Westminster Sermons Part 7

But if we afterwards discovered that our fear and anxiety were superfluous; that the events of which he spoke--the most awful and wonderful of them at least--were not to occur for many centuries to come; that, even if some calamity were imminent, the immediate future and the very distant future were so intermingled in his discourse, that it would require the labours of commentator after commentator, for many hundred years, to disentangle them, and that their labours would be in vain; that the coming of the Son of Man, and of the Kingdom of G.o.d, of which he had spoken, were to be referred to a time thousands of years hence; though we were told in the same breath to look to the fig-tree and all the trees as a sign that it was coming immediately, and that our own generation would not pa.s.s away before all had taken place:--would not such a discovery raise in us thoughts and feelings neither wholesome for us nor honourable to the prophet?

I cannot think otherwise. We may be aware of the difficulties which beset this, and any other, interpretation of our Lord's prophecies in Matthew, Mark, and Luke: we may have the deepest respect for those learned and pious divines who from time to time have tried to part the prophecies relating to the fall of Jerusalem from those relating to the end of the world and the day of Judgment. Yet, in the face of such a pa.s.sage as the text, especially when we cannot agree with those who would make this "generation" mean this "race" or "nation," we may--we have a right to--decline to separate the two sets of pa.s.sages. We have a right to say,--He who spake as man never spake, and therefore knew the force of words; He who knew what was in man--and therefore what effect His words would produce on His hearers--did deliver a discourse--indeed, many discourses--which a.s.serted, as far as plain words could be understood by plain men, that the Kingdom of G.o.d was at hand; and that the coming of the Son of Man would take place before that generation pa.s.sed away.

And that all His disciples, and St Paul as much as any, put that meaning upon His words, is a matter of fact and of history, to be seen plainly in Holy Scripture.

But, while the text compels us to believe that the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans was a coming of the Son of Man--a manifestation of the Kingdom of G.o.d--a day of Judgment, in the strictest and most awful sense; yet we are not compelled to limit the meaning of the text to the destruction of Jerusalem.

No prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. Prophets, apostles--how much more our Lord Himself--do not merely indulge in presages; they lay down laws--laws moral, spiritual, eternal--which have been fulfilling themselves from the beginning; which are fulfilling themselves now; which will go on fulfilling themselves to the end of time.

So said our Lord Jesus of His own prophecies concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. It was but one example--a most awful one--of the laws of His kingdom. Not in Judaea only, but wherever the carcase was, there would the eagles be gathered together. In the moral, as in the physical word, there were beasts of prey--the scavengers of G.o.d--ready to devour out of His kingdom nations, inst.i.tutions, opinions, which had become dead, and decayed, and ready to infect the air. Many a time since the Roman eagles flocked to Jerusalem has that prophecy been fulfilled; and many a time will it be fulfilled once more, and yet once more.

And what else, if we look at them carefully and reverently, is the meaning of the words in this my text, "Heaven and earth shall pa.s.s away, but My words shall not pa.s.s away"?

Shall we translate this,--Heaven and earth shall not come true: but My words shall come true? By so doing we may put some little meaning into the latter half of the verse; but none into the former. Surely there is a deeper meaning in the words than that of merely coming true. Surely they mean that His words are eternal, perpetual; for ever present, possible, imminent; for ever coming true. So, indeed, they would not pa.s.s away. So they would be like the heavens and the earth, and the laws thereof; like heat, gravitation, electricity, what not--always here, always working, always a.s.serting themselves--with this difference, that when the physical laws of the heavens and the earth, which began in time, in time have perished, the spiritual laws of G.o.d's kingdom, of Christ's moral government of moral beings, shall endure for ever and for ever, eternal as that G.o.d whose essence they reflect.

Therefore I mean nothing less than that the great and final day of Judgment is past; or that we are not to look for that second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ which, as our forefathers taught us to hope, shall set right all the wrong of this diseased world.

