describe at any length. We have heard it in the First Lesson of this
Service[18]. He assembled all Judah at Jerusalem, and publicly read
the words of the Book of the Law, then he made all the people renew the
covenant with the God of their fathers; then he proceeded more exactly
in the work of reformation in Judah and Israel, keeping closely to the
directions of the Law; and after that he held his celebrated passover.
Thus his greater knowledge was followed by stricter obedience: his
accurate attention to the whole ritual is the very praise bestowed on
his passover; "Surely there was not holden such a passover from the
days of the judges[19]." Whatever he did, he did it with all his
heart: "Like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the
Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might,
according to all the Law of Moses[20]."
Passing by the particulars of his reformation, let us come to the
fulfilment of the promise made to him by Huldah, as the reward of his
obedience. "Behold therefore, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and
thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall
not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place." His reward
was an early death; the event proved that it was a violent one also.
The king of Egypt came up against the king of Assyria through the land
of Judah; Josiah, bound perhaps by an alliance to the king of Assyria,
or for some strong reason unknown, opposed him; a battle followed;
Josiah disguised himself that he might not be marked out for death; but
his hour was come--the promise of release was to be accomplished. "And
the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants,
Have me away; for I am sore wounded. His servants, therefore . . .
brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in one of the
sepulchres of his fathers[21]." Thus the best king of Judah died like
Ahab, the worst king of Israel; so little may we judge of God's love or
displeasure by outward appearances. "The righteous perisheth, and no
man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none
considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He
shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking
in his uprightness[22]."
The sacred narrative continues: "And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned
for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men
and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this
day, and made them an ordinance in Israel:" probably there was a yearly
commemoration of his death; and so great was the mourning at the time,
that we find it referred to in the Prophet Zechariah[23] almost as a
proverb. So fell the last sovereign of the house of David. God
continued His promised mercies to His people through David's line till
they were too corrupt to receive them; the last king of the favoured
family was forcibly and prematurely cut off, in order to make way for
the display of God's vengeance in the captivity of the whole nation.
He was taken out of the way; they were carried off to Babylon. "Weep
ye not for the dead," says the prophet, "neither bemoan him: but weep
sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his
native country[24]." As for Josiah, as it is elsewhere written of him,
"His remembrance . . . is sweet as honey in all mouths, and as music at
a banquet of wine. He behaved himself uprightly in the conversion of
the people, and took away the abominations of iniquity. He directed
his heart unto the Lord, and in the time of the ungodly he established
the worship of God. All, except David, and Ezekias, and Josias, were
defective; for they forsook the law of the Most High, even the kings of
Juda failed[25]."
In conclusion, my brethren, I would have you observe in what Josiah's
chief excellence lay. This is the character given him when his name is
first mentioned; "He did . . . right in the sight of the Lord, and
walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the
right hand or to the left[26]." He kept the narrow middle way. Now
what is this strict virtue called? it is called _faith_. It is no
matter whether we call it faith or conscientiousness, they are in
substance one and the same: where there is faith, there is
conscientiousness--where there is conscientiousness, there is faith;
they may be distinguished from each other in words, but they are not
divided in fact. They belong to one, and but one, habit of
mind--dutifulness; they show themselves in obedience, in the careful,
anxious observance of God's will, however we learn it. Hence it is
that St. Paul tells us that "the just shall live by faith" under
_every_ dispensation of God's mercy. And this is called _faith_,
because it implies a reliance on the mere word of the unseen God
overpowering the temptations of sight. Whether it be we read and
accept His word in Scripture (as Christians do), or His word in our
conscience, the law written on the heart (as is the case with
heathens); in either case, it is by following it, in spite of the
seductions of the world around us, that we please God. St. Paul calls
it faith; saying after the prophet, "The just shall live by faith:" and
St. Peter, in the tenth chapter of the Acts, calls it "fearing and
_working righteousness_," where he says, that "in every nation he that
feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him." It is all
one: both Apostles say that God loves those who prefer Him to the
world; whose _character and frame_ of mind is such. Elsewhere St. Paul
also speaks like St. Peter, when he declares that God will render
eternal life to them, who by "patient _continuance_ in well-doing seek
for glory[27]." St. John adds his testimony: "Little children, let no
man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He
is righteous[28]." And our Saviour's last words at the end of the
whole Scripture, long after the coming of the Spirit, after the death
of all the Apostles but St. John, are the same: "Blessed are they that
_do His_ commandments, that they may _have right_ to the tree of
life[29]."
