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A Church Memorial
or THK VISIT OF THE
Royal Agricultural Society
TO
NOR IVICH, CONSISTING OF TWO SERMONS
PREACHED IN
NORWICH CATHEDRAL
on the Sunday ^vith which the week commenced, and the following Sunday ; the Form of Special Service used on the days of the week at 8 A.M. each morning ; and the short Addresses delivered in the course of the Special Services.
BV
EDWARD MEYRICK GOULBURN, D.C.L., D.D.,
DEAN OF NORWICH.
That our garners may l)c full and plenteous with all manner of store : that cmr sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets.
That our oxen may be strong to labour, that there be no decay : no leading into captivity, and no complaining in our streets.
Happy are the people that are in such a case : yea, blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God. Psalm c.xliv.
13. 14. 15
IContron : HATCHARDS, PICCADILLY.
iflortoich : HP:NRY W. STACY, IIAY^klARKET.
To THE Honourable and Right Reverend
THE LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH WHO GAVE
TO THE Special Services of "the Show Week"
HELD IN Norwich Cathedral
the sanction of his presence
this Memorial is inscribed
with veneRx^tion for his office
and affection for his person.
(fautcutfi.
p.
Preface . . . . . . v
Opening Sermon in the Cathedral . . i
Form of Special Service used during the
WEEK at 8 A.M. . . . • ^7
Short Addresses delivered in the course of
THE Special Services . . .20
Concluding Sermon in the Cathedral . $}
, UIUC .
PREFACE.
Bur few words are required to explain this slight publication. A visit of the Royal Agricultural Society to any provincial city, for the purpose of holding their Exhibition in the immediate neighbourhood, is always an event which attracts hundreds of visitors ; and if Royal Personages (as was the case at Norwich last week) show their interest in the Exhibition by opening it, and giving constant attendance at it, their presence adds immensely to the attractiveness of the spectacle, and the hundreds are turned into thousands.
Feeling that our City must necessarily be full of visitors from all parts of England on an occasion so interesting and auspicious, the Dean and Chapter of Norwich thought it well to provide short Special Services in the Cathedral for each day of " the Show week," with the object,
1st ; of specially seeking the Blessing of
Almighty God upon the harvest of tlic
present year ;
vi Preface.
2dly; of speakins* one or two words each day, on subjects more or less con- nected with Ag-riculture, which mig^ht be edifying- to those attending the proposed Special Services ; 3dly ; of soothing and solemnising the minds both of our own fellow-citizens and strangers, during a week which would necessarily be one of excitement, sight- seeing, and innocent pleasuring ; 4thly ; of accommodating such persons as might wish to be present at a serv'ice in the Cathedral, and hear the Norwich Choir sing, but yet who might not have time enough at their disposal to attend the regular Morning and Evening Office at lO a.m. and 5 p.m. Accordingly a short Form of Special Service, with appropriate Psalms and Lessons, was drawn up, which began punctually at 8 each morning, and terminated one or two minutes before 8.30. This Form will be found on Pp. 17, 18, 19. After the lesson an Address of about five minutes was given every morning. These short Sermons are re-pro- duced, as nearly as I can recall what I said in them, on Pp. 20 to 32. To these notices of the week-day Special Services I have prefixed the Sermon, which at our Bishop's recjuest I
Preface. vii
preached on the preceding;- Sunday (July ii), and have also suffixed the Sermon of the succeeding Sunday, dealing with topics of the same character, of which all minds were full. It is hoped that the publication may be interest- ing as a memorial of the Royal Agricultural Society's Visit to a provincial city, and of the way in which the visit was recognised, and attempted to be turned to account, in the Mother Church of the Diocese, though it should be added that at Norwich the Cathedral was not alone in yielding this recognition. At St. Lawrence's Church certainly, and probably at other of the numerous Parochial Churches, Special Services were held during the week of the Exhibition, and were, I trust, well attended, and made the means of doing much 'j"ood.
E. AI. G.
Dea7iery, A^oriuic/i^ Julyiid, 1 886.
/ •
^
Opening Sermon in the Cathedral, delivered
July 11th, 1886
(Third Sunday after Trinity).
^t Motors of glsiicultuit, as sibtit in ^olg Scripture.
Gen. iii. 17, 18, 19.
17. And unto Adam He said. Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
HAST EATEN OF THE TREE, OF WHICH I COMMANDED THEE, SAYING, ThOU SHALT NOT EAT OF IT : CURSED IS THE GROUND FOR THY SAKE ; IN SORROW SHALT THOU EAT of IT ALL THE DAYS OF THY LIFE ;
18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring
FORTH TO THEE ; AND THOU SHALT EAT THE HERB OF THE FIELD ;
19. In the SWEAT of thy FACE SHALT THOU EAT BREAD, TILL THOU RETURN UNTO THE GROUND.
fO-DAY the Exhibition of the Royal Agricultural ^^^ Society is being opened with a religious service by the Bishop of the Diocese. It will be appropriate to the solemnity which is proceeding elsewhere, and it may under God's blessing be interesting and instructive, to consider the history of Agriculture as it is given us in the Bible, — a history which, as I hope to show, extends from the very beginning to the end of all things.
The History of Agriculture
I.' — Aiul first we arc given to understand that, old as sin is, Agriculture is older still, since it was practised before the fall of man. Agriculture was Adam's occupation in Paradise; for "the Lord God," we arc told, "took the *' man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and " to keep it."^ The occupations and employments of men in a state of highly wrought civilisation, such as mankind has reached at present, are legion ; the principle of the division of labour has brought in various industries, not professions and trades only, but those manifold lesser and lower industries, which are either ancillary to professions and trades, or which contribute, if not to the support, yet to the accommodations and conveniences of human life. But originally there was but one form of human work, — Agriculture, — out of which all the later forms were developed, just as originally there was but one form of Government — the Patriarchal, — out of wbich all its more complicated forms,— kingdoms, oligarchies, republics — took their rise. And this primitive form of work was, as I have said, Paradisaical ; it existed before the entrance of sin had marred God's fair universe, and before suffering and death had thrown a dark cloud over man's condition. The lesson we learn from this first Chapter of the history of Agriculture is the very important one, that healthy occupation of some kind or other, occupation attended with useful results, so far from being a draw- back to enjoyment, is essential to man's happiness in virtue of the original constitution of his nature, — a fundamental truth this of the earliest Scripture, but echoed back articulately by later ones ; " For thou shalt " eat the labours of thine hands : 0 well is thee, and "happy shalt thou be;"- "This we commanded you, that » Gen. ii. 15. ^ pg^ cxxviii. 2. P.B. F.
as given in Holy Scripture.
" if any would not work, neither should he eat ;"^ ''V^^q " command and exhort them hy our Lord Jesus Christ, " that with quietness they work, and eat their own ** bread."2 — And we may surmise also, — it is a reasonable inference surely from the fact of man's having had work assigned to him in the garden of Eden, — that the future state of blessedness, which is reserved for God's people, is not to be conceived of as a state of pure contemplation, but rather as furnishing some sphere of activity in which God may be served, though the service will be inter- penetrated, more than is here possible, by the spirit of adoration, — that in short it will be the state of angels, w^ho, while they always stand before God in worship, and continually realise His Presence, yet "with twain" of their wings do "fly"^ on His errands, as the Angel Gabriel did at the Annunciation.*
II. — The next Chapter in the history of Agriculture, and the Chapter of the fullest import and significance, is the passage which I have read as my text. Adam had transgressed the single precept under which he was laid, a precept which had reference to the fruits of the earth. On the usual principle of the Divine administration, he is to be punished in the same subject-matter in which he had sinned. A curse is pronounced, not upon himself, but upon the ground for his sake, the effect of which curse should be that the earth, \\hich hitherto had yielded spontaneously every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food, would now, if left to itself, without the bestowal on it of human toil, bring forth harmful or at least useless produce. Thenceforth if man would not bestow labour upon the soil, he must degrade,
^ 2 Thess. iii. 10. 2 2 Thess. iii. 12. ' See Isaiah vi. 2. * See St. Luke i. 2G.
The lliatory of Agt icuUnre
as to his food, to the level of the beasts that perish, eating {^rass like the ox, and roots like the swine, as did king Nebuchadnezzar in the time of his lunacy,^— a great and humiliating fall indeed from his Paradise condition, when the delicious fruits of trees good for food were his daily fare. But if he would have some nobler livelihood than this, it must be by cultivation of the grain crops, which would demand not only ingenuity and invention, but labour and toil, both of man and beast ; it was only ** in the sweat of his face " that he could *' eat bread ;" whereas in the garden of Eden Agriculture had consisted in the light and easy work of pruning, restraining the too luxuriant growths of the fertile soil, transporting the water of the river to those parts of the ground where it was needed, and generally keeping the garden in a sightly and orderly condition. The " bread to strengthen " man's heart " could only be enjoyed on the condition of its being, as it is called in Ps. cxxvii., "the bread of *' sorrows " or ** carefulness ;"^ it would not come but by ploughing, harrowing, sowing, gathering, grinding, and this with uncertainty as to whether the sunshine, rain, temperature necessary to a prolific harvest would accompany the required agricultural processes.
