[Preached at Bideford, 1854]
Philippians iii. 15, 16. And if in any thing ye shall be otherwise
minded, God shall reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, whereto we
have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the
same thing.
My friends, allow me to speak a few plain and honest words, ere we
part, on a matter which is near to, and probably important to, many
of us here. We all know how the Christian Church has in all ages
been torn in pieces by religious quarrels; we all know too well how
painfully these religious quarrels have been brought home to our
very doors and hearts of late.
Now, we all deplore, or profess to deplore, these differences and
controversies. But we may do that in two ways: we may say, 'I am
very sorry that all Christians do not think alike,' when all we mean
is, 'I am very sorry that all Christians do not think just as I do,
for I am right and infallible, whosoever else is wrong.' The fallen
heart of man is too apt to say that, my friends, in its pride and
narrowness, and while it cries out against the Pope of Rome, sets
itself up as Pope in his stead.
But there is surely another and a better way of deploring these
differences: and that is, to say to oneself, 'I am sorry, bitterly
sorry, that Christians cannot differ without quarrelling and hating
one another over and above.' And then comes the deeper home-
thought, 'And how much more sorry I am that I myself cannot differ
from my fellow-Christians without growing angry with them,
suspecting them, despising them, treating them as if they were not
my fellow-Christians at all.' Yes, my friends, this is what we have
to do first when we think of religious controversies, to examine our
own hearts and deeds and words; to see whether we too have not been
making bitterness more bitter, and, as the old proverb says,
'stirring the fire with a sword;' and to repent humbly and utterly
of every harsh word, hasty judgment, ungenerous suspicion, as sins,
not only against men, but against God the Father of Lights, who
worketh in each of His children to will and to do of His good
pleasure.
But some will say, 'We cannot give up what we believe to be right
and true.' God forbid that you should try to do so, my friends; for
if you really believe it, you cannot, even if you try; and by trying
you will only make yourselves dishonest. But does not that hold as
good of the man who differs from you? God will not surely lay down
one law for you, and another for him? 'But we are right, and he is
wrong.' Be it so. You do not surely mean that you are quite right;
perfect and infallible? You mean that you are right on the whole,
and as far as you see. And how can you tell but that he is right on
the whole, and as far as he sees? You will answer that both cannot
be right; that yes and no cannot be both true; that a thing cannot
be black and white also.
My friends, my friends--but where is the religious controversy, the
two sides whereof are as clearly opposite to each other as yes and
no, black and white? I know none now; I have hardly found one in
the records of the Protestant Church since first Luther and our
Reformers protested against Romish idolatry. On that last matter
there should be no doubt, as long as the first two commandments
stand in the Decalogue; but, with that exception, it would be
difficult to find a dispute in which the truth lay altogether with
one party. The truth rather lies, in general, not so much halfway
between the two combatants, as in some third place, which neither of
them sees; which perhaps God does not intend them to see in this
life, while He leaves his servants each to work out some one side of
Christian truth, dividing to every man severally as He will,
according to the powers of each mind, and the needs of each
situation.
True we have the infallible rule of Scripture: but are our own
interpretations of it so sure to be infallible? Inspired, infinite,
inexhaustible as it is, can we pretend to have fathomed all its
abysses, to have comprehended all its boundless treasures? The
pretence is folly. True, again, it contains all things necessary to
salvation; and those so plainly set forth, that he who runs may
read, and the wayfaring man, though poor, shall not err therein.
And yet does it not contain things whereof even St. Paul himself
said, that he only knew in part, and prophesied in part, and saw as
through a glass darkly; and are we to suppose that they are among
the truths necessary to salvation? Now are not the points about
which there has been, and is still, most dispute, just of this very
number? Do they belong to the simple fundamental truths of the
Gospel? No. Are they such plain matters that the wayfaring man,
though poor, can make up his mind on them for himself? No. Are
they one of them laid down directly in Scripture, like the Ten
Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, or the Creeds? No. They are every
one, as it seems to me, whether they be right or wrong, abstruse
deductions, delicate theories, built up on single and obscure texts.
