Part 1

Transcribed from the 1859 William Skeffington edition by David Price.

PLAIN SERMONS

* * * * *

PREACHED AT

ARCHBISHOP TENISON’S CHAPEL,

REGENT STREET.

* * * * *

BY

JAMES GALLOWAY COWAN,

MINISTER.

* * * * *

* * * * *

Published by Request.

* * * * *

* * * * *

LONDON:

WILLIAM SKEFFINGTON, 163, PICCADILLY.

1859.

CONTENTS.

PAGE SERMON I. TAKING THOUGHT FOR TEMPORAL THINGS. _St. Matthew_, vi., 24, 25. 1

. . . 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 . . . SERMON II. RIGHT THOUGHTS OF CHRIST. _St. Matthew_, xxii., 42. 14

What think ye of Christ? SERMON III. THE CHURCHMAN’S THOUGHTS ABOUT DISSENTERS. _St. Luke_, xvii., 16. 27

And he was a Samaritan SERMON IV. ETERNAL ABODE WITH GOD.—A FUNERAL SERMON. 1 _Thessalonians_, iv, 17. 40

So shall we ever be with the Lord SERMON V. MAN’S KNOWLEDGE LIMITED. 1 _Corinthians_, xiii., 9. 53

We know in part SERMON VI. CONFESSION. _Proverbs_, xxviii, 13. 64

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper SERMON VII. FORGIVENESS. _Psalm_ cxxx., 4. 82

There is forgiveness with Thee SERMON VIII. THE PRINCIPLE OF OFFERINGS TO GOD. II. _Samuel_, xxiv., 24. 101

Neither will I offer . . . unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing SERMON IX. SPIRITUAL PROGRESS. _Philippians_, iii., 13, 14. 115

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus SERMON X. SPIRITUAL THINGS NOT REVEALED TO THE NATURAL MAN. I. _Corinthians_, ii., 14. 127

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

SERMON I. TAKING THOUGHT FOR TEMPORAL THINGS.

ST. MATTHEW, VI., 24, 25.

. . . “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.” . . .

EVERY one who has thoughtfully read that description of the Samaritans in the second book of Kings—“they feared the LORD and served their own gods”—must have been struck with the mockery, the blasphemy, the absurdity of such a fear. Fear Him, who claims to be the only GOD, and yet regard many others as equally and independently gods! Worship Him, all whose service is pure, and innocent, and self-emptying, and righteous and yet worship Ashtaroth, the goddess of licentious pleasure—Moloch, the god of cruelty—Chemosh, and his abominations—Belial, and his worldliness! This, my brethren, we all see is not simply a _forbidden_ but an _impossible_ service. The commands, the sanctions, the promises, the service of Jehovah, and of any one of these others, are so thoroughly opposite, so condemnatory of each other, that the man who attempts to observe them both, is far more impious and more foolish than the benighted heathen who carves an idol out of a block of wood or piece of stone and bows down to it alone in homage, and looks up only to it for blessings. If, then, mammon means a false god—either a deified human being, or a personified vice or virtue, or an actual dumb, senseless idol,—we feel that Christ has rightly said, not ye “_shall_ not,” but ye “cannot” serve it and GOD. There is no room for the question whether GOD will wink at a divided homage; whether, provided He is _one_ of the objects of worship, He will not be over-severe with you for having other objects. The attempt to serve both is an attempt at what is impossible; not at what may not be, on account of certain commands and restrictions, but at what cannot be from the very nature of things. GOD altogether—or mammon altogether, if you will; but “ye cannot serve GOD and mammon.” You see this, you approve Christ’s teaching, you are ready to condemn, you do now condemn—the impiety, the folly of attempting to serve GOD and mammon.

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.”

My brethren, the law of nature has imposed, and the Word of GOD therefore approves, that we should look about and provide for our necessities. Wherever there is power to do this, the power must be exercised, or we must run the risk of want. The lilies of the field are fed by GOD’S own hand with nourishment, which they cannot seek. The unfledged bird has but to open its mouth to receive the food, which divinely implanted instinct has caused the parent to bring; but when it is grown it must itself make provision—it must search the trees for berries and the earth for worms, or it must die of starvation. GOD takes thought for sparrows, yet He requires, if I may so speak, that they should think for themselves; and thereby He teaches us, confirming this teaching by plain words of revelation, that it is incumbent upon us to make provision for our necessities, and so, of course, to _think_ about them. But _thinking_ is not _taking thought_. When our Bible was translated, to “take thought” meant (as the Greek word which it represents does) to be anxious, troubled, perplexed about a thing, and so to be drawn off by its consideration from other thoughts, and cares, and duties. The consistent, devoted servant of GOD, while intent upon his due and loved service, may and should use precaution and diligence to sustain in appointed ways the lower life and wants of himself and his; but if he takes thought about them, cares more or thinks more about temporal things than spiritual; if he leaves undone religious duties, or transgresses divine commands, or wears out his zeal, or consumes his time (of choice) in securing or seeking worldly provision, then does he attempt to serve mammon as well as GOD, and in so doing—attempting what cannot be—he actually foregoes the service of GOD and becomes an idolater.

