Discipline and Other Sermons Part 14

It would seem at first sight that this would have been a gospel, and good news to men. But, alas! it has not been such. In all ages, in all religions, men have turned away from this simple righteousness of G.o.d, which is created in justice and truth, and have sought some righteousness of their own, founded upon anything and everything save common morality and honesty. Alas for the spiritual pride of man!

He is not content to be simply just and true! for any one and every one, he thinks, can be that. He must needs be something, which other people cannot be. He must needs be able to thank G.o.d that he is not as other men are, and say, 'This people, this wicked world, who knoweth not our law, is accursed.'

If G.o.d had bid men do some great thing to save their souls, would they not have done it? How much more when he says simply to them, as to Naaman, 'Wash, and be clean.' 'Wash you,' says the Lord by the prophet Isaiah, 'make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well, seek justice, relieve the oppressed,' and then, 'though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.' But no: any one can do that; and therefore it is beneath the spiritual pride of man. In our own days, there are too many who do not hesitate to look down on plain justice, and plain honesty, as natural virtues, which (so they say) men can have without the grace of G.o.d, and make a distinction between these natural virtues and the effects of G.o.d's Spirit; which is not only not to be found in Scripture, but is contradicted by Scripture from beginning to end.

Now there can be no doubt that such notions concerning religion do harm; that they demoralise thousands,--that is, make them less moral and good men. For there are thousands, especially in England, who are persons of good common-sense, uprightness, and truthfulness: but they have not lively fancies, or quick feelings. They have no inclination for a life of exclusive devoutness; and if they had, they have no time for it. They must do their business in the world where G.o.d has put them. And when they are told that G.o.d requires of them certain frames and feelings, and that the G.o.dlike life consists in them, then they are disheartened, and say, 'There is no use, then, in my trying to be religious, or moral either. If plain honesty, justice, sobriety, usefulness in my place will not please G.o.d, I cannot please him at all. Why then should I try, if my way of trying is of no use? Why should I try to be honest, sober, and useful, if that is not true religion?--if what G.o.d wants of me is not virtue, but a certain high-flown religiousness which I cannot feel or even understand?'--and so they grow weary in well-doing, and careless about the plain duties of morality. They become careless, likewise, about the plain duties of religion; and so they are demoralised, because they are told that justice and the holiness of truth are not the G.o.dlike and eternal life; because they are told that religion has little or nothing to do with their daily life and business, nothing to do with those just and truthful instincts of their hearts, which they feel to be the most sacred things about them; which are their best, if not their only guide in life. But more: they fall into the mistake that they can have a righteousness of their own; and into that Pelagianism, as it is called, which is growing more and more the creed of modern men of the world.

Too many religious people, on the other hand, are demoralised by the very same notion.

They too are taught that justice and truth are mere 'morality,' as it is called, and not the grace of G.o.d; that they are not the foundation of the Divine life, that they are not the essence of true religion.

Therefore they become more and more careless about mere morality,--so careless of justice, so careless of truth, as to bring often fearful scandals on religion.

Meanwhile men in general, especially Englishmen, have a very sound instinct on this whole matter. They have a sound instinct that if G.o.d be good, then goodness is the only true mark of G.o.dliness; and that goodness consists first and foremost in plain justice and plain honesty; and they ask, not what a man's religious profession is, not what his religious observances are: but--'What is the man himself?

Is he a just, upright, and fair-dealing man? Is he true? Can we depend on his word?' If not, his religion counts for nothing with them: as it ought to count.

Now I hold that St. Paul in this text declares that the plain English folk who talk thus, and who are too often called mere worldlings, and men of the world, are right; that justice and honesty are the Divine life itself, and the very likeness of Christ and of G.o.d.

Justice and truth all men can have, and therefore all men are required to have. About devotional feelings, about religious observances, however excellent and blessed, we may deceive ourselves; for we may put them in the place of sanctification, of righteousness and true holiness. About justice and honesty we cannot deceive ourselves; for they are sanctification itself, righteousness itself, true holiness itself, the very likeness of G.o.d, and the very grace of G.o.d.

But if so, they come from G.o.d; they are G.o.d's gift, and not any natural product of our own hearts: and for that very reason we can and must keep them alive in us by prayer. As long as we think that the sentiment of justice and truth is our own, so long shall we be in danger of forgetting it, paltering with it, playing false to it in temptation, and by some injustice or meanness grieving (as St. Paul warns us) the Holy Spirit of G.o.d, who has inspired us with that priceless treasure.

But if we believe that from G.o.d, the fount of justice, comes all our justice; that from G.o.d, the fount of truth, comes all our truthfulness, then we shall cry earnestly to him, day by day, as we go about this world's work, to be kept from all injustice, and from all falsehood. We shall entreat him to cleanse us from our secret faults, and to give us truth in the inward parts; to pour into our hearts that love to our neighbour which is justice itself, for it worketh no ill to its neighbour, and so fulfils the law. We shall dread all meanness and cruelty, as sins against the very Spirit of G.o.d; and our most earnest and solemn endeavour in life will be, to keep innocence, and take heed to the thing that is right; for that will bring us peace at the last.

Footnotes:

{243} Wordsworth's 'Ode on Tintern Abbey.'