FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity.—2 Pet. 1, 5-7.
It is a very easy thing, my beloved, to be a Christian, and it is a very difficult thing to be a Christian. That may sound paradoxical and strange, but it is soberness and truth. It is very easy to be a Christian by name, but it is very difficult to be one in reality. It is an undeniable fact that there are people who call themselves after the Savior, and yet are a disgrace even to common decency; whilst others again keep slightly more within the bounds of morality, yet their tempers remain unsubdued, their tongues unbridled, they mind earthly things, and there is little or no difference between them and the people of the world. Even when they have connected themselves with the Church, and taken formal discipleship and membership upon themselves, this inconsistency appears. Some are great saints on great occasions, when there is a chance to shine in the esteem of men, but are glaringly deficient in private spheres and duties, and are very leaden and dull where no applause is forthcoming. Others can always be depended upon where it costs them nothing, but when burdens are to be borne, their interest lies somewhere else. Still others are generous enough with their means, but expect their dollars to answer in place of a pure life and to counterbalance a vast deal of self-indulgence and unsanctity. Another class are those who are full of zeal and energy, provided they are allowed to do everything their own way, and are not compelled to cooperate with certain other people whom they despise. And so there are multitudes of chaotic, one-sided, undeveloped, unsatisfactory professing Christians whose conduct is anything but consistent with their claims, and in little accord with Him whose name they would bear.
Now turn to the Scripture,—read the descriptions given in the holy writings of what constitutes a full-fledged Christian, and holding up the picture before your spiritual eyes, begin to compare the modern Christian with the Scriptural one, the real one with the nominal. For what is a Christian? A Christian is, first of all, a person who has been justified by faith in Christ; that is his real character and standing, and as long as he remains true in his faith and to his Savior, he remains a Christian. But this does not offset, but rather involves, that the faith by which we are justified and saved must be a live, an active and vigorous principle, which draws after it a train of noble virtues and good works; we must not only be Christians, but show it; we must not only have justifying grace, but also sanctifying grace, leading us forward in our Christian profession. We Christians must not be like mill-wheels which move indeed, but always stand in the same place, or like mill-horses which go round and round, but never get beyond the one narrow circle. Nay, we must advance in Christian holiness, go forward to the full measure of our stature as a Christian. This is the principal thought that the various Sundays of Trinity urge upon us, and again in harmony with which we find our text. These words point out to us: I. The additions we are to make to our faith; II. the manner in which we must make these additions. May God bless our meditations upon them!
The Apostle begins: "Add to your faith virtue." You will observe he does not want his readers to seek after faith,—that he supposes them to possess already,—he addresses them as believers, and calls upon them to add to their belief, as if he would say: You claim to have faith (it is a good thing to have), but you seem to forget that faith without works is dead, that Christianity is not only a spiritual religion, but a practical one. What does a foundation amount to if the superstructure be not reared? Nothing; it is a beginning without a progress. Just so with faith,—it is the chief requisite of Christian religion, and must not be a scheme of doctrine which lies asleep in the mind and never stimulates.
Abraham had faith, and he offered up Isaac. Moses had faith, and he esteemed the afflictions and hardships of the people of Israel greater rather than the treasures of Egypt. Abel and Noah had faith; it led the one to build, and the other to die the death of a martyr. And so you, claiming to have faith, "add to your faith virtue." This is the first addition mentioned. Virtue here does not signify goodness in general, but a particular quality; it means as much as fortitude, courage, bravery,—add to your faith courage. And the exhortation was indeed necessary in those days of the Apostle's writing. Heathenism and Judaism were making common cause to despise, persecute, and malign the followers of the new religion. Many of the followers of Christ had to sacrifice home, country, family, and friends, and wander about as the offscouring of the earth. Temptations and distractions of the most dangerous kind were assailing them. And it could not be otherwise; if not rooted and grounded, firm, courageous, inflexible, they would surely make shipwreck. It is no less necessary this day. The world is not more a friend to religion and religionists now than it was then. It is not an easy thing to encounter adverse opinion, to incur the sneers and frowns of relatives and associates, or the scorn of persons in business and society. It is not a pleasant feeling to find yourself in a small and despised minority, and that minority ofttimes lacking in appreciation, sympathy, and cooperation. When you add to these the petty jealousies, misrepresentations, and stabs in the back, hypocrisies and ingratitude, one is prone to become discouraged, and to drop off in sullenness and despondency. What we need in such moments of weakness to support our flagging minds and faltering energies is virtue,—courage, moral and religious resolve to do and to dare, to show ourselves as men, and not as moral cowards and fretting babes. Fie on a Peter that denied his Master before the taunts of a maid, and shame on the disciples who forsook Him in the hour of emergency. How noble does there appear in comparison that Roman soldier at Pompeii who stood in his place when the avalanche of lava and fire was engulfing the city, where, over a thousand years afterwards, he was excavated with his sword drawn and still guarding the city gate. O for a stand to our profession and to God's Word till He shall say, "It is enough," for a little boldness, holy determination, courage, firmness to follow our convictions and to voice them, regardless of the reproach we may endure, or the losses we may sustain.
The second addition to our faith mentioned is "knowledge." A knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ, these people to whom St. Peter wrote indeed had. But there are such heights and depths, lengths and breadths in Christian knowledge that the greatest of saints can never get done learning it. The most knowing are like children on the seashore. Though they may gather the many precious pebbles and beautiful shells, the vast ocean of truth still lies unexplored before them, and we need all strive after a deeper and cleaner insight into the mysteries of God and of His grace.