Eversley. 1861.
2 Kings xxiii. 3, 4, 25, 26. "And the king stood by a pillar, and made a
covenant before the Lord, to "walk after the Lord, and to keep his
commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart
and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were
written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. And the
king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second
order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of
the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and
for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the
fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el. . . . And
like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with
all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according
to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great
wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the
provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal."
You heard this chapter read as the first lesson for this afternoon's
service; and a lesson it is indeed--a lesson for you and for me, as it
was a lesson for our forefathers. If you had been worshipping in this
church three hundred years ago, you would have understood, without my
telling you, why the good and wise men who shaped our prayer-book chose
this chapter to be read in church. You would have applied the words of
it to the times in which you were living. You would have felt that the
chapter spoke to you at once of joy and hope, and of sorrow and fear.
There is no doubt at all what our forefathers would have thought of, and
did think of, when they read this chapter. The glorious reformation
which young King Josiah made was to them the pattern of the equally
glorious Reformation which was made in England somewhat more than three
hundred years ago. Young King Josiah, swearing to govern according to
the law of the Lord, was to them the pattern of young King Edward VI.
determining to govern according to the laws of the Bible. The finding of
the law of the Lord in Josiah's time, after it had been long lost, was to
them the pattern of the sudden spread among them of the Bible, which had
been practically hidden from them for hundreds of years, and was then
translated into English and printed, and put freely into the hands of
every man, rich and poor, who was able to read it. King Josiah's
destruction of the idols, and the temples of the false gods, and driving
out the wizards and workers with familiar spirits, were to them a pattern
of the destruction of the monasteries and miraculous images and popish
superstitions of every kind, the turning the monks out of their convents,
and forcing them to set to honest work--which had just taken place
throughout England. And the hearts of all true Englishmen were stirred
up in those days to copy Josiah and the people of Jerusalem, and turn to
the Lord with all their heart, and with all their soul, and with all
their might, according to God's law and gospel, in the two Testaments,
both Old and New.
One would have thought that at such a time the hearts of our forefathers
would be full of nothing but hope and joy, content and thankfulness. And
yet it was not so. One cannot help seeing that in the prayer-book, which
was put together in those days, there is a great deal of fear and
sadness. You see it especially in the Litany, which was to be said not
only on Sundays, but on Wednesdays and Fridays also. Some people think
the Litany painfully sad--too sad. It was not too sad for the time in
which it was written. Our forefathers, three hundred years ago, meant
what they said when they cried to God to have mercy upon them, miserable
sinners, and not to remember their offences nor the offences of their
forefathers, &c. They meant, and had good reason to mean, what they
said, when they cried to God that those evils which the craft and
subtilty of the devil and men were working against them might be brought
to nought, and by the providence of His goodness be dispersed--to arise
and help and deliver them for His name's sake and for His honour; and to
turn from them, for the glory of His name, all those evils which they
righteously had deserved. They were in danger and in terror, our
forefathers, three hundred years ago. And when they heard this lesson
read in church, it was not likely to make their terror less.
For what says the 26th verse of this chapter? "Notwithstanding," in
spite of all this reformation, and putting away of idols and determining
to walk according to the law of the Lord, "the Lord turned not from the
fierceness of His great wrath, wherewith His anger was kindled against
Judah." And what followed? Josiah was killed in battle--by his own
fault too--by Pharaoh Nechoh, King of Egypt. And then followed nothing
but disaster and misery. The Jews were conquered first by the King of
Egypt, and taxed to pay to him an enormous tribute; and then, in the wars
between Egypt and Babylon, conquered a second time by the King of
Babylon, the famous Nebuchadnezzar, in that dreadful siege in which it is
said mothers ate their own children through extremity of famine. And
then after seventy years, after every one of that idolatrous and corrupt
generation had died in captivity, the poor Jews were allowed to go back
to their native land, chastened and purged in the fire of affliction, and
having learnt a lesson which, to do them justice, they never forgot
again, and have not forgotten to this day; that to worship a graven
image, as well as to work unrighteousness, is abomination to the Lord--
that God, and God alone, is to be worshipped, and worshipped in holiness
and purity, in mercy and in justice.
