Believing and doing : sermons

Front matter

Believing and Doing.

jr.

33g the same Author.

Contents

PAGE

I. Acquaintance with God n

II. Secret Faults 23

Introduction

These Sermons, like those of the preceding volume, — 11 Living for the Master," — are selected with reference to their adaptation for general use. They are short, simple, and practical, and they present no views but such as are held by believers generally, in the different branches of the Church of Christ. As such they will be found suitable for private reading, or convenient for public use in the absence of a pastor.

The writer takes pleasure in dedicating this volume to former parishioners and other friends.

L. H. R.

ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD.

We may have evidence of God's being and character, without comprehending His plans. The present state is a fragment of an immense scheme. That there is a moral sphere, in which man lives and moves and has his being, is as obvious as that there is a material sphere. Life has a meaning, and it may have a beauty and a destiny worthy of that divine tuition by v/hich it is in training for an immortal sphere. To recognize the existence and laws of the moral system, is the obligation by which reason is bound.

Ezra H. Gillett.

I. Acquaintance With God

Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace : thereby good shall come unto thee. — Job xxii. 21.

*nr*HAT was good advice. Job was in trouble ; it

-1- was not because he did not know God, — he knew Him better than his friends knew Him ; but they thought his trouble came from not knowing God, and so they gave him this counsel. Sometimes men give advice that they do not follow themselves. We dislike to take medicine ; but if we see one that needs it, we are not backward in suggesting remedies.

Good for Eliphaz ! The advice was sound, — "Acquaint thyself with God." Nothing could be better. But friends do not always counsel alike. One will say, "I would do so and so, — see such a person, or use such a remedy." Another will say, " You had better do this or that." But a little while before, Zophar, another friend, had spoken of the knowledge of God as impossible, — "high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell ; what canst thou know ? " But if God could not be known absolutely, He might be in part ; so that there was no real contradiction here. We shall never know God perfectly, for then we should need to be equally as great as He ; but we may follow on to know Him, and be growing more and more into

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resemblance to and acquaintance with Him. There are degrees of knowledge and fellowship among men. " Are you acquainted with Mr. So-and-so? " " Somewhat," you say, or " I know him well." What knowledge have you of God ? Alas that it is so small ! Perhaps you are not on speaking terms with God. Do you speak His name, — not in profanity, but reverence ? Do you go to Him and talk with Him, and tell Him how you feel and what you want ? Are you on speaking terms with God ? Or is He like some stranger whom you know well enough on the street : you know his name, and where he lives, and something about his character and business ; but you never walked with him, never talked with him, said "Good morning," took his hand, or counted him your friend.

The Temanite's advice was good for Job ; and it is good for all : " Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace : thereby good shall come unto thee."

There are many ways of becoming acquainted with God. If I wished to get acquainted with some person whose friendship I valued, I might ask another to introduce me, or I might come in contact with him in business, or some casual circumstance might throw us together. Our first knowledge of God comes to us through the outer world. Every sense is a medium of introduction. So we study human character. I know a man by his works. A piece of mechanism, fine or bungling, tells me what the man is. A fine piece of statuary or a life-breathing painting shows the artist's skill. I judge of character by the handwriting. A letter may be all I wish to see or know of a man. A little Christmas gift wrought by loving ringers may

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reveal the thought and quality of a friendly heart. So God speaks to us through His works. Under the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral the distinguished architect, Sir Christopher Wren, is buried, who designed that famous structure as well as other remarkable buildings. On the monument over his tomb is a Latin inscription closing with the words : Lector, si monumentum qitceris, circumspice, — " Reader, dost thou seek his monument ? Look around." In God's great temple we stand, and see the evidences of His handiwork in all the things around. From Nature we cannot help rising up to Nature's God. The commonest shrub by the wayside speaks of God ; the tiniest flower reveals a world of beauty; the physical frame evidences wonderful power and wisdom ; the microscope sends us down into a realm of organized existence. " The heavens declare the glory of God ; and the firmament showeth His handiwork." The eye sees, the ear hears, the hand touches nothing that does not speak of God.

