My friends, these things are true; and have been true for centuries.
Let us not try to forget them by denouncing them as the utterances of the malevolent and the unbelieving. Let us rather imitate the wise man who said, that he was always grateful to his critics, for, however unjust their attacks, they were certain to attack, and therefore to show him, his weakest points. And here is our weakest point; namely, in our unhappy divisions--which are the fruits of self-will and self-conceit, and of the vain attempt to do that which G.o.d incarnate has told us we cannot do--to part the wheat from the tares.
We cannot part them. Man could never do it, even in the simpler Middle Age. Far less can he do it now in an age full of such strange, such complex influences; at once so progressive and conservative; an age in which the same man is often craving after some new prospect of the future, and craving at the same moment after the seemingly obsolete past; longing for fresh truth, and yet dreading to lose the old; with hope struggling against fear, courage against modesty, scorn of imbecility against reverence for authority in the same man"s heart, while the mystery of the new world around him strives with the mystery of the old world which lies behind him; while the belief that man is the same being now as he was five thousand years ago strives with the plain fact that he is a.s.suming round us utterly novel habits, opinions, politics; while the belief that Christ is the same now as he was in Judaea of old--yea, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever--strives with the plain fact that his field, the world, is in a state in which it never has been since the making of the world; while it is often most difficult, though (as I believe) certainly possible, to see those divine laws at work with which G.o.d governed the nations in old time. May G.o.d forgive us all, both laity and clergy, every cruel word, every uncharitable thought, every hasty judgment. Have we not need, in such a time as this, of that divine humility which is the elder sister of divine charity?
Have we not need of some of that G.o.d-inspired modesty of St. Paul"s: "I think as a child, I speak as a child. I see through a gla.s.s darkly"? Have we not need to listen to his warning: "he that regardeth the day, to the Lord he regardeth it; and he that regardeth it not, to the Lord he regardeth it not. Who art thou that judgest another? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, and he shall stand; for G.o.d is able to make him stand"? Have we not need to hear our Lord"s solemn rebuke, when St. John boasted how he saw one casting out devils in Christ"s name, and he forbade him, because he followed not them--"Forbid him not"? Have we not need to believe St.
James, when he tells us that every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from above, from the Father of lights, and not (as we have too often fancied) sometimes from below, from darkness and the pit? Have we not need to keep in mind the canon of the wise Gamaliel?--"If this counsel or this work be of man, it will come to nought: but if it be of G.o.d, we cannot overthrow it, lest haply we too be found fighting even against G.o.d." Have we not need to keep in mind that "every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of G.o.d;" and "no man saith that Jesus is the Christ, save by the Spirit of G.o.d;" lest haply we, too, be found more fastidious than Almighty G.o.d himself? Have we not need to beware lest we, like the Scribes and Pharisees, should be found keeping the key of knowledge, and yet not entering in ourselves, and hindering those who would enter in?
Have we not need to beware lest, while we are settling which is the right gate to the kingdom of heaven, the publicans and harlots should press into it before us; and lest, while we are boasting that we are the children of Abraham, G.o.d should, without our help, raise up children to Abraham of those stones outside; those hard hearts, dull brains, natures ground down by the drudgery of daily life till they are as the pavement of the streets; those so-called "heathen ma.s.ses"
of whom we are bid to think this day.
If there be any truth, any reason, in what I have said--or rather in what Christ and his apostles have said--let us lay it to heart upon this day, on which the clergy of this great metropolis have found a common cause for which to plead, whatever may be their minor differences of opinion. Let us wish success to every argument by which this great cause may be enforced, to every scheme of good which may be built up by its funds. Let us remember that, however much the sermons preached this day differ in details, they will all agree, thank G.o.d, in the root and ground of their pleading--duty to Christ, and to those for whom Christ died. Let us remember that, to whatever outwardly different purposes the money collected may be applied, it will after all be applied to one purpose--to Christian civilization, Christian teaching, Christian discipline; and that any Christianity, any Christian civilization, any Christian discipline, is infinitely better than none; that, though all man"s systems and methods must be imperfect, faulty, yet they are infinitely better than anarchy and heathendom, just as the wheat, however much mixed with weeds, is infinitely better than the weeds alone. But above all, let us wish well to all schemes of education, of whatever kind, certain that any education is better than none. And, therefore, let me entreat you to subscribe bountifully to that scheme for which I specially plead this day.
