Westminster Sermons Part 2

What--save self-sacrifice? For what is the love worth which does not shew itself in action; and more, which does not shew itself in Pa.s.sion, in the true sense of that word, which this week teaches us: namely, in suffering? Not merely in acting for, but in daring, in struggling, in grieving, in agonizing, and, if need be, in dying for, the object of its love?

Every mother in this church will give but one answer to that question; for mothers give it among the very animals; and the deer who fights for her fawn, the bird who toils for her nestlings, the spider who will rather die than drop her bag of eggs, know at least that love is not worth calling love, unless it can dare and suffer for the thing it loves.

The most gracious of all virtues, therefore, is self-sacrifice; and is there no like grace in G.o.d, the fount of grace? Has G.o.d, whose name is Love, never dared, never suffered, even to the death, in the mightiness of a perfect Love?

We Christians say that He has. We say so, because it has been revealed to us, not by flesh and blood, not by brain or nerves, not by logic or emotions, but by the Spirit of G.o.d, to whom our inmost spirits and highest reasons have made answer--A G.o.d who has suffered for man? That is so beautiful, that it must be true.

For otherwise we should be left--as I have argued at length elsewhere--in this strange paradox:--that man has fancied to himself for 1800 years a more beautiful G.o.d, a n.o.bler G.o.d, a better G.o.d than the G.o.d who actually exists. It must be so, if G.o.d is not capable of that highest virtue of self-sacrifice, while man has been believing that He is, and that upon the first Good Friday He sacrificed Himself for man, out of the intensity of a boundless Love. A better G.o.d imagined by man, than the actual G.o.d who made man? We have only to state that absurdity, I trust, to laugh it to scorn.

Let us confess, then, that the Pa.s.sion of Christ, and the mystery of Good Friday, is as reasonable a belief to the truly wise, as it is comfortable to the weary and the suffering; let us agree that one of the wisest of Englishmen, of late gone to his rest, spoke well when he said, "As long as women and sorrow exist on earth, so long will the gospel of Christianity find an echo in the human heart." Let it find an echo in yours. But it will only find one, in as far as you can enter into the mystery of Pa.s.sion-week; in as far as you can learn from Pa.s.sion-week the truest and highest theology; and see what G.o.d is like, and therefore what you must try to be like likewise.

Let us think, then, awhile of the mystery of Pa.s.sion-week; the mystery of the Cross of Christ. Christ Himself was looking on the coming Cross, during this Pa.s.sion-week; ay, and for many a week before. Nay rather, had He not looked on it from all eternity? For is He not the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world? Therefore we may well look on it with Him. It may seem, at first, a painful bight. But shall it cast over our minds only gloom and darkness? Or shall we not see on the Cross the full revelation of Light; of the Light which lightens every man that comes into the world: and find that painful, not because of its darkness, but as the blaze of full suns.h.i.+ne is painful, from unbearable intensity of warmth and light? Let us see.

On the Cross of Calvary, then, G.o.d the Father shewed His own character and the character of His co-equal and co-eternal Son, and of The Spirit which proceeds from both. For there He spared not His only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him for us. On the Cross of Calvary, not by the will of man, but by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of G.o.d, was offered before G.o.d the one and only full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sin of the whole world. G.o.d Himself did this. It was not done by any other being to alter His will; it was done to fulfil His will. It was not done to satisfy G.o.d's anger; it was done to satisfy G.o.d's love. Therefore Good Friday was well and wisely called by our forefathers Good Friday; because it shews, as no other day can do, that G.o.d is good; that G.o.d's will to men, in spite of all their sins, is a good will; that so boundless, so utterly unselfish and condescending, is the eternal love of G.o.d, that when an insignificant race in a small and remote planet fell, and went wrong, and was in danger of ruin, there was nothing that G.o.d would not dare, G.o.d would not suffer, for the sake of even such as us, vile earth and miserable sinners.

Yes, this is the good news of Pa.s.sion-week; a gospel which men are too apt to forget, even to try to forget, as long as they are comfortable and prosperous, lazy and selfish. The comfortable prosperous man shrinks from the thought of Christ on His Cross. It tells him that better men than he have had to suffer; that The Son of G.o.d Himself had to suffer.

