light from above; and we all know by experience that the trees and plants
which grow on earth want the light of the sun to make them grow. So,
doubtless, here again the Scripture example of a tree will hold good.
Now what does the sunlight do for the tree? It does every thing, for
without light, the soil, and air, and rain, are all useless. It stirs up
the sap, it hardens the wood, it brings out the blossom, it colours the
leaves and the flowers, it ripens the fruit. The light is the life of
the tree;—and is there not one, my friends, of whom these words are
written—that He is the Life, and that He is the Light—that He is the Sun
of Righteousness and the bright and morning Star—that He is the light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world—that in Him was life,
and the life was the light of men? Do you not know of whom I speak?
Even of Him that was born at Bethlehem and died on the cross, who now
sits at God’s right hand, praying for us, offering to us His body and His
blood;—Jesus the Son of God, He is the Light and the Life. From Him
alone our light must come, from Him alone our life must come, now and for
ever. Oh, think seriously of this—and think, too, how a short time
before He died on earth He spoke of Himself as the Bread of life—the
living Bread which comes down from heaven; how He declared to men, that
unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they have no life in them.
And, lastly, consider this, how the same night that He was betrayed, He
took bread, and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, “Take,
eat; this is my body, which is given for you; this do in remembrance of
me.” And how, likewise, He took the cup, and when He had blessed it, He
gave it to them, saying, “Drink ye all of this, for this is the new
covenant in my blood, which is shed for you and for many, for the
forgiveness of sins; this do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of
me.” Oh, consider these words, my friends—to you all and every one they
were spoken. “Drink ye _all_ of this,” said the Blessed One; and will
you refuse to drink it? He offers you the bread of life, the sign and
the pledge of His body, which shall feed your souls with everlasting
strength and life; and will you refuse what the Son of God offers you,
what He bought for you with His death? God forbid, my friends! This is
your blessed right and privilege—the right and the privilege of every one
of you—to come freely and boldly to that holy table, and there to
remember your Saviour. At that table to confess your Saviour before
men—at that table to shew that you really believe that Jesus Christ died
for you—at that table to claim your share in the strength of His body, in
the pardon of His blood, which cleanses from all sin—and at that table to
receive what you claim, to receive at that table the wine, as a sign from
Christ Himself, that His blood has washed away your sins; and the bread,
as a sign that His body and His spirit are really feeding your spirits,
that your souls are strengthened and refreshed by the body and blood of
Christ, as your bodies are with the bread and wine. I have shewn you
that your souls must be fed from heaven,—that the Lord’s Supper is a sign
to you that they _are_ fed from heaven. You pray to God, I hope, many of
you, that He would give you His Holy Spirit, that He would change, and
renew, and strengthen your souls—you pray God to do this, I hope—Well,
then, there is the answer to your prayers. There your souls _will_ be
renewed and strengthened—there you will claim your share in Christ, who
alone can renew and strengthen them. The bread which is there broken is
the communion, the sharing, of the body of Christ; the cup which is there
blessed is the communion of the blood of Christ: to that heavenly treat,
to that spiritual food of your souls, Jesus Himself invites you, He who
is the life of men. Do not let it be said at the last day of any one of
you, that when the Son of God Himself invites you, you would not come to
Him that you might have life.
SERMON XIX.
MAN’S WORKING DAY.
JOHN, xi. 9, 10.
“Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man
walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this
world. But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth, because there is
no light in him.”
THIS was our blessed Lord’s answer to His disciples when they said to
Him, “Master, the Jews of late tried to stone Thee, and goest Thou among
them again?” And “Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day?
If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light
of this world. But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth, because
there is no light in him.”
Now, at first sight, one does not see what this has to do with the
disciples’ question—it seems no answer at all to it. But we must
remember who it was who gave that answer. The Son of God, from whom all
words come, who came to do good, and only good, every minute of His life.
And, therefore, we may be sure that He never threw away a single word.