Let me remind you, very solemnly, that the present dearth of education in these realms is owing mainly to our unhappy religious dissensions; that it is the disputes, not of unbelievers, but of Christians, which have made it impossible for our government to fulfil one of the first rights, one of the first duties, of any government in a civilized country; namely, to command, and to compel, every child in the realm to receive a proper education. Strange and sad that so it should be: yet so it is. We have been letting, we are letting still, year by year, thousands sink and drown in the slough of heathendom and brutality, while we are debating learnedly whether a raft, or a boat, or a rope, or a life-buoy, is the legitimate instrument for saving them; and future historians will record with sorrow and wonder a fact which will be patent to them, though the dust of controversy hides it from our eyes--even the fact that the hinderers of education in these realms were to be found, not among the so-called sceptics, not among the so-called infidels; but among those who believed that G.o.d came down from heaven, and became man, and died on the cross, for every savage child in London streets.
Compulsory government education is, by our own choice and determination, impossible. The more solemn is the duty laid on us, on laity and clergy alike, to supply that want by voluntary education. The clergy will do their duty, each in his own way. Let the laity do theirs likewise, in fear and trembling, as men who have voluntarily and deliberately undertaken to educate the lower cla.s.ses; and who must do it, or bear the shame for ever. For in the last day, when we shall all appear before Him whose ways are not as our ways, or his thoughts as our thoughts--in that day, the question will not be, whether the compulsory system, or the denominational system, or any other system, satisfied best our sectarian ways and our narrow thoughts: but whether they satisfied the ways of that Father in heaven who willeth not that one little child should perish.
SERMON XXIII.--THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST
LUKE xix. 41.
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.
Let us think awhile what was meant by our Lord"s weeping over Jerusalem. We ought to learn thereby somewhat more of our Lord"s character, and of our Lord"s government.
Why did he weep over that city whose people would, in a few days, mock him, scourge him, crucify him, and so fill up the measure of their own iniquity? Had Jesus been like too many, who since his time have fancied themselves saints and prophets, would he not have rather cursed the city than wept over it with tenderness, regret, sorrow, most human and most divine, for that horrible destruction which before forty years were past would sweep it off the face of the earth, and leave not one stone of those glorious buildings on another?
The only answer is--that, in spite of all its sins, he loved Jerusalem. For more than a thousand years, he had put his name there. It was to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the city set on a hill, which could not be hid. From Jerusalem was to go forth to all nations the knowledge of the one true G.o.d, as a light to lighten the Gentiles, as well as a glory to his people Israel.
This was our Lord"s purpose; this had been his purpose for one thousand years and more: and behold, man"s sin and folly had frustrated for a time the gracious will of G.o.d. That glorious city, with its temple, its worship, its religion, true as far as it went, and, in spite of all the traditions with which the Scribes and Pharisees had overlaid it, infinitely better than the creed or religion of any other people in the old world--all this, instead of being a blessing to the world, had become a curse. The Jews, who had the key of the knowledge of G.o.d, neither entered in themselves, nor let the Gentiles enter in. They who were to have taught all the world were hating and cursing all the world, and being hated and cursed by them in return. Jerusalem, the Holy City set on a hill, instead of being a light to the world, was become a nuisance to the world. Jerusalem was the salt of the world, meant to help it all from decay; but the salt had lost its savour, and in another generation it would be cast out and trodden under foot, and become a byword among the Gentiles.
Our Lord, The Lord, the hereditary King of the Jews according to the flesh, as well as the G.o.d of the Jews according to the Spirit, foresaw the destruction of the work of his own hands, of the spot on earth which was most precious to him. The ruin would be awful, the suffering horrible. The daughters of Jerusalem were to weep, not for him, but for themselves. Blessed would be the barren, and those that never nursed a child. They would call on the mountains to cover them, and on the hills to hide them, and call in vain. Such tribulation would fall on them as never had been since the making of the world. Mothers would eat their own children for famine. Three thousand crosses would stand at one time in the valley below with a living man writhing on each. Eleven hundred thousand souls would perish, or be sold as slaves. It must be. The eternal laws of retribution, according to which G.o.d governs the world, must have their way now. It was too late. It must happen now. But it need not have happened: and at that thought our Lord"s infinite heart burst forth in human tenderness, human pity, human love, as he looked on that magnificent city, those gorgeous temples, castles, palaces, that mighty mult.i.tude which dreamt so little of the awful doom which they were bringing on themselves.
And now, where is he that wept over Jerusalem? Has he left this world to itself? Does he care no longer for the rise and fall of nations, the struggles and hopes, the successes and the failures of mankind?
