it is peculiarly so in times when a spirit of presumptuous doubting is
in many places abroad. As many of us as live in the world must expect
to hear our faith despised, and our conscientious obedience ridiculed;
we must expect to be taunted and scorned by those who find it much
easier to attack another's creed than to state their own. A little
learning is a dangerous thing. When men think they know more than
others, they often talk for the sake of talking, or to show their
ability (as they think), their shrewdness and depth; and they speak
lightly of the All-Holy God, to gratify their empty self-conceit and
vanity. And often it answers no purpose to dispute with such persons;
for not having been trained up to obey their conscience, to restrain
their passions, and examine their hearts, they will assent to nothing
you can say; they will be questioning and arguing about every thing;
they have no common ground with you, and when they talk of religion
they are like blind persons talking of colours. If you urge how great
a gift it is to be at peace with God, or of the arduousness and yet
desirableness of perfection, or the beauty of saintliness, or the
dangerousness of the world, or the blessedness of self-control, or the
glory of virginity, or the answers which God gives to prayer, or the
marvellousness and almost miraculousness of His providences, or the
comfort of religion in affliction, or the strength given you over your
passions in the Most Holy Sacrament, such persons understand you not at
all. They will laugh, they will scoff, at best they will wonder: any
how what you say is no evidence to _them_. You cannot convince them,
because you differ from them in first principles; it is not that they
start from the same point as you, and afterwards strike off in some
wayward direction; but their course is altogether distinct, they have
no point in common with you. For such persons then you can only pray;
God alone can bring down pride, self-conceit, an arrogant spirit, a
presumptuous temper; God alone can dissipate prejudice; God alone can
overcome flesh and blood. Useful as argument may be for converting a
man, in such cases God seldom condescends to employ it. Yet, let not
such vain or ignorant reasoners convert you to unbelief in great
matters or little; let them not persuade you, that your faith is built
on the mere teaching of fallible men; do not you be ridiculed out of
your confidence and hope in Christ. You may, if you will, have an
inward witness arising from obedience: and though you cannot make them
see it, you can see it yourselves, which is the great thing; and it
will be quite sufficient, with God's blessing, to keep you stedfast in
the way of life.
Lastly, let me remark how dangerous their state is who are content to
take the truths of the Gospel on trust, without caring whether or not
those truths are realized in their own heart and conduct. Such men,
when assailed by ridicule and sophistry, are likely to fall; they have
no root in themselves; and let them be quite sure, that should they
fall away from the faith, it will be a slight thing at the last day to
plead that subtle arguments were used against them, that they were
altogether unprepared and ignorant, and that their seducers prevailed
over them by the display of some little cleverness and human knowledge.
The inward witness to the truth lodged in our hearts is a match for the
most learned infidel or sceptic that ever lived: though, to tell the
truth, such men are generally very shallow and weak, as well as wicked;
generally know only a little, pervert what they know, assume false
principles, and distort or suppress facts: but were they as
accomplished as the very author of evil, the humblest Christian, armed
with sling and stone, and supported by God's unseen might, is, as far
as his own faith is concerned, a match for them. And, on the other
hand, the most acute of reasoners and most profound of thinkers, the
most instructed in earthly knowledge, is nothing, except he has also
within him the presence of the Spirit of truth. Human knowledge,
though of great power when joined to a pure and humble faith, is of no
power when opposed to it, and, after ail, for the comfort of the
individual Christian, it is of little value.
May we, then, all grow in heavenly knowledge, and, with that end,
labour to improve what is already given us, be it more or be it less,
knowing that "he that is faithful in little is faithful also in much,"
and that "to him that hath, more shall be given."
[1] Cant. i. 8.
[2] John iii. 20.
[3] Rom. vii. 15, 18, 22, 23.
[4] Jer. xvii. 9.
[5] Heb. xii. 14.
[6] Gal. i. 12.
[7] John iv. 29.
[8] Mal. iii. 10.
SERMON IX.
Jeremiah, a Lesson for the Disappointed.
"_Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith
the Lord._"--Jeremiah i. 8.
