Westminster Sermons Part 19

And the righteousness of G.o.d, which is the righteousness of Christ;--find out what that is, and pray to Christ to give it to you; for so alone will you be what a man should be, created after G.o.d in righteousness and true holiness, and renewed into the image and likeness of G.o.d. You will find plenty of persons now, as in all times, who will tell you that you need not do that; that all you need, for this world or the world to come, is some righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees; calling that--oh shame that such a glorious and eternal truth should be so caricatured and degraded by man--justification by faith: while all they mean is, justification not by faith, but by mere a.s.sent; a.s.senting to certain doctrines; keeping certain religious watch-words in your mouth, and, over and above, leading a tolerably respectable life. But what says our Lord?

"Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." Not merely--not dwell in it for ever, but not even enter it, not even get through the very gate, and cross the very threshold, of it. The merely a.s.senting, merely respectable, even the so-called religious and orthodox life will not let you into the kingdom of heaven, either in this life or the life to come. No. That requires the n.o.ble life, the pure life, the just life, the gentle life, the generous life, the heroic life, the G.o.dlike life, which is perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect, because He lets His sun shine on the evil and on the good, and His rain fall on the just and on the unjust. But how will this help you to rise in life? Our Lord Himself answers--and our Lord should surely know--"Seek ye first the kingdom of G.o.d and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Have faith in G.o.d, and in His promise; and your faith in G.o.d shall be rewarded. You shall find that your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things; and has arranged His kingdom, and the whole universe, accordingly. The very good things of this world--wealth, honour, power, and the rest, for the sake of which worldly men quarrel, and envy, and slander, and bully, and cringe, and commit all basenesses and crimes--all these shall come to you of their own accord by the providence of your Father in heaven and by His everlasting Laws, if you will but learn and do G.o.d's will, and lead the Christlike and the G.o.dlike life. Honour and power, wealth and prosperity, as much of them as is justly good for you, and as much of them as you deserve--that is, earn and merit by your own ability and self- control--shall come to you by the very laws of the universe and by the very providence of G.o.d. You shall find that G.o.dliness hath the promise of this life, as well as of the life which is to come. You shall find that G.o.d's kingdom is a well-made and well-ordered kingdom; and that His laws are life, and are far more worth trusting in than the maxims of that ill-made and ill-ordered world of man, which you all renounced at your baptism. You shall find that the promises of Scripture are no dreams, but actual practical living truths, which come true, and fulfil themselves, in the lives and histories of men.

Choose, young men; choose now; and make up your minds which way you will rise in life; by merely getting money; or by getting wisdom and honour and virtue. The Psalmists of old, yea our Lord Himself, tell you what will happen in each case. If you want only to be rich, why then be rich; if you are clever enough. The Lord may give you what you want, in this evil world. He may give you your portion in this life, and fill you with His hid treasure. He may let you heap up money which you do not know how to spend, and be a laughing-stock to others while you live; and after you die, your children will probably squander what you have h.o.a.rded; while you will carry away nothing when you die, neither will your pomp follow you: and take care lest you wake, after all, like Dives in the torment, to hear the fearful but most reasonable words--"Son, thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and therefore thou art tormented." Those words too, I fear, will come true, in this very generation, of many a wretched soul who while he lived counted himself a happy man; and had all men speaking well of him, because he did well unto himself. On whose souls may G.o.d have mercy.

