Part 3

Christ, as He walked on earth the messenger of peace and love to all men, had a special interest in the Jews (His own people), but it was in Jews whose practice corresponded with their profession, whose heart and life illustrated what their understanding received. On such as these, His highest favours would have been most readily bestowed; but wanting these qualities, He estimated their orthodoxy at nothing; and, on the other hand, finding these qualities among strangers and aliens, He allowed not their heterodoxy to prove an obstacle to their blessing. In many cases uncircumcision was counted for circumcision, and circumcision for uncircumcision.

My dear brethren, value ordinances greatly, but rest not, I charge you, in them. Boast not that you are Anglo-Catholics; that your ministers have an Apostolic succession; that you were regenerated in baptism; that you are regular communicants and worshippers at the daily service. These are, indeed, great privileges; but connected with them are great responsibilities. Is your pure faith illustrated by a pure life? Do you make the best use of an Apostolic ministry? Are you growing in the spirit of which you were born again? Do you feel and sustain the communicated presence of Christ within you? When you go down from the sanctuary, does your life shine, as Moses’s face did, with the reflected glory of GOD? If not, talk not of your high privileges—your case would be better without them. When GOD ceased to wink at the errors and ungodliness of mankind, He began by punishing, and with much severity, the errors and ungodliness of the privileged Jews. Yes, and whenever He takes account, and passes judgment, it is on the principle that to whom much has been given, of him shall much be required. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” “To him that knoweth, to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

The second thought which the fact of our text suggests, is one of great comfort to the benevolent heart. It is, that GOD will make a way through a bad system, to the disciple of that system who has been trying to reach Him. When one reflects on the grave and blinding errors of modern Romanism; on the awful denial of our blessed LORD’S Divinity by the Unitarians; on the capricious choice, what to believe, what to deny, which each Protestant sect ventures to make and maintain; on the disuse of a ministry, the ignoring of sacraments, and other holy ordinances by the Society of Friends, what a comfort is there in our text, “And he was a Samaritan;” in feeling that GOD condescends to get through all this, to the yearning, would-be faithful heart; ay, that He even accepts the purblind visions and stammering utterances of such an one as _faith_. “Thy faith hath made thee whole”! Most of us know some members of such sects with whom we should wish to dwell together in heaven, for whom our heart is rejoiced to feel that there are such prospects, in whose sanctified lives we have the present proof, that (however _originators_ of heresy and schism may be regarded) in every nation and every sect, he that heareth GOD, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.

But, thirdly, are we therefore to make no difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy? Are we to be indifferent to truth and error? Are we to frequent Romish chapels or Dissenting conventicles with as little compunction as though they were our proper sanctuaries? Are we to promote the schemes of other communions, by contributing to them out of our substance, or by lending our names or presence to them? No, brethren, we are not to confound Jew and Samaritan, nor to regard the schismatic building on Gerizim, as equally an approved sanctuary with the temple at Jerusalem. We are not to gather professors of different sects together; by concessions and suppressions to produce an outward conforming, and then to proclaim, “This is what Christians should be. This is an Evangelical alliance.” Evangelical alliance! alliance, _i.e._, according to the Gospel! Christ, indeed, willed us to be one; but it was by all receiving the whole truth, not by paring and cropping it each one as he will, and then calling the hacked and deformed thing of our own shaping His glorious Gospel. Judge for yourselves:—one man believes that the Blessed Virgin and other saints are his mediators with GOD; another, that Christ alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but that Christ must be sought in His own appointed sacraments, or not found at all; a third completely ignores all sacraments. Shall these three stand side by side, and say, “We are allied according to the Gospel—we all believe alike”? Surely such a thing is a mockery of common sense, and an act of treason against their respective communions.

Yes, and it is worse. For, first of all, as I have already said, there is but one faith propounded in Holy Scripture. Men may differ in their perception of that faith—the Romanist regards it in one light, the Anglican in another, the “Friend” in a third. But each of these believes himself to be right, and he _must therefore_ regard the others as wrong. Now, if they are wrong, then by slurring over their error, he makes it his own; he joins in the choosing of a creed other than that GOD has framed, and so insults the Infallible Truth. Again, there are no sins more strictly forbidden, more severely denounced in the Bible than those of heresy, _choosing_ what to believe, instead of adopting the Apostolic faith, without increase or diminution, and schism, separating oneself, that is, without most strong reason from worship in appointed places, conducted by appointed officers, according to the prescribed form. These sins are classed by St. Paul with the grossest works of the flesh, and it is said of those that cause them, that they shall not inherit the kingdom of GOD.

