they are, the Prophetic Spirit, who inspired them, saw that they too
would in various places describe that sacred Christian feast, which we
feel they do describe; and surely we may rightly call this coincidence
between the ordinance in the Christian Church and the form of words in
the Psalms, a mark of design. For instance: "Thou shalt prepare a
Table before me against them that trouble me. Thou hast anointed my
head with oil, and my Cup shall be full." "I will wash my hands in
innocency, O Lord, and so will I go to Thine Altar." "O send out Thy
light and Thy truth, that they may lead me, and bring me unto Thy holy
hill, and to Thy dwelling; and that I may go unto the Altar of God,
even unto the God of my joy and gladness." "The children of men shall
put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be satisfied
with the plenteousness of Thy house, and Thou shalt give them drink of
Thy pleasures as out of the river. For with Thee is the well of life,
and in Thy light shall we see light." "Blessed is the man whom Thou
choosest and receivest unto Thee; he shall dwell in Thy court, and
shall be satisfied with the pleasures of Thy house, even of Thy Holy
Temple." "My soul shall be satisfied, even as it were with marrow and
fatness, when my mouth praiseth Thee with joyful lips . . . because
Thou hast been my helper, therefore under the shadow of Thy wings will
I rejoice[16]."
The same wonderful feast is put before us in the book of Proverbs,
where Wisdom stands for Christ. "Wisdom hath builded her house," that
is, Christ has built His Church, "she hath hewn out her seven pillars,
she hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine (that is, Christ
has prepared His Supper), she hath also furnished her table (that is,
the Lord's Table), she hath sent forth her maidens (that is, the
priests of the Lord), she crieth upon the highest places of the city.
Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither; as for him that wanteth
understanding, she saith to him. Come, eat of My Bread and drink of
the Wine which I have mingled[17],"--which is like saying, "Come unto
Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will refresh you."
Like which are the prophet Isaiah's words; "Ho, every one that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye
buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without
price[18]." And such too is the description in the book of Canticles:
"The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the
tender grapes give a good smell" . . . . "Until the day break and the
shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the
hill of frankincense" . . . "I have gathered My myrrh with My spice, I
have eaten My honeycomb with My honey, I have drunk My wine with My
milk; eat, O friends, drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved[19]!" In
connexion with such passages as these should be observed St. Paul's
words, which seem from the antithesis to be an allusion to the same
most sacred Ordinance: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but
be filled with the Spirit," with that new wine which God the Holy
Spirit ministers in the Supper of the Great King.
God grant that we may be able ever to come to this Blessed Sacrament
with feelings suitable to the passages which I have read concerning it!
May we not regard it in a cold, heartless way, and keep at a distance
from fear, when we should rejoice! May the spirit of the unprofitable
servant never be ours, who looked at his lord as a hard master instead
of a gracious benefactor! May we not be in the number of those who go
on year after year, and never approach Him at all! May we not be of
those who went, one to his farm, another to his merchandise, when they
were called to the wedding! Nor let us be of those, who come in a
formal, mechanical way, as a mere matter of obligation, without
reverence, without awe, without wonder, without love. Nor let us fall
into the sin of those who complained that they have nothing to gather
but the manna, wearying of God's gifts.
But let us come in faith and hope, and let us say to ourselves, May
this be the beginning to us of everlasting bliss! May these be the
first-fruits of that banquet which is to last for ever and ever; ever
new, ever transporting, inexhaustible, in the city of our God!
[1] Easter.
[2] Deut. xxxii. 13; xxxiii. 13-15.
[3] Gen. xxi. 10.
[4] Matt. xi. 19. Luke vii. 34.
[5] Gen. xiv. 18.
[6] 1 Cor. x. 20.
[7] Ezek. xlvii. 12.
[8] Rev. xxii. 2.
[9] Hos. ii. 21-23.
[10] Joel iii. 18.
[11] Amos ix. 13.
[12] Isa. xxv. 6; lxii. 8, 9, lxv. 13.
[13] Jer. xxxi. 12-14.
[14] Zech. ix. 17.
[15] Mal. i. 11.
