Sermons on National Subjects

And He is near, my friends: He is watching; He is governing; He is at hand: and in this life or in the life to come, forget Him as we choose, He will make us know plain enough, and without any doubt whatsoever, that He is the Lord.

He has fulfilled this awful parable of his about the unfaithful servant already; many a time, against many a man, many a great king, and prince, and nation; and he will fulfil it against each and every man, from the nobleman in his castle to the labourer in his cottage, who says in his heart, “My Lord delays his coming,” and begins to tyrannise over those who are weaker than himself, and to enjoy himself as he likes, and forget that he is not his own, but bought with the price of Christ’s blood, and bound to work for Christ’s kingdom and glory.

So he punished the popes of Rome, three hundred years ago.  When all the nations in Europe were listening to them and obeying them, and they had put into their hands by God a greater power of doing good than He ever gave to any human being before or since, what did they do?  Instead of using their power for Christ, they used it for themselves.  Instead of preaching to all nations the good news that Christ the Son of God was their King, they said: “I, the pope, am your king.  Christ is gone far away into heaven, and has committed all power on earth to us; we are Christ’s vicars; we are in Christ’s place; He has entrusted to our keeping all the treasures of His merits and His grace, and no one can get any blessing from Christ, unless we choose to give it him.”  So they said in their hearts just what the foolish servant in the parable said: and fancying that they were lords and masters, naturally enough went on to behave as such; to beat the men-servants and maid-servants, that is, to oppress and tyrannise over the bodies and minds and consciences of men, and women too, God knows; and to eat and drink with the drunken, to live in riot and debauchery.  But the Lord was not so far off as those foolish popes fancied.  And in an hour when they were not aware, He came and cut them asunder.  He snatched from them one-half of the nations of Europe, and England among the rest; He punished them by doubt, ignorance, confusion, and utter blindness, and appointed them their portion among the unbelievers in such terrible earnest, that to this very day, to judge by the things which they say and do, it is difficult to persuade ourselves that the popes really believe in any God at all.

So He did, only three years ago, to many kings and princes on the Continent.1  They professed to be Christians; but they had forgotten that they were Christ’s stewards, that all their power came from Him, and that he had given it them only to use for the good of their subjects.  And they too went on saying:  “The Lord delays His coming, we are rulers in this world, and God is ruler in the world to come.”  So they, too, oppressed their subjects, and lived in ease on what they wrung out of the poor wretches below them.  But the Lord was nearer them, too, than they fancied; and all at once—as they were fancying themselves all safe and prosperous, and saying, “We are those who ought to speak, who is Lord over us?”—their fool’s paradise crumbled from under their feet.  A few paltry mobs of foolish starving people, without weapons, without leaders, without good counsel to guide them, rose against them.  And what did they do?  They might have crushed down the rebels most of them, in a week, if they had had courage.  And in the only country where the rebels were really strong, that is, in Austria, all might have been quiet again at once, if the king had only had the heart to do common justice, and keep his own solemn oaths.  But no—the terror of the Lord came upon them.  He most truly cut them in sunder.  They were every man of a different mind, and none of them in the same mind a day together; they became utterly conscience-stricken, terrified, perplexed, at their wit’s end, not having courage or determination to do anything, or even to do nothing, and fled shamefully away one after another, to their everlasting disgrace.  And those of them who have got back their power since are showing sadly enough, by their obstinate folly and wickedness, that the Lord has appointed them their portion with the unbelievers, and left them to fill up the measure of their iniquity, and drink deep the cup of wrath which is in His hand, full and mixed for those who forget God.

Oh! my friends, let us lay these things solemnly to heart.  Do not fancy that the Lord will punish the wicked great, and forget the wicked small.  In His sight there is neither great nor small; all are small enough for Him to crush like the moth; and all are too great to be overlooked, or forgotten by Him, without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground.  Again I say, my friends, let us lay His parable to heart.  Let us who have property, and station, and education, never forget who has given it us, and for whom we must use it.  Let us never forget that to whom much is given, of them will much be required.  Let us pray to the Lord daily to write upon our inmost hearts those solemn words: “Who made thee to differ from another; and what hast thou which thou didst not receive?”  Let us look on our servants, our labourers, on every human being over whom we have any influence, as weaker brothers whom God has commanded us to help, teach, and guide in body, mind, and spirit, not that we may make them our slaves, but make them free, manful, self-helping, and in due time independent of us and of everyone except God.