It is evident, then, that patronising or encouraging in any way a religious community from which we personally honestly differ, is disobeying a positive command of GOD, and incurring awful risk of His displeasure. And there is another argument against seeming recognition of heresy or schism: namely, that we thereby often cause the weak brother to offend, and hinder the anxious inquirer after truth from renouncing error. If those who look up to us for guidance—and there are very few of us but are accepted as guides by some—see us _once_ among the Samaritans, they will take license and encouragement from us to be there _frequently_; and so, if those who are in doubt between remaining aloof from the Church and joining it, see Churchmen in their assemblies, they will assuredly gather that there is no difference of importance between them and us, and will remain where they are. For all these reasons, it is of the utmost importance that the Churchman, while entertaining the most benevolent feelings towards those who differ from him, while gratefully acknowledging the good they do, while inwardly rejoicing that wandering sinners should be proselytised by them, and have a faith of some kind rather than none at all; while, too, hoping and praying that our blessed LORD’S prayer may yet be realised, and that all who call upon His name may ultimately be of one heart and one mind, and with one mouth glorify GOD; should still most strictly abstain in presence, in deed, in speech, and in look, from the remotest encouragement, or sanction of erroneous doctrine, or religious disunion and division. Meet these men in business you often must; meet them in friendship, in secular consultation, in practical benevolence, you may; but meet them in their religious capacity, frequent their places of worship, forward the objects of their sect you must not, unless you are prepared to go over to them altogether; to maintain that theirs is _the_ faith, and _the_ fellowship; and that all not in communion with them are heretics or schismatics. Give no uncertain sound. Halt not between two opinions. “He that is not with Me is against Me.”

One more lesson to guard against misinterpretation of the last. I have used some strong words in speaking of those that differ. Do not, pray, suppose that I would have you regard them with any but kind feelings, much less that I would teach you to cry out against their errors, in railing or contemptuous tones. The Christian minister intent upon laying down clearly the line of right thought and practice, has occasion to speak plainly, and for his hearers’ sake to call things by their right names, however grating they may sound; but with the private individual it is otherwise. In his ordinary course, he has no need to speak of these things, or to think of them, further than to prompt his earnest prayers for the decay of error and dissension, and the establishment of truth and union. And if at any time it becomes his duty or desire to stay a soul from error, or to convert him from it, let him remember, and be sure it is true, that one ounce of love will do more good than many pounds of controversy. {38}

Loud cries of “No popery,” invectives against High Church or Low Church, sneers against “cant,” imputations of unworthy motives to those who differ, contemptuous pity of their ignorance or inferiority, are all carnal. They will unspiritualise yourselves; they will retard, rather than advance the good work on others; they will drive away from you the only power in which you can hope to prevail, that of the Spirit of holiness, and love, and peace.

While then as Churchmen, it is your bounden duty to regard other systems of religion as inferior, perhaps erroneous; be sure that in dealing with the individual disciples of those systems, you remember the history of the thankful Samaritan, and consider that like him, they may be approved and sanctified followers of your common LORD.

Resolve to put away all animosity, and strife, and captiousness; to take the best rather than the worst view of what you dislike, or do not understand; in short, while maintaining as far as possible the orthodoxy of Him who was a true Israelite; like Him, and for His sake, endeavour to love men for themselves, if you cannot love their system; and to rejoice in the opportunity of treating the Samaritan as a brother, and of bringing him within nearer reach of abiding blessedness.

SERMON IV. ETERNAL ABODE WITH GOD.—(A FUNERAL SERMON.)

1 THESS., IV., 17.

“So shall we ever be with the Lord.”

WE read in the third chapter of Genesis of the introduction of death into our world—how sin alienated GOD from man and man from GOD, how those who had been endowed with the best faculties of enjoying bliss, who were surrounded by all desirable blessings, who dwelt beneath the bright sun of GOD’S favour, were by an act of unbelief and wilfulness, suggested by the evil one, driven angrily into the outer world, where toil, and pain, and manifold misery were thenceforth to be their lot.

We are sometimes tempted to think, that the actual punishment of our first parents was less than that they had been threatened with. “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” was GOD’S assurance; but when they ate they did not die,—as we account dying; they were but banished from the Garden of Eden, and prevented from returning, by cherubims who kept the entrance, and a flaming sword which turned every way. It was indeed a sad reverse—a wilderness instead of a garden—sorrow instead of joy—toil instead of rest—curses instead of blessings: but it was not the threatened death. They did not die.