Not so, my friends. He has ascended up on high, and sat down at the right hand of G.o.d: but he has done so, that he might fill all things. To him all power is given in heaven and earth. He reigneth over the nations. He sitteth on that throne whereof the eternal Father hath said to him, "Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool;" and again, "Desire of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utmost ends of the earth for thy possession." He is set upon his throne (as St. John saw him in his Revelation) judging right, and ministering true judgment unto the people. The nations may furiously rage together, and the people may imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth may stand up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, "Let us break their bonds"--that is their laws,-- "asunder, and cast away their cords"--that is, their Gospel--"from us." They may say, "Tush, G.o.d doth not see, neither doth G.o.d regard it. We are they that ought to speak. Who is Lord over us?"
Nevertheless Christ is King of kings, and Lord of lords; he reigns, and will reign. And kings must be wise, and the judges of the earth must be learned; they must serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice before him with reverence. They must worship the Son, lest he be angry, and so they perish from the right way. All the nations of the world, with their kings and their people, their war, their trade, their politics, and their arts and sciences, are in his hands as clay in the hands of the potter, fulfilling his will and not their own, going his way and not their own. It is he who speaks concerning a nation or a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it. And it is he again who speaks concerning a nation or kingdom, to build and to plant it. For the Lord is king, be the world never so much moved. He sitteth between the cherubim, though the earth be never so unquiet.
But while we recollect this--which in these days almost all forget-- that Christ the Lord is the ruler, and he alone; we must recollect likewise that he is not only a divine, but a human ruler. We must recollect--oh, blessed thought!--that there is a Man in the midst of the throne of heaven; that Christ has taken for ever the manhood into G.o.d; and that all judgment is committed to him because he is the Son of man, who can feel for men, and with men.
Yes, Christ"s humanity is no less now than when he wept over Jerusalem; and therefore we may believe, we must believe, that while Jesus is very G.o.d of very G.o.d, yet his sacred heart is touched with a divine compa.s.sion for the follies of men, a divine regret for their failures, a divine pity for the ruin which they bring so often on themselves. We must believe that even when he destroys, he does so with regret; that when he cuts down the tree which c.u.mbers the ground, he grieves over it; as he grieved over his chosen vine, the nation of the Jews.
It is a comfort to remember this as we watch the world change, and the fashions of it vanish away. Great kingdoms, venerable inst.i.tutions, gallant parties, which have done good work in their time upon G.o.d"s earth, grow old, wear out, lose their first love of what was just and true; and know not the things which belong to their peace, but grow, as the Jews grew in their latter years, more and more fanatical, quarrelsome, peevish, uncharitable; trying to make up by violence for the loss of strength and sincerity: till they come to an end, and die, often by unjust and unfair means, and by men worse than they. Shall we not believe that Christ has pity on them; that he who wept over Jerusalem going to destruction by its own blindness, sorrows over the sins and follies which bring shame on countries once prosperous, authorities once venerable, causes once n.o.ble?
They, too, were thoughts of Christ. Whatsoever good was in them, he inspired; whatsoever strength was in them, he gave; whatsoever truth was in them, he taught; whatsoever good work they did, he did through them. Perhaps he looks on them, not with wrath and indignation, but with pity and sorrow, when he sees man"s weakness, folly, and sin, bringing to naught his gracious purposes, and falling short of his glorious will.
It is a comfort, I say, to believe this, in these times of change.
Places, manners, opinions, inst.i.tutions, change around us more and more; and we are often sad, when we see good old fashions, in which we were brought up, which we have loved, revered, looked on as sacred things, dying out fast, and new fashions taking their places, which we cannot love because we do not trust them, or even understand. The old ways were good enough for us: why should they not be good enough for our children after us? Therefore, we are sad at times, and the young and the ambitious are apt to sneer at us, because we delight in what is old rather than what is new.
Let us remember, then, that whatsoever changes, still there is one who cannot change, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Surely he can feel for us, when he sees us regret old fashions and old times; surely he does not look on our sadness as foolish, weak, or sinful. It is pardonable, for it is human; and he has condescended to feel it himself, when he wept over Jerusalem.
Only, he bids us not despair; not doubt his wisdom, his love, the justice and beneficence of his rule. He ordereth all things in heaven and earth; and, therefore, all things must, at last, go well.
"The old order changes, giving place to the new, And G.o.d fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
We must believe that, and trust in Christ. We must trust in him, that he will not cut down any tree in his garden until it actually c.u.mbers the ground, altogether unfruitful, and taking up room which might be better used. We must trust him, that he will cast nothing out of his kingdom till it actually offends, makes men stumble and fall to their destruction. We must trust him, that he will do away with nothing that is old, without putting something better in its place. Thus we shall keep up our hearts, though things do change round us, sometimes mournfully enough. For Christ destroyed Jerusalem. But, again, its destruction was, as St. Paul said, life to all nations. He destroyed Moses" law. But he, by so doing, put in its place his own Gospel. He scattered abroad the nations of the Jews, but he thereby called into his Church all nations of the earth.