We also become acquainted with God through the soul of man. Man was made in the image of God. Nothing else bears this likeness : you see the Father in the child. The temple of Nature is to be destroyed by fire ; the material heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll : but that which constitutes ourselves shall survive " the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds." The soul is immortal ; its own consciousness, its nature and longings, proclaim this. Reason and experience demand this. Heathen philosophy certifies, and the Being who made and endowed the soul affirms, that it is to live forever. The human intellect with its

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grand powers speaks of God. The inward monitor, conscience, is deity speaking within us. To converse with ourselves is in some sense to converse with God. We cannot know ourselves, know our hearts, know our powers, without knowing God.

God is known also through His providences. Not a sparrow falls without our Father, and the hairs of our head are all numbered. I believe in special providences ; it is in these that we can very manifestly hear our Father's voice and feel the pressure of His hand. History abounds with remarkable instances of an overruling Power. The destiny of nations has been determined by the slightest causes. It is common to speak of Rome as saved by the cackling of geese. The Scotch thistle is said to have become the national emblem because a thistle once pierced a soldier's foot and gave timely warning of the approaching foe. The Covenanters were confident of God's presence with them in the snow-barriers that He raised and the cloud-mists that He sent in immediate answer to prayer. Poetry confesses to a special providence when it says : " There is a divinity that shapes our ends." We do not understand how this control is exercised, or this shaping done ; and yet we cannot doubt the fact. I knew of a lady who made all her arrangements to sail in the ill-fated " Ville du Havre," but at the last moment changed her plan and was saved. On the contrary, the daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Goertner intended to leave in another vessel, but at the last moment, for the sake of being with friends, changed her arrangements, took the vessel named, and with her two children perished.

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1 5

We cannot explain these things now ; but it is not Chance or Fate. There are those who say that God has nothing to do with the affairs of men ; then it is a sorry world in which we live. We may wish to push God away, and not know Him ; but He seems to compel us to know Him by coming near and passing before us in marked events. It is one thing to deny providences, and another to explain providences. Men who attempt to explain providences may be wrong, but it does not follow that there are no providences, or that God has nothing to do with events that we call such.

Again, God may be known through His word. This is the second volume of His communication with man, — Nature first, and Revelation next. What Nature does not teach, the Bible does. If a letter tells us what a friend is, the Bible tells us what God is. The command to acquaint ourselves with God, is a command to read the Bible. I believe those know most of God who read their Bibles most. This is the grand text-book ; there are others, but this is better than any that I have yet mentioned. The Psalmist writes : " Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name." There is a glory in the heavens and in the earth, but a greater glory emanates from this blessed Book. Here is where you shall see God and know Him and hear His voice ; in these lines He speaks to you. I like to see the worn Bible, the tear-stained page ; the little Testament that a mother's prayers have hallowed, the Bible that the young man treasures and reads and makes the man of his counsel and the guide of his life, and that shows by its handling that it is much used. Do not neglect i6

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your Bible ; search the Scriptures daily ; read this Book often and much, if you wish to know God. The Sabbath-school might properly be styled the Bibleschool. It is by the study of the Bible that we are trying to make our scholars, young or old, acquainted with their Maker, — God.

Another method of becoming acquainted with God is through His Son Jesus Christ. This perhaps is the best method, or is the method. We sing of God as

" Known through the earth by thousands signs, By thousand through the skies ; "

but the Gospel scheme is a grand mirror which exhibits the perfect God : —

" Here the whole Deity is known ; Nor dares a creature guess Which of the glories brightest shone, The justice or the grace."