Surely, if they had been necessary for salvation, the Lord would
have spoken on them in a tone and in words about which there should
be no more mistake than about the thunders of Sinai, and the tables
of stone fresh from the finger-mark of God. And He has spoken to
us, my friends, on other matters, if not on these. His promises are
clear enough, and short enough, though high as heaven and wide as
the universe. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and
man, the man Christ Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God; and
whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God; and if
any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins. And again, 'If
any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally, and
upbraideth not, and he shall receive it.' 'For if ye, being evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children, much more shall your
Heavenly Father give His Holy Spirit to them who ask Him.'
These are God's promises--simple and clear enough: and what are
God's demands? Are they numerous, intricate, burdensome, a yoke
which neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? God forbid
again!--'He hath showed thee, oh man, what is good. And what doth
the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with thy God?' And lest thou shouldest mistake in the
least the meaning of these words, He hath showed thee all this, and
more, by a living example fairer than all the sons of men, and
through lips full of grace, in the blessed life and blessed death of
His Son Jesus Christ, the brightness of His glory, and the express
image of His person. To this, at least, we have already attained.
Let us walk by this rule, let us all mind this same thing, and if in
anything else we are differently minded, God in His own good time
will reveal even that to us.
Is not this enough, my friends? Then why should we bite and tear
each other about that which is over and above this? If any man
believes this, and acts on it, let us hail him as a brother. After
all, let our differences be what they will, have we not one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all,
and through all, and in us all? If this is not bond enough between
man and man, what bond would we have? Oh, my friends, when we
consider this our little life, how full of ignorance it is and
darkness; within us, rebellion, inconstancy, confusion, daily sins
and shortcomings; and without us, disappointment, fear of
loneliness, loss of friends, loss of all which makes life worth
having,--who are we that we should deny proudly one single tie which
binds us to any other human being? Who are we that we should refuse
one hand stretched out to grasp our own? Who are we that we should
say, 'Stand back, for I am holier than thou?' Who are we that we
should judge another? to his own master let him stand or fall--'yea,
and he shall stand,' says the Apostle, 'for God is able to make him
stand.'
Think of those last words, my friends, they are strong and
startling; but we must not shrink from them. They tell us that God
may be as near those whom we heap with hard names, as He is near to
us; that He may intend that they should triumph, not over us, but
with us over evil. And if God be with them, who dare be against
them? Shall we be more dainty than God? And therefore I have never
been able to hear, without a shudder, words which I have heard, and
from really Christian men too: 'I can wish well to a pious man of a
different denomination from mine; I can honour and admire the fruits
of God's Spirit in him; but I cannot co-operate with him.' When I
hear such language from really good men, I confess I am puzzled. I
have no doubt that their reasons seem to them very sound; but what
they are I cannot conceive. I cannot conceive why I should not hold
out the right hand of fellowship and brotherhood to every man who
fears God and works righteousness, of whatsoever denomination he may
be. We believe the Apostles' Creed, surely? Then think of the
meaning of that one word, The Holy Spirit. To whom are we to
attribute any man's good deeds, except to the Holy Spirit? We dare
not say that he does them by an innate and natural virtue of his
own, for that would be to fall at once into the Pelagian heresy;
neither dare we attribute his good deeds to an evil spirit, and say,
'However good they may look, they must be bad, for he belongs to a
denomination who cannot have God's Spirit.' We dare not; for that
would be to approach fearfully near to the unpardonable sin itself,
the sin against the Holy Ghost, the bigotry which says, 'He casteth
out devils by the Prince of the devils.' Surely if we be
Christians, and Churchmen, we confess (for the Bible and the Prayer-
book declare) that every good deed of man comes down from the One
Fountain of Good, from God, the Father of Lights, by the inspiration
of His Holy Spirit.
