But time would fail me if I tried to repeat to you half the passages wherein the old Jewish prophets foretold Him who was to come, and in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed, more and more clearly as the time drew nigh.
Well, my friends, surely you know of whom I have been speakingof whom Moses and the prophets spokeof Him who was born of a village maiden, laid in a manger, proclaimed of angels to the shepherds, worshipped with hymns of glory by the heavenly host on the first Christmas day eighteen hundred and seventy-eight years ago, as we count time. Aye, strange as it may seem, He is come, and in Him all the nations of the earth are blessed. He is comethe Conqueror of Evilthe desire of all nationsthe Law-giverthe Lamb which was to suffer for our sinsthe King of kingsthe Light which should lighten the heathenthe Virgins child, of wondrous wisdom, whose name should be God as well as manwhom all the heathens, amid strange darkness and mad confusions, had still been fearing and looking for.
He is comeHe came on that first Christmas-tide. And we here on each Christmas-tide can thank God for His coming, and say before men and angels, Unto us a child is bornthe Prince of Peace is oursto His kingdom we belongHe has borne about on Him a mans body, a mans soul and spiritHe was born like uslike us He grewlike us He rejoiced and sorrowedtempted in all points like as we are, yet without sinable to the uttermost to understand and help all who come to God by Him. He has bruised the serpents headHe has delivered us from the power of darkness, and brought us into His kingdom. Through His blood we have redemption and forgivenessyes! through Him who, though He was laid in a manger, was yet the image of the unseen God. And by Him, and for Himthat Babe of Bethlehemwere all things created in heaven and earthand He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. All heaven and earth, and all the powers therein, are held together by Him. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and having made peace through the blood of His cross, to reconcile by that child all things unto Himselfall things in heavenall things in earth.
This should be our boastthis should be our gloryfor this do we meet together every Christmas day.
But what is all this to us if that Blessed Man be gone away from us? Our souls want more than I have told you yet. Our souls want more than a beautiful and wonderful story about Christ. They want Christ Himself. Preaching is blessed and useful if it speaks of Christ. Our own thoughts are blessed and useful if we think of Christ. The Bible is most blessed and useful containing all things necessary to salvation, for it speaks of Christ. Our prayers are blessed and useful if in them we call and cry earnestly to Christ. But neither preaching, nor thinking, nor praying are enough. In them we think about Him and speak to Him. But we want Him to speak to us. We want not merely a man to say, your sins may be forgiven you; we want Christ Himself to say, Your sins are forgiven you. We want not merely a wise book to tell us that the good men of old belonged to Christs kingdomwe want Christ Himself to tell us that we belong to His kingdom. We want not merely a book that tells us that He promised always to be with uswe want Him Himself to tell us that He is really now with us. We want not merely a promise from a prophet of old that in Him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, but a sign from Christ Himself that this nation of England is really now blest in Him. In short, we want not words, however true words, however fine words, about Christ. We want Christ Himself to forgive us our sinsto give peace and freedom to our heartsto come to us unseen, and fill us with thoughts and longings such as our fallen nature cannot give ussuch thoughts and feelings as we cannot explain in words, for they are too deep and blessed to be talked aboutbut thoughts which say to us, as if the blessed Jesus Himself spoke to us in the depths of our hearts, Poor, struggling, sinful brother! thou art mine. For thee I was bornfor thee I diedthee I will teachI will guide thee and inform thee with mine eyeI will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Wellyou want Himand you want a sign of Hima sign of His own giving that He is among youthis daya sign of His own giving that He has taken you into His kingdoma sign of His own giving that He died for youthat He will feed and strengthen your souls in you with His own life and His own body.
Thenthere is a signthere is the sign which has stood stedfast and sure to youand to your fathersand your forefathers before themback for eighteen hundred years, over half the world. There is the bread of which He said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. There is the wine of which He said, This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is shed for you, and for many, for the forgiveness of sins. There is His sign. Dont ask how. Dont try to explain it away, and fancy that you can find fitter, and soberer, and safer, and more gospel-sounding words than Jesus Christs own, by which to speak of His own Sacrament. But say, with the great Queen Elizabeth of old, when men tried too curiously to enquire into her opinion concerning this blessed mystery
Christ made the Word and spake it,
He took the bread and brake it,
And what His Word did make it,
That I believe, and take it.
