since man has existed _he has always believed_ and felt perfectly
certain that he is going to survive death. This is one of the great
instincts in humanity. Such convictions always point to some great
truth that corresponds to them. For instance, the prayer instinct
in man demands GOD. It has been beautifully said that, just as
the fin of the fish demands the water, and just as the wing of
the bird demands air, so the instinct of prayer in man demands
GOD. Man is a praying animal. He always has prayed, and that great
instinct of prayer demands satisfaction. He always has believed he
is going to live after death, and the very fact that that instinct
has been planted in him everywhere demands that he shall. There is
a very touching story in ancient literature about the great Greek
philosopher Socrates. Although he knew nothing about CHRIST or the
Christian revelation, he had a long conversation, recorded in one of
the most ancient writers, before he drank the fatal poison, hemlock.
Although he had not the Christian revelation, he gave all the
arguments necessary to make everyone around him certain that five
minutes after death he would be the same as five minutes before.
3. And this becomes all the more certain when you consider the
_character of GOD_. People often do not realise how much the
character of GOD is bound up with this question of immortality. No
good man would implant a living instinct in a child's nature and
then love to tantalise and disappoint it. No good man would do it,
or think for a moment of doing it; and do you suppose GOD would? Let
me read you the first portion of a beautiful letter which I have
received from one of the highest in the land, who lost her husband
last year, and has lost her splendid son this year in battle. She
writes: "Dear and kindest friend, Lord Bishop--I have lingered in
thanking you for your letter, because it was so precious, and is
always beside me to inspire and comfort. England has gone forth
'obedient unto death' in the honour that befits her, and we must try
and be worthy. It does not seem lonely, for they have gone in good
company, that great band of brave, shining knights who have given
all." That beautiful trust inspires the "Farewell of the Dead,"
which was written during the early weeks of the war:
"Mother with unbowed head,
Hear thou across the sea
The farewell of the dead,
The dead who died for thee.
Greet them again with tender words and grave,
For, saving thee, themselves they could not save.
"To keep the house unharmed
Their fathers built so fair,
Deeming endurance armed
Better than brute despair,
They found the secret of the word that saith,
'Service is sweet, for all true life is death.'
"So greet thou well thy dead
Across the homeless sea,
And be thou comforted
Because they died for thee.
Far off they served, but now their deed is done
For evermore their life and thine are one."
Now, do you suppose--this is to me an absolutely irrefragable
argument--do you suppose that GOD would have planted the love of
that son in that mother's heart, and given her that faith, and then
mean to disappoint her? All I can say is that, if He does, He is
no GOD I could love, nor that anyone could love. The world is in
the hand of some foul fiend, who loves to disappoint and blast the
hopes of his children. That is not the GOD of the New Testament. No,
our LORD says something very touching about that. He says: "In My
FATHER'S house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have
told you." "I would have told you." I would not have let you live
all your lives and see your sons die, and your husbands die, and
then disappoint you. "If it were not so, I would have told you."
4. And so we are prepared--you see now why I chose that particular
text--we are prepared for _the great revelation when it comes_. Even
science has prepared us. This great instinct of the soul, that it
will live again, has prepared us. Our belief in a good GOD prepared
us. We were all ready to hear it, and at last it comes from heaven.
"I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth
in Me shall never die."
And now we have got it. It has been all led up to; we were all
prepared for it. We could not have been certain till we were told it
by One who came from heaven. This is the Christian religion. It is
no miserable half-and-half Gospel about a good man that once lived.
That view of JESUS CHRIST has nothing to do with Christianity. The
SON of GOD came Himself from heaven.
That is the Christian religion. And, having come from heaven,
He knows what is in heaven. And He speaks with the certainty of
knowledge: "In My FATHER'S house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you." And "I am the resurrection and the life:
he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and
whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."
