Read Ebook: Plain Sermons Preached at Archbishop Tenison's Chapel Regent Street by Cowan James Galloway

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 154 lines and 42889 words, and 4 pages

. . . Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of GOD: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned

. . . "Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." . . .

But, my brethren, consider. Do you know what and whom you condemn? Are you quite sure that you do not yourselves attempt to serve mammon as well as GOD? Oh, yes! you are quite sure! Mammon, a false god--a name without a being like Jove and Mars, like fairies and genii--or a substance without life--like Bel of the Chaldeans, or Juggernaut of the Hindoos--you are not so senseless as to serve this!

Or, again, if mammon be, as some commentators tell us, only a personification of riches, and his service therefore be the immoderate pursuit of wealth and worldly aggrandisement, still you are free. You may sometimes make great efforts to be rich, you may often desire and covet wealth; but you are not sordid misers; you are not engrossed in the pursuit of wealth; you do not treat it as a god, and give to it the thought and homage due to Jehovah.

Dear brethren, it is not so certain that you could quite clear yourselves of the sin and folly of serving mammon, even if this were all that is meant. But it is not. Look to the text, "Ye cannot serve GOD and mammon." What then? Why give up mammon! And what is mammon? The next verse tells you, "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." So, then, taking thought for these things is serving mammon.

Who is free from idolatry now?

"But," some are ready to exclaim, "taking thought for these things is a very law and necessity of my being. I came into this world needing food and clothing. Others had to take thought to feed and clothe me. They early impressed upon me as one of the clearest duties of my responsible life that I should take this thought for myself, and now I can only get these things for myself and my family by taking thought for them." Ay, and the very Word of GOD enjoins the duty: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise"--learn, that is, from her forethought and provision; look about thee, be industrious, store up for future wants. Our LORD Himself set the example of such forethought, when He committed the care of a bag to one of His disciples, that food, and money to buy food, might be carried about with them; and the Apostle Paul plainly taught--"If any will not work, neither shall he eat." "If any man provide not for his own, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel."

And would you really come to want, if you were more religious? Would your family be left unprovided for? Would your health suffer? You do not seriously think it would. But what if it did? Welcome want, welcome sickness, welcome death--anything rather than worldly prosperity, if it can only be obtained by renunciation of GOD'S enjoined service and idolatrous devotion to mammon. The world will laugh at such preaching, brethren, and call it foolishness; but the world is nothing to us. It is doomed to pass away with all the things in it which lure us to take thought; but you and I must live on to eternity, and how we are to live shall be decided by the master we serve--GOD or mammon.

And what, then, are we to infer from all this? That besides GOD'S general providence which rules over all, ordering, as from a distant throne, the being and motions of the universe, He exercises a particular providence, drawing nigh to individuals, stepping in between cause and effect, saving, helping, prospering, hindering, confounding, destroying, just in those very cases which natural laws would treat otherwise. Not that this is always done in the case of all men. The wicked are often and chiefly let alone; they are, it may be, in great prosperity for a time; they come perhaps to no present misfortune; they do violence and escape justice; their time of reward is not yet. Again, the righteous are not exempt from trials, and troubles, and privations--their time of reward is not yet ; but they are never forsaken. The very hairs of their heads are all numbered. Nothing befalls them but by GOD'S permission--a permission which is only given when the event will work for their good. They may commit themselves unto Him as unto a faithful Creator and most merciful Saviour; they may put their trust in Him, assured that it will not miscarry; no evil shall approach to hurt them lastingly--He will keep them as the apple of His eye; none shall be able to pluck them out of His hand. In short, while they desire the things which He promises, and love and do the things which He commands, He will forward all their wise undertakings, and bless them in all their circumstances; and when their own ignorance, or want of forethought, or external so-called chances, or the machinations of evil men or spirits expose them to danger, He will interfere and ward off the consequences, save only when, like the trials of Job or Joseph, they can be made productive of greater excellence and so of greater reward. If this be so, then surely expediency approves what right demands, that we should forego the taking thought which is so uncertainly successful, and that we should repose in a care which never fails--"Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you."

