day of adversity. 
 
 These striking encouragements, vouchsafed to us from 
 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, should fill our hearts 
 with earnest devotedness, and should make us even now to 
 inquire, " Lord, what wilt thou have us to do ? " And 
 the answer to this question will lead us, your Chief Pas- 
 tors, to specify the points towards which our efforts, as a 
 Christian Church, should be especially directed. 
 
 Christ has founded His Church upon love : for God is 
 Love. It is the highest of all Christian graces. " And 
 now abideth Faith, Hope, Charity, these three, but the 
 greatest of these is Charity." Charity ! not mere alms-giv- 
 ing, which is only one of its manifestations : but love, Chris- 
 tian Love ! As Christ our Lord loved the world so divinely 
 that He was satisfied to suffer all things for its redemption : 
 so does He command us to love one another, and to be 
 ready to do all things for each other's salvation. This was 
 His especial commandment : "A new commandment give 
 I unto you, that ye love one another." And this is truly 
 not only the new commandment, but the summary of all 
 the commandments. The whole Gospel is redolent with it, 
 with a broad, comprehensive, all-embracing love, appointed, 
 like Aaron's rod, to swallow up all the other Christian 
 graces, and to manifest the spiritual glory of God in Christ. 
 
Pastoral Letter, 
 
 573 
 
 A Church without love! What could you augur of a 
 Church of God without Faith, or a Church of Christ with- 
 out Hope ? But Love is a higher grace than either Faith 
 or Hope, and its absence from a Church is just the absence 
 of the very life-blood from the body. 
 
 Our first duty, therefore, as the children of God, is to 
 send forth from this Council our greetings of love to the 
 Churches of God all the world over. We greet them in 
 Christ, and rejoice that they are partakers with us of all 
 the grace which is treasured up in Him. We lay down to- 
 day before the Altar of the Crucified all our burdens of 
 sin, and offer our prayers for the Church militant upon 
 earth. Whatever may be their aspect towards us politically, 
 we cannot forget that they rejoice with us in the "one 
 Lord," the " one Faith, the " one Baptism," the " one God 
 and Father of all," and we wish them God-speed in all the 
 sacred ministries of the Church. Nothing but love is con- 
 sonant with the exhibition of Christ's love which is mani- 
 fested in His Church ; and any note of man's bitterness, ex- 
 cept against sin, would be a sound of discord mingling with 
 the sweet harmonies of earth and heaven. We rejoice in 
 this golden cord which binds us together in Christ our 
 Redeemer ; and, like the ladder which Jacob saw in vision, 
 with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it, 
 may it ever be the channel along which shall flash the 
 Christian greetings of the children of God. 
 
 But while we send forth this love to the whole Church 
 militant upon earth, let us not forget that special love is 
 due by us towards those of our own household. To us 
 have been committed the treasures of the Church ; and 
 those of our own kindred and lineage, who have sprung 
 from our loins both naturally and spiritually, who are now 
 united with us in a sacred conflict for the dearest rights of 
 man, ask us for the bread of life. They pray us for that 
 
574 Pastoral Letter. 
 
 which we are commanded to give, — the Gospel of the 
 grace of God. They put in no claim for any thing worldly 
 — for any thing alien from the mission of the Church. 
 Their petition is that we will fulfill the very purpose of our 
 institution, and give them the means of grace. Every 
 claim which man can have upon his fellow-man, they have 
 upon us ; and having these claims, they ask only for the 
 Church. They pray us not to let them perish in the wilder- 
 ness ; not to permit them to be cut off from the sweet com- 
 munion of the Church. " If," says the Apostle, speaking of 
 Christian professors, and alluding to mere earthly things, 
 " any provide not for his own, and especially for them of 
 his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than 
 an infidel." What, then, shall we say of that Church 
 which shall not provide for its own children ? How can it 
 hope to be watered itself with gracious rain from Heaven, 
 when it hoards up for itself the river of life, which is or- 
 dained to flow through its channels of grace ? 
 
 Many of the States of this Confederacy are Missionary 
 ground. The population is sparse and scattered ; the chil- 
 dren of the Church are few and far between ; the Priests 
 of the Lord can reach them only after great labor and pri- 
 vation. Hitherto has their scanty subsistence been eked 
 out from the common treasury of our united Church. Cut 
 off from that recourse by our political action, in which 
 they have heartily acquiesced, they turn to us and pray 
 us to do at least as much for them as we have been accus- 
 tomed to do for the Church from which they have been sep- 
 arated by a civil necessity. We can do what they ask, and 
 we ought cheerfully to do it. Unless we take care that the 
 Gospel is sent to these isolated children of the Church, who 
 will heed their cry ? They have no Church to cry to, but 
 the Church which we now represent ; and they cast them- 
 selves upon us in full faith that we will do our whole duty 
 
Pastoral Letter. 575 
 
 towards them. They are one with us in faith, in care, in 
 suffering" ; they are bearing like evils with those which dis- 
 turb us ; and they have no worship to cheer and support 
 them, no Gospel to preach to them patience and long-suf- 
 fering. For Christ's sake they pray that they may be given 
 at least a Mother's bosom to die upon. 
 