He destroyed, with a fearful destruction, the Holy City and temple, over which he wept. But he did so in order that the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, even his Church, should come down from heaven; needing no temple, for he himself is the temple thereof; that the nations of those which were saved should walk in the light of it; and that the river of the water of life should flow from the throne of G.o.d; and that the leaves of the trees which grew thereby should be for the healing of the nations. In that magnificent imagery, St. John shows us how the most terrible destruction which the Lord ever brought upon a holy place and holy inst.i.tutions was really a blessing to all the world. Let us believe that it has been so often since; that it will be so often again. Let us look forward to the future with hope and faith, even while we look back on the past with love and regret. Let us leave unmanly and unchristian fears to those who fancy that Christ has deserted his kingdom, and has left them to govern it in his stead; and who naturally break out into peevishness and terrified lamentations, when they discover that the world will not go their way, or any man"s way, because it is going the way of G.o.d, whose ways are not as man"s ways nor his thoughts as man"s thoughts. Let us have faith in G.o.d and in Christ, amid all the chances and changes of this mortal life; and believe that he is leading the world and mankind to
"One far-off divine event Toward which the whole creation moves;"
and possess our souls in patience, and in faith, and in hope for ourselves and for our children after; while we say, with the Psalmist of old: "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. They all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be cleansed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. The children of thy servants shall continue; and their seed shall stand fast in thy sight." Amen.
SERMON XXIV.--THE LIKENESS OF G.o.d
EPHESIANS iv. 23, 24.
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after G.o.d is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Be renewed, says St. Paul, in the spirit of your mind--in the tone, character, and habit of your mind. And put on the new man, the new pattern of man, who was created after G.o.d, in righteousness and true holiness.
Pay attention, I beg you, to every word here. To understand them clearly is most important to you. According as you take them rightly or wrongly, will your religion be healthy or unhealthy, and your notion of what G.o.d requires of you true or false. The new man, the new pattern of man, says St. Paul, is created after G.o.d. That, is after the pattern of G.o.d, in the image of G.o.d, in the likeness of G.o.d. You will surely see that that is his meaning. We speak of making a thing after another thing; meaning, make it exactly like another thing. So, by making a man after G.o.d, St. Paul means making a man like G.o.d.
Now what is this man? None, be sure, save Christ himself, the co- equal and co-eternal Son of G.o.d. Of him alone can it be said, utterly, that he is after G.o.d--the brightness of G.o.d"s glory, and the express image of his person. But still, he is a man, and meant as a pattern to men; the new Adam; the new pattern, type, and ideal for all mankind. Him, says St. Paul,--that is, his likeness,--we are to put on, that as he was after the likeness of G.o.d, so may we be likewise.
But now, in what does this same likeness consist?
St. Paul tells us distinctly, lest we should mistake a matter of such boundless importance as the question of all questions--What is the life of G.o.d, the Divine and G.o.dlike life?
It is created, founded, says he, in righteousness and true holiness.
That is the character, that is the form of it. Whatever we do not know, whatever we cannot know, concerning G.o.d, and his Divine life, we know that it consists of righteousness and true holiness.
And what is righteousness? Justice. You must understand--as any good scholar or divine would a.s.sure you--that St. Paul is not speaking here of the imputed righteousness of Christ. He is speaking of righteousness in the simple Old Testament meaning of the word, of justice, whereof our Lord has said, "Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you;" justice, which, as wise men of old have said, consists in this,--to harm no man, and to give each man his own.
That is true righteousness and justice, and that is the G.o.dlike life.
"And true holiness." That is, truthful holiness, honest holiness.
This is St. Paul"s meaning. As any good scholar or divine would tell you, St. Paul"s exact words are "the holiness of truth." He does not mean true holiness as opposed to a false holiness, a legal holiness, a holiness of empty forms and ceremonies, or a holiness of ascetism and celibacy; but as opposed to a holiness which does not speak the truth, to that sly, untruthful, prevaricating holiness which was only too common in St. Paul"s time, and has been but too common since. Be honest, says St. Paul; for this too is part of the G.o.dlike life, and the new man is created after G.o.d, in justice and honesty.
And that this is what St. Paul actually means is clear from what immediately follows: "Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another."
What does the "wherefore" mean, if not that, because the life of G.o.d is a life of justice and honesty, therefore you must not lie; therefore you must not hear spite and malice; therefore you must not steal, but rather work; therefore you must avoid all foul talk which may injure your neighbour; but rather teach, refine, educate him?