G.o.d forbid! For most miserable were the world, most miserable were mankind, if all that our Lord prophesied had happened, once and for all, at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies. But most miserable, also, would this world be, and most miserable would be mankind, if these words were not to be fulfilled till some future Last Day, and day of Judgment, for which the Church has now been waiting for more than eighteen centuries--and, as far as we can judge, may wait for as many centuries more. Most miserable, if the Son of Man has never come since He ascended into heaven from Olivet. Most miserable, if the kingdom of G.o.d has never been at hand, since He gave that one short gleam of hope to men in Judaea long ago. Most miserable, if there be no kingdom of G.o.d among us even now: in one word, if G.o.d and Christ be not our King; but the devil, as some fancy; or Man himself, as others fancy, be the only king of this world and of its destinies; if there be no order in this mad world, save what man invents; no justice, save what he executes; no law, save what he finds convenient to lay upon himself for the protection of his person and property. Most miserable, if the human race have no guide, save its own instincts and tendencies; no history, save that of its own greed, ignorance and crime, varied only by fruitless struggles after a happiness to which it never attains. Most miserable world, and miserable man, if that be true after all which to the old Hebrew prophet seemed incredible and horrible--if G.o.d does look on while men deal treacherously, and does hold His peace when the wicked devours the man who is more righteous than he; and has made men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them.

I said--Most miserable, in that case, was the world and man. I did not say that they would consider themselves miserable. I did not say that they would think it a Gospel, and good news, that Christ was their King, and that His Kingdom was always at hand. They never thought that good news. When the prophets told them of it, they stoned them. When the Lord Himself told them, they crucified Him. Worldly men dislike the message now, probably, as much as they ever did. But they escape from it, either by treating it as a self-evident commonplace which no Christian denies, and therefore no Christian need think of; or by smiling at it as an exploded superst.i.tion, at least as a "Semitic" form of thought, with which we have nothing to do. They confound it, often I fear purposely, with those fancied miraculous interpositions, those paltry special providences, which fanatics in all ages have believed to be worked for their own special behoof. Altogether they dislike, and express very openly their dislike, of the least allusion to a Divine Providence "interfering," as they strangely term it, with them and their affairs.

And they are wise, doubtless, in their generation. The news that Christ is the King of men and of the world must be unpleasant, even offensive, to too many, both of those who fancy that they are managing this world, and of those who fancy that they could manage the world still better, if they only had their rights. It must be unpleasant to be told that they are not managing the world, and cannot manage it: that it is being managed and ruled by an unseen King, whose ways are far above their ways, and His thoughts above their thoughts.

For then: Prudence might demand of them, that they should find out what are that King's ways, thoughts and laws, and obey them--an enquiry so troublesome, that many very highly educated persons consider it, now-a- days, quite impossible; and tell us that, for practical purposes, G.o.d's laws can neither be discovered, nor obeyed.

Moreover, their scheme of this world is one which would work--so they fancy--just as well if there was no G.o.d. Unpleasant therefore it must be for them to hear, not merely that there is a G.o.d, but that He has His own scheme of the world; and that it is working, whether they like or not; that G.o.d, and not they, is making history; G.o.d, and not they, appointing the bounds and the times of nations; G.o.d, and not they, or any man or men, distributing good and evil among mankind.

They do not object, of course, to the existence of a G.o.d. They only object to His being what the Hebrew prophets called Him--a living G.o.d; a G.o.d who executes justice and judgment by His Son Jesus Christ, to whom He has committed all power both in heaven and earth. They are ready sometimes to allow even that, provided they may relegate it into the past, or into the future. They are ready to allow that G.o.d and Christ exerted power over men at the first Advent 1800 years ago, and that they will exert power over men at the second Advent--none knows how long hence. But that G.o.d and Christ are exerting power now--in an ever-present and perpetual Advent--in this nineteenth century just as much as in any century before or since--that they had rather not believe.

Their creed is, that though heaven and earth have not pa.s.sed away; though the laws of nature are working for ever as at the beginning: yet Christ's words have pa.s.sed away, and fallen into abeyance for many centuries past, to remain in abeyance for many centuries to come.