And he does not like suffering; he prefers comfort. The lazy, selfish man shrinks from the sight of Christ on His Cross; for it rebukes his laziness and selfishness. Christ's Cross says to him--Thou art ign.o.ble and base, as long as thou art lazy and selfish. Rise up, do something, dare something, suffer something, if need be, for the sake of thy fellow- creatures. Be of use. Take trouble. Face discomfort, contradiction, loss of worldly advantage, if it must be, for the sake of speaking truth and doing right. If thou wilt not do as much as that, then the simplest soldier who goes to die in battle for his duty, is a better man than thou, a n.o.bler man than thou, more like Christ and more like G.o.d. That is what Christ's Cross preaches to the lazy, selfish man; and he feels in his heart that the sermon is true: but he does not like it. He turns from it, and says in his heart--Oh! Christ's Cross is a painful subject, and Pa.s.sion-week and Good Friday a painful time. I will think of something more genial, more peaceful, more agreeable than sorrow, and shame, and agony, and death; Good Friday is too sad a day for me.

Yes, so a man says too often, as long as the fine weather lasts, and all is smooth and bright. But when the tempest comes; when poverty comes, affliction, anxiety, shame, sickness, bereavement, and still more, when persecution comes on a man; when he tries to speak truth and do right; and finds, as he will too often find, that people, instead of loving him and praising him for speaking truth and doing right, hate him and persecute him for it: then, then indeed Pa.s.sion-week begins to mean something to a man; and just because it is the saddest of all times, it looks to him the brightest of all times. For in his misery and confusion he looks up to heaven and asks--Is there any one in heaven who understands all this? Does G.o.d understand my trouble? Does G.o.d feel for my trouble? Does G.o.d care for my trouble? Does G.o.d know what trouble means? Or must I fight the battle of life alone, without sympathy or help from G.o.d who made me, and has put me here? Then, then does the Cross of Christ bring a message to that man such as no other thing or being on earth can bring. For it says to him--G.o.d does understand thee utterly. For Christ understands thee. Christ feels for thee. Christ feels with thee. Christ has suffered for thee, and suffered with thee.

Thou canst go through nothing which Christ has not gone through. He, the Son of G.o.d, endured poverty, fear, shame, agony, death for thee, that He might be touched with the feeling of thine infirmity, and help thee to endure, and bring thee safe through all to victory and peace.

But again, Pa.s.sion-week, and above all Good Friday, is a good time, because it teaches us, above all days, what it is to be good, and what goodness means. Therefore remember this, all of you, and take it home with you for the year to come. He who has learnt the lesson of Pa.s.sion- week, and practises it; he and he only is a good man.

Nay more, Pa.s.sion-week tells us, I believe, what is the law according to which the whole world of man and of things, yea, the whole universe, sun, moon, and stars, is made: and that is, the law of self-sacrifice; that nothing lives merely for itself; that each thing is ordained by G.o.d to help the things around it, even at its own expense. That is a hard saying: and yet it must be true. The soundest Theology and the highest Reason tell us that it must be so. For there cannot be two Holy Spirits.

Now the Spirit by which the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed himself upon the Cross is The Holy Spirit. And the Spirit by which the Lord Jesus Christ made all worlds is The Holy Spirit. But the spirit by which He sacrificed Himself on the Cross is the spirit of self-sacrifice. And therefore the spirit by which He made the world is the spirit of self- sacrifice likewise; and self-sacrifice is the law and rule on which the universe is founded. At least, that is the true Catholic faith, as far as my poor intellect can conceive it; and in that faith I will live and die.

There are those who, now-a-days, will laugh at such a notion, and say--Self-sacrifice? It is not self-sacrifice which keeps the world going among men, or animals, or even the plants under our feet: but selfishness. Compet.i.tion, they say, is the law of the universe.

Everything has to take care of itself, fight for itself, compete freely and pitilessly with everything round it, till the weak are killed off, and only the strong survive; and so, out of the free play of the self- interest of each, you get the greatest possible happiness of the greatest possible number.

