(Preached also at the Chapel Royal, St. James, Sexagesima Sunday.)
GENESIS iii. 8. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in
the garden in the cool of the day.
These words would startle us, if we heard them for the first time.
I do not know but that they may startle us now, often as we have
heard them, if we think seriously over them. That God should appear
to mortal man, and speak with mortal man. It is most wonderful. It
is utterly unlike anything that we have ever seen, or that any
person on earth has seen, for many hundred years. It is a miracle,
in every sense of the word.
When one compares man as he was then, weak and ignorant, and yet
seemingly so favoured by God, so near to God, with man as he is now,
strong and cunning, spreading over the earth and replenishing it;
subduing it with railroads and steamships, with agriculture and
science, and all strange and crafty inventions, and all the while
never visited by any Divine or heavenly appearance, but seemingly
left utterly to himself by God, to go his own way and do his own
will upon the earth, one asks with wonder, Can we be Adam's
children? Can the God who appeared to Adam, be our God likewise, or
has God's plan and rule for teaching man changed utterly?
No. He is one God; the same God yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
His will and purpose, his care and rule over man, have not changed.
That is a matter of faith. Of the faith which the holy Church
commands us to have. But it need not be a blind or unreasonable
faith. That our God is the God of Adam; that the same Lord God who
taught him teaches us likewise, need not be a mere matter of faith:
it may be a matter of reason likewise; a thing which seems
reasonable to us, and recommends itself to our mind and conscience
as true.
Consider, my friends, a babe when it comes into the world. The
first thing of which it is aware is its mother's bosom. The first
thing which it does, as its eyes and ears are gradually opened to
this world, is to cling to its parents. It holds fast by their
hand, it will not leave their side. It is afraid to sleep alone, to
go alone. To them it looks up for food and help. Of them it asks
questions, and tries to learn from them, to copy them, to do what it
sees them doing, even in play; and the parents in return lavish care
and tenderness on it, and will not let it out of their sight. But
after a while, as the child grows, the parents will not let it be so
perpetually with them. It must go to school. It must see its
parents only very seldom, perhaps it must be away from them weeks or
months. And why? Not that the parents love it less: but that it
must learn to take care of itself, to act for itself, to think for
itself, or it will never grow up to be a rational human being.
And the parting of the child from the parents does not break the
bond of love between them. It learns to love them even better.
Neither does it break the bond of obedience. The child is away from
its parents' eye. But it learns to obey them behind their back; to
do their will of its own will; to ask itself, What would my parents
wish me to do, were they here? and so learns, if it will think of
it, a more true, deep, honourable and spiritual obedience, than it
ever would if its parents were perpetually standing over it, saying,
Do this, and do that.
In after life, that child may settle far away from his father's
home. He may go up into the temptations and bustle of some great
city. He may cross to far lands beyond the sea. But need he love
his parents less? need the bond between them be broken, though he
may never set eyes on them again? God forbid. He may be settled
far away, with children, business, interests of his own; and yet he
may be doing all the while his father's will. The lessons of God
which he learnt at his mother's knee may be still a lamp to his feet
and a light to his path. Amid all the bustle and labour of
business, his father's face may still be before his eyes, his
father's voice still sound in his ears, bidding him be a worthy son
to him still; bidding him not to leave that way wherein he should
go, in which his parents trained him long, long since. He may feel
that his parents are near him in the spirit, though absent in the
flesh. Yes, though they may have passed altogether out of this
world, they may be to him present and near at hand; and he may be
kept from doing many a wrong thing and encouraged to do many a right
one, by the ennobling thought, My father would have had it so, my
mother would have had it so, had they been here on earth. And
though in this world he may never see them again, he may look
forward steadily and longingly to the day when, this life's battle
over, he shall meet again in heaven those who gave him life on
earth.
