had been wishing and expecting that the kingdom of God would come. The
kingdom of God is Right triumphant over Wrong, moral evil crushed,
goodness set up in its place, the true man recognised, the false man
put down and forgotten. All his life long John had panted for that;
his hope was to make men better. He tried to make the soldiers
merciful, and the publicans honest, and the Pharisees sincere. His
complaint was, Why is the world the thing it is? All his life long he
had been appealing to the invisible justice of Heaven against the
visible brute force which he saw around him. Christ had appeared, and
his hopes were straining to the utmost. "Here is the Man!" And now
behold, here is no Kingdom of Heaven at all, but one of darkness
still, oppression and cruelty triumphant, Herod putting God's prophet
in prison, and the Messiah quietly letting things take their course.
Can that be indeed Messiah? All this was exceedingly startling. And it
seems that then John began to feel the horrible doubt whether the
whole thing were not a mistake, and whether all that which he had
taken for inspiration were not, after all, only the excited hopes of
an enthusiastic temperament. Brethren, the prophet was well nigh on
the brink of failure.
But let us mark--that a man has doubts--_that_ is not the evil; all
earnest men must expect to be tried with doubts. All men who feel,
with their whole souls, the value of the truth which is at stake,
cannot be satisfied with a "perhaps." Why, when all that is true and
excellent in this world, all that is worth living for, is in that
question of questions, it is no marvel if we sometimes wish, like
Thomas, to see the prints of the nails, to know whether Christ be
indeed our Lord or not. Cold hearts are not anxious enough to doubt.
Men who love will have their misgivings at times; that is not the
evil. But the evil is, when men go on in that languid, doubting way,
content to doubt, proud of their doubts, morbidly glad to talk about
them, liking the romantic gloom of twilight, without the manliness to
say--I must and will know the truth. That did not John. Brethren, John
appealed to Christ. He did exactly what we do when we pray--and he got
his answer. Our Master said to his disciples, Go to my suffering
servant, and give him proof. Tell John the things ye see and
hear--"The blind see, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor
the Gospel is preached." There is a deep lesson wrapped up in this. We
get a firm grasp of truth by prayer. Communion with Christ is the best
proof of Christ's existence and Christ's love. It is so even in human
life. Misgivings gather darkly round our heart about our friend in his
absence; but we seek his frank smile, we feel his affectionate grasp:
our suspicions go to sleep again. It is just so in religion. No man is
in the habit of praying to God in Christ, and then doubts whether
Christ is He "that should come." It is in the power of prayer to
realize Christ, to bring him near, to make you feel His life stirring
like a pulse within you. Jacob could not doubt whether he had been
with God when his sinew shrunk. John could not doubt whether Jesus was
the Christ when the things He had done were pictured out so vividly in
answer to his prayer. Let but a man live with Christ anxious to have
his own life destroyed, and Christ's life established in its place,
losing himself in Christ, that man will have all his misgivings
silenced. These are the two remedies for doubt--Activity and Prayer.
He who works, and _feels_ he works--he who prays, and _knows_ he
prays, has got the secret of transforming life-failure into
life-victory.
In conclusion brethren, we make three remarks which could not be
introduced into the body of this subject. The first is--Let young and
ardent minds, under the first impressions of religion, beware how they
pledge themselves by any open profession to more than they can
perform. Herod warmly took up religion at first, courted the prophet
of religion, and then when the hot fit of enthusiasm had passed away,
he found that he had a clog round his life from which he could only
disengage himself by a rough, rude effort. Brethren whom God has
touched, it is good to count the cost before you begin. If you give up
present pursuits _impetuously_, are you sure that present impulses
will last? Are you quite certain that a day will not come when you
will curse the hour in which you broke altogether with the world? Are
you quite sure that the revulsion back again, will not be as impetuous
as Herod's, and your hatred of the religion which has become a clog,
as intense as it is now ardent?
Many things doubtless there are to be given up--amusements that are
dangerous, society that is questionable. What we give up, let us give
up, not from quick feeling, but from principle. Enthusiasm is a lovely
thing, but let us be calm in what we do. In that solemn, grand
thing--Christian life--one step backward is religious death.
Once more we get from this subject the doctrine of a resurrection.
