This may seem a puzzling speech at first. We shall understand it best, I
think, by considering who the prince of this world was in our Lord’s
time, and what he was like. A little before our Lord’s time the Roman
emperor had conquered almost the whole world which was then known, and
kept all nations in slavery, careless about their doing right, provided
they obeyed him and paid him tribute; nay, forcing them and tempting them
into all brutal and foul sin and ignorance, that he might keep up his own
power over man.
But now the Lord of all the earth, and the Prince of men’s hearts and
thoughts, was come to visit that poor enslaved and sinful world. He
came; the princes of this world knew Him not, and crucified the Lord of
Glory. They crucified the righteous and the just One; and so they were
judged. They judged themselves; they condemned themselves. For they
showed that what they admired and what they wanted was not righteousness
and love, but wealth and power. They showed that no doing of good, no
healing of the sick, or giving of sight to the blind, or preaching the
gospel to the poor, no holiness, no love, not the perfect likeness of
God’s own goodness, which shone forth in the spotless Jesus, was anything
to them; was any reason why they should not put Him to death with the
most cruel torments, because they were afraid of His taking away their
power. He said He was a King; and therefore they crucified Him, lest His
kingdom should interfere with theirs; and for the same reason these same
Roman emperors and their magistrates, for hundreds of years afterwards,
persecuted the Christians, and hunted them down like wild beasts, and put
them to death by all horrible tortures, for the same reason that Cain
slew Abel; became his brother’s deeds were righteous, and his own wicked.
So these Roman emperors, and their magistrates and generals were judged.
They had shown what was in their evil hearts. They had been tried in
God’s balances, and found wanting. The sentence of the Lord God had gone
forth against them. The man Christ Jesus, whom they rejected, God
accepted, and raised to His own right hand. They crucified Him; but God
gave Him all power in heaven and earth: and the Lord Jesus used His
power; yea, and uses it still. He gave His saints and martyrs strength
to defy those Roman tyrants, and to witness to all the earth that the
righteous Son of God was the King of heaven and earth, and that the
princes of this world, who wished to break His yoke off their necks, and
crush all nations to powder for their own pleasure, and fatten themselves
upon the plunder of all the earth, would surely come to naught, as it is
written in the second Psalm: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and
the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and His Anointed. Yet
have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. Thou shalt break them with
a rod of iron: thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
And they did come to naught. That great Roman empire rotted away
miserably after years of such distress as had never been seen on the
earth before; and the emperors came, one after another, to shameful or
dreadful deaths. And all the while the gospel spread, and the Church
grew, till all the kingdoms of the Roman empire had become the kingdoms
of God and of His Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit working in
men’s hearts, and showing them, as our Lord said He would, that Jesus of
Nazareth was both Lord and King. And so was fulfilled the Lord’s words
in the gospel for to-day: “The Holy Spirit shall glorify me, for He shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father
hath are mine; therefore said I that He should take of mine, and show it
unto you.”
Oh my friends, pray for yourselves, and join me while I pray for you,
that the holy and righteous Spirit of God may convince you, and me, and
all mankind, more and more, day by day, of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment.
Pray to that Holy Spirit to convince you of sin day by day, whensoever
you do the least wrong thing. Pray to Him to keep your consciences
tender and quick, that you may feel instantly, and lament deeply, every
wrong thing you do.
Pray to Him to give you, every time you do wrong, that godly sorrow which
brings peace and health, that heart-repentance never to be repented of.
Pray to Him to convince you more and more, as you grow older, that all
sin comes from not believing in Jesus Christ, not believing that He is
near you, with you, in you, putting into your hearts all right thoughts
and good desires, and willing, if you will, to help you to put those
thoughts and desires into good practice.
Pray to the Holy Spirit to convince you more and more of righteousness;
to make you see what righteousness is; that it is the very character and
likeness of God the Father, because it is the character and likeness of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the brightness of the Father’s glory, and
the express image of His person. Pray to Him to make you see the beauty
of holiness: how fair, and noble, and glorious a thing goodness is; how
truly Solomon says: “that all the things that may be desired are not to
be compared to it.”
Pray to the Holy Spirit to convince you more and more of judgment, and to
make you sure that the Lord is King, a righteous Judge, of purer eyes
than to behold iniquity, whose fan is in His hand, who thoroughly purges
His floor, who comes quickly, and His reward is with Him, and who surely
casts out of His kingdom, sooner or later, all things that offend, and
whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Pray to Him to make you sure by
faith, though you cannot see it, that the prince of this world is judged;
that evil doing, oppression, tyranny, injustice, cheating, neglect of man
by man, cannot and will not prosper upon the face of God’s earth; for the
everlasting sentence and wrath of God is revealed forth every moment
against all unrighteousness of men, which He will surely punish, yea, and
does hourly punish by Him by whom He judges the world, Jesus Christ, the
Lord, who is exalted high above all principalities and powers, and has
all power given to Him in heaven and earth, which He uses, as He used it
in Judæa of old, utterly and always for the good of all mankind, whom He
hath redeemed with His most precious blood.
XLV.
THE GOSPEL.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which
also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you,
unless ye have believed in vain: for I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose
again the third day according to the scriptures.—1 CORINTHIANS xv.
1–4.
THIS is St. Paul’s account of the gospel; the good news which he preached
to the sinful and profligate Corinthians, when they were sunk lower than
the beasts which perish. And because they believed this good news, he
said, they were saved then and there, and would be safe only as long as
they believed that good news, and kept it in their memories. Now, from
what did this good news save them? From their sins. There was something
in St. Paul’s good news which made them hate their sins, and repent of
them, and throw them away, and rise up to be new men and women, living
new lives in godliness and purity and justice, such as they had never
lived before. Now mind, it was not bad news which made the Corinthians
repent of their sins; it was good news. It was not that St. Paul told
them that God was going to cast them into endless torment for their sins,
and that therefore they were terrified and afraid, and so repented.
Doubtless St. Paul told them, as he told other heathens, that the wrath
of God was revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness; that
tribulation and anguish was laid up in store for every soul of man who
worketh evil. But still, St. Paul says plainly here, that what saved the
Corinthians was not that or any other fearful and terrifying news, but a
gospel—good news. And he says that this good news did not merely, as
some would wish it to do, make them comfortable in their minds while they
went on in their old wicked ways. No. He says that it made them stand.
That is, made them upright, strong-minded, righteous, self-restraining
people; and that they were saved by it from those sins which had been
dragging them down, and keeping them diseased in soul, weak, miserable,
the slaves of their own passions and foul pleasures.
What wonderful good news was this, then, which could work so strange a
change in these poor heathens, and how could it change them?
Let us see, first, what it was.
“That Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that He
was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the
scriptures; and that He was seen of Peter, then of the twelve; after that
He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater
part remained unto this day, but some are fallen asleep. After that He
was seen of James, then of all the Apostles. And last of all He was seen
of me also, as of one born out of due time.”
You see here, that St. Paul, for some good reason, says much more about
the Lord’s rising again than even about His most precious death and
passion on the cross, while about His ascending into heaven he says
nothing. And you will find in the New Testament that the Apostles often
did the same. They spoke of the Lord rising again as if that was the
great wonder, the great glory, the great good news; and as if His most
precious death was not perfect without that. They said that the especial
office for which the Lord had ordained them, was to be witnesses of His
resurrection. They said that the Lord rose again for our justification.
