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SERMONS
_PREACHED AT BRIGHTON._
BY THE LATE
REV. FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON,
THE INCUMBENT OF TRINITY CHAPEL.
_THIRD SERIES._
NEW EDITION.
LONDON:
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH. & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
1884.
(_The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved_)
TO
_THE CONGREGATION_
WORSHIPPING IN
TRINITY CHAPEL, BRIGHTON,
FROM AUGUST 15, 1847, TO AUGUST 15, 1853,
THESE
RECOLLECTIONS OF SERMONS
PREACHED BY THEIR LATE PASTOR,
ARE DEDICATED
CONTENTS.
SERMON I.
Preached April 28, 1850.
THE TONGUE.
ST. JAMES iii. 5, 6.--"Even so the tongue is a little
member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a
little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of
iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the
whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set
on fire of hell." Page 1
SERMON II.
Preached May 5, 1850.
THE VICTORY OF FAITH.
1 JOHN v. 4, 5.--"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh
the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even
our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that
believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" 15
SERMON III.
Preached Whitsunday, May 19, 1850.
THE DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT.
1 CORINTHIANS xii. 4.--"Now there are diversities of gifts,
but the same Spirit." 29
SERMON IV.
Preached May 26, 1850.
THE TRINITY.
1 THESS. v. 23.--"And the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 43
SERMON V.
Preached June 2, 1850.
ABSOLUTION.
LUKE v. 21.--"And the Scribes and the Pharisees began to
reason saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can
forgive sins, but God alone?" 61
SERMON VI.
Preached June 9, 1850.
THE ILLUSIVENESS OF LIFE.
HEBREWS xi. 8-10.--"By faith Abraham, when he was called to
go out into a place which he should after receive for an
inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange
country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs
with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God." 77
SERMON VII.
Preached June 23, 1850.
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
2 COR. v. 14, 15.--"For the love of Christ constraineth us;
because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all
dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them,
and rose again." 90
SERMON VIII.
Preached June 30, 1850.
THE POWER OF SORROW.
2 COR. vii. 9, 10.--"Now I rejoice, not that ye were made
sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry
after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in
nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be
repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." 104
SERMON IX.
Preached August 4, 1850.
SENSUAL AND SPIRITUAL EXCITEMENT.
EPHESIANS v. 17, 18.--"Wherefore be ye not unwise, but
understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with
wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." 112
SERMON X.
Preached August 11, 1850.
PURITY.
TITUS i. 15.--"Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto
them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even
their mind and conscience is defiled." 122
SERMON XI.
Preached February 9, 1851.
UNITY AND PEACE.
COL. iii. 15.--"And let the peace of God rule in your
hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye
thankful." 130
SERMON XII.
Preached January 4, 1852.
THE CHRISTIAN AIM AND MOTIVE.
MATT. v. 48.--"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect." 143
SERMON XIII.
Preached January 4, 1852.
CHRISTIAN CASUISTRY.
1 COR. vii. 18-24.--"Is any man called being circumcised?
let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision?
let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and
uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of
God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.
Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou
mayest be made free use it rather. For he that is called in the
Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman; likewise also he that
is called being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a
price; be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man
wherein he is called therein abide with God." 156
SERMON XIV.
Preached January 11, 1852.
MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY.
1 COR. vii. 29-31.--"But this I say, brethren, the time is
short: it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though
they had none; and they that weep as though they wept not; and they
that rejoice as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as
though they possessed not; and they that use this world as not
abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away." 169
SERMON XV.
Preached January 11, 1852.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH A FAMILY.
EPH. iii. 14, 15.--"Our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole
family in Heaven and earth is named." 181
SERMON XVI.
Preached January 25, 1852.
THE LAW OF CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE.
1 COR. viii. 7-13.--"Howbeit there is not in every man that
knowledge: for some, with conscience of the idol, unto this hour,
eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being
weak is defiled. But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither if
we eat are we the better; neither if we eat not are we the worse.
But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a
stumbling-block to them that are weak. For if any man see thee
which hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not
the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those
things which are offered to idols; and through thy knowledge shall
the weak brother perish for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so
against the brethren and wound their weak conscience ye sin against
Christ. Wherefore if meat make my brother to offend I will eat no
flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend."
196
SERMON XVII.
Preached May 16, 1852.
VICTORY OVER DEATH.
1 COR. xv. 56, 57.--"The sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 212
SERMON XVIII.
Preached June 20, 1852.
MAN'S GREATNESS AND GOD'S GREATNESS.
ISAIAH lvii. 15.--"For thus saith the High and Lofty One
that inhabiteth Eternity, whose Name is Holy. I dwell in the high
and holy place--with him also that is of a contrite and humble
spirit." 230
SERMON XIX.