He said, This bread is my body which was broken for you. He said, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. Is it? or is it not? And if it is, is not Christ among us now, indeed? Is not that something better than all the preaching in the world? Jesus Christ, the King of kingsthe Saviourthe Delivererthe Lamb of Godthe Everlasting Sonthe Wordthe Lightthe Lifeis here among us ready to feed our souls in the Holy Sacrament of His body and blood, as surely as that bread and wine will feed our bodiesyeato feed our souls and bodies to everlasting life. Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and drink. Come, buy wine without money and without price.
III. IS, OR IS NOT, THE BIBLE TRUE?
If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?
John viii. 46.Is, or is not, the Bible true? To this question we must all come some day or other. Do you believe that that book which lies there, which we call the Bible, is a true book, or a lying book? Is it true or false? Is it right or wrong? Is it from God, or is it not from God? Let us answer that. If it is not from God, let it go; but if it is from God, which we know it is, how dare we disobey it?
That God, the maker of heaven and earth, should speak to menshould set His commands down in a book and give it to themand that they should neglect it, disobey itit is the strangest sight that can be seen on earth! that God in heaven should say one thing, and a human being, six feet high at most, should dare to do another!
If the Bible is from God, I say, the question is not whether it is better to obey it or not. Better? there is no better or worse in the matterit is infinitely necessary. To obey is infinitely right, to disobey is infinitely wrong. To obey is infinitely wise, to disobey is infinite folly. There can be no question about the matter, except in the mind of a fool. Better to obey Gods word? Better indeedfor to obey is heaven, to disobey is hell. That is the difference. And at your better moments does not the voice within you, witness to, and agree with, the words of that book? When it tells you to care more for your soul than your bodymore for the life to come, which is eternity, than for the present life which lasts but a few yearsdoes not common sense tell you that? The Bible tells you to reverence and love God the giver of all gooddoes not reason tell you that? The Bible tells you loyally to obey, to love, to worship our blessed King and Saviour in heaven. Does not common sense tell you that? Surely if there be such a person as Jesus Christif He is sitting now in heaven as Saviour of all, and one day to be Judge of allby all means He is to be obeyed, He is to be pleased, whoever else we may displease. Reason, one would think, would tell us thatand it is just want of reason which makes us forget it.
What have you to say against the pattern of a true and holy man as laid down in the Bible? The Bible would have you purecan you deny that you ought to be that? It would have you peaceablecan you deny that you ought to be that? The Bible would have you forgiving, honest, honourable, active, industrious. The Bible would have you generous, loving, charitable. Can you deny that that is right, however some of you may dislike it? The Bible would have you ask all you want from God, and ask forgiveness of God for every offence, great and small, against Him. Can you deny that that is right and reasonable? The Bible would have you live in continual remembrance that the great eye of God is on youin continual thankfulness to the blessed Saviour who died for you and has redeemed you by His own bloodwith daily and hourly prayer for Gods Spirit to set your heart and your understanding right on every point. Can you deny that that is all right and good and properthat unless the Bible be all a dream, and there be no Holy and Almighty God, no merciful Christ in heaven, this is the way and the only way to live? Ay, if there were no God, no Christ, no hereafter, it would be better for man to live as the Bible tells him, than to live as too many do. There would be infinitely less misery, less heart-burnings, less suffering of body and soul, if men followed Christs example as told us in the Bible. Even if this life were all, and there were neither punishment nor reward for us after deathdoes not our reason tell us that if all men and women were like Christ in gentleness, wisdom, and purity, the world as long as it lasted would be a heaven?
And do not your own hearts echo these thoughts at moments when they are quietest and purest and most happy too? Have you not said to yourselvesThose Bible words are good words. After all, if I were like that, I should be happier than I am now. Ah! my friends, listen to those thoughts when they come into your heartsthey are not your own thoughtsthey are the voice of One holier than youwiser than youOne who loves you better than you love yourselvesOne pleading with you, stirring you up by His Spirit, if it be but for a moment, to see the things which belong to your peace.
But what can you say for yourselves, if having once had these thoughts, having once settled in your own minds that the Gospel of God is right and you are wrong, if you persist in disobeying that gospelif you agree one minute with the inner voice, which says, Do this and live, do this and be at peace with God and man, and your own conscienceand then fall back the next moment into the same worldly, selfish, peevish, sense-bound, miserable life-in-death as ever?