[16] Ps. xxiii. 5; xxvi. 6; xxxvi. 7-9; xliii. 3, 4, lxv. 4; lxiii. 6-8.
[17] Prov. ix. 1-5.
[18] Isa. lv. 1.
[19] Cant. ii. 13; iv. 6; v. 1
SERMON XIII.
Love of Religion, a New Nature.
"_If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
Him._"--Romans vi. 8.
To be dead with Christ, is to hate and turn from sin; and to live with
Him, is to have our hearts and minds turned towards God and Heaven. To
be dead to sin, is to feel a disgust at it. We know what is meant by
disgust. Take, for instance, the case of a sick man, when food of a
certain kind is presented to him,--and there is no doubt what is meant
by disgust. Consider how certain scents, which are too sweet or too
strong, or certain tastes, affect certain persons under certain
circumstances, or always,--and you will be at no loss to determine what
is meant by disgust at sin, or deadness to sin. On the other hand,
consider how pleasant a meal is to the hungry, or some enlivening odour
to the faint, how refreshing the air is to the languid, or the brook to
the weary and thirsty,--and you will understand the sort of feeling
which is implied in being alive with Christ, alive to religion, alive
to the thought of heaven. Our animal powers cannot exist in all
atmospheres; certain airs are poisonous, others life-giving. So is it
with spirits and souls: an unrenewed spirit could not live in heaven,
he would die; an Angel could not live in hell. The natural man cannot
live in heavenly company, and the angelic soul would pine and waste
away in the company of sinners, unless God's sacred presence were
continued to it. To be dead to sin, is to be so minded, that the
atmosphere of sin (if I may so speak) oppresses, distresses, and
stifles us,--that it is painful and unnatural to us to remain in it.
To be alive with Christ, is to be so minded, that the atmosphere of
heaven refreshes, enlivens, stimulates, invigorates us. To be alive,
is not merely to bear the thought of religion, to assent to the truth
of religion, to wish to be religious; but to be drawn towards it, to
love it, to delight in it, to obey it. Now I suppose most persons
called Christians do not go farther than this,--to wish to be
religious, and to think it right to be religious, and to feel a respect
for religious men; they do not get so far as to have any sort of love
for religion.
So far, however, they do go; not, indeed, to do their duty and to love
it, but to have a sort of wish that they did. I suppose there are few
persons but, at the very least, now and then feel the wish to be holy
and religious. They bear witness to the excellence of virtuous and
holy living, they consent to all that their teachers tell them, what
they hear in church, and read in religious books; but all this is a
very different thing from acting according to their knowledge. They
confess one thing, they do another.
Nay, they confess one thing _while_ they do another. Even
sinners,--wilful, abandoned sinners,--if they would be honest enough to
speak as they really in their hearts feel, would own, while they are
indulging in the pleasures of sin, while they idle away the Lord's Day,
or while they keep bad company, or while they lie or cheat, or while
they drink to excess, or do any other bad thing,--they would confess, I
say, did they speak their minds, that it is a far happier thing, even
at present, to live in obedience to God, than in obedience to Satan.
Not that sin has not its pleasures, such as they are; I do not mean, of
course, to deny that,--I do not deny that Satan is able to give us
something in exchange for future and eternal happiness; I do not say
that irreligious men do not gain pleasures, which religious men are
obliged to lose. I know they do; if they did not, there would be
nothing to tempt and try us. But, after all, the pleasures which the
servants of Satan enjoy, though pleasant, are always attended with pain
too; with a bitterness, which, though it does not destroy the pleasure,
yet is by itself sufficient to make it far less pleasant, even while it
lasts, than such pleasures as are without such bitterness, viz. the
pleasures of religion. This, then, alas! is the state of multitudes;
not to be dead to sin and alive to God, but, while they are alive to
sin and the world, to have just so much sense of heaven, as not to be
able to enjoy either.