Then think, my friends, think what words we have said. We confess
that the great, absolute, almighty, eternal God, in whose hand suns
and stars, ages and generations, hell and heaven, and all which is
and has been, and ever will be, are but as a grain of sand; who has
but to take away His breath, and the whole universe would become
nothing and nowhere; the utterly holy and righteous God, who is of
purer eyes than to behold iniquity, who charges His angels with
folly, and the heavens are not clean in His sight--we confess, I
say, that this great God has condescended to visit that man's soul,
and cherish it, and teach it, and shape it (be it ever so little)
into His own likeness: and shall we dare to stand aloof from him
from whom God does not stand aloof? Shall we refuse to walk with
one who walks with God? Shall we refuse to work with one who is a
fellow-worker with God, to love one whom God loves, to take by the
hand one whose guest God has become? Shall we be more dainty than
God? more fastidious than God? more righteous than God? more
separate from sinners than God? Oh, my friends, let us pray that we
may love God better, and know His likeness more clearly; that we may
be more ready to recognise, and admire, and welcome every, even the
smallest trace of that likeness in any human being, remembering that
it is the likeness of Christ, who was not merely The Teacher of all
in every nation who fear God and work righteousness, but the Saviour
who ate and drank with publicans and sinners: and then we shall be
more careful how we call unclean what God Himself has cleansed with
His own presence, His own grace, His own quickening and renewing and
sanctifying Spirit.
Be sure, be sure, my friends, that in proportion as we really love
the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall love those who love Him, be it in
never so clumsy or mistaken a fashion; and love those too whom He
loved enough to die for them, and whom He loves now enough to teach
and strengthen. We shall say to them, not 'Wherein do we differ?'
but 'Wherein do we agree?' Not, 'Because I cannot worship with you,
therefore I will not work with you;' but rather, 'I wish that I
could worship with you; I will whenever and wherever I can, as far
as you allow me, as far as the law allows me, as far as your worship
is not in my eyes an actually sinful thing: but, be that as it may,
we can at least do together something better even than worshipping,
and that is, working. We can surely do good together. Together,
let our denomination or party be what it may, we can feed the
hungry, clothe the naked, reform the prisoner, humanize the
degraded, save yearly the lives of thousands by labouring for the
public health, and educate the minds and morals of the masses,
though our religious differences (shame on us that it should be so!)
force us to part when we begin to talk to them about the world to
come.'
For are we not brothers after all? Has not God made us of one
blood, English men, with English hearts? Has not Christ redeemed us
with one and the same sacrifice? Has not the Holy Spirit given us
one and the same desire of doing good? And shall we not use that
spirit hand in hand? Look, look at the opportunities of doing good
which are around you; look at God's field of good works, white
already to the harvest; and the labourers are few. Shall these few,
instead of going manfully to work, stand idly quarrelling about the
shape of their instruments, and their favourite modes of using them?
God forbid! True, there are errors against which we are bound to
protest to the uttermost; but how few? The one real enemy we have
all to fight is sin--evil-doing. If any man or doctrine makes men
worse--makes men do worse deeds, protest then, if you will, and
spare not, and shrink not: for sin must be of the Devil, whatever
else is not. And therefore we are bound to protest against any
doctrine which parts man from God, and, under whatsoever pretence of
reverence or purity, draws again the veil between him and his
Heavenly Father, and denies him free access to the Throne of Grace,
and the feet of Jesus, that he may carry thither his own sins, his
own doubts, his own sorrows, and speak (wondrous condescension of
redeeming grace!) speak with God face to face, and yet live. For
this we must protest; for this we must die, if needs be; for if we
lose this, we lose all which our reforming forefathers won for us at
the stake, ay, we lose our own souls; for we lose righteousness and
strength, and the power to do the will of God.
For to shut a man out from free access to God and Christ is to make
him certainly false, dishonest, cowardly, degraded, slavish, and
sinful; as modern Popery has made, and always will make, those over
whom it really gains power. This is the root of our hereditary
protest against Popery; not merely because we do not agree with
certain of its doctrines, but because we know from experience, that
as now taught by the Jesuits, with whom it has identified itself,
its general tendency is to make men bad men, ignorant, dishonest,
rebellious; unworthy citizens of a free and loyal state.
