Sermons for children, including the Beatitudes and The faithful servant

Preface

These Sermons, having been found to interest many young persons into whose hands they came when privately printed, are now published in the hope that they may be of use to a wider circle of readers.

They have been reproduced as correctly as the rough state of the Author's Manuscript permitted ; but it is obvious that, in some places, either the manuscript has been inaccurately deciphered, or the Preacher supplemented what he had written byadditions at the moment.

The concluding Sermon, on 'The Faithful Servant/ though not addressed specially to children, and not preached in the Abbey, seemed from its personal and familiar character to have a proper place in this volume.

Contents

SERMON PAGE

I. The Child Jesus (1871) . . .1

II. Little Children, love one another

II. Little Children, Love One Another

/ write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. — 1 John ii. 13. My little chilaren, let us not love in word, neither in tongue ; but in deed and in truth. — iii. 18. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. — v. 2,1. / have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. — 3 John 4.

The day on which this service is usually held is called Innocents' Day, from the little innocent children that were killed at Bethlehem. But as this year Innocents' Day falls on a Sunday, I have invited you here on this the day before, which is called St. John's Day, because it is the day on which we are called to think of the good apostle St. John. I shall say a few words to you about him. His memory was very deeply cherished by the good king who on Innocents' Day founded the Abbey, and it has been very dear to Christians serm. II. LITTLE CHILDREN. II

always. When he was first a disciple of our Lord he was quite young, perhaps not much more than a boy. But there was something so winning about him that our Lord always kept him close to Him, and he was called the disciple whom Jesus loved. When our Lord was gone aw r ay into heaven, this disciple St. John, after living some time at Jerusalem with the other apostles, went to the great city of Ephesus, and there he lived on after all the other apostles were dead, and he was the only one left. There is a beautiful picture which some one has painted of the old man sitting on a rock quite alone, and looking up into heaven, and seeing there his former companions in that better world still busying themselves with doing good and holy things, as we hope that all those whom we have loved and admired on earth are doing still. It w T as whilst he was living there that various stories are told of him that we do not find in the Bible, and we cannot be sure that they are quite certainly true. But they are what the early Christians believed about him, and they agree so well with the letters or epistles which he wrote at that time, and from which I have taken the texts of this sermon, that I will try to tell them to you, and see what we can learn from them.

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One is this. There came one day a huntsman who had heard so much of this great, wise old man, that he went out of his way to see him ; and to his surprise he found St. John gently stroking a partridge which he held in his hand, and he could not help saying how surprised he was to see so great a man employed on anything so small. Then St. John said, 'What have you in your hand?' And he said, ' A bow.' And St. John said, ' Why is it not bent ? ' And the huntsman said, ' Because then it would lose its strength.' ' That is just the reason/ said St. John, ' why I play with the partridge. It is that my mind may be kept strong by sometimes being at play.' W T hat do we learn from this story, my dear children? We learn from it that St. John, and great and good men like St. John, are glad now and then to see you at play, and to play like you. They are glad to see you happy ; and they wish to be little children again like you, because that helps them afterwards to work better. We learn from it to be kind as he was to little birds and beasts : never to torment them ; to remember that kindness to dumb animals is a part of what God requires of you. There was an aged lady, very excellent, wise, and wonderfully learned, who lived to be very nearly as old as St. John, and who died serm. II. LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 13

last year in her ninety-second year. She said, a very short time before her death, ' I hope that the time may come when children shall be taught that mercy to birds and beasts is part of religion.' Yes, it ought to be part of our religion. I trust that we shall make it so. Play, too, with your companions, like St. John ; remember always that all play and all holidays are given by God, to be like the unbending of a bow, to help you to work better for the future. It is as when he said in his epistle, ' I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.' You have known our loving Father in heaven. He gives you all good things, work and play, play and work, to make your minds and hearts stronger, and better able to do His will. He gives you beautiful birds and beautiful animals to play with and to love. They, too, are His creatures ; He has made you their guardians and playmates, and he has made them your companions and teachers.