John's life was hardness, his end was agony. That is frequently
Christian life. Therefore, says the apostle, if there be no
resurrection the Christian's choice is wrong; "If in this life only we
have hope in Christ, then are we of all men most miserable." Christian
life is not visible success--very often it is the apparent opposite of
success. It is the resurrection of Christ working itself out _in_ us;
but it is very often the Cross of Christ imprinting itself on us very
sharply. The highest prize which God has to give here is martyrdom.
The highest style of life is the Baptist's--heroic, enduring, manly
love. The noblest coronet which any son of man can wear is a crown of
thorns. Christian, _this_ is not your rest. Be content to feel that
this world is not your home. Homeless upon earth, try more and more to
make your home in heaven, above with Christ.
Lastly we have to learn from this, that devotedness to Christ is our
only blessedness. It is surely a strange thing to see the way in which
men crowded round the austere prophet, all saying, "Guide us, we
cannot guide ourselves." Publicans, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herod,
whenever John appears, all bend before him, offering him homage and
leadership. How do we account for this? The truth is, the spirit of
man groans beneath the weight of its own freedom. When a man has no
guide, no master but himself, he is miserable; we want guidance, and
if we find a man nobler, wiser than ourselves, it is almost our
instinct to prostrate our affections before that man, as the crowds
did by Jordan, and say, "Be my example, my guide, my soul's
sovereign." That passionate need of worship--hero-worship it has been
called--is a primal, universal instinct of the heart. Christ is the
answer to it. Men will not do; we try to find men to reverence
thoroughly, and we cannot do it. We go through life, finding guides,
rejecting them one after another, expecting nobleness and finding
meanness; and we turn away with a recoil of disappointment.
There is no disappointment in Christ. Christ can be our souls'
sovereign. Christ can be our guide. Christ can absorb all the
admiration which our hearts long to give. We want to worship men.
These Jews wanted to worship man. They were right--man is the rightful
object of our worship; but in the roll of ages there has been but one
man whom we can adore without idolatry,--the Man Christ Jesus.
THE END.
_Spottiswoode & Co., Printers, New-street Square, London_
A SELECTION FROM THE NOTICES
OF
MR. ROBERTSON'S SERMONS,
AND OF THE
LIFE AND LETTERS OF F.W. ROBERTSON.
BY THE REV. STOPFORD A. BROOKE, M.A.
[BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, August, 1862.]
"For while hapless Englishmen complain in the papers, and in
private, in many a varied wail, over the sermons they have to
listen to, it is very apparent that the work of the preacher has
not fallen in any respect out of estimation. Here is a book which
has gone through as great a number of editions as the most popular
novel. It bears Mudie's stamp upon its dingy boards, and has all
those marks of arduous service which are only to be seen in books
which belong to great public libraries. It is thumbed,
dog's-eared, pencil-marked, worn by much perusal. Is it then a
novel? On the contrary, it is a volume of sermons. A fine, tender,
and lofty mind, full of thoughtfulness, full of devotion, has
herein left his legacy to his country. It is not rhetoric or any
vulgar excitement of eloquence that charms so many readers to the
book, so many hearers to this preacher's feet. It is not with the
action of a Demosthenes, with outstretched arms and countenance of
flame, that he presses his gospel upon his audience. On the
contrary, when we read those calm and lofty utterances, this
preacher seems seated, like his Master, with the multitude
palpitating round, but no agitation or passion in his own
thoughtful, contemplative breast. The Sermons of Robertson, of
Brighton, have few of the exciting qualities of oratory. Save for
the charm of a singularly pure and lucid style, their almost sole
attraction consists in their power of instruction, in their
faculty of opening up the mysteries of life and truth. It is pure
teaching, so far as that ever can be administered to a popular
audience, which is offered to us in these volumes."
[EDINBURGH CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE.]
"They are Sermons of a bold, uncompromising thinker--of a man
resolute for the truth of God, and determined in the strength of
God's grace to make that truth clear, to brush away all the
fine-spun sophistries and half-truths by which the cunning sins of
men have hidden it.... There must be a great and true heart, where
there is a great and true preacher. And in that, beyond everything
else, lay the secret of Mr. Robertson's influence. His Sermons
show evidence enough of acute logical power. His analysis is
exquisite in its subtleness and delicacy.... With Mr. Robertson
style is but the vehicle, not the substitute for thought.