And we must remember, too, to whom He spoke—to His disciples, whom He was
training to be apostles to the whole world, teaching them in every thing
some deep lesson, to fit them for their glorious calling, as preachers of
the good news of His coming. So we may be sure that He would never put
off any question of theirs; we may be certain, that whatever they asked
Him, He would give them the best possible answer; not, perhaps, just the
answer for which they wished, but the answer which would teach them most.
Therefore I say, we must believe that there is some deep, wonderful
lesson in this text—that it is the very best and fullest answer which our
Lord could have made to His disciples when they asked Him why He was
going again to Judea, where He stood in danger of His life.
Let us think a little about this text in faith, that is, sure that there
is a deep, blessed meaning in it, if we can but find it out. Let us take
it piece by piece; we shall never get to the bottom of it, of course, but
we may get deep enough into it to set us thinking a little between now
and next Sunday.
“Are there not twelve hours in the day?” said our Lord. We know there
are, and we know, too, that if any man walks in the day, and keeps his
eyes open, he does not stumble, because he has the light of this world to
guide him. Twelve hours for business, and twelve for food, and sleep,
and rest, is our rule for working men, or, indeed, not our rule, but
God’s. He has set the sun for the light of this world, to rule the day,
to settle for us how long we are to work. In this country days vary. In
summer they are more than twelve hours, and then men work early and late;
but that is made up to us by winter, when the days are less than twelve
hours, and men work short time. In the very cold countries again, far
away in the frozen north, the sun never sets all the summer, and never
rises all the winter, and there is six months day and six months night.
Wonderful! But even there God has fitted the land and men’s lives to
that strange climate, and they can gather in enough meat in the summer to
keep them all the winter, that they may be able to spend the long six
months’ night of winter warm in their houses, sleeping and resting, with
plenty of food. So that even to them there are twelve hours in the day,
though their hours are each a fortnight long,—I mean a certain fixed time
in which to walk, and do the business which they have to do before the
long frozen night comes, wherein no man can work, because the sun, the
light of this world, is hid from them below the ice for six whole months.
So that our Lord’s words hold true of all men, even of those people in
the icy north. But in by far the most parts of the world, and especially
in the hot countries, where our Lord lived, there are twelve common hours
in every day, wherein men may and ought to work.
Now what did our Lord mean by reminding His disciples of this, which they
all knew already? He meant this,—that God His Father had appointed Him a
certain work to do, and a certain time to do it in; that though His day
was short, only thirty-three years in all, while we have, many of us,
seventy years given us, yet that there were twelve hours in His day in
which He must work—that God would take care that He lived out His
appointed time, provided He was ready and earnest in doing God’s work in
it—and that He _must_ work in that time which God had given Him, whatever
came of it, and do His appointed work before the night of death came in
which no man can work.
There was a heathen king once, named Philip of Macedon, and a very wise
king he was, though he was a heathen, and one of the wisest of his plans
was this:—he had a slave, whom he ordered to come in to him every morning
of his life, whatever he was doing, and say to him in a loud voice,
“Philip, remember that thou must die!”
He was a heathen, but a great many who call themselves Christians are not
half so wise as he, for they take all possible care, not to remember that
they must die, but to _forget_ that they must die; and yet every living
man has a servant who, like King Philip’s, puts him in mind, whether he
likes it or not, that his day will run out at last, and his twelve hours
of life be over, and then die he must. And who is that servant? A man’s
own body. Lucky if his body is his servant, though—not his _master_ and
his tyrant. But still, be that as it may, every finger-ache that one’s
body has, every cough and cold one’s body catches, ought to be to us a
warning like King Philip’s servant, “Remember that thou must die.” Every
little pain and illness is a warning, a kindly hint from our Father in
heaven, that we are doomed to death; that we have but twelve hours in
this short day of life, and that the twelve must end; and that we must
get our work done and our accounts settled, and be ready for our long
journey, to meet our Father and our King, before the night comes wherein
no man can work, but only takes his wages; for them who have done good
the wages of life eternal, and for them who have done evil—God help them!
we know what is written—“the wages of sin is death!”
