1 Peter iii. 21. The like figure whereunto baptism doth now save us
(not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a
good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
These words are very wide words; too wide to please most people.
They preach a very free grace; too free to please most people. Such
free and full grace, indeed, that some who talk most about free
grace, and insist most on man's being saved only by free grace, are
the very men who shrink from these words most, and would be more
comfortable in their minds, I suspect, if they were not in the Bible
at all, because the grace they preach is too free. But so it always
has been, and so it is, and so, I suppose, it always will be. Man
preaches his notions of God's forgiveness, his notions of what he
thinks God ought to do; but when God proclaims His own forgiveness,
and tells men what He has actually done, and bids His apostle
declare boldly that baptism doth now save us, then man is frightened
at the vastness of God's generosity, and thinks God's grace too
free, His forgiveness too complete; and considers this text and many
another in the Bible as 'dangerous' forsooth, if it is 'preached
unreservedly,' and not to be quoted without some words of man's
invention tacked to it, to water it down, and narrow it, and take
all the strength and life out of it; and if he be asked whether he
believes the words of Scripture,--for instance, whether St. Paul
spoke truth when he told the heathen Athenians that they and all men
were the offspring of God;--or when he told the Romans that as by
the offence of one, judgment came on all men to condemnation, even
so by the righteousness of One, the free gift came upon all men to
justification of life;--or when he told the Corinthians, that as in
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive;--or whether
St. Peter spoke truth when he said, that 'baptism doth also now save
us,'--then they answer, that the words are true 'in a sense;' that
is, not in their plain sense; true, if they were only true; true,
and yet somehow at the same time not true; and not to be preached
'unreservedly:' as if man could be more cautious and correct in his
language than the Spirit of God, who inspired the Apostles; as if
man could be more careful of God's honour than God is of His own; as
if man could hate sin and guard against sin more carefully than God
Himself.
Just in the same way do people stumble at certain invaluable words
in the Church Catechism, which teach children to thank God for
having brought them into that state of salvation. Even very good
people, and people who really wish to believe and honour the Church
Catechism, and the Sacrament of Baptism, find these words too strong
to please them, and say, that of course a child's being in a state
of salvation cannot mean that he is saved, but that he may be saved
after he dies.
My friends, I never could find that we have a right to take
liberties with the Bible and the Prayer Book which we dare not take
with any other book, and to put meanings into the words of them
which, in the case of any other book, would be contrary to plain
grammar and the English tongue, if not to common sense and honesty.
If you say of a man, 'he is in a state of happiness,' you mean, do
you not, that he is happy now, not that he may perhaps be happy some
day? If you came to me and told me that you were in a state of
hunger, you would think it a very strange answer to receive if I
say, 'Very well then, if you become hungry, come to me, and I will
feed you?' You all know that a man's being in a state of poverty,
or of misery, means that he is poor or miserable now, here, at this
very time; that if a man is in a state of sickness, he is sick; if
he is in a state of health, he is healthy. Then what can a man's
being in a state of salvation mean, by all rules of English, but
that he is saved? If I were to say to any one of the good people
who do not think so, 'My friend, you are in a state of damnation,'
he would answer me quickly enough, 'I am not, for I am not damned.'
He would agree that a man's being in a state of damnation means that
the man is damned; why will he not agree that a man's being in a
state of salvation means that he is saved? Because, my friends,
God's grace is too full for fallen man's notions; and therefore
there is an evil fashion abroad in the world, that where a text
speaks of wrath, and misery and punishment, you are to interpret it
exactly, and to the very letter: but where it speaks of love, and
mercy, and forgiveness, you are to do no such thing, but narrow it,
and fence it, and explain it away, for fear you should make sinners
too comfortable,--a plan which seems wise enough, but which, like
other plans of man's wisdom, has not succeeded too well, to judge by
the number of sinners who are already too comfortable though they
hear the Bible misused, and God's grace narrowed in this way every
Sunday of their lives.
But, my friends, we call ourselves Englishmen and churchmen; let us
be honest Englishmen and plain churchmen, and take our Catechism as
it stands. For rightly or wrongly, truly or falsely, it does teach
every christened child to thank God, not merely that it has some
chance of being saved, when it dies, but that it is saved already,
now, here on earth.