AVe glance, in passing, at the first appearance of what may be called the two departments of Agriculture, the work of pasturage and the work of tillage, which were practised by the sons of our first parents respect- ively,— '* Abel," we read, " was a keeper of sheep, but ** Cain was a tiller of the ground."^ I call pasturage, no less than tillage, a department of Agriculture; first because the cattle themselves, who yield milk and meat
^ See Dan. iv. 25, 32, 03. ' r. 2. " sorrows," A. V. ;
*• toil," Jl. V. : " carefulness," P.B. V. ' Gcq. iv. 2.
as <jivcn in Holy Scriptni'v.
fur man's sustenance, and wool and skins for man's raiment, subsist upon the grass of the earth, and thus man, in tending them, derives indirectly his maintenance from the earth ; secondly, because it is by the aid of the cattle that the ground is brought under cultivation and tilled, as it is said, " Where no oxen are, the crib is clean : *' but much increase is by the strength of the ox."^ And I need hardly remind you that these Agricultural Shows recognise the close connexion between pasturage and tillage, the exhibitions being partly of cattle in high condition, and partly of agricultural implements and appliances, and the improvements which human ingenuity and the application of scientific principles have introducc-d into these last.
III. — The third Chapter in the history of x\griculturo is in the same direction as the second. It shows an inten- sification of the blight which had fallen upon the earth in consequence of man's sin, the cause of intensification being that the sin had mounted to a climax, and the blight had become proportionably grievous. On Cain the murderer, against whom Abel's blood cried from the ground, this was the sentence ; " Now art thou cursed " from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive '* thy brother's blood from thy hand ; When thou tillest " the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her '* strength."- The sentence upon Adam had by no means gone the length of this. It was only to the effect that spontaneously the earth should yield nothing but thorns and thistles; in order to make it bring forth bread, the chief article of human sustenance, labour and sorrow must be endured in tilling it. But to " Cain, ir/io was of " that wicked one, and slew his brother,"^ it should yield ' Prov. xiv. 4. * Gcu. iv. 11, 12. ' I Juhn iii. I-'.
6 The llUtory of AgricuUtde
no return at all ; all his toil, however hard, should be fruitless, — a penalty, this fruitless toil, which, as tlioy uho are acquainted with prison discipline know, is enouj^h to break a man's spirit, and crush the heart out of him.
IV. — The fourth Chapter of this history is the ])laintive prophecy of Lamech uttered on the birth of Xoah, from which it appears that the toil of Agriculture had become so unusually severe that men began to groan and hibour under it as a burden, and to long and look for some relief. " And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two " years, and begat a son : And he called his name Xoah " (that is, Ilesty or, Comfort)^ " saying. This same shall *' comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, "because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed."^ It would seem that at the time of the utterance of this prophecy, the earth had been smitten by God with an extraordinary sterility, the account of which judgment it is not difficult to understand. For it was now drawing near the time of the deluge, when, as the sixth Chapter of Genesis informs us, human wickedness had reached its height : " And God saw^ that the wickedness of men was ** great in the earth, and t/icit every imagination of the "thoughts of his heart teas only evil continually. "^ Wicked Cain, in the sentence passed upon him, had already exemplified in its most intense form the con- nexion, in the way of penalty, between human sin and a barren soil, — and we can understand that shortly before the deluge a penalty of the same kind may have been inflicted more or less on the whole race of man, in consequence of the prevalent wickedness.
V. — Next to the utterance of Lamech's Prophecy, tlic fulfilment of it, as recorded in Gen. viii , presents ' Gen. T. 28, 29. ' Gen. vi. 5.
«s given in Holy Scripture.
itself for consideration. It was douLtful, before the fulfilment made it clear, in what way Noah should comfort men concerning their work and toil of their hands, — should give them relief from the disappointing labour which they spent in tillage, owing to the reluctance and scantiness with which the earth at that time yielded her fruit. But the fulfilment cleared up those parts of the prophecy which had been, as originally stated, obscure. "When the flood had subsided, and Noah and his family were by God's order liberated from the ark, he proceeded to build an altar, and to offer of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, (he would have none to spare ; for there were only seven couples of each species wherewith to replenish the earth ^ whence we may learn that poverty does not in any measure exempt us from giving a proportion of our means to God) a sacrifice of thanksgiving. *' And the "' Lord," it is added, in connexion with Noah's sacrifice, *' smelled a savour of red " (the word translated *' rest " is of the same root with the name Noah, which signifies rest or comfort) ; ** and the Lord said in his heart, I will " not again curse the ground any more for man's sake ;" — a quite distinct promise this from that which follows, and which secures man against a second deluge, •' neither will " I again smite any more every thing living, as I have " done,"^ — the ground was to be released from tlie extraordinary curse which Antediluvian sin had culled down upon it, and having received the great purifying Baptism of the deluge, was to return to its normal condition of fertility, when human labour was bestowed upon it. And surely it is significant that the earliest produce of tillage, which we read of after tlie flood, is
> Cnn. viii. '2J,
8 The History of Agriculture
*' wine f/iat makotli glad the heart of maD,"^— a good gift of God, and nothing to be refused, because the perversity of man leads him to misuse it and converts into a banc what was given as a boon, (for is it not a law that the best and most precious things become by corruption the worst, as love, which is the noblest of sentiments, is corrupted into lust, which is the basest ?) " And Noah ** began to he an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.''^ It was the cultivation of the vine, the noblest of fruit trees, and which yields the most generous liquor, that we read of as the earliest effort of Agriculture after the flood, and which was thus the token that the extraordinary curse, which had hitherto clogged and impeded Agriculture was removed, and the earth restored to its normal fertility.
AVc must not however so understand the words, ** 1 will not again curse the ground any more for man's ** sake," as if they implied more than that the earth itself should not again have penal sterility inflicted upon it. Throughout the whole history of Israel, as we see from the Law and the Prophets, one of God's habitual chastise- ments for his people's sin was to withhold those rains, and dews, and suns, which are the necessary conditions of large crops, or to blight the crop by insects or other natural agencies, when it promised well, and had nearly come to maturity. One passage must sufiice, as a speci- men of very many, scattered up and down over the Old Testament; "Thou shalt carry much seed out into the " field, and shalt gather but little in ; for the locust shall " consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress t/um, *• but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; *' for the worms shall eat them. Thou shalt have olive *' trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint ' See Pa. civ. 13. ' Gen. ix. 20.
as given in Ilohj Scripture. 9
*' f/ff/se/f with the oil; for thino olive shall cast hisfruit.^'^ AVhile the earth itself should be what it had been since the fall in point of productive power, favourable seasons, the conditions of its fertility, should still be in God's hand, to grant or to withhold, as He might see necessary in the moral discipline of His people.
VI. — And now wc approach that era of Grace, when He who was to redeem " us from the curse of the law, being *'made a curse for us,"^ appeared upon earth in fashion as a man, took flesh into union with His Divine Personality, and dwelt among us. He was to be the Second Man who should re-constitute and restore the ruined family ; the Man of whom Adam was but a figure.^ In His private life, before He entered upon His ministry. He was an artisan ; and it is certainly not a little remarkable that one of the earliest Christian Fathers (Justin, who lived not later than the middle of the second Century) records as a fact well known in his time that our Lord manu- factured agricultural implements, ploughs and yokes of oxen, " symbolizing hereby righteousness,'' says Justin, (for what is righteousness but submission to the yoke of God's precepts and dispensations ?) " and inculcating an " industrious life."^ But what glimpses of Him in the great work which He came to do upon earth, do the Holy {Scriptures themselves give us, which carry us back in thought to the curse pronounced upon the first man in Paradise ? It was in a garden that our ruin was incurred ; it was also in a garden, — the garden of Gethsemane, — 1 Deut.xxviii. 38, 39, 40. - Sec Gal.iii. 13. =' See Kom. v. H.
^Toi^TCt ^ap ra tiktovlkci epya elpya^ ero tv avOpto-noi^^ wu, aporpa kciI ^i^a' eta rovrwv kciI tu T>/«r ?lKaloarl^)]*^• avfjil^oXa ci(d(Thioi' kuI «€/>7>/ \_^ *-^^py'/] l^^ov. Lialogus cum 2Vypho)ie, § 88.