Choose, young men: choose; now in the golden days of youth, and strength, and honour, ere you have laid a yoke on your own shoulders--even the yoke of money-worship;--not light and easy, like the yoke of Christ, but heavier and heavier as the years roll on, while you, with fading intellect, fading hopes, and it may be fading credit, and certainly fading power of any rational enjoyment, have still, like the doomed souls in Dante's Inferno, to roll up hill the money-bags which are perpetually slipping back. I have seen that, and more than once or twice; and it is, I think, the saddest sight on earth--save one. Choose, I say again, then, young men, before you have spread a net round your own feet, which, as in disturbed dreams, grows and tangles more and more each time you move--even the net of greed and craft, which men set for their neighbours; and are but too apt, ere all is done, to be taken in themselves; the net of truly bad society, of the society of men who have set their hearts on making money, somehow or other; and with whom, if you cast in your lot, you may descend--O G.o.d, I know full well what I am saying--to depths from which your young spirits now would shrink; till your higher nature be subdued to the element in which it works; and the poet's curse on all who bind themselves to natures lower than their own come true of you--

Thou shall lower to their level, day by day, All that once was fine within thee growing coa.r.s.e to sympathize with clay.

Or you may choose--G.o.d grant that you may choose--the other path; the path of the law of Christ, and of the Spirit of Christ; the kingdom of G.o.d and His righteousness. And then shall come true of you, as far as G.o.d shall see good for your immortal soul, those other promises--

"Come, ye children, and hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that loves life, and would fain see good days?

Let him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no deceit. Let him eschew evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers... For the Lord ordereth a good man's going, and maketh his way acceptable to Himself. Though he fall he shall not be cast away, for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand ... I have been young, and now am old, and yet never saw I the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread. Flee from evil, and do the thing that is good, and dwell for evermore. For the Lord loveth the thing that is righteous. He forsaketh not His that be G.o.dly, but they are preserved for ever."

Choose that; the better part which shall not be taken from you; for it is according to the true laws of political and social economy, which are the laws of the Maker of the Universe, and of the Redeemer of Mankind. And then, whether or not you leave your children wealth, you will, at all events, leave them an example by which they, and their children's children, must prosper to the world's end. And your prayer will be, more and more, as you grow old and weary with the hard work of life--

"I will go forth in the strength of the Lord G.o.d, and make mention of His righteousness only. Thou, O G.o.d, hast taught me from my youth up until now. Therefore will I tell of Thy wondrous works. Forsake me not, O Lord, in my old age, when I am grey-headed, till I have shewn Thy strength unto this generation; and Thy power unto those that are yet to come."

To which end may Christ bring us all, of His infinite mercy. Amen.

SERMON XXVII. THE BEATIFIC VISION.

PSALM LVII.

_A Psalm of David when he fled from Saul in the cave_.

Be merciful unto me, O G.o.d, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in Thee, and under the shadow of Thy wings shall be my refuge, until this tyranny be over-past. I will call unto the most high G.o.d, even unto the G.o.d that shall perform the cause which I have in hand. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproof of him that would eat me up. G.o.d shall send forth His mercy and truth: my soul is among lions. And I lie even among the children of men, that are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Set up Thyself, O G.o.d, above the heavens, and Thy glory above all the earth. They have laid a net for my feet, and pressed down my soul: they have digged a pit before me, and are fallen into the midst of it themselves. My heart is fixed, O G.o.d, my heart is fixed: I will sing, and give praise. Awake up, my glory; awake, lute and harp: I myself will awake right early. I will give thanks unto Thee, O Lord, among the people, and I will sing unto Thee among the nations. For the greatness of Thy mercy reacheth unto the heavens, and Thy truth unto the clouds. Set up Thyself, O G.o.d, above the heavens, and Thy glory above all the earth.

Some people now-a-days would call this poetry; and so it is. But what poetry! They would call it a Hebrew song, a Hebrew lyric; and so it is.

But what a song! There is something in us, if we be truly delicate and high-minded people, which will surely make us feel a deep difference between it and common poetry, or common songs; which made our forefathers read or chant it in church, and use it, as many a pious soul has ere now, in private devotion.