 Voices of supplication come to us also from the distant 
 shores of Africa and the East : but only their echo reaches 
 us from the Throne of Grace. The policy of man has shut 
 out those utterances from us. How it can help their cause 
 to separate the children of God from one another, He only 
 knows : but we can hear them when we kneel in prayer, and 
 commune with their spirits through the Spirit of Christ. 
 But God is perchance intending, through these inscrutable 
 measures, to shut us up to that great work which He has 
 placed at our very doors, and which is, next to her own ex- 
 pansion, the Church's greatest work in these Confederate 
 States. The religious instruction of the negroes has been 
 thrust upon us in such a wonderful manner, that we must 
 be blind not to perceive that not only our spiritual but our 
 national life is wrapped up in their welfare. With them 
 we stand or fall ; and God will not permit us to be separated 
 in interest or in fortune. 
 
 The time has come when the Church should press more 
 urgently than she has hitherto done upon her laity, the sol- 
 emn fact, that the slaves of the South are not merely so 
 much property : but are a sacred trust committed to us, as 
 a people, to be prepared for the work which God may have 
 for them to do in the future. While under this tutelage 
 He freely gives to us their labor, but expects us to give 
 back to them that religious and moral instruction which is 
 to elevate them in the scale of being. And while inculcat- 
 
576 
 
 Pastoral Letter. 
 
 ing this truth, the Church must offer more freely her min- 
 istrations for their benefit and improvement. Her laity 
 must set the example of readiness to fulfill their duty to- 
 wards these people ; and her clergy must strip themselves 
 of pride and fastidiousness and indolence, and rush, with 
 the zeal of martyrs, to this labor of love. The teachings of 
 the Church are those which best suit a people passing from 
 ignorance to civilization ; because, while it represses all 
 fanaticism, it fastens upon the memory the great facts of 
 our religion, and through its objective worship attracts and 
 enchains them. So far from relaxing, in their case, the 
 forms of the Church, good will be permanently done to 
 them just in proportion as we teach them through their 
 senses and their affections. If subjected to the teachings 
 of a bald spiritualism, they will find food for their senses 
 and their child-like fancies in superstitious observances of 
 their own, leading too often to crime and licentiousness. 
 
 It is likewise the duty of the Church to press upon the 
 masters of the country their obligation, as Christian men, 
 so to arrange this institution as not to necessitate the vio- 
 lation of those sacred relations which God has created, and 
 which man cannot, consistently with Christian duty, annul. 
 The systems of labor which prevail in Europe, and which 
 are, in many respects, more severe than ours, are so ar- 
 ranged as to prevent all necessity for the separation of pa- 
 rents and children and of husbands and wives : and a very 
 little care upon our part would rid the system, upon 
 which we are about to plant our national life, of these un- 
 christian features. It belongs, especially, to the Episcopal 
 Church to urge a proper teaching upon this subject, for in 
 her fold and in her congregations are found a very large 
 proportion of the great slaveholders of the country. We 
 rejoice to be enabled to say that the public sentiment is 
 rapidly becoming sound upon this subject, and that the 
 
Pastoral Letter. 577 
 
 legislatures of several of the Confederate States have 
 already taken steps towards this consummation. Hitherto 
 have we been hindered by the pressure of abolitionism. 
 Now that we have thrown off from us that hateful and infi- 
 del pestilence, we should prove to the world that we are 
 faithful to our trust ; and the Church should lead the hosts 
 of the Lord in this work of justice and of mercy. 
 
 Another duty, which, for the present, devolves upon the 
 Church, is an oversight of the children of God, as they lie 
 without religion and without Christian care in the camps 
 and hospitals of our Government. Far he it from us to say 
 that there has been no Christian supervision of our sol- 
 diers ; and we cheerfully concede all praise and thanks to 
 those who have done their duty through danger and priva- 
 tion : but we must affirm that there is still a great lack of 
 service on the Church's part in this connection. From 
 whatever cause it has arisen, whether from the scarcity of 
 clergymen, or from unwillingness to bear the hardships of 
 the soldiers' life, we are obliged to acknowledge that we 
 have been unable to find men who were willing to answer 
 this call, and to take their places, not as soldiers fighting 
 for their country, but as soldiers fighting for the victory of 
 Christ over sin and death. In the opinion of the House of 
 Bishops, no position is more suited, at this moment, to the 
 true spirit of Christ and His Church, than that of a faithful 
 minister of the grace of God and of the Sacraments of the 
 Church to the soldiers in the field, or in the hospital : and 
 we would urge it upon those ministers who have been exiled 
 from their parishes, to enter upon this work as their pres- 
 ent duty, trusting for support to Him who has said, " I will 
 never leave thee nor forsake thee." 
 
