THE OLD MOTTO.
MR. WILMOT'S sermon was short. Parts of it, curtailed, were as follows:—
"There is an old English motto, my friends, which has been lately often
in my mind—a short motto, of three words only—
"'READY, AYE READY!'
"Now you scarcely need that I should tell you the meaning of this motto.
"Ready for what? Why, ready, of course, for anything and everything
which may come in the way of one's duty.
"The true-hearted soldier is 'ready, aye ready' to go where bidden,
even to death. The true-hearted servant is 'ready, aye ready' to do his
master's desire, careless of trouble or weariness. The true-hearted
child is 'ready, aye ready' to accept or bear whatever his father wills
for him. The true-hearted man or woman is 'ready, aye ready' to risk or
suffer aught in the cause of needy and suffering men and women.
"This spirit of readiness is not rare in the present day; and
especially it is not rare in our own land. You may say that the age
is a selfish age; and so has been every age, for mankind is a selfish
race. Nevertheless, there are in these days thousands who hold
themselves 'ready, aye ready' to do and dare, for the sake of loved
ones, for the sake of their country,—nay, that is not surprising, but
more than this—for the sake of all those who are in need, in peril,
in extremity, and unable to help themselves. Look at the records of
shipwrecks; look at the records of mines; look at the records of
hospitals, of fever and plague-stricken districts,—for the truth of
what I say.
"Ready to do, ready to dare, ready to endure, ready to risk life
itself, for the sake of others. It is something to be able to say so
much. And mark all of you what I say, this would not now be, but for
the life and example and teaching of Him who was 'ready, aye ready' to
quit His glorious throne in heaven, that He might die a fearful death,
as Man, for a ruined world. All that we see around us of benevolence,
of pity, of tenderness, of self-denial, has been taught to mankind by
Jesus, the Son of God.
"I do not say that no gleams of tenderness are to be found in the
natural heart of man. A heathen wife or mother may love her husband or
child; a heathen may shrink from the sight of suffering. But if you
would learn what man is by nature, you must look at heathendom in the
mass. Look at those lands where the Name of Christ is unknown, and
see the awful abounding cruelty, the recklessness of human life, the
wholesale murder of infants, the slavery of women, the contempt for
others' distress, the neglect of the sick and dying, the utter rampant
selfishness.
"Look then at our own land, and see the hospitals, the orphanages,
the immense and countless charitable organisations, the eagerness of
thousands to 'spend and be spent' for those who are in need. These are
no mere fruits of civilisation. You may search in vain for any such
results of the finest pagan civilisations of olden days. These things
are the fruits of Christianity.
"So widespread, so far-reaching, is the influence of the Spirit of
Jesus,—of His pity, His self-forgetfulness, His love for men, His
tenderness towards suffering,—that thousands who care little about
Christ are yet so impregnated from babyhood with lessons of Christian
love and pity, that they will themselves do Christ-like deeds, deeds
of pity and love and humanity, utterly unknowing whence this spirit of
kindliness in them is derived.
"But now we have to think of something far beyond mere kind and humane
intentions towards those around us.
"'Lord, I am ready,' Peter said, with his eager warm-hearted utterance,
'ready to go with Thee both into prison and to death.'
"And he was not really ready. He thought himself so; but when the test
of peril came, he failed. He was 'ready, aye ready,' in will; but weak
in act. Trusting, perhaps, in his own readiness, his own love for
Christ, instead of trusting only in his Master's power, and in that
Master's love for him, he failed. He was one of those who at the moment
of darkness 'forsook' Jesus, 'and fled.'
"Yet Peter went far beyond too many of us. For he did at least wish to
be thus 'ready.' His aim was to do always and unflinchingly the will of
Christ.
"A grander example of this 'ready' spirit is to be found in the life of
St. Paul.
"Look at Acts xxi. 13,—'I am ready not to be bound only, but also
to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus.' And again, in
2 Timothy iv. 6,—'I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand.'
"He was ready. No vain boast this, but a calm certainty. St. Paul was
bound, and did die,—not at Jerusalem, but at Rome,—for that Master whom
he loved and served. During long years of toil and trouble, he had held
himself always 'ready, aye ready' to go here or there, to do this or
that, which his Lord might command. And now he was ready to be bound,
ready to die,—without a thought of reluctance or of holding back.
"Most of us are ready enough to follow our own inclinations. How many a
one among us all now gathered in this Church holds himself habitually,
day by day and hour by hour, in a position of calm willing readiness to
do the will of God?
"Look at a verse in 2 Samuel xv. 15,—'And the king's servants said unto
the king, Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever any lord the
king shall appoint.'
"Which of you will stand and say that from your very heart to the Lord
your King?—'Master, I am ready to do whatsoever Thou shalt appoint.'
"Whatsoever! That allows no choice to self, no indulgence of self's
fancies, no habits of laziness, no mere life of pleasure with the
smallest possible amount of real work. O no: it means a very different
kind of existence—toil cheerfully undertaken, hardship and suffering
patiently borne, sin met and conquered, self subdued.
"Will some of you say that such a life of absolute readiness to carry
out another's will must be a life of slavery?
"Nay! For unto love there is no slavery; and we who serve the Lord
Christ love Him. St. Peter's readiness was the readiness of love; and
so also was St. Paul's.
"Is it slavery which makes a mother willing to toil, to endure, to
forget herself, to die, if needful, for her child? Is it not love alone?
"Look at the other side of the question. If not servants to the King
of kings, standing always ready to do whatsoever He shall appoint,
whose servants will you be? Satan's? Is there anything grand in
the subjection of a man to the Evil One? Your own? But the most
contemptible of all contemptible sights is the man who is a slave to
his own will and passions!
"I tell you there is no loftier or grander life lived on earth, than
the life of the man who holds himself a willing bond-servant to the
King of kings. That man is free indeed,—free from the tyranny of Satan,
free from the tyranny of self, free with the glorious freedom of
Christ. Whether he be king or labourer, prince or tradesman, matters
little. Once enrolled in the service of the King, yielding himself
and his all to the King, accepted and pardoned by the King, signed
with the King's own signet, he is thenceforth himself of the heavenly
blood-royal.
"'Ready to do whatsoever my Lord the King shall appoint.' He may
appoint us something painful, something sad, something from which
heart and flesh shall shrink,—but what then? Has He not the right? He
has bought us with His Blood. He loves us, and knows what is needful
for us. And we are bound to His Service,—aye, bound whether we will
or no,—bound as His children by creation, bound as His purchased
possession, bound by Baptismal promises, bound by Confirmation
vows. He would have you bound by one more tie,—the tie of willing
heart-servitude,—not to be servants only, but children by adoption,
children of the Father, 'heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,'
led by His Spirit, obedient to His will.
"There must be the blood-washing. There must be the heart-readiness.
There must be the use of all appointed means of grace. There must be
acceptance of the King's free gifts.
"Then, whatever the King may appoint for you, whether suffering or joy,
whether work or waiting, whether life or death, from Him shall come the
needed grace, the needed strength. Not like St. Peter, but like St.
Paul, you shall be in very heart and in very deed,—
"Ready, aye Ready!"