Preached June 27, 1852.
THE LAWFUL AND UNLAWFUL USE OF LAW. (A FRAGMENT.)
1 TIM. i. 8.--"But we know that the law is good, if a man
use it lawfully." 246
SERMON XX.
Preached February 21, 1853.
THE PRODIGAL AND HIS BROTHER.
LUKE xv. 31, 32.--"And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever
with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should
make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is
alive again; was lost, and is found." 253
SERMON XXI.
Preached May 15, 1853.
JOHN'S REBUKE OF HEROD.
LUKE iii. 19, 20.--"But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved
by him for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the
evils which Herod had done, added yet this above all, that he shut
up John in prison." 270
SERMONS.
I.
_Preached April 28, 1850._
THE TONGUE.
"Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.
Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue
is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our
members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the
course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell."--St. James iii.
5-6.
In the development of Christian Truth a peculiar office was assigned
to the Apostle James.
It was given to St. Paul to proclaim Christianity as the spiritual law
of liberty, and to exhibit Faith as the most active principle within
the breast of man. It was St. John's to say that the deepest quality
in the bosom of Deity is Love; and to assert that the life of God in
Man is Love. It was the office of St. James to assert the necessity of
Moral Rectitude; his very name marked him out peculiarly for this
office: he was emphatically called, "the Just:" integrity was his
peculiar characteristic. A man singularly honest, earnest, real.
Accordingly, if you read through his whole epistle, you will find it
is, from first to last, one continued vindication of the first
principles of morality against the _semblances_ of religion.
He protested against the censoriousness which was found connected with
peculiar claims of religious feelings. "If any man among you seem to
be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own
heart, this man's religion is vain." He protested against that spirit
which had crept into the Christian Brotherhood, truckling to the rich,
and despising the poor. "If ye have respect of persons ye commit sin,
and are convinced of the law as transgressors." He protested against
that sentimental fatalism which induced men to throw the blame of
their own passions upon God. "Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am
tempted of God; for God cannot tempt to evil; neither tempteth He any
man." He protested against that unreal religion of excitement which
diluted the earnestness of real religion in the enjoyment of
listening. "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only; deceiving
your own souls." He protested against that trust in the correctness of
theological doctrine which neglected the cultivation of character.
"What doth it profit, if a man _say_ that he hath faith, and have not
works? Can faith save him?"
Read St. James's epistle through, this is the mind breathing through
it all:--all this _talk_ about religion, and spirituality--words,
words, words--nay, let us have _realities_.
It is well known that Luther complained of this epistle, that it did
not contain the Gospel; for men who are hampered by a system will
say--even of an inspired Apostle--that he does not teach the Gospel if
their own favourite doctrine be not the central subject of his
discourse; but St. James's reply seems spontaneously to suggest itself
to us. The Gospel! how can we speak of the Gospel, when the first
principles of _morality_ are forgotten? when Christians are excusing
themselves, and slandering one another? How can the superstructure of
Love and Faith be built, when the very foundations of human
character--Justice, Mercy, Truth--have not been laid?
1st. The license of the tongue.
2nd. The guilt of that license.
The first license given to the tongue is slander. I am not of course,
speaking now of that species of slander against which the law of libel
provides a remedy, but of that of which the Gospel alone takes
cognisance; for the worst injuries which man can do to man, are
precisely those which are too delicate for _law_ to deal with. We
consider therefore not the calumny which is reckoned such by the
moralities of an earthly court, but that which is found guilty by the
spiritualities of the courts of heaven--that is, the mind of God.
Now observe, this slander is compared in the text to poison--"the
tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." The deadliest
poisons are those for which no test is known: there are poisons so
destructive that a single drop insinuated into the veins produces
death in three seconds, and yet no chemical science can separate that
virus from the contaminated blood, and show the metallic particles of
poison glittering palpably, and say, "Behold, it is there!"
In the drop of venom which distils from the sting of the smallest
insect, or the spikes of the nettle-leaf, there is concentrated the
quintessence of a poison so subtle that the microscope cannot
distinguish it, and yet so virulent that it can inflame the blood,
irritate the whole constitution, and convert day and night into
restless misery.
In St. James's day, as now, it would appear that there were idle men
and idle women, who went about from house to house, dropping slander
as they went, and yet you could not take up that slander and detect
the falsehood there. You could not evaporate the truth in the slow
process of the crucible, and then show the residuum of falsehood
glittering and visible. You could not fasten upon any word or
sentence, and say that it was calumny; for in order to constitute
slander it is not necessary that the word spoken should be false--half
truths are often more calumnious than whole falsehoods. It is not even
necessary that a word should be distinctly uttered; a dropped lip, an
arched eyebrow, a shrugged shoulder, a significant look, an
incredulous expression of countenance, nay, even an emphatic silence,
may do the work: and when the light and trifling thing which has done
the mischief has fluttered off, the venom is left behind, to work and
rankle, to inflame hearts, to fever human existence, and to poison
human society at the fountain springs of life. Very emphatically was
it said by one whose whole being had smarted under such affliction,
"Adder's poison is under their lips."