10 Ihc llidonj of AyvicuUiirc
that it was repaired. " In the sweat of thy face thou *' shalt oat hrcad," — this had heen the penalty upon the first man's transgression. How did tlio *' second man, the " Lord from heaven,"^ endure, and in enduring exhaust that curse and annihihitc it ? See Him prostrate in the garden, offering " up prayers and supplications with " strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save ** him from death."^ With what intensity of emotion those prayers are offered up, those tears are shed, let the phtcnomenon recorded by St. Luke attest ; and being " in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat " was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the " ground."^ Here is " the sweat of thy face," experienced by the Second ^lan in His tillage of the moral earth, whereby it should be made to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit ; but according to that which is written of I Tim, " This is he that came by water and blood, even .lesus ** Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood,"* there is more than water in this sweat, there is blood mixed with water, and both blood and water raining down upon the earth from His sacred brow, when He fell on His face and prayed, — a truly sanctifying Baptism, from which one might well believe that the earth would emerge regenerate, and with renovated powers. For let us bear in mind that it is the earth's curse which He is bearing, the curse drawn down indeed by Adam's sin, yet inflicted, not on Adam, but on the place of His abode, — " Cursed is the ground for thy sake." And lo ! we find another clear intimation of this in wdiat followed the agony and the apprehension; "And the soldiers " platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head."^ 0
^ See 1 Cor. xv. 47. ' See Hcb. v. 7.
' St. Luke xxii. 41. M John v. 0. '' St. John xix. 2.
us (jiveii in Holy Scriptia'c. 11
God, how dost Thou in Thy marvellous Providence direct the steps of men, while their own heart deviseth their way ; how canst Thou hring Thine own significance even out of words said, and deeds done, in defiance and contempt of Thee, out of Caiaphas's cynical heartless policy a precious and glorious prophecy,^ — out of the brutal mockery of these soldiers a divine intimation that thy Son is at present the Curse-hearer of the Earth, the Victim who is submitting himself to the penalty drawn down by Adam's transgression. For the sentence had run thus ; " Thorns also and thistles shall it bring *' forth to thee." And here is Christ, when about to bear " our sins in his own body on the tree,"^ crowned with thorns, the symbol of the earth's curse, the token that by reason of man's sin the soil had degenerated from its Paradise condition, and would spontaneously bring forth only useless or harmful produce.
VII. — No wis there any thing in Holy Scripture, which leads us to surmise that in another system of Nature, which is in God's good time to supersede the present one, the Earth, in virtue of the precious blood-drops of the Second Adam, will be restored to its Paradisaical condi- tion, and become what it was in productive powers before man fell ? There is. Let us turn to the third Chapter of the second Epistle of St. Peter, wherein it is predicted that in " the day of the Lord " *' the earth and " the works that are therein shall be burned up."^ Taken by itself this might seem to imply that the earth will be destroyed, since things which are burned up arc made away with, and practically annihilated. Put a further study of the Chapter serves to correct this impression. For the Apostle, having described the great conflagration, ' See St. John xi. 49 to 53. =^ See 1 Pet. ii. 21. ' v. 10.
12 The llistonj of Agriculture
Nvlilch shall dissolve the present system of Nature, distinctly looks forward to the existence of an earth in the future system, and grounds his anticipations on foregone Prophecy; " Xevertheless we," says he, ** according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new " earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."^ This is ob- viously a reference to Isaiah Ixv. and Ixvi. where we read, " Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth : and the ** former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind,"^ and again, " The new heavens and the new earth, which " I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord."^ Nor is it possible, I venture to think, to suppose that the new heavens and the new earth are not to be taken as a literal firmament or a literal soil, but merely as a general phrase for a new system of the universe. The passage in the Book of the Revelation, in which the inspired seer beholds in vision the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy seems to discourage this view, even if it docs not make it absolutely untenable ; " xVnd I saw a new heaven and a " new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth were " passed away ; and there was no more sea."'* There being no more sea in the glorified universe is a feature which almost seems to require a literal understanding of the words heaven and earth. Now, supposing this literal view of the meaning to be the true one, let it not be thought that the earth, which is to be, will be in such sense a new creation, as to have no connexion with the earth which now is. For St. Peter places side by side the destruction of the earth by the waters of the deluge with its destruction by fire at the last day ; "By the word of God ** the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of
' c. 13. -Ixv. 17. Mxvi. 22.
* Kev. xxi. 1.
as (jivcn in Holy Scripture. 13
'' the water and in the water " (R.Y. *' an earth compacted " out of water and amidst water") : AVherehy the " world " that then was, being overflowed with water, perished : *'13ut the heavens and the earth which are now, by the " same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against " the day of judgment."^ Its Baptism of uritcr did not desiroT/ the earth, which emerged from it purified, and re- lieved,' as we have seen, from that extraordinary curse, which had rendered labour so toilsome in the days before the flood. Why may we not suppose that, when it has passed through its Baptism o^Jire, it will emerge a regene- rated earth, fit to be the great domain of the " second man, '' the Lord from heaven," who will reign over it surrounded by His Saints,— an earth endowed with forces and fertilities, with beauty and brightness, of which we can at present form no conception ; and in which possibly, (for we must speak modestly and hesitatingly, and never dogmatize, on subjects so difficult as Unfulfilled Prophecy,) those words of the Evangelical Prophet will find a literal fulfilment, *' Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and " instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree."^ The earth's curse, drawn down by the first man, and the symbol of which the Second Man wore around his brow, when about to suff'er, shall be removed in that day by the virtue of His Agony and Bloody Sweat, of His Cross and Passion.
We have now passed in review the Scriptural history of Agriculture from its beginning to its close. And the truth, which it brings under our notice and emphasizes, is the close connexion, which by God's ordinance and appointment has subsisted ever since the time of the Fall * 2 Pet. ill. 5, G, 7. ' Isaiah Iv. 13.
14 The nU lory of Agricu Uu re
between the moral conduct of man and the productiveness of the Earth which is the place of man's abode. It has been pointed out that, while the earth is secured from an extraordinary curse, such as the sins of the Antediluvians called down upon it in the days of Lamech, by the promise made to Noah after the flood, still God holds in His own hands the keys of rain and sunshine, which are necessary to unlock the earth's storehouse, and make her yield her treasures for the sustenance and comfort of man. And this being the case, must we not attribute the recent series of very indifferent harvests, exactly coinciding as they did with the fall in the price of English agricultural produce in consequence of the importation of large quantities of foreign grain, — must we not attribute it to the cause indi- cated by the prophet Jeremiah, when similar casualties befell the Jews of his day ; " This people hath a revolting " and a rebellious heart ; they are revolted and gone. " Neither say they in their heart. Let us now fear the Lord " our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, " in his season : he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks " of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these " things, and your sins have withholden good things from " you."^ Is it not a meet recompense for the abounding infidelity, which has recently been making its ravages among all classes in this country, that God should make us feel Ilis hand blighting and crippling our Agriculture, if so be we may discern and humble ourselves under it ? Perhaps you will allege that, evil as some of the features of our time may be, there is much religion abroad, much apparent earnestness and even uprightness of moral conduct, and that all that is lacking is only orthodoxy. Ah I but how fundamental, how vital, how penetrating
> Jer. v. 23, 24, 25.
as given in Holy Scripture. 15
into the pith and marrow of Religion, is the orthodoxy tliat is lacking ! What our thinkers and cultivated men arc yearning for in all directions, what they are striving to create and propagate, is a religion without a God — a reliijion which shall retain the moral restraints of Christianity, while it cuts them off from their vitalizing principle, the recognition of a Personal Object of worship, a speaking God, a seeing God, a hearing God, or, as the Scripture with ^vonderful force and vividness designates llim, *' the living God." Perhaps it is not too much to say that now for a long time past all religious error has been working more or less in this direction and with this tendency, to eliminate God from the religious systems of mankind, — very like eliminating the sun from the system of the universe. Does not God do well under these circumstances to make His Hand felt in Nature, and particularly in those districts of Nature which most affect human life and human comfort ? If in our speculations we are inclined to renounce the fear of the Lord our God, is it not a merciful dispensation that lie should touch us in our means of subsistence, and make us know practically that for the prosperity of our Agriculture from first to last, from the sprouting of the seed to the garnering of the harvest, for every gleam of sunshine, for every shower of rain, for the shooting of every herb of pasturage, for the increase of cattle " strong to labour,"^ we are dependent upon the operation of a Hand, which is too dexterous ever to err, too loving ever to inflict unnecessary pain.
0 Lord, if in the wise ordering of Thy Providence it is decreed that in these latter times antichrists should abound, that "evil men and seducers" should " wax worse 1 See Ps. cxHv. 14.