It is God whom we see in the face of Jesus Christ, who is declared to be " the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person." He is as if an exact image or photograph of the Father. He is more than this. There is such a oneness that seeing and knowing Him is seeing and" knowing God. He says, " No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also : and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. . . . He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." " I and My Father are one." If God then seem distant from us ; if we feel an awe that keeps us from approaching Him ; if we dare not venture on a

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familiarity such as we enjoy with some loved friend, — then we may come into intimacy with God in the humanity of His Son. It was partly for this reason that God veiled Himself in humanity, that He might press us closer to His paternal bosom. The Swedenborgian knows no God but Christ. The God-man supplies his idea of deity. Acquaint thyself with Him ; become the intimate and friend of the Lord Jesus Christ ; study His life ; be baptized into His Spirit ; walk in His footsteps. Come and live in His family ; enroll yourself among His visible followers. The best way to know a man is to live in his home and sit at his board. Jesus invites you to the intimacies of His table ; He is willing to be your friend, and He desires to know you. Will you keep yourself outside the circle of His loved ones, and be of those who know Him not, and to whom at last He shall say, " I never knew you"? In the prayer to the Father just before the betrayal, Jesus said: " And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Do not turn away, then, from this historic Jesus, for it is by and through Him that we know and come to God.

Still another method of knowing God is by His Spirit. " The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." " The Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us." You need the Divine Spirit as a teacher and help. The Holy Comforter is sent to teach you all things and to make you know God. You are dependent, but you must be willing to learn. Ask the Spirit to be your helper and guide. Think of a child sitting down to a new study, i8

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opening a difficult book, and not being willing to have teacher or help ! You will make no headway, you will never know God, if you do not seek the Spirit's help.

We must not forget that there are special reasons or inducements for knowing God ; these are brought to view in the second part of the text. " Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee." See, peace is spoken of. Reconciliation with God brings peace. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." You have no peace till you know God. Your weary, aching heart cannot rest till it rests in God. You may be soothed temporarily, but the sure condition of peace comes only in a loving knowledge of God. Secular learning does not give peace ; philosophy has no antidote for the world's ills ; friendship cannot dispel troubles ; pleasure and riches and fame give no true rest. The soul yearns for its Maker, and it finds its cravings met only when they are met in God. Says a popular writer : " Faith draws the poison from every grief, takes the sting from every loss, and quenches the fire of every pain ; and only faith can do it. Wisdom, science, power, learning, — all these are as blind and impotent before the great problem of life as ignorance and weakness. The feeblest girl, believing in God and a hereafter, is an archangel by the side of the strongest man who questions her simple faith, and mounts on wings where he stumbles in doubt and distress or sinks in darkness."

This is the peace that faith furnishes ; this is the peace that comes from the knowledge of God. " Ac-

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I 9 quaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace : thereby good shall come unto thee."

What that good is, Eliphaz explains thus : " If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver. For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God. Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows. Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee : and the light shall shine upon thy ways." That is equivalent to saying : " Make God your friend, and you shall not want any good. You shall attain the highest prosperity. Your mind will be enlarged with noble purposes, and your soul be filled with all the fulness of God. Selfishness bedwarfs ; worldiness fetters : knowledge of God shall make you a true man. Your moral nature will be purified and quickened. You shall be at peace with God, with the world, and with yourself. You shall have a quiet conscience ; you shall have divine supports in trouble ; you shall have blessed hopes ; you shall triumph in death ; you shall have part in the resurrection of the just. You shall stand with conquerors ; you shall sing with the redeemed ! " Oh, what a mockery is language when it attempts to describe the blessedness of the man who knows God ! Here, then, I stand commissioned to urge and bring you to God, — asked to make you know Him, to introduce you to Him, to impress you with the

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desirableness of having Him for your friend. " Tell them," I hear the Great Being saying, " of Me and My home. Show them that I am not hard or exacting, revengeful or stern. Emphasize the loving elements of My character, and make them know that I will take them to My bosom, if they will repent and return. Tell them that there is bread enough and to spare, and that My love reaches to every penitent heart, and is greater than human sinfulness and need." Oh that some of you might be persuaded even now to know and love this sin-pardoning God ! My dear friend, troubled perhaps in your soul, dissatisfied with your present condition, asking, " What must I do ? " — "Acquaint now thyself with God, and be at peace." Observe, — " now ! " " acquaint now ! " Perhaps you are a father, with children waiting to have you know God, that they may know Him too : come, bring your little ones ; give them to God, and become yourself a child with them in the Christian household. Perhaps you are a young person needing a helping hand and superior wisdom : come, grasp this Hand that is offered you, and accept Almighty love and aid. Here is a duty that confronts you ; here is a good to be secured. Delay no longer, but in humility and contrition say : " Lord, I give myself to Thee ; own me as Thine." Waiting will not make you better, or give you strength. It is due your Maker and Redeemer, due yourself, due your children if you are a parent, due your friends and companions, whatever may be your age, that you should now become an open and recognized disciple of the Lord Jesus.