Another story is this. There was a young man who had grown up under St. John's care in doing what was right, and St. John was very fond of him. At last, after a time, St. John had to go away, and gave this young man in charge to the bishop or chief pastor of Ephesus, and told him

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on no account to let him go astray. But when St. John came back and went to the bishop, with whom he had left his young pupil, he saw from the bishop's face that something sad had happened. ' What is it ? ? he said ; and the bishop told him how this young man had fallen in with bad companions, who tempted him away into the mountains, and there they were living the wild life of robbers, and used to come down from the hills, as the robbers still do in those countries, to carry off travellers and ask a ransom for them. As soon as St. John heard this, he immediately set off into the mountains. He was not frightened by the thought of the robbers, he cared only to save this poor young man from his bad courses. And when the robbers saw him coming, they said amongst themselves, ' Here comes some one that we can carry off; ' and down rushed the young man who had become their chief, and found himself face to face with his beloved old master and friend St. John. And the moment he saw him he burst into tears and fell at his feet, all his better feelings revived, and instead of his carrying off St. John, St. John brought him back to good ways, and he never went astray afterwards.

What do we learn from this ? Is it not someserm. II. LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 15

thing like that which St. John himself said in that chapter which you have just heard ? He had taught this young man as a little child to love and know the good Father of all. He had taught him as a young man to overcome the wicked one ; that is, to get the better of the evil that there is even in the best things. And now when he went astray he never lost his interest in him ; he went after him, even at the risk of his own life, to bring him back, and he succeeded. This story is full of instruction even for us. It brings back to us some of St. John's own words, ' Little children, keep yourselves from idols/ Although we have now no idols like those which the heathens worship, yet there are many idols still. If a little brother or sister will insist on having a toy for himself, and not let any one else play with it, that is his 'idol.' If any boy who is growing up thinks of nothing but games and amusement, and neglects his lessons, then games become his idol. If a young man goes, as did that one in the story, after bad companions, they become his 'idols.' Keep yourselves from all these idols ; and all of you, O children, boys, and young men, remember that there is no greater pleasure you can give to your parents and teachers than to continue in the good thoughts

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and words that they have taught you \ remember that there is no greater pain for them than to think that you have forgotten what they told you, that you have ceased to care for them, and have gone off into evil ways. And oh, how happy for you, how happy for them, if when you have gone astray, or done anything wrong, you come again like that young man and acknowledge your faults ! and the good old friend, whoever it is, father, or uncle, or brother, or teacher, will receive you back again as if nothing had happened. ' I have no greater joy/ St. John said, 'than to hear that my children walk in truth.' Be truthful in all things, acknowledge your faults as did the young robber chief, do not keep them back from your parents or friends. Never tell a lie to conceal what you have done wrong. Have no tricks or schemes to make others think you better than you are. Tell the truth, and shame the devil.

There is one other story. When St. John was very old indeed, when he was almost a hundred, when he could no longer walk or speak as he had done in his youth, he used to be carried into the market-place in the arms of his friends, and the people, old, and young, and children, gathered serm. ii. LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 17

round him to hear the farewell words of their venerable teacher. And then he would say, ' Little children, love one another ; ' and when they asked for something else, he said again, ' Little children, love one another ; ' and when they asked him yet again, still he said, ' Little children, love one another. ' And they said, ' Why do you always say this, and nothing else ? ' And he said, ' Because this is the best thing I can say ; if you love one another, that is all that I have to tell you.' What do we learn from this ? We learn that the thing which St. John, the beloved disciple, was most anxious to teach, was that those whom he cared for should love one another. It is the same as when he said in his letter to them, ' My little children, let us love one another in deed and in truth.' And that is what we say to you now, 'Little children, love one another.' Little brothers, be kind to your little brothers and sisters. Boys at school, be kind to those who are younger and weaker than you. You can show them kindness and love in many, many ways ; you can keep from teasing or hurting them, you can prevent others from teasing or hurting them ; and that will make them love and be kind to you. Little boys will never forget the kindness they have received from bigger boys at school. Brothers