Oh! my brethren, try to believe heartily this great doctrine of a particular Providence! Look not back to the creation of the world, and to the working out of men's redemption in Judea, or forward to the Judgment Day, as though GOD were only working and manifesting Himself there and then. GOD is everywhere and is active everywhere; He is here now; He is marking how we conduct ourselves in this house; He is looking into the very depths of our hearts and minds, and noting whatsoever lurks there. This night He will be about our beds; to-morrow about our paths; always spying out all our ways. Of every thought, of every word, of every deed of ours, He will at once note the intent and the measure. Of all that is done in His fear and service, He will record that it is "righteous worship;" of all else that it is "idolatry," the setting up of some person or some thing as more worthy to be loved or feared than He is. Every undertaking, every endurance, all safety and all danger, all wisdom and all folly, will be watched and allowed or overruled according as we deserve or deserve not to be dealt with in love by a present GOD.

Oh! if we felt this, how easy would it be to avoid taking thought for temporal things! how full would be our minds of GOD! how should we breathe as in His presence, and listen for His guidance, and trust in His providence! And then how determined would be our service of Him! We should not talk of expediency; we should not invent excuses; we should not do evil that good may come, or avoid good that we may escape unpleasant circumstances. No! GOD would be indeed GOD; religion would be the one thing needful; we should hope for what it promised, and fear what it threatened. The allurements of the world, the offers of pleasure, riches, power, honour, would be scorned as childish toys idly held out to sage and sober men. The scoffs, the sneers, the threats, the persecutions of the world would be nothing cared for--they would be as the impotent threats of chained madmen.

Serve God or mammon? Who would be in doubt which to do, who would shrink from or fail in the service, if GOD were only thus palpably present? Having thus set GOD before us, how zealously should we serve Him, how confidently should we rest on Him!

And, lastly, what men of prayer we should become. If we felt that GOD is indeed an interfering power in the world; that His superintendence is not general only but special also; that He may at any time avert a threatened danger, or confer an improbable blessing; that, in short, He may alter the whole face of things, and their working upon us and ours on them at any moment, and that our doings, our yearnings, our prayers may prompt His interference; then would not prayer cease to be regarded as a mere necessary religious exercise, to be gone through much as grace before and after meat is; would it not become a vivid recital of our wants and feelings, an earnest pleading, a very wrestling with GOD? Would not every event, every shadow of weal or wo bring us to our knees? Should we make any plans or enter upon any course, or indulge any thoughts, before we had laid all before Him? In all our efforts, all our fears, all our wishes, all our sufferings, should we not betake ourselves to Him not only as the Wise Counsellor but the Effectual Doer? And in all our blessings and averted dangers, as readily and as heartily should we offer the tribute of thanksgiving; asking from Him what we desired, ascribing to Him what we received throughout our life, and its every circumstance realizing that the LORD GOD Omnipotent reigneth, and that we are the subjects of His rule; in all our interests and all our duties resting and acting upon the tremendous truth that GOD is a GOD at hand and not a GOD afar off!

"What think ye of Christ?"

JESUS we know claimed to be the Christ. He was not wont, indeed, to manifest Himself plainly in that character to the multitude; He did not often so speak of Himself even to the chosen; but still, indirectly, by hint of speech and deed, He did--parabolically--propose Himself to mankind as the promised Messiah, the Son of GOD, the Son of David, the Saviour of the World. But He was not often so received. A Galilean fisherman was enabled by the Spirit to confess--"Thou art the Christ, the son of the Blessed." A Samaritan asked in wondering faith--"Is not this the Christ?" But more frequently He was regarded as merely a prophet, as Elijah or Jeremiah, or as a wonderful man who came from GOD; who spake as no other had ever spoken; who could not do such works except GOD were with Him. This was among the well-disposed.

It was when He had been exhibiting His credentials very openly and condescendingly, and when the witnesses, with marvellous obstinacy, had refused to believe what they saw, that drawing off their thoughts for the moment from Himself the fulfiller of prophecy, He bade them look back upon the prophecy itself and answer to themselves and to Him what it was they expected: "What think ye," He demanded, "of Christ?" "Since you see not in me any resemblance to GOD'S portrait of His anointed One, tell me, tell yourselves what are the features for which you look. I am not the being whom you expect--what, then, do you expect? what think ye of the Christ?"

Now, if any of us, my brethren, were catechising Sunday School children, and they so answered such a question, we should commend the answer as true though imperfect, and we should patiently and encouragingly continue--"True; but has He not besides another Father? an elder and superior birth? Who else in Holy Scripture is called His Father?" It might be that then some would answer--"He is the son of Abraham," or perhaps even "the seed of the woman." We should bear with this, we should approve it; we should become more hopeful of leading them to the perfect answer, and we should therefore gently proceed--"It is so; but now you have traced back His earthly being to its source, tell me whether he had not another and previous existence, and if so from whom He derived it."

