Therefore he is at peace, for he is, as it were, intrenched in an impregnable fortress, against all men and all evil influences. And that castle is his own soul. And the keeper of that castle is none other than Almighty G.o.d, Jesus Christ our Lord, to whose keeping he has committed his soul, as unto a faithful and merciful Saviour, able to keep to the uttermost that which is committed to Him in faith and holiness.
Therefore that man is at peace with himself, for his conscience tells him that he is, if not doing his best, yet trying to do his best, better and better day by day. He is at peace with all the world; for most men are longing and quarrelling for pleasant things outside them, for which he does not greatly care, while he is longing and striving for good things inside him in his own heart and soul; and so the world goes one way, and he another, and their desires do not interfere with each other.
But, more, that man is at peace with G.o.d. He is at peace with G.o.d the Father; for he is behaving as the Father wishes His children to behave.
He is at peace with G.o.d the Son; for he is trying to do that which G.o.d the Son did when He came not to do His own will, but His Father"s; not to grasp at anything for himself, but simply to sacrifice himself for duty, for the good of man. And he is at peace with G.o.d the Holy Spirit; for he is obeying the gracious inspirations of that Spirit, and growing a better man day by day. And so the peace of G.o.d keeps that man"s heart free from vain desires and angry pa.s.sions, and his mind from those false and foolish judgments which make the world think things important which are quite unimportant; and, again, fancy things unimportant which are more important to them than the riches of the whole world.
My dear friends, take my words home with you, and if you wish for the only true and sound peace, which is the peace of G.o.d, do your duty. Try to be as good as you can, each in his station in life. So help you G.o.d.
Take an example from the soldier on the march; and if you do that, you will all understand what I mean. The bad soldier has no peace, just because he troubles himself about things outside himself, and not in his own power. "Will the officers lead us right?" That is not in his power.
Let him go where the officers lead him, and do his own duty. "Will he get food enough, water enough, care enough, if he is wounded?" I hope and trust in G.o.d he will; but that is not in his own power. Let him take that, too, as it comes, and do his duty. "Will he be praised, rewarded, mentioned in the newspapers, if he fights well?" That, too, is not in his own power. Let him take that, too, as it comes, and do his duty; and so of everything else. If the soldier on the march torments himself with these matters which are not in his own power, he is the man who will be troublesome and mutinous in time of peace, and in time of war will be the first to run away. He will tell you, "A man must have justice done him; a man must see fair play for himself; a man must think of himself." Poor fool! He is not thinking of himself all the while, but of a number of things which are outside him, circ.u.mstances which stand round him, and outside him, and are not himself at all. Because he thinks of them--the things outside him--he is a coward or a mutineer, while he fancies he is taking care of himself--as it is written, "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it."
But if the man will really think of himself, of that which is inside him, of his own character, his own honour, his own duty--then he will say, Well fed or ill fed, well led or ill led, praised and covered with medals, or neglected and forgotten, and dying in a ditch, I, by myself I, am the same man, and I have the same work to do. I have to be--myself, and I have to do--my duty. So help me G.o.d. And therefore, so help me G.o.d, I will be discontented with no person or thing, save only with myself; and I will be discontented with myself, not when I have left undone something extraordinary, which I know I could not have done, but only when I have left undone something ordinary, some plain duty which I know I could have done, had I asked G.o.d to help me to do it. Then in that soldier would be fulfilled--has been fulfilled, thank G.o.d, a thousand times, by men who lie in this abbey, and by men, too, of whom we never heard, "whose graves are scattered far and wide, by mount, by stream, by sea,"--in him would be fulfilled, I say, the words, "He that will lose his life shall save it." Then would he have in his heart, and in his mind likewise, a peace which victory and safety cannot give, and which defeat, and wounds, ay, death itself, can never take away.
And are not you, too, soldiers--soldiers of Jesus Christ? Then even as that good soldier, you may be at peace, through all the battles, victories, defeats of mortal life, if you will be discontented with nothing save yourselves, and vow, in spirit and in truth, the one oath which is no blasphemy, but an act of faith, and an act of prayer, and a confession of the true theology--So help me G.o.d. For then G.o.d will help you. Neither you nor I know how; and I am sure neither you nor I know why--save that G.o.d is utterly good. G.o.d, I say, will help you, by His Holy Spirit the Comforter, to do your duty, and to be at peace. And then the peace of G.o.d will rule in your hearts and make you kings to G.o.d. For He will enable YOU each to rule, serene, though weary, over a kingdom-- or, alas! rather a mob, the most unruly, the most unreasonable, the most unstable, and often the most fierce, which you are like to meet on earth.