They said: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thy heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.” Here again, just as in the text, believing in the
Lord’s resurrection is made the great article of faith. Why is this?
Because that last verse which I quoted may tell us, if we consider it
carefully.
What does confessing the Lord Jesus with our mouth mean? It means what
we ought to mean when we say, in the Apostles’ Creed, I believe in Jesus
Christ, His only Son, our Lord. Not merely, I believe that there is an
only Son of God: but I believe in a certain man, with a certain
character, who is that only Son of God.
And what, you will ask, does that mean?
To know that, I fear, we must go back many many hundred years, to the
times when the old martyrs confessed the Lord Jesus Christ before the
heathen. Those were times in which it was not enough to say the
Apostles’ Creed in church. Men, ay, and tender women, and little
children, had to stand by it through terror and shame, and to die in
torments unspeakable, because they chose to say: “I believe in Jesus
Christ, our Lord.” Now, what was it which made the heathen hate and
persecute and torture, and murder them for saying that? What was there
in those plain words of the Apostles’ Creed which made the great heathen
emperors of Rome, and their officers and judges hunt the Christians down
like wild beasts for 300 years, and declare that they were not fit to
live? I will tell you. When the Christians were brought before the
emperor’s judges for being Christians, they did not merely say: “I
believe that Jesus Christ’s blood will save my soul after death.” They
said that: but they said a great deal more than that. If that had been
all that the Christians said, the judge would have answered: “What care I
for your souls, or for your notions about what will happen to them when
you are dead? Go your way. You may be of what religion you like, and
talk and think about your own souls as much as you like, provided you do
not trouble the Roman emperor’s power.” But the heathen judge did not
make that answer; because he knew well enough that what the Christians
believed was not a mere religion about what would happen to their souls
after death; but something which, if it gained ground, would utterly
destroy the Roman emperor’s power. He used generally to say to the
Christians only this: “Will you burn those few grains of incense in
honour of the emperor of Rome?” And he knew, and the Christians knew
well enough, that those words meant: “Will you confess with your mouth
the emperor of Rome? Will you confess that he is the only lord and king
of this whole earth, and of your bodies and souls, and that there is no
power or authority but of him, for the gods have delivered all things
into his hands?” And then came out what confessing the Lord Jesus really
means. For the Christians used to answer: “No. The emperor of Rome is
the lord and master of our bodies, and we will obey his laws so far as we
can without doing wrong: but we cannot obey them when they are contrary
to the laws of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. For the Lord Jesus
Christ, who was crucified and rose again the third day, He, and not the
emperor of Rome at all, is the Lord and King of the whole earth, and of
our bodies and souls; and we must obey Him before we obey anyone else.
Power and authority come not from the emperor of Rome, but from the Lord
Jesus Christ; and the emperor is only His servant and steward, and must
obey Him just as much as we, or the Lord will punish him as surely and
easily as He will the meanest slave. For God has delivered all things,
and the emperor of Rome among the rest, into the hand of His Son Jesus
Christ, who sits a King over all, God blessed for ever.” That was
confessing Christ.
And to that the heathen judges used to make but one answer—for there was
but one to make. Those heathen judges’ guilty consciences, as well as
their worldly cunning, told them plainly enough exactly what St. Paul
told the Christians; that those Christians, by confessing Christ, were
not fighting against flesh and blood, and setting up their selfish
interests against other people’s selfish interests: but that the battle
they were fighting was a much deeper and more terrible one; that by
saying that One who had walked the earth as a poor man, and yet a
perfectly righteous and loving man, doing nothing but good, and
sacrificing Himself utterly for poor fallen creatures, they were fighting
against the whole state of things all over the world; against the
government, and principles, and religion of that whole unjust and
tyrannical Roman empire, and all its rulers, and generals, and judges;
against principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers of the
darkness of those times; against spiritual wickedness in heavenly things.
For if Jesus Christ’s life was the right life, those rulers must be
utterly wrong; for it was exactly opposite to His.
If Jesus Christ was really the Governor of the earth, there was no hope
for them; for their way of governing was exactly opposite to His. So as
I say, they made but one answer; because there was but one to make: “You
say that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. I say the
emperor of Rome is. You say you must obey Christ first, and the emperor
of Rome afterwards. I say that you must obey the emperor first, and
Christ afterwards. At all events, if you do not, you have no right on
this earth of the emperor’s; either the emperor’s power must fall, or
your notion about Jesus Christ’s power must. And we will see whether
your heavenly King of whom you talk can deliver you out of the emperor’s
hand.” And then came the scourge, and the red-hot iron, and the wild
beasts, and the cross, and all devilish tortures which man’s evil will
could invent, brought to bear without shame or mercy upon aged men, and
tender girls, and even little children, just to make them say that the
earth belonged to the emperor, and not to Jesus Christ. Those who died
bravely under those tortures without denying Christ were called martyrs,
which means witnesses—people who bore witness before God and man that
Jesus Christ was King and Lord. Those who did not die under the
tortures, but escaped after all, were called confessors—people who had
confessed with their mouths that Jesus Christ was King and Lord, in spite
of their terror and agony. . . . That was what confessing Jesus Christ
meant in the old times. And that was what it ought to mean now, even
though there is no persecution or torture for Christians in these happier
times.
And now, we may see perhaps why St. Paul spoke so much of our Lord’s
rising again as the most important part of the gospel.
Because he wanted Christians to believe, not merely in a Christ who once
died, but in Him who died and is alive for evermore; in a Christ who rose
again, body, soul, and spirit, and sat at God’s right hand, praying for
poor creatures when they were tempted, and persecuted, and tormented for
righteousness’ sake. St. Paul knew well that such fearful times as those
of which I have been speaking were coming on the people to whom he wrote.
And he knew equally well that the only thought which could save them,
when the heathen judges commanded them to deny the Lord Jesus, was the
thought that He was really risen. The only thought which could make them
bold enough to face all the horrors of death, was the thought that the
Lord Jesus had not merely tasted death, but conquered it, and risen again
from it. And therefore it is that St. Paul speaks so often of Christ’s
resurrection, and that in the text he takes so much pains to prove that
Christ had really risen, by telling them how many persons, well known to
him who wrote to them, had seen the Lord Jesus Christ after He rose, and
talked with Him, and were sure that He was the very same person still,
with the same countenance, and body, and soul, and spirit, as He had when
He was nailed to the cross, and laid in the sepulchre.
What a thought for a poor creature in the last agony of fear and shame,
expecting presently to be torn in pieces, or burnt alive: “Death, this
horrible death, cannot conquer me, weak and fearful as I am; for my Lord
and Master, for whom I am going to suffer, has conquered death, and He
will not let it conquer me. He is stronger than death and hell, and He
will not suffer me at my last hour for any pains of death to fall from
Him. He is King of heaven and earth, and He will take care of His own!”
What a comfortable thought to be able to say: “Ay, I am torn from wife
and child, and all which I love on earth. But not for ever, not for
ever. For Christ rose from the dead. And I who belong to Christ, shall
rise as He did. This poor flesh of mine may be burnt in flames, devoured
by ravenous beasts. What matter? Christ the King of men, has risen from
the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. That same
Spirit of His, which brought back His body from the grave and hell, will
bring our bodies also from the grave and hell, to a nobler, happier life
with Him in glory unspeakable. Christ is risen, and I shall rise with
Him at the last day. Christ sits at God’s right hand, watching me,
pitying me, and blessing me, holding out to me a crown of glory which
shall never fade away!” That was the thought which gave Stephen courage
to confess the Lord Jesus Christ, amid to die in peace and the murderous
blows of the Jews. For by faith he saw, as he said, the heavens opened,
and Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. He knew that his Lord was
risen, and that He would hear his dying cry: “Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit.”