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and sisters who have given up lovingly and kindly when they were quite small will give up lovingly and kindly all their lives. Love one another in deed and in truth ; do not pick out each other's faults ; make the best of what there is good in each other ; be glad when you hear anything good of those who live with you. Never quarrel ; it does no good to any one. Never be jealous ; jealousy is one of the most mischievous, hateful things that can get into any one's mind. Never tell bad stories one of another. Never listen to bad stories of other people. When you ask to be forgiven in your prayers every night, always try in your hearts to forgive and forget what has been done to vex you in the day.

This is the love which St. John wished to see. This is the love which Jesus Christ wishes to see in all His disciples, old and young.

Always bear in mind that the first thing to be done is to try to help and befriend some one else. That will make you generous and just ; that will make you active and courageous ; that will make you feel how wicked it is to lead others into wrong, and ho\v happy and excellent a thing it is to help others to be good. That will make you better able to love and to do good to men when you grow serm. II. LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 19

up to be men yourselves. That will the better enable you to love God, who can only be loved by those who love their fellow-creatures. Therefore I end this address to you, as St. John ended his long life, saying, 'Little children, love one another.'

EI.

THE USE OF CHILDREN.

And Jesus called a Utile child tmto Him^ and set him in the midst of 'them , and said, Vei'ily I say unto you. Except ye be converted, and beco7ne as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. — Matt, xviii. 2, 3.

The Festival of the Innocents, which is the festival of little children, brings us in the course of the services of the Church to this incident in the Gospel history. Jesus called a little child, and set him in the midst of them. That is what is attempted here every Innocents' Day. We wish once a year to call the little children of London together and place them in the midst of this great church in this great metropolis, and ask them, and ask their friends and parents, what it is that these little faces ought to teach us, as they taught the first disciples of Jesus Christ.

First, what do they teach us about God and our Saviour ? There was a very wise man, William

Paley, who lived a hundred years ago, who used to say that of all the proofs that the world gave him of the benevolence the good-will of God, our Creator, the chief was the pleasures of little children. And there is a great deal in this : when we see the innocent, radiant happiness of children, without care and without sorrow, we cannot help thinking that we then see something like what is meant by Paradise, something like what God intended mankind to be. They are like the flowers, like the gay plumage and the flight of birds, like the dancing of brooks and rivulets ; we cannot imagine why they should be as they are, except because God delights in such happiness, and would wish us to enjoy it. And so, too, in the Gospel history, where we hear how often our Saviour took notice of little children, how He set them up in the midst of His disciples, how He took them up in His arms and laid His hands on their little heads and blessed them, and by His outward gesture and deed declared His good-will towards them — this shows us how He enjoyed what we enjoy. It is the answer to the question which is sometimes asked— we hear that our Saviour wept, and we ask, But did He ever smile ? Yes, He did smile. He must have smiled as He fondled these little ones. No one can mix thus

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with children, and not have his brow relax, and his eyes brighten, and his lips move with gaiety and laughter, as he handles them, and looks at them, and learns from them. And then, in this enjoyment and appreciation of little children, our Saviour teaches us the enjoyment and appreciation of all innocent happiness. He bids us enjoy this season. He bids us be as a child with children. He bids us be as little children. He bids us feel that He loves us as a father pitieth his own children. Surely the sight of little children set in the midst of full-grown men is a rebuke to our passions, a solace to our sorrows, an example for our imitation. 'Except ye become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.' No doubt there are bad children, there are vain children, who are no comfort and no examples to anybody ; but a good child is in some respects more of a comfort, more of an example, than a good man. And why ? Because a little child knows nothing of our quarrels, of our doubts, of our disputes, of our ambitions, of our cares. It can come into a sick chamber, or a chamber of sorrow, when no one else can come in, because it awakes no painful feeling ; it is unconscious in its joy, it is gentle in its grief. It produces a holy calm which enables the sufferer to reflect and decide, and look upwards and inwards with the trustful confidence which the confidence of the child itself inspires. And do we not feel that in their presence, if anywhere, we are among those who see things as they really are ?