To rule, I say, over a mob, of which you each must needs be king or slave, according as you choose. And what is that mob? What but your own faculties, your own emotions, your own pa.s.sions--in one word, your own selves? Yes, with the peace of G.o.d ruling in your hearts, you will be able to become what without it you will never be--and that is--masters of yourselves.
SERMON XXVI. SINS OF PARENTS VISITED
Eversley. 19th Sunday after Trinity, 1868.
Ezekiel xviii. 1-4. "The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children"s teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord G.o.d, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die."
This is a precious chapter, and a comfortable chapter likewise, for it helps us to clear up a puzzle which has tormented the minds of men in all ages whenever they have thought of G.o.d, and of whether G.o.d meant them well, or meant them ill.
For all men have been tempted. We are tempted at times to say,--The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children"s teeth are set on edge.
That is, we are punished not for what we have done wrong, but for what our fathers did wrong. One man says,--My forefathers squandered their money, and I am punished by being poor. Or, my forefathers ruined their const.i.tutions, and, therefore, I am weakly and sickly. My forefathers were ignorant and reckless, and, therefore, I was brought up ignorant, and in all sorts of temptation. And so men complain of their ill-luck and bad chance, as they call it, till they complain of G.o.d, and say, as the Jews said in Ezekiel"s time, G.o.d"s ways are unequal--partial--unfair.
He is a respecter of persons. He has not the same rule for all men. He starts men unequally in the race of life--some heavily weighted with their father"s sins and misfortunes, some helped in every way by their father"s virtue and good fortune--and then He expects them all to run alike. G.o.d is not just and equal. And then some go on,--men who think themselves philosophers, but are none--to say things concerning G.o.d of which I shall say nothing here, lest I put into your minds foolish thoughts, which had best be kept out of them.
But, some of you may say, Is it not so after all? Is it not true? Is not G.o.d harder on some than on others? Does not G.o.d punish men every day for their father"s sins? Does He not say in the Second Commandment that He will do so, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation; and how can you make that agree with what Ezekiel says,--"The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father." My dear friends, I know that this is a puzzle, and always has been one.
Like the old puzzle of G.o.d"s foreknowledge and our free will, which seem to contradict each other. Like the puzzle that we must help ourselves, and yet that G.o.d must help us, which seem to contradict each other. So with this. I believe of it, as of the two others I just mentioned, that there is no real contradiction between the two cases; and that some-when, somehow, somewhere, in the world to come, we shall see them clearly reconciled; and justify G.o.d in all His dealings, and glorify Him in all His ways. But surely already, here, now, we may see our way somewhat into the depths of this mystery. For Christ has come to give us light, and in His light we may see light, even into this dark matter.
For see: G.o.d visits the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation--but of whom?--of them that hate Him. Now, by those who hate G.o.d is meant, those who break His commandments, and are bad men. If so, then, I say that G.o.d is not only just but merciful, in visiting the sins of the fathers on the children.
For, consider two cases. Suppose these bad men, from father to son, and from son to grandson, go on in the same evil ways, and are incorrigible.
Then is not G.o.d merciful to the world in punishing them, even in destroying them out of the world, where they only do harm? The world does not want fools, it wants wise men. The world does not want bad men, it wants good men; and we ought to thank G.o.d, if, by His eternal laws, He gets rid of bad men for us; and, as the saying is, civilizes them off the face of the earth in the third or fourth generation. And G.o.d does so.
If a family, or a cla.s.s, or a whole nation becomes incorrigibly profligate, foolish, base, in three or four generations they will either die out or vanish. They will sink to the bottom of society, and become miserably poor, weak, and of no influence, and so unable to do harm to any but themselves. Whole families will sink thus, I have seen it; you may have seen it. Whole nations will sink thus; as the Jews sank in Ezekiel"s time, and again in our Lord"s time; and be conquered, trampled on, counted for nothing, because they were worth nothing.