The Prophets were ever ungratefully treated by the Israelites, they were
resisted, their warnings neglected, their good services forgotten. But
there was this difference between the earlier and the later Prophets; the
earlier lived and died in honour among their people,--in outward honour;
though hated and thwarted by the wicked, they were exalted to high
places, and ruled in the congregation. Moses, for instance, was in
trouble from his people all his life long, but to the end he was their
lawgiver and judge. Samuel, too, even though rejected, was still held in
reverence; and when he died, "all the Israelites were gathered together
and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah[1]." David died
on a royal throne. But in the latter times, the prophets were not only
feared and hated by the enemies of God, but cast out of the vineyard. As
the time approached for the coming of the true Prophet of the Church, the
Son of God, they resembled Him in their earthly fortunes more and more;
and as He was to suffer, so did they. Moses was a ruler, Jeremiah was an
outcast: Samuel was buried in peace, John the Baptist was beheaded. In
St. Paul's words, they "had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned; they were sawn
asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in
sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom
the world was not worthy; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and
in dens and caves of the earth[2]."
Of these, Elijah, who lived in the wilderness, and the hundred prophets
whom Obadiah fed by fifty in a cave, are examples of the wanderers. And
Micaiah, who was appointed the bread of affliction and the water of
affliction by an idolatrous king, is the specimen of those who "had trial
of bonds and imprisonment." Of those who were sawn asunder and slain
with the sword, Isaiah is the chief, who, as tradition goes, was by order
of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, sawn asunder with a wooden saw. And of
those who were stoned, none is more famous than Zechariah, the son of
Jehoiada, "who was slain between the temple and the altar[3]." But of
all the persecuted prophets Jeremiah is the most eminent; i. e. we know
more of his history, of his imprisonments, his wanderings, and his
afflictions. He may be taken as a representative of the Prophets; and
hence it is that he is an especial type of our Lord and Saviour. All the
Prophets were types of the Great Prophet whose way they were preparing;
they tended towards and spoke of Christ. In their sufferings they
foreshadowed His priesthood, and in their teaching His prophetical
office, and in their miracles His royal power. The history of Jeremiah,
then, as being drawn out in Scripture more circumstantially than that of
the other Prophets, is the most exact type of Christ among them; that is,
next to David, who, of course, was the nearest resemblance to Him of all,
as a sufferer, an inspired teacher, and a king. Jeremiah comes next to
David; I do not say in dignity and privilege, for it was Elijah who was
taken up to heaven, and appeared at the Transfiguration; nor in
inspiration, for to Isaiah one should assign the higher evangelical
gifts; but in typifying Him who came and wept over Jerusalem, and then
was tortured and put to death by those He wept over. And hence, when our
Lord came, while some thought Him Elijah, and others John the Baptist,
risen from the dead, there were others who thought Him Jeremiah. Of
Jeremiah, then, I will now speak, as a specimen of all those Prophets
whom St. Paul sets before us as examples of faith, and St. James as
examples of patience. Jeremiah's ministry may be summed up in three
words, good hope, labour, disappointment.
It was his privilege to be called to his sacred office from his earliest
years. Like Samuel, the first prophet, he was of the tribe of Levi,
dedicated from his birth to religious services, and favoured with the
constant presence and grace of God. "Before I formed thee . . . I knew
thee[4]," says the word of the Lord to him when He gave him his
commission, "and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee,
and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." This commission was
given the year after Josiah began his reformation. Jeremiah returned for
answer, "Ah! Lord God! behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child." He felt
the arduousness of a prophet's office; the firmness and intrepidity which
were required to speak the words of God. "But the Lord said unto him,
Say not I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee,
and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their
faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord
put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and said unto me, Behold I have
put My words in thy mouth."
No prophet commenced his labours with greater encouragement than
Jeremiah. A king had succeeded to the throne who was bringing back the
times of the man after God's own heart. There had not been a son of
David so zealous as Josiah since David himself. The king, too, was
young, at most twenty years of age, in the beginning of his reformation.
What might not be effected in a course of years, however corrupt and
degraded was the existing state of his people? So Jeremiah might think.