And if such is God's mercy, as we trust, to all men, wherever any one
with a perfect heart seeks Him, what think you is His mercy upon
Christians? Something far greater, and more wonderful; for we are
elected out of the world, in Jesus Christ our Saviour, to a glory
incomprehensible and eternal. We are the heirs of promise; God has
loved us before we were born. He had us taken into His Church in our
infancy. He by Baptism made us new creatures, giving us powers which
we by nature had not, and raising us to the unseen society of Saints
and Angels. And all this we enjoy on our faith; that is, on our
believing that we have them, and seriously trying to profit by them.
May God grant, that we, like Josiah, may improve our gifts, and trade
and make merchandise with them, so that, when He cometh to reckon with
us, we may be accepted!
[1] Deut. xi. 18-20.
[2] Deut. xxxi. 9-13.
[3] Deut. xvii. 19, 20.
[4] 2 Kings xxi. 11.
[5] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 15-25.
[6] Ibid. 23.
[7] Luke x. 43.
[8] 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3.
[9] Isa. l. 10.
[10] Ps. cxi. 10.
[11] Ps. cxix. 100.
[12] Judges xiv. 14.
[13] 2 Kings xxii. 11.
[14] Deut. xxx. 16, 19.
[15] Deut. xi. 26-28.
[16] Vide Deut. xvii.
[17] 2 Chron. xxxiv. 21.
[18] Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.
[19] 2 Kings xxiii. 22.
[20] 2 Kings xxiii. 25.
[21] 2 Chron. xxxv. 23-25.
[22] Isa. lvii. 1.
[23] Zech. xii. 11.
[24] Jer. xxii. 10.
[25] Eccles. xlix. 1-4.
[26] 2 Kings xxii. 2.
[27] Rom. ii. 7.
[28] 1 John iii. 7.
[29] Rev. xxii. 14.
SERMON VIII.
Inward Witness to the Truth of the Gospel.
"_I have more understanding than my teachers, for Thy testimonies
are my study; I am wiser than the aged, because I keep Thy
commandments._"--Psalm cxix. 99, 100.
In these words the Psalmist declares, that in consequence of having
obeyed God's commandments he had obtained more wisdom and understanding
than those who had first enlightened his ignorance, and were once more
enlightened than he. As if he said, "When I was a child, I was
instructed in religious knowledge by kind and pious friends, who told
me who my Maker was, what great things He had done for me, how much I
owed to Him, and how I was to serve Him. All this I learned from them,
and I rejoice that they taught it me: yet they did more; they set me in
the way to gain a knowledge of religious truth in another and higher
manner. They not only taught me, but trained me; they were careful
that I should not only know my duty, but do it. They obliged me to
obey; they obliged me to begin a religious course of life, which
(praised be God!) I have ever pursued; and this obedience to His
commandments has brought me to a clearer knowledge of His truth, than
any mere instruction could convey. I have been taught, not from
without merely, but from within. I have been taught by means of a
purified heart, by a changed will, by chastened reins, by a mortified
appetite, by a bridled tongue, by eyes corrected and subdued. 'I have
more understanding than my teachers, for Thy testimonies,' O Lord, 'are
my study; I am wiser than the aged, because I keep Thy commandments.'"
We may sometimes hear men say, "How do you know that the Bible is true?
You are told so in Church; your parents believed it; but might they not
be mistaken? and if so, you are mistaken also." Now to this objection
it maybe answered, and very satisfactorily, "Is it then nothing toward
convincing us of the truth of the Gospel, that those whom we love best
and reverence most believe it? Is it against reason to think that they
are right, who have considered the matter most deeply? Do we not
receive what they tell us in other matters, though we cannot prove the
truth of their information; for instance, in matters of art and
science; why then is it irrational to believe them in religion also?
Have not the wisest and holiest of men been Christians? and have not
unbelievers, on the contrary, been very generally signal instances of
pride, discontent, and profligacy? Again, are not the principles of
unbelief certain to dissolve human society? and is not this plain fact,
candidly considered, enough to show that unbelief cannot be a right
condition of our nature? for who can believe that we were intended to
live in anarchy? If we have no good reason for believing, at least we
have no good reason for disbelieving. If you ask why we are
Christians, we ask in turn, Why should we not be Christians? it will be
enough to remain where we are, till you do what you never can do--prove
to us for certain, that the Gospel is not Divine; it is enough for us
to be on the side of good men, to be under the feet of the Saints, to
'go our way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and to feed our kids
beside the shepherds' tent[1].'"