My dear brethren, let us go into this matter, and pick out its plain and wholesome lessons, and ask GOD to engrave them deeply on our hearts. The text is especially addressed to such as we are. It is not mainly for the grossly covetous; for the would-be hoarders of great wealth; for the epicure, intent upon dainty dishes and costly wines; for the giddy votaries of fashion, ever meditating fresh extravagancies and greater absurdities, betraying by their silly, unchristian finery the emptiness of their minds and the callousness of their hearts, making themselves gazing-stocks to the thoughtless and objects of pity to the thoughtful. It is not, I say, _chiefly_ for these (though it is indeed _for_ them, and it behoves them to regard it very seriously), but it is for those who take thought for necessaries that our text was spoken and written; who are in concern not for a superabundance, but for a sufficiency of the things of this life. To them it says, Take no thought, be not anxious, perplexed. Let not these things engross your hearts, or cause you in any way to swerve from the pure and entire service of GOD, for—this is the first reason—to do so is to sin, it is to give up GOD and choose mammon. Ye who do it are idolaters. Make no plea of opposing difficulty or necessity, count upon no indulgence. If you serve mammon, you do not serve GOD. GOD will have no part of a divided heart, and will not be served at all by those who do not serve Him altogether.

Dear brethren, try to embrace this truth. GOD’S commands are not to be explained away, nor are excuses to be made for disregarding them. Obey them at all hazards—do not pare them down by pleas of expediency. Doubtless, the service is a very hard one. It is very difficult not to take thought for immediate and pressing wants. It is a great temptation to a very poor man to have an opportunity of making a few shillings by working or keeping his shop open on the LORD’S Day. It is a great temptation to one who is hard-worked during the week to have the power of turning the day of holy rest into one of worldly pleasure. It would be very convenient to the man of business to make up his ledger when he should be reading his Bible; to be thinking of his projects and prospects in this life rather than his coming eternity; to be pushing a bargain which is very advantageous, though it is a little unjust; to get what he _can_ for his goods, rather than what he _ought_; to tell little untruths; to grind down his dependents; to withhold from charitable purposes the money which can be made useful for self; in short, to be ever taking thought for temporal things and not taking thought for spiritual, and so to miss opportunities of meditating, and reading, and praying, of worshipping, and communicating, and doing good, and preparing for heaven. The comparatively well-to-do man doubtless finds this worldly taking thought agreeable and in a sense advantageous; the poor man is hard pressed to give way to it; but still the command of GOD stands out—“Take no thought.”

Do not say you must—you _must not_.

“My wants,” says one, “must be relieved; my family must be fed and clothed; my work must be done; my interests must be looked after; my health must be preserved.” No, brethren, there is no _must_ in any one of these. GOD must be served; all the others may be, if they can be included in His service, not otherwise.

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.

A second reason why we are not to take thought is—that doing so will not insure what we want. “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature;” or, rather, such is the real meaning, can increase, even by a little measure, the length of his life. And, on the other hand, avoiding taking thought (from religious motives) _will_ insure what we want. “Seek ye first the kingdom of GOD and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you;” _i.e._, you shall not want (no more is promised here) food and raiment. At first thought, doubtless some of you fancy that your experience contradicts both these divine statements. You know many men who by taking thought have secured ample provision, have apparently even added to their lives, and you think you know some who have trusted in GOD’S promise and fulfilled its conditions and yet suffered grievous want. That some—yea, that many—by taking thought have secured what they wanted, is notorious; but that others, who have taken equal thought, have failed, is also notorious. Can you count the disappointed ambitious? the thwarted seekers of pleasure? the distressed hard-working? the bankrupts who have devoted every thought and effort, soul and body, to business? No! Well then taking thought does not insure what we want.

And, on the other hand, though a Lazarus is _sometimes_ fed with crumbs only, if you knew the inner life of the seeming waiters on GOD who are in want, you would nearly always find that their necessity remains unrelieved, because they have not thoroughly performed the prescribed conditions; or that it was in some fit of independence, by some forbidden taking thought that they overreached themselves and fell. In proportion as any one has opportunity to investigate the causes of distress, he will surely be more and more ready to confirm the testimony of a great observer:—“I have been young and now am old, and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken or his seed begging their bread.”

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 (and if it were, their very trials, in the spiritual effects they produce, may be part of their blessedness); 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!

SERMON II. RIGHT THOUGHTS OF CHRIST.

ST. MATTHEW, XXII., 42.

“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.

His enemies called Him “Beelzebub, the Prince of the Devils;” “The fellow that deceiveth the people;” “a Nazarene;” “a sinner;” “a winebibber;” “a Sabbath-breaker;” “a blasphemer;” “guilty, _i.e._, deserving, of death.” It mattered not that they were unable to resist the wisdom with which He spake; that He did all things well, making both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak; that He was proved to be versed in Divine letters, without ever having learned (of men); that His appeals to GOD for vindication as a teacher of truth and a forgiver of sins were visibly answered. They saw no beauty or comeliness in Him, nor anything that should make them desire Him; they would not come unto Him that they might have life. He was despised and rejected.

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?”