"Hear Ye the Rod, and Who Hath Appointed It" / A Sermon for the Fast Day, October 7, 1857

Transcribed from the 1857 William Skeffington edition by David Price.
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A SERMON
FOR
The Fast Day,
OCTOBER 7, 1857,
BY THE REV. JAMES GALLOWAY COWAN, MINISTER OF ARCHBISHOP TENISON’S CHAPEL.
LONDON: WILLIAM SKEFFINGTON, 163, PICCADILLY. 1857.
Christian Marriage Indissoluble. A plain Sermon preached at Archbishop Tenison’s Chapel, on the fifth Sunday after Trinity. By James Galloway Cowan, Minister of the Chapel. 4d.
Micah, vi, 9. “ Hear ye the rod , and Who hath appointed it .”
We believe that there is a God: that this God is the Maker and Preserver of all things visible and invisible; that He does now and ever shall rule over all as He has done from the beginning; that He calls the stars by name and numbers the very hairs of our heads; so that nothing, great or small, happens in heaven or earth but by His will or permission. We believe that His rule is exercised, not simply in the maintenance of fixed laws, always working the same ends by the same means, but also, in active special interferences in particular cases. We believe God’s rule to be a strictly moral one, that is to say, that He ever recognises and rewards what is right, and condemns and punishes what is wrong. His times of interference, it is true, are not always such as we should fix on. He often allows righteousness to be long without its rewards, and wickedness without its punishment. In the case of the individual, reward may be deferred till he enters the future state which awaits him; and so may punishment; or, it may be immediately consequent upon the act which has earned it: while not unfrequently the moral law may seem even to be for a time inverted by the prosperity of the wicked or the adversity of the godly— God’s patience long bears with the wilful, while His love quickly chastens the weak but willing. In the case of nations, the same discipline seems to be observed; only, as they have but a temporal existence, they are always ultimately dealt with here according to their deserts. For a time, indeed, what God is pleased to account a righteous nation may for their shortcomings and offences be abased and troubled; but ere long it will be exalted: while a sinful people, though they wax strong and are counted the excellent, and mighty, and honourable of the earth, shall soon know terribly that sin is a reproach and an everlasting destruction.