And you young people, who have no authority over anyone, but over your own bodies; to whom the Lord has given little or nothing to manage and take care of except your own health and strength—do not let the devil tempt you to believe that that health and strength is your own property, to do what you like with.  It belongs to the Lord who died for you, and He will require an account from you how you have used it.  Do not let the devil tempt you to believe that the Lord delays His coming to you—that you may do what you like now, in the prime of your years, and that it will be time enough to think about God and religion when God visits you with cares, and sickness, and old age.  That is the fancy of too many; but it will surely turn out to be a mistake.  Those who misuse their youth, and health, and strength, in tyrannising over those who are weaker than themselves, and laughing at those who are not as clever as themselves, and eating and drinking with the drunken—the Lord will come to them in an hour when they are not aware, and cut them asunder, in some way or other, by loss of work, or poverty, or sickness, or doubt and confusion, and bitter shame and perplexity of mind; till they find out, poor things, that they have been living like the unbelievers all their youth, without God in the world, while God’s love and God’s teaching, and God’s happiness was ready for them; and have to go back again to their Father and their Lord, and cry: “Father, we have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and are no more worthy to be called Thy children!”  Oh, you who have been fancying that the Lord was gone far away, and that you had a right to do what you liked with the powers which He has given you, go back to Him, now at once, and confess that you, and all belonging to you, belong to Him, and ask Him to teach you how to use it aright.  Ask Him to teach you how to please Him with it, and not yourselves only.  Ask Him to teach you how to do good to all around you, and not merely to do what you like.  Ask Him to show you how to do your duty to Him, and to your neighbours, for whom He died on the cross, in that station of life to which He has called you.  Ask Him to show you how to use your property, your knowledge, your business, your strength, your health, so that you may be a blessing and a help to those whom He blesses and helps, and who, He wishes, should bless and help each other.  Go back to Him at once, my friends.  You will not have far to go, seeing that He is now even among us here hearing my clumsy words; and I do hope, and trust, and pray, bringing them home to some of your hearts with that spirit and power of His, which is like a two-edged sword, piercing to the very depths of a man’s heart, and showing him how ugly it is—and how noble the Lord will make it, if he will but repent and pray to Him who never cast out any that came to Him.

XXII.

THE WAY TO WEALTH

Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.—Isaiah lv. 6, 7.

Some of you, surely, while the first lesson was being read this morning, must have felt the beauty of it; and if you were thoughtful, perplexed, weary, sad at heart, perhaps you felt that it was more than beautiful—that it was full of comfort.  And so it should be full of comfort to you, my friends.  God meant it to give you comfort.  For though it was written and spoken by a man of like passions with ourselves, it was just as truly written and spoken by God, who made heaven and earth.  It is true and everlasting, the message which it brings, and like all true and everlasting words, it is the voice of God who cannot change; who makes no difference between Jew and Gentile, between us in England here, and nations which perished hundreds of years ago.

And what is its message?  What was God’s word to the old Jews, among all their sin, and sorrow, and labour?

Is it the message of a stern judge, saying: “Pay me that thou owest, to the uttermost farthing; and if you cannot do that, fret and torment yourselves in shame and terror here on earth, for all your sins, if, possibly, you may chance to change my mind, and find forgiveness at the last day?”

Is it the message of a proud tyrant, saying: “If you are miserable, and fallen, and sinful, what is that to me?  I am perfect, blest, contented with myself, alone in my glory, far away beyond the sight of men, beyond the sun and stars—what are you worms of earth to me?”

Or is it the voice of a loving Father, calling to his self-willed children who have gone proudly and boldly away from their Father’s house, and thrown off their Father’s government, and said in their conceit: “We are men.  Do not we know good and evil?  Do we not know what is our interest?  Cannot we judge for ourselves, and shift for ourselves, and take care of ourselves?  Why are we to be barred from pleasant things here, and profitable things there?  We will be our own masters.”