The reason, my friends, I am afraid, with most of us is, sheer follynot want of cunning and cleverness, but want of heartwant of feelingwhat Solomon calls folly (Prov. i. 22-27), stupidity of soul, when he calls on the simple souls, How long ye simple ones will you love simplicity or silliness, and the scorners delight in their scorning (delight in laughing at what is good), and fools hate knowledgehate to think earnestly or steadily about anythingthe stupidity of the ass, who is too stubborn and thick-skinned to turn out of his way for any oneor the stupidity of the swine, who cares for his food and nothing furtheror worse than all, the stupidity of the ape, who cares for nothing but play and curiosity, and the vain and frivolous amusements of the moment.
All these tempers are common enough, and they may be joined with cleverness enough. What beast so clever as an ape? yet what beast so foolish, so mean, so useless? But this is the fault of stupidityit blinds our eyes to the world of spirits; it makes us forget God; it makes us see first what we can lay our hands on, and nothing more; it makes us forget that we have souls. Our glorious minds and thoughts, which should be stretching on through all eternity, are cramped down to thinking of nothing further than this little hour of earthly life. Our glorious hearts, which should be delighting in everything which is lovely, and generous, and pure, and beautiful, and God-likeay, delighting in God Himselfare turned in upon themselves, and set upon our own gain, our own ease, our own credit. In short, our immortal souls, made in Gods image, become no use to us by this stupiditythey seem for mere salt to keep our bodies from decaying.
Whose work is that? The devils. But whose fault is it? Do you suppose that the devil has any right in you, any power in you, who have been washed in the waters of baptism and redeemed by Christ from the service of the devil, and signed with His Cross on your foreheads, unless you give him power? Not he. Mens sins open the door to the devil, and when he is in, he will soon trample down the good seed that is springing up, and stamp the mellow soil as hard as iron, so that nothing but his own seeds can grow there, and so keep off the dews of Gods spirit, and the working of Gods own gospel from making any impression on that hardened stupified soil.
Alas! poor soul. And thy misery is double, because thou knowest not that thou art miserable; and thy misery is treble, because thou hast brought it on thyself!
My friendsthere is an ancient fable of the Jews, which, though it is not true, yet has a deep and holy meaning, and teaches an awful lesson.
There lived, says an ancient Jewish Scribe, by the shores of the Dead Sea, a certain tribe of men, utterly given up to pleasure and covetousness, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. To them the prophet Moses was sent, and preached to them, warning them of repentance and of judgment to cometrying to awaken their souls to high and holy thoughts, and bring them back to the thought of God and heaven. And they, poor fools, listened to Him, admired his preaching, agreed that it all sounded very goodbut that he went too farthat it was too difficultthat their present way of life was very pleasantthat they saw no such great need of change, and so on, one excuse after another, till they began to be tired of Moses, and gave him to understand that he was impertinent, troublesomethat they could see nothing wise in himnothing great; how could they? So Moses went his way, and left them to go theirs. And long after, when some travellers came by, says the fable, they found these foolish people were all changed into dumb beasts; what they had tried to be, now they really were. They had made no use of their souls, and now they had lost them; they had given themselves up to folly, and now folly had taken to her own; they had fancied, as people do every day, that this world is a great play-ground, wherein every one has to amuse himself as he likes best, or at all events a great shop and gambling-house, where the most cunning wins most of his neighbours money; and now according to their faith it was to them. They had forgotten God and spiritual things, and now they were hid from their eyes. And these travellers found them sitting, playing antics, quarrelling for the fruits of the fieldmere beastsreaping as they had sown, and filled full with the fruit of their own devices.
Only every Sabbath day, says the fable, there came over these poor wretches an awful sense of a piercing Eye watching them from abovea dim feeling that they had been something better and nobler oncea faint recollection of heavenly things which they once knew when they were little childrena blind dread of some awful unseen ruin, into which their miserable empty beast-life was swiftly and steadily sweeping them down;and then they tried to think and could notand tried to remember and could notand so they sat there every Sabbath day, cowering with fear, uneasy and moaning, and half-remembered that they once had souls!