Now, observe next, that those who walk in the day do not stumble, because
they see the light of this world, and those who walk in the night
stumble—they have no light in them. If they are to see, it must be by
the help of some light outside themselves, which is not part of
themselves, or belonging to themselves at all. We only see by the light
which God has made; when that is gone, our eyes are useless.
So it is with our souls. Our wits, however clever they may be, only
understand things by the light which God throws on those things. He must
explain and enlighten all things to us. Without His light—His Spirit,
all the wit in the world is as useless as a pair of eyes in a dark night.
Now this earthly world which we do see is an exact picture and pattern of
the spiritual, heavenly world which we do not see, as Solomon says in the
Proverbs, “The things which are seen are the doubles of the things which
are not seen.” And as there is a light for us in this earth, which is
_not ourselves_, namely the sun, so there is a light for us in the
spirit-world, which is _not ourselves_. And who is that? The blessed
Lord shall answer for Himself. He says, “I am the light of the world;”
and St. John bears witness to Him, “In Him was life, and the life was the
light of men.” And does not St. Paul say the same thing, when he blessed
God so often for having called him and his congregations out of darkness
into that marvellous light? If you read his Epistles you will find what
he meant by the darkness, what he meant by the light. The darkness was
heathendom, knowing nothing of Christ. The light was Christianity,
knowing Christ the light; and, more, being _in_ the light, belonging to
Christ—being joined to Him, as the leaves are to the tree,—living by
trust in Christ, being taught and made true men and true women of, by the
Noble and Holy Spirit of Christ—seeing their way through this world by
trust in Christ and His promises,—That was light.
And there is no other light. If a man does not work trusting in Christ,
whom God has set for the light of the world, he works in the night, where
God never set or meant him to work; and stumble he will, and make a fool
of himself, sooner or later, because he is walking in the night, and sees
nothing plainly or in a right view. For as our Lord says truly, “There
is no light in him.” No light in him? In one sense there is no light in
any one, be he the wisest or holiest man who ever lived. But this is
just what three people out of four will not believe. They will not
believe that the Spirit of God gives man understanding. They fancy that
they have light in themselves. They try, conceitedly and godlessly, to
walk by the light of their own eyes—to make their own way plain before
their face for themselves. They will not believe old David, a man who
worked, and fought, and thought, and saw, far more than any one of us
will ever do, when he tells them again and again in his Psalms, that the
Lord is his light, that the Lord must guide a man, and inform him with
His eye, and teach him in the way in which he should go. And, therefore,
they will not pray to God for light—therefore they will not look for
light in God’s Word, and in the writings of godly men; and they are like
a man in the broad sunshine, who should choose to shut his eyes close,
and say, ‘I have light enough in my own head to do without the sun;’ and
therefore they walk on still in darkness, and all the foundations of the
earth are out of course, because men forget the first universal ground
rules of common sense, and reason, and love, which God’s Spirit teaches.
I tell you, all the mistakes that you ever made—that ever were made since
Adam fell, came from this, that men will not ask God for light and
wisdom; they love darkness rather than light, and therefore, though God’s
light is ready for every man, shining in the darkness to shew every man
his way, yet the darkness will not comprehend it—will not take it in, and
let God change its blindness into day.
Now, then, to gather all together, what better answer could our Lord have
given to His disciples’ question than this, “Are there not twelve hours
in the day? If a man walk in the day he does not stumble, because he
seeth the light of this world; but if a man walk in the night, he
stumbleth, because there is no light in him.”
It was as if He had said, “However short my day of life may be, there are
twelve hours in it, of my Father’s numbering and measuring, not of mine.
My times are in His hand, as long as He pleases I shall live. He has
given me a work to do, and He will see that I live long enough to do it.
Into His hands I commend my spirit, for, living or dying, He is with me.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He will be with
me. He will keep me secretly in His tabernacle from the strife of
tongues, and will turn the furiousness of my enemies to His glory; and as
my day my strength will be. And I have no fear of running into danger
needlessly. I have prayed to Him daily and nightly for light, for His
Spirit—the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of prudence and courage;
and His word is pledged to keep me in all my ways, so that I dash not my
foot against a stone. Know ye not that I must be about my Father’s
business? While I am about that I am safe. It is only if I go about my
own business—my own pleasure; if I forget to ask Him for His light and
guidance, that I shall put myself into the night, and stumble and fall.”