The second license given to the tongue is in the way of persecution:
"therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God."
"We!"--men who bear the name of Christ--curse our brethren! Christians
persecuted Christians. Thus even in St. James's age that spirit had
begun, the monstrous fact of Christian persecution; from that day it
has continued, through long centuries, up to the present time. The
Church of Christ assumed the office of denunciation, and except in the
first council, whose object was not to strain, but to relax the bonds
of brotherhood, not a council has met for eighteen centuries which has
not guarded each profession of belief by the too customary formula,
"If any man maintain otherwise than this, let him be accursed."
Myriad, countless curses have echoed through those long ages; the
Church has forgotten her Master's spirit and called down fire from
heaven. A fearful thought to consider this as the spectacle on which
the eye of God has rested. He looks down upon the creatures He has
made, and hears everywhere the language of religious
imprecations:--and after all, who is proved right by curses?
The Church of Rome hurls her thunders against Protestants of every
denomination: the Calvinist scarcely recognises the Arminian as a
Christian: he who considers himself as the true Anglican, excludes
from the Church of Christ all but the adherents of his own orthodoxy;
every minister and congregation has its small circle, beyond which all
are heretics: nay even among that sect which is most lax as to the
dogmatic forms of truth, we find the Unitarian of the old school
denouncing the spiritualism of the new and rising school.
This is the state of things to which we are arrived. Sisters of
Charity refuse to permit an act of charity to be done by a Samaritan;
ministers of the Gospel fling the thunderbolts of the Lord; ignorant
hearers catch and exaggerate the spirit,--boys, girls, and women
shudder as one goes by, perhaps more holy than themselves, who adores
the same God, believes in the same Redeemer, struggles in the same
life-battle, and all this because they have been taught to look upon
him as an enemy of God.
There is a class of religious persons against whom this vehemence has
been especially directed. No one who can read the signs of the times
can help perceiving that we are on the eve of great changes, perhaps a
disruption of the Church of England. Unquestionably there has been a
large secession to the Church of Rome.
Now what has been the position of those who are about to take this
step? They have been taunted with dishonest reception of the wages of
the Church; a watch has been set over them: not a word they uttered in
private, or in public, but was given to the world by some religious
busy-body; there was not a visit which they paid, not a foolish dress
which they adopted, but became the subject of bitter scrutiny and
malevolent gossip. For years the religious press has denounced them
with a vehemence as virulent, but happily more impotent than that of
the Inquisition. There has been an anguish and an inward struggle
little suspected, endured by men who felt themselves outcasts in their
own society, and naturally looked for a home elsewhere.
We congratulate ourselves that the days of persecution are gone by;
but persecution is that which affixes penalties upon _views held_,
instead of upon _life led_. Is persecution _only_ fire and sword? But
suppose a man of sensitive feeling says, The sword is less sharp to me
than the slander: fire is less intolerable than the refusal of
sympathy!
Now let us bring this home; you rejoice that the faggot and the stake
are given up;--_you_ never persecuted--you leave that to the wicked
Church of Rome. Yes, you never burned a human being alive--you never
clapped your hands as the death-shriek proclaimed that the lion's fang
had gone home into the most vital part of the victim's frame; but did
you never rob him of his friends?--gravely shake your head and
oracularly insinuate that he was leading souls to hell?--chill the
affections of his family?--take from him his good name? Did you never
with delight see his Church placarded as the Man of Sin, and hear the
platform denunciations which branded it with the spiritual
abominations of the Apocalypse? Did you never find a malicious
pleasure in repeating all the miserable gossip with which religious
slander fastened upon his daily acts, his words, and even his
uncommunicated thoughts? Did you never forget that for a man to "work
out his own salvation with fear and trembling" is a matter difficult
enough to be laid upon a human spirit, without intruding into the most
sacred department of another's life--that namely, which lies between
himself and God? Did you never say that "it was to be wished he should
go to Rome," until at last life became intolerable,--until he was
thrown more and more in upon himself; found himself, like his
Redeemer, in this world alone, but unable like his Redeemer, calmly to
repose upon the thought that his Father was with him? Then a stern
defiant spirit took possession of his soul, and there burst from his
lips, or heart, the wish for _rest_--rest at any cost,--peace
anywhere, if even it is to be found only in the bosom of the Church of
Rome!