 The most striking deficiency in the Church's work which 
 37 
 
573 
 
 Pastoral Letter. 
 
 we perceive in looking at the Church's life, is a lack of zeal 
 in spreading the influences of the Church through her Ser- 
 vices and Sacraments. Our ministry has become too local 
 and sedentary, too well satisfied to sit down and do the 
 work which it has undertaken to do, overlooking the fields 
 white for the harvest which are spread out all around them, 
 and which cannot be cultivated save through their agency. 
 Every well-established congregation should consider itself 
 as a centre of Missionary work, and should encourage its 
 pastor to extend his usefulness beyond its own limits, and 
 while he is a Priest to them, to be, in some measure, a Mis- 
 sionary to all about him. As long as the selfish idea is in- 
 dulged, that a minister is tied down to a local congrega- 
 tion, and has no business to work around him, the Church 
 must languish, or increase but slowly. Missionaries cannot 
 be furnished for every village and neighborhood ; and these 
 must remain uncared for by the Church, unless the settled 
 clergy will make up their minds to extend the sphere of 
 their operations beyond the narrow limits of their own im- 
 mediate cures. 
 
 Another deficiency which requires amendment, is the 
 little spiritual intercourse which takes place among the 
 Clergy in their work for the Church. Each man works in 
 his sphere : but for the most part he gives nothing to his 
 brother clergyman, and receives nothing from him in re- 
 turn. When our Lord sent forth His Apostles, He sent 
 them two by two, for the evident purpose that they should 
 support, strengthen, and comfort each other. The spirit of 
 this action is very much overlooked in the Church, and the 
 Clergy are weakened by it. While the House of Bishops 
 would not specify any mode by which this defect should be 
 remedied, it would recommend to the Clergy a more free, 
 spiritual intercourse, a more frequent interchange of cler- 
 ical services, greater communion in prayer and in counsel. 
 
Pastoral Letter. 579 
 
 3Xany a despondent heart would thus be cheered, and many 
 a weak brother would be comforted and strengthened. 
 
 Another deficiency which requires amendment, is the 
 little spiritual help which is given to the Clergy by the 
 Laity, We have uo reference now to the temporal support 
 of the Clergy, although we might well dwell upon that : 
 but to the spiritual help which a Christian Laity might 
 give to the Clergy. In reading the Acts of the Apostles, 
 we find many illustrations of this truth ; and we perceive 
 how the greatest of the Apostles was not above the help of 
 his yoke-fellows in the Gospel. There are many ways in 
 which spiritual and earnest Laymen can help their Clergy 
 in the work of the Church, and under their guidance and 
 direction, can become valuable Missionaries of Christ, even 
 while unordained. It requires sacrifice and self-denial ; 
 but we must all remember that we are not our own, but are 
 bought with a price, and belong to Christ, body, soul and 
 spirit. 
 
 But over and above all these special deficiencies, looms 
 up that greatest of all deficiencies, the lack of the Holy 
 Spirit in and with our Churches. Because of the degree to 
 which spiritual influences have been abused in our land, we 
 have been tempted to run into the other extreme, and to 
 forget that we are living under what the Apostle calls the 
 dispensation of the Spirit, and that the Church's work 
 must derive all its power from His presence. Our danger 
 is, to merge the Holy Ghost into the means of grace, and 
 overlook the important fact that He is a personal agent, 
 acting indeed through those means, but not necessarily tied 
 to them. Our Saviour said : " The wind bloweth where it 
 listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst not 
 tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every 
 one that is born of the Spirit." And as with the individ- 
 ual, so with the Church. The Holy Spirit will be in the 
 
580 Pastoral Letter. 
 
 Church, if His presence is kept there by an acknowledg- 
 ment of His power, by a sense of His necessity, by a con- 
 stant prayer for His presence ; but the addresses to the 
 Churches in Asia Minor instruct us to be watchful over our- 
 selves, and to hold fast by Him, who is the representative 
 of Christ upon earth, while Christ is interceding and advo- 
 cating for us in Heaven. Let the Church and her Min- 
 isters always bear in mind, that the growth of the Church 
 and the vitality of the Church are " not by might, nor 
 by power, but by my Spirit," saith the Lord. 
 
 And now it only remains for us to bid you, one and all, 
 an affectionate farewell. We cannot but remember that 
 when we last separated from you, there stood among us two 
 venerated brethren, dearly beloved in the Lord, who have 
 since entered into their rest. When we parted we knew it 
 must be so, but we could not foresee where the hand of 
 Death would fall. And now again we know, that separat- 
 ing once more for the like space of time, we shall not all 
 meet again. Whose shall be the summons ? Well for us 
 that the curtain of God's providence hides this knowledge 
 from us, teaching us the lesson of Christian truth, that we 
 must all watch and be sober, because we know neither the 
 day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh. May 
 God's gracious Providence guide you in safety to your 
 homes, and preserve them from the desolations of war. 
 And should we not be permitted to battle together any 
 more for Christ in the Church militant, may we be deemed 
 worthy to be members of the Church triumphant, where 
 with Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Saints and Angels, we 
 may ascribe honor and glory, dominion and praise to Him 
 that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb, forever ! 
 
an at>t>re&3 
 
 At the Funeral of the Rt. Rev. Nicholas Hamner Cobbs, D. D., 
 late Bishop of Alabama, delivered in S. John's Church, Mont- 
 gomery, Alabama, on Sunday, ya?iuary 13th, 1861. 
 
 FT1HE year has opened upon us, Fellow-Churchmen and 
 
 Fellow-Christians, with a great public sorrow. This 
 smitten congregation, this vast assemblage of sympathizing 
 friends, this crowd of bereaved Clergymen, this Church 
 clad in the deep habiliments of mourning, all attest that 
 the grief which lies heavy upon us is of no private charac- 
 ter. It is not a single family, or a single circle, which 
 mourns to-day ; but it is every family, and every circle, of a 
 large and wide-spread communion. It is not one congre- 
 gation only, that bows its head in the dust, and sits silent 
 under the chastening hand of God ; but it is every congre- 
 gation of this extended Diocese. And beyond its limits are 
 thousands of the good and the devout, who share with us 
 our grief for the death of this holy servant of God, and 
 whose prayers are this day ascending to Heaven on the 
 wings of the Holy Dove in behalf of his widow, of his chil- 
 dren, of his people, of his Clergy, of the Church of the 
 Living God. And through this wide land are hearts weep- 
 ing for him to-day, as for a Father; are voices uttering 
 blessings upon his name for all the good he has done to 
 them. And many, who never looked upon his face, are 
 placing upon his grave the tribute of love, for the gentle 
 goodness whose fragrance reaches even unto them ; of 
 reverence, for the holiness which made him precious 
 
582 At the Funeral of Bishop Cob 5s. 
 
 among the saints of God. We, who stand here weeping 
 over his dead body, are hut the representatives of multi- 
 tudes, who are shedding their tears in the privacy of their 
 own households. We, who utter in this place our broken 
 words of love and sorrow, are only the leaders of hosts, 
 who are lifting up to God the voice of supplication for 
 strength and comfort under this sore affliction. For there 
 is yet, thanks be to God ! virtue enough left among men to 
 enable them to recognize the embodiment of goodness, and 
 grace enough to lead them to pay homage to the reflection 
 of their Saviour's image. 
 
 And well does his memory deserve all this love, and all 
 this gushing tribute of affection. From his youth, up to 
 the moment when the silver cord was loosed, was he him- 
 self a creature of unselfishness, lavishing upon all around 
 him the bounties of his goodness and the warmth of his 
 affection. Never has he sought his own things, but always 
 the things of others. Wherever in his ministry the Spirit 
 of God has called him, that sphere has been warmed by the 
 kindliness of his nature, and the earnestness of his piety. 
 Whether toiling as a Missionary among the valleys of his 
 own beloved Virginia, or laboring as a Pastor in the exact- 
 ing congregations of towns and cities, or standing beside 
 the fountains of Science and sweetening their waters with 
 the truths of Christianity, or building up the Church in 
 this almost virgin Diocese : he has left everywhere the like 
 impress of himself. He has ever walked in an atmosphere 
 of love ; and those among whom he has wandered rise up, 
 even to this day, and call him blessed. Heartfelt gratitude 
 has followed him all his days. Affection has sweetened his 
 whole pathway of life. Devotion has filled Heaven with 
 prayers in his behalf; and now that he has sunk to his rest, 
 there is showered upon his grave all this pent-up tribute of 
 sincere devotion. He verified in his life, and in his death, 
 
At the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs. 583 
 
 that striking beatitude : " Blessed are the meek : for they 
 shall inherit the earth." 
 
 How comforting it is to stand beside the dead, and see 
 that Christ's promises have been fulfilled in life and in 
 death ! And in no one has this been more strikingly ex- 
 hibited, than in our beloved brother. He was enabled by 
 faith, first to overcome the world ; and then, by a like faith 
 to overcome Death and the Grave. Few men have been 
 more in the world than the holy Bishop whose life we are 
 illustrating, while few men have been less of the world. A 
 soldier of the Cross from early manhood, a warrior for 
 Christ all his life through, — a warrior, too, who never 
 shrank from any post, or any duty, a Missionary, a Priest, 
 a Chaplain, a Bishop, — he yet was kept unspotted from the 
 world. It had no charms for him ; or, if it had, lie tram- 
 pled them under foot with an unsparing severity. He 
 moved among men always as the Minister of God, as the 
 Ambassador for Christ. No one could ever mistake his 
 character, or his purpose. While he was gentle unto all 
 men, he was never pliant ; while he was wary in the pur- 
 suit of the great purposes of Christ's Kingdom upon the 
 earth, nothing turned him aside from their consummation. 
 Baffled to-day, he resumed his efforts to-morrow. Disap- 
 pointed in his spiritual aims, he renewed his heart through 
 prayer, and worked afresh. His whole soul was thrown 
 into the advancement of Christ's Church, because he be- 
 lieved that Church to be the pillar and ground of the 
 Truth. He was never ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ, but preached it ever as the Wisdom of God, and the 
 Power of God unto Salvation. Worldliness he rebuked ; un- 
 godliness he denounced ; and maintained a strict discipline 
 over the Church of Christ. And God rewarded his faith- 
 fulness in life by His Presence in death, and bore him in 
 peace through the valley of the shadow of death to that 
 " rest which remaineth to the people of God." 
 
584 At the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs. 
 
 Bishop Cobbs was remarkable in every feature of his 
 ministerial life : remarkable, because peculiar. As a Pas- 
 tor, he was unrivalled. Carrying into every house the gen- 
 tle, loving spirit of which we have spoken, he wound him- 
 self about the hearts of young and old, so that their affec- 
 tion for him became an indissoluble tie. It was not in his 
 case, as too often it is, a mere transient admiration of a 
 Clergyman's powers, or a Clergyman's manners, but it as- 
 sumed the unchangeable form of a relationship. It con- 
 tinued through life. It died not out with his removal to 
 another sphere, but he remained the beloved Pastor until 
 death destroyed the bond. No subsequent tie could ever 
 obliterate that first spiritual love. Wherever he went, or 
 whatever he became, his children in the Lord followed his 
 wanderings with the eye of unchanging affection, and never 
 swerved from their allegiance. And this was the result of 
 his earnest self-devotedness to the interests of his people, 
 combined with that indescribable power of insinuating him- 
 self into their deepest affections. It is useless to attempt to 
 analyze it, because, even if analyzed, it could not be imi- 
 tated, for it belonged to the man. It was that which con- 
 stituted, as a Pastor, his peculiar power. And this rich, un- 
 ceasing fountain of sympathy made him a true comforter 
 in affliction or disease ; a welcome visitor in every abode of 
 poverty or sorrow. It was a living manifestation of the 
 power of Christian love. He carried with him none of the 
 artificial manners of the world ; he took no pains to be a 
 courtier, or a truckler ; he spoke with honest fearlessness, 
 yet with discretion, the words of truth : yet everybody 
 loved him, and no one was ashamed to be governed by his 
 counsel. He moved in and out among his people, the ser- 
 vant of all, and yet the head of all ; the humble man of 
 God, and yet the unopposed Ambassador for Christ and His 
 Church. 
 
At the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs. 585 
 
 Bishop Cobbs was remarkable as a Preacher: remark- 
 able again, because peculiar. And that peculiarity con- 
 sisted in two things, one of which came to him by nature, 
 and the other by grace. He possessed, naturally, a clear 
 insight into character ; and this, combined with a daily ex- 
 amination of his own heart, made him one of the clearest 
 and most searching pulpit orators of the Church. He 
 tracked sin through all its hiding-places with an unerring 
 sagacity, and laid bare the defects of the life of God in the 
 soul with the skill of a spiritual anatomist. It required a 
 very spiritual state of mind to follow him ; and sometimes 
 the hearer was lost, because the speaker was passed beyond 
 his depth. To the growing Christian his pulpit instruc- 
 tions were surpassingly useful ; and many, whom in his 
 earlier days he led into the way of life, would never con- 
 sent to compare anybody's teaching with his. This was 
 one peculiarity ; the other, I grieve to say, is still more un- 
 common : the presence, in his preaching, of the unction 
 of the Holy Spirit. Alas! how few attain that mighty 
 power ! How seldom are the words of the preacher 
 steeped in the oil of the Sanctuary, so that they glide into 
 the hearts of the hearers, and become as nails driven into 
 a sure place ! He possessed it in an eminent degree, and 
 his sermons upon ordinary occasions always impressed the 
 hearer with the feeling that the preacher had woven them, 
 not out of his mind, but out of his spirit in communion 
 with the Spirit of God. And these peculiarities constitute 
 the elements of pulpit excellence. With these, many de- 
 fects of manner and style can be forgiven : without these, 
 our words, however harmonious and rhetorical, are but as 
 sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 
 
 Our beloved Bishop was remarkable, likewise, in his 
 Episcopal character : remarkable again, because peculiar. 
 And that peculiarity consisted in his ruling everybody 
 
586 At the Funeral of Bishop Cob 5s. 
 
 through the power of gentleness. No Bishop of our 
 Church has ever had around him a more devoted Clergy, or 
 a more united Laity ; and yet no Bishop has ever assumed 
 as little authority over either Clergy or Laity. Their de- 
 votion to him was the spontaneous tribute of affection, to 
 one whom they perceived to be spending himself in their 
 service, and who had no aims save those which he believed 
 to be the aims of Christ and His Church. His prudence 
 and his wisdom were manifest to all ; and when these are 
 combined with a sincere and unselfish piety, they are irre- 
 sistible. No points ever arose between him and his Con- 
 vention ; and when he was drawn, against his will and 
 against his nature, into the controversies of others, his 
 wise conclusions were always sustained. And this is the 
 true influence of a Bishop, when he wields authority, not 
 because the Law gives it to him, but because his people are 
 assured that he will assume none which is not clearly his ; 
 and will exercise even that, wisely and discreetly. This en- 
 tire confidence in their Bishop was manifested only a year 
 or two since by the Convention of this Diocese, when it 
 placed, unhesitatingly, its whole Missionary operations in 
 his hands, trusting implicitly to his better knowledge of 
 the wants and necessities of his Diocese. And well might 
 they have reposed this perfect trust in him, for he spared 
 no pains in the oversight of his Episcopate. He was ever 
 on the wing, travelling through heat and cold, through 
 storm and sunshine, in the highways and byways, exposed 
 to every inconvenience to which one may be subjected in 
 these days of improvement ; seeking out the children of 
 the Church wherever they might be found scattered in the 
 waste places of the land. His journeys were unceasing, his 
 labors enormous, and no fear of personal discomfort ever 
 kept him from his duties. And when he indulged himself 
 with a little rest in the home of his affections, his active 
 
At the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs. 587 
 
 mind was busy in the device of glorious things for the 
 Church of God. He worked out, in these moments of re- 
 pose, an ideal for the future, which was to concentrate 
 around the Bishop, in the heart of this Metropolis, all the 
 efficient agencies of Church work : schools for the lambs 
 of the flock ; seminaries for students of every kind ; nur- 
 series for instruction in all the routine of benevolence ; and, 
 rising from their midst, a Cathedral Church, from which 
 should daily ascend the prayers and praises of God's peo- 
 ple, and from which should radiate to the extremities of 
 the Diocese the holy influences of Christianity. This ideal 
 has Death scattered, for the present, as it does so many 
 other ideals ; but seed sown by the righteous, and watered 
 by their prayers, never perishes. The time will come, 
 when he will be remembered as the wise and holy man of 
 God, who looked far into the future, and saw in vision the 
 glorious things of the Church of his Redeemer. 
 
 And God has richly blessed the work and labor of his 
 hands. Receiving this Diocese from the hands of its en- 
 ergetic Missionary Bishop some sixteen years ago, he has 
 moulded it into its present strength and compactness. It 
 has increased more than five fold under his untiring labors, 
 carried on through numberless disadvantages. In the 
 early part of his Episcopate he was subjected to great toil 
 in reaching his places of appointment, for, even to-day, it 
 is a most laborious Diocese to traverse. But through it all 
 he persevered, establishing this point, confirming that; 
 planting new Churches in the wilderness, and reconstruct- 
 ing the old ; upholding the weak ; comforting the per- 
 plexed ; cheering the despondent : a true leader of the 
 hosts of God, whose trumpet never gave an uncertain 
 sound. No one, who has not passed through the experi- 
 ence of a Missionary Bishop, can understand or appreciate 
 the severity and variety of his labors. Set apart to build 
 
588 At the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs. 
 
 up the Church of Christ in an unkindly soil, it would be an 
 arduous task, even though he were helped with all the ap- 
 pliances of human agency. But when he is sent alone, 
 without the aid of proper assistants, without money at his 
 command, to assist the feeble parishes and animate the 
 strong ; encountering here lukewarm ness, and there indif- 
 ference, aiui everywhere ungodliness : it demands a heart 
 of steel, and a spirit warmed by the perpetual sunshine of 
 God's countenance, to accomplish the work of the Lord. 
 That our beloved brother was enabled so gloriously to ful- 
 fill his mission, he owed to the grace of God, working in 
 and through his rare personal qualities. These he laid, in 
 all humility, at the foot of the Cross, and received in return 
 the strength which cometh from Jesus Christ, the Crucified 
 Saviour, the Risen Advocate and Intercessor. 
 
 In the higher Councils of the Church, our brother held 
 an enviable position. His character gave him great power 
 among his brethren of the Episcopate, and in the House 
 of Bishops his opinion always carried great weight. He 
 did not mingle much in its debates ; but when he chose to 
 speak, no man was more attentively listened to, or more 
 generally approved. It was a matter of regret that he did 
 not express his views more freely ; but his great humility 
 displayed itself in this, that he esteemed others better than 
 himself. " He was willing," he said, "to be instructed by 
 those who were older in the Episcopate," and thus held his 
 tongue, even from good words. But when he would permit 
 himself to give utterance to his opinions, he was sure to 
 make his mark ; for wisdom sat upon his lips, and integrity 
 swayed every movement of his heart. Good sense, deep 
 wisdom, and unchanging kindness of utterance, were the 
 characteristics of his speeches : and never did he rise with- 
 out casting light upon the subject which he treated ; and 
 — what was better — never did he close, without casting 
 
At the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs. 589 
 
 over the assembly the spell of his loving heart. We shall 
 mourn the absence of his spirit from our Councils, for, we 
 shall never see again precisely his counterpart. 
 
 And, if missed from the General Council of the Church, 
 how much more deeply shall we feel his absence in that 
 narrower, but more intimate Council, in which he has com- 
 muned with his brethren in behalf of the interests of 
 Literature and Science in our Southern Dioceses ! It was 
 there we felt his value, for he cast his whole heart and soul 
 into the elevation of the standard of learning in the Church 
 and in the Country. He was totally dissatisfied with the 
 superficial education of the United States ; and his earn- 
 est wish was, to bring back the olden times of English 
 learning, when scholarship and piety were indissoluble com- 
 panions. Often have we talked over this hope, in inter- 
 course which I can never forget ; and how his eye would 
 kindle, and his form dilate, as he opened his views for the 
 future of our University, and lifted up a standard of schol- 
 arship such as few men even conceive of in this present 
 day ! It was upon occasions like these that I first discov- 
 ered the latent enthusiasm of his character 5 — how he 
 kept down, under the restraints of duty and of grace, a 
 spirit which could flame forth, when time and opportunity 
 permitted, into an ardor that was electric, and that filled 
 his hearers with amazement and admiration. And this en- 
 thusiasm he was prepared to cast into the work of the Uni- 
 versity, and promote, with his wise counsels, its early es- 
 tablishment. It was getting very near his heart : but now, 
 all that is left us is the memory of his sagacity, and the 
 duty of enshrining him as one of its earliest friends and 
 wisest architects. 
 
 Such a heart, and such a soul, so gentle, so loving, so 
 full of goodness, could only arise out of a Religion that 
 was deeply personal. 
 
590 At the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs. 
 
 His theology was fixed and definite ; but it was his per- 
 sonal piety which distinguished the man. He was one of 
 the holiest men I have ever met, and the very radiance of 
 his face told the passer-by that he lived with Jesus. In 
 the last communication which he made to his Clergy, he 
 says : " As to my hope of justification with God, tell them 
 that 6 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accepta- 
 tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.' 
 I have been called a good man, a kind man, from my youth 
 up. I do not say whether justly, or otherwise. I have 
 tried to show kindness and sympathy to all, especially to 
 the poor, to the afflicted, and to the bereaved ; and I am 
 certain that I do not now bear malice, or cherish unkind 
 feelings, towards anybody on the face of the earth. But, 
 if I have done any kind deeds, or any good works, I am 
 sure I make no merit of them, but cast them all behind my 
 back, and nauseate them, and spit upon them as ' filthy 
 rags ; ' and counting myself an 6 unprofitable servant,' I 
 look only unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith, 
 and say : 
 
 ' In my hand no price I bring, 
 Simply to Thy Cross I cling.' " 
 
 And this was a fitting close to a life of entire devotion to 
 the cause of Christ. He knew no other master than Jesus 
 Christ, and Him crucified : and " next to Christ who is the 
 Head, he loved the Church," to use his own language, 
 "which is His Body, with his whole heart." Trusting 
 thus in the Blood of the Atonement ; rejoicing that Christ 
 had died for his sins, and risen for his justification, he sub- 
 mitted himself to the Sovereign Will of God. " I know 
 not yet, with certainty, what is to be the issue of this sick- 
 ness. I have no will nor wish in the matter. c Nor life 
 nor death I crave ' ; but simply to do, to bear, to suffer, 
 and to glorify the will of God." And with this humble, 
 submissive spirit, he went his way to his Father's home. 
 
At the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs, 591 
 
 And well may you, 1113" hearers, arid all the Church over 
 which he had the oversight, lament to-day, in dust and 
 ashes ; for you have lost, at this most critical period of 
 your civil and ecclesiastical affairs,* one whose prayers were 
 mighty before God, and whose counsels were prevalent 
 among men. Most grievous is the affliction, when, at any 
 time, and under any circumstances, a faithful Bishop is 
 taken from his flock; hut it is overwhelming, when his 
 light is put out just as that flock is entering into the dark 
 cloud of trouble and of perplexity. Yet such is your con- 
 dition to-day. Just when his people most need consola- 
 tion; just when his Clergy most require the counsels of 
 a wise experience ; just when the Church is to be guided 
 through a period of change, and therefore of peril: your 
 earthly guide and counsellor is taken to his rest. And such 
 a guide ! so gentle, yet so wise ; so loving, yet so firm ; so 
 modest, yet so influential ; so full of the Spirit of God, yet 
 knowing how to move warily among the children of men. 
 
 It is indeed — for I end as I began — " a great public sor- 
 row ; " and well may the State, equally with the Church, 
 lament that so holy a man has been taken away in this her 
 hour of trial, perchance of peril. For such men as he — 
 men of prayer, and men of truth — constitute the strength 
 and power of a State. They are " the horses and the char- 
 iots of Israel." Well, therefore, may the tears of States- 
 men mingle with the tears of women, and the grief of age 
 be uttered side by side with the grief of childhood. It is a 
 conjunction worthy of him, who came so near to his Sa- 
 viour's ideal of conduct, that he should be " wise as a ser- 
 pent, and harmless as a dove." 
 
 But he has not left you without counsel in this emer- 
 gency. He has counselled you, year after year, from this 
 
 * Bishop Cobbs departed in peace about fifteen minutes before the cannon 
 announced that the " Ordinance of Secession " had passed. 
 
592 At the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs. 
 
 pulpit, telling you where to look for wisdom and for 
 strength, in every hour of your necessity. His finger has 
 pointed you unswervingly to the Throne of Grace ; and all 
 his lessons have taught you, that the Lord God Omnipotent 
 reigneth, and that He holdeth in His keeping the hearts 
 of all men. He has counselled you in his daily intercourse 
 with you, teaching in season and out of season, that God is 
 Love, and that He watches over His children, with a ten- 
 derness surpassing the love of woman, keeping them as 
 the apple of an eye. He has counselled you by his daily 
 walk and conversation, showing you, in his own life, what 
 it is to move daily and hourly in the faith of God, and in 
 the righteousness of Christ. And now has he counselled 
 you by his death, showing you how one, born weak and 
 sinful and corrupt, can glorify God, even in his infirmities ; 
 can triumph over sickness, and pain, and death ; can lie 
 down in peace, assured that " them also which sleep in 
 Jesus, will God bring with Him." 
 
 For you, brethren of the Clergy, has he left a more par- 
 ticular and special blessing. He had you in his heart, all 
 through his weeks of suffering : for he knew your sorrow, 
 and he could sympathize with it. " Give to each and every 
 one of them," are his own touching words, " individually, 
 my love and my blessing; and tell them, that as, during 
 my whole Episcopate, it has been my earnest purpose and 
 constant endeavor to be, and to show myself to be, the per- 
 sonal friend and helper of every Clergyman in my Diocese : 
 so now, I have them still in my heart. And, with my fare- 
 well blessing upon them, upon their families, upon their 
 parishes, and upon my whole Diocese, tell them, that their 
 dying Bishop exhorts them, in Christ's name, to study to 
 be men of God : men of peace, men of brotherly kindness, 
 men of charity ; self-denying men, men of purity of char- 
 acter, men of prayer ; men striving to perfect holiness in 
 
At the Funeral of Bishop Cobbs. 593 
 
 the fear of God, and laboring and preaching with an eye 
 single to His Glory, and the salvation of souls." 
 
 I dare not intrude myself into the sacred sanctuary of 
 his home. Private loves and private griefs belong not to 
 the public eye. They are for the heart, and for God. ♦ But 
 I may be permitted to say to you, out of the fullness of a 
 loving heart, that his widow and his children have the sin- 
 cerest sympathy of the Church of Christ, and that their 
 names will be carried upon the wings of prayer to that 
 Comforter, who alone knoweth how to comfort all them 
 that are afflicted. Your richest legacy is his character : 
 your surest trust, the promises of God, made to the seed 
 of the righteous. May His peace, that peace which pass- 
 eth all understanding, abide with you, now and forever ! 
 
 And now, let us take the aged warrior to his rest. His 
 time of work is over. The sun has set upon his day of la- 
 bor. The hour of rest has come: and he is given that 
 blessedness, which none but a Christian warrior can know, 
 — the blessedness of the transition state from the work of 
 earth to the work of Heaven. Oh the sweetness of that 
 word rest ! To cease from all the weariness of life ; to be 
 done with its cares, its perplexities, its sorrows, its mis- 
 eries ; to have fought the good fight of faith, and ended 
 the struggle ; to have finished the work which God has 
 given us to do : and now to lie down, and be at peace. 
 The Psalmist expressed it, when, in the weariness of his 
 struggles, he cried, " Oh that I had wings like a dove, for 
 then would I flee away and be at rest." S. Paul expressed 
 it, when, aged and worn, he exulted in his approaching 
 end : " For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of 
 my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I 
 have finished my course, I have kept the faith : henceforth 
 there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." 1 S. John 
 1 2 Tim. iv. 6-8. 
 
 38 
 
594 At ^ Funeral of Bishop Cobbs. 
 
 proclaimed it, as an utterance from Heaven, when he said : 
 " I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, 
 Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord from hence- 
 forth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
 labors ; and their works do follow them." 1 It was rest 
 that our beloved warrior craved ; — rest from sin, rest from 
 warfare, rest from responsibility, rest from temptation, rest 
 from the solemn work of life : and God gave him the boon 
 when He dismissed him from his post : " Go thou thy way, 
 till the Great Day : faithfully hast thou done thy work. 
 Now shalt thou rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the 
 days." 2 
 
 i Ker. xiv. 13. 2 Daniel xii. 13.