16 The Ilidory of Agriculture.
*' and worse, deceiving, and being deceived,"^ and tliat Infidelity should still spread, under the permitted influence of Satan, until it finds its climax in the great Antichrist, who shall offer Himself instead of Christ for the worship of the faithful, and shall come nigh to deceive the very elect, let not the little flock, who are true to Thee in the ground of their heart, smart under Thy mighty hand, without humbling themselves under it. Pour on them " the spirit of grace and of supplications,"^ that with weeping, fasting, and praying, they may intercede with Thee, not for themselves alone, but the Church and the world, true Daniels " in the desolations " of Jerusalem " confessing the sins of the spiritual Israel, and " presenting their supplications before the Lord their "God."* for "the city of the living God, the heavcniij " Jerusalem,"^ and answered, as he was answered, if not by an angel visible to the eye, yet by a message of comfort and encouragement to the heart, which shall " lift uj) the " hands which hang down and the feeble knees."^
^ See 2 Tim. iii. 13. ' See Zech. xii. 10.
=» See Dan. ix. 2, 20. " See Heb. xii. 22. ^ See Hob. xii. 12.
FORM OF SPECIAL SERVICE
USED DURING THE WEEK OF THE VISIT OF THE
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY,
JULYlith, iith, i/^tk, iSth, idth, ^ i-jth, 1886.
1. Sentence of Holy Scripture.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet;
All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field ;
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. Psalm viii. 6, 7, 8.
2. General Confession.
3. Absolution.
4. The Lord's Prayer, and following Versicles.
5. Psalms. {One each day).
viii. ; Ixv. ; civ. ; cxliv. ; cxlvii. ; cxlviii.
6. Lessons. {^One each daj).
Genesis i. 24 to end; Isaiah i. 2 to 10; Jeremiah viii. 4 to 10; Jonah iii. ; St. Matthew vi. 24 to end; St. John X. I to 17.
18 Form of Special Service,
7. Anthems. {One each day).
(i) The Lord is loving. (496 in Anthem Book).
Psalm cxlv. Full.
9. The Lord is loving unto every man : and His mercy is over all His \vorks.
10. All Thy works praise Thee, O Lord : and Thy saints give thanks unto Thee.
1 1 . They show the glory of Thy kingdom : and talk of Thy power.
12. That Thy power, Thy glory, and the mightiness of Thy kingdom : might be known unto men.
13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Garrett.
(2) Thou visitest the earth. (520 in Anthem Book).
Psalm I XV. Full. 9, 12. Thou visitest the earth, and blessest it: Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness. Greene.
(3) O PRAISE the Lord. (436 in Anthem Book).
Psalm cxlvii. Full. I. O praise the Lord, for it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God : yea, a joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful.
5. Great is our Lord, and great is His power: yea, and His wisdom is infinite. Weldon.
(4) From all that dwell. (302 in Anthem Book). Version of Psalm cxvii. Full. From all that dwell below the skies Let the Creator's praise arise ; Let the Redeemer's name be sung Through every land, by every tongue.
Eternal are Thy mercies. Lord,
Eternal truth attends Thy word ;
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore,
Till suns shall rise and set no more. Walmisley
Form of Sjxcial Service. 11)
(5) Great is the Lord. (320 in Anthem Book).
Psalm cxlv. Full.
3. Great is the Lord, and marvellous, worthy to be praised : there is no end of His greatness.
4. One generation shall praise Thy works unto another : and declare Thy power. Amen. W. Hayes.
(6) O LOVE THE Lord. (430 in Anthem Book.)
Psalm xxxi. Full.
26. O love the Lord, all ye His saints : for the Lord preserveth them that are faithful, and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer.
27. Be strong, and He shall establish your heart : all ye that put your trust in the Lord. Sullivan.
8. Prayers.
Let us pray.
( 1 ) That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them :
We beseech Thee to hear its, good Lord.
(2) Collect of the Day (Third Sunday after Trinity).
(3) Collect for Grace. (O Lord, our heavenly Father, (S:c.)
(4) O God, merciful Father, increase the
fruits of the earth by thy heavenly benediction ; and grant that we, receiving thy bountiful liberality, may use the same to thy glory, the relief of those that are needy, and our own comfort ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ajncn. {From the Second Prayer in the time of Dearth and Famine).
(5) The General Thanksgiving.
(6) A Prayer of St. Chrysostom.
(7) The Grace of our Lord Jfsus Christ, &c.
ADDRKSSES GIVEN TX THE COURSE OE THE SPECIAL SERVICE,
Monday y July 12th. Lesson : Gen. i. 24 to cud.
Y. 26. " And God said, Let us make man in our *' image, after our likeness." — In what did the image of God, impressed upon man at his creation, hut not impressed on the inferior animals created on the same day with him, consist ? Principally, I suppose, in his endowment with the intellectual and moral faculties. As to the former of these, how wonderful in its capacity is the intellect of man ! Consider merely the fact that man, as to his hodily frame a mere worm of earth,^ as to his bodily life the creature of a day, is yet able to calculate the distance from one fixed star to another. In virtue of this intel- lectual faculty, too, man is in a certain sense a creator, and thus bears God's image. Do we not speak of a great poem, like ^Milton's '* Paradise Lost," of a great piece of music, like Handel's *' Messiah," of a great painting, like one of Paffaellc's ^ladonnas, as a creation ? Yet great as the intellectual faculty is, and much as it ennobles man, far greater and far more ennobling is the moral faculty. I mean by the moral faculty, the conscience which apprehends God, and the will which chooses God, and cleaves to Ilim and to His will out of love. Apart from this moral faculty, which was closely united with the intellectual in man's original
^ See Job XXV. 6.
Man made in the imafje of God. 21
creation, it is impossible for man to hold communion with his Creator, and so to be ennobled in the truest and highest sense. Apart from it, man may be brilliant, but lie cannot be godlike ; — nay, in the suppression or misdirection of the moral faculty he may set himself against God, and thus against his own nobility, blessedness, and rest. It was a great saying of the late Kobert Montgomery's, that " Satan is intellect without *' God." 0 let us cultivate that moral wisdom which (as distinct from discovery and science) is declared in Job xxviii. to be man's true sphere ; " And unto man " he said. Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; " and to depart from evil is understanding."^ That moral wisdom lies at the root of our communion with God ; and communion with God, through the mediation of His Son, and under the influence of Ilis Spirit, is the highest point of dignity to which man can attain. Of those in the enjoyment of this communion it may reasonably and truly be said, *' Ye arc gods ; and all of " you are children of the most High." (Ps. Ixxxii. 0 ; St. John X. 34).
Tuesday y Jahj 13///. Lesson : Isaiah i. 2 to 10,
V. 3. '' Tlie ox knoweth his owner, and the ass *' his master's crib : hut Israel doth not know, my people *' doth not consider." — Instinct never goes astray, never misleads the creatures endowed with it. Keason went astray at the Fall, and has often since misdirected the human creature. Hence we find man reproved in Holy Scripture by the example of the beasts that perish ; these
' V. 28.
22 Ilcasoii contracted icith Inatinct
Leasts are appealed to as putting men to shame. " The ox " knoweth his owner," recognises hy dumh signs the man to wliom he belongs, " and the ass his master's crib," — the place at Avhich he is fed, and the hand that feeds him ; but reason lags behind instinct in the recognition of the Heavenly Owner, and of the benefits and blessings, which He pours upon His creatures ; " Israel doth not '* know, my people doth not consider." This verse implies that man is God's property and belongs to Him, as " the ox " to his " owner." And how indefeasible and indisputable is God's claim to this ownership ! What gives man a claim to he the owner of the ox is merely that he has paid down for the purchase of the creature a sum of money. But God's first and fundamental claim upon us arises from His being our Creator, from His having fashioned and moulded the clay of which we are made, and breathed into it the breath of life.^ What an absolute property do we conceive a man to have in his own productions, the artist in his picture, the poet in his poem, the musician in the strain which he has com- posed!— Xor is this God's only or strongest claim to ownership of us. He hath bought us back from the dominion which the devil had usurped over us, " not •' with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the ** precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish *' and without spot,"- — as if an artist were to pay a heavy ransom to recover a picture, upon which he had spent much pains and skill, but of which he had been robbed. It is on this second and stronger claim, arising from redemption, that the Apostle builds his exhortation to us to glorify God ; — " Ye are not your own ; for ye are *' bought with a price : therefore glorify God in
* See Gen. ii. 7 ; Ts. cxxxix. 1.3, IG. '1 IVtcr i. 18, I'J.
in its recognition of persons. 23
"your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. "^ As to the benefits by which God seeks to establish a claim upon our gratitude and acknowledgment, (corresponding to the master's kind and humane treatment of his ass), these are vividly represented in figurative language by the Prophet Hosea r " I drew *' them with cords of a man, w^ith bands of love : **and I was to them as they that take off" \_Ararg. lift up] " the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them." Our heavenly Master relieves us of the yoke of the Law, by enabling us to believe in Christ's having met all its demands on our behalf, and of the yoke of sin, by the effectual working of His Spirit, and He substitutes for those galling yokes the " easy yoke and light burden " of Christ's precepts and dispensations, — easy and Hght because borne in the strength of love, — and lays before us the heavenly food of the Word and Sacraments, thus making provision for all the necessities of our souls. This again is a third claim upon our allegiance to Ilim, over and above those of Creation and .Redemption,
Wednesday, July 14///.