It must be recollected, too, that religious obedience was under the
Jewish covenant awarded with temporal prosperity. There seemed, then,
every reason for Jeremiah at first to suppose that bright fortunes were
in store for the Church. Josiah was the very king whose birth was
foretold by name above three hundred years before, when Jeroboam
established idolatry; who was the promised avenger of God's covenant,
"the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in[5]."
Israel (the ten tribes) having gone into captivity, schism had come to
its end; the kings of the house of David again ruled over the whole
extent of the promised land; idolatry was destroyed by Josiah in all the
cities. Such were the present blessings which the Jewish remnant
enjoyed. At first sight, then, it seemed reasonable to anticipate
further and permanent improvement. Every one begins with being sanguine;
doubtless then, as now, many labourers in God's husbandry entered on
their office with more lively hopes than their after fortunes warranted.
Whether or not, however, such hope of success encouraged Jeremiah's first
exertions, very soon, in his case, this cheerful prospect was overcast,
and he was left to labour in the dark. Huldah's message to the king, on
his finding the Book of the Law in the temple, fixed the coming fortunes
of Judah. Huldah foretold a woe,--an early removal of the good Josiah to
his rest as a mercy to him, and to the nation, who were unworthy of him,
a fierce destruction. This prophecy was delivered five years after
Jeremiah entered upon his office; he ministered in all forty years before
the captivity, so early in his course were his hopes cut away.
But even though Huldah's message be supposed not to reach him, still he
was doubtless soon undeceived as to any hopes he might entertain,
whether, by the express Word of God informing him, or by the actual
hardened state of sin in which the nation lay. Soon, surely, were his
hopes destroyed, and his mind sobered into a more blessed and noble
temper,--resignation.
I call resignation a more blessed frame of mind than sanguine hope of
present success, because it is the truer, and the more consistent with
our fallen state of being, and the more improving to our hearts; and
because it is that for which the most eminent servants of God have been
conspicuous. To expect great effects from our exertions for religious
objects is natural indeed, and innocent, but it arises from inexperience
of the kind of work we have to do,--to change the heart and will of man.
It is a far nobler frame of mind, to labour, not with the hope of seeing
the fruit of our labour, but for conscience' sake, as a matter of duty;
and again, in faith, trusting good will be done, though we see it not.
Look through the Bible, and you will find God's servants, even though
they began with success, end with disappointment; not that God's purposes
or His instruments fail, but that the time for reaping what we have sown
is hereafter, not here; that here there is no great visible fruit in any
one man's lifetime. Moses, for instance, began with leading the
Israelites out of Egypt in triumph; he ended at the age of an hundred and
twenty years, before his journey was finished and Canaan gained, one
among the offending multitudes who were overthrown in the wilderness[6].
Samuel's reformations ended in the people's wilfully choosing a king like
the nations around them. Elijah, after his successes, fled from Jezebel
into the wilderness to mourn over his disappointments. Isaiah, after
Hezekiah's religious reign, and the miraculous destruction of
Sennacherib's army, fell upon the evil days of his son Manasseh. Even in
the successes of the first Christian teachers, the Apostles, the same
rule is observed. After all the great works God enabled them to
accomplish, they confessed before their death that what they experienced,
and what they saw before them, was reverse and calamity, and that the
fruit of their labour would not be seen, till Christ came to open the
books and collect His saints from the four corners of the earth. "Evil
men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being
deceived[7]," is the testimony of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, and St.
Jude.