SECRET FAULTS.

It is not easy for a man to know himself. Death, says Seneca, falls heavy upon him who is too much known to others, and too little to himself; and Pontanus, a man celebrated among the early restorers of literature, thought the study of our own hearts of so much importance that he recommended it from his tomb.

Samuel Johnson.

II. Secret Faults

Cleanse Thou me froin secret faults. — Psalm xix. 12. LL men are sinners. " If we say that we have

Jl\ no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Good men sin. It is David who offers the prayer of the text, — "Cleanse Thou me."

There are sins of omission and of commission ; sins of thought, of word, and of deed. We may sin against God and against man ; against our neighbor, our family, and ourselves. The law of God is so comprehensive, our hearts are so deceitful, and the occasions are so numerous that lead us into sin, that even those who make the most effort to lead a holy life may suitably ask, " Who can understand his errors ? "

It is to a particular class of faults that I wish to call your attention, — " secret faults." By " secret " faults is not meant faults which we keep concealed from others, secret as our private affairs are secret, but secret in the sense that they are hidden or concealed from ourselves. Then there are sins of error, inadvertence, or infirmity, into which we readily fall. That we do commit sins that are unknown to ourselves, is true. We probably commit sins every day of which we take no note, and with no consciousness of wrong-doing; yet

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they are sins. It was from these hidden errors that the psalmist desired to be cleansed. Sins of ignorance are frequently mentioned in the Scriptures. And what is a sin of ignorance but a sin of which the person committing it was not conscious at the time ? Still it is a sin, for the one who committed it might and ought to have known better. His conscience should have been better enlightened, or he should have waited longer before acting. Under the Levitical law provision was made for those who sinned inadvertently or unwittingly, a simple sacrifice sufficing in this case ; while the same offence, if committed knowingly and presumptuously, subjected the offender to excommunication and death. The language is used, " If a soul shall sin through ignorance," — indicating that it is still sin, though committed in ignorance. The Saviour makes a distinction between the disobedient servant that knew his lord's will, and the one that did not know it. The latter received " few " stripes. Yet he received stripes, — he was punished. His neglect or omission was wrong, though originating in ignorance. The fact of his ignorance could not exculpate him. He "knew not," yet he sinned. Christ offered the mitigating plea, " For they know not what they do." Paul speaks of what he did ignorantly in unbelief. He persecuted the Church of God, and not only thought that he was doing right, but was doing God service. His wrong act he regarded not only as right, but as commendable ; but afterwards he saw it to be sinful, and so spoke of it. " When the commandment came, sin revived." Now, I say that there may be states of mind or acts which we commit which we

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think to be right, or give but little attention to, that are sinful. We may sin inadvertently ; we may transgress when we do not know it ; we may have " secret faults " from which we should earnestly pray to be cleansed. Let me now classify and enumerate.

1. The sins of a false education. — The heathen mother used to lead her little child, as soon as it could walk, into the presence of a dumb idol ; and pressing the child's hands together in a reverent attitude, and pushing its head forward, compelled it to do obeisance to that senseless idol. The child could hardly walk alone before it was thus instructed ; and if it were at all refractory, it received cuffs and blows, till it learned to act the part of a devout worshipper. Or that mother, under the false instruction she had received, tore the babe from her bosom and threw it into the sacred river. There was no feeling of regret at her act ; very likely there was a feeling of satisfaction. And when her husband died, she went forth, in accordance with what she had been taught and believed to be duty, and laid herself on the funeral-pile. All these acts she believed to be right; she believed idolatry to be right, for she was so taught in her childhood. She imparted the same instruction to her children, and made idolaters of them; or she cast them into the Ganges, or submitted to a voluntary death herself, under the same terrible and false impressions. In all these acts she sinned, yet she did not know it. Now, may not a false education lead us into sin ? May not conscience be so overladen or perverted that it shall not become a safe guide, and deeds be committed that we may call right that are nevertheless wrong ? The