Well, my friends, what is there in all this, which we may not say as well
as our Lord? In this, as in all things, Christ set Himself up as our
pattern. Oh, believe it!—believe that your time—your measure of life, is
in God’s hand. Believe that He is your light, that He will teach and
guide you into all truth, and that all your mistakes come from not asking
counsel of Him in prayer, and thought, and reading of His Holy Bible.
Believe His blessed promise that He will give His Holy Spirit to those
who ask Him. Believe, too, that He has given you a work to do—prepared
good works all ready for you to walk in. Be you labourer or gentleman,
maid, wife, or widow, God has given you a work to do; there is good to be
done lying all round you, ready for you. And the blessed Jesus who
bought you, body and soul, with His own blood, commands you to work for
Him: “Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
“Work ye manful while ye may,
Work for God in this your day;
Night must stop you, rich or poor,
Godly deeds alone endure.”
And then, whether you live or die, your Father’s smile will be on you,
and His everlasting arms beneath you, and at your last hour you shall
find that “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest from
their labour, and their works do follow them.”
SERMON XX.
ASSOCIATION.
GALATIANS, vi. 2.
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
IF I were to ask you, my friends, why you were met together here to-day,
you would tell me, I suppose, that you were come to church as members of
a benefit club; and quite right you are in coming here as such, and God
grant that we may meet together here on this same errand many more
Whit-mondays. But this would be no answer to my question; I wish to know
why you come to church to-day sooner than to any other place? what has
the church to do with the benefit club? Now this is a question which I
do not think all of you could answer very readily, and therefore I wish
to make you, especially the younger members of the club, think a little
seriously about the meaning of your coming here to-day. You will be none
the less cheerful this evening for having had some deep and godly
thoughts in your heads this morning.
Now these benefit clubs are also called provident societies, and a very
good name for them. You become members of them, because you are prudent,
or provident, that is, because you are careful, and look forward to a
rainy day. But why does not each of you lay up his savings for himself,
instead of putting them into a common purse, and so forming a club?
Because you have found out, what every one else in the world, but madmen,
ought to have found out, that two are better than one; that if a great
many men join together in any matter, they are a great deal stronger when
working together, than if they each worked just as hard, but each by
himself; that the way to be safe is not to stand each of you alone, but
to help each other; in short, that there is no getting on without bearing
one another’s burdens.
Now this plan of bearing one another’s burdens is not only good in
benefit clubs—it is good in families, in parishes, in nations, in the
church of God, which is the elect of all mankind. Unless men hold
together, and help each other, there is no safety for them.
Let us consider what there is bearing on this matter of prudence, that
makes one of the greatest differences between a man and a brute beast.
It is not that the man is prudent, and the beast is not. Many beasts
have forethought enough; the very sleepmouse hoards up acorns against the
winter; a fox will hide the game he cannot eat. No, the great difference
between man and beast is, that the beast has forethought only for
himself, but the man has forethought for others also; beasts have not
reason enough to bear each others’ burdens, as men have. And what is it
that makes us call the ant and the bee the wisest of animals, except that
they do, in some degree, behave like men, in helping one another, and
having some sort of family feeling, and society, and government among
them, by which they can help bear each other’s burdens? So that we all
confess, by calling them wise, how wise it is to help each other.
Consider a family, again. In order that a family may be happy and
prosperous, all the members of it must bear each other’s burdens. If the
father only thought of himself, and the mother of herself, and each of
the children did nothing but take care of themselves, would not that
family come to misery and ruin? But if they all helped each other—all
thought of each other more than of themselves—all were ready to give up
their own comfort to make each other comfortable, that family would be
peaceful and prosperous, and would be doing a great deal towards
fulfilling the law of Christ.
It is just the same in a parish. If the rich help and defend the poor,
and the poor respect and love the rich, and are ready to serve them as
far as they can,—in short, if all ranks bear each other’s burdens, that
parish is a happy one, and if they do not, it is a miserable one.