Eloquence, poetry, scholarship, originality--his Sermons show
proof enough of these to put him on a level with the foremost men
of his time. But, after all, their charm lies in the warm, loving,
sympathetic heart, in the well-disciplined mind of the true
Christian, in his noble scorn of all lies, of all things mean and
crooked, in his brave battling for right, even when wrong seems
crowned with success, in his honest simplicity and singleness of
purpose, in the high and holy tone--as if, amid the discord of
earth, he heard clear, though far off, the perfect harmony of
heaven; in the fiery earnestness of his love for Christ, the
devotion of his whole being to the goodness and truth revealed in
him."
[CHURCH OF ENGLAND MONTHLY REVIEW.]
"It is hardly too much to say, that had the Church of England
produced no other fruit in the present century, this work alone
would be amply sufficient to acquit her of the charge of
barrenness.... The reputation of Mr. Robertson's Sermons is now so
wide-spread, that any commendation of ours may seem superfluous.
We will therefore simply, in conclusion, recommend such of our
readers as have not yet made their acquaintance, to read them
carefully and thoughtfully, and they will find in them more deeply
suggestive matter than in almost any book published in the present
century."
[MORNING POST.]
"They are distinguished by masterly exposition of Scriptural
truths and the true spirit of Christian charity."
[BRITISH QUARTERLY.]
"These Sermons are full of thought and beauty, and admirable
illustrations of the ease with which a gifted and disciplined mind
can make the obscure transparent, the difficult plain. There is
not a Sermon that does not furnish evidence of originality without
extravagance, of discrimination without tediousness, and of piety
without cant or conventionalism."
[ECLECTIC REVIEW.]
"We hail with unaffected delight the appearance of these volumes.
The Sermons are altogether out of the common style. They are
strong, free, and beautiful utterances of a gifted and cultivated
mind. Occasionally, the expression of theological sentiment fails
fully to represent our own thought, and we sometimes detect
tendencies with which we cannot sympathize: but, taken as a whole,
the discourses are fine specimens of a high order of preaching."
[GUARDIAN.]
"Very beautiful in feeling, and occasionally striking and forcible
in conception to a remarkable degree.... Even in the imperfect
shape in which their deceased author left them, they are very
remarkable compositions."
[CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER.]
"We should be glad if all preachers more united with ourselves,
preached such Sermons as these."
[WESTMINSTER REVIEW.]
"To those who affectionately remember the author, they will
recall, though imperfectly, his living eloquence and his living
truthfulness."
[GLOBE.]
"Mr. Robertson, of Brighton, is a name familiar to most of us, and
honoured by all to whom it is familiar. A true servant of Christ,
a bold and heart-stirring preacher of the Gospel, his teaching was
unlike the teaching of most clergymen, for it was beautified and
intensified by genius. New truth, new light, streamed from each
well-worn text when he handled it."
[BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.]
"When teaching of this description keeps the popular ear and
secures the general attention, it is unquestionable proof that the
office of the preacher has, in no way, lost its hold on the mind
of the people. The acceptance of a voice so unimpassioned and
thoughtful, so independent of all vulgar auxiliaries, so intent
upon bringing every theme it touches to the illustration and
sanctifying of the living life of the hour, that which alone can
be mended, and purified, and sanctified, is a better tribute to
the undying office of the preacher than the success of a hundred
Spurgeons. Attention and interest are as eager as ever where there
is in reality any instruction to bestow."
[LITERARY GAZETTE.]
"In earnestness of practical appeal, and in eloquent and graceful
diction, Mr. Robertson has few rivals, and these characteristics
are sufficient to account for his unusual popularity."
[NATIONAL REVIEW.]
"A volume of very fine Sermons, quite equal to the previous
series."
[BRIGHTON EXAMINER.]
"There is in the Sermons in this volume the same freshness, vigour
of thought and felicity of expression, as characterised whatever
Mr. Robertson said."
[ECONOMIST.]
"Mr. Robertson's Sermons have the great and rare merit of
neutralising by a more charitable and affectionate spirit, and by
a wider intelligence, all that may appear rigid and _doctrinaire_
in the Church of England. The result seems to have been his
special mission: it most fully explains the mind of the man.... We
recommend the Sermons to the perusal of our readers. They will
find in them thought of so rare and beautiful a description, an
earnestness of mind so steadfast in the search of truth, and a
charity so pure and all-embracing, that we cannot venture to offer
praise, which would be, in this case, almost as presumptuous as
criticism."
