Where, I ask again, did they get it?
My friends, after much thought I answer, there is no explanation of that question so simple, so rational, so probable, as the one which the text gives.
"And they heard the voice of the Lord G.o.d."
Some, I know, say that man thought out for himself, in his own reason, the notion of G.o.d; that he by searching found out G.o.d. But surely that is contrary to all experience. Our experience is, that men left to themselves forget G.o.d; lose more and more all thought of G.o.d, and the unseen world; believe more and more in nothing but what they can see and taste and handle, and become as the beasts that perish. How then did man, who now is continually forgetting G.o.d, contrive to remember G.o.d for himself at first? How, unless G.o.d himself showed himself to man? I know some will say, that mankind invented for themselves false G.o.ds at first, and afterwards cleared and purified their own notions, till they discovered the true G.o.d.
My friends, there is a homely old proverb which will well apply here. If there had been no gold guineas, there would be no bra.s.s ones. If men had not first had a notion of a true G.o.d, and then gradually lost it, they would not have invented false G.o.ds to supply his place. And whence did they get, I ask again, the notion of G.o.ds at all? The simplest answer is in the Bible: G.o.d taught them. I can find no better. I do not believe a better will ever be found.
And why not?
Why not? I ask. To say that G.o.d cannot appear to men is simply silly; for it is limiting G.o.d"s Almighty power. He that made man and all heaven and earth, cannot he show himself to man, if he shall so please? To say that G.o.d will not appear to man because man is so insignificant, and this earth such a paltry little speck in the heavens, is to limit G.o.d"s goodness; nay, it is to show that a man knows not what goodness means. What grace, what virtue is there higher than condescension? Then if G.o.d be, as he is, perfectly good, must he not be perfectly condescending--ready and willing to stoop to man, and all the more ready and the more willing, the more weak, ignorant, and sinful this man is? In fact, the greater need man has of G.o.d, the more certain is it that G.o.d will help him in that need.
Yes, my friends, the Bible is the revelation of a G.o.d who condescends to men, and therefore descends to men. And the more a man"s reason is spiritually enlightened to know the meaning of goodness and holiness and justice and love, the more simple, reasonable, and credible will it seem to him that G.o.d at first taught men in the days of their early ignorance, by the only method by which (as far as we can conceive) he could have taught them about himself; namely, by appearing in visible shape, or speaking with audible voice; and just as reasonable and credible, awful and unfathomable mystery though it is, will be the greater news, that that same Lord at last so condescended to man that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost; born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried; and rose the third day, and ascended into heaven. Credible and reasonable, not indeed to the natural man who looks only at nature, which he can see and hear and handle; but credible and reasonable enough to the spiritual man, whose mind has been enlightened by the Spirit of G.o.d, to see that the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal; even justice and love, mercy and condescension, the divine order, and the kingdom of the Living G.o.d.
And now one word on a matter which is tormenting the minds of many just now. It is often said that all that I have been saying is contrary to science. That this science and understanding of the world around us, which has improved so marvellously in our days, proves that the apparitions and miracles spoken of in the Bible cannot be true; that G.o.d, or the angels of G.o.d, can never have walked with man in visible shape.
Now, my friends, I do not believe this. I believe the very contrary. I entreat you to set your minds at rest on this point; and to believe (what is certainly true) there is nothing in this new science to contradict the good old creed, that the Lord G.o.d of old appeared to his human children. It would take too much time, of course, to give you my reasons for saying this: and I must therefore ask you to take on trust from me when I tell you solemnly and earnestly that there is nothing in modern science which can, if rightly understood, contradict the glorious words of St. Paul, that G.o.d at sundry times and in divers manners spake to the fathers by the prophets, and hath at last spoken unto us by a Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things: by whom also he made the worlds, who is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholdeth all things by the word of his power: even Jesus Christ, G.o.d blessed for ever. Amen.
What then shall we think of these things? Shall we say, "How much better off were our forefathers than we! Ah, that we were not left to ourselves! Ah, that we lived in the good old times when G.o.d and his angels walked with men!"
My friends, what says Solomon the Wise?--"Inquire not why the former times were better than these, for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this."
It is very natural for us to think that we could become more easily good men, more certain of going to heaven, if we saw divine apparitions and heard divine voices. A very natural thought. But natural things are not always the best or wisest things. Spiritual things are surely higher and deeper than natural things. It is natural to wish to see Christ, or some heavenly being, with our natural eyes and senses. But it is spiritual and therefore better for our souls, to be content to see him by faith, with the spiritual eyes of our heart and mind, to love him with all our heart and mind and soul, to worship him, to put our whole trust in him, to call upon him, to honour his holy name and his word, and to serve him truly all the days of our life.
Natural, indeed, to wish that we were back again in the old times.
But we must recollect that these old times were not good times, but bad times, and for that very reason the Lord took pity on them.