II. The guilt of this license.
The first evil consequence is the harm that a man does himself: "so is
the tongue among the members, that it defiles the whole body." It is
not very obvious, in what way a man does himself harm by calumny. I
will take the simplest form in which this injury is done; it effects a
dissipation of spiritual energy. There are two ways in which the steam
of machinery may find an outlet for its force: it may work, and if so
it works silently; or it may escape, and that takes place loudly, in
air and noise. There are two ways in which the spiritual energy of a
man's soul may find its vent: it may express itself in action,
silently; or in words, noisily: but just so much of force as is thrown
into the one mode of expression, is taken from the other.
Few men suspect how much mere talk fritters away spiritual
energy,--that which should be spent in action, spends itself in words.
The fluent boaster is not the man who is steadiest before the enemy;
it is well said to him that his courage is better kept till it is
wanted. Loud utterance of virtuous indignation against evil from the
platform, or in the drawing-room, do not characterize the spiritual
giant: so much indignation as is expressed, has found vent, is wasted,
is taken away from the work of coping with evil; the man has so much
less left. And hence he who restrains that love of talk, lays up a
fund of spiritual strength.
With large significance, St. James declares, "If any man offend not in
word, the same is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body."
He is entire, powerful, because he has not spent his strength. In
these days of loud profession, and bitter, fluent condemnation, it is
well for us to learn the divine force of silence. Remember Christ in
the Judgment Hall, the very Symbol and Incarnation of spiritual
strength; and yet when revilings were loud around Him and charges
multiplied, "He held His peace."
2. The next feature in the guilt of calumny is its uncontrollable
character: "the tongue can no man tame." You cannot arrest a
calumnious tongue, you cannot arrest the calumny itself; you may
refute a slanderer, you may trace home a slander to its source, you
may expose the author of it, you may by that exposure give a lesson so
severe as to make the repetition of the offence appear impossible; but
the fatal habit is incorrigible: to-morrow the tongue is at work
again.
Neither can you stop the consequences of a slander; you may publicly
prove its falsehood, you may sift every atom, explain and annihilate
it, and yet, years after you had thought that all had been disposed of
for ever, the mention of a name wakes up associations in the mind of
some one who heard the calumny, but never heard or never attended to
the refutation, or who has only a vague and confused recollection of
the whole, and he asks the question doubtfully, "But were there not
some suspicious circumstances connected with him?"
It is like the Greek fire used in ancient warfare, which burnt
unquenched beneath the water, or like the weeds which when you have
extirpated them in one place are sprouting forth vigorously in another
spot, at the distance of many hundred yards; or, to use the metaphor
of St. James himself, it is like the wheel which catches fire as it
goes, and burns with a fiercer conflagration as its own speed
increases; "it sets on fire the whole course of nature" (literally,
the wheel of nature). You may tame the wild beast, the conflagration
of the American forest will cease when all the timber and the dry
underwood is consumed; but you cannot arrest the progress of that
cruel word which you uttered carelessly yesterday or this
morning,--which you will utter perhaps, before you have passed from
this church one hundred yards: that will go on slaying, poisoning,
burning beyond your own control, now and for ever.
3. The third element of guilt lies in the unnaturalness of calumny.
"My brethren, these things ought not so to be;" _ought not_--that is,
they are unnatural. That this is St. James's meaning is evident from
the second illustration which follows: "Doth a fountain send forth at
the same place, sweet water and bitter?" "Can the fig tree, my
brethren, bear olive berries, or a vine, figs?"
There is apparently in these metaphors little that affords an argument
against slander; the motive which they suggest would appear to many
far-fetched and of small cogency; but to one who looks on this world
as a vast whole, and who has recognised the moral law as only a part
of the great law of the universe, harmoniously blending with the
whole, illustrations such as these are the most powerful of all
arguments. The truest definition of evil is that which represents it
as something contrary to nature: evil is evil, because it is
unnatural; a vine which should bear olive berries, an eye to which
blue seems yellow, would be diseased: an unnatural mother, an
unnatural son, an unnatural act, are the strongest terms of
condemnation. It is this view which Christianity gives of moral evil:
the teaching of Christ was the recall of man to nature, not an
infusion of something new into Humanity. Christ came to call out all
the principles and powers of human nature, to restore the natural
equilibrium of all our faculties; not to call us back to our own
individual selfish nature, but to human nature as it is in God's
ideal--the perfect type which is to be realised in us. Christianity is
the regeneration of our whole nature, not the destruction of one atom
of it.
Now the nature of man is to adore God and to love what is god-like in
man. The office of the tongue is to bless. Slander is guilty because
it contradicts this; yet even in slander itself, perversion as it is,
the interest of man in man is still distinguishable. What is it but
perverted interest which makes the acts, and words, and thoughts of
his brethren, even in their evil, a matter of such strange delight?