[SATURDAY REVIEW.]
"When Mr. Robertson died, his name was scarcely known beyond the
circle of his own private friends, and of those among whom he had
laboured in his calling. Now, every word he wrote is eagerly
sought for and affectionately treasured up, and meets with the
most reverent and admiring welcome from men of all parties and all
shades of opinion.... To those that find in his writings what they
themselves want, he is a teacher quite beyond comparison--his
words having a meaning, his thoughts a truth and depth, which they
cannot find elsewhere. And they never look to him in vain.... He
fixes himself upon the recollection as a most original and
profound thinker, and as a man in whom excellence puts on a new
form.... There are many persons, and the number increases every
year, to whom Robertson's writings are the most stable,
satisfactory, and exhaustless form of religious teaching which the
nineteenth century has given--the most wise, suggestive, and
practical."
[BRIGHTON HERALD.]
"To our thinking, no compositions of the same class, at least
since the days of Jeremy Taylor, can be compared with these
Sermons delivered to the congregation of Trinity Chapel, Brighton,
by their late minister. They have that power over the mind which
belongs only to the highest works of genius: they stir the soul to
its inmost depths: they move the affections, raise the
imagination, bring out the higher and spiritual part of our nature
by the continual appeal that is made to it, and tend to make us,
at the same time, humble and aspiring--merciful to others and
doubtful of ourselves."
[From a SERMON preached at the CONSECRATION of the BISHOP of NORWICH,
by the REV. J.H. GURNEY, late of MARYLEBONE.]
"I do not commit myself to all his theology; I may differ from the
preacher in some things, and listen doubtfully to others. But I
know of no modern sermons at once so suggestive and so
inspiriting, with reference to the whole range of Christian duty.
He is fresh and original without being recondite: plain-spoken
without severity; and discusses some of the exciting topics of the
day without provoking strife or lowering his tone as a Christian
teacher. He delivers his message, in fact, like one who is
commissioned to call men off from trifles and squabbles, and
conventional sins and follies, to something higher and nobler than
their common life: like a man in earnest, too, avoiding
technicalities, speaking his honest mind in phrases that are his
own, and with a directness from which there is no escape. O that a
hundred like him were given us by God, and placed in prominent
stations throughout our land!"
[GUARDIAN.]
"Without anything of that artificial symmetry which the
traditional division into heads was apt to display, they present
each reflection in a distinct method of statement, clearly and
briefly worked out; the sentences are short and terse, as in all
popular addresses they should be; the thoughts are often very
striking, and entirely out of the track of ordinary sermonising.
In matters of doctrine such novelty is sometimes unsafe; but the
language is that of one who tries earnestly to penetrate into the
very centre of the truth he has to expound, and differs as widely
as possible from the sceptic's doubt or the controversialist's
mistake. More frequently Mr. Robertson deals with questions of
practical life, of public opinion, and of what we may call social
casuistry--turning the light of Christian ethics upon this
unnoticed though familiar ground. The use of a carriage on Sunday,
the morality of feeing a railway porter against his employers'
rules, are topics not too small for illustration or application of
his lessons in divine truth."
[BRIGHTON GAZETTE.]
"As an author, Mr. Robertson was, in his lifetime, unknown; for
with the exception of one or two addresses, he never published,
having a singular disinclination to bring his thoughts before the
public in the form of published sermons. As a minister, he was
beloved and esteemed for his unswerving fidelity to his principles
and his fearless propagation of his religious views. As a
townsman, he was held in the highest estimation; his hand and
voice being ever ready to do all in his power to advance the moral
and social position of the working man. It was not till after his
decease, which event created a sensation and demonstration such as
Brighton never before or since witnessed, that his works were
subjected to public criticism. It was then found that in the
comparatively retired minister of Trinity Chapel there had existed
a man possessed of consummate ability and intellect of the highest
order; that the sermons laid before his congregation were replete
with the subtleties of intellect, and bore evidence of the keenest
perception and most exalted catholicity. His teaching was of an
extremely liberal character, and if fair to assign a man possessed
of such a universality of sympathy to any party, we should say
that he belonged to what is denominated the 'Broad Church.' We,
with many others, cannot agree in the fullest extent of his
teaching, but, at the same time, feel bound to accord the tribute
due to his genius."