In one word--while they believe more or less in a past G.o.d, and a future G.o.d, yet as to the existence of a present G.o.d, in any practical and real sense--they believe--how little, I dare not say.

Whether this generation will awaken out of that sleep of practical Atheism, which is creeping on them more and more, who can tell? That they are uneasy in the sleep, there are many signs. For in their sleep dreams come of another world, of which their five senses tell them nought. Then do some fly to mediaeval superst.i.tions, which give them at least elaborate and agreeable subst.i.tutes for a living G.o.d. Some fly to impostors, who pretend by juggling tricks to put them in communication with that unseen world which they have so long denied. Some, again, play with unfulfilled prophecy; and fancy that it is for them, though it was not for the apostles, to know the times and seasons which the Father has put in His own power, and the day and hour of which no man knoweth, no not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Better that, than that they should believe that there is nothing, and never will be anything, in the world, beyond what their five senses can apprehend.

But whether they awake or not out of their sleep, their blindness does not alter the eternal fact, whether men believe it or not. That is true what the Psalmist said of old: "The Lord is King, be the people never so impatient. He sitteth upon His throne, though the earth be never so unquiet."

The utterances of the old Psalmists and prophets concerning the ever-present kingdom of G.o.d are facts, not dreams. Whether men believe it or not, it is true that the power, glory, and righteousness of His kingdom may be known unto men; that His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endureth throughout all ages; that The Lord upholds all such as fall, and lifts up those that are down; that the eyes of all wait on Him, that He may give them their meat in due season; that He opens His hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness; that the Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works; that He is nigh to them that call upon Him, yea to all who call upon Him faithfully. He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that made the eye, shall He not see? He that chastiseth the nations; it is He that teacheth man knowledge: shall He not punish?

Whether men believe it or not, that is true which the Psalmist said--Whither shall I flee from His Spirit, or whither shall I go from His presence? If I climb up to heaven, He is there; if I go down to h.e.l.l, He is there also. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall His hand lead me, His right hand hold me still.

Whether men believe it or not, that is true which Christ spake on earth--That the Father hath committed all judgment to Him, because He is the Son of man; that to Him is given all power in heaven and earth; and that He is with us, even to the end of the world.

Whether men believe it or not, that is true which S. Paul spake on Mars'

hill, saying that the Lord is not far from any one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being; and that He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom He hath ordained, and raised from the dead.

Whether men believe it or not, that is true which Christ spake--Heaven and earth shall pa.s.s away; but My words shall not pa.s.s away; at least till He has put down all rule and all authority and power, and delivered up the kingdom to G.o.d, even the Father, that G.o.d may be all in all.

"That one far-off divine event, toward which the whole creation moves,"

will be, not the resumption, but the triumph, of Christ's rule; of a rule which began before the world, which has endured through all the ages, which endures now, punishing or rewarding each and every one of us, and of our children's children, as long as there shall be a man upon the earth. For by Christ's will alone the world of man consists; in Christ's laws alone is true life, health, wealth, possible for any man, family or nation; out of His kingdom He casts, sooner or later, all things which offend, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. He said of Himself--Whosoever falleth on this rock shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.

SERMON X. THE LAW OF THE LORD.

PSALM I. 1,2.

Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the unG.o.dly, nor stood in the path of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law will he exercise himself day and night.

The first and second Psalms, taken together, are the key to all the Psalms; I may almost say to the whole Bible. I will say a few words on them this morning, especially to those who are coming to the Holy Communion, to shew their allegiance to that Lord, in whose law alone is life, and who sits on the throne of the universe, King of kings, and Lord of lords: but I say it to the whole congregation likewise; nay, if there were an infidel or a heathen in the Church, I should say it to them. For in this case what is true of one man is true of every man, whether he knows it or not.

We all should like to be blessed. We all should like to be, as the Psalm says, like trees planted by the waterside, whose leaves never wither, and who bring forth their fruit in due season. We should all wish to have it said of us--Whatsoever he doeth it shall prosper. Then here is the way to inherit that blessing--"_Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord_, _and who exercises himself in His law day and night_."

