Sermons on National Subjects

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Charles Kingsley. Sermons on National Subjects

I. THE KING OF THE EARTH

II. HOLY SCRIPTURE

III. THE KINGDOM OF GOD

IV. A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS

V. CHRISTMAS-DAY

VI. TRUE ABSTINENCE

VII. GOOD FRIDAY

VIII. EASTER-DAY

IX. THE COMFORTER

X. WHIT-SUNDAY

XI. ASCENSION-DAY

XII. THE FOUNT OF SCIENCE

XIII. FIRST SERMON ON THE CHOLERA

XIV. SECOND SERMON ON THE CHOLERA

XV. THIRD SERMON ON THE CHOLERA

XVI. ON THE DAY OF THANKSGIVING

XVII. THE COVENANT

XVIII. NATIONAL REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS

XIX. THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

XX. PROFESSION AND PRACTICE

XXI. THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT

XXII. THE WAY TO WEALTH

XXIII. THE LOVE OF CHRIST

XXIV. DAVID’S VICTORY

XXV. DAVID’S EDUCATION

XXVI. THE VALUE OF LAW

XXVII. THE SOURCE OF LAW

XXVIII. THE EDUCATION OF A HEATHEN

XXIX. JEREMIAH’S CALLING

XXX. THE PERFECT KING

XXXI. GOD’S WARNINGS

XXXII. PHARAOH’S HEART

XXXIII. THE RED SEA TRIUMPH

XXXIV. CHRISTMAS-DAY

XXXV. NEW YEAR’S DAY

XXXVI. THE DELUGE

XXXVII. THE KINGDOM OF GOD

XXXVIII. THE LIGHT

XXXIX. THE UNPARDONABLE SIN

XL. THE SPIRIT OF BONDAGE

XLI. THE FALL

XLII. GOD’S COVENANTS

XLIII. THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS

XLIV. THE WORK OF GOD’S SPIRIT

XLV. THE GOSPEL

XLVI. GOD’S WAY WITH MAN

XLVII. THE MARRIAGE AT CANA

XLVIII. PARABLE OF THE LOWEST PLACE

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“Whatsoever was written aforetime.”  There is no doubt, I think, that by these words St. Paul means the Bible; that is, the Old Testament, which was the only part of the Bible already written in his time.  For it is of the Psalms which he is speaking.  He mentions a verse out of the 69th Psalm, “The reproaches of Him that reproached thee fell on me;” which, he says, applies to Christ just as much as it did to David, who wrote it.  Christ, he says, pleased not Himself any more than David, but suffered willingly and joyfully for God’s sake, because He knew that He was doing God’s work.  And we, he goes on to say, must do the same; do as Christ did; we must not please ourselves, but every one of us please our brother for his good and edification; that is, in order to build him up, strengthen him, make him wiser, better, more comfortable.  For, he says, Christ pleased not Himself, but like David, lived only to help others; and therefore this verse out of David’s Psalms, “The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me,” is a lesson to us; a pattern of what we ought to feel, and do, and suffer.  “For whatsoever was written aforetime,” all these ancient psalms and prophets, and histories of men and nations who trusted in God, “were written for our example, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope.”

Yes, my friends, this is true; and the longer you live a life of faith and godliness, the longer you read and study that precious Book of books which God has put so freely into your hands in these days, the more true you will find it.  And if it was true of the Old Testament, written before the Lord came down and dwelt among men, how much more must it be true of the New Testament, which was written after His coming by apostles and evangelists, who had far fuller light and knowledge of the Lord than ever David or the old prophets, even in their happiest moments, had.  Ah, what a treasure you have, every one of you, in those Bibles of yours, which too many of you read so little!  From the first chapter of Genesis to the last of Revelations, it is all written for our example, all profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished for all good works.  Ah! friends, friends, is not this the reason why so many of you do not read your Bibles, that you do not wish to be furnished for good works?—do not wish to be men of God, godly and godlike men, but only to be men of the world, caring only for money and pleasure?—some of you, alas! not wishing to be men and women at all, but only a sort of brute beasts with clothes on, given up to filth and folly, like the animals that perish, or rather worse than the animals, for they could be no better if they tried, but you might be.  Oh! what might you not be, what are you not already, if you but knew it!  Members of Christ, children of God, heirs of the kingdom of heaven, heirs of a hope undying, pure, that will never fade away, having a right given you by the promise and oath of Almighty God himself, to hope for yourselves, for your neighbours, for this poor distracted world, for ever and ever; a right to believe that there is an everlasting day of justice, and peace, and happiness in store for the whole world, and that you, if you will, may have your share in that glorious sunrise which shall never set again.  You may have your share in it, each and every one of you; and if you ask why, go to the Scriptures, and there read the promises of God, the grounds of your just hope, for all heaven and earth.

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Again: If people really believed that it was the Lord Jesus Christ who cured their sicknesses for them, they would behave, when they got well, more as the Lord Jesus Christ would wish them to behave.  They would show forth their thankfulness not only with their lips, but in their lives.  You who believe—you who say—that Christ has cured your sicknesses, show your faith by your works.  Live like those who are alive again from the dead; who are not your own, but bought with a price, and bound to work for God with your bodies and your spirits, which are His—then, and then only, can either God or man believe you.

Again: There is a third reason which makes one suspect that people do not mean what they say about this matter.  I think too many say, “It has pleased God,” merely as an empty form of words, when all they mean is, “What must be, must, and it cannot be helped.”  Else, why do they say, “It has pleased the Lord to send me sickness?”  What is the use of saying, “It has pleased the Lord to cure me,” when you say in the same breath, “It has pleased the Lord to make me ill?”  I know you will say that, “Of course, whatever happens must be the Lord’s will; if it did not please Him it would not happen.”  I do not care for such words; I will have nothing to do with them.  I will neither entangle you nor myself in those endless disputings and questions about freewill and necessity, which never yet have come to any conclusion, and never will, because they are too deep for poor short-sighted human beings like us.  “To the law and to the testimony,” say I.  I will hold to the words of the Bible; what it says, I will say; what it does not say I will not say, to please any man’s system of doctrines.  And I say from the Bible that we have no more right to say, “It has pleased the Lord to make me sick,” than, “It has pleased the Lord to make me a sinner.”  Scripture everywhere speaks of sickness as a real evil and a curse—a breaking of the health, and order, and strength, and harmony of God’s creation.  It speaks of madmen as possessed with evil spirits; did that please God?  The woman who was bowed with a spirit of infirmity, and could not lift herself up—did our Lord say that it had pleased God to make her a wretched cripple?  No; he spoke of her as this daughter of Israel, whom Satan had bound, and not God, this eighteen years; and that was His reason for healing her, even on the sabbath-day, because her disease was not the work of God, but of the cruel, disordering, destroying evil spirit which is at enmity with God.  That was why Christ cured her.  And that—for this is the point I have been coming to, step by step—that was the reason why, when John the Baptist sent to ask if Jesus was the Christ, our Lord answered: “Go and show John again those things which ye do see and hear: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

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