Plain Sermons, preached at Archbishop Tenison's Chapel, Regent Street. Second Series

by James Galloway Cowan

But if this is so, why have we such solemn warnings, to the effect that as the tree falls, so shall it lie? “He that is righteous, then, shall be righteous still. He that is filthy then, shall be filthy still.” Why is it that in the representations which we have of the Judgment, men are always dealt with according to what they were in life, “Inasmuch as ye did it,” “Inasmuch as ye did it not”? Why is the pound taken away from him that did not seek to increase it, and given to him who had gained ten pounds, and the commentary subjoined, “Unto every one which hath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him”? Why is the boaster of his privileges—“In Thy name have I cast out devils”—instantly dismissed with the words, “Depart from me, I never knew you”? Why are they reproved who called Christ Lord, Lord, but did not the things which He said? What did St. Peter mean when he exhorted “Save yourselves;” and Paul, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;” “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall;” and Christ Himself, “Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every man according as his work shall be;” “Blessed are they that do His commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city”? Surely all this, as with a voice from heaven, calls on us to put away the delusion, that mortal life is not a probation, that man has not a fitness to acquire in this life, in order that he may be faultless in heaven. The answer of truth, brethren, to the question, “How can man be faultless in heaven?” is, briefly, By praying, and striving, through the blessing of God, the grace of the Spirit of Christ, and his own self-denial, and diligence, and cultivated holiness, to become less and less faulty here. After all, he will never, on this side of the grave, be without spot or blemish, and perfect in holiness. Whatever Christ may do for him here, he will still have much to be purged away, much to be quickened, much to be glorified. But, be sure, there must be a seed-time here and a growing here, if there is to be a harvest hereafter. There must be a service, if there is to be a reward; we must be faithful in a little, before we are made rulers over much; there must be a fitness, a partial, a main fitness acquired here, or no admission there to the inheritance of the Saints in light. Christ’s work in us hereafter is not a transforming, but a completing, a finishing, a perfecting work. “To him that hath”—that is, that has made use of and improved what he hath—“to him more shall be given,” and he shall abound. He who has traced in his soul and life the outline of the features of the blessed Jesus, shall have the likeness filled up and finished by the Divine artist, and be wholly conformed to His image. He who has kept down the flesh, shall have the power of the flesh destroyed in him. He who has sought after holiness, shall be made perfect. A great change; much taken away, much added, but not a transformation. A great work, which can only be done then, and only by Christ; but which will fail to be done then if materials are not provided for it now; if the foundation has not been laid, and the walls have not been raised, and all made ready for the roof of God’s adding, and the capping of the tower of glory. Yes; this is the qualification, without which you cannot be received, but, having it, cannot be refused. Labour and pray to be faultless here, and Christ shall at the end perfect your faultlessness, and shall present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. But the text seems to speak not of those who had washed away defilements, had secured pardon of offences, had repaired faults and made up deficiencies, in short, had been sinners, but, under the operation of the spirit of Christ, were become saints; but of those who never had been faulty, spotted, or blemished “These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” Of course, there must have been the spot and blemish of original sin; but, apart from this—which Christ’s applied purifying power and all-sufficient merits would entirely remove—there seems to have been in the lives of these persons no actual sin, no omission of righteousness. Now, as there is no man that liveth and sinneth not, it has been conjectured that the vision here exhibits those who were taken away to God in their infancy, before they had the power or the will to do good or evil, and who, therefore, as far as actual deeds and feelings are concerned, not by work, or grace, or conviction, but absolutely and from the first were faultless: and probably the selection of the description as the Gospel for this day, the festival of the Holy Innocents, has gone far to confirm this conjecture. But, brethren, this surely is not the meaning, at least the full meaning, of the words. They describe freedom from defilement and following of the Lamb as things that might have been otherwise. They hold up for the example and encouragement of those who were tempted to lust, and to depart from following the living Lord, the praise and happiness of those who are without fault in these respects; and therefore they suggest to us, I think, as the most profitable and foremost thought, the blessedness, the superior blessedness of those who never have contracted sin, nor failed in holiness.