To help you in this most profitable, spiritual exercise, let me suggest to you how to pursue some few of its particulars.

Once more, what think ye of Christ as the Son of GOD? very and eternal GOD, with all the Divine attributes, power, knowledge, justice, holiness, and exaction of obedience, abhorrence of evil, wrath against sin, love of righteousness? Do you feel that He is mighty to save? Do you live as under His all-searching eye? Are you convinced that He is impartially just, alike to approve and disapprove, to reward and punish, in His present and future dealings with all the partakers of His covenant? Do you realise the utter impossibility of being loved by Him, of being allowed to draw nigh to Him, of deriving any benefit from Him now or hereafter, if you are impure, worldly, unloving, indifferent? Are you impressed with the guilt of disobedience to Him, a twice revealed, a doubly jealous GOD, binding you to Himself by the mercies and responsibility of redemption, as well as creation, and by the threats and forebodings of a particular and most righteous judgment? Is it thus you think of Christ as GOD?

Dear brethren, make use, I beseech you, of these brief and plain suggestions, to ascertain your past thoughts of Christ, to rebuke them, if they have been low and partial, to lead you on to perfection. Beware of separating what GOD has joined together, of recognising in Him who is the Son of GOD, only the son of David. Never allow yourselves to joy over salvation without remembering judgment. Dwell not on the Deliverer apart from the Purchaser; appropriate not promises, if you do not observe commands; count not on human sympathy, if you do not deserve Divine compassion; expect not heavenly blessings, without using appointed means. You do not think of the Christ of the Bible, unless every phase of His character there represented, has its due place in your thoughts. And so your thoughts are unacceptable to Him, and unprofitable to you; they are neither worship, nor helps to salvation; they do not recognise Him at all, because they do not recognise Him altogether; they prompt to no service, because they prompt not to all. An imperfect Christ is no Christ. A Christian who regards Him as imperfect, is no Christian.

Oh, may He who has given Christ to be our All in all, enable us to recognise and incline us to serve, and love, and depend on Him, as indeed our All in all!

"And he was a Samaritan."

THE people known as Samaritans had their origin from certain Gentile tribes sent into the country of Samaria early in the Babylonish captivity. They were of course idolaters, and they continued to be mere idolaters, until, being troubled with lions, which had become very numerous in Samaria, and understanding that these were let loose among them by the god of the country to punish them for neglect of his worship, they applied to King Shalmanezer for one of the captive priests to teach them the Levitical law. Then they began to combine with their own superstition the acknowledgment and ceremonial service of Jehovah. "They feared the LORD," we read, "and served their own gods."

On the return of the Jews, these Samaritans, who, it would appear, had now relinquished much of their idolatry, sought permission to take part in the rebuilding of the temple; but being properly rejected, they in revenge hindered and harassed the builders, and at length, by false representations to the Syrian King, procured a decree which suspended the continuance of the devout work. This naturally made the Jews bitterly hostile to the Samaritans: and the building of a rival temple on Mount Gerizim--the rejection of all the inspired Books, excepting those of Moses--the encouragement given to Jewish criminals and outlaws to seek refuge among them, and many other provocations, had so sustained and deepened the feeling against them, that, in our LORD'S time, the Jews would have no dealings with the Samaritans; and in any want or danger, would much rather have suffered death, than receive succour at their hands.

For these two reasons, then--because they are revealed by GOD as verities, and because they are the foundations of godliness--it is essentially important to receive every article of the faith: and we, who find ourselves members of a communion in which the faith is thus received, which is apostolic in doctrine, and primitive in practice, have therefore much indeed to be thankful for, and may harmlessly, so as it be humbly, rejoice in the possession of such great privileges. But let us not be high-minded. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." The Jews were a highly privileged people; they received the whole inspired Word; their priests were all called of GOD, as was Aaron; they worshipped in the appointed place, and observed all the enjoined times and ceremonies; yet with many of them GOD was not well pleased. They were unreal, hollow, formal, hypocritical; their service was listless and unmeaning; and so, notwithstanding all their privileges and all their orthodoxy, a Samaritan, a dog of the Gentiles, a publican, a harlot was often nearer to the kingdom of heaven than they were, and met Christ, when they missed Him.