And it was some such fate as this, some terrible ruin like that of the
Jews of old, that our forefathers feared three hundred years ago. Their
hearts were not yet altogether right with God. They had not shaken off
the bad habits of mind, or the bad morals either, which they had learnt
in the old Romish times--too many of them were using their liberty as a
cloak of licentiousness; and, under pretence of religion, plundering not
only God's Church, but God's poor. And many other evils were rife in
England then, as there are sure to be great evils side by side with great
good in any country in times of change and revolution. And so our
forefathers needed chastisement, and they had it. King Edward, upon whom
the Protestants had set their hopes, died young; and then came times
which tried them literally as by fire. First came the terrible
persecutions in Queen Mary's time, when hundreds of good men and women
were burnt alive for their religion. And even after her death, for
thirty years, came times, such as Hezekiah speaks of--times of trouble
and rebuke and blasphemy, plots, rebellions, civil war, at home and
abroad; dangers that grew ever more and more terrible, till it seemed at
last certain that England would be conquered, in the Pope's name, by the
King of Spain: and if that had come to pass (and it all but came to pass
in the famous year 1588), the King of Spain would have become King of
England; the best blood of England would have been shed upon the
scaffold; the best estates parted among Spaniards and traitors; England
enslaved to the most cruel nation of those times; and the Inquisition set
up to persecute, torture, and burn all who believed in what they called,
and what is, the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was to have happened, and
it was only, as our forefathers confessed, by the infinite mercy of God
that it did not happen. They were delivered strangely and suddenly, as
the Jews were. For forty years they had been, chastised, and purged and
humbled for their sins; and then, and not till then, came times of safety
and prosperity, honour and glory, which have lasted, thanks be to God,
ever since.
And now, my dear friends, what has this to do with us? If this chapter
was a lesson to our forefathers, how is it to be a lesson to us likewise?
I have always told you (as those who have really understood their Bibles
in all ages have told men) that the Bible sets forth the eternal laws of
God's kingdom--the laws by which God, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ,
governs nations and kingdoms--and not only nations and kingdoms, but you
and me, and every individual Christian man; "all these things," says St
Paul, are "written for our admonition." The history of the Jews is, or
may be, your history or mine, for good or for evil; as God dealt with
them, so is He dealing with you and me. By their experience we must
learn. By their chastisements we must be warned. So says St Paul. So
have all preachers said who have understood St Paul--and so say I to you.
And the lesson that we may learn from this chapter is, that we may repent
and yet be punished.
I know people do not like to believe that; I know that it is much more
convenient to fancy that when a man repents, and, as he says, turns over
a new leaf, he need trouble himself no more about his past sins. But it
is a mistake; not only is the letter and spirit of Scripture against him,
but facts are against him. He may not choose to trouble himself about
his past sins; but he will find that his past sins trouble him, whether
he chooses or not,--and that often in a very terrible way, as they
troubled those poor Jews in their day, and our forefathers after the
Reformation.
"What?" some will say, "is it not expressly written in Scripture that
'when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath
committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his
soul alive?' and 'all his transgressions that he hath committed they
shall not be mentioned unto him,' but that 'in his righteousness which he
hath done he shall live?'"
No doubt it is so written, my friends. And no doubt it is perfectly and
literally true: but answer me this, when does the wicked man do that
which is lawful and right? The minute after he has repented? or the day
after? or even seven years after?--the minute after he is forgiven, and
received freely back again as God's child, as he will be, for the sake of
that precious blood which Christ poured out upon the cross? Would to God
it were so, my friends. Would to God it were so easy to do right, after
having been accustomed to do wrong. Would to God it were so easy to get
a clean heart and a right spirit. Would to God it were so easy to break
through all the old bad habits--perhaps the habits of a whole life-time.