Men sometimes seem to fancy that the most glorious character in heaven, the object of God’s fondest love, will be the once deep-stained and wholly defiled, that have been washed in Christ’s blood till they are become whiter than snow, the reckless, and rebellious, and blaspheming, who have been subdued and converted; and that in comparison of these, the mainly regular righteous life will almost pass unnoticed. It is easy to account for the supposition. We read, without due consideration, of her that sinned much, and was forgiven much, and therefore loved much; of the returned prodigal rejoiced over more than the son who had remained at home; of the joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance; of publicans and harlots going into the kingdom of heaven before priests and scribes. We forget that these things were said to men who were not really righteous, but self-sufficient; that they were an accommodation to their own kind of reasoning; that they were the justification of special works and feelings, and peculiar demonstrations. Surely we are not to understand by them anything more than that sinners were at times more in Christ’s thoughts than saints; that on the recovery of one lost sheep, the joy over that one caused the rest for the moment to be put out of remembrance. Surely we are not to understand that God has less love for, and shows less favour to those who have uniformly served and honoured Him, than to those whose life has been one of contempt and rebellion, who have refused to accept Him till they had made trial of all else; that God’s power and glory are more magnified in the ultimate conversion of such a sinner, than in the steady control and improvement of a life-long saint; that in themselves the reformed drunkards and defiled are better than those who were always sober and pure; that their memories are more blissful, and their themes of praise more satisfactory; that they are even equal in favour, in bliss, in manifested honour to those who were undefiled and consistently obedient, whom Holy Scripture distinguishes on this very account, of whom it relates, that they sing a song which no other can learn, signifying that they have a peculiar privilege and a peculiar joy! Brethren, be sure it is not so. God is abundantly gracious to all who call upon Him, late as well as early. No one, whatever his past life, shall be refused who comes to Him through Christ. In his late righteousness all his former sins shall be forgiven and forgotten; they shall not once be mentioned unto him. He shall have too, the joy of the righteous, and shall dwell with God in heaven; but still He Who makes one star to differ from another in glory, Who bestows different measures of reward upon different capacities, and different attainments, has a special interest and a superior blessedness for those who have never been stained, who have always stayed in their father’s house, and have obeyed His will and loved His voice. In themselves they are dearer to Him, as more like Jesus; and for them, He has seats closer to the throne of Christ, and offices of honour near His person.

If this is so, if “faultlessness,” in the sense of never blotted, never imperfect, is the state that is most blessed, then, brethren, we might perhaps be tempted to envy the fate of those whom we commemorate to-day, who suffered so early for Christ’s sake, and as soon almost as they were born, were put to death. We might judge, too, that the little ones whom God so frequently takes away so soon after lending them, are summoned to a higher blessedness than we can ever know; and therefore that not only would it have been gain to die in infancy, but that it is positive loss to live to years of discretion and responsibility. Let us not err herein. We believe that the dear innocents, whose first consciousness is of bliss in heaven, whose reason begins to develop, and their will to exercise itself, only when sin is impossible, are not only unspeakably blessed, but that God specially loves them, and folds them to His bosom (as we did here), because of that innocence: no guile, no defilement—all simplicity and trust. Thankful then in their sober moments are all bereaved parents who are assured of their departed little ones’ eternal safety, and are spared the fears and anxieties, the heartrending realisation of self-will developed, and the world’s evil example followed, and the devil triumphant. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; and, in that He has taken away, from the evil to come, Oh! blessed be the name of the Lord.