That they were times of darkness, and therefore it was that the people who sat in great darkness, and in the valley of the shadow of death, were allowed to see a great light. And that after that, the fulness of time, the very time which the Lord chose that he might be incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and came down upon this earth in human form, was not a good time. On the contrary, the fulness of time, 1863 years ago, was the very wickedest, most faithless, most unjust time that the world had ever seen--a time of which St. Paul said that there were none who did good, no, not one; that adders" poison was under all lips, and all feet swift to shed blood, and that the way of peace none had known.
Better, far better, to live in times like these, in which there is (among Christian nations at least) no great darkness, even though there be no great light; times in which the knowledge of the true G.o.d and his Son Jesus Christ is spreading, slowly but surely, over all the earth; and with it, the fruit of the knowledge of the Lord, justice, mercy, charity, fellow-feeling, and a desire to teach and improve all mankind, such as the world never saw before. These are the fruits of the Scriptures of the Lord, and the Sacraments of the Lord, and of the Holy Spirit of the Lord; and if that Holy Spirit be in our hearts, and we yield our hearts to his gracious motions and obey them, then we are really nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ than if we saw him, as Adam did, with our bodily eyes, and yet rebelled against him, as Adam did, in our hearts, and disobeyed him in our actions. Of old the Lord treated men as babes, and showed himself to their bodily eyes, that so they might learn that he was, and that he was near them. But us he treats as grown men, who know that he is, and that he is with us to the end of the world. And if he treats us as men, my friends, let us behave ourselves like men, and not like silly children, who cannot be trusted by themselves for a moment lest they do wrong or come to harm. Let us obey G.o.d, not with eye-service, just as long as we fancy that his eye is on us, but with the deeper, more spiritual, more honourable obedience of faith. Let us obey him for obedience" sake, and honour him for very honour"s sake, as the young emigrant in foreign lands obeys and honours the parents whom he will never see again on earth; and let us look forward, like him, to the day when him whom we cannot see on earth we may, perhaps, be permitted to see in heaven, as the reward- -and for what higher reward can man wish?--of faith and obedience.
SERMON IV. NOAH"S FLOOD
(Quinquagesima Sunday.)
GENESIS ix. 13. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
We all know the history of Noah"s flood. What have we learnt from that history? What were we intended to learn from it? What thoughts should we have about it?
There are many thoughts which we may have. We may think how the flood came to pa.s.s; what means G.o.d used to make it rain forty days; what is meant by breaking up the fountains of the great deep. We may calculate how large the ark was; and whether the Bible really means that it held all kinds of living things in the world, or only those of Noah"s own country, or the animals which had been tamed and made useful to man. We may read long arguments as to whether the flood spread over the whole world, or only over the country where Noah and the rest of the sons of Adam then lived. We may puzzle ourselves concerning the rainbow of which the text speaks. How it was to be a sign of a covenant from G.o.d. Whether man had ever seen a rainbow before. Whether there had ever been rain before in Noah"s country; or whether he did not live in that land of which the second chapter of Genesis says that the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the earth, but there went up a mist from the earth and watered the face of the ground, as it does still in that high land in the centre of Asia, in which old traditions put the garden of Eden, and from which, as far as we yet know, mankind came at the beginning.
We may puzzle our minds with these and a hundred more curious questions, as learned men have done in all ages. But--shall we become really the wiser by so doing? More learned we may become.
But being learned and being wise are two different things. True wisdom is that which makes a man a better man. And will such puzzling questions and calculations as these, settle them how we may, make us BETTER men? Will they make us more honest and just, more generous and loving, more able to keep our tempers and control our appet.i.tes? I cannot see that. Will it make us better men merely to know that there was once a flood of waters on the earth?
I cannot see that. If we look at the hills of sand and gravel round us, a little common sense will show us that there have been many floods of waters on the earth, long, long before the one of which the Bible speaks: but shall we be better men for knowing that either? I cannot see why we should. Now the Bible was sent to make us better men. How then will the history of the flood do that?
Easily enough, my friends, if we will listen to the Bible, and thinking less about the flood itself, think more about him who, so the Bible tells us, sent the flood.
The Bible, I have told you, is the revelation of the living Lord G.o.d, even Jesus Christ; who, in his turn, reveals to us the Father.
And what we have to think of is, how does this story of the flood reveal, unveil to us the living Lord of the world, and his living government thereof? Let us look at the matter in that way, instead of puzzling ourselves with questions of words and endless genealogies which minister strife. Let us look at the matter in that way, instead of (like too many men now, and too many men in all ages) being so busy in picking to pieces the sh.e.l.l of the Bible, that we forget that the Bible has any kernel, and so let it slip through our hands. Let us look at the matter in that way, as a revelation of the living G.o.d, and then we shall find the history of the flood full of G.o.dly doctrine, and profitable for these times, and for all times whatsoever.
G.o.d sent a flood on the earth.
True; but the important matter is that G.o.d sent it.
G.o.d set the rainbow in the cloud, for a token.
True; but the important matter is that G.o.d set it there.
