Saved as by fire

Preface

I think that an apology should be made for permitting these sermons to appear in the press, as they were hurriedly written and not in any way intended for publication. Then too, they have received little revision or fitting preparation for the press, but are in the form they were de¬ livered to a very small congregation. Therefore they will reveal looseness of style and lack of correct literary expression, but if only they possess enough spiritual quality to be of use in bringing somewhat of help and comfort to the troubled souls this day, or serve in any way to “bind up the broken-hearted,” or point out, however imperfectly, God’s purposes of love in this great sifting of the nations, the writer will be most richly rewarded.

St. Paul's Rectory

All Soul's Day , 1917

C. F. W.

I

Contents

Chapter Page

I Tried by Fire . 9

II The Days are Evil . 19

II The Days Are Evil

See then that ye walk circumspectly , not as fools , but as wise, redeeming the time , because the days are evil.

IF it could ever be said in the history of the Christian world, that the days are evil, it surely can be said today. Everywhere we hear that the gates of Hell are opened, and the most depraved passions of men are employed to do their evil work. The heart sickens when it attempts to picture the awful harvest of this world-wide butchery and of the terrible aftermath of misery and wretchedness that must follow, as the in¬ evitable result of this chaos of destruction. We see the cream of the nation’s manhood snatched from our midst, we see widowed homes and fatherless children, we see, too, crippled industries and wasted treasure. Then, looking to the scene of battle, we see the hopeless destruction of town and country, the devastated fields, the cities laid waste, the nameless sufferings, the cruel indignities of the people, driven from home and fatherland subjected to the ruthless barbarity of worse than heathen war lords.

Then surely to our eyes, “the days are evil,” but we must never forget that God rules and that

He has not left the world to take care of itself. We must ever keep in mind those grand words of the Psalmist, we have never had so much need to remember them as today — that “the Lord is King,” that “He sitteth between the cherubim, be the earth never so unquiet.” He works out His mysteries in His own way. Though “ Heaven and earth shall pass away, His word must be fulfilled.” His purpose is the only thing that cannot fail. Hence it comes that in the history of the world, and in human life, it must be ab¬ solutely and definitely true that nothing comes by chance, a sparrow cannot fall to the ground outside God’s purpose, or without the Father’s knowledge.

But we must remember that the evil that is in the world, is not His making but man’s. God has endued man with the awful power and re¬ sponsibility of a free will, he can choose good or evil, his life depends on the exercise of this free will. If he wishes to do evil, God permits him to do so, to his utter loss and confusion. He makes sin its own avenger, and bring its own punishment and so reveals to man not only the sin but the folly of disobedience to God’s law. Thus it is that “He maketh the wrath of man turn to His own glory” and brings good out of evil.

There can be nothing without a cause, and like begets like. If there is evil in the world, we may be sure that it is because man has sinned, which has called for God’s judgment, not merely for the retributive punishment of sin, but for the re-

The Days are Evil demption of the race. Sin must always bring its own revenge, and prove, in the end, a curse to any people, and must be in itself destructive, since it is the rejection of God’s law, which is the law of the universe.

Hence it is, when the days are evil, and sin has the dominion we learn, thereby that God’s laws have been transgressed, and that God is working out His remedy by making sin its own taskmaster, and making it bind the workers with its own chains, weighing them down with the burdens that they themselves have made, scourging them with the whips of their own making.

God is ever pleading with His people that they may turn to Him and live, that they may walk as wise men and not as fools. He gives them earthly blessings, fills their barns with plenty, and makes “their presses burst out with new wine,” or — in the language of our day — He makes industries flourish, wealth increase, business boom, trade develop; till the world is our market place. With what result? Lo, our wealth has become our poverty. God has spoken to us in our prosperity, but we did not hear.

Yes, we do not hear. This has been the great sin of the world this day, for we must face the bitter truth that the more we get, the less we give; for our “heart goes after our coveteousness. ” Instead of being the worshippers of God, we be¬ come worshippers of mammon, and practically say to the things which our own hands have made “ye are our gods.” So the things of time and sense become our masters, and the whole earth becomes reeking with the pestilence of material¬ ism and therefore tottering to its fall.