Whether that is true or false is another question. I believe it to
be true. I believe the text to be true; I believe that why people
shrink from it is, that they have got into their minds a wrong,
unscriptural, superstitious notion of what being saved, and saving
one's soul alive, and salvation mean. And I beg all of you who read
your Bibles to search the Scriptures from beginning to end, and try
to find out what these words mean, and whether the Catechism has not
kept close, after all, to the words of Scripture. It will be better
for you, my friends; it will be worth your while, to know exactly
what being saved means; for to judge by the signs of the times,
there are, very probably, days coming in which it will be as needful
for you and for your children to save your souls alive lest you die,
as ever it was for the Jews in Isaiah's or Jeremiah's time, or for
the Romans in St. Paul's time; and that in that day you will find
the Catechism wider, and deeper, and sounder than you have ever
suspected it to be, and see, I trust, that in these very words it
preaches to you, and me, and our children after us, the one true
Gospel and good news, which will stand, and grow, and shine brighter
and brighter for ever, when all the paltry, narrow, counterfeit
gospels which man invents in its place have been burnt up by the
unquenchable fire with which the merciful Lord purges the chaff from
His floor.
I told you this morning what I believe that salvation was,--to know
God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. To know God's likeness,
God's character, what God has shown of His own character, what He
has done for us. To know His boundless love, and mercy, and knowing
that, to trust in Him utterly, and submit to Him utterly, and obey
Him utterly, sure that He loves us, that His will to us is goodwill,
that His commandments must be life. To know God, and therefore to
love Him and to serve Him, that is salvation.
Now what hinders a little child, from the very moment that it can
think or speak, from entering into that salvation? Not the child's
own heart. There is evil in the child--true. Is there none in you
and me? There is a corrupt nature in the child--true. Is there not
in you and me? Woe to us if we have not found it out: woe to us if
we dare to think that we are in ourselves--or out of ourselves
either--one whit better than our own children. What should hinder
any child whom you or I ever saw from knowing God, and His Name, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
Has he not an earthly father, through whom he may know _The_ Father?
Is he not an earthly son; and through that may he not know _The_
Son? Has he not a conscience, a spirit in him which knows good from
evil? holiness from wickedness--far more clearly and tenderly than
the souls of most grown people do? and can he not, therefore,
understand you when you speak of a Holy Spirit, a Spirit which puts
good desires into his heart, and can enable him to bring those good
desires into practice?
I know one hindrance at least; and that is his parents' sins; when
the parents' harshness or neglect tempts the child to fancy that God
The Father is such a Father to him as his parents are, and that to
be a child of God is to look up to his heavenly Father with dread
and suspicion as to a hard taskmaster whose anger has to be turned
away, and not with that perfect love, and trust, and respect, and
self-sacrifice, with which the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled His
Father's will and proclaimed His Father's glory: or when the
parents' unholiness and lip-religion teach the child to fancy that
the Holy Spirit means only certain religious fancies and feelings,
or the learning by heart of certain words and doctrines, or, worst
of all, a spirit of bondage unto fear; instead of knowing Him to be,
as He is, the Spirit of righteousness, and love, and joy, and peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance: or
when, again, parents by their own teaching, do despite to the Spirit
of Grace in their own child, and destroy their child's good
conscience toward God, by telling the child that it does not really
love God, when it loves Him, perhaps, far better than they do; by
telling the child that its sins have parted it from God, when its
sins are light, yea, are as nothing in the balance compared to the
sins they themselves commit every day, while they claim for
themselves clearer light and knowledge than the child, and thereby
condemn themselves rather than the child; when they darken and
defile the pure and beautiful trust and admiration for its Heavenly
Father, which God's Spirit puts into the child's heart, by telling
it that it is doomed to I know-not-what horrible misery and torture
when it dies; but that it can escape from that wretched end by
thinking certain thoughts, and feeling certain feelings; and so
(after stirring up in the child all manner of dreadful doubts of
God's love and justice, and perhaps driving it away from religion
altogether by making it believe that it has committed sins which it
has not committed, and deserves horrible tortures which it has not
deserved), do perhaps at last awaken in it a new love for God, but
one which is not like that first love, that childlike love; one
which, I fear, is hardly a love for God at all, but principally a
selfish joy and delight at having escaped from coming torments.