Remember therefore, this contradicts your nature and your destiny; to
speak ill of others makes you a monster in God's world: get the habit
of slander, and then there is not a stream which bubbles fresh from
the heart of nature,--there is not a tree that silently brings forth
its genial fruit in its appointed season,--which does not rebuke and
proclaim you to be a monstrous anomaly in God's world.
4. The fourth point of guilt is the diabolical character of slander;
the tongue "is set on fire of hell." Now, this is no mere strong
expression--no mere indignant vituperation--it contains deep and
emphatic meaning.
The apostle means literally what he says, slander is diabolical. The
first illustration we give of this is contained in the very meaning of
the word devil. "Devil," in the original, means traducer or slanderer.
The first introduction of a demon spirit is found connected with a
slanderous insinuation against the Almighty, implying that His command
had been given in envy of His creature: "for God doth know that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be
as gods, knowing good and evil."
In the magnificent imagery of the book of Job, the accuser is
introduced with a demoniacal and malignant sneer, attributing the
excellence of a good man to interested motives; "Doth Job serve God
for naught?" There is another mode in which the fearful accuracy of
St. James's charge may be demonstrated. There is one state only from
which there is said to be no recovery--there is but one sin that is
called unpardonable. The Pharisees beheld the works of Jesus. They
could not deny that they were good works, they could not deny that
they were miracles of beneficence, but rather than acknowledge that
they were done by a good man through the co-operation of a Divine
spirit, they preferred to account for them by the wildest and most
incredible hypothesis; they said they were done by the power of
Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. It was upon this occasion that
our Redeemer said with solemn meaning, "For every idle word that men
shall speak, they shall give account in the day of judgment." It was
then that He said, for a word spoken against the Holy Ghost there is
no forgiveness in this world, or in the world to come.
Our own hearts respond to the truth of this--to call evil, good, and
good, evil--to see the Divinest good, and call it Satanic evil--below
this lowest deep there is _not_ a lower still. There is no cure for
mortification of the flesh--there is no remedy for ossification of the
heart. Oh! that miserable state, when to the jaundiced eye all good
transforms itself into evil, and the very instruments of health
become the poison of disease. Beware of every approach of
this!--Beware of that spirit which controversy fosters, of watching
only for the evil in the character of an antagonist!--Beware of that
habit which becomes the slanderer's life, of magnifying every speck of
evil and closing the eye to goodness!--till at last men arrive at the
state in which generous, universal love (which is heaven) becomes
impossible, and a suspicious, universal hate takes possession of the
heart, and _that_ is hell!
There is one peculiar manifestation of this spirit to which I desire
specially to direct your attention.
The politics of the community are guided by the political press. The
religious views of a vast number are formed by that portion of the
press which is called religious; it becomes, therefore, a matter of
deepest interest to inquire what is the spirit of that "religious
press." I am not asking you what are the views maintained--whether
Evangelical, Anglican, or Romish--but what is the _spirit_ of that
fountain from which the religious life of so many is nourished?
Let any man cast his eye over the pages of this portion of the
press--it matters little to which party the newspaper or the journal
may belong--he will be startled to find the characters of those whom
he has most deeply reverenced, whose hearts he knows, whose integrity
and life are above suspicion, held up to scorn and hatred: the organ
of one party is established against the organ of another, and it is
the recognised office of each to point out with microscopic care the
names of those whose views are to be shunned; and in order that these
may be the more shrunk from, the characters of those who hold such
opinions are traduced and vilified. There is no personality too
mean--there is no insinuation too audacious or too false for the
recklessness of these daring slanderers. I do not like to use the
expression, lest it should appear to be merely one of theatrical
vehemence; but I say it in all seriousness, adopting the inspired
language of the Bible, and using it advisedly and with accurate
meaning, the spirit which guides the "religious press" of this
country, which dictates those personalities, which prevents
controversialists from seeing what is good in their opponents, which
attributes low motives to account for excellent lives, and teaches
men whom to suspect, and shun, rather than point out where it is
possible to admire and love--is a spirit "set on fire of hell."
Before we conclude, let us get at the root of the matter. "Man," says
the Apostle James, "was made in the image of God:" to slander man is
to slander God: to love what is good in man is to love it in God. Love
is the only remedy for slander: no set of rules or restrictions can
stop it; we may denounce, but we shall denounce in vain. The radical
cure of it is Charity--"out of a pure heart and faith unfeigned," to
feel what is great in the human character; to recognise with delight
all high, and generous, and beautiful actions; to find a joy even in
seeing the good qualities of your bitterest opponents, and to admire
those qualities even in those with whom you have least sympathy--be it
either the Romanist or the Unitarian--this is the only spirit which
can heal the love of slander and of calumny. If we would bless God, we
must _first_ learn to bless man, who is made in the image of God.
II.
_Preached May 5, 1850._
THE VICTORY OF FAITH.
"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is
the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he
that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the
Son of God?"--1 John v. 4-5.