So we are wont to think: but we err therein; they did die, brethren. This reverse _was_ death. Death (what GOD means by death) is not annihilation—not ceasing to be; it is protracted existence apart from GOD, and the blessings of His right hand, and the light of His countenance. More truly did they die when they entered upon this state of existence, than when, hundreds of years afterwards, their bodies stiffened, and their breath ceased, and their flesh turned to corruption in the grave. It is a misconception—a practical unbelief of immortality, which makes us think otherwise. The soul does not perish—does not slumber; living once, it lives ever, and ever knows and feels its existence. The separation of it from the body alters its circumstances, uncasing it—depriving it of one of its appendages—breaking off its connexion with a material and natural world; but not destroying it. No; it lives on, and lives on (in its spiritual relations) as it did before, save that the withdrawal of bodily senses enables and _obliges_ the spiritual senses to exercise themselves to the full, and so intensifies the feelings, and completes the realisation of the spiritual state.

Suppose that in the moment that Adam was driven out of Paradise, he had actually died, that his soul had been immediately separated from the body; what would have been the state of that soul? The same, really, as it was while he lived—banishment from the presence of GOD, with the consequent absence of what was desirable, and presence of what was hateful. He would have _felt_ it more. Having nothing else to gaze on, the blankness of the spiritual world around him, save where evil spirits stood revealed, would have been more terrible. The desires would have been more intolerable when there was nothing to divert attention from them, and the constrained employments more distasteful. Hopelessness, too, of remedy in that fixed state, which is to have no change but that of increase throughout eternity, would have caused his death to _appear_ a greater reality, but it would not have _made_ it a greater reality. The continuance of bodily existence palliated death; a natural world spread before his eyes diverted his gaze from the spiritual “void”; natural pain even, and sorrow, and toil, beguiled his thoughts and feelings, in a measure, from spiritual miseries; but still he _was_ dead, though he knew it not fully. His state was like to that of the child who sleeps calmly in the dark; but when it wakes, cries and starts in terror. There was darkness all along; but only when the eyes were opened was it fully perceived—_felt_.

Now, natural death is like this _waking_; it does not so much transfer us to another state, as show us clearly in what state we are; whether in the presence of GOD, or banished from Him. To be in outer darkness, where hope never comes, where the sun of heaven sends forth no rays; to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the LORD, and from the glory of His power, this is death _completed_. Surely, then, to be without GOD in the world; to be removed from His favouring, and comforting, and guiding presence; to live only in such unconscious dependence on Him as the beasts that perish; to have but the good things of our own finding; this is death _begun_: this is to have a name to live, and yet be dead, to be as really dead as are the spirits of the doomed-departed, except that we know not fully (which is part of death) the misery of our condition; and (blessed be GOD!) that we may as yet live again, and be restored to His presence, because Christ has opened the gates of Paradise, and bids His angels gently drive us in, if we will; yea, calls to us Himself, and entreats us to enter; to have again the condition—spiritualised, exalted, perfected—of unfallen Adam.

My brethren, thus think of death, and of life. Do not make so much of the heaving of the last sigh; the drawing of the last breath; as though the battle of life were fought, and the victory achieved on a death-bed; as though the soul began its banishment when it quits the body. Many, whose flesh has long since mouldered into dust, have never really died; and many, who still walk the earth, full of energy, and vigour, and what man calls life, are really dead. To live, is to be with GOD: to live for ever, is to be with GOD for ever. To die, is to be without GOD: to die for ever, is to be without GOD for ever. “If,” says Christ, “a man keep my sayings, he shall never see death.” “Whosoever liveth and believeth on me, shall never die.” “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of GOD hath not life.”

I have said thus much to suggest to your consideration a very important, life-directing truth, viz.: that the heavenly life and the second death, both have their beginning on this side the grave; that GOD, for Christ’s sake, vouchsafes His presence, to those who seek and honour it, to guide, and comfort, and strengthen, and sanctify them; and where He is there is real life: on the other hand, that GOD withdraws Himself from those who disregard, or slight Him; and where He is not, there is death, the second death—capable, as yet, of being overcome, and put to an end; but more likely to prevail permanently in proportion as it is not felt; and even now working many of its miserable effects on all, not excepting the most hardened and apathetic who are subject to it. Try, dear brethren, to impress yourselves with this truth. Do not merely _hope_ for eternal life, or _fear_ the second death _beyond the grave_, _after you die_. Try to secure the one (the actual possession of it, I mean), and to avoid the other, in _this_ life, by earnestly seeking and sustaining the real, the proffered presence with you, and in you, of the life-giving and upholding GOD.