But God’s mercy “is over all His people,” He does not leave them alone in their sin. They have rejected His mercy in the day of their pros¬ perity, so in His great love, the day of adversity comes. God pleads once again with His people, but it is with fire and sword that they may learn righteousness through His judgments, if not through His blessings. As God says through the mouth of His prophet Isaiah, “For behold I will come with fire and with chariots like a whirlwind, to render my anger with fury, and my rebuke with flames of fire; for by sword and fire will the Lord plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many. ”

Hence it is that this present evil day has come upon us, and our foes as He foretold, they are of “our own household.” Yes, it is the voice of God that we hear this day pleading with His people, saying “why will ye die, Oh House of Israel, and not turn to me and live?” But it is in mercy He pleads, not in anger; He is speaking in the words of Christ. “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and if thy foot offend thee cut it off; for it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two feet to be cast into Hell. ”

So though the days may appear to us as evil, yet these are days pregnant with mercy to the whole world. Germany, in the very midst of her pride and arrogance and ruthless barbarity,

The Days are Evil though going to her destruction, because of her sin of the idolatry of human might, is only an instrument in the hands of God, working out His purposes for man. For “God fulfills Himself in many ways” that are unseen by man, and His ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts. His mysteries are beyond human thought, but they are surely safe in His hands, and our wisdom is seen in leaving them there for we may be assured that He doeth all things

well.”

We are living in what we may call a grave crisis in human affairs, we have come to a most momentous epoch in the world’s history, when God is opening doors in almost every corner of the earth to the entrance of those who would do .His work. The ancient heathen religions are being, one after another, wholly discredited. The great Moslem power, has largely heard. its death knell through this war, while the great kingdoms, India, China and Japan (as also darkest Africa)— are like sheep without a shepherd, and are all calling to us, “come over and help us.” And this cry, we may say, comes to us of today with especial significance, since it was the cry of that very country of Macedonia, which at the present time is in the possession of British troops.

Thus the great question of missions is thrusting itself more and more before the eyes of the Chris¬ tian world, it is realized, that if we would save ourselves, we must endeavor to save others, for “he who loveth not his brother abideth in death.

How can we love our brother, if we deny him the blessing of Christian light and knowledge? In¬ deed, we have no choice in the matter, for Christ has said “all the world,” and into all the world we must go, if we would be His disciples. We can never call ourselves a Christian nation, in true sense, till we make the cause of missions, the one great activity of our people.

We believe that this is one of the great things that God is preparing the world for through this great war, first through its unifying influences in establishing the brotherhood of the race, and by bringing men from the ends of the earth to fight and if need be, to die together for one common cause. The struggle, too, has been so fierce, so terrible, so deadly, that it has put a most severe test on the moral qualities of the men and officers and has so appealed to their heroism that it has strengthened their noblest qualities. We may thank God that the appeal has not been in vain. Never in all history has such a spirit of seriousness so pervaded an armed host, every man, we may say, seems conscious that he is fighting for a holy cause that demanded his unshrinking fidelity and the cheerful performance of whatsoever he might be called upon to bear. Nay, further, the offer¬ ing of the supreme sacrifice of life itself, seems in many cases to have been their highest joy. Indeed, the steadfast valor and heroism, under all possible conditions of the men who are fighting our battles, have been the wonder of the world.

The sacredness of our cause has another proof

The Days are Evil from the widely spread conviction felt by the troops that they were not fighting alone, but that the warriors of an unseen host were fighting by their side. This may tell us that they were conscious that they were fighting the Lord’s battle.

It is surely of the deepest significance that the spontaneous consent of men decided that every resting place, should be signed with the sign of the cross, and may we not hope that Christian people will follow their example and remove heathen symbolism from their graves. Think of the millions that have worn this sacred symbol upon their breasts when they went forth to battle. How fitting then, that this same sign should mark their resting place, since they like their Master have died for men and for the welfare and re¬ demption of the world.

So we may say, that the influence of this vast struggle, has tended largely to deepen the spirit¬ ual sensibilities of men, for it has brought them face to face with the stern issues of life. It has awakened men and women from the fatal sleep of indifference and mere bodily indulgence. Such surely can be in no sense “redeeming the time” (as the apostle would bid us) but they are wast¬ ing the precious hours to their own destruction, they are preparing themselves for an “evil day” that will surely come upon them.

Let, then these terrible object lessons that are being presented to us each day, serve to open our eyes to the real things, to the things that count to ourselves and to the world. Let us see to it that all the heroism and devotion and spirit of sacrifice for these same real things, are not reserved to those who are fighting our battles for the freedom of the world in this present evil day.