There are two words in the system of Christianity which have received
a meaning so new, and so emphatic, as to be in a way peculiar to it,
and to distinguish it from all other systems of morality and religion;
these two words are--the World, and Faith. We find it written in
Scripture that to have the friendship of the world is to be the enemy
of God--- whereupon the question arises--The world?--did not God make
the world? Did He not place us in the world? Are we not to love what
God has made? And yet meeting this distinctly we have the inspired
record, "Love not the World."
The object of the Statesman is, or ought to be, to produce as much
worldly prosperity as possible--but Christianity, that is Christ,
speaks little of this world's prosperity, underrates it--nay, speaks
of it at times as infinitely dangerous.
The legislator prohibits crime--the moralist transgression--the
religionist sin. To these Christianity superadds a new enemy--the
world and the things of the world. "If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him."
The other word used in a peculiar sense is Faith. It is impossible for
any one to have read his Bible ever so negligently, and not to be
aware that the word Faith, or the grace of Faith, forms a large
element in the Christian system. It is said to work miracles, remove
mountains, justify the soul, trample upon impossibilities. Every
apostle, in his way, assigns to faith a primary importance. Jude
tells us to "build up ourselves in our most holy faith." John tells us
that--"he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is the born of
God;" and Paul tells us that, not by merit nor by works, but by trust
or reliance only, can be formed that state of soul by which man is
reckoned just before God. In these expressions, the apostles only
develope their Master's meaning, when He uses such words as these,
"All things are possible to him that believeth:" "O thou of little
faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"
These two words are brought into diametrical opposition in the text,
so that it branches into a two-fold line of thought
I. The Christian's enemy, the World.
II. The victory of Faith.
In endeavouring to understand first what is meant by the world, we
shall feel that the mass of evil which is comprehended under this
expression, cannot be told out in any one sermon; it is an expression
used in various ways, sometimes meaning one thing, sometimes meaning
another;-but we will endeavour to explain its general principles--and
these we will divide into three heads; first, the tyranny of the
present; secondly, the tyranny of the sensual; and lastly, the spirit
of society.
1. The tyranny of the present.
"Christ," says the Apostle Paul, "hath redeemed us from this present
evil world;" and again, "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this,
present world."
Let a stress be laid on the word _present_. Worldliness is the
attractive power of something present, in opposition to something to
come. It is this rule and tyranny of the present that constitutes
Demas a worldly man.
In this respect, worldliness is the spirit of childhood carried on
into manhood. The child lives in the present hour--to-day to him is
everything. The holiday promised at a distant interval is no holiday
at all--it must be either now or never. Natural in the child, and
therefore pardonable, this spirit, when carried on into manhood, is
coarse--is worldliness. The most distinct illustration given us of
this, is the case of Esau. Esau came from the hunting-field worn and
hungry; the only means of procuring the tempting mess of his brother's
pottage was the sacrifice of his father's blessing, which in those
ages carried with it a substantial advantage; but that birthright
could be enjoyed only after _years_--the pottage was _present_, near,
and certain; therefore he sacrificed a future and higher blessing, for
a present and lower pleasure. For this reason Esau is the Bible type
of worldliness: he is called in Scripture a profane, that is, not a
distinctly vicious, but a secular or worldly person--an overgrown
child; impetuous, inconsistent, not without gleams of generosity and
kindliness, but ever accustomed to immediate gratification.
In this worldliness, moreover, is to be remarked the gamester's
desperate play. There is a gambling spirit in human nature. Esau
distinctly expresses this: "Behold I am at the point to die, and what
shall my birthright profit me?" He might never live to enjoy his
birthright; but the pottage was before him, present, certain, _there_.
Now, observe the utter powerlessness of mere preaching to cope with
this tyrannical power of the present. Forty thousand pulpits
throughout the land this day, will declaim against the vanity of
riches, the uncertainty of life, the sin of worldliness--against the
gambling spirit of human nature; I ask what _impression_ will be
produced by those forty thousand harangues? In every congregation it
is reducible to a certainty that, before a year has passed, some will
be numbered with the dead. Every man knows this, but he thinks the
chances are that it will not be himself; he feels it a solemn thing
for Humanity generally--but for himself there is more than a chance.
Upon this chance he plays away life.
It is so with the child: you tell him of the consequences of to-day's
idleness--but the sun is shining brightly, and he cannot sacrifice
to-day's pleasure, although he knows the disgrace it will bring
to-morrow. So it is with the intemperate man: he says--"Sufficient
unto the day is the evil, and the good thereof; let me have my portion
now." So that one great secret of the world's victory lies in the
mighty power of saying "_Now_."
