Westminster Sermons Part 14

In one word, he believed in a living G.o.d. If anyone had said to the Psalmist, as I have heard men say now-a-days--Of course we believe, with you, in a general Providence of G.o.d over the whole universe. But you do not surely believe in special Providences? That would be superst.i.tion.

G.o.d governs the world by law, and not by special Providences. Then I believe that the Psalmist would have answered--Laws? I believe in them as much as you, and perhaps more than you. But as for special Providences, I believe in them so much, that I believe that the whole universe, and all that has ever happened in it from the beginning, has happened by special Providences; that not an organic being has a.s.sumed its present form, after long ages and generations, save by a continuous series of special Providences; that not a weed grows in a particular spot, without a special Providence of G.o.d that it should grow there, and nowhere else; then, and nowhen else. I believe that every step I take, every person I meet, every thought which comes into my mind--which is not sinful--comes and happens by the perpetual special Providence of G.o.d, watching for ever with Fatherly care over me, and each separate thing that He has made.

And if a modern philosopher--or one so called--had said to him,--'This is unthinkable and inconceivable, and therefore cannot be. I cannot "think of"--I cannot conceive a mind--or as I call it--"a series of states of consciousness," as antecedent to the infinity of processes simultaneously going on in all the plants that cover the globe, from scattered polar lichens to crowded tropical palms, and in all the millions of animals which roam among them, and the millions of millions of insects which buzz among them:'--Then the Psalmist would have answered him, I believe,--'If you cannot, my friend, I can. And you must not make your power of thought and conception the measure of the universe, or even of other men's intellects; or say--"Because I cannot conceive a thing, therefore no man can conceive it, and therefore it does not exist." But pray, O philosopher, if you cannot think and conceive of the omnipresence and omnipotence of G.o.d, what can you think and conceive?'

Then if that philosopher had answered him--as some would now-a-days--'I can conceive that the properties of very different elements,--and therefore the infinite variety and richness of nature which I cannot conceive as caused by a G.o.d--that the properties--I say--of different elements result from differences of arrangement arising by the compounding and recompounding of ultimate h.o.m.ogeneous units'--Then, I think, the Psalmist would have replied, as soon as he had--like Socrates of old in a like case--recovered from the 'dizziness' caused by an eloquence so unlike his own--'Why, this proposition is far more "unthinkable" to me, and will be to 999 of 1000 of the human race, than mine about a G.o.d and a Providence. Alas! for the vagaries of the mind of man. When it wants to prove a pet theory of its own, it will strain at any gnat, and swallow any camel.'

But again--if a philosopher of more reasonable mood had said to him--as he very likely would say--'This is a grand conception of G.o.d: but what proof have you of it? How do you know that G.o.d does interfere, by special Providences, in the world around us; not only, as you say, perpetually: but even now and then, and at all?'

Then the Psalmist, like all true Jews, would have gone back to a certain old story which is to me the most precious story, save one, that ever was written on earth; and have taken his stand on that. He would have gone back--as the Scripture always goes back--to the story of Moses and the Israelites in Egypt, and have said--'Whatever I know or do not know about the Laws of nature, this I know--That G.o.d can use them as He chooses, to punish the wicked, and to help the miserable. For He did so by my forefathers. When we Jews were a poor, small, despised tribe of slaves in Egypt, The G.o.d who made heaven and earth shewed Himself at once the G.o.d of nature, and the G.o.d of grace. For He took the powers of nature; and fought with them against proud Pharaoh and all his hosts; and shewed that they belonged to Him; and that He could handle them all to do His work. He shewed that He was Lord, not only of the powers of nature which give life and health, but of those which give death and disease. Nothing was too grand, nor too mean, for Him to use. He took the lightning and the hail, and the pestilence, and the darkness, and the East wind, and the springtides of the Red sea; and He took also the locust-swarms, and the frogs, and the lice, and the loathsome skin-diseases of Egypt, and the microscopic atomies which turn whole rivers into blood, and kill the fish; and with them He fought against Pharaoh the man-G.o.d, the tyrant ruling at his own will in the name of his father the sun-G.o.d and of the powers of nature; till Egypt was destroyed, and Pharaoh's host drowned in the sea; And He brought out my forefathers with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, because He had heard their cry in Egypt, and saw their oppression under cruel taskmasters, and pitied them, and had mercy on them in their slavery and degradation.' That is my G.o.d--the old Psalmist would have said. Not merely a strong G.o.d, or a wise G.o.d; but a good G.o.d, and a gracious G.o.d, and a just G.o.d likewise; a G.o.d who not only made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is, but who keepeth His promise for ever; who helpeth them to right who suffer wrong, and feedeth the hungry.

