Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now,
or will be crossing soon. Only let us take care, if we are to have the reward, hereafter, of having served in this great army, that we are working, fighting, dying, and suffering bereavement, in the cause of this great Commander and in accordance with His will.
But if these are the purposes with which God has directed all history, and controls all wars, we cannot dare to come before Him, and ask for His help, unless the spirit in which we are joining in this war is in harmony with His, and unless we mean, with His help, to act and fight in entire devotion to Him, and in obedience to Christ. If we fought merely to gain victory, to assert the supremacy of our Empire, to establish our superiority over other nations, we could not expect His countenance and help, and we should be affronting His Majesty and His Holiness by asking for it; but these are not our aims. They are, it appears, in the main, those of our enemy, and for that reason we may be confident that God’s face will be against them. But, so far as we are fighting for a kingdom and an Empire which acknowledges in all things the sovereignty of our Lord Jesus Christ, which endeavours to act, to govern, and to serve in accordance with His will, and which will promote and protect the spread of His Kingdom—so far as we are conscious in our consciences that that is our aim—we may confidently come before Him and appeal to Him to help us with His right hand and His holy arm. But we cannot thus serve Him and obey Him as a nation unless we obey and serve Him in our own individual lives; and when we kneel, therefore, before Him to-day we are called upon to pledge ourselves, with the utmost sincerity and earnestness, to give our hearts and wills and lives up to Him in all things, with greater truth and singleness of heart than we have ever yet realized.
If we look candidly into the recent life of our nation, it must, I fear, be acknowledged that we have in many respects grievously failed in this Christian spirit. The habits of our people have in too many respects declined from the Christian standard which was set us by our forefathers in their best days. The worship and service of God and Christ have not been held so high among us as the supreme duty of life. We see it in the increasing neglect of the public worship of God, in a less general piety of life, in a growing disposition to acquiesce in standards of action which are not in all respects those of the New Testament; in the failure to look to the authority of Christ and His Apostles as the supreme rule in all the relations of life, in the relations of men and women, in the ideals of domestic and private life. We have lived too much for this life and too little for the next. We have cared too much for time and too little for eternity. We shall not be able to fulfil the purposes of God for our nation and for the world unless we amend our lives in these respects, unless we humbly confess our failure before Him, and set ourselves resolutely to live more Christian lives in the future. If we kneel before Him this evening in this spirit of confession for the past, and of heartfelt devotion for the future, we may come boldly to His throne of grace; and we may be thankful to be assured that our country and our country’s cause, and the welfare of all who are dear to us, here and hereafter, are in His hands. You are invited to begin your supplication this evening with that penitential Psalm, in which David confessed from the bottom of his heart his own grievous sin, but was also inspired by God’s Holy Spirit to seek comfort and regeneration, righteousness and peace. That is the spirit in which we should approach God at all times, but especially in a time of sore trial like the present; and if we do so, we may confidently join in the concluding petition, in which the Psalmist beseeches God’s blessing upon His nation. “The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou not despise. O be favourable and gracious unto Zion; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness,” with the devoted offerings and service of a regenerated and Christian nation. God grant it, for Christ’s sake.
The Eternal Source of Goodness.
PREACHED AT HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, MARGATE, NOVEMBER 7, 1915.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”—St. James i. 17.
In these words a singularly vivid picture is set before us. God is represented to us as the Sun in the Heavens, from Whom light and warmth are perpetually streaming. The text does not merely say that all good gifts come from above and that none but good gifts come from thence. It means also that those good gifts are perpetually being poured upon us, just as light and heat are perpetually flowing from the sun. But it points out one great difference between the physical sun and this Divine source of grace and glory. The sun and the other lights of the heavens which are dependent upon it are all liable to be obscured or eclipsed. They are “subject to variableness and shadow of turning,” that is, to the shadows occasioned by their turning in their daily revolutions, so that daylight is succeeded by the darkness of night, and the moon waxes and wanes. But the light of the Divine glory and grace is never thus obscured from us. It is perpetually shining, and we can enjoy its blessed influence at every moment. God is the Father of Lights—the Father of Light of all kinds; and all grace and truth are perpetually proceeding from Him. “Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above,” coming down continually from “the Father of Lights with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” This is the great truth which is embodied in the beautiful words of the Collect just used, “Lord of all power and might Who art the Author and Giver of all good things.”