This is the reason, my friends; and this hindrance, at least, I
know. I will not copy those parents, my friends, and tell them, as
they tell their children, that they are bringing on themselves
endless torture; but I must tell them, for the Lord Christ has told
them, that they are bringing on themselves something--I know not
what--of which it is written, that it were better for them that a
millstone were hanged about their necks, and that they were drowned
in the depth of the sea. Oh, my friends, if I speak sternly, almost
bitterly, when I speak of parents' sins, it is because I speak for
those who cannot speak for themselves. I plead for Christ's little
ones: I plead for the souls and consciences of those little
children of whom Christ said, 'Suffer the little children to come
unto me;' not that they might become His, but because they were His
already; not that they might win His love, but because He loved them
from all eternity: not that they might enter into the kingdom of
heaven, but, because they were in the kingdom of heaven already;
because the kingdom of heaven was made up of such as them, and the
angels who ministered unto them always beheld the face of our Father
who is in heaven. Yes; I plead for those children, of whom the Lord
said, 'Except ye be converted,' that is, utterly turned and changed,
'and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the
kingdom of heaven.' Deep and blessed words, which are the root-rule
of all true righteousness; which so few really believe at heart, any
more than the Pharisees, and Sadducees, and Herodians of old did.
Up and down, all over England, I hear men of all denominations
saying, not, 'Except we grown people be converted and become as
little children;' but, 'except the little children be converted, and
become like us, grown people.' God grant that the little children
may not become like too many grown people! God grant it, I say.
God grant that our children may not become like us! God grant that
they may keep through youth and manhood, and through the grave, and
through all worlds to come, the tender and childlike heart, which we
too often have hardened in ourselves by bigotry and superstition,
and dead faith, and lip-worship! And I can have good hope that God
will grant it. I can have hope that God will teach our children and
our children's children truly to know Him whose name is Love and
Righteousness, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as long as
I see His providence preserving for us this old Church Catechism, to
teach our children what we forget to teach them, or what we have not
faith enough to teach them.
Yes, I can have hope for England; and hope for those mighty nations
across the seas, whose earthly mother God has ordained that she
should be, as long as the Catechism is taught to her children.
For see. This Catechism does not begin with telling children that
they are sinners: they will find that out soon enough for
themselves, poor little things, from their own wayward and self-
willed hearts. Nor by telling them that man is fallen and corrupt:
they will find out that also soon enough, from the way in which they
see people go on around them. It does not even begin by telling
them that they ought to be good, or what goodness and righteousness
is; because it takes for granted that they know that already; it
takes for granted that The Light who lights every man who comes into
the world is in them; even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, stirring
up in their hearts, as He does in the heart of every child, the
knowledge of good and the love of good. But it begins at once by
teaching the child the name of God. It goes at once to the root of
the matter; to the fountain of goodness itself; even to God, the
Father of lights. It is so careful of God's honour, so careful that
the child should learn from the first to look up to God with love
and trust, that it dare not tell the child that God can destroy and
punish, before it has told him that God is a Father and a Maker; the
Father of spirits, who has made him and all the world. It dare not
tell him that mankind is fallen, before it has told him that all the
world is redeemed. It dare not talk to him of unholiness, before it
has taught him that the Holy Spirit of God is with him, to make him
holy. It tells him of a world, a flesh, and a devil: but he has
renounced them. He has neither part nor lot in them; and he is not
to think of them yet. He is to think of that in which he has part
and lot, of which he is an inheritor. He is to know where he is and
ought to be, before he knows where he is not and ought not to be:
he is to think of the name of God, by which he can trample world,
flesh, and devil under foot, if they dare hereafter meddle with his
soul. In its God-inspired tenderness and prudence, it dare not
darken the heart of one little child, or tempt him to hard thoughts
of God, or to cry, 'Why hast thou made me thus?' lest it put a
stumbling-block in the way of Christ's little ones, and dishonour
the name and glory of God. It tells him of the love, before it