Yes, my friends, it is this magnificent conception of G.o.d's living and actual goodness and justice, which the Psalmist had, which made him trust G.o.d about all the strange and painful things which he saw in the world--about, for instance, the suffering and death of animals; and say--'If the lion roaring after his prey seeks his meat, he seeks his meat from G.o.d: and therefore he ought to seek it, and he will find it. It is all well: I know not why: but well it is, for it is the law and will of the good and righteous and gracious G.o.d, who brought His people out of the land of Egypt. And that is enough for me.'

Enough for him? and should it not be enough for us, and more than enough?--We know what the Psalmist knew not. We know G.o.d to be more good, more righteous, more gracious than any Prophet or Psalmist could know. We know that G.o.d so loved the world, that He spared not His only- begotten Son, but freely gave Him for us. We know that the only-begotten Son Jesus Christ so loved the world that He stooped to be born and suffer as mortal man, and to die on the cross, even while He was telling men that not a sparrow fell to the ground without the knowledge of their heavenly Father, and bidding them see how G.o.d fed the birds and clothed the lilies of the field. Ah, my friends, in this case, as in all cases, rest and comfort for our doubts and fears is to be found in one and the same place--at the foot of the Cross of Christ. If we believe that He who hung upon that Cross is--as He is--the maker and ruler of the universe, the same from day to day and for ever: then we can trust Him in darkness as well as in light; in doubt as well as in certainty; in the face of pain, disease, and death, as well as in the face of joy, health, and life; and say--Lord, we know not, but Thou knowest. Lord, we believe, help Thou our unbelief. Make us sure that Thou, Lord, shalt save both man and beast. For great are Thy mercies, O Lord; and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.

Yes, my friends, this is, after all, a strange world, a solemn world, a world full of sad mysteries, past our understanding. As was said once by the holiest of modern Englishmen, now gone home to his rest--whose bust stands worthily in yonder chapel--This is a world in which men must be sometimes sad who love G.o.d, and care for their fellow-men.

But it is not over the dumb animals that we must mourn. For they fulfil the laws of their being; and whatever meat they seek, they seek their meat from G.o.d.

Rather must we mourn over those human beings who, being made in the likeness of G.o.d, and redeemed again into that likeness by our Lord Jesus Christ, and baptized into that likeness by the Holy Spirit, put on again of their own will the likeness of the beasts which perish; and find too often, alas! too late, that the wages of sin are death.

Rather must we mourn for those human beings who do not fulfil the laws of their being: but break those laws by sin; till they are ground by them to powder.

Rather must we mourn for those who seek their meat, not from G.o.d, but from the world and the flesh; and neglect the bread which cometh down from heaven, and the meat which endureth to eternal life, whereof the Lord who gives it said--Seek ye first the kingdom of G.o.d, and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you.

Rather must we pray for ourselves, and for all we love, that G.o.d's Spirit of eternal life would raise us up, more and more day by day, out of the likeness of the old Adam, who was of the earth, earthy; of whom it is written that--like the animals--dust he was, and unto dust he must return; and would mould us into the likeness of the new Adam, who is the Lord from heaven, into the likeness of which it is written, that it is created after G.o.d's image, in righteousness and true holiness; the end of which is not death, but everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And so will be fulfilled in us the saying of the Psalmist; and the Lord shall rejoice in His works: for we too, not only body and soul, but spirit also, shall be the work of G.o.d; and G.o.d will rejoice in us, and we in G.o.d.