The Psalmist is not speaking of Moses' Law, nor of any other law of forms and ceremonies. He says expressly "The law of the Lord"--that is, the law according to which the Lord has made him and all the world; and according to which the Lord rules him and all the world. The Psalms--you must remember--say very little about Moses' law; and when they do, speak of it almost slightingly, as if to draw men's minds away from it to a deeper, n.o.bler, more eternal law. In one Psalm G.o.d asks, "Thinkest thou that I will eat bulls' flesh, and drink the blood of goats?" And in another Psalm some one answers, "Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldest not. Then said I, Lo I come, to do thy will, O G.o.d. Thy law is within my heart." This is that true and eternal law of which Solomon speaks in his proverbs, as the Wisdom by which G.o.d made the heavens, and laid the foundation of the earth; and tells us that that Wisdom is a tree of life to all who can lay hold of her; that in her right hand is length of days, and in her left hand riches and honour; that her ways are ways of pleasantness; and all her paths are peace.

This is that law, of which the Prophet says--that G.o.d will put it into men's hearts, and write it in their minds; and they shall be His people, and He will be their G.o.d. This is that law, which the inspired Philosopher--for a philosopher he was indeed--who wrote the 119th Psalm, continually prayed and strove to learn, intreating the Lord to teach him His law, and make him remember His everlasting judgments. This is that law, which our Lord Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled, because the law was His Father's law, and therefore His own law, and therefore he perfectly comprehended the law, and perfectly loved the law; and said with His whole heart--I delight to do Thy will, O G.o.d.

The will of G.o.d. For in one word, this Law, which we have to learn, and by keeping which we shall be blessed, is nothing else than G.o.d's Will.

G.o.d's Will about us. What G.o.d has willed and chosen we should be. What G.o.d has willed and chosen we should do. The greatest philosopher of the 18th century said that every rational being had to answer four questions--Where am I? What can I know? What must I do? Whither am I going? And he knew well that--as the Bible tells us throughout--the only way to get any answer to those four tremendous questions is--To delight in the law of the Lord; to struggle, think, pray, till we get some understanding of G.o.d's will; of G.o.d's will about ourselves and about the world; and so be blessed indeed.

But to do that, it is plain that we must heed the warning which the first verse of the Psalm gives us--"Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the unG.o.dly." For it is plain that a man will never learn G.o.d's will if he takes counsel from unG.o.dly men who care nothing for G.o.d's will, and do not believe that G.o.d's will governs the world. Neither must he, as the Psalm says, 'stand in the way of sinners'--of profligate and dishonest men who break G.o.d's law. For if he follows their ways, and breaks G.o.d's law himself, it is plain that he will learn little or nothing about G.o.d's law, save in the way of bitter punishment. For let him but break G.o.d's law a little too long, and then--as the 2nd Psalm says--'G.o.d will rule him with a rod of iron, and break him in pieces like a potter's vessel.' But there is even more hope for him--for he may repent and amend--than if he sits in the seat of the scorners. The scorners; the sneering, the frivolous, the unearnest, the unbelieving, the envious, who laugh down what they call enthusiasm and romance; who delight in finding fault, and in blackening those who seem purer or n.o.bler than themselves. These are the men who cannot by any possibility learn anything of the law of G.o.d; for they will not even look for it.

They have cast away the likeness of rational men, and have taken upon themselves the likeness of the sneering accusing Satan, who asks in the book of Job--"Doth Job serve G.o.d for nought?" When the greatest poet of our days tried to picture his idea of a fiend tempting a man to his ruin, he gave his fiend just such a character as this; a very clever, courteous, agreeable man of the world, and yet a being who could not love any one, could not believe in any one; who mocked not only at man but at G.o.d and tempted and ruined man, not out of hatred to him, hardly out of envy; but in mere sport, as a cruel child may torment an insect;--in one word, a scorner. And so true was his conception felt to be, that men of that character are now often called by the very name which he gave to his Satan--Mephistopheles. Beware therefore of the scornful spirit, as well as of the openly sinful or of the unG.o.dly. If you wish to learn the law of the Lord, keep your souls pious, pure, reverent, and earnest; for it is only the pure in heart who shall see G.o.d; and only those who do G.o.d's will as far as they know it, who will know concerning any doctrine whether it be true or false; in one word, whether it be of G.o.d.