Christ, as He walked on earth the messenger of peace and love to all men, had a special interest in the Jews , but it was in Jews whose practice corresponded with their profession, whose heart and life illustrated what their understanding received. On such as these, His highest favours would have been most readily bestowed; but wanting these qualities, He estimated their orthodoxy at nothing; and, on the other hand, finding these qualities among strangers and aliens, He allowed not their heterodoxy to prove an obstacle to their blessing. In many cases uncircumcision was counted for circumcision, and circumcision for uncircumcision.

My dear brethren, value ordinances greatly, but rest not, I charge you, in them. Boast not that you are Anglo-Catholics; that your ministers have an Apostolic succession; that you were regenerated in baptism; that you are regular communicants and worshippers at the daily service. These are, indeed, great privileges; but connected with them are great responsibilities. Is your pure faith illustrated by a pure life? Do you make the best use of an Apostolic ministry? Are you growing in the spirit of which you were born again? Do you feel and sustain the communicated presence of Christ within you? When you go down from the sanctuary, does your life shine, as Moses's face did, with the reflected glory of GOD? If not, talk not of your high privileges--your case would be better without them. When GOD ceased to wink at the errors and ungodliness of mankind, He began by punishing, and with much severity, the errors and ungodliness of the privileged Jews. Yes, and whenever He takes account, and passes judgment, it is on the principle that to whom much has been given, of him shall much be required. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." "To him that knoweth, to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin."

One more lesson to guard against misinterpretation of the last. I have used some strong words in speaking of those that differ. Do not, pray, suppose that I would have you regard them with any but kind feelings, much less that I would teach you to cry out against their errors, in railing or contemptuous tones. The Christian minister intent upon laying down clearly the line of right thought and practice, has occasion to speak plainly, and for his hearers' sake to call things by their right names, however grating they may sound; but with the private individual it is otherwise. In his ordinary course, he has no need to speak of these things, or to think of them, further than to prompt his earnest prayers for the decay of error and dissension, and the establishment of truth and union. And if at any time it becomes his duty or desire to stay a soul from error, or to convert him from it, let him remember, and be sure it is true, that one ounce of love will do more good than many pounds of controversy.

Loud cries of "No popery," invectives against High Church or Low Church, sneers against "cant," imputations of unworthy motives to those who differ, contemptuous pity of their ignorance or inferiority, are all carnal. They will unspiritualise yourselves; they will retard, rather than advance the good work on others; they will drive away from you the only power in which you can hope to prevail, that of the Spirit of holiness, and love, and peace.

While then as Churchmen, it is your bounden duty to regard other systems of religion as inferior, perhaps erroneous; be sure that in dealing with the individual disciples of those systems, you remember the history of the thankful Samaritan, and consider that like him, they may be approved and sanctified followers of your common LORD.

Resolve to put away all animosity, and strife, and captiousness; to take the best rather than the worst view of what you dislike, or do not understand; in short, while maintaining as far as possible the orthodoxy of Him who was a true Israelite; like Him, and for His sake, endeavour to love men for themselves, if you cannot love their system; and to rejoice in the opportunity of treating the Samaritan as a brother, and of bringing him within nearer reach of abiding blessedness.

"So shall we ever be with the Lord."

WE read in the third chapter of Genesis of the introduction of death into our world--how sin alienated GOD from man and man from GOD, how those who had been endowed with the best faculties of enjoying bliss, who were surrounded by all desirable blessings, who dwelt beneath the bright sun of GOD'S favour, were by an act of unbelief and wilfulness, suggested by the evil one, driven angrily into the outer world, where toil, and pain, and manifold misery were thenceforth to be their lot.

We are sometimes tempted to think, that the actual punishment of our first parents was less than that they had been threatened with. "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," was GOD'S assurance; but when they ate they did not die,--as we account dying; they were but banished from the Garden of Eden, and prevented from returning, by cherubims who kept the entrance, and a flaming sword which turned every way. It was indeed a sad reverse--a wilderness instead of a garden--sorrow instead of joy--toil instead of rest--curses instead of blessings: but it was not the threatened death. They did not die.

My brethren, thus think of death, and of life. Do not make so much of the heaving of the last sigh; the drawing of the last breath; as though the battle of life were fought, and the victory achieved on a death-bed; as though the soul began its banishment when it quits the body. Many, whose flesh has long since mouldered into dust, have never really died; and many, who still walk the earth, full of energy, and vigour, and what man calls life, are really dead. To live, is to be with GOD: to live for ever, is to be with GOD for ever. To die, is to be without GOD: to die for ever, is to be without GOD for ever. "If," says Christ, "a man keep my sayings, he shall never see death." "Whosoever liveth and believeth on me, shall never die." "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of GOD hath not life."

