Ascension-day. For if we claim our share in Christ,—if we claim our
share of our heavenly Father’s promise, “to give the Holy Spirit to those
who ask Him;” then we may certainly hope for our share in Christ’s
resurrection, our share in Christ’s ascension. For, says St. Paul (Rom.
viii. 10, 11), “if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but
the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him
who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that
dwelleth in you!” There is a blessed promise! that in that, as in every
thing, we shall be made like Christ our Master, the new Adam, who is a
life-giving Spirit, that as He was brought to life again by the Spirit of
God, so we shall be. And so will be fulfilled in us the glorious rule
which the text lays down, “Thou, O God, sendest forth Thy Spirit, and
they are created, and Thou dost renew the face of the earth.”
Fulfilled?—yes, but far more gloriously than ever the old Psalmist
expected. Read the Revelations of St. John, chapters xxi. and xxii. for
the glory of the renewed earth read the first Epistle of Paul to the
Thessalonians, chap. iv. 16–18, for the glorious resurrection and
ascension of those who have died trusting in the blessed Lord, who died
for them; and then see what a glorious future lies before us—see how
death is but the gate of life—see how what holds true of every thing on
this earth, down to the flint beneath our feet, holds true ten thousand
times of men that to die and to decay is only to pass into a nobler state
of life. But remember, that just as we are better than the stone, we may
be also worse than the stone. It cannot disobey God’s laws, therefore it
can enjoy no reward, any more than suffer any punishment. We can
disobey—we can fall from our calling—we can cast God’s law behind us—we
can refuse to do His will, to work out our own salvation; and just
because our reward in the life to come will be so glorious, if we fulfil
our life and law, the life of faith and the law of love, therefore will
our punishment be so horrible, if we neglect the life of faith and
trample under foot the law of love. Oh, my friends, choose! Death is
before you all. Shall it be the gate of everlasting life and glory, or
the gate of everlasting death and misery? Will you claim your glorious
inheritance, and be for ever equal to the angels, doing God’s will on
earth as they in heaven; or will you fall lower than the stones, who, at
all events, must do their duty as stones, and not _do_ God’s will at all,
but only _suffer_ it in eternal woe? You must do one or the other. You
cannot be like the stones, without feeling—without joy or sorrow, just
because you are immortal spirits, every one of you. You must be either
happy or miserable, blessed or disgraced, for ever. I know of no middle
path;—do you? Choose before the night comes, in which no man can work.
Our life is but a vapour which appears for a little time, then vanishes
away. “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them
all: the earth is full of Thy riches. That Thou givest them they gather:
Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy
face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and
return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created:
and Thou renewest the face of the earth.”
SERMON IV.
THE WORK OF GOD’S SPIRIT.
JAMES, i. 16, 17.
“Do not err, my beloved brethren; every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.”
THIS text, I believe more and more every day, is one of the most
important ones in the whole Bible; and just at this time it is more
important for us than ever, because people have forgotten it more than
ever.
And, according as you firmly believe this text, according as you firmly
believe that every good gift you have in body and soul comes down from
above, from God the Father of lights—according, I say, as you believe
this, and live upon that belief, just so far will you be able to do your
duty to God and man, worthily of your blessed Saviour’s calling and
redemption, and of the high honour which He has given you of being free
and christened men, redeemed by His most precious blood, and led by His
most noble Spirit.
Now, just because this text is so important, the devil is particularly
busy in trying to make people forget it. For what is his plan? Is it
not to make us forget God, to put God _out_ of all our thoughts, to make
us acknowledge God in none of our ways, to make us look at ourselves and
not at God, that so we may become first earthly and sensual, and then
devilish, like Satan himself? Therefore he tries to make us disbelieve
this text. He puts into our hearts such thoughts as these:—‘Ay, all good
gifts may come from God; but that only means all spiritual gifts. All
those fine, deep doctrines and wonderful feelings that some very
religious people talk of, about conversion, and regeneration, and
sanctification, and assurance, and the witness of the indwelling
Spirit,—all those gifts come from God, no doubt, but they are quite above
us. We are straightforward, simple people, who cannot feel fine fancies;
if we can be honest, and industrious, and good-natured, and sober, and
strong, and healthy, that is enough for us,—and all that has nothing to
do with religion. Those are not gifts which come from God. A man is
strong and healthy by birth, and honest and good-natured by nature.