Let not the precious blood of our sons that has been shed for us and for the world, be shed in vain, but that we too will join in this upward movement of the race, and resolve to do our part, if not at the front, at the base. For these are the days of sacrifice, the man who refuses to do “his bit” on the field, is called a “slacker” and he rightly meets with our contempt and we despise him from our very hearts. Who then can measure the disgrace and humiliation of the spiritual slackers? Those who are afraid to meet their spiritual foes and refuse to put on their spiritual armor, who are satisfied with being mere camp followers in the Christian army, but are prepared for no sacrifice, willing to share in the spoils of the battle field, on which others have given their lives, but too cowardly to fight, or to offer any¬ thing in sacrifice for God — such surely must be eternal slackers, who will receive swift judgment from the Lord of battles.

Oh, then, while we have opportunity, let us redeem the time that is given to us, and walk as wise men for “the days are evil”

THE GREAT CHALLENGE

And God called unto Adam and said , “ Where art thou? ”

GEN. Ill, 9

IN the infancy of our race, when sin first entered into the world, through the disobedience of our first parents, we are told that Adam strove to hide himself” in the trees of the garden. This was but a picture, a vivid type and symbol of something in the desire of man, that would evei be impossible, — to blot out through our own effort the results of sin; for sin, is its own avenger. “The soul that sinneth it shall die” and this by an unchangeable law; for sin is an alien in God s world, it is a discord in the harmony of His ordei. In its final result, it must be as a jarring note would be in the harmony of the universe, it must lead to chaos and destruction. This is because the effects of sin become a part of pur very nature, woven into the texture of our being, as the warp and woof of our thoughts, words and deeds, and help to mould all our efforts, ambitions and desires. They are, indeed, a part of our very being. We can no more separate ourselves from our sins, nor the remembrance of them, than we can separate ourselves from our shadows, "Y et how men ever since Adam’s day, have been attempting to do this impossible thing! That, too, in the self same way, — “in the trees of the garden,” that is, by endeavoring to surround themselves with the things of this present world, — to have their ears so dulled with the din and noise of things seen and temporal, their hearts so over¬ charged with “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life” that they cannot hear the voice of God saying to them, day by day, “This is the way, walk ye in it. ” We must never forget that nothing just happens in God’s world, eveiy thing to the insect’s wing, to the numbering the hairs of our head or the sparrow’s fall, has a Divine purpose.

Hence we see that events of our life are as monitors of God, hints and foreshadowings of things that must be hereafter, they are all tokens of God’s deep love and concern for His children. Sometimes God speaks to us in the still, small voice, of health and prosperity, of quiet hours, of peaceful homes, of fruitful fields, of thriving industries, and well-filled treasuries. Then again, when hearts become cold, and sin has the domin¬ ion, then do “ His judgments appear on the earth;” mighty winds “rend the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord,” floods and cyclones and earthquakes sweep over the earth without a moment’s warning leaving death and destruction in their ruinous pathway. These, as well as the still, small voice of our ease and comfort and prosperity, of our quiet nights and peaceful days, are equally the voice of God.

The Great Challenge

They are foreshadowings of eternal things, of judgments saying to us as He did unto Adam, “Where art thou?”

These terrible visitations, however, are not signs of God’s anger towards His children, but testimonies of His love. As we are told, “whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” In no way could His want of Love be more clearly seen than by permitting men to continue in sin and so allow the world to get more and more the dominion over them, till “the things belonging to their peace should be hidden from their eyes.” So it is that along the road of life, God puts up His sign-posts saying, “this is not your rest.”

We must never forget, that love and discipline, go hand in hand; love without discipline is mere selfish sentimentality; while discipline, is the very basis of character and of moral virtue. The son or the daughter, that knows not how to obey, will be the child of many sorrows, and often bring down the gray hairs of their parents with sorrow to the grave. And this for the simple reason that he who knows not how to obey, does not know what obedience is and therefore cannot govern himself. Thus he is the poor slave of his own will and evil desire. “What son is there,” the apostle asks, “whom his father chasteneth not?” “Now no chastening, for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, yet afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that have been exercised thereby.” So he tells us that “God chasteneth us for our profit that we may be partakers of His holiness.