Just the same with a nation. If the king only cares about making himself
strong, and the noblemen and gentlemen about their rank and riches, and
the poor people, again, only care for themselves, and are trying to pull
down the rich, and so get what they can for themselves,—if a country is
in this state, what can be more wretched? Neither a house, nor a
country, divided against itself, can ever stand. But if the king and the
nobles give their whole minds to making good laws, and seeing justice
done to all, and workmen fairly paid, and if the poor, in their turns,
are loyal, and ready to fight and work for their king and their nobles,
then will not that country be a happy and a great country? Surely it
will, because its people, instead of caring every man for himself only,
help each other and bear one another’s burdens.
And just in the same way with Christ’s Church, with the company of true
Christian men. If the clergymen thought only of themselves, and
neglected the people, and forgot to labour among them, and pray for them,
and preach to them; and if the people each cared for himself, and never
prayed to God to give them a spirit of love and charity, and never helped
their neighbours, or did unto others as they wished to be done by; and
above all, if Christ, our Head, left His Church, and cared no more about
us, what would become of Christ’s Church? What would happen to the whole
race of sinful man, but misery in this world, and ruin in the next? But
if the people love and help each other, and obey their ministers, and
pray for them; and if the ministers labour earnestly after the souls and
bodies of their people; and Christ in heaven helps both minister and
people with His Spirit, and His providence and protection; in short, if
all in the whole Church bear each other’s burdens, then Christ’s Church
will stand, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Thus you see that this text of bearing one another’s burdens is no new or
strange commandment, but the very state in which every man is meant to
live, both in his family, his parish, his country, and his Church—all his
life helping others, and being helped by them in turn. And because
families and nations, and the Church of Christ above all, are good, and
holy, and beautiful, therefore any society which is formed upon the same
plan—I mean of helping each other—must be good also. And, therefore,
benefit societies are right and reasonable things, and among all the good
which they do they do this one great good, that they teach men to
remember that there is no use trying to stand alone, but that the way to
be safe and happy is to bear each other’s burdens.
Thus benefit societies are patterns of Christ’s Church. But now, my
friends, there is another point for each of you to consider, which is
this—the benefit club is a good thing, but are you a good member of the
club? Do you do your duty, each of you, in the club as Christian men
should?
I do not ask whether you pay your subscriptions regularly or not—that is
quite right and necessary, but there is something more than that wanted
to make a club go on rightly. Mere paying and receiving money will never
keep men together any more than any other outward business. A man may
pay his club-money regularly and yet not be a really good member. And
how is this? You remember that I tried to shew you that a family, and a
nation, and a church, all were kept together by the same principle of
bearing one another’s burdens, just as a benefit club is. Now, what
makes a man a good member of Christ’s Church,—a good Christian, in short?
A man may pay his tithes to the rector, and his church-rates to repair
God’s house, and his poor-rates to maintain God’s poor, all very
regularly, and yet be a very bad member of Christ’s Church. These
payments are all right and good; but they are but the outside, the letter
of what God requires of him. What is wanted is, to serve God in the
_spirit_, to have the spirit—_the will_, of a Christian in him; that is,
to do all these things for _God’s_ sake—not of constraint, but
willingly—“not grudgingly, for God loveth a cheerful giver.” No! If a
man is a really good member of Christ’s Church, he lives a life of faith
in Jesus Christ, and of thankfulness to Him for His infinite love and
mercy in coming down to die for us, and thus the love of God and man is
shed abroad in his heart by God’s Spirit, which is given to him.
Therefore, that man thinks it an honour to pay church-rates, and so help
towards keeping God’s house in repair and neatness. He pays his tithes
cheerfully, because he loves God’s ministers, and feels their use and
worth to him. He pays his poor-rates with a willing mind, for the sake
of that God who has said, “that he who gives to the poor lends to the
Lord.” And so he obeys not only the letter but the spirit of the law.
But the man does more than this. Besides obeying not only the letter but
the spirit of the law, he helps his brethren in a thousand other ways.
He shews, in short, by every action that he believes in God and loves his
neighbour.