Do we indeed? I should have thought that unbridled selfishness, and the internecine struggle of opposing interests, had already reduced many nations, and seemed likely to reduce all mankind, if it went on, to that state of the greatest possible misery of the greatest number, from which our blessed Lord, as in this very week, died to deliver us. At all events, if that is to be the condition of man, and of society, then man is not made in the likeness of G.o.d, and has no need to be led by the Spirit of G.o.d. For what the likeness of G.o.d and the Spirit of G.o.d are, Pa.s.sion-week tells us--namely, Love which knows no self-interest; Love which cares not for itself; Love which throws its own life away, that it may save those who have hated it, rebelled against it, put it to a felon's death.

My good friends, instead of believing the carnal and selfish philosophy which cries, Every man for himself--I will not finish the proverb in this Holy place, awfully and literally true as the latter half of it is--instead of believing that, believe the message of Pa.s.sion-week, which speaks rather thus: telling us that not selfishness, but unselfishness, mutual help and usefulness, is the law and will of G.o.d; and that therefore the whole universe, and all that G.o.d has made, is very good.

And what does Pa.s.sion-week say to men?

"Could we but crush that ever-craving l.u.s.t For bliss, which kills all bliss; and lose our life, Our barren unit life, to find again A thousand lives in those for whom we die: So were we men and women, and should hold Our rightful place in G.o.d's great universe, Wherein, in heaven and earth, by will or nature, Nought lives for self. All, all, from crown to footstool.

The Lamb, before the world's foundation slain; The angels, ministers to G.o.d's elect; The sun, who only s.h.i.+nes to light a world; The clouds, whose glory is to die in showers; The fleeting streams, who in their ocean graves Flee the decay of stagnant self-content; The oak, enn.o.bled by the s.h.i.+pwright's axe; The soil, which yields its marrow to the flower; The flower which breeds a thousand velvet worms, Born only to be prey to every bird-- All spend themselves on others; and shall man, Whose twofold being is the mystic knot Which couples earth and heaven--doubly bound, As being both worm and angel, to that service By which both worms and angels hold their lives-- Shall he, whose very breath is debt on debt, Refuse, forsooth, to see what G.o.d has made him?

No, let him shew himself the creatures' lord By freewill gift of that self-sacrifice Which they, perforce, by nature's law must suffer; Take up his cross, and follow Christ the Lord."

And thus Pa.s.sion-week tells all men in what true goodness lies. In self- sacrifice. In it Christ on His Cross shewed men what was the likeness of G.o.d, the goodness of G.o.d, the glory of G.o.d--to suffer for sinful man.

On this day Christ said--ay, and His Cross says still, and will say to all eternity--Wouldest thou be good? Wouldest thou be like G.o.d? Then work, and dare, and, if need be, suffer, for thy fellow-men. On this day Christ consecrated, and, as it were, offered up to the Father in His own body on the Cross, all loving actions, unselfish actions, merciful actions, generous actions, heroic actions, which man has done, or ever will do. From Him, from His Spirit, their strength came; and therefore He is not ashamed to call them brethren. He is the King of the n.o.ble army of martyrs; of all who suffer for love, and truth, and justice'

sake; and to all such he says--Thou hast put on my likeness, and followed my footsteps; thou hast suffered for my sake, and I too have suffered for thy sake, and enabled thee to suffer in like wise; and in Me thou too art a son of G.o.d, in whom the Father is well pleased.

Oh, let us contemplate this week Christ on His Cross, sacrificing Himself for us and all mankind; and may that sight help to cast out of us all laziness and selfishness, and make us vow obedience to the spirit of self- sacrifice, the Spirit of Christ and of G.o.d, which was given to us at our baptism. And let us give, as we are most bound, in all humility and contrition of heart, thanks, praise, and adoration, to that immortal Lamb, who abideth for ever in the midst of the throne of G.o.d, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, by Whom all things consist; and Who in this week died on the Cross in mortal flesh and blood, that He might make this a good week to all mankind, and teach selfish man that only by being unselfish can he too be good; and only by self-sacrifice become perfect, even as The Father in heaven is perfect.

SERMON III. THE SPIRIT OF WHITSUNTIDE.

ISAIAH XI. 2.

The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

This is Isaiah's description of the Spirit of Whitsuntide; the royal Spirit which was to descend, and did descend without measure, on the ideal and perfect King, even on Jesus Christ our Lord, the only-begotten Son of G.o.d.

That Spirit is the Spirit of G.o.d; and therefore the Spirit of Christ.