I say, when any one, man or woman, young or old, is conscious that he
or she is going wrong, whether in greater matter or less, whether in
not coming to church when there is no good excuse, neglecting private
prayer, living carelessly, or indulging in known sin,--this bad
conscience is from time to time a torment to such persons. For a
little while, perhaps, they do not feel it but then the pain comes on
again. It is a keen, harassing, disquieting, hateful pain, which
hinders sinners from being happy. They _may_ have pleasures, but they
cannot be _happy_. They know that God is angry with them; and they
know that, at some time or other, He will visit, He will judge, He will
punish. They try to get this out of their minds, but the arrow sticks
fast there; it keeps its hold. They try to laugh it off, or to be bold
and daring, or to be angry and violent. They are loud or unkind in
their answers to those, who remind them of it either in set words, or
by their example. But it keeps its hold. And so it is, that all men
who are not very abandoned, bad men as well as good, wish that they
were holy as God is holy, pure as Christ was pure, even though they do
not try to be, or pray to God to make them, holy and pure; not that
they _like_ religion, but that they know, they are convinced in their
reason, they feel sure, that religion alone is happiness.
Oh, what a dreadful state, to have our desires one way, and our
knowledge and conscience another; to have our life, our breath and
food, upon the earth, and our eyes upon Him who died once and now
liveth; to look upon Him who once was pierced, yet not to rise with Him
and live with Him; to feel that a holy life is our only happiness, yet
to have no heart to pursue it; to be certain that the wages of sin is
death, yet to practise sin; to confess that the Angels alone are
perfectly happy, for they do God's will perfectly, yet to prepare
ourselves for nothing else but the company of devils; to acknowledge
that Christ is our only hope, yet deliberately to let that hope go! O
miserable state! miserable they, if any there are who now hear me, who
are thus circumstanced!
At first sight, it might seem impossible that any such persons could be
found in church. At first sight, one might be tempted to say, "All who
come to church, at least, are in earnest, and have given up sin; they
are imperfect indeed, as all Christians are at best, but they do not
fall into wilful sin." I should be very glad, my Brethren, to believe
this were the case, but I cannot indulge so pleasant a hope. No; I
think it quite certain that some persons at least, I do not say how
many, to whom I am speaking, have not made up their minds fully to lead
a religious life. They come to church because they think it right, or
from other cause. It is very right that they should come; I am glad
they do. This is good, as far as it goes; but it is not all. They are
not so far advanced in the kingdom of God, as to resist the devil, or
to flee from him. They cannot command themselves. They act rightly
one day, and wrongly the next. They are afraid of being laughed at.
They are attracted by bad company. They put off religion to a future
day. They think a religious life dull and unpleasant. Yet they have a
certain sense of religion; and they come to church in order to satisfy
this sense. Now, I say it is right to come to church; but, O that they
could be persuaded of the simple truth of St. Paul's words, "He is not
a Jew which is one outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly;
and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, and not in the
letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God[1];" which may be taken
to mean:--He is not a Christian who is one outwardly, who merely comes
to church, and professes to desire to be saved by Christ. It is very
right that he should do so, but it is not enough. He is not a
Christian who merely has not cast off religion, but he is the true
Christian, who, while he is a Christian outwardly, is one inwardly
also; who lives to God; whose secret life is hid with Christ in God;
whose heart is religious; who not only knows and feels that a religious
life is true happiness, but loves religion, wishes, tries, prays to be
religious, begs God Almighty to give him the will and the power to be
religious; and, as time goes on, grows more and more religious, more
fit for heaven.
We can do nothing right, unless God gives us the will and the power; we
cannot please Him without the aid of His Holy Spirit. If any one does
not deeply feel this as a first truth in religion, he is preparing for
himself a dreadful fall. He will attempt, and he will fail signally,
utterly. His own miserable experience will make him sure of it, if he
will not believe it, as Scripture declares it. But it is not unlikely
that some persons, perhaps some who now hear me, may fall into an
opposite mistake. They may attempt to excuse their lukewarmness and
sinfulness, on the plea that God does not inwardly move them; and they
may argue that those holy men whom they so much admire, those saints
who are to sit on Christ's right and left, are of different nature from
themselves, sanctified from their mother's womb, visited, guarded,
renewed, strengthened, enlightened in a peculiar way, so as to make it
no wonder that they _are_ saints, and no fault that they themselves are
not. But this is not so; let us not thus miserably deceive ourselves.