And now bear in mind secondly, that this law is the law of the Lord. You cannot have a law without a lawgiver who makes the law, and also without a judge who enforces the law; and the lawgiver and the judge of the law of the Lord is the Lord Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Remembering Him, and that He is King, we can understand the fervour of indignation and pity, with which the writer of the 2nd Psalm bursts out--"Why do the heathen rage, and why do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed--

"Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us."

For the great majority of mankind, in every age and country, will not believe that there is a Law of the Lord, to which they must conform themselves. Kings, and governments, and peoples, are too often all alike in that. They must needs have their own way. Their will is to be law.

Their voice is to be the voice of G.o.d. They are they who ought to speak; who is Lord over them? And because the Lord is patient and long-suffering, and does not punish their presumption on the spot by lightning or earthquake, they fancy that He takes no notice of them, and of their crimes and follies; and say--"Tush, shall G.o.d perceive it? Is there knowledge in the most High?" But sooner or later, either by sudden and terrible catastrophes, or by slow decay, brought on sometimes by their own blind presumption, sometimes by their own luxury, they find out their mistake when it is too late. And then--

"He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn. The Lord shall have them in derision. For He has set His King upon the throne" of all the universe.

Yes, Christ the Lord rules, and knows that He rules; whether we know it or not. Christ's law still hangs over our head, ready to lead us to light and life and peace and wealth, or ready to fall on us and grind us to powder, whether we choose to look up and see it or not. The Lord liveth; though we may be too dead to feel Him. The Lord sees us; though we may be too blind to see Him. Man can abolish many things; and does both--wisely and unwisely--in these restless days of change. But let him try as long as he will--for he has often tried, and will try again--he cannot abolish Christ the Lord.

For Christ is set upon the throne of the universe. The Father of all--if we may dare to hint even in Scriptural words at mysteries which are in themselves unspeakable--is eternally saying to Him--Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee. And Christ answers eternally--I come to do Thy will, O G.o.d. The nations are Christ's inheritance; and the utmost parts of the earth are His possession, now, already; whether we or they think so or not.

And there are times--there are times, my friends--when the awful words which follow come true likewise--"Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

For as to this world in which we live, so to the G.o.d who created that world, there is a terrible aspect. There is calm: but there is storm also. There is fertilizing sunshine: but there is also the destroying thunderbolt. There is the solid and fruitful earth, where man can till and build; but there is the earthquake and the flood likewise, which destroy in a moment the works of man. So there is in G.o.d boundless love, and boundless mercy: but there is, too, a wrath of G.o.d, and a fire of G.o.d which burns eternally against all evil and falsehood. And woe to those who fall under that wrath; who are even scorched for a moment by that fire.

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living G.o.d."

We are all ready enough to forget this; ready enough to think only of G.o.d's goodness, and never of His severity. Ready enough to talk of Christ as gentle and suffering; because we flatter ourselves that if He is gentle, He may be also indulgent; if He be suffering, He may be also weak. We like to forget that He is, and was, and ever will be--Lord of heaven and earth; and to think of Him only in His humiliation in Judaea 1800 years ago, forgetting that during that very humiliation, while He was shewing love, and mercy, and miracles of healing, and sympathy and compa.s.sion for every form of human sorrow and weakness, He did not shrink from shewing to men the awful side of His character; did not shrink from saying, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the d.a.m.nation of h.e.l.l?"--did not shrink from declaring that He was coming again, even before that very generation had pa.s.sed away, to destroy, unless it repented, the wicked city of Jerusalem, with an utter and horrible destruction.