And there are practices against which congregations have a right to
protest, not only as Christians, but as free Englishmen.
Congregations have a right to protest against any minister who
introduces obsolete ceremonies which empty his church and drive away
his people. Those ceremonies may be quite harmless in themselves,
as I really believe most of them are; many of them may be beautiful,
and, if properly understood, useful, as I think they are; but a
thing may be good in itself, and yet become bad by being used at a
wrong time, and in a way which produces harm. And it is shocking,
to say the least, to see churches emptied and parishes thrown into
war for the sake of such matters. The lightest word which can be
used for such conduct is, pedantry; but I fear at times lest the
Lord in heaven should be using a far more awful word, and when He
sees weak brethren driven from the fold of the Church by the self-
will and obstinacy of the very men who profess to desire to bring
all into the Church, as the only place where salvation is to be
found,--I fear, I say, when I see such deeds, lest the Lord should
repeat against them His own awful words: 'If any man scandalize one
of these little ones who believeth on Me, it were better for him
that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were
drowned in the depths of the sea.' What sadder mistake? Those who
have sworn to seek out Christ's lambs scattered up and down this
wicked world, shall they be the very ones to frighten those lambs
out of the fold, instead of alluring them back into it? Shall the
shepherd play the part, not even of the hireling who flees and
leaves the sheep to themselves, but of the very wolf who scatters
the flock? God forbid! The Church, like the Sabbath, was made for
man, my friends: not man for the Church; and the Son of Man, as He
is Lord of the Sabbath, is Lord of the Church, and will have mercy
in its dealings rather than sacrifice. The minister, my friends,
was made for the people: and not the people for the minister. What
else does the very name 'minister' mean? Not a lord who has
dominion, but a servant, a servant to all, who must give up again
and again his private notions of what he thinks best in itself for
the sake of what will be best for his flock; who must be, like St.
Paul, a Jew to the Jews; under the law to those who are still under
the law; and yet again without law to those who are without law
(though not without law to God, but under the law to Christ); weak
with the weak; strong with the strong; that he may gain men of all
sorts of opinions and characters by agreeing with them as far as he
honestly can, and showing his sympathy with each as much as he can;
and so become all things to all men, that he may by all means save
some. Oh, my friends, who can read honestly that glorious First
Epistle to the Corinthians and not see how a man may have the most
intense earnestness, the strongest doctrinal certainty, and yet at
the same time the greatest freedom, and charity, and liberality
about minor matters of ceremonies and Church arrangements, and
practical methods of usefulness; glad even that Christ be preached
by his enemies, and out of spite to him, because any way Christ is
preached?
But, my friends, if it is the right of free Englishmen to protest
against such doings, how shall it be done? Surely in gentleness,
calmness, reverence, as by men who know that they are standing on
holy ground, and dealing with sacred things, before the Throne of
God, and beneath the eye of Jesus Christ. Not surely, as it has
been too often done, in bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and
evil-speaking, with really unjust suspicions, exaggerations,
slanders, (and those, too, anonymous,) in the columns of the public
prints. My friends, these are not God's weapons. Not such is
Ithuriel's magic spear, the very touch of which unmasks falsehood.
This is to try to cast out Satan by Satan, to make evil worse by
fighting it with fresh evil. Oh, my friends, if there is one
counsel which I would press on all here more earnestly than another,
it is this--never, never, howsoever great may be the temptation, to
indulge in anonymous attacks on any human being. No man has a right
to do it who prays daily to his Father in heaven, Lead us not into
temptation. For it is to lead oneself into temptation, and that too
sore to resist; into the temptation to say something which one dare
not say, and ought not to say, were one's name known; the temptation
to forget not only the charity of Christians, but even the
courtesies of civilized life; and to shoot, from behind the safe
hedge of anonymousness, coward and envenomed shafts, of which we
should be ashamed, did the world know that they were ours; of which
we shall surely be ashamed in that great day, when the secrets of
all hearts shall be disclosed. I speak strongly: but only because
I know by bitter experience the terrible truth of my own words.
