The Village Pulpit Part 2

4th Sunday after Trinity.

S. Luke vi. 37.

"Judge not--condemn not--forgive."

INTRODUCTION.--Our Lord here condemns all rash judgments. We know not the motives of other men's actions, and therefore have no right to pa.s.s a sweeping condemnation upon them. From our ignorance, we ought to be cautious and merciful in our judgments, and from our own weakness, we should be forgiving to those who have trespa.s.sed against us.

Rash judgments arise from pride. It is because we are puffed up with a high opinion of our own selves, our own goodness, the soundness of our judgment, the sharpness of our perception, that we are so prompt to pa.s.s judgment on others.

SUBJECT.--This same Pride urges us to something else, Persistency in maintaining that on which we have determined, even after we know it is unwise. It is of this which I am going to speak to-day. This fault is so closely akin to rash judgment of others, that I may well address you on the subject upon a Sunday when our Lord warns against the other.

I. Many a man, out of pride, sticks to what he says after he knows that it is wrong. He will not admit that he is wrong, or he is moved by a false sense of what is due to himself to hold to his word, or to his opinion, when his conscience tells him that he is in error. You must have met with those stubborn persons who are not to be moved by any argument, not to be convinced by any proof, that they are wrong.

They have made up their minds once for all, and are no longer open to reverse their decision.

Let us look to Scripture, and see if we have any examples of such. I find two; and one of these is in a man of whom we might have hoped better things--King David.

I. When David came to the kingdom, he was very anxious to show kindness to any son of Jonathan whom he might find; and he heard of Mephibosheth, who was lame in both his feet, and at once made over to him all the landed property that had belonged to King Saul, his grandfather. After seven years, Absalom, David's son, conspired against his father, and David was obliged to fly from Jerusalem, with a few friends. As David was escaping, there came to him Ziba, a servant of Mephibosheth, with a couple of a.s.ses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and a hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a skin of wine. Then David asked Ziba what these were for, and Ziba answered that he had brought them to the king as a present, thinking he might need them in his flight. And the king asked after Mephibosheth; then Ziba said, "O! he is at home in Jerusalem, he said in my hearing, A good time is coming to me. To-day shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father." Now all this was a wicked lie. Mephibosheth had sent the present, and Ziba had promised to tell David why his master could not come with him, because he was crippled in both his feet, and could not get about. As for any idea of recovering the throne of Saul, it had not once entered his head. Now when David heard the slander of Ziba, he was very angry with Mephibosheth, and at once he judged him, and condemned him, without waiting to hear more, and said to Ziba, "Behold, I will give thee all that belonged to Mephibosheth, if ever I get back to Jerusalem and recover my power."

Not long after there was a great battle, and Absalom was slain, and the enemies of David put to flight. Then David returned over Jordan from the wilderness where he had taken refuge, and Mephibosheth met him.

This good man, full of love for David, "had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes," all the time of David's absence, to shew his great grief. David at once reproached him for his disloyalty, and then only he heard how great a lie Ziba had told. Then David answered, "Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land." Mark the wicked injustice. The lying, slanderous servant is rewarded with half the property of poor Mephibosheth,--why?--because David had promised him the whole when misinformed. David knows that Ziba has acted falsely, yet, because he had said to him that he should be given the land of his master, he keeps his word to him, though he knows he is doing an injustice to Mephibosheth.

There you have a pretty example of an obstinate man sticking to what he has said, after he is convinced that he has been misled, and doing a great wrong rather than acknowledge that he had judged rashly, and condemned on no good grounds.

II. I can give you another example. King Herod was pleased with the dancing of the daughter of Herodias one evening at a supper, and he swore to her, when he was half tipsy, that he would give her what she liked in reward for her display. Then she asked him to cut off the head of S. John the Baptist, and give it her in a dish. Now, as soon as she asked this, the king was sorry, for he knew that S. John was a good man, and he knew also that he had no right to have a man murdered in prison to please the whim of a wicked woman; however, because he had pa.s.sed his word, he was too proud and cowardly to go back from it, and refuse her what she had no right to ask. Then he sent an executioner, and he cut off the head of the saint, and put it in a dish, and it was brought thus to the girl, and she carried it to her mother.

III. A man is right to stick to his word, if his word be right. He is right to stick to his promise, if he have promised that over which he has a just right. He is right to stick to his opinion if his opinion be founded on good grounds, and if he have heard nothing that ought to cause him to alter it.

But--no man has any right to stick to his opinion simply because it is his opinion. He has no right to hold a promise which he had no right to make. He has no right to adhere to a harsh judgment simply because he has formed that judgment.

When our Lord bids us not judge, He bids us be very cautious in forming a decided opinion, and in sticking to it through thick and thin. We know so little here, and so imperfectly, that our opinions must be formed on uncertain grounds, and therefore we have no right to be tenacious about them. Yet many persons are as touchy about their opinions as though it were a sacrilege to dispute them. Some of the greatest injustices have been done through obstinacy, in clinging to opinions that have become untenable.

CONCLUSION.--Remember then the lessons taught you by our Lord in this day's Gospel, and also by the conduct of David. Be very cautious of forming a judgment, and when you have formed one, do not allow Pride to stand in the way of confessing your fault, and changing your opinion, when you are given reasonable grounds for so doing.

XLII.

_THE SECRET OF SUCCESS._

5th Sunday after Trinity

S. Luke v. 5.

"We have taken nothing; nevertheless at Thy word, I will let down the net."

INTRODUCTION.--S. Peter and the other Apostles had been fishing all night, and had met with no success at all, then Jesus entered into the boat of Simon, and bade him launch out and let down his net. S. Peter did not hesitate. He had met with no success when fishing in the night, nevertheless now, at the word of Christ, he fishes again, and this time the net encloses a great mult.i.tude, so that the net breaks.