Lesso>' : Jer. viii. 4 to 10.
" Vv. 7, 8. *' Yea, the stork in the heavens ** knoweth her appointed times ; and the turtle and the " crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming ; "but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. *' How do ye say. We are wise, and the law of the Lord ''is with us?"— Our yesterday's text brought before us the contrast of Reason with Instinct in its recognition of > 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. ' Ch. xi. 4.
24 Reason contrasted with Instinct
persons and places. To-day's brings before us a similar contrast in respect of the recognition of times and seasons. The birds' of passage seem to desert us at the approach of winter ; but their migration ouly lasts for a time ; the warm breath of spi'ing, the tree bursting into blossom, the purling stream, the turf enamelled with flowers, woo them back again in their season. ** But my " people know not the judgment of the Lord." llow then can they claim to be " wise," having not so much wisdom as is exhibited by the fowls of the air ? — By the "judgment of the Lord" is meant God's way and method of dealing with His people. And the particular way and method here alluded to is His plan of allowing to each one of us *' a day of grace," during which gracious and attractive invitations arc made to us, analogous to the warm breath of spring, which woos back the migratory birds. First, the Saviour's own call, oftbring an easy yoke and light burden in exchange for the galling yoke of the law and sin ; " Come unto me, " all 1/e that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give *' you rest. Take my yoke upon you,"^ &c. Then the Holy Spirit's whisper in the conscience, seconding the Saviour's invitation from without, and the call made by the ministers of the Church, God's ambassadors, designed to turn God's TFo;y/ into His Voice, and to give it a living and operative energy ; " The Spirit and the bride say, Come."- And then again for individual Christians there are divers Providential dealings, according to the infinite variety of their circumstances and needs, each of which may be called a "judgment of the Lord," — for one a bereavement, for another loss of health, for a third poverty, for a fourth a cup running over with mercies,
^ St Matt. xi. 28, 29, 30. - llcv. xxii. 17.
ill its recognition of times. 25
each of these dispensations having a special significance to the individual who is dealt with by it.
But remember that just as the warm spring weather, which woos back the birds of passage, has its close, and passes at length through the maturity of summer, and the decadence of autumn, into the rigours of winter, so it is also with the day of grace, — like all days, it comes to an end. Therefore " seek ye the Lord while he may *' be found, call ye upon him while he is near : Let the " wicked forsake his way, and " (something beyond that, for there may be sin in the thoughts and intentions of the heart, when there is none in the conduct) " the *' unrighteous man his thoughts : and let him return " unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ;" (here is the warm breath of the spiritual spring, wooing the wandering soul back again to God), *' and to our *' God, for he will abundantly pardon."^ Behold, now " is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of " salvation.''^
Tliiirsday, July 15///. Lesson : Jonah iii.
y. IL *SVnd should not I spare Nineveh, that " great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand " persons that cannot discern between their right hand *' their left hand ; and also much cattle ?" — That God cares for the lower animals might be inferred from llis commendinc: them to man fur imitation (as we have seen that Ifc does), in their obedience to the lower law of instinct. But here He gives * Isaiah Iv. G, 7. ^2 Cor. vi. 2.
26 God's love for the lower creatures.
expression to His care for tliein with His own moutli. Jonah had not hihourcd for the gourd nor made it grow, hut God had laboured for Nineveh, to rear up there gradually the structure of a great civilisation. AYhat pains does God take with the works of llis hands, to make them beautiful and useful ! AVhat pains docs lie bestow in painting the lily and the rose ; and if inanimate nature is so exquisitely elaborated by Him, what pains must we not suppose that He bestosvs upon the higher forms of life, the animal and the rational ! It is touchingly intimated in to-day's text that the care, which God bestows upon His lower works, — the irrational ones, and those which, though endowed with reason, have not yet the use of it, — binds them, in their helplessness and dependence, about His heart, and moves Him to compassionate them. " Should not I spare xSineveh, " wherein are " — not great buildings only, but thousands of infants and thousands of cattle ? God's care for the inferior animals, in making provision for their wants, and responding to their inarticulate cries for help, is brought before us in many passages of Holy Scripture. Thus ; " God remembered Noah, and every living thing, " and all the cattle that mis with him in the ark ;"^ "lie causeth the grass to grow for the cattle;"- *'His ** tender mercies are over all his works ;"^ " He givcth to *' the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry,"^ (their cry of hunger is accounted a prayer in the ears of their Creator). There is however a text which seems to deny God's care for the inferior animals, and which therefore requires explanation here. St. Paul iu 1 Cor. ix. 9, 10, in advocating and enjoining the support of Christian
^ Gun. viii. 1. - Ts. civ. 14.
■^ Ts. cxlv. \). * Ps. cxlvii. 1'.
GoiVs love for the lower creatures. 27
ministers by those to whom they minister, says *'It is " written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle " the mouth of the ox that treadetli out the corn. Loth " God take care for oxen ? Or saith he it altogether for "oursakes? For our sakes no doubt this is written." *'The Church may not so expound one place of Scripture, *' that it be repugnant to another ;"^ so that we must find some mode of reconciling these apparently con- tradictory statements. The Apostle then by no means denies that God has a regard for the cattle ; but only asserts that in a particular precept of his holy Word, the Holy Spirit must be taken to have a higher aim than merely securing the interests of the inferior creatures. He teaches us to see a great principle underlying that particular precept of the Mosaic law, — the principle of remunerating equitably all who serve us, not only the dumb animal which toils in the furrow, but the servant who waits upon us, and the minister who " labours in the word and doctrine."- The precept does indeed secure a provision for the ox, and was intended so to do ; but certainly it looks beyond the ox, and was meant to go deeper, and it demands compensation for any of our fellow-men who labour in our service.
The moral lesson is that, if God cares so tenderly for animals, we too should care for them. " A righteous " man regardeth the life of his beast,"^ — in the Hebrew original it is, '' knoiceth the life of his beast," — throws himself into the creature's life by consideration of its necessities and feelings, and deals with it in sympathy, from a realisation of its wants. There is no sin so execrable as cruelty to animals.
^See the Twentieth Article. - See 1 Tim. v. 17. '' Trov. xii. 10.
28 The use made of the Works of Nature in the
Friday, July IGfh. Lesson : St. Matoiew vi. 24 to end.
Vv. 2G, 28. ''Behold the fowls of the air."
" Consider the lilies of the field." — Our
Lord was in the habit of taking texts for His sermons from subjects which fell under Tlis eye at the time. As He is delivering His great Sermon on the Mount from a pleasant knoll which overlooked the sea of Galilee, He casts His eyes upwards, and sees the birds dartincr to and fro in the clear blue skv, and draws from them the lesson that we should cast all our care for food upon God, who to us is our heavenly Father, to them only their Creator. Then, casting His eyes down- wards to the earth. He sees the green sward around Him, on which the multitude were seated, tufted with lilies ; and gathering a tuft of these, and holding them up before the people, He admonishes them to take no anxious thought for raiment, as the flowers, those " stars " which in earth's firmament do shine,"^ were thus gorgeously apparelled by their Creator, though they give no toil in the manufacture of raiment.
Our Lord here takes His text, then, from the works of Nature, both animate and inanimate, — that is, from the works of His own hands ; for by Tlim, *' who is the " image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every *' creature, were all things created, that are in heaven, *' and that are in earth."- In the Book of Job, too, which we are now reading through in the daily course of Lessons, we find God commending to the Patriarch Job the works of Ilis hands, and drawing instruction for Job out of those works. But how ' Longfellow's roeuis. ^ Col. i. \d, IG.
Old and New Testmnenh respectively. 29
strangely contrasted are the works chosen to enforce the lesson which was to be taught to the patriarch, and that which the disciples were to learn ! In the one case the animals selected for the purpose of the Divine argument are among the strongest and most terrible with which we are acquainted, — the unicorn* (buffalo, or wild ox) ; the war-horse, " swallowing the ground with fierceness and " rage,"^ the behemoth^ (or the hippopotamus) wallowing with lazy bulk in the fens, the leviathan"* (or crocodile) invincible by human weapons, while the inanimate works selected to enforce the argument are all of the sublimer order, the sea,^ the snow,^ the hail,^ the rain,^ the stars,^ the lightning,*^ the clouds.^* "Whereas in the other case, the works selected are the fowls and the flowers, — works which can inspire no dismay, and can only attract by their beauty and gracefulness. The difference of the works appealed to is to be sought in the difference of the lessons to be enforced. Job is to be thoroughly humbled, and brought to a confession of his weakness, ignorance, and sinfulness ; and therefore the chief works of Divine Power, — all that is sublime, strong, terrible, irresistible in God's creation is to be marshalled before his eyes. But the disciples of our Lord, who sat around II im on the mount, were humble folks, toil-worn, and care-worn, who needed heart's ease, such as only trust in God's fatherly care and Providence can give. They needed to be consoled, not terrified ; and for them therefore He draws His lessons from the birds of the air, and the flowers with which the turf is enamelled. And the lesson He draws is this ; " Man has only room in his
1 See Job xxxix. 9, &c. ^ ^.^. 19, 94. =* Ch. xl. 15, &c.
* Ch. xli. 1, (Sec. ' Ch. xxxviii. 8, &c. ' Ch. xxxviii. 22.