David did not compose it in church or in temple. He never meant it, perhaps, to be sung in public worship. He little dreamed that we, and millions more, in lands of which he had never heard, should be repeating his words in a foreign tongue in our most sacred acts of worship. He was thinking, when he composed it, mainly of himself and his own sorrows and dangers. He intends, he says, to awake early, and sing it to lute and harp. Perhaps he had composed it in the night, as he lay either in the cave of Adullam or Engedi, hiding from Saul among the cliffs of the wild goats; and meant to go forth to the cave's mouth, and there, before the sun rose over the downs, he would, to translate his words exactly, "awake the dawning" with his song in the free air and the clear sky, singing to his little band of men.

And to some one more than man, my friends. For his poetry was poetry concerning G.o.d. His song was a song to G.o.d. He does not sing of his own sorrows to himself, as too many poets have done ere now. He does not sing to his men; though he no doubt wished them to hear him, and learn from him, and gain faith and comfort and courage from his song. He sings of his sorrows to G.o.d Himself; to the G.o.d who made heaven and earth; the G.o.d who is above the heavens, and His glory above all the earth.

This is the secret, the virtue, the charm of the song; that it sings to G.o.d. This is why it has pa.s.sed into many lands, into many languages, through hundreds and hundreds of years, and is as fresh, and mighty, and full of meaning and of power, now, here, to us in England, as it was to David, when he was a poor outlaw, wandering in the hills of the little country of Judaea, more than 2000 years ago.

The poet says,

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,

and this psalm is most beautiful, and a joy for ever to delicate and n.o.ble intellects. But more, a thing of truth is a help for ever. And this psalm is most true, and a help for ever to all sorrowing and weary hearts. For the Spirit of truth it was, who put this psalm into David's heart and brain; and taught him to know and say what was true for him, and true for all men; what was true then, and will be true for ever.

And what in it is true for ever? The very figures, the metaphors of the psalm are true for ever. "Under the shadow of Thy wings shall be my refuge"--that is a n.o.ble figure; can we not feel its beauty? And more.

Do none of us know that it is true? David did not believe any more than we do, that G.o.d had actual wings. But David knew--and it may be some of us know too--that G.o.d does at times strangely and lovingly hide us; keep us out of temptation; keep us out of harm's way; as it is written, "Thou shall hide them privately in Thy presence from the provoking of all men.

Thou shall keep them in Thy tabernacle from the strife of tongues." Ah, my dear friends, in such a time as this, when the strife of tongues is only too loud, have you never had reason to thank G.o.d for being, by some seemingly mere accident, kept out of the strife of tongues and out of your chance of striving too, and of making a fool of yourself like too many others? The image of the mother bird, hiding her brood under her wings, seemed to David just to express that act of G.o.d's fatherly love, in words which will be true for ever, as long as a brooding bird is left on the earth, to remind us of David's song; and of One greater than David, too, who said--"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not." G.o.d grant that we all may do, when our time comes, that which those violent conceited Jews would not do; and therefore paid the awful penalty of their folly.

And the darker and more painful figures of the psalm: are they not true still? Is not a man's soul, even in this just and peaceful land, and far oftener in lands which are still neither just nor peaceful--Is not a man's soul, I say, sometimes among lions?--among greedy, violent, tyrannous persons, who are ready to entangle him in a quarrel, shout him down, ay, or shoot him down; literally ready to eat him up? Are not the children of men still too often set on fire; on fire with wild party cries, with superst.i.tions which they do not half understand, with brute excitements which pander to their basest pa.s.sions, running like fire from head to head, and heart to heart, till whole cla.s.ses, whole nations sometimes, are on fire, ready like fire to consume and destroy all they touch; and like fire, to consume and destroy themselves likewise?

Are there none now, too, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword? Such use the pen now, rather than the tongue: but they know, as well as those whom David met, how to handle the spears and arrows of slander, and the sharp sword of insult. Are there none left, who set nets for their neighbours' feet, by gambling, swindling, puffing, by tricks of trade and tricks of party?--none who, like the Scribes of old, try to entangle men in their talk, and make them offenders for a word; and who, like David's enemies, fall now and then into the very pit which they have digged, and ruin themselves in trying to ruin others?