But, there is a better presence, a more perfect life, spoken of in the text. To this I would refer, as furnishing truest consolation, exciting liveliest hopes, and stimulating to holiest exertions,—“eternal abode with GOD in heaven.” When the minister of Christ would comfort the mourning relatives of a departed saint, and, as the phrase is, improve the occasion to their good, he does not forbid them to feel and express sorrow, for he remembers that Christ wept at the tomb of Lazarus, but only charges them to set bounds to their sorrow, and prepare to stay it presently; because, it is merely a _natural_, and not a _Christian_ feeling; because, if continued, it becomes a selfish, inconsiderate bemoaning of their personal loss; a virtual denial that the departed is at rest, and in bliss; a rejection of the hope that they shall meet again, in a better and abiding home. “So shall we ever be with the LORD.” What mean these words? We know in theory (many of us, let me hope, experimentally), what it is to be with GOD, or to have Him with us _here_. It is not simply to dwell in the same world with Him, near Him, close to Him, by His permission, under His observance and government, as the omnipresent GOD. No! it is not the _necessary_, but a _special_ presence which we mean. A presence like that which accompanied the Israelites through the wilderness; which actually went with them, guided them, fed them, helped them in difficulties, reproved them in transgressions, interested Itself specially in their circumstances, and manifested that interest, not only by its doings, but by a sight of Itself in a pillar of fire, or a pillar of a cloud.

Again, like that presence, it is not constant; the pillar is sometimes withdrawn. There is, occasionally, no answer given by Urim and Thummim; we are left to fight, now and then, in our own strength only, and then we fail; we hunger, we thirst, and no Divine supply comes; we mourn, and there is no spiritual comfort; we murmur, and there is no reproof; we sin, and there is no chastisement: GOD, for the time, is absent from our camp.

Again, like that presence, it does not secure us from trials. We have long marches, and powerful adversaries; we journey on in perils in the wilderness, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of our own countrymen (our fellow Christians), in perils by the heathen; in weariness and painfulness; in watchings often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often; in cold and nakedness; in deaths oft. GOD, peradventure, is with us all the while; but it is through the world of tribulation He leads us, not by a miraculously smooth and safe path. His presence is manifested in occasional glimpses. His voice is heard in disjoined words. His arm is felt in intermittent upholdings. I cannot well picture this presence to those who have no experience of it; I need not do so to those who have realised it: but all may see that, in this lower world, we are not ever with the LORD in the fullest manifestation of His presence; in the constant upholding of His arm; in entire exemption from trials; in perfect fruition of blessings. That may not be on earth. The sun may lighten up our dark hovel; but it is a hovel still. Divine help may lessen our labour; but we must labour still. Divine consolation may soothe us in our losses; but we are to suffer losses still. Howsoever GOD be with us; whatsoever He does for us; the wilderness is still a wilderness.

But the wilderness has a limit; its limit is what we call death. To the faithful, that bourne is like the Jordan,—when they have crossed it, they shall be in the promised land, the land that floweth with milk and honey, where GOD’S abiding, glorious temple is set up; wherein there remaineth rest and joy for the people of GOD. Whoso entereth that land, shall be ever with the LORD, enjoying His most complete and satisfying presence. “Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.” This prayer shall then be realised. They shall see the King in His beauty, and the land that is now afar off. There shall be no more curse; but the throne of GOD and of the Lamb shall be in their dwelling: they shall serve Him, and they shall see His face: with what feelings and emotions, at present we can form no adequate conceptions; but we know that it shall be with joy: that they shall love and praise Him; that it shall be their untiring, unalloyed delight to gaze upon His glory, to sing His praises, to share His love.

And they shall be like Him. As, in this world, they have borne the image of the earthly Adam, so, in that, they shall bear the image of the heavenly. That image, lost in the fall, must indeed begin to be resumed here in regeneration, and be more and more put on in life-long conversion to GOD. By contemplating Christ, and watching His countenance, as we are allowed to see it here, we must gradually assume His features, and be changed into His image. But we must see Him, not in faint resemblances, and bare outline, but as He is, before we can be wholly like Him. Then, but not before, shall we be transfigured, and glorified, and changed from glory to glory; body and spirit advancing in excellence, and intelligence, and love, and bliss, till they become what and as Christ is,—reaching unto the full stature of a man in Christ JESUS, satisfied with the perfect assumption of His likeness.

Yes, and as they gaze ever on Him, so shall He on them. No sin shall cause the LORD to hide His face from them; no discipline shall require His occasional withdrawal; no cloud shall obscure heaven’s sky; no frown shall be seen; no reproof heard. _He_ shall not try them. _Evil_ shall not approach to tempt them. A Saviour’s love shall surround them; not to carry them through a wilderness, not to keep them in tribulations, but to lead them beside the clear fountains of peace; to plant them all around His throne, where with eyes wiped of all tears, they shall feast on His presence, and, with adoring souls and bodies, rest in His love.