And so with us, my friends; we have no martyrdom to go through, thank
God; but it is just as true of us as it was of the blessed martyrs and
confessors, that there is no other name under heaven by which we can be
saved but the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Saved; not only from hell,
but from sin, from giving way to temptation, from denying Christ. Oh,
pray for faith. Pray for faith. Pray to be able really to confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus. Pray to believe with your hearts that God has
raised Him from the dead. Then when you are tempted to do wrong, you,
like Stephen, will see, not with your bodily eyes, but by faith, the Lord
Jesus sitting at God’s right hand, and be able to say to Him: “Lord
Jesus, who hast conquered all temptation, help me to conquer this. Thine
eye is on me; how can I do this great wickedness and sin against Thee?”
When you are in terror, and trouble, and affliction, and know not where
to turn, that same blessed thought—“Christ is risen from the dead”—will
be a shield and a strength to you which no other thought can give. “My
Lord is risen; He is here still—a man, with His man’s body, and His man’s
spirit—His man’s love and tenderness; He has taken them all up to heaven
with Him. He is a man still, though He is very God of very God. He rose
from the dead as a man, and therefore He can understand me, and feel for
me still, now, here in England in this very year, 1852, just as much as
He could when He was walking upon earth in Judæa of old.”
Ay, and in the black jaws of death, when this world is vanishing from our
eyes, and we are going we know not whither, leaving behind us all we
know, and love, and understand; then that thought of all thoughts—“Christ
is risen from the dead”—is the only one which will save us from dark sad
thoughts, from fear and despair, or from stupid carelessness, and the
death of a brute beast, such as too many die. “Christ is risen and I
shall rise. Christ has conquered death for Himself, and He will conquer
it for me. Christ took His man’s body and soul with Him from the tomb to
God’s right hand, and He will raise my man’s body and soul at the last
day, that I may be with Him for ever, and see Him where He is.” In life
and in death this is the only thing which shall save us from sin, from
terror, and from the dread of death; the same good news which St. Paul
preached to the Corinthians; the same good news which made St. Stephen,
and the martyrs and confessors of old brave to endure all misery for the
sake of the good and blessed news, that God had raised His Son Jesus from
the dead.
XLVI.
GOD’S WAY WITH MAN.
And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you
for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according
to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord
God.—EZEKIEL xx. 44.
IN this chapter the prophet Ezekiel argues with his sinful and rebellious
countrymen, and puts them in mind of all that God has done for them and
with them, from the time when He brought them out of Egypt to that day.
And now comes the old question, What has this to do with us! St. Paul
tells us that all things which happened to the old Jews happened for our
example. What example can we learn from this chapter?
This, I think, we may learn: Is not the way in which God taught these
Jews the same way in which He teaches many a man—perhaps every man?
Which of us, when we were young, has not had his teaching from God? The
old Catechism which our mothers taught us, was not that a word from God
Himself to us? The voice of conscience, which made us happy when we had
done right, and uneasy and ashamed when we had gone wrong; was not that a
word from God to us? Yes, my friends, those child’s feelings of ours
about right and wrong, were none other than the voice of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Word of God, the Light which lightens every man who comes
into the world. I tell you, every right thought and wish, every longing
to be better than you were, which ever came into any one of your hearts,
came from Him, the Lord Jesus. It was His word, His voice, His Spirit,
speaking to your spirit, just as really as He spoke to His prophet
Ezekiel, of whom we have been reading. Think of that. Recollect, never,
never forget, that all your good thoughts and feelings are not your own,
not your own at all, but the Lord’s; that without His light your hearts
are nothing but darkness, blind ignorance, and blind selfishness, and
blind passions and lusts; that it is He, he Himself, who has been
fighting against the darkness in you all your life long. Oh think, then,
what your sin has been in putting aside those good thoughts and longings!
You were turning your back, you were shutting your doors to the Lord God
Himself, very God of very God begotten, by whom all things were made.
The Creator came to visit His creature, and His creature shut Him out.
The Almighty God pleaded with mortal man, and mortal man bade God go, and
come back at a more convenient season! A voice in your heart seemed to
say: “Oh, if I could but be a better man! How I wish that I could but
give up these bad habits, and mend! I hate and despise myself for being
so bad.” And then you fancied that that voice was your own voice, that
those good thoughts were your own thoughts. If you had really known
whose they were; if you had really known, as the Bible tells you, that
they were the Word of the Lord, the only-begotten Son of the Father,
speaking to your heart, I hardly think that you would have been so ready
to say yourself: “Well, then, I will mend; but not just now: some day or
other; somehow or other, I hope, I shall be a better man. It will be
time enough to make my peace with God when I am growing old.” You would
not have dared to thrust away the good thoughts, and keep them waiting,
while you took your pleasure in a few more years’ sin; if you had guessed
_whom_ you were thrusting away; if you had guessed whom you were keeping
waiting.
And, my good friends, has not God been saying to us many a time from our
youth up, as He did to the Jews of old: “Do not walk in the statutes of
your fathers, nor defile yourselves with their idols?” Do you ask me
how? Why, thus. Have you never said to yourself: “How ill my father
prospered, because he would do wrong!” Or, again: “See how evil doing
brings its own punishment. There is so and so growing rich, by his
cheating and his covetousness, and yet, for all his money, I would not
change places with him. God forbid that I should have on my mind what he
has on his mind!” Why should I make a long story of so simple a matter?
Which of us has not felt at times that thought? How much misery has come
in this very parish from the ill-doing of the generation who are gone to
their account, and from the ill-training which they gave their children?
And what was that but the Word of the Lord Himself speaking to our
hearts, and saying to us: “Do not defile yourselves with their idols; do
not hurt your souls by hunting after the things which they loved better
than they loved Me: money, pleasure, drink, fighting, smuggling,
poaching, wantonness, and lust; I am the Lord your God?”
And yet, young people will not listen to that warning voice of God. They
see other people, even their own fathers and mothers, punished for their
sins; perhaps made poor by their sins, perhaps made unhealthy by their
sins, perhaps made miserable and ill-tempered by their sins: and yet they
go and fall into, or rather walk open-eyed into, the very same sins which
made their parents wretched. Oh, how many a young person sees their home
made a complete hell on earth by ungodliness, and the ill-temper and
selfishness which come from ungodliness; and, then, as soon as they have
a home of their own, set to work to make their own family as miserable as
their father’s was before them.
But people say often: “How could we help it? We had no chance; we were
brought up in bad ways; we had a bad example set us; how can you expect
us to be better than our fathers and mothers, and our elder brothers and
sisters? If we had had a fair chance, we might have been different: but
we had none; and we could not help going the bad way, for we were set in
it the day we were born.”
Well, my dear friends, God shall judge you, not I. If little is given to
a man little is required of him. But not nothing at all; because more
than nothing was given him. A little is given to every man; and,
therefore, a little is required of every man. And so, he who knew not
his Master’s will shall be beaten with few stripes. But he will be
beaten with some stripes, because he ought to have known something, at
least of his Master’s will. If you were dumb animals, which can only
follow their own lusts and passions, and must be what nature has made
them, then your excuse would be good enough; but your excuse is not good
now, just because you are men and women, and not dumb beasts, and,
therefore, can rise above your natures, and conquer your lusts and
passions, as they cannot, and can do what you do not like, because,
though you dislike it, you know that it is right. And, therefore, God
does not take that excuse which sinners make, that they have had no
teaching. But what does he do to them?