Those are very good things; but they are not gifts—they are not
_graces_—they are not _spiritual_ blessings—they have nothing to do with
the state of a man’s soul. Ungodly people are honest, and good-tempered,
and industrious, and healthy, as well as your saints and your methodists;
so what is the use of praying for spiritual gifts to God, when we can
have all we want by nature?’
Did such thoughts never come into your head, my friends? Are they not
often in your heads, more or less? Perhaps not in these very words, but
something like them.
I do not say it to blame you, for I believe that every man, each
according to his station, is tempted to such thoughts; I believe that
such thoughts are not _yours_ or any man’s; I believe they are the
devil’s, who tempts all men, who tempted even the Son of God Himself with
thoughts like these at their root. Such thoughts are not _yours_ or
mine, though they may come into our heads. They are part of the evil
which besets us—which is _not_ us—which has no right or share in us—which
we pray God to drive away from us when we say, “Deliver us from evil.”
Have you not all had such thoughts? But have you not all had very
different thoughts? have you not, every one of you, at times, felt in the
bottom of your hearts, after all, ‘This strength and industry, this
courage, and honesty, and good-nature of mine, must come from God; I did
not get them myself? If I was born honest, and strong, and gentle, and
brave, some one must have made me so when I was born, or before? The
devil certainly did not make me so, therefore _God_ must? These, too,
are His gifts?’
Did you ever think such thoughts as these? If you did not, not much
matter, for you have all acted, more or less, in your better moments as
if you had them. There are more things in a man’s heart, thank God, than
ever come into his head. Many a man does a noble thing by instinct, as
we say, without ever _thinking_ whether it is a noble thing or
not—without _thinking_ about it at all. Many a man, thank God, is led at
times, by God’s Spirit, without ever knowing whose Spirit it is that
leads him.
But he _ought_ to know it, for it is _willing_, _reasonable_ service
which God wants of us. He does not care to use us like tools and
puppets. And why? He is not merely our Maker, He is our Father, and He
wishes us to know and feel that we are His children—to know and feel that
we all have come from Him; to acknowledge Him in all our ways, to thank
Him for all, to look up lovingly and confidently to Him for more, as His
reasonable children, day by day, and hour by hour. Every good gift we
have comes from Him; but He will have us know where they all come from.
Let us go through now a few of these good gifts, which we call natural,
and see what the Bible says of them, and from whom they come.
First, now, that common gift of strength and courage. Who gives you
that?—who gave it David? For He that gives it to one is most likely to
be He that gives it to another. David says to God, “Thou teachest my
hands to war, and my fingers to fight; by the help of God I can leap over
a wall: He makes me strong, that my arms can break even a bow of
steel:”—that is plain-spoken enough, I think. Who gave Samson his
strength, again? What says the Bible? How Samson met a young lion which
roared against him, and he had nothing in his hand, and the Spirit of the
Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion as he would have torn a
kid. And, again, how when traitors had bound him with two new cords, the
Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords which were on
his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and fell from off his
hands. And, for God’s sake, do not give in to that miserable fancy that
because these stories are what you call miraculous, therefore they have
nothing to do with you—that Samson’s strength came to him miraculously by
God’s Spirit, and yet yours comes to you a different way. The Bible is
written to tell you how all that happens really happens—what all things
really are; God is working among us always, but we do not see Him; and
the Bible just lifts up, once and for all, the veil which hides Him from
us, and lets us see, in one instance, who it is that does all the
wonderful things which go on round us to this day, that when we see any
thing like it happen we may know whom to thank for it.
The Great Physician healed the blind and the lame in Judea; and why?—to
shew us who heals the blind and the lame now—to shew us that the good
gift of medicine and surgery, and the physician’s art, comes down from
Him who cured the paralytic and cleansed the lepers in Judea—to whom all
power is given in heaven and earth.