Again, like that presence, it is not constant; the pillar is sometimes withdrawn. There is, occasionally, no answer given by Urim and Thummim; we are left to fight, now and then, in our own strength only, and then we fail; we hunger, we thirst, and no Divine supply comes; we mourn, and there is no spiritual comfort; we murmur, and there is no reproof; we sin, and there is no chastisement: GOD, for the time, is absent from our camp.

Again, like that presence, it does not secure us from trials. We have long marches, and powerful adversaries; we journey on in perils in the wilderness, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of our own countrymen , in perils by the heathen; in weariness and painfulness; in watchings often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often; in cold and nakedness; in deaths oft. GOD, peradventure, is with us all the while; but it is through the world of tribulation He leads us, not by a miraculously smooth and safe path. His presence is manifested in occasional glimpses. His voice is heard in disjoined words. His arm is felt in intermittent upholdings. I cannot well picture this presence to those who have no experience of it; I need not do so to those who have realised it: but all may see that, in this lower world, we are not ever with the LORD in the fullest manifestation of His presence; in the constant upholding of His arm; in entire exemption from trials; in perfect fruition of blessings. That may not be on earth. The sun may lighten up our dark hovel; but it is a hovel still. Divine help may lessen our labour; but we must labour still. Divine consolation may soothe us in our losses; but we are to suffer losses still. Howsoever GOD be with us; whatsoever He does for us; the wilderness is still a wilderness.

But the wilderness has a limit; its limit is what we call death. To the faithful, that bourne is like the Jordan,--when they have crossed it, they shall be in the promised land, the land that floweth with milk and honey, where GOD'S abiding, glorious temple is set up; wherein there remaineth rest and joy for the people of GOD. Whoso entereth that land, shall be ever with the LORD, enjoying His most complete and satisfying presence. "Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." This prayer shall then be realised. They shall see the King in His beauty, and the land that is now afar off. There shall be no more curse; but the throne of GOD and of the Lamb shall be in their dwelling: they shall serve Him, and they shall see His face: with what feelings and emotions, at present we can form no adequate conceptions; but we know that it shall be with joy: that they shall love and praise Him; that it shall be their untiring, unalloyed delight to gaze upon His glory, to sing His praises, to share His love.

Brethren, one and all, what shall we do to inherit the glorious, abiding presence of GOD? Oh! let us make much of the partial presence which is now within our reach. "Abide in me, and I in you," says Christ. Let us live near to Him; let us live much in Him; let us live as He tells us. Contemplate we Him in His holy Word; pore over it day after day, till we see Him as in a glass; till His glory is reflected on us, and we shine with the glorious light. Watch we for Him in all our ways, listen for His voice, lean on His arm, fight in His strength. Feed we our desires with heavenly food; not the quails of our own lust, but the manna from heaven, and the water out of the rock; the bread and wine, which are meat indeed and drink indeed. Having this hope--desiring, that is, to be ever with Him--let us purify ourselves, even as He is pure, and study day by day to conform ourselves more and more to His pattern.

Yes; believe in heaven, desire heaven, live for heaven. As St. Peter says, "Add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our LORD JESUS CHRIST; and so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST."

"We know in part."

IN one sense, the words of our text have been ever true, and ever shall be. Even in the Garden of Eden, when man possessed knowledge of such a kind, and to such a degree, as to be a feature of the moral likeness of GOD, there were still many things which he could not grasp, nor fathom, nor measure, and there were many others which the Divine will purposely kept unrevealed from him. And so too, hereafter, in heaven itself, the perfected finite being must necessarily fail to comprehend and scrutinize thoroughly the great infinite, and doubtless will be left uninformed of much that he could grasp, because the knowledge thereof will not concern his duty or his interest.

But, in another sense, man did once know, and shall again know, perfectly. In his unfallen state, GOD talked to him plainly, made His presence to be realised, in a way showed Himself as He is, that is, as He is in His relation to obedient and holy man, taught clearly the duty, and revealed the destiny and hopes of His creature. And, again, in heaven, though still dwelling in light which no one can approach to, though still the Invisible, Whom no man hath seen or can see, GOD shall yet be plainly reflected in His Son, the visible Deity with Whom the redeemed shall stand face to face, Whom they shall see and know even as now they are known by Him. And man, too, though still not omniscient, shall know thoroughly with whom he has to do; shall trace with easy clearness the path along which he has been led; shall realise his position and appropriate his privileges, and see even to the utmost his eternal future. This has been already, in a measure. This shall be hereafter entirely; but this is not now. "We know in part."