[MORNING CHRONICLE.]
"A volume of very excellent Sermons, by the late lamented
Incumbent of Trinity Chapel, Brighton."
[TITAN.]
"But the Sermons now under notice are, we venture to say, taking
all the circumstances into consideration, the most remarkable
discourses of the age.... They are throughout vital with the
rarest force, burning with an earnestness perhaps never surpassed,
and luminous with the light of genius.... We suspect that even
Brighton little knew what a man Providence had placed in its
midst."
* * * * *
On the "_Analysis of Mr. Tennyson's In Memoriam_:"--
[GUARDIAN.]
"An endeavour to give, in a few weighty words, the key-note (so to
speak) of each poem in the series. Those will best appreciate the
amount of success attained by Mr. Robertson who try to do the same
work better."
* * * * *
From a few of the Notices on Mr. Robertson's "_Lecture on the Epistles
to the Corinthians_:"--
[MORNING POST.]
"It was Mr. Robertson's custom every Sunday afternoon, instead of
preaching from one text, to expound an entire chapter of some book
in the Scriptures. The present volume is made up from notes of
fifty-six discourses of this kind. 'Some people were startled by
the introduction of what they called secular subjects into the
pulpit. But the lecturer in all his ministrations refused to
recognize the distinction so drawn. He said that the whole life of
a Christian was sacred--that common every-day doings, whether of a
trade, or of a profession, or the minuter details of a woman's
household life, were the arenas in which trial and temptation
arose; and that therefore it became the Christian minister's duty
to enter into this family working life with his people, and help
them to understand its meaning, its trials, and its
compensations.' It is enough to add that the lectures now given to
the public are written in this spirit."
[CRITIC.]
"Such discourses as these before us, so different from the shallow
rhapsodies or tedious hair-splitting which are now so much in
vogue, may well make us regret that Mr. Robertson can never be
heard again in the pulpit. This single volume would in itself
establish a reputation for its writer."
[BRIGHTON HERALD.]
"... Were there no name on the title-page, the spirit which,
shines forth in these lectures could but be recognized as that of
the earnest, true-hearted man, the deep thinker, the sympathizer
with all kinds of human trouble, the aspirant for all things holy,
and one who joined to these rare gifts, the faculty of speaking to
his fellow-men in such a manner as to fix their attention and win
their love.... In whatever spirit the volume is read--of doubt, of
criticism, or of full belief in the truths it teaches--it can but
do good; it can but leave behind the conviction that here was a
genuine, true-hearted man, gifted with the highest intellect,
inspired by the most disinterested motives and the purest love for
his fellow-men, and that the fountain at which he warmed his heart
and kindled his eloquence was that which flows from Christ."
[BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.]
"This volume will be a welcome gift to many an intelligent and
devout mind. There are few of our modern questions, theological or
ecclesiastical, that do not come up for discussion in the course
of these Epistles to the Christians at Corinth."
[MORNING HERALD.]
"No one can read these lectures without being charmed by their
singular freshness and originality of thought, their earnest,
simple eloquence, and their manly piety. There is no mawkish
sentiment, no lukewarm, semi-religious twaddle, smacking of the
_Record_; no proclamation of party views or party opinions, but a
broad, healthy, living, and fervent exposition of one of the most
difficult books in the Bible. Every page is full of personal
earnestness and depth of feeling; but every page is also free from
the slightest trace of vanity and egotism. The words come home to
the reader's heart as the utterance of a sincere man who felt
every sentence which flowed from his lips."
[PRESS.]
"One of the most marked features of these lectures is the deep
feeling which the preacher had of the emptiness and hollowness of
the conventional religionism of the day. The clap-trap of popular
ministers, the pride and uncharitableness of exclusive
Evangelicalism, the pomp and pretension of ritualism and priestly
affectation--the miserable Pharisaism which is lurking underneath
them all--form the subject of many strikingly true and often
cutting remarks. He has no patience with the unrealities of
sectarian purism and pedantic orthodoxy. His constant cry, the
constant struggle of his soul is for reality. Hence while his
views of objective truth are at times deficient, or, at least,
very imperfectly stated, he leaves a deep impress of subjective
religion upon the mind, by a style of teaching which, far from
uninstructive, is yet more eminently suggestive."
[THE SPECTATOR.]