Part 8 (1/2)

Think of these things, my friends: for true they are, and true they will remain, whether you think of them or not. And take the warning of the second Psalm, which is needed now as much as it was ever needed--”Be wise now therefore, O ye kings, be learned, ye that are judges of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with reverence. Wors.h.i.+p the Son, lest He be angry, and so ye perish from the right way. If His wrath be kindled, yea, but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.”

But you are no kings, you are no judges. Is it so? And yet you boast yourselves to be free men, in a free country. Not so. Every man who is a free man is a king or a judge, whether he knows it or not. Every one who has a duty, is a king over his duty. Every one who has a work to do, is a judge whether he does his work well or not. He who farms, is a king and a judge over his land. He who keeps a shop, a king and a judge over his business. He who has a family, a king and a judge over his household. Let each be wise, and serve the Lord in fear; knowing that according as he obeys the law of the Lord, he will receive for the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil.

Not kings? not judges? Is not each and every human being who is not a madman, a king over his own actions, a judge over his own heart and conscience? Let him govern himself, govern his own thoughts and words, his own life and actions, according to the law of the Lord who created him; and he will be able to say with the poet,

My mind to me a kingdom is; Such perfect joy therein I find As far exceeds all earthly bliss.

But if he governs himself according to his own fancy, which is no law, but lawlessness: then he will find himself rebelling against himself, weakened by pa.s.sions, torn by vain desires, and miserable by reason of the l.u.s.ts which war in his members; and so will taste, here in this life, of that anger of the Lord of which it is written; ”If His wrath be kindled, yea, but a little, ye shall perish from the right way.”

Therefore let each and all of us, high and low, take the warning of the last verse, and wors.h.i.+p the Son of G.o.d. Bow low before Him--for that is the true meaning of the words--as subjects before an absolute monarch, who can dispose of us, body and soul, according to His will: but who can be trusted to dispose of us well: because His will is a good will, and the only reason why He is angry when we break His laws, is, that His laws are the Eternal Laws of G.o.d, wherein alone is life for all rational beings; and to break them is to injure our fellow-creatures, and to ruin ourselves, and perish from that right way, to bring us back to which He condescended, of His boundless love, to die on the Cross for all mankind.

SERMON XI. G.o.d THE TEACHER.

PSALM CXIX. 33, 34.

Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy Law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

This 119th Psalm has been valued for many centuries, by the wisest and most devout Christians, as one of the most instructive in the Bible; as the experimental psalm. And it is that, and more. It is specially a psalm about education. That is on the face of the text. Teach me, O Lord, Thy statutes, and I shall keep them to the end. These are the words of a man who wishes to be taught, and therefore to learn; and to learn not mere book-learning and instruction, but to acquire a practical education, which he can keep to the end, and carry out in his whole life.

But it is more. It is, to my mind, as much a theological psalm as it is an experimental psalm; and it is just as valuable for what it tells us concerning the changeless and serene essence of G.o.d, as for what it tells us concerning the changing and struggling soul of man.

Let us think a little this morning--and, please G.o.d, hereafter also--of the Psalm, and what it says. For it is just as true now as ever it was, and just as precious to those who long to educate themselves with the true education, which makes a man perfect, even as his Father in heaven is perfect.

The Psalm is a prayer, or collection of short prayers, written by some one who had two thoughts in his mind, and who was so full of those two thoughts that he repeated them over and over again, in many different forms, like one who, having an air of music in his head, repeats it in different keys, with variation after variation; yet keeps true always to the original air, and returns to it always at the last.

Now what two thoughts were in the Psalmist's mind?

First: that there was something in the world which he must learn, and would learn; for everything in this life and the next depended on his learning it. And this thing which he wants to learn he calls G.o.d's statutes, G.o.d's law, G.o.d's testimonies, G.o.d's commandments, G.o.d's everlasting judgments. That is what he feels he must learn, or else come to utter grief, both body and soul.

Secondly: that if he is to learn them, G.o.d Himself must teach them to him. I beg you not to overlook this side of the Psalm. That is what makes it not only a psalm, but a prayer also. The man wants to know something. But beside that, he prays G.o.d to teach it to him.

He was not like too many now-a-days, who look on prayer, and on inspiration, as old-fas.h.i.+oned superst.i.tions; who believe that a man can find out all he needs to know by his own una.s.sisted intellect, and then do it by his own una.s.sisted will. Where they get their proofs of that theory, I know not; certainly not from the history of mankind, and certainly not from their own experience, unless it be very different from mine. Be that as it may, this old Psalmist would not have agreed with them; for he held an utterly opposite belief. He held that a man could see nothing, unless G.o.d shewed it to him. He held that a man could learn nothing unless G.o.d taught him; and taught him, moreover, in two ways.

First taught him what he ought to do, and then taught him how to do it.

Surely this man was, at least, a reasonable and prudent man, and shewed his common-sense. I say--common-sense.

For suppose that you were set adrift in a s.h.i.+p at sea, to s.h.i.+ft for yourself, would it not be mere common-sense to try and learn how to manage that s.h.i.+p, that you might keep her afloat and get her safe to land? You would try to learn the statutes, laws, and commandments, and testimonies, and judgments concerning the s.h.i.+p, lest by your own ignorance you should sink her, and be drowned. You would try to learn the laws about the s.h.i.+p; namely the laws of floatation, by fulfilling which vessels swim, and by breaking which vessels sink.

You would try to learn the commandments about her. They would be any books which you could find of rules of navigation, and instruction in seamans.h.i.+p.

You would try to learn the testimonies about the s.h.i.+p. And what would they be? The witness, of course, which the s.h.i.+p bore to herself. The experience which you or others got, from seeing how she behaved--as they say--at sea.

And from whom would you try to learn all this? from yourself? Out of your own brain and fancy? Would you invent theories of navigation and s.h.i.+pbuilding for yourself, without practice or experience? I trust not.

You would go to the s.h.i.+pbuilder and the s.h.i.+pmaster for your information.

Just as--if you be a reasonable man--you will go for your information about this world to the builder and maker of the world--G.o.d himself.