And how often has a little child of a rough, hard father or mother, set in the midst of an unhappy household, been by its innocent ways the saving of such a parent or such a household ! What protection there is in the smile of an innocent infant ! What a sermon there is in the eyes of an inquiring, honest, fearless little boy ; of a gentle, pure little girl ! How impressive and how true to nature is the story of the old miser, Silas Marner, whose suspicious, irritable mind was gradually transformed and transfigured by the treasure of a little child that he one day found unexpectedly placed in his miserable home ! That exactly expresses what our Saviour meant by setting a child in the midst of them. How striking the letter of Luther to his little boy John, or his letter on the death of his little daughter Magdalen ! These children seem to have been given to him that all the world might know what a kind, tender heart there was in that strong, strict, energetic man. Or in the history of England is there any crime in the bloody civil wars

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of York and Lancaster, or any of the cruelties of the kings and barons in those savage times, which has so touched the hearts of all Englishmen in later days as the murder of the two little princes in the Tower?

Thus lay the gentle babes girdling one another Within their alabaster innocent arms ;

A book of prayers upon their pillow lay.

We feel, as we read that story, a glow of righteous indignation against grasping ambition and selfish tyranny of every kind, past or present. Or in the history of the horrors of the French Revolution is there any deed of blood which has left so dark and deep a stain on the violent partyspirit and revolutionary fanaticism of those days as the inhuman treatment of that unfortunate child, the son of Louis XVI., who died at ten years old of the misery and insults inflicted upon him by the agents of the ruffians who then trampled on the liberties of France ? I have seen an ivory cross, said to have been worn by the queen his mother on her way to the scaffold. But the figure on the crucifix is not the dying Redeemer in his full-grown stature, but the infant Jesus stretched on the cross, with His gentle smile and innocent gestures.

Whether or not it was that she, in that last hour, was thinking of her own unhappy child, that little figure at least represents what has been the feeling of humanity in the whole course of history — that there is nothing which so touches the heart, or elevates the thought, or stirs the just anger of the better portion of mankind, as the wrongs or the sufferings of a little child. Such thoughts as these ought to strike home to the hearts of all who have anything to do with children, parents, friends of children, ay, and children themselves. This is the meaning of those words of our Lord, when on this same occasion He said, c Whoso shall offend one of these little ones, it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.' Think what it is to mislead, or to pervert, or to corrupt, or to give needless pain to any of these children, who were sent to us with the special view of keeping alive within us whatever there is of good or pure or just. An ancient heathen poet has said, ' There is nothing which demands greater reverence at our hands than the conscience of a little boy : ' —

Maxima debetur pueris reverentia To accustom them in their early years to sounds or

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sights of cruelty or vice, to teach them by precept or words those bad habits, those slang, vulgar words, which confuse their delicate sense of right or wrong, which deprave their taste for what is beautiful ; to encourage, by foolish laughter or by reckless indulgence, the tricks or the mistakes or the frivolities of those who soon learn to know what it is that amuses their elders, and who have a fatal facility of imitating what is bad as well as what is good ; these are so many ways of offending God's little ones, causing them to stumble, go astray, spoiling them (to use that homely but most expressive word) for any good word or work in after-life. And, on the other hand, how much can be done to develop, to unfold, to enlighten them from the very first ! They are to us the types and likenesses of the whole human race — of religion itself. Every generation is bound to contribute what it can to the formation of that perfect man which is to grow up into the fulness of the stature of Jesus Christ. And so every parent, every teacher, is bound to pour all the light and knowledge and grace that he can into the souls, the eager receptive souls, of those who will grow up to take our place when we are dead and gone. ' Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.' No, indeed, they are not to be despised, they have in them the future of the world. ' Their angels/ as the Saviour says, 'behold the face of My Father which is in heaven.' That is to say, their immortal destinies are treasured up in the eternal councils of Providence, as the means by which the world shall be regenerated. That little child which the Saviour held in His arms was, according to the tradition, to grow up to be the future martyr of the early church, Ignatius, the heroic Bishop of Antioch. The children of England at this moment — who knows what may be the lot of any one of them ? We remember the mournful regret of the poet in the country churchyard at the thought how there might there be mouldering —

Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre ;

how

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

But the same thing may occur to any thoughtful man, as he looks over an assembly of children, not with useless regret at what might have been and is not, but w T ith inspiring hope at what may be, and perhaps shall be. They are the rising generation ; they contain the poets, the scholars, the discoverers,

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the statesmen, the Christians of the future. Their guardian angels, their ideals (so to speak), are at this moment contemplating, in the face of the Eternal Father, the possible destinies of glory, of grace, or of goodness which they may accomplish, and which need only our helping hands to enable them to help themselves, and reach forward to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And in this, you, my dear children, can take your part. I have hitherto spoken more to your friends and your parents than to you, but you will have heard what I have been saying, and you will feel how great a blessing you can be to them and to all of us if you are good, sweet-tempered, and kind ; and how great a misery if you are naughty, cross, selfish. If you look at the face of your father or mother, your uncle or aunt, or your tutor, you will often seen a dark shade come over it, as if they had some very bad news ; and what do you think it is? It is because they have seen something in you that has distressed them, that has made them fear that you are not going on as you ought, that you have been unkind, or untruthful, or rough. Oh ! drive away that dark shade from their faces, for you only can do it ; you love them, and you would not make them unhappy. And have you not also seen their faces sometimes shine with joy, and their eyes sparkle ? and even if they are ill or suffering, have you not seen them cheered up, and seem, for the moment, almost well ? Why is it ? What has helped them ? Have they had a great treasure sent to them ? Has a good fairy given them some beautiful palace or kingdom ? No. I will tell you what it is. They have heard, they have seen, that their child is going on as they would wish ; that their little son or their little nephew shows himself more manly, more attentive to his lessons, more courageous, more kind to dumb creatures, more thoughtful for his brothers and sisters ; or that their little daughter or their little niece is growing up more modest, more willing to help her father and mother, more gentle, more compassionate ; less thinking of herself, and more of those about her. And can you not also help each other ? For it is not only parents that sometimes spoil their children, it is sometimes children who spoil one another. And it is not only parents and teachers who educate and teach their children, it is children who educate and teach one another. Even in the nursery you can keep quiet whilst your little brother and sister are saying their prayers. By giving or keeping back your playthings you can make one another happy or

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miserable. And as you grow older — you little boys especially, when you go to school — you can be like guardian angels to those who are weaker and younger than you. You can watch over them. You can encourage them in telling the truth, and in keeping from bad words. You can prevent others from teasing them ; and when you grow to be men, you will find, perhaps, that the good which you have done to them has never been forgotten ; and when some one presses your hand more warmly, or looks gratefully in your face, it will be because he remembers the kindness you did to him when you both sat side by side on the same bench, or played together in the same playground at school. And if any good thought has been put into your hearts to-day, do not let it pass away. Remember that each of you may grow up to be a light in the world, beloved by all good men there, as you are beloved by your brothers and sisters and playfellows. It is told of one recently buried in this Abbey — David Livingstone — that he began to improve himself quite as a young boy in Scotland, reading his books at any odd moment, amidst all the noise and clatter around him when he was at his work ; and he ended his life by having made himself so honoured and beloved by the Africans amongst whom he died, that they carried his dead body through every kind of difficulty and danger, till at last it was laid where you see his name and his fame inscribed for ever. And remember that Jesus Christ Himself, the great and good Saviour, began as a child like you. A good man, 1 whose monument was erected in this church by one 2 who loved his poetry dearly, and who is himself departed from us, was always thinking of little children and writing verses for them, and of the love which Jesus Christ had for them \ and with some of these verses I will end what I have to say.