Now, in the instance of Jeremiah, we have on record that variety and
vicissitude of feelings, which this transition from hope to
disappointment produces, at least in a sensitive mind. His trials were
very great, even in Josiah's reign; but when that pious king's
countenance was withdrawn on his early death, he was exposed to
persecution from every class of men. At one time we read of the people
conspiring against him[8], at another, of the men of his own city,
Anathoth, "seeking his life[9]," on account of his prophesying in the
Lord's name. At another time he was seized by the priests and the
prophets in order to be put to death, from which he was only saved by
certain of the princes and elders who were still faithful to the memory
of Josiah[10]. Then, again, Pashur, the chief governor of the temple,
smote him and tortured him[11]. At another time, the king, Zedekiah, put
him in prison[12]. Afterwards, when the army of the Chaldeans had
besieged Jerusalem, the Jews accused him of falling away to the
enemy[13], and smote him, and imprisoned him, then they cast him into a
dungeon, where he "sunk in the mire," and almost perished from
hunger[14]. When Jerusalem had been taken by the enemy, Jeremiah was
forcibly carried down to Egypt; by men who at first pretended to
reverence and consult him[15], and there he came to his end--it is
believed, a violent end. Nebuchadnezzar, the heathen king of Babylon and
conqueror of Jerusalem, was one of the few persons who showed him
kindness. This great king, who afterwards honoured Daniel, and was at
length brought to acknowledge the God of heaven by a severe chastisement,
on the taking of the city delivered Jeremiah from prison[16], and gave
charge to the captain of his guard concerning him, to "look well to him,
and to do him no harm; but to do unto him even as he should say . . . ."
An Ethiopian, another heathen, is also mentioned as delivering him from
the dungeon.
Such were his trials: his affliction, fear, despondency, and sometimes
even restlessness under them are variously expressed; that succession and
tide of feelings which most persons undergo before their minds settle
into the calm of resignation. At one time he speaks as astonished at his
failure: "O Lord, art not Thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken
them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, but they have
refused to receive correction[17]." Again, "A wonderful and horrible
thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the
priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so[18]."
At another time, he expresses his perplexity at the disorder of the
world, and the successes of the wicked: "Righteous art Thou, O Lord, when
I plead with Thee; yet let me talk with Thee of Thy judgments: wherefore
doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that
deal very treacherously? . . . but Thou, O Lord, knowest me; Thou hast
seen me, and tried mine heart towards Thee[19]." Then, in turn, his mind
frets at the thought of its own anxious labours and perplexities: "Woe is
me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of
contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men
have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me. . . Why
is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable? . . . wilt Thou be
altogether unto me as a deceiver, and as waters that fail[20]?" These
are the sorrows of a gentle and peaceable mind, forced against its will
into the troubles of life, and incurring the hatred of those whom it
opposes against its nature. This he elsewhere expresses thus: "As for
me, I have not . . . desired the woeful day" (which he foretold); "Thou
knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before Thee. Be not a
terror unto me: Thou art my hope in the day of evil[21]." When Pashur
put him to torture he was still more agitated, and said, "O Lord, Thou
hast deceived me, and I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I, and hast
prevailed. I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me . . . Cursed be
the day wherein I was born" (here certainly is the language even of
impatience), "let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed[22]."
However, of such changes of feelings what was the end?--resignation. He
elsewhere uses language which expresses that chastened spirit and weaned
heart, which is the termination of all agitation and anxiety in the case
of religious minds. He, who at one time could not comfort himself, at
another was sent to comfort a brother, and, in comforting Baruch, he
speaks in that nobler temper of resignation which takes the place of
sanguine hope and harassing fear, and betokens calm and clear-sighted
faith and inward peace. "Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel unto
thee, O Baruch. Thou didst say, Woe is me now, for the Lord hath added
grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest. . .
Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have
planted I will pluck up, even this whole land. And seekest thou great
things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon
all flesh; . . . but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all
places whither thou goest," that is, seek not success, be not impatient,
fret not thyself--be content, if, after all thy labours, thou dost but
save thyself, without seeing other fruit of them.
And now, my brethren, does what I have been saying apply to all of us, or
only to Prophets? It applies to all of us. For all of us live in a
world which promises well, but does not fulfil; and all of us (taking our
lives altogether apart from religious prospects) begin with hope, and end
with disappointment. Doubtless, there is much difference in our
respective trials here, arising from difference of tempers and fortunes.