No doubt our Lord desired to show those who were to become fishers of men that there were two ways of doing a thing, and that one way would be successful and the other would not.

If they were going to become fishers of men, they must try to catch them by carrying Christ, _i.e._ a Christlike spirit, with them, and the spirit of Christ is love and gentleness. If they were to be successful in winning souls, they must have a loving zeal, and that would gain more than hard work without love.

SUBJECT.--We are all of us, in our several callings, fishers of souls.

Of course, especially are the clergy fishers, but not they only, every man who loves G.o.d must seek to win souls for G.o.d, every man who is in the net of the Church must seek to draw others into the same net. If the fisher is to be successful, he must fish in the spirit of Christ, that is, actuated by love, and must deal gently with the souls he desires to gain.

I. I say, we are all fishers. Those of us who are parents desire to draw to Christ the souls of our children, those who are masters, the souls of their servants. The husband seeks to win the wife, and the believing wife the husband. "What knowest thou, O wife," says S. Paul, "whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?"

The servant seeks to win the fellow-servant, the labourer in the field has the welfare of his fellow-labourer at heart, and seeks to draw him to G.o.d. It was Cain who said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" And the same isolating, selfish spirit is in those who take no interest in those they a.s.sociate with, and do not seek their good.

I was much struck last spring with something a gentleman said to me, who had been a good deal in America; he was much surprised and struck with the interest felt in England by the rich for the poor, by the master and mistress for their servants, by the landowner for his tenants, and he said to me, "This seems to me the most marvellous thing I have seen in England. With us a master cares not one snap of the fingers what becomes of the man he employs, he no more thinks of what becomes of him than he does of a dollar that pa.s.ses through his hands.

He sees that he does his work, and if the man dies, the master gets another in his place to-morrow, and asks nothing about the man who has disappeared."

Well! I thank G.o.d we are not come to that yet, however advanced we may be in our independent ways; and it is not right and Christian that we should.

II. Now we come to the way in which we are to try to draw other souls to Christ, the souls of our children, of our servants, of our companions, of our fellow-workers. The first principle of success is gentleness.

In the 4th chapter of the 2nd book of Kings we have this story. There was a Shunammite woman who had an only son. She was a good kind-hearted woman, who had shown much hospitality to the prophet Elijah [Transcriber's note: Elisha?]. One day the little boy ran out into the harvest field, when the sun was hot, and he had a sunstroke, and was very ill. "He said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then he died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of G.o.d, and shut the door upon him, and went out." Then she ordered one of the servants to saddle an a.s.s, and drive her to the prophet; and when she found him, she told him the piteous story, and how the poor little fellow whom she loved so dearly, and who was such a darling of his father, and such a pet of the old Elisha when he paid them his visits, was lying white and dead upstairs on the bed.

Then Elisha was sorely troubled, and he gave his staff to his servant, Gehazi, and made him run as fast as he could to the house of the Shunammite. "Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again; and lay my staff upon the face of the child." Gehazi obeyed, but it was of no use. "He laid the staff upon the face of the child: but there was neither voice, nor hearing." Then Elisha came himself, and he shut the door, and laid himself beside the little body, and put his lips to the lips of the child, and his warm loving heart against the little dead heart, and took the chill hands in his. Then the spirit of the child came back into him again, and he sat up, and Elisha delivered him alive to his mother.

Now this story contains some lesson for us. And this is the short comment on the miracle by an old writer, "Him whom the rod of terror will not rouse, _love_ will." Or in other words, we may learn by this that gentleness will succeed where harshness will fail.

In the time when all the north of England was heathen, there was an a.s.sembly held at Iona to decide who should preach the gospel to the English of Northumbria. Then one missionary was sent, and after having laboured for some years, he came back to give an account of his mission. And a council was held, and he said, "Those Northumbrians are a stiff-necked, hard-hearted people. I threatened them with G.o.d's wrath, I spoke to them of h.e.l.l-fire, I warned them of the terrors of judgment, I denounced the vengeance of G.o.d on them, and they would not be converted." Then one sitting in a bark seat said, "My brother, it seems to me that you went the wrong way to work. You should have gone in love, and not in wrath. You should have tried to win, and not to drive." All eyes were turned en the speaker, and it was decided with one voice that he should be sent, and he went. His name was Aidan--and he was the Apostle of all Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire. He had the joy to see the whole people bow their necks to receive the yoke of Christ.

What says S. Paul? "What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?" If he had come with the rod, he would have gone back disappointed.

CONCLUSION.--Let us then, dear brethren, in dealing with the souls of others, approach them, not with the rod, or we shall fail to awake them to a new and better life, but in love, and in the spirit of gentleness, and then we shall meet, I doubt not, with good success.

XLIII.

_PERSISTENCY IN WRONG DOING._

6th Sunday after Trinity.

S. Matt. v. 25.

"Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him."

INTRODUCTION.--I spoke to you the Sunday before last about the obstinacy of persisting in an opinion after you have good cause to believe that this opinion is unjust, or unreasonable. I am going to speak to you to-day of another form of obstinacy.

SUBJECT.--My subject is Persistency in doing wrong, because you have begun wrong. This is only another form of the same fault. The other is thinking wrong persistently, this is perseverance in doing wrong.

And the source of both is the same, Pride. Pride stands in the way of altering an erroneous opinion, and in the way of altering a wrongful course of action.

I. In the tenth chapter of the second book of Samuel we have a striking story of the way in which a man having once done a wrong, persists in it, and it brings about his ruin.