But, brethren, it is only because we fear for the future, that we thankfully accept such a present. Could we be sure that our little ones would remain faultless, that they would not abuse the world, nor fall into great error or misery, that they would grow in grace, and in the fear of the Lord, and at length surely attain to glory; then, not from selfishness, but for their sakes, we should covet length of days for them. And rightly, for there is a better faultlessness, and a correspondingly higher blessedness than that of infants, who were allowed no opportunity (and possessed no power) to contract fault: it is the faultlessness of those who shrink from the allowed opportunity, who restrain the possessed power, and overcome the persuading will, who pass through the fire without the smell of it being left on their garments, who make manifest by a life of self-denials, and resistances to temptations, and patience and perseverance in well-doing, their intelligent deliberate love of God, and hatred of evil. These are the tried, the eagerly accepted, the specially loved. These do the Lord’s work, and set forth the Lord’s glory. These shall indeed be welcomed with a “Well-done good and faithful servant,” for them shall be reserved the best seats on the right hand of God; and they shall joy in God, and God in them, with a peculiar joy, for they are likest unto Christ, Whose spotlessness was preserved among so many defilements, Who with heart, and mind, and life, consistently, unceasingly served God, and Who therefore is highly exalted, and has a name which is above all other names.

Oh it is no mean privilege, brethren, which you forego, when you leave the ranks of the faultless, when you shrink from duty, or yield to sinful pleasure, or contract any stain of ungodliness. Say not, “It is only for once.” It will surely be for more than once; but if it were not, still from being faultless that once makes you blotted and blemished. Say not, “I can repent by and by, and God of His mercy will accept me, and I shall be myself again.” You may not live to repent. Sin may disincline, the Spirit provoked may leave you; but even if you do repent—though God will undoubtedly forgive, and in a sense restore you—remember, you can never be as you were before. You may be cleansed, but not as at first clean; admitted to heaven, but not to the band of the one hundred and forty-four thousand of undefiled; joined to the glorious choir of the redeemed, but not allowed, not able to sing the peculiar song of the faultless.

“But what,” some would say, “is the use of this preaching? We are all already faulty; we can none of us have a place among these choice first fruits of God’s harvest.” Brethren, faultlessness, pure faultlessness, is no longer ours; but comparative faultlessness (and Bible faultlessness, after all, is only comparative freedom from wilful sin) may, and, I trust, does pertain to many of us; and for each degree of nearness to faultlessness, if I understand the Bible aright, there is its peculiar reward. I would put you on your guard against losing that reward, by sinking to a lower level. I would urge you to hold fast what you have, to subdue yourselves, to resist the world and the devil, to be ever on the watch against danger, and to flee speedily from temptation, if it is too strong to fight against, to seek strength and sanctification in means of grace, to pray constantly (and strive constantly to make good your prayer), that Christ would keep you from falling, and finally present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

SERMON VII.
PAST MERCIES REVIEWED.
(NEW YEAR’S EVE.)

Genesis, xxxii., 10.

I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto Thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.

These are Jacob’s words. They form part of the prayer which he offered to God, when, on his return from Haran, he found that Esau was coming out against him with four hundred men.

Mingled feelings must have possessed Jacob at this time; strange remembrances must have been his! Twenty years ago he had passed over that Jordan—near which he now stood—in flight from an enraged brother, meditating and preparing vengeance for an act of fraudulent injury. What a weary pilgrimage he had since followed; what sorrows, what desolations had possessed his aching heart; how he had toiled and suffered wrong; even now was fleeing from it! Yet, those twenty years gone, he was coming back, not to the prospect of peace and happiness, not to the hope that his brother had forgotten his vengeance, or that he would easily be reconciled to him; but to face a mindful, aggravated avenger, strengthened by four hundred followers. Surely he had fled and been in exile to no purpose! Surely, by deferring it, he had increased his trouble! It must have been that Jacob now acutely remembered the cause of Esau’s anger; that he meditated on the mean advantage that he had taken, the base fraud to which he had been a party, the lying, the profanity of his lips, the evil deeds which led to evil consequences. Ah! now he felt that man cannot sin with impunity, that transgression and punishment are bound together as cause and effect, that vengeance, though it tarry, though it slumber, though we run from it, and hide from it many, many days, will yet accomplish its purpose, will surely repay! Yes; and did he not feel that vengeance had even followed him; that he had been its victim all those twenty years; that the frauds of Laban, from first to last, and the strifes and dissensions of his own household were the fruits of his deceit; that God had allowed them, that in a way He had caused them in retaliation, in punishment of his sin! What an experience to him, what a proof to us, my brethren, that sin will surely find us out!