And, mark you, to prove it, to get the whole truth this morning, not
only for your own selves, but for the mourners who abound in our
midst, and must abound more and more as the weeks pass--to prove
this doctrine that He rose Himself from the dead, we must have the
full gospel of Easter. Alas! a new theology has been whittling away
the faith of some in this country. But the old doctrine of Easter
was this, "David saw corruption, but He whom GOD raised up saw no
corruption." And as He died and was buried, so He rose again. Why do
we keep Sunday, do you suppose, if there was no Resurrection? Why
not keep as the sacred day Friday, if nothing happened on Sunday? If
CHRIST did not rise on that day, why do we have at our Eucharists
the Body broken and the Blood shed? How could any people enshrine
in their Eucharistic service the tokens of a shameful death unless
the body buried had risen again? How did the Cross get to the top of
the dome of St. Paul's? Why should we have the old gallows erected
over the finest city in the world, unless it was the symbol, not
only of death, but of glorious resurrection?
Therefore, we have not got to put our reason behind our backs in
believing that He who said "I am the resurrection and the life"
raised Himself from the grave. It is with our reason as well as with
our hearts that we say, in answer to the question, "If a man die,
shall he live again?" "Yes, thank GOD, he has never really died."
5. And what sort of life is it going to be on the other side of the
veil, the veil which hides this unseen world? Those young men who
are dying are not always specially religious. They come to church
sometimes, and some come to Communion. I had from the front the
other day an account of how two hundred and fifty of the Artists'
Corps received the Communion before they went into battle. But,
still, we know many of our soldiers are not what we should call
specially religious men. What, therefore, are we to think of the
life awaiting them on the other side of the veil? Well, I will tell
you what I think. I pin my faith to this: JESUS CHRIST knows them
through and through. "JESUS beholding him loved him" was said of
one young man. JESUS beheld all these boys of ours, all these young
comrades, and He loved them. And He knows what kind of life they
will enjoy, and He prepares them for the life that is for them. He
has something for each that they will be fit for, when, strengthened
in character and purified in soul, they are ready to inherit the
kingdom prepared for them. You can trust them with Him, you can
trust your boy to CHRIST, who understands him better than you do.
What shall we have in the other world which will correspond to what
we have here? One thing at least that we shall have is memory.
You remember, in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, Abraham says
to Dives: "Son, remember." "Son, remember." Resolve to lay up
something in your life here to which your thoughts will turn happily
and find pleasure in, in the quiet times beyond death. In that
stillness there must be no bitter quarrels to remember, no bitter
jealousies, no unkindnesses. Make to yourselves, while here, friends
from your use of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it
fails those friends may receive you into everlasting habitations.
And then with memory will come love, all the old beautiful love and
friendship which makes us so happy here. But, mark you, the right
kind of love--not lust. "Love is the fulfilling of the law," says
St. John.
"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
But Lust's effect is tempest after sun;
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done."[14]
The two are absolutely different. Love thinks of the interests of
the loved one, and is full of self-control and self-restraint. But
lust only thinks of self, and is unbridled and unrestrained. Love
goes on into the other world.
[14] Shakespeare.
"They sin who tell us Love can die;
With life all other passions fly,
All others are but vanity.
In heaven Ambition cannot dwell,
Nor Avarice in the vaults of hell.
Of lust these passions of the earth,
They perish where they have their birth,
But Love is indestructible.
Its holy flame for ever burneth.
From heaven it came, to heaven returneth;
Full oft on earth a troubled guest,
At times deceived, at times oppressed,
In heaven it finds its perfect rest.
It soweth here in toil and care,
But the harvest-time of Love is there."[15]
[15] Southey's "Curse of Kehama."
Therefore cultivate here in your Church life, in your home life,
this wonderful, pure, beautiful thing, this love which will last for
ever. "They sin who tell us Love can die." And, above all, keep that
love pure, absolutely pure and true. Let nothing be substituted for
it which calls itself love, but which is not love. Then with this
love, this unselfish, disinterested love, the prayer instinct goes
on. Do not be afraid of thinking of and praying for your dear boy
in Paradise; pray for him. Do you suppose the mother in Paradise
ceases to pray for her son here? You know that, in the old beautiful
prayers of the Church for her dead, we pray that GOD will give them
eternal rest and peace, and that everlasting light will shine upon
them. That prayer instinct that lies so deep here goes on behind the
veil. They are praying for us there as we are praying for them here.