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Spartans taught their children that it was right to steal, and a greater offence to be caught in the act than to commit the crime. People differ at the present day with regard to many social habits and customs. What some consider right, others consider wrong. But if theatres, cards, dancing, and wine are not right, or are abused, those persons who consider them right err, and their error belongs to the class of secret faults. Whereas if a thing is right, and one does it, questioning whether it is right, he sins, for "He that doubteth is condemned."

It is quite possible that we may say and do things which God looks upon as wrong, but which we judge to be right simply because parents, teachers, or others

— those whose influence we have felt and are feeling

— have taught us so. That we have been educated to believe that a certain thing is right, does not make it so. We must be sure that the instruction is right, or that the principles are right, before we can assume that the acts under them are right.

2. Sins of prejudice. — Men assume that they are right, and condemn others, thinking the bitterness of their feelings justifiable, because it is a supposed wrong that they are condemning. But perhaps the wrong is with themselves. Or, even admitting that another is at fault, they may be more at fault in indulging a vindictive spirit towards him. We may pursue evil and attempt to remove it in a bad spirit, and think that because the end is good the act is right. Bigots and persecutors have always been willing to justify themselves on the plea that it was a good end that they were seeking. They assume that truth and

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right are with them, and then go forth to kill and destroy. Paul's sin of ignorance was a sin of prejudice. He was honest in thinking the Jewish religion right, and the Christian wrong ; and hence concluded that he was justified in opposing the new faith.

The sin of the Jews was a sin of prejudice. They assumed that they were right, and were ready to invoke a curse on their own heads if they were not. They sinned ignorantly, but their ignorance resolved itself into bigotry and hate.

How many appalling spectacles does the history of the past reveal ! How many martyrs and confessors have laid down their lives for the truth ! But those who persecuted them did this under the impression or plea that they were subserving a good cause, that the best interests of the Church and of the State required this. Some, no doubt, deluded and prejudiced, were honest in their convictions. Persons often condemn in others that which they are guilty of themselves. " Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." Criticism and denunciation are uttered, when he who speaks may be most at fault. The lines of Burns are apposite : —

" Oh wad some power the giftie gie us, To see oursels as others see us !

"To see ourselves as others see us," is to see ourselves as we are ; in other words, it is to see our faults, our errors, foibles, failings, which are now secret, because hidden from our own view.

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3. Sins of custom. — "Everybody does it," is a plea that quiets many a conscience and justifies many an act. It is with many not so much, "What is right or wrong ? " but " What do others think and do ? " If public sentiment justifies certain practices, we are likely to fall into them without many scruples or much delay. We assume that a thing is right because it is so common ; we extenuate an act by saying, " Why, it is done everywhere, and by all." There are many things that are practised in matters of trade that, to one uninitiated, seem questionable, but when it is found that all do so, or that many do so, are assumed to be right. In many speculating operations, whether of stocks or produce, in rates of interest received or given, and indeed in all commercial transactions, there are methods and practices that are recognized as legitimate, and that with certain modifications may be legitimate, and yet that are in many cases positively wrong. The subject of usury is full of perplexity. Money has a different value at different times, and to one in straightened circumstances may be worth twice as much as when he is less in need. How is it possible, then, to fix a positive value to it by law, and why are the rates of interest so different in different States ? It is manifest that custom rather than conscience sometimes becomes the standard of law. We see the same thing in social life. People are expected to pass compliments, to indulge in flattery, and to do many insincere things, "for everybody does so." You would be singular, strange, if you did not, in speech, dress, and behavior, do as others do. Even falsehood comes to be regarded as truth, and a lie is justified on the plea that it is well understood. "Not at home" means "not to be seen ; " and " I am glad to see you," must be taken in a general way.