This would be quite a sufficient answer, had we nothing else to say;
but I will give another, and that in connexion with the text; I will
show you that the most unlearned Christian may have a very real and
substantial argument, an intimate token, of the truth of the Gospel,
quite independent of the authority of his parents and teachers; nay,
that were all the world, even were his teachers, to tell him that
religion was a dream, still he would have a good reason for believing
it true.
This reason, I say, is contained in the text--"I have more
understanding than the aged, _because_ I keep Thy commandments." By
obeying the commands of Scripture, we learn that these commands really
come from God; by trying we make proof; by doing we come to know. Now
how comes this to pass? It happens in several ways.
1. Consider the Bible tells us to be meek, humble, single-hearted, and
teachable. Now, it is plain that humility and teachableness are
qualities of mind necessary for arriving at the truth in any subject,
and in religious matters as well as others. By obeying Scripture,
then, in practising humility and teachableness, it is evident we are at
least _in the way_ to arrive at the knowledge of God. On the other
hand, impatient, proud, self-confident, obstinate men, are generally
wrong in the opinions they form of persons and things. Prejudice and
self-conceit blind the eyes and mislead the judgment, whatever be the
subject inquired into. For instance, how often do men mistake the
characters and misconstrue the actions of others! how often are they
deceived in them! how often do the young form acquaintances injurious
to their comfort and good! how often do men embark in foolish and
ruinous schemes! how often do they squander their money, and destroy
their worldly prospects! And what, I ask, is so frequent a cause of
these many errors as wilfulness and presumption? The same thing
happens also in religious inquiries. When I see a person hasty and
violent, harsh and high-minded, careless of what others feel, and
disdainful of what they think,--when I see such a one proceeding to
inquire into religious subjects, I am sure beforehand he cannot go
right--he will not be led into all the truth--it is contrary to the
nature of things and the experience of the world, that he should find
what he is seeking. I should say the same were he seeking to find out
what to believe or do in any other matter not religious,--but
especially in any such important and solemn inquiry; for the _fear_ of
the Lord (humbleness, teachableness, reverence towards Him) is the very
_beginning_ of wisdom, as Solomon tells us; it leads us to think over
things modestly and honestly, to examine patiently, to bear doubt and
uncertainty, to wait perseveringly for an increase of light, to be slow
to speak, and to be deliberate in deciding.
2. Consider, in the next place, that those who are trained carefully
according to the precepts of Scripture, gain an elevation, a delicacy,
refinement, and sanctity of mind, which is most necessary for judging
fairly of the truth of Scripture.
A man who loves sin does not wish the Gospel to be true, and therefore
is not a fair judge of it; a mere man of the world, a selfish and
covetous man, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, is, from a sense of
interest, against that Bible which condemns him, and would account that
man indeed a messenger of good tidings of peace who could prove to him
that Christ's doctrine was not from God. "Every one that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be
reproved[2]." I do not mean to say that such men necessarily reject
the word of God, as if we could dare to conclude that all who do not
reject it are therefore sure to be not covetous, drunkards,
extortioners, and the like; for it is often a man's interest not openly
to reject it, though it be against him; and the bulk of men are
inconsistent, and have some good feelings left, even amid their sins
and vices, which keep them from going all lengths. But, while they
still profess to honour, at least they try to pervert and misinterpret
Scripture, and that comes to the same thing. They try to persuade
themselves that Christ will save them, though they continue in sin; or
they wish to believe that future punishment will not last for ever; or
they conceive that their good deeds or habits, few and miserable as
they are at best, will make up for the sins of which they are too
conscious. Whereas such men as have been taught betimes to work with
God their Saviour--in ruling their hearts, and curbing their sinful
passions, and changing their wills--though they are still sinners, have
not within them that treacherous enemy of the truth which misleads the
judgments of irreligious men.
Here, then, are two very good reasons at first sight, why men who obey
the Scripture precepts are more likely to arrive at religious truth,
than those who neglect them; first, because such men are teachable men;
secondly, because they are pure in heart; such shall see God, whereas
the proud provoke His anger, and the carnal are His abhorrence.