SERMON XIX. SIGNS AND WONDERS.

JOHN IV. 48-50.

Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The n.o.bleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth.

These words of our Lord are found in the Gospel for this day. They are a rebuke, though a gentle one. He reproved the n.o.bleman, seemingly, for his want of faith: but He worked the miracle, and saved the life of the child.

We do not know enough of the circ.u.mstances of this case, to know exactly why our Lord reproved the n.o.bleman; and what want of faith He saw in him.

Some think that the man's fault was his mean notion of our Lord's power; his wish that He should come down the hills to Capernaum, and see the boy Himself, in order to cure him; whereas he ought to have known that our Lord could cure him--as He did--at a distance, and by a mere wish, which was no less than a command to nature, and to that universe which He had made.

I cannot tell how this may be: but of one thing I think we may be sure--That this saying of our Lord's is very deep, and very wide; and applies to many people, in many times--perhaps to us in these modern times.

We must recollect one thing--That our Lord did not put forward the mere power of His miracles as the chief sign of His being the Son of G.o.d. Not so: He declared His almighty power most chiefly by shewing mercy and pity. Twice He refused to give the Scribes and Pharisees a sign from heaven. "An evil and adulterous generation," He said, "seeketh after a sign: but there shall be no sign given them, but the sign of the prophet Jonas." And what was that,--but a warning to repent, and mend their ways, ere it was too late?

Now the slightest use of our common sense must tell us, that our Lord could have given a sign of His almighty power if He had chosen; and such a sign as no man, even the dullest, could have mistaken. What prodigy could He not have performed, before Scribes and Pharisees, Herod, and Pontius Pilate? "Thinkest thou," He said Himself, "that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will send Me presently more than twelve legions of angels?" Yet how did our Lord use that miraculous and almighty power of His? Sparingly, and secretly. Sparingly; for He used it almost entirely in curing the diseases of poor people; and secretly; for He used it almost entirely in remote places. Jerusalem itself, recollect, was at best a remote city compared with any of the great cities of the Roman empire. And even there He refused to cast Himself down from a pinnacle of the temple, for a sign and wonder to the Jews. If He, the Lord of the world, had meant to convert the world by prodigious miracles, He would surely have gone to Rome itself, the very heart and centre of the civilized world, and have shewn such signs and wonders therein, as would have made the Caesar himself come down from his throne, and worship Him, the Lord of all.

But no. Our Lord wished for the obedience, not of men's lips, but of their hearts. It was their hearts which He wished to win, that they might love Him--and be loyal to Him--for the sake of His goodness; and not fear and tremble before Him for the sake of His power. And therefore He kept, so to speak, His power in the background, and put His goodness foremost; only shewing His power in miracles of healing and mercy; that so poor neglected, oppressed, hardworked souls might understand that whoever did not care for them, Christ their Lord did; and that their disease and misery were not His will; nor the will of His Father and their Father in heaven.

But because, also, Christ was Lord of heaven and earth; therefore--if I may make so bold as to guess at the reason for anything which He did--He seems to have interfered as little as possible with those regular rules and customs of this world about us, which we now call the Laws of Nature.

He did not offer--as the magicians of His time did offer--and as too many have pretended since to do--to change the courses of the elements, to bring down tempests or thunderbolts, to shew prodigies in the heaven above, and in the earth beneath. Why should He? Heaven and earth, moon and stars, fire and tempest, and all the physical forces in the universe, were fulfilling His will already; doing their work right well according to the law which He had given them from the beginning. He had no need to disturb them, no need to disturb the growth of a single flower at His feet.