To self-willed children who have said thus, and done thus in their foolish hearts, and have found all their conceit, and shrewdness, only lead them into sorrow, and perplexity, and distress.—Who have found that with all their cleverness they could not get the very good things for which they left their Father’s house; or if they get them, find no enjoyment in them, but only discontent, and shame, and danger, and a sad self-accusing heart—spending their money for that which does not feed them after all, and labouring hard for things which do not satisfy them; always longing for something more—always finding the pleasure, or the profit, or the honour which a little way off looked so fine, looked quite ugly and worthless, when they come up to it and get hold of it—finding all things full of labour; the eye never satisfied with seeing, or the ear with hearing; the same thing coming over and over again.  Each young man starting with gay hopes, as if he were the first man that ever was born, and he was going to do out of hand such fine things as man never did before, and make his own fortune, and set the world to right at once; and then as he grows older, falling into the same weary ruts as his forefathers went dragging on it, every fresh year bringing its own labour and its own sorrow; and dying like them, taking nothing away with him of all he has earned, and crying with his last breath: “That which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.  What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun, for all is vanity and vexation of spirit?”

To self-willed children, who have tried their own way ever since they were born, they and their fathers before them, and found it go round in a ring and leave them just where they started in heart and soul, and, on their death-beds, in purse and power also—

To such struggling, dissatisfied beings—such as nine-tenths of the men and women on this earth, alas! are still—comes the word of this loving Father:

“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters! and he that hath no money, come, buy and eat.  Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price.”  Why do you fancy that money can give you all you want?  Why this labouring and straining after money, as if it was God, as if it made heaven and earth, and all therein?  Is money a God? or money’s worth? “I am God,” saith the Lord, “and beside me there is none else.  It is I who give, and not money.  It is I who save men, and not money.  And I do save, and I do give freely to all.  Come, and try my mercy, and see if my word be not true.”

This struggling and snarling, like dogs over a bone—what profit comes of it? are you happier? are you wiser? are you better? are you more at peace with your neighbours; more at peace with your own hearts and consciences?  If you are, money has not made you so, nor plotting, and scraping, and struggling, and pushing your neighbour down, that you may rise a few inches on his shoulders.  No.  Hear what the voice of your Father says is the true way to wealth and comfort, after which you all struggle and labour so hard in vain.—“Hearken diligently unto me, and you shall eat that which is good, and your soul shall delight itself in fatness.  Incline your ear and come unto me.  Hear, and your soul shall live.  And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies,” or rather “the faithful oath which I sware unto David?”  And what is this faithful oath which God sware to David.—“Of the fruit of thy body, I will set on thy seat.”  A promise of a righteous king who should arise in David’s family.  How far David understood the full meaning of that glorious promise we cannot tell.  He thought most probably, at first, that Solomon, his son, was to be the king who would fulfil it.  But all through many of his psalms, there are deep and great words about some nobler and more perfect king than Solomon—about one who, as Isaiah says here, would perfectly witness to the people that God was their King; one who would be a perfect leader and commander of the people; a holy one of Israel, who would sit on God’s right hand; to hear the good news of whom, the Jews would call nations whom they then did not know of, and for whose sake nations who did not know them would run to them.  And dimly David did see this, that God would raise up a true Christ, that is, one truly anointed by God, chosen and sent out by God, to sit on his throne, and be perfectly what David was only in part; a King made perfect by suffering, a King of poor men, a King who bore the sins and carried the iniquities of all His people, from the highest to the lowest.  We know who that was.  We know clearly what David only knew dimly, what Isaiah only knew a little more clearly.  We know who was born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, ascended into heaven, and now sits at the right hand of God, ever praying for us, ruling the world in righteousness, Jesus the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, to whom all power is given in heaven and earth.

But Isaiah, though he knew Him only dimly, still knew Him.  He did not know that the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, would take on Himself the form of a poor man, and be called the son of the carpenter.  Such boundless love and condescension in the Son of God he never could have fancied for himself, and God had not chosen to reveal it to him; or to anyone else in those days.  But this he did see, that the Lord Jesus, He whom he calls the Holy One of Israel, was near the Jews in his time; that He was watching over them, mourning over their sins, arguing with them, and calling them to return to Him with most human love and tenderness, as a husband to the woman whom he loves in spite of her unfaithfulness to him.  As he says to his sinful and distressed country in the chapter before this: “Thy Maker is thy husband: the Lord of Hosts is His name, and thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, the Lord of the whole earth shall He be called.  For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit.  For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.  In a little anger I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.”