' Ihid. ' vv. 25, 26, 28. ' v. 31, &c. '' v. 35. '' v. 37.
30 The snsceptibiliti/ of spiritual men to sin.
*' heart for one solicitude, and that is the solicitude " expressed in the question, ' What must I do to he " * saved ' ?^ God's glory and man's salvation arc " interests which can tolerate no rivals in your minds. " As for other solicitudes, throw them on your heavenly " Father in assured faith that He will provide." I have thus opened a vein of thought which I hope to pursue further on Sunday Morning \_Scc concluding Sermon on the 18th] ; and meanwhile,
''Lord, make these faithless hearts of ours
*' Such lessons learn from birds and flowers, " Make them from self to cease,
" Leave all things to a Father's will,
** And taste, before Him lying still, " Ev'n in affliction peace. "^
Satiirdcnjj July V7th. Lesson : St. Johx x. 1 to 17.
Y. 14. *a am the good shepherd."~Thc Shepherd character and functions of Messiah were foretold by Psalmists and Prophets long before the Good Shepherd appeared on earth, and claimed to hold the character and fulfil the functions. A most touching plea for the fulfilment of these functions to a stray sheep is to be found in the last verse of Psalm cxix. ; ** I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; seek *' thy servant ; for I do not forget thy commandments." In the connexion in which they stand, these words surprise us. For what a holy and spiritual man was the writer of the hundred and nineteenth Psalm ! IIow is his delight in God's law constantly transpiring throughout the Psalm,
^ See Acts xvi. 30. - " Hymns Ancient and Modern." 186.
The susceptihility of spiritual 7nen to sin. 31
how irrepressible is the fervour Avitli which he embraces that law ! {v. 107. " My soul hath kept thy testimonies; " and I love them exceedingly ;" i\ 159. " Consider " how I love thy precepts ;" v. 143. ** Thy command- "ments are my delights ;" v. 20. *' My soul breaketh " for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all *' times ;" v. 72. *' The law of thy mouth is better unto *'me than thousands of gold and silver.") Never did this holy man (Ezra probably) retire to rest without meditation on God's law ; *' Mine eyes prevent the night " watches, that I might meditate in thy word." (r. 148). And yet the culminating devotional utterance of the Psalm is a confession of sin, and of his impotence to return to God of himself, without the preventing grace of the Good Shepherd, who must go forth in quest of him ; — " I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; seek thy servant." Some commentators have felt so strongly the apparent inconsistency of the last verse with all that has preceded, that they have supposed the " going astray " referred to not to be a moral going astray at all. They have taken the allusion to be merely to the dispersion of Israel in the captivities, that is, to the punishment of their sin, and not to the sin itself ; and the Psalmist, where he says " I," and *' thy servant," is, according to these expositors, to be understood not as speaking in his own person, but in that of his nation. But what a wretchedly jejune and meagre exposition is this ! It need not indeed be denied that there may be in the words an under- current of reference to the circumstance of the dispersion of Israel (we should never so tie up a passage of Holy Scripture, rich and full as it is, to one meaning as to deny to it any other) ; but surely the difficulty of regarding the passage as applicable chiefly to the
f32 The susceptibility of spiritual men to sin.
individual soul, and to the going astray of sin, vanishes as soon as we come to examine the pha^nomena of the spiritual life. For who docs not know that the more holy and spiritually-minded a man becomes, the more strongly developed is his susceptibility to sin, so that what common Christians regard as a molehill of sin he regards as a mountain, beneath whose weight he lies oppressed ? It is not that he is unmindful or unobservant of God's law ; far from it ; (the last clause of the verse forbids us to suppose that the petitioner is living in sin ; for he says, " I do not forget thy commandments"), but that being spiritually-minded he feels the taint in his nature, and the infection of all his thoughts and feelings by it, more acutely than others do. This is a common feature of all religious biographies ; the subject of the biography expresses himself in his private devotions and journals almost as if he were conscious of having com- mitted the worst crimes. It is only the experience of the Apostle repeating itself; "I delight in the law of God " after the inward man : But I see another law in my " members, warring against the law of my mind, and " bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is " in my members. 0 wretched man that I am !"^ And as for the individuality of this confession and supplication, even if the Psalmist does speak as a representative of Israel, can wo cut off this or any other devotional utterance of the Psalms from o. personal reference? —
*' /who have lost my way, I am that sheep astray ;
" Save me, Christ Jesu, from peril of hell, ** And in the cleansing flood of Thine own precious blood
•* Wash me, that cleansed I may worship thee well."^
^ Rom. vii. 22, 23, 24.
^ Translation (slightly altered) of an ancient Latin Hymn,
found in *' Neale on the Psalms," in he.
CoNCLiDiNG Sermon in the Cathedral, delivered
July 18th, 1886
(Fourth Sunday apter Trinity).
€f)t xm maire of tijtmovk^ of i^atuie m tijt ©Itr ana ^tb) Ct^tamentis rt^ptrtibtly*
Job xxxviii., xxxix., xl., xli. and xlii. to v. 7, with St- Matt. vi. 28, 29, 30.
And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin : And yet I
SAY UNTO YOU, ThAT EVEN SoLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY WAS NOT ARRAYED LIKE ONE OF THESE. WhEREFORE,
IF God SO clothe the grass of the field, which
TO-DAY IS, AND TO-MORROW IS CAST INTO THE OVEN,
shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of litixe
FAITH ?
•^^jVTXnAT is the moral and spiritual use, which the <il^ Word of God makes of the "Works of Nature ? "We know that the study of God's works has by no means been always conducive to the interests of Heh'gion. The students of Nature have too often rested in secondary causes, and observing that in all the arrange- ments of the Universe there is law, method, and order, have failed to discern the Personal God who ordains and administers the Law, works in the method, observes the order. But the works of Nature 7naf/ be so studied, that the
D
34 The use made of the WorU of Nature in the
largest monil and spiritual benefit shall bo gathered from the study. And the method in which wo may gather this profit from them will surely be indicated to us in the Holy Scriptures.
The Scriptures are divided into the Old and New Testament. Kor is the division arbitrary. There is between the Old and New Testament a real and designed distinction of genius and spirit, at which indeed some have stumbled, even as Marcion did in very early times, but which, as soon as we gain a real insight into it, becomes a help rather than a drawback to faith. God under the Old Testament could not be exhibited exp/iciili/ as a redeeming God. He could not be spoken of there, except darkly and covertly, in any other character than that of Creator and Supreme Governor. The idea of Redemption, and everlasting consolation through grace, was not to be developed until the Redeemer and the Comforter came. Can we wonder that, when the idea teas developed, it shed certain tints, wholly new, upon the entire spiritual prospect, — just as the sun's light, Avhen it breaks through clouds, gives completely new features to an hitherto tame and cheerless landscape ? Now this difference of spirit, which we have pointed out, makes itself strongly felt in the different aspects under which Nature is presented to us in the Old Testament and in the New.
I. — The thirty-eighth and three following Chapters of the Book of Job may be said to set forth the use which the Old Testament makes of Nature, The address of the Almighty to Job contained in those Chapters must perhaps be pronounced the sublimest portion of that sublimest of all books, — the Bible. Its subject-matters are as lofty as their method of treatment. You will
Old and New Testaments respect ivebj. 35
observe that the works chosen for this Divine expostulation arc all the grandest works of Nature, those which bear the most illustrious testimony to God's power. Each blade of grass, each gem of dew, each tiniest animalcule, is a perfect miniature, if we will but study it, of God's Wisdom and Benevolence. But God docs not here call Job's attention to blades of grass, or gems of dew, or animalcules. He opens his appeal with the grand scene of the foundation of the Earth, and its solemn inauguration as the abode of man, and as destined to bo the scene of his Redemption.^ The dawn, the sea, the elements, with their changeful influences, constellations with the seasons over which they preside, the rain, the thunder, are next passed in review. Then come the stronger and more powerful animals known to Job, enumerated, observe, with a studied avoidance of the tamer and more domestic creatures, — the lion springing upon his prey,2 — the onagra setting at defiance all attempts to secure him, and dashing, free and fleet as the wind, into the wilderness,^ — the bufi'alo, (the unicorn) disdaining to serve man, as the ox serves him, in the furrow,"* — the ostrich towering with tall neck over the horse and his rider " what time she lifteth up herself on high,"^ — the warhorse, catching the ardour of the captains, and paw- ing and neighing impatiently for the fray f the eagle building her eyrie so high that no hand of man can pluck it down;" the hippopotamus (behemoth), fed indeed on vegetables, but of enormous strength, lazily stretching his vast bulk in the fens and moist places f and lastly the
^ Ch. xxxviii. I to ^. ^ Ch. xxxviii. 39, 40.