Rather He loved to tell men to look at them, and see how they went well, because His Father in heaven cared for them. To tell people to look, not at prodigies, comets, earthquakes, and the seeming exceptions of G.o.d's rule: but at the common, regular, simple, peaceful work of G.o.d, which is going on around us all day long in every blade of gra.s.s, and flower, and singing bird, and sunbeam, and shower. To consider the lilies of the field how they grow: which toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.--And the birds of the air: They sow not, neither reap, nor gather into barns; and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. How much more will He feed you, who can sow, and reap, and gather into barns?--O ye of little faith, who fancy always that besides sowing and reaping honestly, you must covet, and cheat, and lie, and break G.o.d's laws instead of obeying them; or else, forsooth, you cannot earn your living? To see that the signs of G.o.d's Kingdom are not astonishing convulsions, terrible catastrophes and disorders: but order, and peace, and usefulness, in creatures which are happy, because they live according to the law which G.o.d has given them, and do their duty--that duty, of which the great poet of the English Church has sung--

Stern Lawgiver! Thou yet dost wear The G.o.dhead's most benignant grace Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face.

Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, And fragrance in thy footing treads; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong, And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.

But men would not believe that in our Lord's time; neither would they believe it after His time. Will they believe it even now? They craved after signs and wonders; they saw G.o.d's hand, not in the common sights of this beautiful world; not in seed-time and harvest, summer and winter; not in the blossoming of flowers, and the song of birds: but only in strange portents, absurd and lying miracles, which they pretended had happened, because they fancied that they ought to have happened: and so built up a whole literature of _un_reason, which remains to this day, a doleful monument of human folly and superst.i.tion.

But is not this too true of some at least of us in this very day? Must not people now see signs and wonders before they believe in G.o.d?

Do they not consider whatever is strange and inexplicable, as coming immediately from G.o.d? While whatever they are accustomed to, or fancy that they can explain, they consider comes in what they call the course of nature, without G.o.d's having anything to do with it?

If a man drops down dead, they say he died "by the hand of G.o.d," or "by the visitation of G.o.d:" as if any created thing or being could die, or live either, save by the will and presence of G.o.d: as if a sparrow could fall to the ground without our Father's knowledge. But so it is; because men's hearts are far from G.o.d.

If an earthquake swallowed up half London this very day, how many would be ready to cry, "Here is a visitation of G.o.d. Here is the immediate hand of G.o.d. Perhaps Christ is coming, and the end of the world at hand." And yet they will not see the true visitation, the immediate hand of G.o.d, in every drop of rain which comes down from heaven; and returneth not again void, but gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater. But so it always has been. Men used to see G.o.d and His power and glory almost exclusively in comets, auroras, earthquakes. It was not so very long ago, that the birth of monstrous or misshapen animals, and all other prodigies, as they were called, were carefully noted down, and talked of far and wide, as signs of G.o.d's anger, presages of some coming calamity.--Atheists while they are in safety, superst.i.tious when they are in danger--Requiring signs and wonders to make them believe--Interested only in what is uncommon and seems to break G.o.d's laws--Careless about what is common, and far more wonderful, because it fulfils G.o.d's laws--Such have most men been for ages, and will be, perhaps, to the end; shewing themselves, in that respect, carnal and no wiser than dumb animals.

For it is carnal, animal and brutish, and a sign of want of true civilization, as well as of true faith, only to be interested and surprised by what is strange; like dumb beasts, who, if they see anything new, are attracted by it and frightened by it, at the same time: but who, when once they are accustomed to it, and have found out that it will do them no harm, are too stupid to feel any curiosity or interest about it, though it were the most beautiful or the most wonderful object on earth.

But I will tell you of a man after G.o.d's own heart, who was not like the dumb animals, nor like the unG.o.dly and superst.i.tious; because he was taught by the Spirit of G.o.d, and spoke by the Spirit of G.o.d. One who saw no signs and wonders, and yet believed in G.o.d--namely, the man who wrote the 139th Psalm. He needed no prodigies to make him believe. The thought of his own body, how fearfully and wonderfully it was made, was enough to make him do that. He looked on the perfect order and law which ruled over the development of his own organization, and said--"I will praise Thee. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvellous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in Thy Book were all my members written, which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How dear are Thy counsels unto me, O G.o.d! how great is the sum of them!"