St. Paul says expressly of himself and the other Apostles, that they
were "men of like passions" with the poor ignorant heathen to whom they
preached. And does not his history show this? Do you not recollect
what he was before his conversion? Did he not rage like a beast of
prey against the disciples of Christ? and how was he converted? by the
vision of our Lord? Yes, in one sense, but not by it alone; hear his
own words, "Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not _disobedient_ unto the
heavenly vision." His obedience was necessary for his conversion; he
could not obey without grace; but he would have received grace in vain,
had he not obeyed. And, afterwards, was he at once perfect? No; for
he says expressly, "not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect;" and elsewhere he tells us that he had a "thorn in the
flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him," and he was obliged to
"bruise his body and bring it into subjection, lest, after he had
preached to others, he should be himself a castaway." St. Paul
conquered, as any one of us must conquer, by "striving," struggling,
"to enter in at the strait gate;" he "wrought out his salvation with
fear and trembling," as we must do.
This is a point which must be insisted on for the encouragement of the
fearful, the confutation of the hypocritical, and the abasement of the
holy. In this world, even the best of men, though they are dead to
sin, and have put sin to death, yet have that dead and corrupt thing
within them, though they live to God; they have still an enemy of God
remaining in their hearts, though they keep it in subjection. This,
indeed, is what all men now have in common, a root of evil in them, a
principle of sin, or what may become such;--what they differ in is
this, not that one man has it, another not; but that one lives in and
to it, another not; one subdues it, another not. A holy man is by
nature subject to sin equally with others; but he is holy because he
subdues, tramples on, chains up, imprisons, puts out of the way this
law of sin, and is ruled by religious and spiritual motives. Of Christ
alone can it be said that He "did no sin, neither was guile found in
His mouth." The prince of this world came and found nothing in Him.
He had no root of sin in His heart; He was not born in Adam's sin. Far
different are we. He was thus pure, because He was the Son of God, and
born of a Virgin. But we are conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity.
And since that which is born of the flesh, is flesh, we are sinful and
corrupt because we are sinfully begotten of sinners. Even those then
who in the end turn out to be saints and attain to life eternal, yet
are not born saints, but have with God's regenerating and renewing
grace to make themselves saints. It is nothing but the Cross of
Christ, without us and within us, which changes any one of us from
being (as I may say) a devil, into an Angel. We are all by birth
children of wrath. We are at best like good olive trees, which have
become good by being grafted on a good tree. By nature we are like
wild trees, bearing sour and bitter fruit, and so we should remain,
were we not grafted upon Christ, the good olive tree, made members of
Christ, the righteous and holy and well-beloved Son of God. Hence it
is that there is such a change in a saint of God from what he was at
the first. Consider what a different man St. Paul was after his
conversion and before,--raging, as I just now said, like some wild
beast, with persecuting fury against the Church, before Christ appeared
to him, and meekly suffering persecution and glorying in it afterwards.
Think of St. Peter denying Christ before the resurrection, and
confessing, suffering, and dying for Him afterwards. And so now many
an aged saint, who has good hope of heaven, may recollect things of
himself when young, which fill him with dismay. I do not speak as if
God's saints led vicious and immoral lives when young; but I mean that
their lower and evil nature was not subdued, and perhaps from time to
time broke out and betrayed them into deeds and words so very different
from what is seen in them at present, that did their friends know of
them what they themselves know, they would not think them the same
persons, and would be quite overpowered with astonishment. We never
can guess what a man is by nature, by seeing what self-discipline has
made him. Yet if we do become thereby changed and prepared for heaven,
it is no praise or merit to us. It is God's doing--glory be to Him,
who has wrought so wonderfully with us! Yet in this life, even to the
end, there will be enough evil in us to humble us; even to the end, the
holiest men have remains and stains of sin which they would fain get
rid of, if they could, and which keep this life from being to them, for
all God's grace, a heaven upon earth. No, the Christian life is but a
shadow of heaven. Its festal and holy days are but shadows of
eternity. But hereafter it will be otherwise. In heaven, sin will be
utterly destroyed in every elect soul. We shall have no earthly
wishes, no tendencies to disobedience or irreligion, no love of the
world or the flesh, to draw us off from supreme devotion to God. We
shall have our Saviour's holiness fulfilled in us, and be able to love
God without drawback or infirmity.
