Volume VIII Part 1 (2/2)

Let all persons, then, know for certain, and be a.s.sured beforehand, that if they come to Church to have their hearts put into strange and new forms, and their feelings moved and agitated, they come for what they will not find. We wish them to join Saints and Angels in wors.h.i.+pping G.o.d; to say with the Seraphim, ”Holy Lord G.o.d of Sabaoth,”

to say with the Angels, ”Glory to G.o.d in the highest, and in earth peace, good-will towards men,” to say after our Lord and Saviour, ”Our Father, which art in heaven,” and what follows; to say with St. Mary, ”My soul doth magnify the Lord;” with St. Simeon, ”Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace;” with the Three Children who were cast into the fiery furnace, ”O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, praise Him, and magnify Him for ever,” with the Apostles, ”I believe in G.o.d the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; and in the Holy Ghost.” We wish to read to them words of inspired Scripture, and to explain its doctrine to them soberly after its pattern. This is what we wish them to say, again and again: ”Lord, have mercy;” ”We beseech Thee to hear us, O Lord;” ”Good Lord, deliver us;” ”Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.” All holy creatures are praising G.o.d continually--we hear them not, still they are praising Him and praying to Him. All the Angels, the glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellows.h.i.+p of the Prophets, the n.o.ble army of Martyrs, the Holy Church universal, all good men all over the earth, all the spirits and souls of the righteous, all our friends who have died in G.o.d's faith and fear, all are praising and praying to G.o.d: we come to Church to join them; our voices are very feeble, our hearts are very earthly, our faith is very weak. We do not deserve to come, surely not;--consider what a great favour it is to be allowed to join in the praises and prayers of the City of the Living G.o.d, we being such sinners;--we should not be allowed to come at all but for the merits of our Lord and Saviour. Let us firmly look at the Cross, that is the token of our salvation. Let us ever remember the sacred Name of Jesus, in which devils were cast out of old time. These are the thoughts with which we should come to Church, and if we come a little before the Service begins, and want something to think about, we may look, not at who are coming in and when, but at the building itself, which will remind us of many good things; or we may look into the Prayer Book for such pa.s.sages as the 84th Psalm, which runs thus: ”O how amiable are Thy dwellings, Thou Lord of hosts! my soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the Courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh rejoice in the Living G.o.d.”

Such will be our conduct and our thoughts in Church, if we be true Christians; and I have been giving this description of them, not only for the sake of those who are not reverent, but for the sake of those who try to be so,--for the sake of all of us who try to come to Church soberly and quietly, that we may know why we do so, and may have an answer if any one asks us. Such will be our conduct even when we are out of Church. I mean, those who come to Church again and again, in this humble and heavenly way, will find the effect of it, through G.o.d's mercy, in their daily walk. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, where he had been forty days and forty nights, his face quite shone and dazzled the people, so that he was obliged to put a veil over it. Such is the effect of G.o.d's grace on those who come to Church in faith and love; their mode of acting and talking, their very manner and behaviour, show they have been in G.o.d's presence. They are ever sober, cheerful, modest, serious, and earnest. They do not disgrace their profession, they do not take G.o.d's Name in vain, they do not use pa.s.sionate language, they do not lie, they do not jest in an unseemly way, they do not use shameful words, they keep their mouth; they have kept their mouth in Church, and avoided rashness, so they are enabled to keep it at home. They have bright, smiling, pleasant faces. They do not wear a mock gravity, and, like the hypocrites whom Christ speaks of, make themselves sad countenances, but they are easy and natural, and without meaning it cannot help showing in their look, and voice, and manner, that they are G.o.d's dear children, and have His grace within them. They are civil and obliging, kind and friendly; not envious or jealous, not quarrelsome, not spiteful or resentful, not selfish, not covetous, not n.i.g.g.ardly, not lovers of the world, not afraid of the world, not afraid of what man can do against them.

Such are they who wors.h.i.+p G.o.d in spirit and in truth in Church; they love Him and they fear Him. And, besides those who profess to love without fearing, there are two sorts of persons who fall short; first, and worst, those who neither fear nor love G.o.d; and, secondly, those who fear Him, but do not love Him. There are, every where, alas! some bold, proud, discontented persons, who, as far as they dare, speak against religion altogether; they do not come to Church, or if they come, come to see about what is going on, not to wors.h.i.+p. These are those who neither love nor fear; but the more common sort of persons are they who have a sort of fear of G.o.d without the love of Him, who feel and know that some things are right, and others wrong, yet do not adhere to the right; who are conscious they sin from time to time, and that wilfully, who have an uneasy conscience, who fear to die; who have, indeed, a sort of serious feeling about sacred things, who reverence the Church and its Ordinances, who would be shocked at open impiety, who do not make a mock at Baptism, much less at the Holy Communion, but, still, who have not the heart to love and obey G.o.d.

This, I fear, my brethren, may be the state of some of you. See to it, that you are clear from the sin of knowing and confessing what is your duty, and yet not doing it. If you be such, and make no effort to become better; if you do not come to Church honestly, for G.o.d's grace to make you better, and seriously strive to be better and to do your duty more thoroughly, it will profit you nothing to be ever so reverent in your manner, and ever so regular in coming to Church. G.o.d hates the wors.h.i.+p of the mere lips; He requires the wors.h.i.+p of the heart. A person may bow, and kneel, and look religious, but he is not at all the nearer heaven, unless he tries to obey G.o.d in all things, and to do his duty. But if he does honestly strive to obey G.o.d, then his outward manner will be reverent also; decent forms will become natural to him; holy ordinances, though coming to him from the Church, will at the same time come (as it were) from his heart; they will be part of himself, and he will as little think of dispensing with them as he would dispense with his ordinary apparel, nay, as he could dispense with tongue or hand in speaking or doing. This is the true way of doing devotional service; not to have feelings without acts, or acts without feelings; but both to do and to feel;--to see that our hearts and bodies are both sanctified together, and become one; the heart ruling our limbs, and making the whole man serve Him, who has redeemed the whole man, body as well as soul.