My friends, such men will be, as long as there is sin upon the earth.

Their weapons are very different now from what they were in David's time: but their hearts are the same as they were then. "The works of the flesh they do, which are manifest;" and a very ugly list they make; as all who read St Paul's Epistles know full well.

But such men have their wages. G.o.d is merciful in this; that He rewards every man according to his work. And He is merciful to the whole human race, in rewarding such men according to their work. To the flesh they sow, and of the flesh they shall reap corruption. Of old it was written--"The wages of sin are death;" and that, like all G.o.d's words, is a Gospel and good news to poor human beings. For if the wages of sin were not death, what end could there be to sin, and therefore to misery?

But while such men exist, how shall a man escape them? How shall he defend himself from them? Not by craft and falsehood, not by angry replies, not by fighting them with their own weapons. The honest man is no match for them with those. The man who has a conscience is no match for the man who has none. The man who has no conscience does what he wills; everything is fair to him in war; and there--in his unscrupulousness--lies his evil strength. The man who has a conscience dares not do what he likes. His scruples--in plain words, his fear of G.o.d--hamper him, and put him at a disadvantage, which will always defeat him, as often as he borrows the devil's tools to do G.o.d's work withal.

He must give up those weapons, as David threw off Saul's armour, when he went to fight the giant. It was strong enough, doubt not: but he could not go in it, he said; he was not accustomed to it. He would take simpler weapons, to which he was accustomed; and fight his battle with them, trusting not in armour, but in the name of the living G.o.d.

In the name of the living G.o.d. That is the only sure weapon, and the only sure defence. In that David trusted, when he went to fight the giant. In that he trusted, when he was hid in the cave. And because he trusted in G.o.d, he prayed to G.o.d. He spoke to G.o.d. Remember that, and understand how much it means. David, the simple yeoman's son, the outlaw, the wanderer, despised and rejected by men, one who was no scholar either, who very probably could neither read nor write, and knew neither sciences nor arts, save how to play, in some simple way, upon his harp--this man found out that, however oppressed, miserable, ignorant he was in many respects, he had a right to speak face to face with the Almighty and Infinite G.o.d, who had made heaven and earth. He found out that that great G.o.d cared for him, protected him, and would be true to him, if only he would be true to G.o.d and to himself. What a discovery was that! Worth all the wealth and power, ay, worth all the learning and science in the world.--To have found the pearl of great price, the secret of all secrets; I, David, may speak to G.o.d.

Ah, my friends, consider the meaning of that. Consider it, I say. For when that great thought has once flashed across a man's mind, he is a new creature thenceforth. He need speak to no father-confessor or director; to no saints or angels; to no sages or philosophers. For he can speak to G.o.d Himself, and he need speak to no one else. Nay, at times he dare speak to no one else. If he can tell his story to G.o.d, why tell it to any of G.o.d's creatures?

He is in the presence of G.o.d Himself, G.o.d his Father, G.o.d his Saviour, G.o.d his Comforter; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. G.o.d is listening to him.

To G.o.d he can tell all his sorrows, all his wrongs, all his doubts, all his sins, all his weaknesses, as David told his; and G.o.d will hear him; and instead of striking him dead for his presumption or for his sinfulness, will comfort him; comfort him with a feeling of peace, of freedom, of being right, and of being safe, such as he never had before; till all the troubles and dangers of this life shall seem light to him.

Let the world rage. Let the foolish people deal foolishly, and the treacherous ones treacherously. For if G.o.d be with a man, who can be against him? He has no fears left now. He has nothing to do, save to thank G.o.d for his boundless condescension; and to trust on. To trust on.

If he has set his heart on the Lord, he need not fear what man will do to him. If his heart is fixed; if he is sure that G.o.d cares for him, he will, as it were by instinct, sing and give praise to G.o.d, as the bird sings when the rain is past, and the sun shines out once more.

But I think that when a man has reached that state of mind, as David reached it, he will rise, as David rose, to a higher state of mind still.