Suppose, now, that you had a dog which would not be taught, or broken in,
or cured of biting, or made useful, or bearable in any way, what would
you do to that dog? I suppose that you would kill it; you would say: “It
is an ill-conditioned animal, and there is no making it any better; so
the only thing is to put it out of the way, and not let it eat food which
might be better spent.” Now, does God deal so with sinners? When young
people rush headlong into sin, and become a nuisance to themselves and
their neighbours, does God kill them at once, that better men may step
into their place? No. And why? Just because they are not dumb animals,
which cannot be made better, but God’s children, who can be made better.
If there were really no hope of a sinner repenting and amending, I think
God would not leave him long alive to cumber the ground. But there is
hope for every one; because God the Father loves all; the loving heart of
the Lord Jesus Christ yearns after all; the Holy Spirit, which proceeds
from the Father and the Son, strives with the hearts of all; therefore
God, in His patience and tender mercy, tries to bring his foolish
children to their senses. And how? Often in the very same way, in which
Ezekiel says He tried to bring the Jews to their senses, by letting them
go on in the road of sin, till they see what an ugly pit that same road
ends in. If your child would not believe you when you warned and assured
him that the fire would burn him, would it not be the very best way of
bringing him to his senses, to tell him: “Very well; go your own way; put
your hand into the fire, and see what comes of it; you will not believe
me; you will believe your own feelings, when your hand is burnt.” So did
the Lord to those rebellious Jews when they would go after their fathers’
sins. He gave them statutes which were not good, and judgments by which
they could not live, to the end that they might know that He was the
Lord. God did not make them commit any sins. God forbid! He only took
away His Spirit, His light and teaching, from them, and let them go on in
the light of their own foolish and bewildered hearts, till their sin bred
misery and shame to them, and they were filled with the fruit of their
own devices. Then, after all their wealth was gone, and their land was
wasted by cruel enemies, and they themselves were carried away captive
into Babylon, they began to awake, and say to themselves: “We were wrong
after all, and the Lord was right. He knew what was really good for us
better than we did. We thought that we could do without Him, disobey
Him. But He is the Lord after all. He has been too strong for us; He
has punished us. If we had listened to His warnings years ago, we might
have been saved all this misery.”
Ah, how many a poor foolish creature, in misery and shame, with a guilty
conscience and a sad heart, sits down, like the prodigal son, among the
swinish bad company into which his sins have brought him, longing to fill
his belly with the husks which the swine eat! but he cannot. He tries to
forget his sorrow by drinking, by bad company, by gambling, by gossiping,
like the fools around him: but he cannot. He finds no more pleasure in
sin. He is sick and tired of it. He has had enough of it and too much.
He is miserable, and he hardly knows why. But miserable he is. There is
a longing, and craving, and hunger at his heart after something better;
at least after something different. Then he begins to remember his
heavenly Father’s house. Old words which he learnt at his mother’s knee,
good old words out of his Catechism and his Bible, start up strangely in
his mind. He had forgotten them, laughed at them, perhaps, in his wild
days. But now they come up, he does not know where from, like beautiful
ghosts gliding in. And he is ashamed of them; they reproach him, the
dear old lessons; and yet they seem pleasant to him, though they make him
blush. And at last he says to himself: “Would God that I were a little
child again; once more an innocent little child at my mother’s knee! I
thought myself clever and cunning. I thought I could go my own way and
enjoy myself. But I cannot. Perhaps I have been a fool; and the old
Sunday books were right after all. At least I am miserable. I thought I
was my own master. But perhaps He about whom I used to read in the
Sunday books is my Master after all. At least I am not my own master; I
am a slave. Perhaps I have been fighting against Him, against the Lord
God, all this time, and now He has shown me that He is the stronger of
the two. . . . ” And so the poor man learns in trouble and shame to
know, like the Jews of old, who is the Lord.
And when the Lord has drawn a man thus far, does He stop? Not so. He
does not leave His work half done. If the work is half done, it is that
we stop, not that He stops. Whosoever comes to Him, howsoever
confusedly, or clumsily, or even lazily they may come, He will in no wise
cast out. He may afflict them still more to cure that confusion and
laziness; but He is a physician who never sends a willing patient away,
or keeps him waiting for a single hour.
How then does the Lord deal with such a man? Does He drive him further?
Not if he will go without being driven. You would call it cruel to drive
a beast on with blows, when it was willing to be led peaceably. And be
sure God is not more cruel than man. As soon as we are willing to be
led, He will take His rod off from us, and lead us tenderly enough. For
I have known God do this to a man, and a sinful man as ever trod this
earth. I have known such a man brought into utter misery and shame of
heart, and heavy affliction in outward matters, till his spirit was
utterly broken, and he was ready to say: “I am a beast and a fool. I am
not worth the bread I eat. Let me lie down and die.” And then, when the
Lord had driven that man so far, I have seen, I who speak to you now, how
the Lord turned and looked on that man as he turned and looked on Peter,
and brought his poor soul to life again, as He brought Peter’s, by a
loving smile, and not an angry frown. I have seen the Lord heap that man
with all manner of unexpected blessings, and pay him back sevenfold for
all his affliction, and raise him up, body and soul, and satisfy him with
good things, so that his youth was renewed like the eagle’s. And so the
man’s conversion to God, though it was begun by God’s chastisements and
afflictions, was brought to perfection by God’s mercy and bounty; and it
happened to that man, as Ezekiel prophesied that it would happen to the
Jews, that not fear and dread, but honour, gratitude, and that noble
shame of which no man need be ashamed, brought him home to God at last.
“And you shall remember your ways, and all your doings wherein ye have
been defiled: and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all
the evils which you have committed. And you shall know that I am the
Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to
your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of
Israel, saith the Lord God.”
You see that God’s mercy to them would not make them conceited or
careless. It would increase their shame and confusion when they found
out what sort of a Lord He was against whom they had been rebellious;
long-suffering and of tender mercy, returning good for evil to His
disobedient children. That feeling would awake in them more shame and
more confusion than ever: but it would be a noble shame, a happy
confusion, and tears of joy and gratitude, not of bitterness. Such a
shame, such a confusion, such tears, as the blessed Magdalene’s when she
knelt at the Lord’s feet, and found that, instead of bating her and
thrusting her away for all her sins, He told her to go in peace, pardoned
and happy. Then she knew the Lord; she found out His character—His name;
for she found out that His name was love. Oh, my friends, this is the
great secret; the only knowledge worth living for, because it is the only
knowledge which will enable you to live worthily—to know the Lord. That
knowledge will enable you to live a life which will last, and grow, and
prosper for ever, beyond the grave, and death, and judgment, and
eternities of eternities. As the Lord Himself said, when He was upon
earth, “This is eternal life, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent.” Therefore there is no use my warning you
against sin, and telling you, do not do this, and do not do that, unless
I tell you at the same time who is the Lord. For till you know that The
Good God is the Lord, you will have no real, sound, heartfelt reason for
giving up your sins; and what is more, you will not be able to give them
up. You may alter your sort of sins from fear of this and that; but the
root of sin will be there still; and if it cannot bear one sort of fruit
it will bear another. If you dare not drink or riot, you may become
covetous and griping; if you dare not give way to young men’s sins, you
will take to old men’s sins instead; if you dare not commit open sins you
will commit secret ones in your thoughts. Sin is much too stout a plant
to be kept from bearing some sort of fruit. As long as it is not rooted
up the root will breed death in you of some sort or other; and the only
feeling which can root up sin is to know that Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, is your Lord, and that your Lord condescended to die upon the cross
for you; that you must be the Lord’s, and are not your own, but bought
with the price of His most precious blood, that you may glorify God with
your body and your soul, which are His.
Just so, the blessed St. Augustine found that he could never conquer his
own sins by arguing with himself, or by any other means, till he got to
know God, and to see that God was the Lord. And when his spirit was
utterly broken; when he saw himself, in spite of all his wonderful
cleverness and learning, to have been a fool and blind all along, though
people round him were flattering him, and running after him to hear his
learning; then the old words which he learnt at his mother’s knee came up
in his mind, and he knew that God was the Lord after all, and that God
had been watching him, guiding him, letting him go wrong only to show him
the folly of going wrong, caring for him even when He left him to himself
and his sins, and the sad ways of his sins; bearing with him, pleading
with his conscience, alluring him back to the only true happiness, as a
loving father with a rebellious and self-willed child. And then, when
St. Augustine had found out at last that God was his Lord, who had been
taking the charge of him all through his heathen youth, he became a
changed man. He was able to conquer his sins; for God conquered them for
him. He was able to give up the profligate life which he had been
leading; not from fear of punishment, but from the Spirit of God—the
spirit of gratitude, honour, trust, and love toward God, which made him
abide in God, and God abide in him. To that blessed state may God of His
great mercy bring us all. To it He will bring us all unless we rebel and
set up our foolish and selfish will against His loving and wise will.
And if He does bring us to it, it is little matter whether He brings us
to it through joy or through sorrow, through honour or through shame,
through the garden of Eden, or through the valley of the shadow of death.
For, my dear friends, what matter how bitter the medicine is, if it does
but save our lives?
XLVII.
THE MARRIAGE AT CANA.
There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was
there. And both Jesus was called, and His disciples, to the
marriage.—JOHN ii. 1, 2.
IT is, I think, in the first place, an important, as well as a pleasant
thing, to know that the Lord’s glory, as St. Paul says, was first shown
forth at a wedding, at a feast. Not at a time of sorrow, but of joy.
Not about some strange affliction or disease, such as is the lot of very
few, but about a marriage, that which happens in the ordinary lot of all
mankind. Not in any fearful judgment or destruction of sinners, but in
blessing wedlock, by which, whether among saints or sinners, mankind is
increased. Not by helping some great philosopher to think more deeply,
or some great saint to perform more wonderful acts of holiness, but in
giving the simple pleasure of wine to simple commonplace people, of whom
we neither read that they were rich or righteous. We do not even read
whether the master of the feast ever found out that Jesus had worked a
miracle, or whether any of the company ever believed in Him, on the
strength of that miracle, except His mother and the disciples, and the
servants, who were probably the poor slaves of people in a low or
middling class of life. But that is the way of the Lord. He is no
respecter of persons. Rich and poor are alike in His sight; and the poor
need Him most, and therefore He began his work with the poor in Cana, as
He did in St. James’s time, when the poor of this world were rich in
faith, and the rich of this world were oppressors and taskmasters. So He
does in every age. Though no one else cares for the poor, He cares for
them. With their hearts He begins His work, even as He did in England
sixty years ago, by the preaching of Whitfield and Wesley. Do you wish
to know if anything is the Lord’s work? See if it is a work among the
poor. Do you wish to know whether any preaching is the true gospel of
the Lord? See whether it is a gospel, a good news to the poor. I know
no other test than that. By doing that, by preaching the gospel to the
poor, by working miracles for the poor, He has showed forth His glory,
and proved Himself the true, and just, and loving Lord of all.
But again, the Lord is a giver, and not a taskmaster. He does not demand
from us: He gives to us. He had been giving from the foundation of the
world. Corn and wine, rain and sunshine, and fruitful seasons had been
his sending. And now He was come to show it. He was come to show men
who it was who had been filling their heart with joy and gladness; who
had been bringing out of the earth and air, by His unseen chemistry, the
wine which maketh glad the heart of man. In every grape that hangs upon
the vine, water is changed into wine, as the sap ripens into rich juice.
He had been doing that all along in every vineyard and orchard; and that
was His glory. Now He was come to prove that; to draw back the veil of
custom and carnal sense, and manifest Himself. Men had seen the grapes
ripen on the tree; and they were tempted to say, as every one of us is
tempted now: “It is the sun and the air, the nature of the vine, and the
nature of the climate, which makes the wine.” Jesus comes and answers:
“Not so. I make the wine; I have been making it all along. The vines,
the sun, the weather, are only my tools wherewith I worked, turning rain
and sap into wine; and I am greater than they; I made them; I do not
depend on them; I can make wine from water without vines or sunshine.
Behold, and drink, and see my glory _without_ the vineyard, since you had
forgotten how to see it _in_ the vineyard! For I am now, even as I was
in Paradise, The Word of the Lord God; and now, even as in Paradise, I
walk among the trees of the garden, and they know me and obey me, though
the world knows me not. I have been all along in the world, and the
world knows me not. Know me now, lest you lose the knowledge of me for
ever!”
Those of the Jews who received that message, as the disciples did, found
out their ancient Lord, and clung to Him, and know now, in the world of
spirits, that His message was indeed a true one. Those who did not, lost
sight of Him; to this day their eyes are blinded; to this day they have
utterly forgotten that they have a Lord and Ruler, who is the Word and
Son of God. Their faith is no more like the faith of David than their
understanding of the Scriptures is like his. The Bible is a dead letter
to them. The kingdom and government of God is forgotten by them. Of all
God-worshipping people in the world, the Jews are the least godly, the
most given up to the worship of this world, and the things which they can
see, and taste, and handle, and, therefore, to covetousness, cheating,
lying, tyranny, and all the sins which spring from forgetting that this
world belongs to the Lord and that He rules and guides it, that its
blessings are His gifts, and we His stewards, to use them for the good of
all. May God help, and forgive, and convert them! Doubt not that He
will do so in His good time. But let us beware, my friends, lest we fall
into the same sin. Do not fancy that we are not in just the same danger.
It would be a cowardly thing of a preacher to call Jews, or heathens, or
any other absent persons hard names, unless their mistakes and their sins
were such as his own people wanted warnings against, ay, perhaps, had the
very root of them in their hearts already. And we have the root of the
Jews’ sin in our own hearts. Why is this one miracle read in our
churches to this day, if we do not stand just as much in need of the
lesson as those for whom it was first worked? We, as well as they, are
in danger of forgetting who it is that sends us corn and wine, and
fruitful seasons, love and marriage, and all the blessings of this life.
We, as well as the Jews, are continually fancying that these outward
earthly things, as we call them in our shallow carnal conceits, have
nothing to do with Jesus or His kingdom, but that we may compete, and
scrape, even cheat and lie to get them, and when we have them, misuse
them selfishly, as if they belonged to no one but ourselves, as if we had
no duty to perform about them, as if we owed God no service for them.
And again, we are, just as much as the Jews were, in danger of spiritual
pride; in danger of fancying that because we are religious, and have, or
fancy we have, deep experiences and beautiful thoughts about God and
Christ and our own souls, therefore we can afford to despise those who do
not know as much as ourselves; to despise the common pleasures and petty
sorrows of poor creatures, whose souls and bodies are grovelling in the
dust, busied with the cares of this world, at their wits’ end to get
their daily bread; to despise the merriment of young people, the play of
children, and all those everyday happinesses which, though we may turn
from them with a sneer, are precious in the sight of Him who made heaven
and earth. All such proud thoughts, all such contempt of those who do
not seem as spiritual as we fancy ourselves, is evil. It is from the
devil, and not from God. It is the same vile spirit which made the
Pharisees of old say: “This people—these poor worldly drudging
wretches—who know not the law, are accursed.” And mind, this is not a
sin of rich, and learned, and highborn men only. They may be more
tempted to it than others; but poor men, when they become, by the grace
of God, wiser, more spiritual, more holy than others, are tempted, just
as much as the rich, to despise their poor neighbours to whom God has not
given the same light as themselves; and surely in them it shows ugliest
of all. A learned and high-born man may be excused for looking down upon
the sinful poor, because he does not understand their temptations,
because he never has been ignorant and struggling as they are. But a
poor man who despises the poor—he has no excuse. He ought above all men
to feel for them, for he has been tempted even as they are. He knows
their sorrows; he has been through their dark valley of bad food, bad
lodging, want of work, want of teaching, low cares which drag the soul to
earth. Surely a poor man who has tasted God’s love and Christ’s light,
ought, above all others, instead of turning his back on his class, to
pity them, to make common cause with them, to teach them, guide them,
comfort them, in a way no rich man can. Yes; after all, it is the poor
must help the poor; the poor must comfort the poor; the poor must teach
and convert the poor.
See, in the epistle for this day, St. Paul makes no distinction between
rich and poor. This epistle is joined with the gospel for the day, to
show us what ought to be the conduct of Christians, who believe in the
miracle of Cana; what men should do who believe that they have a Lord in
heaven, by whose command suns shine, fruits ripen, men enjoy the
blessings of harvest, of marriage, of the comforts which the heathen and
the savage, as well as the Christian man, partake; what men should do who
believe that they have a Lord in heaven who entered into the common joys
and sorrows of lowly men, who was once Himself a poor villager, who ate
with publicans and sinners, who condescended to join in a wedding feast,
and increase the mere animal enjoyment of the guests. And what is St.
Paul’s command to poor as well as rich? Read the epistle for this day
and see.
You see at once that this epistle is written in the same spirit as our
Lord’s words: by God’s Spirit, in short; the Spirit which brought the
Lord Jesus so condescendingly to the wedding feast; the Spirit which made
Him care so heartily for the common pleasures of those around Him. My
friends, these are not commands to one class, but to all. Poor as well
as rich may show mercy with cheerfulness, and love without dissimulation.
Poor as well as rich may minister to others with earnestness, and
condescend to those of low estate. Not a word in this whole epistle
which does not apply equally to every rank, and sex, and age.
Neither are these commands to each of us by ourselves, but to all of us
together, as members of a family. If you will look through them they are
not things to be done to ourselves, but to our neighbours; not
experiences to be felt about our own souls: but rules of conduct to our
fellow-men. They are all different branches and flowers from that one
root: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Do we live thus, rich or poor? Can we look each other in the face this
afternoon and say, each man to his neighbour: “I have behaved like a
brother to you. I have rejoiced at your good fortune, and grieved at
your sorrow. I have preferred you to myself. I have loved you without
dissimulation. I have been earnest in my place and duty in the parish
for the sake of the common good of all. I have condescended to those of
lower rank than myself. I have—” Ah, my dear friends, I had better not
go on with the list. God forgive us all! The less we try to justify
ourselves on this score the better. Some of us do indeed try to behave
like brothers and sisters to their neighbours; but how few of us; and
those few how little! And yet we are brothers. We are members of one
family, sons of one Father, joint-heirs with one Lord, the poor Man who
sat eating and drinking at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, and
mixed freely in the joys and the sorrows of the poorest and meanest.
Joint-heirs with Christ; yet how unlike Him! My friends, we need to
repent and amend our ways; we need to confess, every one of us, rich and
poor, the pride, the selfishness, the carelessness about each other,
which keeps us so much apart, knowing so little of each other, feeling so
little for each other. Oh confess this sin to God, every one of you.
Those who have behaved most like brothers, will be most ready to confess
how little they have behaved like brothers. Confess: “Father, I have
sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called
thy son, for I have not loved, cared for, helped my brothers and sisters
round, who are just as much thy children as I am.” Pray for the spirit
of Jesus, the spirit of condescension, love, fellow-feeling; that spirit
which rejoices simply and heartily with those who are happy, and feels
for another’s sorrows as if they were its own. Pray for it; for till it
comes, there will be no peace on earth. Pray for it; for when it comes
and takes possession of your hearts, and you all really love and live
like brothers, children of one Father, the kingdom of God will be come
indeed, and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
XLVIII.
PARABLE OF THE LOWEST PLACE.
And He put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when He marked
how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, when thou art
bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room,
lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; and he that
bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou
begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden,
go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee
cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou
have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For
whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted.—LUKE xiv. 7–11.
WE heard in the gospel for to-day how the Lord Jesus put forth a parable
to those who were invited to a dinner with Him at the Pharisee’s house.
A parable means an example of any rules or laws; a story about some rule,
by hearing which people may see how the rule works in practice, and
understand it. Now, our Lord’s parables were about the kingdom of God.
They were examples of the rules and laws by which the kingdom of God is
governed and carried on. Therefore He begins many of His parables by
saying, The kingdom of God is like something—something which people see
daily, and understand more or less. “The kingdom of God is like a
field;” “The kingdom of God is like a net;” “The kingdom of God is like a
grain of mustard seed;” and so forth. And even where He did not begin
one of His parables by speaking of the kingdom of God, we may be still
certain that it has to do with the kingdom of God. For the one great
reason why the Lord was made flesh and dwelt among us, was to preach the
kingdom of God, His Father and our Father, and to prove to men that God
was their King, even at the price of his most precious blood. And,
therefore, everything which He ever did, and everything which He ever
spoke, had to do with this one great work of His. This parable,
therefore, which you heard read in the gospel for to-day, has to do with
the kingdom of God, and is an example of the laws of it.
Now, what is the kingdom of God? It is worth our while to consider. For
at baptism we were declared members of the kingdom of God; we were to
renounce the world, and to live according to the kingdom of God. The
kingdom of God is simply the way in which God governs men; and the world
is the way in which men try to manage without God’s help or leave. That
is the difference between them; and a most awful difference it is. Men
fancy that they can get on well enough without God; that the ways of the
world are very reasonable, and useful, and profitable, and quite good
enough to live by, if not to die by. But all the while God is King, let
them fancy what they like; and this earth, and everything on it, from the
king on his throne to the gnat in the sunbeam, is under His government,
and must obey His laws or die. We are in God’s kingdom, my good friends,
every one of us, whether we like it or not, and we shall be there for
ever and ever. And our business is, therefore, simply to find out what
are the laws of that kingdom, and obey those laws as speedily as
possible, and live for ever thereby, lest, if we break them, and get in
their way, they should grind us to powder.
Now, here is one of the laws of God’s kingdom: “Whosoever exalteth
himself shall be abased; and whosoever abaseth himself shall be exalted.”
That is, whosoever, in any way whatsoever, sets himself up, will be
pulled down again: while he who is contented to keep low, and think
little of himself, will be raised up and set on high. Now the world’s
rule is the exact opposite of this. The world says, Every man for
himself. The way of the world is to struggle and strive for the highest
place; to be a pushing man, and a rising man, and a man who will stand
stiffly by his rights, and give his enemy as good as he brings, and beat
his neighbour out of the market, and show off himself to the best
advantage, and try to make the most of whatever wit or money he has to
look well in the world, that people may look up to him and flatter him
and obey him; and so the world has no objection to people’s pretending to
be better than they are. Every man must do the best he can for himself,
the world says, and never mind his neighbours: they must take care of
themselves; and if they are foolish enough to be taken in, so much the
worse for them. So the world thinks that there is no harm in a man, when
he has anything to sell, making it out better than it really is, and
hiding the fault in it as far as he can. When a tradesman or
manufacturer sends about “puffs” of his goods, and pretends that they are
better and cheaper than other people’s, just to get custom by it, the
world does not call that what it is—boasting and lying. It says: “Of
course a man must do the best he can for himself. If a man does not
praise himself, nobody else will praise him; he cannot expect his
neighbours to take him for better than his own words.” So again, if a
man wants a place or situation, the world thinks it no harm if he gives
the most showy character of himself, and gets his friends to say all the
good of him they can, and a great deal more, and to say none of the
harm—in short, to make himself out a much better, or shrewder, or
worthier man than he really is. The world does not call that either what
it is—boasting, and lying, and thrusting oneself into callings to which
God has not called us. The world says: “Of course a man must turn his
best side outwards. You cannot expect a man to tell tales on himself.”
And, my friends, the world would be quite right, and reasonable, and
prudent, in telling us to push, and boast, and lie, and puff ourselves
and our goods, if it were not for one thing which the foolish blind world
is always forgetting, and that is, that there is a God who judges the
earth. If God were not our King; if He took no care of us men and our
doings; if mankind had it all their own way on earth, and were forced to
shift for themselves without any laws of God to guide them, then the best
thing every man could do would be to fight for himself; to get all he
could for himself, and leave as little as he could for his neighbours; to
make himself out as great, and wise, and strong, as he could, and try to
make his neighbours buy him at his own price. That would be the best
plan for every man, if God was not King; and therefore the world says
that that is the best plan for every man, because the world does not
believe that God is King, and hates the notion that God is King, and
laughs at and persecutes, as Jesus Christ said it would, those who preach
the kingdom of God, and tell men, as I tell you in God’s name: “You were
not made to be selfish; you were not meant to rise in the world by
boasting and pushing down and deceiving your neighbours. For you are
subjects of God’s kingdom; and to do so is to break his laws, and to put
yourselves under His curse; and however worldly-wise all this selfishness
and boasting may seem, it is sin, whose wages are death and ruin.”
For, my friends, let the world try to forget God as it will, He does not
forget the world. Let men try to make rules and laws for themselves,
rules about religion, rules about government, rules about trade, rules
about morals and what they fancy is just and fair; let them make as many
rules as they like, they are only wasting their time; for God has made
His rules already, and revealed them to us in the Bible, and told us that
the earth and mankind are governed in His way, and not in ours, and that
He will not alter His everlasting rules to suit our new ones. As David
says: “Let the people be never so unquiet, still the Lord is King.”
Ah, my friends, it is very easy to say all this, but it is not so easy to
believe it. Every one, every respectable person at least, is ready
enough to talk about God, and God’s will, and so forth. But when it
comes to practice; when it comes to doing God’s will, and not our own;
when it comes to obeying His direct and plain commands, and not the
fashions and maxims which men have invented for themselves; when it comes
to giving up what we long for, because He has said that if we try after
it in our own way, and not in His, we shall never have it at all, then
comes the trial; then comes the time to see whether we believe that God
is the King of the earth or not; then comes the time to see whether we
have renounced the world, and determined to live as God’s sons in God’s
kingdom, or whether our religion is some form of words, or way of
thinking and feeling which we hope may save our souls from hell, but
which has nothing to do with our daily life and conduct, and leaves us
just as worldly as any heathen, in all our dealings with our fellow-men,
from Monday morning to Saturday night. Then comes the time to try our
faith in God.
And then, alas! it comes out, in these evil, and godless, and
hypocritical times in which we live, that many a man who fancies himself
religious, and respectable, and blameless, and what not, no more really
believes that he is living in God’s kingdom than the heathen do. And if
you ask him, you will find out most probably that he fancies that God’s
kingdom is not on earth now, but that it will be on earth some day. A
cunning delusion of the devil, that, my friends! To make us go his way
while we fancy that we are going our own way. To make us say to
ourselves: “Ah! it is very unfortunate that God is not King of the earth
now. Of course He will be after the resurrection, in the new heaven and
the new earth, where there will be no sin. But He is not King now; this
world is given over to sin and the devil, so fallen and ruined and
corrupt that—that—that, in short, we cannot be expected to behave like
God’s children in it, but must just follow the ways of the world, and
live by ambition, and selfishness, and cunning, and boasting, and
competing in this life; a life of love, and justice, and humbleness, and
fellow-help, and mercy, and self-sacrifice is impossible in such a world
as this; we cannot live like angels, till we get to heaven!” So say nine
people out of ten; the devil deceiving them, and their own hearts, alas!
being but too glad to catch at the excuse for sin which the devil gives
them, when he tells them that this present earth is not God’s kingdom;
and so they go and act accordingly, selfish, grudging, pushing, boastful,
every man’s hand against his neighbour and for himself, till they succeed
too often in making this earth as fearfully like the devil’s kingdom as
it is possible for God’s kingdom to be made.
But what, some may ask, has all this to do with the text that he who sets
himself up shall be brought low, he who keeps himself low shall be set
up? What has it to do with the text? It has everything to do with the
text. If people really believed that they were God’s subjects and
children in God’s kingdom, they would not need to ask that question long.
If God is really the King of the earth, there can be no use in anyone
setting up himself. If God is really the King of the earth, those who
set up themselves must be certain to be brought down from their high
thoughts and high assumptions sooner or later. For if God is really the
King of the earth, He must be the one to set people up, and not they
themselves. Look again at the parable. The man who asks the guests to
dine with him has surely a right to place each of them where he likes.
The house is his, the dinner is his. He has a right to invite whom he
likes; and he has a right to settle where they shall sit. If they choose
their own places—if any guest takes upon himself to seat himself at the
head of the table, because he thinks it his right, he offends against all
rules of right feeling and propriety toward the man who has invited him.
All he has a right to expect is, that his host will not put him in the
wrong place, that he will settle all places at his table according to
people’s real rank and deserts, and as our Testaments say, put “the
worthiest man in the highest room.” And if people really believed in
God, which very few do, they would surely expect no less of God. What
gentleman, farmer, or labourer is there, with common sense and good
feeling, who would not show most respect to the most respectable persons
who came into his house, and send his best and trustiest workmen about
his most important errands? True, he might make mistakes, and worse.