As St. Augustine says so beautifully, "The Church above loves and
helps its pilgrim brothers."
And, then, one thing more must go on--energy and activity of soul.
Can you imagine a man like the late Archbishop Temple doing nothing
for ever and ever? No. The greatest rest is delightful exercise
of the faculties of the soul. And there must be in that other
world work for those who have been active here below. Such souls
when they are taken from us are being promoted to some work that
they are specially fitted to do by the experience which has long
worked itself into their souls. I think of two cases of Christians
suffering patiently week after week, one for thirteen, the other
for fifteen, years. The beautiful patience being worked into their
character will be wanted in the other world.
Then, again, man is born for a Church. He is born to worship here
in companionship with others. I hope that this church will be every
Sunday morning as full as it is now, that you will more and more
join in the fellowship of the saints, and that you will more and
more learn to love this spiritual home, and to cheer one another on
in your spiritual lives, and so be ready, when the time comes, to
worship in the other world with angels and archangels, and all the
company of heaven. Lift up your heads and the hands that hang down,
all ye mourners! For death is not that miserable, terrible thing
which some people think it is. We are born into the other world as
quietly as we are born into this. And the other life there is full
of happiness, full of love, full of joyous and beautiful activities.
And so, when we are called upon to die, it will only be a gentle
passing from life here to life there, and from the fulness and the
happiness of this life to the still deeper fulness and still greater
happiness of the life of the world to come.
VIII
THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM[16]
[16] Preached in Westminster Abbey at the consecration of Canon
MacInnes as Bishop in Jerusalem.
"O pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love
thee."--Ps. cxxii. 6.
There is no place in the world to be compared to Jerusalem, if you
consider its romantic position, its historical interest, and its
spiritual significance. What a relief it is to breathe its mountain
air after the hot plains of Egypt! On what a glorious position it
stands, more than two thousand feet above the sea, surrounded by
hills even higher than the hill on which it stands itself! Truly,
still "the hills stand about Jerusalem"--a true image of the way the
LORD stands about His people.
But it is not the romantic position of Jerusalem which gives it
its chief claim to fame, but, even more, its marvellous history.
Really, to uncase Jerusalem, to dig down from one Jerusalem to
another, to be able to explain the history which would attach to
each layer of it, would be to unravel the history of the ancient
world. Volumes have been written, and will continue to be written,
on this entrancing theme; but suffice it to say that the man who
stands, say, at the centre of the Temple site of Jerusalem is
standing on one of the most historic spots in the world.
But, after all, when one is speaking in a Christian church at the
consecration of a Christian Bishop, it is neither of these things
which makes Jerusalem absolutely unique. The Seven Hills of Rome and
its Forum might compete with Jerusalem from the point of view of
geography or history. No! it is the supreme fact that here, and here
alone, on the world's surface, in Judæa and Galilee, the feet of the
SON of GOD actually trod the earth, which makes Jerusalem unique.
Rightly has Palestine been called ever since the Holy Land. When the
guardian of the traditional site of the Ascension points out to you
the spot which the feet of the LORD last trod before He ascended
behind the cloud, of course you know that such tradition is too
detailed to be necessarily accurate with regard to the actual spot;
but that His feet _did_ tread the earth about that spot, that He
_did_ walk over the Mount of Olives, that He _did_ agonise somewhere
near those trees in the Garden of Gethsemane, that on one or other
of those skull-shaped mounds He _did_ die for the sins of the whole
world, that either at the traditional site or somewhere near He
_did_ rise again from the dead--this it is that makes Jerusalem
the joy of the whole earth. With ten times the depth of meaning
with which even the ancient Jews could say it, the Christian will
say: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her
cunning; yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem in my mirth." "O pray for
the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee."