My friends, if this be the education which is natural and necessary
from our earthly parents, made in God's image, appointed by God's
eternal laws for each of us, why should it not be the education
which God himself has appointed for mankind? All which is truly
human (not sinful or fallen) is an image and pattern of something
Divine. May not therefore the training which we find, by the very
facts of nature, fit and necessary for our children, be the same as
God's training, by which he fashioneth the hearts of the children of
men? Therefore we can believe the Bible when it tells us that so it
is. That God began the education of man by appearing to him
directly, keeping him, as it were, close to his hand, and teaching
him by direct and open revelation. That as time went on, God left
men more and more to themselves outwardly: but only that he might
raise their minds to higher notions of religion--that he might make
them live by faith, and not merely by sight; and obey him of their
own hearty free will, and not merely from fear or wonder. And
therefore, in these days, when miraculous appearances have, as far
as we know, entirely ceased, yet God is not changed. He is still as
near as ever to men; still caring for them, still teaching them; and
his very stopping of all miracles, so far from being a sign of God's
anger or neglect, is a part of his gracious plan for the training of
his Church.
For consider--Man was first put upon this earth, with all things
round him new and strange to him; seeing himself weak and unarmed
before the wild beasts of the forest, not even sheltered from the
cold, as they are; and yet feeling in himself a power of mind, a
cunning, a courage, which made him the lord of all the beasts by
virtue of his MIND, though they were stronger than he in body. All
that we read of Adam and Eve in the Bible is, as we should expect,
the history of CHILDREN--children in mind, even when they were full-
grown in stature. Innocent as children, but, like children, greedy,
fanciful, ready to disobey at the first temptation, for the very
silliest of reasons; and disobeying accordingly. Such creatures--
with such wonderful powers lying hid in them, such a glorious future
before them; and yet so weak, so wilful, so ignorant, so unable to
take care of themselves, liable to be destroyed off the face of the
earth by their own folly, or even by the wild beasts around--surely
they needed some special and tender care from God to keep them from
perishing at the very outset, till they had learned somewhat how to
take care of themselves, what their business and duty were upon this
earth. They needed it before they fell; they needed it still more,
and their children likewise, after they fell: and if they needed
it, we may trust God that he afforded it to them.
But again. Whence came this strange notion, which man alone has of
all the living things which we see, of RELIGION? What put into the
mind of man that strange imagination of beings greater than himself,
whom he could not always see, but who might appear to him? What put
into his mind the strange imagination that these unseen beings were
more or less his masters? That they had made laws for him which he
must obey? That he must honour and worship them, and do them
service, in order that they might be favourable to him, and help,
and bless, and teach him? All nations except a very few savages
(and we do not know but that their forefathers had it like the rest
of mankind) have had some such notion as this; some idea of
religion, and of a moral law of right and wrong.
Where did they get it?
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 God."
Some, I know, say that man thought out for himself, in his own
reason, the notion of God; that he by searching found out God. But
surely that is contrary to all experience. Our experience is, that
men left to themselves forget God; lose more and more all thought of
God, 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 God,
contrive to remember God for himself at first? How, unless God
himself showed himself to man? I know some will say, that mankind
invented for themselves false gods at first, and afterwards cleared
and purified their own notions, till they discovered the true God.
My friends, there is a homely old proverb which will well apply
here. If there had been no gold guineas, there would be no brass
ones. If men had not first had a notion of a true God, and then
gradually lost it, they would not have invented false gods to supply
his place. And whence did they get, I ask again, the notion of gods
at all? The simplest answer is in the Bible: God 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 God cannot appear to men is simply
silly; for it is limiting God'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 God will not appear to man because man is so
insignificant, and this earth such a paltry little speck in the
heavens, is to limit God'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 God 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 God, the more certain is it that God will help him in
that need.
Yes, my friends, the Bible is the revelation of a God 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 God 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 God, 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 God.
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 God, or the angels of God, 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 God 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
God 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, God 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 God 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
God 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 God, 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.