Important? Yes. What more important than to know that the flood did not come of itself, that the rainbow did not come of itself, and therefore that no flood comes of itself, no rainbow comes of itself; nothing comes of itself, but all comes straight and immediately from the one Living Lord G.o.d?
A man may say, But the flood must have been caused by clouds and rain; and there must have been some special natural cause for their falling at that place and that time?
What of that?
Or that the fountains of the great deep must have been broken up by natural earthquakes, such as break up the crust of the earth now.
What of that?
Or that the rainbow must have been caused by the sun"s rays shining through rain-drops at a certain angle, as all rainbows are now.
What of that? Very probably it was: but if not, What of that?
What we ought to know, and what we ought to care for is, what the Bible tells us without a doubt, that however they came, G.o.d sent them. However they were made, G.o.d made them. Their manner, their place, their time was appointed exactly by G.o.d for a MORAL purpose.
To do something for the immortal souls of men; to punish sinners; to preserve the righteous; to teach Noah and his children after him a moral lesson, concerning righteousness and sin; concerning the wrath of G.o.d against sin; concerning G.o.d, that he governs the world and all in it, and does not leave the world, or mankind, to go on of themselves and by themselves.
You see, I trust, what a message this was, and is, and ever will be for men; what a message and good news it must have been especially for the heathen of old time.
For what would the heathen, what actually did the heathen think about such sights as a flood, or a rainbow?
They thought of course that some one sent the flood. Common sense taught them that.
But what kind of person must he be, thought they, who sent the flood? Surely a very dark, terrible, angry G.o.d, who was easily and suddenly provoked to drown their cattle and flood their lands.
But the rainbow, so bright and gay, the sign of coming fine weather, could not belong to the same G.o.d who made the flood. What the fancies of the heathen about the rainbow were matters little to us: but they fancied, at least, that it belonged to some cheerful, bright and kind G.o.d. And so with other things. Whatever was bright, and beautiful, and wholesome in the world, like the rainbow, belonged to kind G.o.ds; whatever was dark, ugly, and destroying, like the flood, belonged to angry G.o.ds.
Therefore those of the heathen who were religious never felt themselves safe. They were always afraid of having offended some G.o.d, they knew not how; always afraid of some G.o.d turning against them, and bringing diseases against their bodies; floods, drought, blight against their crops; storms against their ships, in revenge for some slight or neglect of theirs.
And all the while they had no clear notion that these G.o.ds made the world; they thought that the G.o.ds were parts of the world, just as men are, and that beyond the G.o.ds there was the some sort of Fate, or necessity, which even G.o.ds must obey.
Do you not see now what a comfort--what a spring of hope, and courage, and peace of mind, and patient industry--it must have been to the men of old time to be told, by this story of the flood, that the G.o.d who sends the flood sends the rainbow also? There are not two G.o.ds, nor many G.o.ds, but one G.o.d, of whom are all things. Light and darkness, storm or sunshine, barrenness or wealth, come alike from him. Diseases, storm, flood, blight, all these show that there is in G.o.d an awfulness, a sternness, an anger if need be--a power of destroying his own work, of altering his own order; but sunshine, fruitfulness, peace, and comfort, all show that love and mercy, beauty and order, are just as much attributes of his essence as awfulness and anger.
They tell us he is a G.o.d whose will is to love, to bless, to make his creatures happy, if they will allow him. They tell us that his anger is not a capricious, revengeful, proud, selfish anger, such as that of the heathen G.o.ds: but that it is an orderly anger, a just anger, a loving anger, and therefore an anger which in its wrath can remember mercy. Out of G.o.d"s wrath shineth love, as the rainbow out of the storm; if it repenteth him that he hath made man, it is only because man is spoiling and ruining himself, and wasting the gifts of the good world by his wickedness. If he see fit to destroy man out of the earth, he will destroy none but those who deserve and need destroying. He will save those whom, like Noah, he can trust to begin afresh, and raise up a better race of men to do his work in the world. If G.o.d send a flood to destroy all living things, any when or anywhere, he will show, by putting the rainbow in the cloud, that floods and destruction and anger are not his rule; that his rule is sunshine, and peace, and order; that though he found it necessary once to curse the ground, once to sweep away a wicked race of men, yet that even that was, if one dare use the words of G.o.d, against his gracious will; that his will was from the beginning, peace on earth, and not floods, and good will to men, and not destruction; and that in his HEART, in the abyss of his essence, and of which it is written, that G.o.d is Love--in his heart I say, he said, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man"s sake, even though the imagination of man"s heart is evil from his youth.
Neither will I again smite everything living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."
This is the G.o.d which the book of Genesis goes on revealing and unveiling to us more and more--a G.o.d in whom men may TRUST.
The heathen could not trust their G.o.ds. The Bible tells men of a G.o.d whom they can trust. That is just the difference between the Bible and all other books in the world. But what a difference!
Difference enough to make us say, Sooner that every other book in the world were lost, and the Bible preserved, than that we should lose the Bible, and with the Bible lose faith in G.o.d.