I. The consecration, then, of a Bishop of the great Anglo-Catholic
Church, who is to live in Jerusalem, is an event which concerns
the whole of Christendom, and especially every branch of the
Anglo-Catholic Church throughout the world; for it is clear that
such a Bishop in Jerusalem has three great and important functions
to discharge to the whole Christian world:
1. In the first place, he has to represent worthily, by personal
conduct and by reverent and dignified ceremonial, the great branch
of the Catholic Church to which he belongs. All branches of the
Church meet at Jerusalem; several have their altars by the Holy
Sepulchre. How can the other branches of the great Catholic Church
learn what is the teaching and the practice of the Anglican branch
except from the Bishop who represents her there, and from the
cathedral over which he presides? If the Bishop himself has no
dignity, no influence, no σεμνότης, among all those dignified and
grey-bearded Patriarchs who represent other Churches, the Church of
England will suffer in the opinion of the whole Christian Church. If
the cathedral church is poor in worship, feeble in life, unspiritual
in tone, the Church of England loses caste among the Churches of the
world. If, on the other hand, the Bishop and his cathedral worthily
maintain the best traditions of the ancient and apostolic Catholic
Church of England, then will the representatives of other ancient
Churches gladly acknowledge that "the LORD is with her of a truth."
2. But not only has the Bishop in Jerusalem to be a worthy witness
to the doctrine of his Church, and in his cathedral to display a
winning example of its ceremonial and worship, but he also has to
respect and foster the spiritual life in the ancient Churches of the
East. He is to be no proselytiser, seeking to take away members of
other Churches to form his Church; he is rather the kindly brother,
ever ready to lend a hand to fan the embers of spiritual life in
other Churches, or to rejoice in the fervent glow on other altars
besides his own. No Bishop would be a fit Bishop in Jerusalem who
had not some knowledge of the history of the ancient Churches of
Christendom, an interest in their varying liturgies, and a deep
respect for their history and the special significance each has in
the life of the Catholic Church. On the other hand, that Bishop
would have a peculiar glory in his episcopate who most succeeded by
brotherly sympathy and inspiring example in stimulating life in an
ancient Church, where, perhaps, life was running low, or was able
to send up the sap once again through the fibres of an apparently
withered tree.
3. But his efforts must not stop there. The Bishop in Jerusalem
must be a missionary. If from the first the Gospel was to spread
throughout the world, "beginning at Jerusalem," Jerusalem must never
cease to be a missionary centre. There must be no faithless despair
as to the eventual conversion both of Jews and of Mohammedans; the
great heathen tribes of the Shellooks and the Dinkas of the Upper
Nile, up to which the diocese, with its centre at Jerusalem, at
present extends, even though it must be exercised for the most part
through the presence of an assistant Bishop in Khartoum, must feel
the missionary zeal of the Bishop in Jerusalem. Every missionary
agency within thousands of miles must be certain of his fatherly
interest. I have visited myself nearly every mission station from
El Obeid, five hundred miles beyond Khartoum, to Beyrout, and seen
how greatly was appreciated the genuine interest of even a passing
Bishop; but those mission stations must feel sure of the interest of
the Bishop whose "sedes" is at Jerusalem, and above all, of course,
those must feel sure of it whose missions are connected with our own
Church. Few people can have visited the magnificent mission hospital
of the London Jews' Society in Jerusalem, which is said to be the
finest mission hospital in the world, or seen the devoted work of
the representatives of the Church Missionary Society in Cairo, or
watched the mission schools of the Hosanna League on the Lebanon,
without being proud of the missionary zeal and spiritual efforts of
our own Church.
II. But on a day like this we are at liberty to see visions and
to dream dreams, and one can imagine missionary efforts which
have their centre at Jerusalem on a far more extensive scale than
any which have been possible as yet--missionary efforts which may
include the revival of the ancient Churches of Asia Minor, the
linking up with the work done by the Archbishop's Mission to the
Assyrian Church, and a far more complete subjugation to CHRIST of
the Lebanon district, to which Canon Parfit's and Canon Campbell's
schools seem to point the way.