This, then, Isaiah knew—that the heart of the Holy Lord pitied and yearned after those poor sinful Jews, as a husband’s after a foolish and sinful wife.  And how much more should we believe the same, how much more should we believe that His heart pities and yearns for all foolish and sinful people here in England now!  We who know a thousand times more than Isaiah knew of His love, His pity, His condescension, which led Him to sacrifice Himself upon the cross for us?  Surely, surely, if Isaiah had a right to say to those Jews, “Seek the Lord while He may be found,” I have a thousand times as much right to say it to you.  If Isaiah had a right to say to those Jews, “Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon,” then I have a right to say it to you.

Free mercy, utter pardon, pardon for all, even for the worst.  And what is the argument which Isaiah uses to make his countrymen repent?  Is it “Repent, or you shall be damned: Repent because God’s wrath and curse is against you.  The Lord hates you and despises you, and you must crawl to His feet like beaten hounds, and entreat Him not to strike you into hell as He intends”?  Not so; it was because God loved the Jews, that they were to repent.  It is because God loves you that you must repent.  “Incline your ear,” saith the Lord, “and come unto me, hear, and your soul shall live; and you shall eat that which is good, and your soul shall delight itself in fatness.”  Yes, God is love.  God’s delight and glory is to give; in spite of all our sins He gives and gives, sending rain and fruitful seasons to just and unjust, to fill their hearts with joy and gladness; and all the while men fancy that it is not God that gives, but they who take.  God has not left Himself, as St. Paul says, without a witness; every fruitful shower and quickening gleam of sunshine cries to us—See! God is love: He is the giver.  And men will not hear that voice.  They say in their hearts, “The Lord is far away above the skies; He does not care for us: we must help ourselves, each man to what he can get off this earth; nay, even, when we are hard put to it for a living, we must break God’s laws to keep ourselves alive, and so steal from God’s table the very good things which He offers us freely.”

But some will say: “He does not give freely; we must work and struggle.  Why do you mock poor hard-worked creatures with such words as these?”

Ask that question of God, my friends, and not of me.  Isaiah said that those who hearkened to God diligently should eat what is good.  The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said the same—that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, all other things should be added to them.  He did not mean us to be idle, God forbid! but this He meant, that if we, each in his business and calling, put steadily before ourselves what is right, what God would wish us, His subjects, to be in His Kingdom—if instead of making our first thought in every business we take in hand, “What will suit my interest best, what will raise most money, what will give me most pleasure?” we said to ourselves all day long, “What will be most right, and just, and merciful for us to do; what will be most pleasing to a God who is love and justice itself? what will do most good to my neighbour as well as myself?” then all things would go well with us.  Then we should be prosperous and joyful.  Then our plans would succeed and our labour bring forth real profit to us, because they would be according to the will of God: we should be fellow-workers with Jesus Christ in the great work of doing good to this poor distracted world, and His help and blessing would be with us.

And if you ask me, how can this come to pass, I must answer, as Isaiah does in this same chapter: “The Lord’s ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts, but higher than ours, as the heavens are above the earth.”  But if we do turn to God, and repent each man of us of his selfishness, his unfaithfulness, his hard-heartedness, his covetousness, his self-will, his ungodliness—then God’s blessing, as Isaiah says, will come down on us, and spring up among us, we know not how or whence, like the rain and snow, which comes down from heaven and waters the earth, and makes it bud and bring forth to give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.  So shall be the Lord’s word, which goes out of His mouth; it will not return to Him void, but will accomplish what He pleases, and prosper in that whereto He sends it.  He will teach us and guide us in the right way.  He will put His word into the mouths of true teachers to show us our duty.  He will pour out His spirit upon us, to make us love our duty.  In one way and another, we know not how, we shall be taught what is good for England, good for each parish, good for each family.  And wealth, peace, and prosperity for rich and poor will be the fruit of obeying the word of God, and giving up our hearts to be led by His spirit.  As it was to be in Judæa, of old, if they repented, so will it be with us.  They should go forth with joy and do their work in peace.  The hills should break before them into singing, and all the trees of the field should clap their hands; instead of thorns should come up timber-trees: instead of briers, garden-shrubs.  The whole cultivation of the country was to improve, and be to the Lord for a name, and a sign for ever that the true way to wealth and prosperity is the way of God, justice, mercy to each other, and obedience to the will of Him who made heaven and earth, trees and fruitful fields, rain and sunshine, and gives the blessings of them freely to His children of mankind, in proportion as they look up to Him as a loving Father, and return to him day by day, with childlike repentance, and full desire to amend their lives according to His holy word.