^ Ch. xxxix. V. 5 to d. * i\ 9 to 13. ^ v. 13 to 10.
U\ 19 to 26. ■ V. 27 to the end. "^ Ch. xl. v. 15 to the end.
36 The use made of the Works of Nature in the
crocodile {leviathan),^ tliat frightful monster of the deep, which churns the ocean into a little tempest, and presents no vulnerable point to human weapons ; — these are the creatures selected as most appropriate to the purpose of the Divine argument, and there can be no difficulty in seeing on what principle the selection is made. The common property of all these works of God, patent upon the first view of them, is 2)oivcr.
And now turn to the use which the Divine Speaker makes of them. David makes the same use of one of them, though only of one, in that magnificent passage of the Psalms; " AVhen I consider thy heavens, the work of " thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast '' ordained ; What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? " and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"^ The use is to overwhelm and crush human pride, — to convict and utterly confound Job, who, though a man of integrity in the main, had yet ventured to call in question the Providential ways of God. The argument, which Job had maintained, and even professed himself anxious to carry on, with his Creator, was one, which has not even yet, under our much clearer light, ceased to present diffi- culties to the human understanding. It was simply this ; that it is hard to reconcile God's justice and goodness with the crushing calamities, which sometimes overtake men of the most sterling religious integrity, and of the most pious minds. Job had definitely challenged the Almighty to give an account of this pha)nomenon of his administration. And now observe what is the account which the Almighty condescends to give. Job's difficulties lay in Providence, — in the sphere of those events which befall man, and which affect his happiness. His impeachment
' Ch. xli. -Psalm viii. 3, 4.
Old and New Testamenh respectively. 37
of the Lord was founded upon the supposed injustice of the principle, on which good and ill fortune are admin- istered. But God does not answer Job from the subject of his own choosing. He turns the Patriarch's eye in another quarter. Job had pointed to Providence ; God points to Nature. Job had appealed to events; God appeals to the works of Creation. Why is this ? For the best of reasons. The Lord's purpose is to impress upon Job that, through ignorance and inexperience, the creature is not at all qualified to be judge of the Creator's ways. lie was to be brought to this humble confession, that he had been committing himself to speculations, on subjects which he did not in the least understand; "Therefore have I uttered that I understood not ; things *' too wonderful for me, which I knew not."^ Now there is no such satisfactory method of convincing a man of utter ignorance and incapacity as the calling him to the study of God's works, and asking an account of the most obvious natural phwnomena. In that department the mind of man is soon brought to a stand-still by two or three simple questions. The circulation of the blood in living animal bodies ^as thought to be a great discovery. But had you asked the discoverer what was the cause or principle of the motion called circulation, ho must have answered "I do not know." To answer that the cause of the motion is life, would be only dissembling instead of resolving the difficulty ; for what is life ? " I do not '' know." And so, because in the realm of Nature man is 60 easily and so palpably confounded, God calls Job away to this realm from that of Providence. He says to him virtually ; ''You profess to judge my ways and dealings. " Now, of course, you hereby imply that you know them
' Ch. xlii. o.
38 The use made of the U^orks of Nature in the
*' thoroughly. No man is competent to be a judge, who " has insufficient knowledge of the state of the case, on "which he is called on to decide. A child may judge a " father unkind, and unjust, for withholding from him an " indulgence ; but it is clear that he must be liable to go " wrong in such judgment, from ignorance and inexpe- " rience of the usual effects of such indulgence. If, theu, " you are qualified to judge, and call me to account, by "acquaintance with my icat/s, perhaps you will prove " 5"our competency by showing some acquaintance with " my works. He that can follow me in Providence, which "is an intricate labyrinth, can a fortiori follow " me in Nature, which is not so intricate. Reply then " to these simple challenges, and render me some account, " as thou art so intimately acquainted with my proceed- " ings, of some of my tcorks. If you understand those " works, you must understand their rudiments. Doubtless "you were by me, and in my confidence, when the " scheme of the Universe was planned ? Tell me then " what the earth rests upon ? how the dayspring is "contrived? what is the secret of the vicissitude of " seasons ? what is the cause generally of the most " obvious natural pha3nomena ? Ilafh the rain a father ? " or tcho hath begotten the drops of dew ? Out of whose " womb came the ice ? and the hoary frost of heaven, " tcho hath gendered it ? Nay, Job, thou art but of " yesterday, and knowest nothing ; a poor ignorant " creature placed in a sublime position — in the confluence " of two eternities. And not ignorant only, but very feeble. The tremendous agencies of Nature surround thee on all sidos, and thou art at every moment in their grip, — thou " art like a fly perched on some vast piece of machinery " in the laboratory of a giant. Hundreds of creatures
Old and Netc Testaments respectively. 39
" without reason (the lion, the behemoth, the leviathan) " are strong enough utterly to despise thee ; and woe "betide thee, if those creatures had but wisdom com- " mensurate with their strength ! If then thou art both "feeble and ignorant, thou art no judge of the All strong " and the All wise."
Now, Brethren, we desire to apply to the difficulties of God's Word the same argument, which He himself here applies to the difficulties of His Providence. This indeed would be an antidote to the rationalism of the day, if those who patronise and adopt it would seriously ask themselves how far they can give an account of God's proceedings in Nature. They constitute themselves judges of the ways of the Most High in Grace, — they challenge that representation of His dealings, which is made in His \Yord. That an innocent Victim should expiate the sins of the guilty ; that each of us is viewed by God as connected with one of two Covenant-Heads, either Adam or Christ ; that the character of Judge, which God inalienably possesses, must be reconciled with the character of Father in the salvation of a sinner ; that the body will rise again in incorruption ; that there is a mysterious and ineffable Tripcrsonality in the precinct of the Divine Nature ; that eternal misery awaits those who deliberately reject the Gospel, — these are truths plainly written in God's Word, but of which, by rejecting them as inconsistent with the reason and moral sense, the rationalist presumptuously challenges God to render an account. And the remedy would be, no doubt, to tako him into the field of Nature, and ask him whether on that field he conceives himself to be a competent judge of God's ways and works. Where was he when God laid the foundations of the earth ? let him declare, if he
40 The use made of the Works of Nature in the
has understanding. Is there a single question of science, turning upon the pho^nomena of Nature, of which the rationalist can give — not a superficial account, but — a thoroughly exhaustive explanation ? Is there a single solution of such a question, offered by the natural philosopher, which has not mystery in the back ground of it? Shut up the rationalist in Nature, as in a labyrinth ; and can he make three steps without coming to a stand -still ? And if such be his confessed incapacity of judging of God's works, how shall he constitute himself a judge of that more arduous subject-matter, that far loftier manifestation of the Divine Eeiag, Ilis Word. Had he Job's openness to conviction, surely one glance around him in Nature would suffice to confound him, and to draw from him that confession of sinful presumption and ignorant criticism ; " Who is he that hideth counsel without *' knowledge ? therefore have I uttered that I understood " not ; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
'' Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in
** dust and ashes. "^
II. — We turn now to the use which is made of the works of Nature in the New Testament. Our Lord, the Author of Nature, " by whom all things were madc,"^ draws much more largely upon Nature for the purpose of illustration and moral teaching than his Apostles do. And it is very observable that the greater number of his illustrations is drawn from tbe vegetable world. The Parables of the Sower, the Tares, the ^Mustard Seed, the Seed growing secretly, and the Barren Fig-Tree, are all of them occupied with the subject of trees and plants, and bring before the mind the quiet process of growth, and the
* Chap. xlii. 3, G. ^ Kicenc Creed, and see Col. i. 10,
Old and New Testaments resjKctively. 41
homely operations of Agriculture. And wlierc lie passes into the animal ^Yorld, to select thence an illustration of a spiritual topic, lie generally chooses the harmless animals, as in the Parable of the Draw Net with its good and bad fish, and of the Lost Sheep. If He speaks, as He does on one occasion, of the raven, it is not to call attention to the wildness or strength of the creature, but to the provision which God makes for its wants, — an argument this for trust in His fatherly care.^ But it is in the passage which I have chosen as part of my text, that the contrast between the Old Testament and the New Testament use of Nature is most sharply and beautifully brought out. The province of the Law, — and the Old Testament rings throughout with the mut- tered thunders of the Law, — was to confound man with convictions of his own guilt, impotence, and nothingness. The Law has done its work upon us when it has dealt a death blow to our pride ; when it has brought us to put our hand upon our mouth, and to lay our mouth in the dust, and to say with Job; " Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and "■ ashes." To engender this state of mind in the patriarch, the most formidable objects which the realm of Nature supplies were, as we have seen, passed by the Almighty Creator before the eye of his mind. One form of terror after another passes across the field, like monsters pro- jected by the magic lantern on a sheet before the eyes of terrified children, — the fierce lion, the wild onagra, the towering ostrich, the impetuous charger, the ravenous bird of prey snuffing the carcases from afiir, the lazy bulk of the vast behemoth, and the leviathan who disports himself in the deep, as a congenial element for a
J 8ee St. Luke xii. 24.