He will rise, as David rises in this psalm, from thoughts about his own soul, to thoughts about G.o.d. In one word, he will rise from religion to that which is above even religion, namely theology.

His first cry to G.o.d was somewhat selfish. He went to G.o.d about himself; about his own sorrows and troubles. That is natural and harmless. The child in pain and terror cries to its mother selfishly to be helped out of its own little woes. But when it is helped, and comforted, and safe in its mother's bosom, and its sobbing is over, then it forgets itself, and looks up into its mother's face, and thinks of her, and her alone.

And so it should be with the man whom G.o.d has comforted. When the deliverance has come; when the peace of mind has come; then surely, if he be worthy of the name of man, he will forget himself, and his own petty sorrows; and look up to G.o.d, to G.o.d Himself, and say within his heart--This great awful Being, eternal, infinite, omnipotent, who yet condescends to take care of a tiny creature like me, who am, in comparison with Him, less than the worm which crawls upon the ground, less than the fly which lives but for an hour--This G.o.d, so mighty and yet so merciful: who is He? What is He like? He is good to me. Is He not good to all? He is merciful to me. Is not His mercy over all His works? Nay, is he not good in Himself? The One Good? Must not G.o.d be The One Good, who is the cause and the fountain of all other goodness in man, in angels, in all heaven and earth? But if so--what a glorious Being He must be. Not merely a powerful, not merely a wise, but a glorious, because perfect, G.o.d. Then will he cry, as David cries in this very psalm--"Oh that men could see that. Oh that men could understand that. Oh that they would do G.o.d justice; and confess His glorious Name.

Oh that He would teach them His Name, and shew them His glory, that they might be dazzled by the beauty of it, awed by the splendour of it. Oh that He would gladden their souls by the beatific vision of Himself, till they loved Him, worshipped Him, obeyed Him, for His own sake; not for anything which they might obtain from Him, but solely because He is The perfectly Good. Oh that G.o.d would set up Himself above the heavens, and His glory above all the earth; and that men would lift up their eyes above the earth, and above the heavens likewise, to G.o.d who made heaven and earth; and would cry--Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for Thou hast made all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created; and Thy pleasure is, Peace on Earth, and Goodwill toward men. Thou art the High and Holy One, who inhabitest eternity. Yet Thou dwellest with him that is of a contrite spirit, to revive the heart of the feeble, and to comfort the heart of the contrite.

We adore the glory of Thy power; we adore the glory of Thy wisdom: but most of all we adore the glory of Thy justice, the glory of Thy condescension, the glory of Thy love."

And now, friends--almost all friends unknown--and alas! never to be known by me--you who are to me as people floating down a river; while I the preacher stand upon the bank, and call, in hope that some of you may catch some word of mine, ere the great stream shall bear you out of sight--oh catch, at least, catch this one word--the last which I shall speak here for many months, and which sums up all which I have been trying to say to you of late.

Fix in your minds--or rather, ask G.o.d to fix in your minds--this one idea of an absolutely good G.o.d; good with all forms of goodness which you respect and love in man; good as you, and I, and every honest man, understand the plain word good. Slowly you will acquire that grand and all-illuminating idea; slowly, and most imperfectly at best: for who is mortal man that he should conceive and comprehend the goodness of the infinitely good G.o.d? But see then whether, in the light of that one idea, all the old-fashioned Christian ideas about the relations of G.o.d to man; whether a Providence, Prayer, Inspiration, Revelation; the Incarnation, the Pa.s.sion, and the final triumph, of the Son of G.o.d--whether all these, I say, do not begin to seem to you, not merely beautiful, not merely probable; but rational, and logical, and necessary, moral consequences from the one idea of An Absolute and Eternal Goodness, the Living Parent of the Universe.

And so I leave you to the Grace of G.o.d.

Footnotes:

{0a} Second edition, pp. 78, 79.

{39} J. P. Richter.