[1] Sam. i. 11.

[2] Ps. lx.x.xiv. 4.

[3] Luke xviii. 13.

SERMON II.

Divine Calls.

”_And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel; Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for Thy servant heareth._”--1 Samuel iii. 10.

In the narrative of which these words form part, we have a remarkable instance of a Divine call, and the manner in which it is our duty to meet it. Samuel was from a child brought to the house of the Lord; and in due time he was called to a sacred office, and made a prophet. He was called, and he forthwith answered the call. G.o.d said, ”Samuel, Samuel.” He did not understand at first who called, and what was meant; but on going to Eli he learned who spoke, and what his answer should be. So when G.o.d called again, he said, ”Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” Here is prompt obedience.

Very different in its circ.u.mstances was St. Paul's call, but resembling Samuel's in this respect, that, when G.o.d called, he, too, promptly obeyed. When St. Paul heard the voice from heaven, he said at once, trembling and astonished, ”Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do[1]?”

This same obedient temper of his is stated or implied in the two accounts which he himself gives of his miraculous conversion. In the 22nd chapter he says, ”And I said, What shall I do, Lord?” And in the 26th, after telling King Agrippa what the Divine Speaker said to him, he adds what comes to the same thing, ”Whereupon, O King Agrippa, _I was not disobedient_ unto the heavenly vision.” Such is the account given us in St. Paul's case of that first step in G.o.d's gracious dealings with him, which ended in his eternal salvation. ”Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate[2];”--”whom He did predestinate, them He also called”--here was the first act which took place in time--”and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Such is the Divine series of mercies; and you see that it was prompt obedience on St. Paul's part which carried on the first act of Divine grace into the second, which knit together the first mercy to the second. ”Whom He called, them He also justified.” St. Paul was called when Christ appeared to him in the way; he was justified when Ananias came to baptize him: and it was prompt obedience which led him from his call to his baptism. ”Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” The answer was, ”Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do[3].” And when he came to Damascus, Ananias was sent to him by the same Lord who had appeared to him; and he reminded St. Paul of this when he came to him. The Lord had appeared for his call; the Lord appeared for his justification.

This, then, is the lesson taught us by St. Paul's conversion, promptly to obey the call. If we do obey it, to G.o.d be the glory, for He it is works in us. If we do not obey, to ourselves be all the shame, for sin and unbelief work in us. Such being the state of the case, let us take care to act accordingly,--being exceedingly alarmed lest we should not obey G.o.d's voice when He calls us, yet not taking praise or credit to ourselves if we do obey it. This has been the temper of all saints from the beginning--working out their salvation with fear and trembling, yet ascribing the work to Him who wrought in them to will and do of His good pleasure; obeying the call, and giving thanks to Him who calls, to Him who fulfils in them their calling. So much on the pattern afforded us by St. Paul.

Very different in its circ.u.mstances was Samuel's call, when a child in the temple, yet resembling St. Paul's in this particular,--that for our instruction the circ.u.mstance of his obedience to it is brought out prominently even in the words put into his mouth by Eli in the text.

Eli taught him what to say, when called by the Divine voice.

Accordingly, when ”the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”

Such, again, is the temper of mind expressed by holy David in the 27th Psalm, ”When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

And this temper, which in the above instances is ill.u.s.trated in words spoken, is in the case of many other Saints in Scripture shown in word and deed; and, on the other hand, is ill.u.s.trated negatively by being neglected in the case of others therein mentioned, who might have entered into life, and did not.

For instance, we read of the Apostles, that ”Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And He saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. _And they straightway_ left their nets and followed Him[4].” Again; when He saw James and John with their father Zebedee, ”He _called_ them; and they _immediately left the s.h.i.+p, and their father_, and _followed_ Him.” And so of St. Matthew at the receipt of custom, ”He said unto him, Follow Me, and he left all, rose up, and followed Him.”

Again, we are told in St. John's Gospel, ”Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto Him, _Follow_ Me.” Again, ”Philip findeth Nathanael,” and in like manner says to him, ”Come and see.” ”Jesus saw Nathanael coming unto Him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.”

On the other hand, the young ruler shrunk from the call, and found it a hard saying, ”If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, and follow Me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions[5].” Others who seemed to waver, or rather who asked for some little delay from human feeling, were rebuked for want of prompt.i.tude in their obedience;--for time stays for no one; the word of call is spoken and is gone; if we do not seize the moment, it is lost. Christ was on His road heavenward. He walked by the sea of Galilee[6]; He ”pa.s.sed forth[7];” He ”pa.s.sed by[8];” He did not stop; all men must join Him, or He would be calling on others beyond them[9]. ”He said to another, Follow Me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of G.o.d. And another also said, Lord, I will follow Thee: but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of G.o.d[10].”

Not unlike these last instances are the circ.u.mstances of the call of the great prophet Elisha, though he does not seem to have incurred blame from Elijah for his lingering on the thoughts of what he was leaving. ”He found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was ploughing . . .

Elijah pa.s.sed by him, and cast his mantle over him.” He did not stay; he pa.s.sed on, and Elisha was obliged to run after him. ”And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee.” This the prophet allowed him to do, and after that ”he arose and followed Elijah, and ministered unto him.”

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