Such, then, seem to be the possibilities and prospects of a Bishop
in Jerusalem, and we are encouraged to raise our hopes high to-day,
first by the wonderful blessing which has been granted to the work
of him who is laying down the pastoral staff, wielded with so much
tact and love and winning influence by Bishop Blyth for a quarter
of a century; and, secondly, by the experience and attainments and
standing of him who this day takes up the pastoral staff which
Bishop Blyth lays down.
1. And first with regard to Bishop Blyth himself. It was said
to me in Jerusalem of the Bishop, by one who has long been the
superintendent of the Church missionary work in Palestine: "He
has laid a splendid foundation on which a success can be built."
Few can realise, who have not been at Jerusalem, the dignity and
beauty of St. George's Cathedral, which Bishop Blyth has built,
and the charm of the daily services in it, morning and evening, at
which the choir consists of the delightful Syrian boys and girls
who form the schools. I have never seen boys more like English
boys in their keenness for games (they were quite invincible at
football) and their general manliness of tone, and under the gentle
tutelage of English ladies the Syrian girls are being trained to
be well-mannered, and capable teachers, whom I frequently found
teaching either in Palestine, on the Lebanon, or in the schools of
Egypt and the Soudan. But, in order to understand the influence
accumulated by Bishop Blyth during these long years of residence
in Jerusalem, you had to visit with him the Patriarchs of other
branches of the Church; everywhere you found him trusted and loved;
to come with his introduction was to be welcomed by all the ancient
Churches of the East, and it is certain that, just as it was said
of Livingstone that "he left the door open in Africa for all the
white men who should come after," so it is certainly true that
Bishop Blyth has left behind him, among all the representatives
of the ancient Churches of the East, open hearts into which his
successor can enter. And we are glad to think that we still have the
Bishop resident with us here in London, to give us his counsel and
advice.[17]
[17] The Bishop only lived a few weeks after his successor's
consecration.
2. And then, with regard to his successor, he is no tyro going out
to learn his work for the first time; he is already one of the
best-known missionaries in the whole of the nearer East; he has
for years been the superintendent of the Church missionary work in
Egypt and the Soudan; he has had the control of many workers, and
has had, moreover, thousands of pounds passing annually through his
hands. He is a good Arabic scholar, and can not only take services,
but can speak and preach freely in Arabic, and what that means in
the East every traveller knows. His long experience of dealing with
the Coptic Church in Egypt, and the great respect in which he and
his colleague, Mr. Gairdner, are held in it, are a certain guarantee
of the respect and loving reverence with which he will treat the
other ancient Churches of the East; and he has himself assured us,
in words which have been printed and circulated, that, so far from
wishing in any way to alter the simple and beautiful service in St.
George's Cathedral, he will love to fan and foster the flame of
devotion which will always burn, it is hoped, more and more brightly
at the central shrine of the Anglo-Catholic Church in this city of
Jerusalem, which is itself the cradle of the Christian Church.
It is therefore, dear brother, with very high hopes and many earnest
prayers we send you forth to-day. The horizon is clouded at present
with the heavy clouds of war; CHRIST'S work will be crippled for a
time, and further extension for a time will be impossible; but when
the great clouds of war have, in the mercy of GOD, rolled away, and
the Sun of Righteousness has arisen with healing in His wings, and
Christianity has been proved to be more than ever essential to the
prosperity and well-being of the world, then we believe that _you_
are singularly fitted in the providence of GOD to avail yourself of
the mighty opportunity which will open out.
"O pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love
thee." There will be many who will pray for its peace from to-day
more fervently than ever, and they will uphold your hands as they
pray it, as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses; and if, as we
believe from the bottom of our souls, GOD will hear that prayer,
then Jerusalem shall once again be built as a city at unity with
itself, and from the farthest bounds of the earth there shall come,
at least in spirit, "turning their faces thitherward," more and
more every year, the converted, thankful and adoring "tribes of the
LORD."
II
TO THE CLERGY
I
MESSENGERS[18]
[18] Given first at Chiswick Parish Church to the Clergy of the
Rural Deanery of Hammersmith; afterwards to the Chaplains of the
Fleet, 1916.