Let us consider a while what that Spirit is.

He is the Spirit of love. For G.o.d is love; and He is the Spirit of G.o.d.

Of that there can be no doubt.

He is the Spirit of boundless love and charity, which is the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the Son likewise. For when by that Spirit of love the Father sent the Son into the world that the world through Him might be saved, then the Son, by the same Spirit of love, came into the world, and humbled Himself, and took on Him the form of a slave, and was obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.

The Spirit of G.o.d, then, is the Spirit of love.

But the text describes this Spirit in different words. According to Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord is the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of Counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord--in one word, that I may put it as simply as I can--the spirit of wisdom.

Now, is the spirit of wisdom the same as the spirit of love?

Sound theology, which is the highest reason, tells us that it must be so.

For consider:

If the spirit of love is the Spirit of G.o.d, and the spirit of wisdom is the Spirit of G.o.d, then they must be the same spirit. For if they be two different spirits, then there must be two Holy Spirits; for any and every Spirit of G.o.d must be holy,--what else can He be? Unholy? I leave you to answer that.

But two Holy Spirits there cannot be; for holiness, which is wisdom, justice, and love, is one and indivisible; and as the Athanasian Creed tells us, and as our highest reason ought to tell us, there is but one Holy Spirit, who must be at once a spirit of wisdom and a spirit of love.

To suppose anything else; to suppose that G.o.d's wisdom and G.o.d's love, or that G.o.d's justice and G.o.d's love, are different from each other, or limit each other, or oppose each other, or are anything but one and the same eternally, is to divide G.o.d's substance; to deny that G.o.d is One: which is forbidden us, rightly, and according to the highest reason, by the Athanasian Creed.

But more; experience will shew us that the spirit of love is the same as the spirit of wisdom; that if any man wishes to be truly wise and prudent, his best way--I may say his only way--is to be loving and charitable.

The experience of the apostles proves it. They were, I presume, the most perfectly loving and charitable of men; they sacrificed all for the sake of doing good; they counted not their own lives dear to them; they endured--what did they not endure?--for the one object of doing good to men; and--what is harder, still harder, for any human being, because it requires not merely enthusiasm, but charity, they made themselves (St Paul at least) all things to all men, if by any means they might save some.

But were they wise in so doing? We may judge of a man's wisdom, my friends, by his success. We English are very apt to do so. We like practical men. We say--I will tell you what a man is, by what he can do.

Now, judged by that rule, surely the apostles' method of winning men by love proved itself a wise method. What did the apostles do? They had the most enormous practical success that men ever had. They, twelve poor men, set out to convert mankind by loving them: and they succeeded.

Remember, moreover, that the text speaks of this Spirit of the Lord being given to One who was to be a King, a Ruler, a Guide, and a Judge of men; who was to exercise influence over men for their good. This prophecy was fulfilled first in the King of kings, our Lord Jesus Christ: but it was fulfilled also in His apostles, who were, in their own way and measure, kings of men, exercising a vast influence over them. And how? By the royal Spirit of love. In the apostles the Spirit of love and charity proved Himself to be also the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. He gave them such a converting, subduing, alluring power over men's hearts, as no men have had, before or since. And He will prove Himself to have the same power in us. Our own experience will be the same as the apostles' experience.

I say this deliberately. The older we grow, the more we understand our own lives and histories, the more we shall see that the spirit of wisdom is the spirit of love; that the true way to gain influence over our fellow-men, is to have charity towards them.

That is a hard lesson to learn; and those who learn it at all, generally learn it late; almost--G.o.d forgive us--too late.

Our reason, if we would let the Spirit of G.o.d enlighten it, would teach us this beforehand. But we do not usually listen to our reason, or to G.o.d's Spirit speaking to it. And therefore we have to learn the lesson by experience, often by very sad and shameful experience. And even that very experience we cannot understand, unless the Spirit of G.o.d interpret it to us: and blessed are they who, having been chastised, hearken to His interpretation.

Our reason, I say, should teach us that the spirit of wisdom is none other than the spirit of love. For consider--how does the text describe this Spirit?

As the spirit of wisdom and understanding; that is, as the knowledge of human nature, the understanding of men and their ways. If we do not understand our fellow-creatures, we shall never love them.