Still it is in our nature to begin life thoughtlessly and joyously; to
seek great things in one way or other; to have vague notions of good to
come; to love the world, and to believe its promises, and seek
satisfaction and happiness from it. And, as it is our nature to hope, so
it is our lot, as life proceeds, to encounter disappointment. I know
that there are multitudes, in the retired ranks of society, who pass
their days without any great varieties of fortune; though, even in such
cases, thinking persons will have much more to say of themselves than at
first sight might appear. Still, that disappointment in some shape or
other is the lot of man (that is, looking at our prospects apart from the
next world) is plain, from the mere fact, if nothing else could be said,
that we begin life with health and end it with sickness; or in other
words, that it _comes_ to an _end_, for an end is a failure. And even in
the quietest walks of life, do not the old feel regret, more or less
vividly, that they are not young? Do not they lament the days gone by,
and even with the pleasure of remembrance feel the pain? And why, except
that they think that they have lost something which they once had,
whereas in the beginning of life, they thought of gaining something they
had not? A double disappointment.
Now is it religion that suggests this sad view of things? No, it is
experience; it is the _world's_ doing; it is fact, from which we cannot
escape, though the Bible said not a word about the perishing nature of
all earthly pleasures.
Here then it is, that God Himself offers us His aid by His Word, and in
His Church. Left to ourselves, we seek good from the world, but cannot
find it; in youth we look forward, and in age we look back. It is well
we should be persuaded of these things betimes, to gain wisdom and to
provide for the evil day. Seek we great things? We must seek them where
they really are to be found, and in the way in which they are to be
found; we must seek them as He has set them before us, who came into the
world to enable us to gain them. We must be willing to give up present
hope for future enjoyment, this world for the unseen. The truth is
(though it is so difficult for us to admit it heartily), our nature is
not at first in a state to enjoy happiness, even if we had it offered to
us. We seek for it, and we feel we need it; but (strange though it is to
say, still so it is) we are not fitted to be happy. If then at once we
rush forward to seek enjoyment, it will be like a child's attempting to
walk before his strength is come. If we would gain true bliss, we must
cease to seek it as an end; we must postpone the prospect of enjoying it.
For we are by nature in an unnatural state; we must be changed from what
we are when born, before we can receive our greatest good. And as in
sickness sharp remedies are often used, or irksome treatment, so it is
with our souls; we must go through pain, we must practise self-denial, we
must curb our wills, and purify our hearts, before we are capable of any
lasting solid peace. To attempt to gain happiness, except in this
apparently tedious and circuitous way, is a labour lost; it is building
on the sand; the foundation will soon give way, though the house looks
fair for a time. To be gay and thoughtless, to be self-indulgent and
self-willed, is quite out of character with our real state. We must
learn to know ourselves, and to have thoughts and feelings becoming
ourselves. Impetuous hope and undisciplined mirth ill-suit a sinner.
Should he shrink from low notions of himself, and sharp pain, and
mortification of natural wishes, whose guilt called down the Son of God
from heaven to die upon the cross for him? May he live in pleasure here,
and call this world his home, while he reads in the Gospel of his
Saviour's life-long affliction and disappointment?
It cannot be; let us prepare for suffering and disappointment, which
befit us as sinners, and which are necessary for us as saints. Let us
not turn away from trial when God brings it on us, or play the coward in
the fight of faith. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like
men, be strong[23];" such is St. Paul's exhortation. When affliction
overtakes you, remember to accept it as a means of improving your hearts,
and pray God for His grace that it may do so. Look disappointment in the
face. "Take . . . the Prophets . . . for an example of suffering
affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy who endure."
Give not over your attempts to serve God, though you see nothing come of
them. Watch and pray, and obey your conscience, though you cannot
perceive your own progress in holiness. Go on, and you cannot but go
forward; believe it, though you do not see it. Do the duties of your
calling, though they are distasteful to you. Educate your children
carefully in the good way, though you cannot tell how far God's grace has
touched their hearts. Let your light shine before men, and praise God by
a consistent life, even though others do not seem to glorify their Father
on account of it, or to be benefited by your example. "Cast your bread
upon the waters, for you shall find it after many days. . . . In the
morning sow your seed, in the evening withhold not your hand; for you
know not whether shall prosper, either this or that; or whether they both
shall be alike good[24]." Persevere in the narrow way. The Prophets
went through sufferings to which ours are mere trifles; violence and
craft combined to turn them aside, but they kept right on, and are at
rest.