But as strange as that distinction is which would cast out real virtues from the Christian code, I may now warn you from an opposite extreme. Thus have words of counsel been exalted above the word of the commandment. Let us weigh this also for a moment; it has been, and continues still to be, the nurse of many fond conceits.
If you strive to put more into a vessel which is already well replenished, will you not displace some of its contents? And if this be done where the hand of the Lord hath filled the vessel, that we may drink and thirst no more, but live for ever, the loss (not to name the sacrilege) will outweigh the gain a thousand-fold. The boastful young man, who would not accept the word of the commandment at our Lord’s lips as a full reply to his inquiry, but said, “All this have I kept from my youth up; what lack I yet?” did not receive, in answer to this pretension, a word of counsel. Our Lord showed him plainly what the true breadth of the commandment was. Thus he required no more of him than that which became the bounden duty of many in the days of trouble which succeeded. Many were made to feel the force of that never-changing precept, which demands the sacrifice of all things sublunary, where the bond of Truth cannot otherwise be kept. There was no sacrifice, then, proposed to this aspiring youth, nothing counselled, beyond the verge of the commandment; and the test to which he was put was but the fruit of his overweening zeal.
When some of the early Christians were not contented to wait the coming of the fore-named obligation, but sought martyrdom of their own accord, although our Lord enjoined them when persecuted in one city to flee into another, the Church interposed, and set a mark of public censure upon such rash exposures of the lives of faithful men. Will you say, then, that St. Paul put forward words of counsel for which he acknowledged that, in advising what was best for those days of peril, he had no commandment? He did so; but as he had received no commandment, so did he impose none. He left his converts free to follow his advice according to their own discretion: he laid no bond upon them, no vow, no snare, no scruple; for, indeed, he was the steady foe to things unbidden.
And what, then, are the general and never changing precepts which no flight of zeal can surpass? We have already taken one such comprehensive rule from our Lord’s lips; but to enlarge a little on a theme so seasonable at all times, we may remark, that the word of precept requires us to weigh and esteem things according to their real worth; to seek the kingdom of God first, and his righteousness; to prize that pearl of price above all other things; to take readily, as St. Paul showed in his example, what God giveth, with a thankful and becoming use of the welcome gift, but with a just sense that what may be bitter and distasteful, if such be the cup, will serve for good to those who love God; we are thus enjoined to be content with such things as we have, to keep under and to combat every evil inclination, for there lies the place and proper exercise of self-denial; it will prove unfit and injurious when pressed beyond its uses. It was the aim of the apostle to set free to all things lawful and becoming, but not to be brought under the power of any; which shows at once the misery and inconvenience of an iron chain, whether forged by others, and imposed upon us in their names, or adopted by our own devices.
He who will set up better rules than these, must not expect his word to be taken for them; he must prove them by the known declaration of the will of God, or by sufficient reasons, tried by the sure word of the commandment.
There were not wanting, we may now remark, many who passed the season of attendance before the coming of the promised Mediator, with some profit to themselves and others. We have noticed this with respect to the patriarchal age and to the Israel of God; and it holds good, in some measure, with relation to the Gentile world. There were those even where the hideous darkness of idolatry prevailed, among whom truth found its seasonable culture. There were those who sustained in some sort the credit of the human race. They sought a refuge in their own reflections from false worship, and delusions gross, impious, and far below the character of man. They betook themselves accordingly to some sound principles of moral truth and moral wisdom. Thus the faculty of right discrimination, and the power of conscience, when not drowned in vice and superstition, exhibited some lines, and showed some traces of the great Creator’s image. They reduced the rule of life and of well-doing to some fixed points; prudence, justice, fortitude, the love of truth, the scorn of falsehood or deceit, self-government, with other noble qualities, exhibited plain characters of man’s first resemblance to the Author of his being. Thus things which are always true and always good, kept their place in some fair examples, and sustained the claim which such men had to be the teachers and the monitors of others, although without authority to teach or to direct—that want remained to be supplied, as the wisest of them fairly owned.
Our blessed Lord, who came to bind the bruised reed, and to fan the least spark of the smoking flax, never turned with scorn from such tokens of good disposition and right judgment, or failed to give his word of commendation when they came before him. “I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel,” were words which embraced the qualities of mind which were always found to be most favourable to prepare the heart (the seat of every moral property) for any seed of truth which should be cast upon it. Such was the good ground of which our Lord made mention in his instructive parable of the Sower and the Seed. A rational acknowledgment, with a just esteem for what is good, is the soul of faith, of which the tenth leper left a memorable proof. Without such moral properties faith might be the hand for receiving any benefit, but where would be the mind to understand its value, and perceive the nature of its obligations? Let the nine lepers who were healed, but returned not to give thanks, supply the answer. But if the Gentile sages showed indeed sound judgment in reducing rules of ethics to fixed principles, our blessed Lord with the full warrant of divine authority formed the draft of faith and duty, sometimes compendiously, and sometimes with particular enumerations.
But again, with these main principles and never-changing objects of regard, there is another word which has its special season—it is that of pastoral entreaty; and it remains for me to press it at this time—it results, indeed, from the whole view which has been taken.
Never then, I beseech you, my beloved brethren, consent to yield the profession or the practice of the rule of faith and duty, for fear or favour; for any flattering bait or treacherous inducement, never lose sight of what is due to God, to your fellow-creatures, and yourselves;—only remember that if we neglect to take thought for others, that is not the care for ourselves which we are enjoined to extend to others. And here I cannot sufficiently commend the manifold attentions of the prudent and sincere, which have been paid to the needs of many in this vicinage. O! let that care continue for your poorer brethren—let it manifest itself in the religious instructions which your schools provide for their children, and in a thousand instances of kindness which the succours which the law requires cannot supply.
And yet again, amidst all these incumbent obligations, there is still room for the words of Solomon, “to every thing there is a season;” and the present moment constrains me yet once more to conjure you to bear these things in mind, to keep them as the treasure of your hearts. If such shall be the purpose and endeavour, it matters less at what period the foot is stayed, provided it be found in the right path when the day of travel or of any special charge shall close. But in such case, when we can no longer walk together as companions, there must be the word of exhortation for those who have to go forward—let it then be the word of the apostle—to “walk worthy of your vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is . . . one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”