Now, is not this a solemn thought? Does not it exhibit to us a great responsibility? Does not it speak stern reproof to our frequent and willing ignorance? How little are many of us acquainted with GOD, the Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST. What little knowledge have we, and do we seek to have, of Providence, of grace, of moral discipline, of duty, of prospects, hopes and fears, of spiritual succour and spiritual assaults of time and eternity, of probation and judgment, of heaven and hell. Is there any other subject of which the vast majority of us are so ignorant, and so contentedly or carelessly ignorant, as of that which GOD has made so easy to learn, and has so imperatively required us to learn, the knowledge of Him, of ourselves, and of His dealings with us, revealed to us in the Bible, to be discerned by the Spirit within us?

Is not it so? Are not there many who cannot recollect a time when they had less spiritual perception than they have now, and who therefore are witnesses to themselves that they have not grown in knowledge? Are not there many who are less acquainted with the Bible than with any other book that has come into their hands? Are not there many who, while they may have familiarised themselves with the history, the geography, the anecdotes so to speak of Holy Scripture, and the fanciful, often daring, interpretations of unfulfilled prophecy, yet know comparatively nothing of what GOD is to them, what they are to GOD, what is required of them, and what is promised or threatened?

Oh! brethren, how and why is this? How is it that the Object of supreme love and fear is to us but a shadowy and unintelligible name? How is it that we have no perception of the ever-present, ever-speaking, ever-acting, all-important Spirit? How is it that we have no intelligent or inquiring thought of the heaven which we are bidden to seek, and of the hell which we have to avoid; of the Master we are bound to serve; of the business to which life is an apprenticeship; of the race in which we are runners; of the warfare which we are enlisted to wage; the weapons to be used; the mode of fighting; the field of battle; the foes we are opposed to; the punishment of desertion: the reward of constancy; the prospects of victory; the perils of defeat? Is not it that we are not impressed with the responsibility of having this gift of knowledge? with the peril of folding up in a napkin a precious talent given us to use and improve? Is not it that we do not think seriously of the existence of GOD, of the possession of His Spirit, of the reality of heaven and hell, of the obligations of Christian service, of spiritual helps, and difficulties, and perils? Is not it that we have not that faith which is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, enabling us to realise and grasp, as though it were a substance, that which is as yet but future; and to behold plainly, with the eye of faith, that which to natural sense is not perceptible?

Have but this faith, and you will soon add to it knowledge. Concern yourselves about GOD only as much as you would about the man with whom you have most to do in life, and from whom you have most to expect or fear; treat religion as you would the business by which you are to sustain natural life, and to make or mar your temporal fortune; and then interest and desire will impel you to use every effort to acquaint yourselves thoroughly with GOD; to understand the working and unravel the mysteries of religion; to ascertain all particulars about what you have to hope for or fear--heaven and hell--angels and demons--the Holy Ghost--and the spirit of evil. Deeper and deeper will you drink of the well of knowledge; and each deep and frequent draught will but quicken your thirst and impel you to drink again.

Well, then, if there is to be holy ground in heaven, which we must not tread on with the shoes of idle curiosity; if there is to be there a bush behind which we must not look; if even then there shall be secret things which belong only to GOD, and which we must not pry into; how much more so here and now! How necessary to remember that we are to know only in part; that we are not to seek to be wise above what is written; that, respecting mysteries which concern not us, it is distinctly charged: "Draw not nigh hither"!

When God puts forth and reveals His arm, He proves to us, indeed, that there is more of Him that is not revealed; but it is profane to demand that it should be revealed. When He tells us, that the world was created so many thousand years ago, He proves that it was not before then; but He does not permit us to inquire, what was then? When He tells us, that He made all good, and that the devil introduced evil, He does it not that we should inquire subtilly into the origin of evil. We are to study what is revealed, and not what is hidden. Where did GOD exist before the worlds were made? What is existence without beginning? How was matter produced out of nothing--evil out of good? How is it possible for GOD to have His will, and man his? Why did not GOD prevent evil? Why does He now tolerate it? Why were fallen angels not redeemed? Why is man not perfected without trial? How can finite beings be infinitely rewarded or punished? These, and the thousand other curious questions, which perverse man is ever asking, are inquiries which He forbids and baffles--which we may be sure provoke His displeasure.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet