on you, is that of _habitual readiness to feel with and help your
fellow-men_. Sickness is never very far from us. Few are the families
who have not some sick relative. Few are the parishes where you will not
find some one ill. But wherever there is sickness, there is a call to
duty. A little timely assistance in some cases,--a kindly visit in
others,--a friendly inquiry,--a mere expression of sympathy, may do a
vast good. These are the sort of things which soften asperities, and
bring men together, and promote good feeling. These are ways by which
you may ultimately lead men to Christ and save their souls. These are
good works to which every professing Christian should be ready. In a
world full of sickness and disease we ought to "bear one another's
burdens," and be "kind one to another." (Gal. vi. 2; Ephes. iv. 32.)
These things, I dare say, may appear to some little and trifling. They
must needs be doing something great, and grand, and striking, and
heroic! I take leave to say that conscientious attention to these little
acts of brotherly-kindness is one of the clearest evidences of having
"the mind of Christ." They are acts in which our blessed Master Himself
was abundant. He was ever "going about doing good" to the sick and
sorrowful. (Acts x. 38.) They are acts to which He attaches great
importance in that most solemn passage of Scripture, the description of
the last judgment. He says there: "I was sick, and ye visited Me."
(Matt. xxv. 36.)
Have you any desire to prove the reality of your charity,--that blessed
grace which so many talk of, and so few practise? If you have, beware of
unfeeling selfishness and neglect of your sick brethren. Search them
out. Assist them if they need aid. Show your sympathy with them. Try to
lighten their burdens. Above all, strive to do good to their souls. It
will do you good if it does no good to them. It will keep your heart
from murmuring. It may prove a blessing to your own soul. I firmly
believe that God is testing and proving us by every case of sickness
within our reach. By permitting suffering, He tries whether Christians
have any feeling. Beware, lest you be weighed in the balances and found
wanting. If you can live in a sick and dying world and not feel for
others, you have yet much to learn.
I leave this branch of my subject here. I throw out the points I have
named as suggestions, and I pray God that they may work in many minds. I
repeat, that habitual preparedness to meet God,--habitual readiness to
suffer patiently,--habitual willingness to sympathize heartily,--are
plain duties which sickness entails on all. They are duties within the
reach of every one. In naming them I ask nothing extravagant or
unreasonable. I bid no man retire into a monastery and ignore the duties
of his station. I only want men to realize that they live in a sick and
dying world, and to live accordingly. And I say boldly, that the man who
lives the life of faith, and holiness, and patience, and charity, is not
only the most true Christian, but the most wise and reasonable man.
And now I conclude all with four words of practical application. I want
the subject of this paper to be turned to some spiritual use. My heart's
desire and prayer to God in placing it in this volume is to do good to
souls.
(1) In the first place, I offer a _question_ to all who read this paper,
to which, as God's ambassador, I entreat their serious attention. It is
a question which grows naturally out of the subject on which I have been
writing. It is a question which concerns all, of every rank, and class,
and condition. I ask you, What will you do when you are ill?
The time must come when you, as well as others, must go down the dark
valley of the shadow of death. The hour must come when you, like all
your forefathers, must sicken and die. The time may be near or far off.
God only knows. But whenever the time may be, I ask again. What are you
going to do? Where do you mean to turn for comfort? On what do you mean
to rest your soul? On what do you mean to build your hope? From whence
will you fetch your consolations?
I do entreat you not to put these questions away. Suffer them to work on
your conscience, and rest not till you can give them a satisfactory
answer. Trifle not with that precious gift, an immortal soul. Defer not
the consideration of the matter to a more convenient season. Presume not
on a death-bed repentance. The greatest business ought surely not to be
left to the last. One dying thief was saved that men might not despair,
but only one that none might presume. I repeat the question. I am sure
it deserves an answer, "What will you do when you are ill?"
If you were going to live for ever in this world I would not address you
as I do. But it cannot be. There is no escaping the common lot of all
mankind. Nobody can die in our stead. The day must come when we must
each go to our long home. Against that day I want you to be prepared.
The body which now takes up so much of your attention--the body which
you now clothe, and feed, and warm with so much care,--that body must
return again to the dust. Oh, think what an awful thing it would prove
at last to have provided for everything except the one thing
needful,--to have provided for the body, but to have neglected the
soul,--to die, in fact, like Cardinal Beaufort, and "give no sign" of
being saved! Once more I press my question on your conscience: "What
will you do when you are ill?"
(2) In the next place, I offer _counsel_ to all who feel they need it
and are willing to take it,--to all who feel they are not yet prepared
to meet God. That counsel is short and simple. Acquaint yourself with
the Lord Jesus Christ without delay. Repent, be converted, flee to
Christ, and be saved.
Either you have a soul or you have not. You will surely never deny that
you have. Then if you have a soul, seek that soul's salvation. Of all
gambling in the world, there is none so reckless as that of the man who
lives unprepared to meet God, and yet puts off repentance.--Either you
have sins or you have none. If you have (and who will dare to deny it?),
break off from those sins, cast away your transgressions, and turn away
from them without delay.--Either you need a Saviour or you do not. If
you do, flee to the only Saviour this very day, and cry mightily to Him
to save your soul. Apply to Christ at once. Seek Him by faith. Commit
your soul into His keeping. Cry mightily to Him for pardon and peace
with God. Ask Him to pour down the Holy Spirit upon you, and make you a
thorough Christian. He will hear you. No matter what you have been, He
will not refuse your prayer. He has said, "Him that cometh to Me I will
in no wise cast out." (John vi. 37.)
Beware, I beseech you, of a vague and indefinite Christianity. Be not
content with a general hope that all is right because you belong to the
old Church of England, and that all will be well at last because God is
merciful. Rest not, rest not without personal union with Christ Himself.
Rest not, rest not till you have the witness of the Spirit in your
heart, that you are washed, and sanctified, and justified, and one with
Christ, and Christ in you. Rest not till you can say with the apostle,
"I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep
that which I have committed to Him against that day." (2 Tim. i. 12.)
Vague, and indefinite, and indistinct religion may do very well in time
of health. It will never do in the day of sickness. A mere formal,
perfunctory Church-membership may carry a man through the sunshine of
youth and prosperity. It will break down entirely when death is in
sight. Nothing will do then but real heart-union with Christ. Christ
interceding for us at God's right hand,--Christ known and believed as
our Priest, our Physician, our Friend,--Christ alone can rob death of
its sting and enable us to face sickness without fear. He alone can
deliver those who through fear of death are in bondage. I say to every
one who wants advice, Be acquainted with Christ. As ever you would have
hope and comfort on the bed of sickness, be acquainted with Christ. Seek
Christ. Apply to Christ.
Take every care and trouble to Him when you are acquainted with Him. He
will keep you and carry you through all. Pour out your heart before Him,
when your conscience is burdened. He is the true Confessor. He alone can
absolve you and take the burden away. Turn to Him first in the day of
sickness, like Martha and Mary. Keep on looking to Him to the last
breath of your life. Christ is worth knowing. The more you know Him the
better you will love Him. Then be acquainted with Jesus Christ.
(3) In the third place, I exhort all true Christians who read this paper
to remember how much they may glorify God in the time of sickness, and
to _lie quiet in God's hand when they are ill_.
I feel it very important to touch on this point. I know how ready the
heart of a believer is to faint, and how busy Satan is in suggesting
doubts and questionings, when the body of a Christian is weak. I have
seen something of the depression and melancholy which sometimes comes
upon the children of God when they are suddenly laid aside by disease,
and obliged to sit still. I have marked how prone some good people are
to torment themselves with morbid thoughts at such seasons, and to say
in their hearts, "God has forsaken me: I am cast out of His sight."
I earnestly entreat all sick believers to remember that they may honour
God as much by patient suffering as they can by active work. It often
shows more grace to sit still than it does to go to and fro, and perform
great exploits. I entreat them to remember that Christ cares for them as
much when they are sick as He does when they are well, and that the very
chastisement they feel so acutely is sent in love, and not in anger.