So, again, with skill in farming and agriculture. From whom does that
come? The very heathens can tell us that, for it is curious, that among
the heathen, in all ages and countries, those men who have found out
great improvements in tilling the ground have been honoured and often
worshipped as divine men—as gods, thereby shewing that the heathen, among
all their idolatries, had a true and just notion about man’s practical
skill and knowledge—that it could only come from Heaven, that it was by
the inspiration and guidance of God above that skill in agriculture
arose. What says Isaiah of that to the very same purpose? “Doth the
ploughman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his
ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast
abroad the vetches, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed
barley and the rye in their place? For his God doth instruct him to
discretion, and doth teach him. This also,” says Isaiah, “cometh from
the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in
working.” Would to God you would all believe it!
Again; wisdom and prudence, and a clear, powerful mind,—are not they
parts of God’s likeness? How is God’s Spirit described in Scripture? It
is called the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of prudence
and might. Therefore, surely, all wisdom and understanding, all prudence
and strength of mind, are, like that Spirit, part of God’s image; and
where did we get God’s image? Can we make ourselves like God? If we are
like him, He must have formed that likeness; and He alone. The Spirit of
God, says the Scripture, giveth us understanding.
Or, again; good-nature and affection, love, generosity, pity,—whose
likeness are they? What is God’s name but love? God is love. Has not
He revealed Himself as the God of mercy, full of long-suffering,
compassion, and free forgiveness; and must not, then, all love and
affection, all compassion and generosity, be His gift? Yes. As the rays
come from the sun, and yet are not the sun, even so our love and pity,
though they are not God, but merely a poor, weak image and reflection of
Him, yet from Him alone they come. If there is mercy in our hearts, it
comes from the fountain of mercy. If there is the light of love in us,
it is a ray from the full sun of His love.
Or honesty, again, and justice,—whose image are they but God’s? Is He
not THE Just One—the righteous God? Is not what is just for man just for
God? Are not the laws of justice and honesty, by which man deals fairly
with man, _His_ laws—the laws by which God deals with us? Does not every
book—I had almost said every page—in the Bible shew us that all our
justice is but the pattern and copy of God’s justice,—the working out of
those six latter commandments of His, which are summed up in that one
command, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself?”
Now here, again, I ask: If justice and honesty be God’s likeness, who
made us like God in this—who put into us this sense of justice which all
have, though so few obey it? Can man make himself like God? Can a worm
ape his Maker? No. From God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Right, came this
inborn feeling of justice, this knowledge of right and wrong, to us—part
of the image of God in which He created man—part of the breath or spirit
of life which He breathed into Adam. Do not mistake me. I do not say
that the sense, and honesty, and love in us, _are_ God’s Spirit—they are
the spirit of _man_, but that they are _like_ God’s Spirit, and therefore
they must be given us _by_ God’s Spirit to be used as God’s Spirit
Himself uses them. How a man shall have his share of God’s Spirit, and
live in and by God’s Spirit, is another question, and a higher and more
blessed one; but we must master this question first—we must believe that
our spirits come _from_ God, then, perhaps, we shall begin to see that
our spirits never can work well unless they are joined to the Spirit of
God, from whom they came. From whom else, I ask again, can they come?
Can they come from our bodies? Our bodies? What are they?—Flesh and
bones, made up of air and water and earth,—out of the dead bodies of the
animals, the dead roots and fruits of plants which we eat. They are
earth—matter. Can _matter_ be courageous? Did you ever hear of a
good-natured plant, or an honest stone? Then this good-nature, and
honesty, and courage of ours, must belong to our souls—our spirits. Who
put them there? Did we? Does a child make its own character? Does its
body make its character first? Can its father and mother make its
character? No. Our characters must come from some spirit above
us—either from God or from the devil. And is the devil likely to make us
honest, or brave, or kindly? I leave you to answer that. God—God alone,
my friends, is the author of good—the help that is done on earth, He
doeth it all Himself: every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from
Him.
Now some of you may think this a strange sort of sermon, because I have
said little or nothing about Jesus Christ and His redemption in it, but I
say—No.