2. The tyranny of the sensual.
I call it _tyranny_, because the evidences of the senses are all
powerful, in spite of the protestations of the reason. In vain you try
to persuade the child that _he_ is moving, and not the trees which
seem to flit past the carriage--in vain we remind ourselves that this
apparently solid earth on which we stand, and which seems so
immoveable, is in reality flying through the regions of space with an
inconceivable rapidity--in vain philosophers would persuade us that
the colour which the eye beholds, resides not in the object itself,
but in our own perception; we are victims of the apparent, and the
verdict of the senses is taken instead of the verdict of the reason.
Precisely so is it with the enjoyments of the world. The man who died
yesterday, and whom the world called a successful man--for what did he
live?--He lived for this world--he gained this world. Houses, lands,
name, position in society--all that earth could give of enjoyments--he
had: he was the man of whom the Redeemer said that his thoughts were
occupied in planning how to pull down his barns and build greater. We
hear men complain of the sordid love of gold, but gold is merely a
medium of exchange for other things: gold is land, titles, name,
comfort--all that the world can give. If the world be _all_, it is
_wise_ to live for gold. There may be some little difference in the
degree of degradation in different forms of worldliness; it is
possible that the ambitious man who lives for power is somewhat higher
than he who merely lives for applause, and he again may be a trifle
higher than the mere seeker after gold--but after all, looking closely
at the matter, you will find that, in respect of the objects of their
idolatry, they agree in this, that all belong to the present.
Therefore, says the Apostle, all that is in the world--"the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but of the world," and are only various forms of one great
tyranny. And then when such a man is at the brink of death, the words
said to the man in our Lord's parable must be said to him. "Thou fool,
the houses thou hast built, the enjoyments thou hast prepared; and all
those things which have formed thy life for years--when thy soul is
taken from them, what shall they profit thee?"
3. The spirit of society.
The _World_ has various meanings in Scripture; it does not always mean
the Visible, as opposed to the Invisible; nor the Present, as opposed
to the Future: it sometimes stands for the secular spirit of the
day--the Voice of Society.
Our Saviour says, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his
own." The apostle says, "Be not conformed to this world;" and to the
Gentiles he writes, "In time past ye walked according to the course of
this world, the spirit which now worketh in the children of
disobedience." In these verses, a tone, a temper, a spirit is spoken
of. There are two things--the Church and the World--two spirits
pervading different bodies of men, brought before us in these
verses--those called the Spirit-born, and those called the World,
which is to be overcome by the Spirit-born, as in the text,
"Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world."
Let us understand what is meant by the Church of God. When we speak of
the Church we generally mean a society to aid men in their progress
God-wards; but the Church of God is by no means co-extensive in any
age with that organized institution which we _call_ the Church;
sometimes it is nearly co-extensive--that is, nearly all on earth who
are born of God are found within its pale, nearly all who are of the
world are extraneous to it--but sometimes the born of God have been
found distinct from the Institution called the Church, opposed to
it--persecuted by it. The Institution of the Church is a blessed
ordinance of God, organized on earth for the purpose of representing
the Eternal Church and of extending its limits, but still ever
subordinate to it.
The Eternal Church is "the general assembly and church of the
first-born which are written in heaven;" the selected spirits of the
most High, who are struggling with the evil of their day; sometimes
alone, like Elijah, and like him, longing that their work was done;
sometimes conscious of their union with each other. God is for ever
raising up a succession of these--His brave, His true, His good.
Apostolical succession, as taught sometimes, means simply this--a
succession of miraculous powers flowing in a certain line. The true
apostolic succession is--not a succession in an hereditary line, or
line marked by visible signs which men can always identify, but a
succession emphatically spiritual.
The Jews looked for an hereditary succession; they thought that
because they were Abraham's seed, the spiritual succession was
preserved; the Redeemer told them that "God was able of those stones
to raise up children unto Abraham." Therefore is this ever a spiritual
succession--in the hands of God alone; and they are here called the
God-born, coming into the world variously qualified; sometimes
baptized with the spirit which makes them, like James and John, the
"Sons of Thunder," sometimes with a milder spirit, as Barnabas, which
makes them "Sons of Consolation," sometimes having their souls
indurated into an adamantine hardness, which makes them living
stones--rocks like Peter, against which the billows of this world dash
themselves in vain, and against which the gates of hell shall not
prevail. But whether as apostles, or visitors of the poor, or parents
of a family, born to do a work on earth, to speak a word, to discharge
a mission which they themselves perhaps do not know till it is
accomplished--these are the Church of God--the children of the Most
High--the noble army of the Spirit-born! Opposed to this stands the
mighty confederacy called the World. But beware of fixing on
individual men in order to stigmatize _them_ as the world. You may not
draw a line and say--"We are the sons of God, ye are of the world."