XXIII.

THE LOVE OF CHRIST

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.  And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.—2 Cor. v. 14, 15.

What is the use of sermons?—what is the use of books?  Here are hundreds and thousands of people hearing weekly and daily what is right, and how many do what is right?—much less love what is right?  What can be the reason of this, that men should know the better and choose the worse?  What motive can one find out?—what reason or argument can one put before people, to make them do their duty?  How can one stir them up to conquer themselves; to conquer their own love of pleasure, laziness, cowardice, conceit, above all their own selfishness, and do simply what is right, morning, noon, and night?  That is a question worth asking and considering, for there ought to be some use in sermons and in books; and there ought to be some use in every one of us too.  Woe to the man who is of no use!  The Lord have mercy on his soul; for he needs it!  It is, indeed, worth his while to take any trouble which will teach him a motive for being useful; in plain words, stir him up to do his duty, to do his rights; for a man’s rights are not, as the world thinks, what is right others should do to him, but what is right he should do to others.  Our duty is our right, the only thing which is right for us.  What motive will constrain us, that is, bind us, and force us to do that?

Will self-interest?  Will a man do right because you tell him it is his interest, it will pay him to do it?  Look round you and see.—The drunkard knows that drinking will ruin him, and yet he gets drunk.  The spendthrift knows that extravagance will ruin him, and yet he throws away his money still.  The idler knows that he is wasting his only chance for all eternity, and yet he puts the thought out of his head, and goes on idling.  The cheat knows that he is in danger of being almost certainly found out sooner or later; he knows too that he is burdening his own conscience with the curse of inward shame and self-contempt; and yet he goes on cheating.  The hard master knows, or ought to know (for there is quite enough to prove it to him) that it would pay him better in the long run to be more merciful, and less covetous; that by grinding those whom he employs down to the last farthing, he degrades them till they become burdens on him and curses to him; that what he gains by high prices, he will lose in the long run by bad debts; that what he saves in low wages, he will pay in extra poor-rates; and that even if he does make money out of the flesh and bones of those beneath him, that money ill gotten is sure to be ill spent, that there is a curse on it, that it brings a curse in the gnawing of a man’s own conscience, and a curse too in the way it flows away from his family as fast as it flowed to them.  “He that by usury and unjust gain increases his wealth, shall gather for him that will pity the poor.”  So said Solomon of old.  And men who worship Mammon find it come true daily, and see that, taking all things together, a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses, and that those who make such haste to be rich, fall, as the apostle says, “into temptation and a snare, and pierce themselves through with many sorrows.”  Such a man sees his neighbours making money, and making themselves more unhappy, anxious, discontented by it; he sees, in short, that it is not his interest to do nothing but make money and save money: and yet in spite of that, he thinks of nothing else.  Self-interest cannot keep him from that sin.  I do not believe that self-interest ever kept any man from any sin, though it may keep him from many an imprudence.  Self-interest may make many a man respectable, but whom did it ever make good?  You may as well make house-walls of paper, or take a rush for a walking-stick, as take self-interest to keep you upright, or even prudent.  The first shake—and the rush bends, and the paper wall breaks, and a man’s selfish prudence is blown to the winds.  Let pleasure tempt him, or ambition, or the lust of making money by speculation; let him take a spite against anyone; let him get into a passion; let his pride be hurt; and he will do the maddest things, which he knows to be entirely contrary to his own interest, just to gratify the fancy of the moment.  Those who call themselves philosophers, and fancy that men’s self-interest, if they can only feel it strong enough, would make all men just and merciful to each other, know as little of human nature as they do of God or the devil.