But to proceed. Consider, moreover, that those who try to obey God
evidently gain a knowledge of themselves at least; and this may be
shown to be the first and principal step towards knowing God. For let
us suppose a child, under God's blessing, profiting by his teacher's
guidance, and trying to do his duty and please God. He will perceive
that there is much in him which ought not to be in him. His own
natural sense of right and wrong tells him that peevishness,
sullenness, deceit, and self-will, are tempers and principles of which
he has cause to be ashamed, and he feels that these bad tempers and
principles are in his heart. As he grows older, he will understand
this more and more. Wishing, then, and striving to act up to the law
of conscience, he will yet find that, with his utmost efforts, and
after his most earnest prayers, he still falls short of what he knows
to be right, and what he aims at. Conscience, however, being
respected, will become a more powerful and enlightened guide than
before; it will become more refined and hard to please; and he will
understand and perceive more clearly the distance that exists between
his own conduct and thoughts, and perfection. He will admire and take
pleasure in the holy law of God, of which he reads in Scripture; but he
will be humbled withal, as understanding himself to be a continual
transgressor against it. Thus he will learn from experience the
doctrine of original sin, before he knows the actual name of it. He
will, in fact, say to himself, what St. Paul describes all beginners in
religion as saying, "What I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that
do I. I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity. I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing[3]." The effect of this experience will be to make him take it
for granted, as an elementary truth, that he cannot gain heaven for
himself; to make him feel himself guilty before God; and to feel,
moreover, that even were he admitted into the Divine presence, yet,
till his heart be (so to say) made over again, he cannot perfectly
enjoy God. This, surely, is the state of self-knowledge; these are the
convictions to which every one is brought on, who attempts honestly to
obey the precepts of God. I do not mean that all that I have been
saying will necessarily pass through his mind, and in the same order,
or that he will be conscious of it, or be able to speak of it, but that
on the whole thus he will feel.
When, then, even an unlearned person thus trained--from his own heart,
from the action of his mind upon itself, from struggles with self, from
an attempt to follow those impulses of his own nature which he feels to
be highest and noblest, from a vivid natural perception (natural,
though cherished and strengthened by prayer, natural, though unfolded
and diversified by practice, natural, though of that new and second
nature which God the Holy Ghost gives), from an innate, though
supernatural perception of the great vision of Truth which is external
to him (a perception of it, not indeed in its fulness, but in glimpses,
and by fits and seasons, and in its persuasive influences, and through
a courageous following on after it, as a man in the dark might follow
after some dim and distant light)--I say, when a person thus trained
from his own heart, reads the declarations and promises of the Gospel,
are we to be told that he believes in them merely because he has been
bid believe in them? Do we not see he has besides this a something in
his own breast which bears a confirming testimony to their truth? He
reads that the heart is "deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked[4]," and that he inherits an evil nature from Adam, and that he
is still under its power, except so far as he has been renewed. Here
is a mystery; but his own actual and too bitter experience bears
witness to the truth of the declaration; he feels the mystery of
iniquity within him. He reads, that "without holiness no man shall see
the Lord[5];" and his own love of what is true and lovely and pure,
approves and embraces the doctrine as coming from God. He reads, that
God is angry at sin, and will punish the sinner, and that it is a hard
matter, nay, an impossibility, for us to appease His wrath. Here,
again, is a mystery: but here, too, his conscience anticipates the
mystery, and convicts him; his mouth is stopped. And when he goes on
to read that the Son of God has Himself come into the world in our
flesh, and died upon the Cross for us, does he not, amid the awful
mysteriousness of the doctrine, find those words fulfilled in him which
that gracious Saviour uttered, "And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto Me"? He cannot choose but believe in
Him. He says, "O Lord, Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed."
Here then, I say, he surely possesses an evidence perfectly distinct
from the authority of superiors and teachers; like St. Paul, he is in
one way not taught of men, "but by the revelation of Jesus Christ[6]."
Others have but bid him look within, and pray for God's grace to be
enabled to know himself; and the more he understands his own heart, the
more are the Gospel doctrines recommended to his reason. He is assured
that Christ does not speak of Himself, but that His word is from God.
He is ready, with the Samaritan woman, to say to all around him, "Come,
see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the
Christ[7]?" Or, again, in the words which the Samaritans of the same
city used to the woman after conversing with Christ; "Now we believe,
not because of thy saying" (not merely on the authority of friends and
relatives), "for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is
indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world."
The Bible, then, seems to say,--God is not a hard master to require
belief, without affording grounds for believing; only follow your own
sense of right, and you will gain from that very obedience to your
Maker, which natural conscience enjoins, a conviction of the truth and
power of that Redeemer whom a supernatural message has revealed; do but
examine your thoughts and doings; do but attempt what you know to be
God's will, and you will most assuredly be led on into all the truth:
you will recognize the force, meaning, and awful graciousness of the
Gospel Creed; you will bear witness to the truth of one doctrine, by
your own past experience of yourselves; of another, by seeing that it
is suited to your necessity; of a third, by finding it fulfilled upon
your obeying it. As the prophet says, "Bring ye" your offering "into
Mine house," saith the Lord, "and prove Me now herewith, if I will not
open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there
shall not be room enough to receive it[8]."