And consider, my friends, can any good result come from handling
sacred matters with such harsh and fierce hands as they have been
handled of late? For ourselves, such evil tempers only excite,
irritate, blind us: they prevent our doing justice to the opposite
side--(I speak of all parties)--they put us into an unwholesome
state of suspicion, and tempt us to pass harsh judgments upon men as
righteous, and perhaps far more righteous, than ourselves: they
stir up our pride to special plead our case, to make the best of our
own side, and the worst of our opponents': they defile our very
prayers; till, when we ought to be praying God to bless all mankind,
we catch ourselves unawares calling on Him to curse our enemies.
For those who are without--for the infidel, the profligate, the
careless--oh, what a scandal to them! What an excuse for them to
blaspheme the holy name whereby we are called, and ask, as of old,
'Is this then the Gospel of Peace? See how these Christians hate
one another!'
While for the young, oh, my friends, what a scandal, again, to them!
If you had seen (as I have) pious parents destroying in their own
childrens' minds all faith, all reverence for holy things, by mixing
themselves up in religious controversies, and indulging by their own
firesides in fierce denunciations of men no worse than themselves;--
if you will watch (as you may) young people taking refuge, some in
utter frivolity, saying, 'What am I to believe? When religionists
have settled what religion is, it will be time enough for me to
think of it: meanwhile, let me eat and drink, for to-morrow I
die;'--and others, the children of strong Protestant parents, taking
refuge in the apostate Church of Rome, and saying, 'If Englishmen do
not know what to believe, Rome does; if I cannot find certainty in
Protestantism, I can in Popery;'--if you will consider honestly and
earnestly these sad tragedies, you will look on it as a sacred duty
to the children whom God has given you, to keep aloof as much as
possible from all those points on which Christians differ, and make
your children feel from their earliest years that there are points,
and those the great, vital root points, on which all more or less
agree, which many members of the Romish Church have held, and, I
doubt not, now hold, as firmly as Protestants,--adoption by one
common Father, justification by the blood of one common Saviour,
sanctification by one common Holy Spirit.
And believe me, my friends, that just in proportion as you delight
in, and live by, these great doctrines, all controversies will
become less and less important in your eyes. The more you value the
living body of Christianity, the less you will think of its
temporary garments; the more you feel the power of God's Spirit, the
less scrupulous will you be about the peculiar form in which He may
manifest Himself. Personal trust in Christ Jesus, personal love to
Christ Jesus, personal belief that He and He only, is governing this
poor diseased and confused world; that He is really fighting against
all evil in it; that He really rules all nations, and fashions the
hearts of all of them, and understands all their works, and has
appointed them their times and the bounds of their habitation, if
haply they may feel after Him and find Him: personal and living
belief that the just and loving Lord Christ reigneth, be the peoples
never so unquiet;--this, this will keep your minds clear, and sober,
and charitable, and will make you turn with disgust from platform
squabbles and newspaper controversies, to do the duty which lies
nearest you; to walk soberly and righteously with your God, and
train up your children in His faith and fear, not merely to be
scholars, not merely to be devotees, but to be Christian Englishmen;
courteous and gentle, and yet manful and self-restraining; fearing
God and regarding man; growing up healthy under that solemn sense of
national duty which is the only safeguard of national freedom.
And, meanwhile, you will leave all who differ from you in the hands
of a God who wills their salvation far more than you can do; who
accepts, in every nation, those who fear Him and work righteousness;
who is merciful in this--that He rewards every man according to his
work; and who, if our brothers be otherwise minded from us, will
reveal even that to them, if we be right: or, again, to us, if they
be right. For we may have to learn from them, as well as they from
us; and both have to learn much from God, in the day when all
controversies and doubts shall vanish like a cloud; when we shall
see no longer in part, and through a glass darkly, but face to face;
while all things shall be bright in the sunshine of God's presence
and of the countenance of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.