tells him of the wrath; of the order, before it tells him of the
disorder; of the right, before the wrong; of the health, before the
disease; of the freedom, before the bondage; of the truth, before
the lies; of the light, before the darkness; in one word, it tells
him first of the eternal and good God, who was, and is, and shall be
to all eternity, before and above the evil devil. It tells him of
the name of God; and tells him that God is with him, and he with
God, and bids him believe that, and be saved, from his birth-hour,
to endless ages. It does not tell him to pray that he may become
God's child; but to pray, because he is God's child already. It
does not tell him to love God, in order that he may make God love
him; but to love God because God loves him already, and has loved
him from all eternity. It does not tell him to obey Jesus Christ,
in order that Christ may save him; but to obey Christ because Christ
has saved him, and bought him with his own blood. It does not tell
him to do good works, in order that God's Spirit may be pleased with
him, and come to him, and make him one of the elect; neither does it
tell him, that some day or other, if he is converted, and feels
certain religious experiences, he will have a right to consider
himself one of God's elect: but it tells him to look man and devil
in the face, he, the poor little ignorant village child, and say
boldly in the name of God, 'I am one of God's elect. The Holy
Spirit of God is sanctifying me, and making me holy. God has saved
me; and I heartily thank my Heavenly Father, who has called me to
this state of salvation.' It tells him to believe that he is safe--
safe in the ark of Christ's Church, as Noah was safe in the ark at
the deluge; and that the one way to keep himself within that ark is
to obey Him to whom it belongs, who judges it and will guide it for
ever, Jesus Christ, the likeness of God; and that as long as he does
that, neither world, flesh, nor devil, can harm him; even as Noah
was safe in the ark, and nothing could drown him but his own wilful
casting himself out of the ark, and trying to free the flood of
waters by his own strength and cunning.
It tells him, I say, that he is safe, and saved, even as David, and
Isaiah, and all holy men who ever lived have been, as long as he
trusts in God, and clings to God, and obeys God; and that only when
he forsakes God, and follows his own selfishness and pride, can
anything or being in earth or hell harm him.
And do not fancy, my friends, that this is a mere unimportant
question of words and doctrines, because a baptized and educated
child may be lost after all, and fall from his state of salvation
into a state of damnation. Still more, do not fancy that if a child
is taught that he is already a child of God, regenerated in baptism,
and elect by God's Spirit, that therefore he will neglect either
vital faith or good works--heaven forbid!
Is it likely to make a child careless, and inclined to neglect vital
truth, to tell him that God is his Father and loves him utterly, and
has given His only begotten Son to die for him? Is it not the very
way, the only way, to stir up in him faith, and real hearty trust
and affection towards God? How can you teach him to trust God, but
by telling him that God has shown himself boundlessly and perfectly
worthy to be trusted by every soul of man; or to love God, but by
showing him that God loves him already? Is it likely to make a
child careless of good works, to tell him that God has elected and
chosen him, and all his brothers and schoolfellows, to be conformed
into the likeness of Jesus Christ, and that every good, and
honourable, and gentle thought or feeling which ever crosses his
little heart, does not come from himself, is not part of his own
nature or character, but is nothing less than the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, nothing less than the voice of Almighty God Himself,
speaking to the child's heart, that he may answer with Samuel--
'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth?' Is it likely to make a
child careless about losing eternal life, to tell him that God has
already given to him eternal life, and that that life is in His Son
Jesus Christ, to whom the child belongs, body, soul, and spirit?
Judge for yourselves, my friends. Think what awe, what reverence,
purity, dread of sin, would grow up in a child who was really taught
all this, and yet what faith and love to God, what freedom, and
joyfulness, and good courage about his own duty and calling in life.
And then look at the fruits which in general follow a religious
education, as it is miscalled; and take warning. For if you really
train up your children in the way in which they should go, be sure
that when they are old they will not depart from it--a promise which
is not fulfilled to most religious education which we see around us
now-a-days; from which sad fact, if Scripture be inspired and
infallible, we can only judge that such is not the way in which the
children should go; and that because it is a wrong way, therefore
God will not, and man cannot, keep them in it.