We believe that the looseness, frivolity, spirit¬ ual indifference, and lack of moral fibre, which are so characteristic of the youth of our day, are largely due to the lack of discipline in the house¬ hold, and the absence of parental authority. If ever the apostolic injunction of “children obey your parents,” needs to be enjoined it is today. But let us not fail to mark that this serious evil is more the fault of the parent than of the child, it has its foundation in the lack of moral courage in the parent and his indifference to sin. It takes its cue from that spiritual sloth and enervated softness which also are characteristic of our day, which attempts to hide itself under the spurious name of love, and which produce so much of the mawkish sentimentality of our time. We must realize more and more, that it is only through much tribulation that we can enter into the king¬ dom of God, and therefore without discipline we dead, because we are the slaves of our own will, are Hence it is, that we need to be continually roused and warned; yes, sometimes bruised and broken, by the events of our life, that our eyes may be opened to see our dangers.

Thus it is today, as we turn our thoughts to the bloody fields of Europe, hear the thundering boom of cannon, the trampling of the mighty host, see the awful carnage, the rivers of blood, the windrows of the slain, we hear the voice of God, speaking to us as He did to Elijah in the

The Great Challenge wilderness, or as He did to Adam in the trees of the garden. Yes, in trumpet tones He is speaking to us in this awful war. He is not only speaking to Germany, stamping on her this worse than barbaric slaughter, but He is speaking to us, to the nations of Europe, yes, to the whole world He is summoning them before the bar of His just judgment to consider their ways. He is saying to them what He said to Adam, “ Where art thou ?” He speaks to us through this storm of passion, this riot of destruction, this wild conflict of human wills, even as He speaks in the cyclone’s wrath and the earthquake’s destruction. We must re¬ member that God has given to us the fateful gift of freedom of will, the power to do good or evil in our little sphere. But though He does not dethrone our wills, He does not abdicate His power over them, nor us. We may disobey Him, as Adam, and destroy ourselves; but we cannot defeat His purpose. He overrules, even our evil doing to His own ends. We would attempt, as the world has done, to overthrow evil by evil; but He would overthrow it by good, and turns evil to His own glory for the “Lord is king, be the people never so impatient, He sitteth between the cherubim, be the earth never so unquiet.’

What, then, is God saying to us in this dread catastrophe? First, Fie is showing to us and to the world, as it has never been witnessed before in all man’s history, the madness, the horrible cruelty, and the unmeasured wickedness of war in general but especially between Christian nations. He is making us see what we are so often told today, that “war is hell” and therefore never can be of His ordering. He may and does permit it because of man’s sin, but He can never order it it never can be in accordance with His will, for “He is not the author of confusion, but ol peace.” War is always the result of man s sin,

of human pride and selfishness. . .

It is true that under present conditions, it is sometimes necessary and right for even a Chris¬ tian nation, in its own defence or in the defence of others, to take the sword in hand when their rights and liberties have been rudely overthrown and trampled under foot by the tyranny o a stronger power. But there is a wide gulf fixe bv God, between the war of human wrath and that of righteous indignation. We are commanded of St. Paul “to bear not the sword in vain,” and His counsel is “if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. War is not always the expression of anger, it is often the self-sacrificing desire for peace and rule and order. So today, had England refused to imperil the nation by remaining neutral in this present war, had she permitted the iron heel of Prussian cruelty to stamp out the liberty of heroic Belgium, she most surely would have played the nart of a poltroon and a coward, and would no longer be able to lift up her head as leader amongst Christian nations. Never in her history could she so clearly claim that her cause was just, never could she more confidently feel, humanly speak-

The Great Challenge ing, that her “ battle was the Lord's . ” We believe that the priceless sacrifice that she has so freely poured out in this great struggle, will be as an atonement for her many sins and the sins of her people; that the blessing of God will descend upon her because of this noble sacrifice for truth and righteousness, and that she will arise from this “ agony and bloody sweat” a renewed and re¬ stored people. The scriptures must be fulfilled and so we must not forget the warning of Christ that He “came not to send peace but a sword.” This most surely shows us that the sword must come before peace, the sword must cut away the false before the true can be revealed. To give liberty to the oppressed, help to the fallen, rescue to the crushed and down-trodden, as well as retribution to the tyrant and the oppressor, — all this becomes a Christian duty even though it is maintained by the sword.

“Be ye angry and sin not” is the apostle’s summary of Christian teaching. We see, there¬ fore, that there is an anger that is not sinful but virtuous. When Christ condemns him who is “angry with his brother without a cause,” He clearly implies the truth that one may have good cause for anger against his brother. Indeed, we cannot but think of His own anger in the temple courts as He drove from the sacred place the sacrilegious mob that would profane the holy House. He drove them out like hunted swine with the besom of His wrath. War then, we see, may have its altogether sacred side. It is the scourge of God, and His rebuke of sin, it is the forecast of His final rebuke at the day of judgment. There we must all appear, we must all hear His voice as Adam did at the cool of the day,— at the ending of our life, when He will say to us also, “Where art thou? Give an account of thy stewardship for thou mayest be no longei

steward. ”

IV The Day Of Intercession

The Lord is King , be the people never so impatient, He sitteth between the Cherubim be the earth never so unquiet.