Above all, I entreat them to recollect the sympathy of Jesus for all His
weak members. They are always tenderly cared for by Him, but never so
much as in their time of need. Christ has had great experience of
sickness. He knows the heart of a sick man. He used to see "all manner
of sickness, and all manner of disease" when He was upon earth. He felt
specially for the sick in the days of His flesh. He feels for them
specially still. Sickness and suffering, I often think, make believers
more like their Lord in experience, than health. "Himself took our
infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." (Isaiah liii. 3; Matt. viii. 17.)
The Lord Jesus was a "Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." None
have such an opportunity of learning the mind of a suffering Saviour as
suffering disciples.
(4) I conclude with a word of _exhortation_ to all believers, which I
heartily pray God to impress upon their souls. I exhort you to keep up a
habit of close communion with Christ, and never to be afraid of "going
too far" in your religion. Remember this, if you wish to have "great
peace" in your times of sickness.
I observe with regret a tendency in some quarters to lower the standard
of practical Christianity, and to denounce what are called "extreme
views" about a Christian's daily walk in life. I remark with pain that
even religious people will sometimes look coldly on those who withdraw
from worldly society, and will censure them as "exclusive,
narrow-minded, illiberal, uncharitable, sour-spirited," and the like. I
warn every believer in Christ who reads this paper to beware of being
influenced by such censures. I entreat him, if he wants light in the
valley of death, to "keep himself unspotted from the world," to "follow
the Lord very fully," and to walk very closely with God. (James i. 27;
Num. xiv. 24.)
I believe that the want of "thoroughness" about many people's
Christianity is one secret of their little comfort, both in health and
sickness. I believe that the "half-and-half,"--"keep-in-with-everybody"
religion, which satisfies many in the present day, is offensive to God,
and sows thorns in dying pillows, which hundreds never discover till too
late. I believe that the weakness and feebleness of such a religion
never comes out so much as it does upon a sick bed.
If you and I want "strong consolation" in our time of need, we must not
be content with a bare union with Christ. (Heb. vi. 18.) We must seek to
know something of heart-felt, experimental _communion_ with Him. Never,
never let us forget, that "union" is one thing, and "communion" another.
Thousands, I fear, who know what "union" with Christ is, know nothing of
"communion."
The day may come when after a long fight with disease, we shall feel
that medicine can do no more, and that nothing remains but to die.
Friends will be standing by, unable to help us. Hearing, eyesight, even
the power of praying, will be fast failing us. The world and its shadows
will be melting beneath our feet. Eternity, with its realities, will be
looming large before our minds. What shall support us in that trying
hour? What shall enable us to feel, "I fear no evil"? (Psalm xxiii. 4.)
Nothing, nothing can do it but close communion with Christ. Christ
dwelling in our hearts by faith,--Christ putting His right arm under our
heads,--Christ felt to be sitting by our side,--Christ can alone give us
the complete victory in the last struggle.
Let us cleave to Christ more closely, love Him more heartily, live to
Him more thoroughly, copy Him more exactly, confess Him more boldly,
follow Him more fully. Religion like this will always bring its own
reward. Worldly people may laugh at it. Weak brethren may think it
extreme. But it will wear well. At even time it will bring us light. In
sickness it will bring us peace. In the world to come it will give us a
crown of glory that fadeth not away.
The time is short. The fashion of this world passeth away. A few more
sicknesses, and all will be over. A few more funerals, and our own
funeral will take place. A few more storms and tossings, and we shall be
safe in harbour. We travel towards a world where there is no more
sickness,--where parting, and pain, and crying, and mourning, are done
with for evermore. Heaven is becoming every year more full, and earth
more empty. The friends ahead are becoming more numerous than the
friends astern. "Yet a little time and He that shall come will come, and
will not tarry." (Heb. x. 37.) In His presence shall be fulness of joy.
Christ shall wipe away all tears from His people's eyes. The last enemy
that shall be destroyed is Death. But he shall be destroyed. Death
himself shall one day die. (Rev. xx. 14.)
In the meantime let us live the life of faith in the Son of God. Let us
lean all our weight on Christ, and rejoice in the thought that He lives
for evermore.