But now suppose, again, that the children, when their father"s sins are visited on them, are NOT incorrigible. Suppose they are like the wise son of whom Ezekiel speaks, in the 14th verse, who seeth all his father"s sins, and considereth, and doeth not such like--then has not G.o.d been merciful and kind to him in visiting his father"s sins on him? He has.
G.o.d is justified therein. His eternal laws of natural retribution, severe as they are, have worked in love and in mercy, if they have taught the young man the ruinousness, the deadliness of sin. Have the father"s sins made the son poor? Then he learns not to make his children poor by his sin. Have his father"s sins made him unhealthy? Then he learns not to injure his children"s health. Have his father"s sins kept him ignorant, or in anywise hindered his rise in life? Then he learns the value of a good education, and, perhaps, stints himself to give his children advantages which he had not himself--and, as sure as he does so, the family begins to rise again after its fall. This is no fancy, it is fact. You may see it. I have seen it, thank G.o.d. How some of the purest and n.o.blest women, some of the ablest and most right-minded men, will spring from families, will be reared in households, where everything was against them--where there was everything to make them profligate, false, reckless, in a word--bad--except the grace of G.o.d, which was trying to make them good, and succeeded in making them good; and how, though they have felt the punishment of their parents" sins upon them in many ways during their whole life, yet that has been to them not a mere punishment, but a chastis.e.m.e.nt, a purifying medicine, a cross to be borne, which only stirred them up to greater watchfulness against sin, to greater earnestness in educating their children, to greater activity and energy in doing right, and giving their children the advantages which they had not themselves. And so were fulfilled in them two laws of G.o.d.
The one which Ezekiel lays down--that the bad man"s son who executes G.o.d"s judgments and walks in G.o.d"s statutes shall not die for the iniquity of his father, but surely live; and the other law which Moses lays down--that G.o.d shews mercy unto thousands of generations, as I believe it means--that is, to son after father, and son after father again, without end--as long as they love Him and keep His commandments.
I do not, therefore, see that there is any real contradiction between what Moses says in the second commandment and what Ezekiel says in this chapter. They are but two different sides of the same truth; and Moses is shewing the Jews one side, because they needed most to be taught that in his time, and Ezekiel showing them the other, because that was the teaching which they needed most then. For they were fancying themselves, in their calamities, the victims of some blind and cruel fate, and had forgotten that, when G.o.d said that He visited the sins of the fathers on the children, He qualified it by saying, "of them that hate Me."
Therefore, be hopeful about yourselves, and hopeful about your children after you. If any one here feels--I am fallen very low in the world-- here all has been so much against me--my parents were the ruin of me--Let him remember this one word of Ezekiel. "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord G.o.d: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?" Let him turn from his father"s evil ways, and do that which is lawful and right, and then he can say with the Prophet, in answer to all the strokes of fortune and the miseries of circ.u.mstance, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall I shall arise."
Provided he will remember that G.o.d requires of all men something, which is, to be as good as they can be; then he may remember also that our Lord Himself says, "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required;" implying that to whom little is given, of him will little be required. G.o.d"s ways are not unequal. He has one equal, fair, and just rule for every human being; and that is perfect understanding, perfect sympathy, perfect good will, and therefore perfect justice and perfect love.
And if any one of you answers in his heart--these are good words, and all very well: but they come too late. I am too far gone. I ate the sour grapes in my youth, and my teeth must be on edge for ever and ever. I have been a bad man, or I have been a foolish woman too many years to mend now. I am down, and down I must be. I have made my bed, and I must lie on it, and die on it too. Oh my dear brother or sister in Christ, whoever you are who says that, unsay it again for it is not true.
Ezekiel tells you that it is not true, and one greater than Ezekiel, Jesus Christ, your Saviour, your Lord, your G.o.d, tells you it is not true.
For what happens, by G.o.d"s eternal and unchangeable laws of retribution, to a whole nation, or a whole family, may happen to you--to each individual man. They fall by sin; they rise again by repentance and amendment. They may rise punished by their sins, and punished for a long time, heavily weighted by the consequences of their own folly, and heavily weighted for a long time. But they rise--they enter into their new life weak and wounded, from their own fault. But they enter in. And from that day things begin to mend--the weather begins to clear, the soil begins to yield again--punishment gradually ceases when it has done its work, the weight lightens, the wounds heal, the weakness strengthens, and by G.o.d"s grace within them, and by G.o.d"s providence outside them, they are made men of again, and saved. So you will surely find it in the experience of life.