You must believe this much about yourselves before you can believe more.
You must fairly and really believe that _God_ made you one thing before
you can believe that you have made yourselves another thing. You must
really believe that you are not mere machines and animals, but immortal
souls, before you can really believe that you have sinned; for animals
cannot sin—only reasonable souls can sin. We must really believe that
God made us at bottom in His likeness, before we can begin to find out
that there is another likeness in us besides God’s—a selfish, brutish,
too often a devilish likeness, which must be repented of, and fought
against, and cast out, that God’s likeness in us may get the upper hand,
and we may be what God expects us to be. We must know our dignity before
we can feel our shame. We must see how high we have a right to stand,
that we may see how low, alas! we have fallen.
Now you—I know many such here, thank God—to whom God has given clear,
powerful heads for business, and honest, kindly hearts, I do beseech
you—consider my words, Who has given you these but God? They are talents
which He has committed to your charge; and will He not require an account
of them? _He_ only, and His free mercy, has made you to differ from
others; if you are better than the fools and profligates round you, He,
and not yourselves, has made you better. What have you that you have not
received? By the grace of God alone you are what you are. If good comes
easier to you than to others, _He_ alone has made it easier to you; and
if you have done wrong,—if you have fallen short of your duty, as _all_
fall short, is not your sin greater than others? for unto whom much is
given of them shall much be required. Consider that, for God’s sake, and
see if you, too, have not something to be ashamed of, between yourselves
and God. See if you, too, have not need of Jesus Christ and His precious
blood, and God’s free forgiveness, who have had so much light and power
given you, and still have fallen short of what you might have been, and
what, by God’s grace, you still may be, and, as I hope and earnestly
pray, still will be.
And you, young men and women—consider;—if God has given you manly courage
and high spirits, and strength and beauty—think—_God_, your Father, has
given them to you, and of them He will surely require an account;
therefore, “Rejoice, young people,” says Solomon, “in your youth, and let
your hearts cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of
your heart and in the sight of your eyes. But remember,” continues the
wisest of men,—“remember, that for all these things God shall bring you
into judgment.” Now do not misunderstand that. It does not mean that
there is a sin in being happy. It does not mean, that if God has given
to a young man a bold spirit and powerful limbs, or to a young woman a
handsome face and a merry, loving heart, that He will punish them for
these—God forbid! what He gives He means to be used: but this it means,
that according as you use those blessings so will you be judged at the
last day; that for them, too, you will be brought to judgment, and tried
at the bar of God. As you have used them for industry, and innocent
happiness, and holy married love, or for riot and quarrelling, and
idleness, and vanity, and filthy lusts, so shall you be judged. And if
any of you have sinned in any of these ways,—God forbid that you should
have sinned in _all_ these ways; but surely, surely, some of you have
been idle—some of you have been riotous—some of you have been vain—some
of you have been quarrelsome—some of you, alas! have been that which I
shall not name here.—Think, if you have sinned in any one of these ways,
how can you answer it to God? Have you no need of forgiveness? Have you
no need of the blessed Saviour’s blood to wash you clean? Young people!
God has given you much. As a young man, I speak to you. Youth is an
inestimable blessing or an inestimable curse, according as you use it;
and if you have abused your spring-time of youth, as all, I am afraid,
have—as I have—as almost all do, alas! in this fallen world, where can
you get forgiveness but from Him that died on the cross to take away the
sins of the world?
SERMON V.
FAITH.
HABAKKUK, ii. 4.
“The just shall live by faith.”
THIS is those texts of which there are so many in the Bible, which,
though they were spoken originally to one particular man, yet are meant
for every man. These words were spoken to Habakkuk, a Jewish prophet, to
check him for his impatience under God’s hand; but they are just as true
for every man that ever was and ever will be as they were for him. They
are world-wide and world-old; they are the law by which all goodness, and
strength, and safety, stand either in men or angels, for it always was
true, and always must be true, that if reasonable beings are to live at
all, it is by faith.