PSALM XCIX, I

THE purpose of this Day of Intercession is expressed by The Times :

Another year is drawing to its close under the shadow of war; and today the King, the Head of the Church and the Defender of the Faith, summons his people throughout the world to set aside the first Sunday in the coming year as a special day of prayer and thanksgiving prayer that we may have the clear sightedness” and “strength necessary to the victory of our cause,” and thanksgiving “for the Divine guidance which has led us so far towards our goal. Amid the clash of arms and the daily insistence of material or mechanical tasks, it is not always easy to remember that we are banded together to establish, with brain or muscle or life, the cause which to all of us is the noblest of all causes.. In the knowledge that all his loyal subjects have faith in the justice of that cause the King bids us to recall, with the solemnity of a day set apart the ideals which we are striving to uphold. If the call comes at a time when we cannot fail to remember that the mills of God grind slowly, it comes also at a time when .we Englishmen and all those united with us in a common. service, were never more conscious of our strength or of the rightness of the endeavor in which it is being used to the utmost. Thank¬ ful, therefore, for the height of our calling, and that our women i and children have been spared the full horrors of war, we may humbly renew our strength and welcome the King’s command:

“England, on thy knees tonight Pray that God defend the right. ”

We as members of God’s Church are gathered together here this day, for prayer and supplica¬ tion to the Ruler of the earth and the great Arbiter of the nations, in a supreme crisis of our history.

Never before in the history of our people has the peace and the material welfare of our race been so seriously threatened. That reign of peace which the English speaking world fondly hoped for and labored, has been cruelly dashed to the earth, by hands that are red with blood. Yes, the ruler of the German people stands before the world this day as the representative of a nation that has brought the deepest reproach that has ever rested upon the Christian world, and has proved itself unworthy of the name of Christian. Her haughty ruler, though he has not scrupled to take the name of the God of love upon his lips, has had war in his heart, and has wilfully and wantonly taken upon himself the responsibility of the wholesale slaughter of his fellow Christians, establishing hell upon earth. But God be praised he can at worst kill only the body, he cannot snatch from that martyred Host the unseen medal of the cross which lies upon the breast of him who dies for truth and justice and offers his blood as sacrifice on the altar of his country and the welfare of the land that gave him birth. For the God of battles, before whose eyes not a sparrow falls unseen shall surely note witn joy the fall of him who dies that the tyrant may be vanquished and liberty and truth may remain upon the earth. Yes, those fair dreams of peace which so gladdened our hearts, and filled us with hope for the welfare of the world and led many optimists to think that a general war amongst Christian nations in our. present state ol en¬ lightenment was simply impossible, have been rudely dispelled, the labors of our statesmen to preserve the peace of Europe have proved un¬ successful and we have been drawn into a strugg e which we have provoked in no. way and from which we seek no personal gain.

A military despotism, similar to that of Napoleon has once more (we believe for the last time) been revived in Europe and has been advanced by methods oi cruelty and tyranny which have long since been discarded amongst, civilized peoples, in this unprovoked aggression and in an unsought quar¬ rel, England for the cause of peace, justice, and liberty, for the sanctity of most solemn pledges given between nation and nation, has thrown herself into the most terrible struggle of her his¬ tory, both by sea and land. Indeed we know that the whole continent of Europe is one vast battlefield, empurpled with the blood of millions slain as the price of a tyrant lust that would be ^ratified, so the hope of peace had for the present vanished, and the progress of the world gone ten degrees backward. Yes, you may be ready to say that is all true, but if the question of your text be true, why is all this? If the God of the sparrows is our God and if He still “sitteth be¬ tween the Cherubim, be the earth never so un¬ quiet,” why has this blessing of peace which the world so sorely needs, been denied? Why has He permitted it to be dashed to the earth by unholy hands? Why this cruel carnage? Why these awful windrows of death? Why the untold sufferings of the wounded, and the tears of the widow and the orphan? In short, why this terri¬ ble baptism of blood, and death of the world’s peace? The answer is, “because the world was not ready for peace.” It has not yet been taught the need for righteousness, and the utter barbar¬ ism of war.