The world is not so much individual as it is a certain spirit; the
course of this world is "the spirit which now worketh in the children
of disobedience." The world and the Church are annexed as inseparably
as the elements which compose the atmosphere. Take the smallest
portion of this that you will, in a cubic inch the same proportions
are found as in a temple. In the ark there was a Ham; in the small
band of the twelve apostles there was a Judas.
The spirit of the world is for ever altering--impalpable; for ever
eluding, in fresh forms, your attempts to seize it. In the days of
Noah, the spirit of the world was _violence_. In Elijah's day it was
_idolatry_. In the day of Christ it was _power_ concentrated and
condensed in the government of Rome. In ours, perhaps, it is the _love
of money_. It enters in different proportions into different bosoms;
it is found in a different form in contiguous towns; in the
fashionable watering place, and in the commercial city: it is this
thing at Athens, and another in Corinth. This is the spirit of the
world--a thing in my heart and yours: to be struggled against, not so
much in the case of others, as in the silent battle to be done within
our own souls. Pass we on now to consider--
II. The victory of faith.
Faith is a theological expression; we are apt to forget that it has
any other than a theological import; yet it is the commonest principle
of man's daily life, called in that region prudence, enterprise, or
some such name. It is in effect the principle on which alone any human
superiority can be gained. Faith, in religion, is the same principle
as faith in worldly matters, differing only in its object: it rises
through successive stages. When, in reliance upon your promise, your
child gives up the half-hour's idleness of to-day for the holiday of
to-morrow, he lives by faith; a future supersedes the present
pleasure. When he abstains from over-indulgence of the appetite, in
reliance upon your word that the result will be pain and sickness,
sacrificing the present pleasure for fear of future punishment, he
acts on faith: I do not say that this is a high exercise of faith--it
is a very low one--but it _is_ faith.
Once more: the same motive of action may be carried on into manhood;
in our own times two religious principles have been exemplified in the
subjugation of a vice. The habit of intoxication has been broken by an
appeal to the principle of combination, and the principle of belief.
Men were taught to feel that they were not solitary stragglers against
the vice; they were enrolled in a mighty army, identified in
principles and interests. Here was the principle of the
Church--association for reciprocated strength; they were thus taught
the inevitable result of the indulgence of the vice. The missionaries
of temperance went through the country contrasting the wretchedness
and the degradation and the filth of drunkenness with the domestic
comfort, and the health, and the regular employment of those who were
masters of themselves. So far as men believed this, and gave up the
tyranny of the present for the hope of the future--so far they lived
by faith.
Brethren, I do not say that this was a high triumph for the principle
of faith; it was in fact, little more than selfishness; it was a high
future balanced against a low present; only the preference of a future
and higher physical enjoyment to a mean and lower one. Yet still to be
ruled by this influence raises a man in the scale of being: it is a
low virtue, prudence, a form of selfishness; yet prudence _is_ a
virtue. The merchant, who forecasts, saves, denies himself
systematically through years, to amass a fortune, is not a very lofty
being, yet he is higher, as a man, than he who is sunk in mere bodily
gratifications. You would not say that the intemperate man--who has
become temperate in order, merely to gain by that temperance honour
and happiness--is a great man, but you would say he was a higher and a
better man than he who is enslaved by his passions, or than the
gambler who improvidently stakes all upon a moment's throw. The
worldly mother who plans for the advancement of a family, and
sacrifices solid enjoyments for a splendid alliance, is only _worldly_
wise, yet in that manoeuvring and worldly prudence there is the
exercise of a self-control which raises her above the mere giddy
pleasure-hunter of the hour; for want of self-control is the weakness
of our nature--to restrain, to wait, to control present feeling with a
large foresight, is human strength.
Once more, instead of a faith like that of the child, which over-leaps
a few hours, or that of the worldly man, which over-passes years,
there may be a faith which transcends the whole span of life, and,
instead of looking for temporal enjoyments, looks for rewards in a
future beyond the grave, instead of a future limited to time.
This is again a step. The child has sacrificed a day; the man has
sacrificed a little more. Faith has now reached a stage which deserves
to be called religious; not that this however, is very grand; it does
but prefer a happiness hereafter to a happiness enjoyed here--an
eternal well-being instead of a temporal well-being; it is but
prudence on a grand scale--another form of selfishness--an
anticipation of infinite rewards instead of finite, and not the more
noble because of the infinitude of the gain: and yet this is what is
often taught as religion in books and sermons. We are told that sin is
wrong, because it will make us miserable hereafter. Guilt is
represented as the short-sightedness which barters for a home on
earth--a home in heaven.
In the text-book of ethics studied in one of our universities, virtue
is defined as that which is done at the command of God for the sake of
an eternal reward. So then, religion is nothing more than a
calculation of infinite and finite quantities; vice is nothing more
than a grand imprudence; and heaven is nothing more than selfishness
rewarded with eternal well-being!