Yes: blessed be God! Christ lives, though we may die. Christ lives,
though friends and families are carried to the grave. He lives who
abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light by the
Gospel. He lives who said, "O death, I will be thy plagues: O grave, I
will be thy destruction." (Hos. xiii. 14.) He lives who will one day
change our vile body, and make it like unto His glorious body. In
sickness and in health, in life and in death, let us lean confidently on
Him. Surely we ought to say daily with one of old, "Blessed be God for
Jesus Christ!"
XVI
THE FAMILY OF GOD
"_The whole family in heaven and earth._"--Ephes. iii. 15.
The words which form the title of this paper ought to stir some feelings
in our minds at any time. There lives not the man or woman on earth who
is not member of some "family." The poorest as well as the richest has
his kith and kin, and can tell you something of his "family."
Family gatherings at certain times of the year, such as Christmas, we
all know, are very common. Thousands of firesides are crowded then, if
at no other time of the year. The young man in town snatches a few days
from business, and takes a run down to the old folks at home. The young
woman in service gets a short holiday, and comes to visit her father and
mother. Brothers and sisters meet for a few hours. Parents and children
look one another in the face. How much there is to talk about! How many
questions to be asked! How many interesting things to be told! Happy
indeed is that fireside which sees gathered round it at Christmas "the
whole family!"
Family gatherings are natural, and right, and good. I approve them with
all my heart. It does me good to see them kept up. They are one of the
very few pleasant things which have survived the fall of man. Next to
the grace of God, I see no principle which unites people so much in
this sinful world as family feeling. Community of blood is a most
powerful tie. It was a fine saying of an American naval officer, when
his men insisted on helping the English sailors in fighting the Taku
forts in China,--"I cannot help it: blood is thicker than water." I have
often observed that people will stand up for their relations, merely
because they _are_ their relations,--and refuse to hear a word against
them,--even when they have no sympathy with their tastes and ways.
Anything which helps to keep up family feeling ought to be commended. It
is a wise thing, when it can be done, to gather together at Christmas
"the whole family."
Family gatherings, nevertheless, are often sorrowful things. It would be
strange indeed, in such a world as this, if they were not. Few are the
family circles which do not show gaps and vacant places as years pass
away. Changes and deaths make sad havoc as time goes on. Thoughts will
rise up within us, as we grow older, about faces and voices no longer
with us, which no Christmas merriment can entirely keep down. When the
young members of the family have once begun to launch forth into the
world, the old heads may long survive the scattering of the nest; but
after a certain time, it seldom happens that you see together "the whole
family."
There is one great family to which I want all the readers of this paper
to belong. It is a family despised by many, and not even known by some.
But it is a family of far more importance than any family on earth. To
belong to it entitles a man to far greater privileges than to be the son
of a king. It is the family of which St. Paul speaks to the Ephesians,
when he tells them of the "whole family in heaven and earth." It is the
family of God.
I ask the attention of every reader of this paper while I try to
describe this family, and recommend it to his notice. I want to tell you
of the amazing benefits which membership of this family conveys. I want
you to be found one of this family, when its gathering shall come at
last,--a gathering without separation, or sorrow, or tears. Hear me
while, as a minister of Christ, and friend to your soul, I speak to you
for a few minutes about "the whole family in heaven and earth:"--
I. First of all, _what is this family_?
II. Secondly, _what is its present position_?
III. Thirdly, _what are its future prospects_?
I wish to unfold these three things before you, and I invite your
serious consideration of them. Our family gatherings on earth must have
an end one day. Our last earthly Christmas must come. Happy indeed is
that Christmas which finds us prepared to meet God!
I. _What is that family_ which the Bible calls "the whole family in
heaven and earth"? Of whom does it consist?
The family before us consists of all real Christians,--of all who have
the Spirit,--of all true believers in Christ,--of the saints of every
age, and Church, and nation, and tongue. It includes the blessed company
of all faithful people. It is the same as the election of God,--the
household of faith,--the mystical body of Christ,--the bride,--the
living temple,--the sheep that never perish,--the Church of the
first-born,--the holy Catholic Church. All these expressions are only
"the family of God" under other names.