Being a weak man, he might be tempted to put the rich sinner in a higher
place than the poor saint: or he might, from private fancy, be blinded
about his workmen’s characters, and so send a worse man, because he was
his favourite, to do what another man whom he did not fancy as well might
do a great deal better. But you cannot suspect God of that. He is no
respecter of persons—whether a man be rich or poor, no matter to God: all
which He inquires into is—Is he righteous or unrighteous, wise or
foolish, able to do his work or unable? And God can make no mistakes
about people’s characters. As St. Paul says of the Lord Jesus: “The Word
of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing through to the
dividing of the very joints and marrow, so that all things are naked and
open in the sight of Him with whom we have to do.” There is no blinding
God, no hiding from God, no cheating God, just as there is no flattering
God. He knows what each and every one of us is fit for. He knows what
each and every one of us is worth; and what is more, He knows what we
ought to know, that each and every one of us is worth nothing without
Him. Therefore there is no use pretending to be better than we are. God
knows just how good we are, and will reward us, even in this life only
according as we deserve, in spite of all our boasting. There is no use
pretending to be wiser than we are. For all the wisdom we have comes
from God; and if we pretend to have more than we have, and by that
greatest act of folly, show that we have no wisdom at all, He will take
from us even what we have, and make all our cunning plans come to
nothing, and prove us fools, just when we fancy ourselves most clever.
There is no use being ambitious and pushing, and trying to scramble up on
our neighbours’ shoulders. For we were not sent into this world to do
what we like, but what God likes; not to work for ourselves, but to work
for God; and God knows exactly how much good each of us can do, and what
is the best place for us to do it in, and how to teach and enable us to
do it; and if we choose to be taught, He will teach us; and if we choose
to go His way, and do His work, He will help us to it. But if we will
not have his way, He will not let us have our own way—not at first, at
least. He will bring our plans to nothing, and let us make fools of
ourselves, and bring in sudden accidents of which we never dreamed, just
to show us that we are not our own masters, and cannot cut out our own
roads through life. And if we take His lesson, and go to Him to teach
and strengthen us—well: and if not—then perhaps—which is the most awful
misery which can happen to any man in earth—God may give up teaching us
during this life, and let us have our own way, and be filled with the
fruit of our own devices; from which worst of punishments may He in His
mercy, save you, and me, and all belonging to us, in this life and in the
life to come.
But some of you may say: “We understand the first half of the text very
well, and like it very well; we all think it just that those who set
themselves up should have a fall, and we are very glad to see them have a
fall: but we do not see why he who abases himself should have any right
to be exalted.” Ah, my friends, it is much easier, and needs much less
knowledge of God, and much less of the likeness of Christ, to see what is
wrong, than to see what is right. Every man knows when a bone is broken,
but it is not every one who can set it again. Nevertheless, there is a
sort of left-handed reason in that argument. For a man has no more right
to make himself out worse than he is, than he has to make himself out
better than he is. A man should confess to being just what he is,
neither more nor less. Nevertheless, he who humbles himself shall be
exalted.
Of course I do not mean those who, like some I know, make a fawning
humble way of talking a cloak for their own self-conceit; who call
themselves miserable sinners all the time that they are fancying that
they are almost the only people in the world who are sure of being saved,
whatever they do; who, as some do, actually pride themselves on their own
convictions of sin, and glory in their own shame, and despise those who
will not slander themselves as they do.
They are equally hateful to God and to God’s enemies. If you and I are
disgusted at such hypocritical self-conceit, be sure the Lord Jesus is
far more pained at it than we are; for as a wise man says: “The devil’s
darling sin is the pride that apes humility.”
But let a man really be convinced of sin; let a man really believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ’s atonement; let a man really believe in the Holy
Spirit; and that man will have little need to ask why he should humble
himself more than he deserves, and little wish to boast of himself, and
push himself forward, and get praise, or riches, or power in the world.
For that man would say to himself: “I, sinner as I am; I, who know that I
do so many wrong things daily; things so wrong that it required the blood
of the Son of God to wash out the guilt of them—who am I to set myself
up? I cannot be faithful in a little—why should I try to be ruler over
much? I cannot use properly the blessings and the power which God does
give me—must I not take for granted that, if I had more riches, more
power, I should use them still worse? I know well enough of a thousand
sins, and weaknesses and ignorances in myself which my neighbours never
see. I believe, therefore, my neighbours have much too good an opinion
of me, and not too bad a one; and therefore I am not going to boast or
puff myself to them. I can only thank God they do not see the inside of
this foolish heart of mine as well as He does! In short, I am not going
to set myself up, and try to get a higher place among men than I have
already, because I am certain that I have already a ten times better one
than I deserve.”
Or again, if a man really believed in the Holy Ghost, which is much the
same as really believing in the kingdom of God; if he really believed
that God was the King and Master of his heart and soul; if he really
believed that everything good, and right, and wise in him came from God’s
Holy Spirit, and that everything wrong and foolish in him came from
himself and the devil; then he would surely say to himself: “Who am I to
try to set myself up above my neighbours, and get power over them; what
have I that I did not receive? Whatever money, or station, or
cleverness, or power of mind I have, God has given me, and without Him I
should be nothing. Therefore, He only gave me these talents to use for
Him, and if I use them for my own ends, I shall be misusing them, and
trying to rob God of His own. I am His child, His subject, His steward;
He has put me just in that place in His earth which is most fit for me,
and my business is, not to try to desert my post, and to wander out of
the place here He has put me, but to see that I do the duty which lies
nearest me, so that I shall be able to give an account to Him. It is
only if I am faithful in a few things, that I can expect God to make me
ruler over many things.” Ah, my friends, if we could but see ourselves,
not as we fancy we are, nor as others fancy we are, but just as we really
are, then, instead of pushing, and boasting, and standing stiffly by our
rights, and fancying that God and man are unjust to us, we should be
crying out all day long with the prodigal son: “Father, I have sinned
against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy
son.” We should say with St. Paul—who, after all, remember, was the
wisest, and most learned, and noblest-hearted of all the Apostles—that we
are at best the chief of sinners. We should feel like the dear and
blessed Magdalene of old, the pattern for ever of all true penitents,
that it was quite honour enough to be allowed to wash Christ’s feet with
our tears, while every one round us sneered at us and looked down upon
us—as, after all, we deserve. And so, believe me, we should be exalted.
It would pay us, if payment is what we want. For so we should be in a
more right, more true, more healthy, more wise, more powerful state of
mind; more like Jesus Christ, and therefore more likely to be sent to do
Christ’s work, and share Christ’s reward. For this is the great law of
the kingdom of God in which we live, that man is nothing, and God is
everything; and that we are strong and wise, and something, only when we
find out that we are weak and foolish, and nothing, and go to our Father
in heaven for strength, and wisdom, and spiritual eternal life. And then
we find out how true it is that he who humbles himself, as he deserves,
will be raised up; how he who loses his life will save it; how blessed
are the poor in spirit, those who feel that they have nothing but what
God chooses to give them; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! How
blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; who feel
that they are not doing right, and yet cannot rest till they do right;
for they shall be filled! How blessed are the meek, who do not set up
themselves, or try to fight their own battles, and compete with their
neighbours in the great scramble and struggle of this world; for
they—just the last persons whom the world would expect to do it—shall
inherit the earth! Choose, my friends, choose! The world says: “Push
upwards, praise yourself, help yourself, put your best side outwards.”
The great God who made heaven and earth says: “Know that you are weak,
and foolish, and sinful in yourself. Know that whatever wisdom you have,
I the Lord lent you; and I the Lord expect the interest of my loan. Know
that you are my child in my Kingdom. Stay where I have put you, and when
I want you for something better, I will call you; and if you try to rise
without my calling you, I will only drive you back again.” So the only
way to be ruler over much, is first to be faithful in a little. My
friends, which of the two do you think is likely to know best, man or
God?