And I will tell you of another man who needed no signs and wonders to make him believe--the man, namely, who wrote the 19th Psalm. He looked upon the perfect order and law of the heavens over his head, and the mere sight of the sun and moon and stars was enough for him; and he said--"The heavens declare the glory of G.o.d, the firmament sheweth His handy-work.

One day telleth another, and one night certifieth another. There is neither speech nor language, where their voice is not heard among them."

And I will tell you of yet another man who needed no signs and wonders to make him believe--namely, the man who wrote the 104th Psalm. He looked on the perfect order and law of the world about his feet; and said,--"O Lord, how manifold are Thy works. In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches. So is the great and wide sea also, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. These all wait upon Thee, that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season. Thou givest to them; they gather. Thou openest Thy hand; they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy face; they are troubled. Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy breath, they are created; and Thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever. The Lord shall rejoice in His works."

My friends, let us all pray to G.o.d and to Christ, that They will put into our hearts the Spirit by which those psalms were written: that They will take from us the evil heart of unbelief, which must needs have signs and wonders, and forgets that in G.o.d we live and move and have our being. For are we not all--even the very best of us--apt to tempt our Lord in this very matter?

When all things go on in a common-place way with us--that is, in this well-made world, comfortably, easily, prosperously--how apt we all are--G.o.d forgive us--to forget G.o.d. How we forget that on Him we depend for every breath we draw; that Christ is guarding us daily from a hundred dangers, a hundred sorrows, it may be from a hundred disgraces, of which we, in our own self-satisfied blindness, never dream. How dull our prayers become, and how short. We almost think, at times, that there is no use in praying, for we get all we want without asking for it, in what we choose to call the course of circ.u.mstances and nature.--G.o.d forgive us, indeed.

But when sorrow comes, anxiety, danger, how changed we are all of a sudden. How gracious we are when pangs come upon us--like the wicked queen-mother in Jerusalem of old, when the invaders drove her out of her cedar palace. How we cry to the Lord then, and get us to our G.o.d right humbly. Then, indeed, we feel the need of prayer. Then we try to wrestle with G.o.d, and cry to Him--and what else can we do?--like children lost in the dark; entreat Him, if there be mercy in Him--as there is, in spite of all our folly--to grant some special providence, to give us some answer to our bitter entreaties. If He will but do for us this one thing, then we will believe indeed. Then we will trust Him, obey Him, serve Him, as we never did before.

Ah, if there were in Christ any touch of pride or malice! Ah, if there were in Christ aught but a magnanimity and a generosity altogether boundless! Ah, if He were to deal with us as we have dealt with Him! Ah, if He were to deal with us after our sins, and reward us according to our iniquities!

If He refused to hear us; if He said to us,--You forgot me in your prosperity, why should I not forget you in your adversity?--What could we answer? Would that answer not be just? Would it not be deserved, however terrible? But our hope and trust is, that He will not answer us so; because He is not our G.o.d only, but our Saviour; that He will deal with us as one who seeks and saves that which is lost, whether it knows that it is lost or not.

Our hope is, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy; that because He is man, as well as G.o.d, He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; that He knoweth our frame, He remembereth of what we are made: else the spirit would fail before Him, and the souls which He has made. So we can have hope, that, though Christ rebuke us, He will yet hear us, if our prayers are reasonable, and therefore according to His will. And surely, surely, surely, if our prayers are for the improvement of any human being; if we are praying that we, or any human being, may be made better men and truer Christians at last, and saved from the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil--oh then, then shall we not be heard? The Lord may keep us long waiting, as He kept St Monica of old, when she wept over St Augustine's youthful sins and follies. But He may answer us, as He answered her by the good bishop--"Be of good cheer. It is impossible that the son of so many prayers should perish."

And so, though He may shame us, in our inmost heart, by the rebuke--"Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe"--He will in the same breath grant our prayer, undeserved though His condescension be, and say--"Go in peace, thy son liveth."

SERMON XX. THE JUDGMENTS OF G.o.d.

LUKE XIII. 1-5.