No doubt in general, in most cases,
The child is father of the man
for good and evil. A pious and virtuous youth helps, by sure laws of G.o.d, towards a pious and virtuous old age. And on the other hand, an unG.o.dly and profligate youth leads, by the same laws, toward an unG.o.dly and profligate old age. That is the law. But there is another law which may stop that law--just as the stone falls to the ground by the natural law of weight, and yet you may stop that law by using the law of bodily strength, and holding it up in your hand. And what is the gracious law which will save you from the terrible law which will make you go on from worse to worse?
It is this,--"when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive." It is not said that his soul shall come in a moment to perfect health and strength. No. There are old bad habits to be got rid of, old ties to be broken, old debts (often worse debts than any money debts) to be paid. But he shall save his soul alive. His soul shall not die of its disease. It shall be saved. It shall come to life, and gradually mend and be cured, and grow from strength to strength, as a sick man mends day by day after a deadly illness, slowly it may be, but surely:--for how can you fail of being cured if your physician is none other than Jesus Christ your Lord and your G.o.d?
Oh, recollect that last word. If you will but recollect that, you will never despair. How dare any man say--Bad I am, and bad I must remain-- while the G.o.d who made heaven and earth offers to make you good? Who dare say,--I cannot amend--when G.o.d Himself offers to amend you? Who dare say,--I have no strength to amend--when G.o.d offers to give you strength, strength of His strength, and life of His life, even His Holy Spirit? Who dare say,--G.o.d has given me up; He has a grudge against me which He will not lay by, an anger against me which cannot be appeased, a score against me which will never be wiped out of His book? Oh foolish and faint-hearted soul. Look, look at Christ hanging on His cross, and see there what G.o.d"s grudge, G.o.d"s anger, G.o.d"s score of your sins is like. Like love unspeakable, and nothing else. To wash out your sins, He spared not His only begotten Son, but freely gave Him for you, to shew you that G.o.d, so far from hating you, has loved you; that so far from being your enemy, He was your father; that so far from willing the death of a sinner, He willed that you and every sinner should turn from his wickedness and live. For that, Jesus the only begotten Son of G.o.d, came down and preached, and sorrowed, and suffered, and died upon the cross.
He died that you may live; He suffered that you may be saved; He paid the debt, because you could never pay it; He bore your sins upon the cross, that you might not have to bear them for ever and for ever in eternal death. Now, even if you suffer somewhat in this life for your sins, that suffering is not punishment, but wholesome chastis.e.m.e.nt, as when a father chastens the son in whom he delighteth. All He asks of you is to long and try to give up your sins, for He will help you to give them up. All He asks of you is to long and try to lead a new life, for He will give you power to lead a new life. Oh, say not--I cannot--when Christ who died for you says you can. Say not--I dare not--when Christ bids you dare come boldly to His throne of grace. Say not--I must be as I am-- when Christ died that you should NOT be as you are. Say not--there is no hope--when Christ died and rose again, and reigns for ever, to give hope to you and all mankind, that when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive, and all his transgressions shall not be mentioned unto him, but in his righteousness that he hath done shall he live.
SERMON XXVII. AGREE WITH THINE ADVERSARY
Eversley, 1861. Windsor Castle, 1867.
St. Matthew v. 25, 26. "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."
This parable our Lord seems to have spoken at least twice, as He did several others. For we find it also in the 12th chapter of St. Luke.
But it is there part of quite a different discourse. I think that by seeing what it means there, we shall see more clearly what it means here.
Our Lord there is speaking of the sins of the whole Jewish nation. Here He is speaking rather of each man"s private sins. But He applies the same parable to both. He gives the same warning to both. Not to go too far on the wrong road, lest they come to a point where they cannot turn back, but must go on to just punishment, if not to utter destruction.
That is what He warned the Jews all through the latter part of the 12th chapter of Luke. He will come again, He says, at an hour they do not think of, and then if their elders, the Scribes and Pharisees, are going on as they are now, beating the man-servants and maid-servants, and eating and drinking with the drunken, oppressing the people, and living in luxury and profligacy, He will cut them asunder, and appoint them their portion with the unbelievers.
In this, and in many other parables, He had been warning them that their ruin was near; and, at last, turning to the whole crowd, He appeals to them, to their common sense. "When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pa.s.s.
Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?" If G.o.d can give you common sense about one thing, why not about another? Why can you not open your eyes and of yourselves judge what is right? "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."
So He spoke; and they did not fully understand what He meant. They thought that by their adversary He meant the Roman governor. For they immediately began to talk to Him about some Galileans whose blood Pilate, the Roman governor, had mingled with their sacrifices (I suppose in some of those wars which were continually breaking out in Judea). I think He meant more than that. "Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans? Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." As much as to say, though ye did not rebel against the Romans like these Galilaeans, you have your sins, which will ruin YOU. As long as you are hypocrites, with your mouths full of the cant of religion, and your hearts full of all mean and spiteful pa.s.sions; as long as you cannot of yourselves discern what is right, and have lost conscience, and the everlasting distinction between right and wrong, so long are you walking blindfold to ruin. There is an adversary against you, who will surely deliver you to the judge some day, and then it will be too late to cry for mercy. And who was that adversary? Who but the everlasting law of G.o.d, which says, Thou shalt do justly?--and you Jews are utterly unjust, false, covetous, and unrighteous. Thou shalt love all men; and you are cruel and spiteful, hating each other, and making all mankind hate you.
Thou shalt walk humbly with thy G.o.d; and you Jews are walking proudly with G.o.d; fancying that G.o.d belongs only to you; that because you are His chosen people, He will let you commit every sin you choose, as long as you keep His name on your lips, and keep up an empty worship of Him in the temple. That is your adversary, the everlasting moral law of G.o.d.
And who is the Judge but G.o.d Himself, who is set on His throne judging right, while you are doing wrong? And who is the officer, to whom that judge will deliver you? There indeed the Jews were right. It was the Romans whom G.o.d appointed to punish them for their sins. All which our Lord had foretold, as all the world knows, came true forty years after in that horrible siege of Jerusalem, which the Jews brought on themselves entirely by their own folly, and pride, and wicked lawlessness. In that siege, by famine and pestilence, by the Romans" swords, by crucifixion, and by each other"s hands (for the different factions were murdering each other wholesale up to the very day Jerusalem was taken), thousands of Jews perished horribly, and the rest were sold as slaves over the face of the whole earth, and led away into a captivity from which they could not escape till they had paid the uttermost farthing.
Now let us look at this same parable in the 5th chapter of St Matthew.
Remember first that it is part of the sermon on the Mount, which is all about not doctrine, but morality, the law of right and wrong, the law of justice and mercy. You will see then that our Lord is preaching against the same sins as in the 12th chapter of St. Luke. Against a hypocritical religion, joined with a cruel and unjust heart. Those of old time, the Scribes and Pharisees, said merely, Thou shalt not kill. And as long as thou dost not kill thy brother, thou mayest hate him in thy heart and speak evil of him with thy lips. But our Lord says, Not so. Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger of the judgment.
Whosoever shall say to him Raca, or worthless fellow, shall speak insolently, brutally, cruelly, scornfully to him, is in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say unto him, Thou fool, is in danger of h.e.l.l fire. For using that word to the Jews, so says the Talmudic tradition, Moses and Aaron were shut out of the land of promise, for it means an infidel, an atheist, a G.o.dless man, or rebel against G.o.d, as it is written, "The fool hath said in his heart there is no G.o.d." Whosoever shall curse his brother, who is trying to be a good Christian man to the best of his light and power, because he does not happen to agree with him in all things, and call him a heretic, and an infidel, and an atheist, and an enemy of G.o.d--he is in danger of h.e.l.l fire. Let him agree with his adversary quickly, whiles he is in the way with him, lest he be delivered to G.o.d the judge, and to the just punishment of him who has not done justly, not loved mercy, not walked humbly with his G.o.d.
But who is the adversary of that man, and who is the judge, and who is the officer? Our adversary in every case, whenever we do wrong, knowingly or unknowingly, is the Law of G.o.d, the everlasting laws, by which G.o.d has ordered every thing in heaven and earth; and as often as we break one of these laws, let us agree with it again as quickly as we can, lest it hale us before G.o.d, the judge of all, and He deliver us over to His officer--to those powers of nature and powers of spirit, which He has appointed as ministers of His vengeance, and they cast us into some prison of necessary and unavoidable misery, from which we shall never escape till we have paid the uttermost farthing.