But it is in vain to expect this sudden change of character. As well may
we expect a man, who has been laid low with fever, to get up and go about
to his work the moment his disease takes a favourable turn.
No. After the forgiveness of sin must come the cure of sin. And that
cure, like most cures, is a long and a painful process. The sin may have
been some animal sin, like drunkenness; and we all know how difficult it
is to cure that. Or it may have been a spiritual sin--pride, vanity,
covetousness. Can any man put off these bad habits in a moment, as he
puts off his coat? Those who so fancy, can know very little of human
nature, and have observed their own hearts and their fellow creatures
very carelessly. If you will look at facts, what you will find is this:-
-that all sins and bad habits fill the soul with evil humours, just as a
fever or any other severe disease fills the body; and that, as in the
case of a fever, those evil humours remain after the acute disease is
past, and are but too apt to break out again, to cause relapses, to
torment the poor patient, perhaps to leave his character crippled and
disfigured all his life--certainly to require long and often severe
treatment by the heavenly physician, Christ, the purifier as well as the
redeemer of our sin-sick souls. Heavy, therefore, and bitter and
shameful is the burden which many a man has to bear after he has turned
from self to God, from sin to holiness. He is haunted, as it were, by
the ghosts of his old follies. He finds out the bitter truth of St
Paul's words, that there is another law in his body warring against the
law of his mind, of his conscience, and his reason; so that when he would
do good, evil is present with him. The good that he would do he does not
do; and the evil that he would not do he does. Till he cries with St
Paul, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?" and feels that none can deliver him, save Jesus Christ our
Lord.
Yes. But there is our comfort, there is our hope--Christ, the great
healer, the great physician, can deliver us, and will deliver us from the
remains of our old sins, the consequences of our own follies. Not,
indeed, at once, or by miracle; but by slow education in new and nobler
motives, in purer and more unselfish habits. And better for us, perhaps,
that He should not cure us at once, lest we should fancy that sin was a
light thing, which we could throw off whenever we chose; and not what it
is, an inward disease, corroding and corrupting, the wages whereof are
death. Therefore it is, that because Christ loves us He hates our sins,
and cannot abide or endure them, will punish them, and is merciful and
loving in punishing them, as long as a tincture or remnant of sin is left
in us.
Let us then, if our consciences condemn us of living evil lives, turn and
repent before it be too late; before our consciences are hardened; before
the purer and nobler feelings which we learnt at our mothers' knees are
stifled by the ways of the world; before we are hardened into bad habits,
and grown frivolous, sensual, selfish and worldly. Let us repent. Let
us put ourselves into the hands of Christ, the great physician, and ask
Him to heal our wounded souls, and purge our corrupted souls; and leave
to Him the choice of how He will do it. Let us be content to be punished
and chastised. If we deserve punishment, let us bear it, and bear it
like men; as we should bear the surgeon's knife, knowing that it is for
our good, and that the hand which inflicts pain is the hand of one who so
loves us, that He stooped to die for us on the cross. Let Him deal with
us, if He see fit, as He dealt with David of old, when He forgave his
sin, and yet punished it by the death of his child. Let Him do what He
will by us, provided He does--what He will do--make us good men.
That is what we need to be--just, merciful, pure, faithful, loyal,
useful, honourable with true honour, in the sight of God and man. That
is what we need to be. That is what we shall be at last, if we put
ourselves into Christ's hand, and ask Him for the clean heart and the
right spirit, which is His own spirit, the spirit of all goodness. And
provided we attain, at last, to that--provided we attain, at last, to the
truly heroic and divine life, which is the life of virtue, it will matter
little to us by what wild and weary ways, or through what painful and
humiliating processes, we have arrived thither. If God has loved us, if
God will receive us, then let us submit loyally and humbly to His law.
"Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He
receiveth."