And why? Because every thing that is, heaven and earth, men and angels,
are all the work of God—of one God, infinite, almighty, all-wise,
all-loving, unutterably glorious. My friends, we do not think enough of
this,—not that all the thinking in the world can ever make us comprehend
the majesty of our Heavenly Father; but we do not remember enough what we
_do_ know of God. We think of God, watching the world and all things in
it, and keeping them in order as a shepherd does his sheep, and so far so
good; but we forget that God does more than this,—we forget that this
earth, sun, and moon, and all the thousand thousand stars which cover the
midnight sky,—many of them suns larger than the sun we see, and worlds
larger than the world on which we stand, that all these, stretching away
millions of millions of miles into boundless space,—all are lying, like
one little grain of dust, in the hollow of God’s hand, and that if He
were to shut His hand upon them, He could crush them into nothing, and
God would be alone in the universe again, as He was before heaven and
earth were made. Think of that!—that if God was but to will it, we, and
this earth on which we stand, and the heaven above us, and the sun that
shines on us, should vanish away, and be no-where and no-thing. Think of
the infinite power of God, and then think how is it possible to _live_,
except by faith in Him, by trusting to Him utterly.
If you accustom yourselves to think in the same way of the infinite
wisdom of God, and the infinite love of God, they will both teach you the
same lesson; they will shew you that if you were the greatest, the
wisest, the holiest man that ever lived, you would still be such a speck
by the side of the Almighty and Everlasting God that it would be madness
to depend upon yourselves for any thing while you lived in God’s world.
For, after all, what _can_ we do without God? _In_ Him we live, and
move, and have our being. He made us, He gave us our bodies, gave us our
life; what we do _He_ lets us do, what we say He lets us say; we all live
on sufferance. What is it but God’s infinite mercy that ever brought us
here or keeps us here an instant? We may pretend to act without God’s
leave or help, but it is impossible for us to do so; the strength we put
forth, the wit we use, are all His gifts. We cannot draw a breath of air
without His leave. And yet men fancy they can do without God in the
world! My friends, these are but few words, and poor words, about the
glorious majesty of God and our littleness when compared with Him; but I
have said quite enough, at least, to shew you all how absurd it is to
depend upon ourselves for any thing. If we are mere creatures of God, if
God alone has every blessing both of this world and the next, and the
will to give them away, whom _are_ we to go to but to Him for all we
want? It is so in the life of our bodies, and it is so in the life of
our spirits. If we wish for God’s blessings, from God we must ask them.
That is our duty, even though God in His mercy and long-suffering does
pour down many a blessing upon men who never trust in Him for them. To
us all, indeed, God gives blessings before we are old enough to trust in
Him for them, and to many He continues those blessings in after-life in
spite of their blindness and want of faith. “He maketh His sun to shine
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust.” He gives—gives—it is His glory to give. Yet strange! that men
will go on year after year, using the limbs, and eating the food, which
God gives them, without ever believing so much as that God _has_ given
them, without so much as looking up to heaven once and saying, “God, I
thank Thee!” But we must remember that those blessings will not last for
ever. Unless a man has lived by faith in God with regard to his earthly
comforts, death will come and put an end to them at once; and then it is
only those who have trusted in God for all good things, and thanked Him
accordingly in this life, who shall have their part in the new heavens
and the new earth, which will so immeasurably surpass all that this earth
can give.
And it is the same with the life of our spirits; in it, too, we must live
by faith. The life of our spirits is a gift from God the Father of
spirits, and He has chosen to declare that unless we trust to Him for
life, and ask Him for life, He will not bestow it upon us. The life of
our bodies He in His mercy keeps up, although we forget Him; the life of
our souls He will not keep up: therefore, for the sake of our spirits,
even more than of our bodies, we must live by faith. If we wish to be
loving, pure, wise, manly, noble, we must ask those excellent gifts of
God, who is Himself infinite love, and purity, wisdom and nobleness. If
we wish for everlasting life, from whom can we obtain it but from God,
who is the boundless, eternal, life itself? If we wish for forgiveness
for our faults and failings, where are we to get it but from God, who is
boundless love and pity, and who has revealed to us His boundless love
and pity in the form of a man, Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world?