42 The use made of the Works of Nature in the
creature so strong and so unconquerable. One can easily
understand how human pride is confounded by this
array of all that is strong and irresistible in God's
creation. But when the Son of God came to visit our
fallen race, lie came not to confound and crush, but to
bind up the broken-hearted, and pour balm into the
wounds of man's spirit. It was not so much to kill pride
(although pride is incidentally killed by the message of
the Gospel) as to relieve sorrow that He came. And
with the great mass of mankind, whose lot is to labour,
and to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow,
sorrow always takes the form of care. Christ seeks a
text in Nature, from which he might speak a word in
due season to the careworn anxious heart. He plucks a
bunch of lilies, such as grew wild in Palestine at that
season of the year,— brilliant red lilies, whose blossom
has something of the shape of a monarch's turban or tiara,
and holding them up before the eyes of the listening
throng, He says in words of inimitable grace and force ;
" Why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the lilies
*' of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do
" they spin : And yet I say unto you, That even
** Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
" these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field,
" which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven,
"■ shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
" faith ?" Job had a terrifying sermon addressed to
him by the Almighty from a strange pulpit, — '' out of
"the whirlwind."^ But here, although the Almighty is
still the Speaker, it is the Almighty in tlic form and
guiso of a plain Man, seated upon a pleasant grassy knoll
tufted with the flowers of the field, and the sermon is a
' See Cli. xxxviii. 1.
Old and Neiv Testaments respectively, 43
consolatory one, dropping like the rain, and distilling like tlie dew on the hearts of the weary and heavy laden, while Nature herself seems hushed to listen to the Preacher's still small voice. And his theme is no more the strong and the terrible and the overwhelming, but the graceful, the fragrant, the attractive— no more the unicorn, and the behemoth, and the leviathan, but the lilies of the field. There are, I think, few more striking contrasts in the Book of God.
Learn, Brethren, that the Gospel of Jesus in its primary aspect is a message of reconciliation. It is true, of course, — most painfully true — that the Gospel has a dark back-ground of terror for those who deliberately decline its offers, but this does not alter or modify its essential characteristic as a message of overflowing mercy and everlasting consolation. The strong wind of Divine threatening, the earthquake of God's judgment, the fire of His jealousy, have passed by us in the Old Testament, and there now steals out upon our ear, from the lips of the Incarnate God, the still small voice of grace ; " Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him "■ that is near, saith the Lord ; and I will heal him."^ Rest in Christ,— rest of the galled conscience and of the tempest-tost heart— is to be had on first coming to Him ; and after we have submitted ourselves to the easy yoke and light burden, which He lays upon us, the promise is still rest ;— " Ye shall find rest unto your souls."^
Shall we, then, it might bo asked, make no use, as believing Christians, of those grander and more magnifi- cent works of God, which the Almighty Himself alleges so emphatically to the Patriarch Job ? Shall we turn away from them as calculated only to convict, confound, and 1 Isaiah Ivii. 19. - See Matt. xi. 28, 29, 30.
44 The use niade of the Works of Nature in the
terrify us ? Not so. Wc may draw them into use thus, ^vithout at all impairing our appreciation of those con- solatory truths which the Gospel teaches, — yea, so as to give to those truths an additional force of consolation. The contemplation of God's works of power, — of the elements, the ocean, the constellations, the winds, the strong beasts and birds of prey, — has a tendency, not only to abase us in our own conceits, but to exalt our conceptions of God's infinite greatness and magnificence. Now let us make the reflexion that this greatness of God must pervade everything that He does, — must characterize all His works. This extraordinary reach of power and influence must be thrown into and interpenetrate all His dealings in every sphere of His operations. If God declares His salvation, it must be a great salvation, a salvation reaching down to the lowest deep of human guilt; if lie proposes an Atonement, it must be an Atonement vast in its scope, and altogether sovereign in its efficacy. If He oifers us a grace, it must be an invincible grace ; and if He speaks to us of consolation, it must be a strong consolation. He who, in the realm of Nature, made *'the painted heavens *' so full of state," cannot, in the realm of Grace, do any thing puny or inadequate. Are you looking somewhat suspiciously at God's off*cr of forgiveness, as regards your- self, feeling your sins to be of so deep a dye that they can never be expunged ? Consider the ocean with its fresh and restless tides. Let yonder scarlet cloth be thrown into it, and committed freely to its action. How long will the cloth retain the dye ? Now He who made the sea to ** break forth, as if it had issued out of the womb,"^ willed also that the stream of Atoning Blood should issue * See Job xxxviii. 8.
Old and New Testaments respective /j/. 45
forth from the five wounds of the Sacred Person of Jesus. If the action of the sea be all-powerful in Nature, shall not the efficacy of the Blood be much more so in Grace ? Finally, Brethren, and I say it the more willingly, because the time is approaching for many of us, when we shall exchange the business and the noise of the city for more rural scenes, live more in the devout con- templation of Nature than you have yet done. Strive to throw into your religious life, as principles of thought and action, some of those conceptions of God, which are borrowed from the consideration of His works. He is a wise man, and has not a little of the mind of Christ, who allows Nature to suggest to him holy sentiments, and pious ejaculations, and acts of adoration and praise. Our Lord spake of living water at Jacob's well, and of the heavenly Sower when He saw the earthly sower going forth to sow his seed, and of the Light of the world when the early sun was just gilding the domes and minarets of the Temple, and of the Living Bread, wlien He had multiplied the loaves ;— thus everywhere making Nature a parable of Grace. Pray and strive to imbibe something of His spirit, so as to derive from the common objects of the field, or the hill, or the shore, instruction in divine things,— and, as one of your own poets, and he not the least of them, has said, to
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society is become coiTupt ; the light that is in it is becoine darkness ; the leaven that leavens it is not the Divine leaven of the Gospel, but that of worldliness, selfishness, sensuality, and wickedness; therefore all these miseries — the necessary fruits of sin — come upon it. The Gospel is called the light of the world, the salt that is to keep it from corruption, the leaven that is to leaven all man's life, and how awfully does history and the course of the Divine judgements show that it is so indeed ; for if in any nation that light is put " under a bushel," or is not set on a sufficient '' candlestick" so that all who come in may see it, then more and more do we see darkness of every kind coveiiflg it. And " if tlie light that is in it
islianity is, for the most part, some
is that darkness!" And if any
hat salt, how visibly does it
salt havs lost its savour"
in any nation have become
"It is thenceforth good for
under foot of men." He
ic o^mon
be darkness," if what pretends to frightful perversion of it* "ho\^ " body" or society of merf 3s decay and become utterly ■ coj — if the teachers and leadlFrs worldly — " wherewith shaH it be salted ? ' nothing but to be cast out and trodden must be blind who does not, by this time, perceive how entirely it is one principle, and one only which " has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come" — namely, real and true Christian faith— one God, one only who in the end rules this as well as all other Avorlds — namely, God manifest in Christ. Where that faith is not, everything sooner or later decays — " it carries within itself the germs of its own dissolution." AU spiritual food is useless or poisonous that is not leavened with this; all light is darkness that is not borrowed from and illumined wnth this. If we would make our education worth anything at all — if we would have teachers who shall do any good and not wide-spreading harm — if we would teach politics in any way that shall not be poisonous — all must be leavened with this leaven of real uncorrupted Christianity. It is not necessary only, or chiefly, that the teachers should be men who profess Christianity as their declared creed, nor yet that the doctrines of the Bible should be taught at times, but the main point is, that true uncorrupted Christianity should be the leaven, leavening the whole character of the teacher, and giving its savour to the whole doctrine taught about eveiything. This is the sole and only true remedy for all our ills: "this is" now — just as much as shall be hereafter — " life eternal to know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." Leaven a nation with this faith and it will come soon to " glory, honour, and immortality;" take away this, or turn the faith which ought to be " leaven, leavening the whole lump" — leavening all politics, philosophy, and wisdom into a dead st(.ne separate from all life — and in the end it will come to sure destruction and shame — to " indig- nation and wrath, tribulation, and anguish." If men will not believe this by faith in God's word, they will be compelled sooner or later to acknowledge it by the si^jht of God's judgements.
I'UINTKD Ff)ll H. C. l.ANCilJRIUCR, HHJMIXtJH AM.
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