Membership of the family before us does not depend on any earthly
connection. It comes not by natural birth, but by new birth. Ministers
cannot impart it to their hearers. Parents cannot give it to their
children. You may be born in the godliest family in the land, and enjoy
the richest means of grace a Church can supply, and yet never belong to
the family of God. To belong to it you must be born again. None but the
Holy Ghost can make a living member of His family. It is His special
office and prerogative to bring into the true Church such as shall be
saved. They that are born again are born, "not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John i. 13.)
Do you ask the reason, of this name which the Bible gives to the company
of all true Christians? Would you like to know why they are called "a
family"? Listen and I will tell you.
(_a_) True Christians are called "a family" because they have all _one
Father_. They are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. They are
all born of one Spirit. They are all sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty. They have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby they cry,
Abba Father. (Gal. iii. 26; John iii. 8; 2 Cor. vi. 18; Rom. viii. 15.)
They do not regard God with slavish fear, as an austere Being, only
ready to punish them. They look up to Him with tender confidence, as a
reconciled and loving parent,--as one forgiving iniquity, transgression,
and sin, to all who believe on Jesus,--and full of pity even to the
least and feeblest. The words, "Our Father which art in heaven," are no
mere form in the mouth of true Christians. No wonder they are called
God's "family."
(_b_) True Christians are called "a family," because they all _rejoice
in one name_. That name is the name of their great Head and Elder
Brother, even Jesus Christ the Lord. Just as a common family name is the
uniting link to all the members of a Highland clan, so does the name of
Jesus tie all believers together in one vast family. As members of
outward visible Churches they have various names and distinguishing
appellations. As living members of Christ, they all, with one heart and
mind, rejoice in one Saviour. Not a heart among them but feels drawn to
Jesus as the only object of hope. Not a tongue among them but would
tell you that "Christ is all." Sweet to them all is the thought of
Christ's death for them on the cross. Sweet is the thought of Christ's
intercession for them at the right hand of God. Sweet is the thought of
Christ's coming again to unite them to Himself in one glorified company
for ever. In fact, you might as well take away the sun out of heaven, as
take away the name of Christ from believers. To the world there may seem
little in His name. To believers it is full of comfort, hope, joy, rest,
and peace. No wonder they are called "a family."
(_c_) True Christians, above all, are called "a family" because there is
so strong _a family likeness_ among them. They are all led by one
Spirit, and are marked by the same general features of life, heart,
taste, and character. Just as there is a general bodily resemblance
among the brothers and sisters of a family, so there is a general
spiritual resemblance among all the sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty. They all hate sin and love God. They all rest their hope of
salvation on Christ, and have no confidence in themselves. They all
endeavour to "come out and be separate" from the ways of the world, and
to set their affections on things above. They all turn naturally to the
same Bible, as the only food of their souls and the only sure guide in
their pilgrimage toward heaven: they find it a "lamp to their feet, and
a light to their path." (Psa. cxix. 105.) They all go to the same throne
of grace in prayer, and find it as needful to speak to God as to
breathe. They all live by the same rule, the Word of God, and strive to
conform their daily life to its precepts. They have all the same inward
experience. Repentance, faith, hope, charity, humility, inward conflict,
are things with which they are all more or less acquainted. No wonder
they are called "a family."
This family likeness among true believers is a thing that deserves
special attention. To my own mind it is one of the strongest indirect
evidences of the truth of Christianity It is one of the greatest proofs
of the reality of the work of the Holy Ghost. Some true Christians live
in civilized countries, and some in the midst of heathen lands. Some are
highly educated, and some are unable to read a letter. Some are rich and
some are poor. Some are Churchmen and some are Dissenters. Some are old
and some are young. And yet, notwithstanding all this, there is a
marvellous oneness of heart and character among them. Their joys and
their sorrows, their love and their hatred, their likes and their
dislikes, their tastes and their distastes, their hopes and their fears,
are all most curiously alike. Let others think what they please, I see
in all this the finger of God. His handiwork is always one and the same.
No wonder that true Christians are compared to "a family."