That indeed will be a full reward of all our longings here, to praise
and serve God eternally with a single and perfect heart in the midst of
His Temple. What a time will that be, when all will be perfected in us
which at present is but feebly begun! Then we shall see how the Angels
worship God. We shall see the calmness, the intenseness, the purity,
of their worship. We shall see that awful sight, the Throne of God,
and the Seraphim before and around it, crying, "Holy!" We attempt now
to imitate in church what there is performed, as in the beginning, and
ever shall be. In the Te Deum, day by day we say, "Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth." In the Creed, we recount God's mercies to us
sinners. And we say and sing Psalms and Hymns, to come as near heaven
as we can. May these attempts of ours be blest by Almighty God, to
prepare us for Him! may they be, not dead forms, but living services,
living with life from God the Holy Ghost, in those who are dead to sin
and who live with Christ! I dare say some of you have heard persons,
who dissent from the Church, say (at any rate, they do say), that our
Prayers and Services, and Holy days, are only forms, dead forms, which
can do us no good. Yes, they are dead forms to those who are dead, but
they are living forms to those who are living. If you come here in a
dead way, not in faith, not coming for a blessing, without your hearts
being in the service, you will get no benefit from it. But if you come
in a living way, in faith, and hope, and reverence, and with holy
expectant hearts, then all that takes place will be a living service
and full of heaven.
Make use, then, of this Holy Easter Season, which lasts forty to fifty
days, to become more like Him who died for you, and who now liveth for
evermore. He promises us, "Because I live, ye shall live also." He,
by dying on the Cross, opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.
He first died, and then He opened heaven. We, therefore, first
commemorate His death, and then, for some weeks in succession, we
commemorate and show forth the joys of heaven. They who do not rejoice
in the weeks after Easter, would not rejoice in heaven itself. These
weeks are a sort of beginning of heaven. Pray God to enable you to
rejoice; to enable you to keep the Feast duly. Pray God to make you
better Christians. This world is a dream,--you will get no good from
it. Perhaps you find this difficult to believe; but be sure so it is.
Depend upon it, at the last, you will confess it. Young people expect
good from the world, and people of middle age devote themselves to it,
and even old people do not like to give it up. But the world is your
enemy, and the flesh is your enemy. Come to God, and beg of Him grace
to devote yourselves to Him. Beg of Him the will to follow Him; beg of
Him the power to obey Him. O how comfortable, pleasant, sweet,
soothing, and satisfying is it to lead a holy life,--the life of
Angels! It is difficult at first; but with God's grace, all things are
possible. O how pleasant to have done with sin! how good and joyful to
flee temptation and to resist evil! how meet, and worthy, and fitting,
and right, to die unto sin, and to live unto righteousness!
[1] Rom. ii. 28, 29.
SERMON XIV.
Religion pleasant to the Religious.
"_O taste and see how gracious the Lord is; blessed is the man that
trusteth in Him._"--Psalm xxxiv. 8.
You see by these words what love Almighty God has towards us, and what
claims He has upon our love. He is the Most High, and All-Holy. He
inhabiteth eternity: we are but worms compared with Him. He would not
be less happy though He had never created us; He would not be less
happy though we were all blotted out again from creation. But He is
the God of love; He brought us all into existence, because He found
satisfaction in surrounding Himself with happy creatures: He made us
innocent, holy, upright, and happy. And when Adam fell into sin and
his descendants after him, then ever since He has been imploring us to
return to Him, the Source of all good, by true repentance. "Turn ye,
turn ye," He says, "why will ye die? As I live I have no pleasure in
the death of the wicked." "What could have been done more to My
vineyard that I have not done to it[1]?" And in the text He
condescends to invite us to Him: "O taste and see how gracious the Lord
is: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." As if He said, "If you
would but make trial, one trial, if you would but be persuaded to taste
and judge for yourself, so excellent is His graciousness, that you
would never cease to desire, never cease to approach Him:" according to
the saying of the wise man, "They that eat Me shall yet be hungry, and
they that drink Me shall yet be thirsty[2]."