23 chapters
7 hour read
Selected Chapters
23 chapters
SERMONS FOR THE TIMES
SERMONS FOR THE TIMES
Contents: Fathers and Children Salvation A Good Conscience Names Sponsorship Justification by Faith Duty and Superstition Sonship The Lord’s Prayer The Doxology Ahab and Naboth The Light of God Providence England’s Strength The Life of God God’s Offspring Death in Life Shame Forgiveness The True Gentleman Toleration Public Spirit...
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON I. ‘FATHERS AND CHILDREN’
SERMON I. ‘FATHERS AND CHILDREN’
Malachi iv. 5, 6. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. These words are especially solemn words. They stand in an especially solemn and important part of the Bible. They are the last words of the Old Testament. I cannot but think that it was God’s will that they should stand
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON II. SALVATION
SERMON II. SALVATION
John xvii. 3. This is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Before I can explain what this text has to do with the Church Catechism, I must say to you a little about what it means. Now if I asked any of you what ‘salvation’ was, you would probably answer, ‘Eternal life.’ And you would answer rightly. That is exactly what salvation is, and neither more nor less. No more than that; for nothing greater than that can belong to any created
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON III. A GOOD CONSCIENCE
SERMON III. A GOOD CONSCIENCE
1 Peter iii. 21. The like figure whereunto baptism doth now save us (not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. These words are very wide words; too wide to please most people. They preach a very free grace; too free to please most people. Such free and full grace, indeed, that some who talk most about free grace, and insist most on man’s being saved only by free grace, are the very men who shrink from the
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON IV. NAMES
SERMON IV. NAMES
Matthew i. 21. And thou shall call his name Jesus. Did it ever seem to you a curious thing that the Catechism begins by asking the child its name? ‘What is your name?’ ‘Who gave you this name?’ I think that if you were not all of you accustomed to the Church Catechism from your childhood, that would seem a strange way of beginning to teach a child about religion. But the more I consider, the more sure I am that it is the right way to begin teaching a child what the Catechism wishes to teach.
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON V. SPONSORSHIP
SERMON V. SPONSORSHIP
1 Cor. xii. 26, 27. Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or whether one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. I have to tell you that there will be a confirmation held at . . . on the . . . All persons of fit age who have not yet been confirmed ought to be ready, and I hope and trust that most of them will be ready, on that day to profess publicly their faith and loyalty to the Lord who died for them
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON VI. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
SERMON VI. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
Ephesians ii. 5. By grace ye are saved. We all hold that we are justified by faith, that is, by believing; and that unless we are justified we cannot be saved. And of all men who ever believed this, perhaps those who gave us the Church Catechism believed it most strongly. Nay, some of them suffered for it; endured persecution, banishment, and a cruel death, because they would persist in holding, contrary to the Romanists, that men were justified by faith only, and not by the works of the law;
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON VII. DUTY AND SUPERSTITION
SERMON VII. DUTY AND SUPERSTITION
Micah vi. 6-8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the most High God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings? . . . Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams? . . . Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression; the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? There are many now-a-days who complain of that pa
26 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON VIII. SONSHIP
SERMON VIII. SONSHIP
John v. 19, 20, 30. Then answered Jesus, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of my Father which is in Heaven. This, my friends, is why man should walk humbly and
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON IX. THE LORD’S PRAYER
SERMON IX. THE LORD’S PRAYER
Matt. vi. 9, 10. After this manner pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven. I have shown you what a simple account of our duty to God and to our neighbour the Catechism gives us. I now beg you to remark, that simple and everyday as this same duty is, the Catechism warns us that we cannot do it without God’s special grace, and I beg you to remark further, that the Catechism does not say that we cannot do these things well without God’s special grace, but that we cannot do them at all. It does
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON X. THE DOXOLOGY
SERMON X. THE DOXOLOGY
Psalm viii. 1 and sqq . O Lord our Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth, Thou that hast set Thy glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength, because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. This is the text which I have chosen to-day, because I think it will help us to understand the end of the Lord’s Prayer, which tells us to say to our Father in Heaven, ‘Father, Thine is the kingdom; Father, Thine is
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XI. AHAB AND NABOTH
SERMON XI. AHAB AND NABOTH
1 Kings xxi. 2, 3. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. And Naboth said unto Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. You heard to-day read for the first lesson, the story of Naboth and King Ahab. Most of you know it well. N
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XII. THE LIGHT OF GOD
SERMON XII. THE LIGHT OF GOD
[ Preached for the Chelsea National Schools .] Ephesians v. 13. All things which are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever is made manifest is light. This is a noble text, a royal text; one of those texts which forbid us to clip and cramp Scripture to suit any narrow notions of our own; which open before us boundless vistas of God’s love, of human knowledge, of the future of mankind. There are many such texts, many more than we fancy; but this is one which is especially valua
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XIII. PROVIDENCE
SERMON XIII. PROVIDENCE
Matthew vi. 31, 32, 33. Be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things do the heathen seek:) for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. We must first consider carefully what this text really means; what ‘taking no thought for the morrow’ really is. Now, it cannot mean that we
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XIV. ENGLAND’S STRENGTH
SERMON XIV. ENGLAND’S STRENGTH
2 Kings xix. 34. I will defend this city, to save it for mine own sake. The first lesson for this morning’s service is of the grandest in the whole Old Testament; grander perhaps than all, except the story of the passage of the Red Sea, and the giving of the Law on Sinai. It follows out the story which you heard in the first lesson for last Sunday afternoon, of the invasion of Judea by the Assyrians. You heard then how this great Assyrian conqueror, Sennacherib, after taking all the fortified
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XV. THE LIFE OF GOD
SERMON XV. THE LIFE OF GOD
Ephesians iv. 17, 18. That ye walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. You heard these words read in the Epistle for to-day. I cannot expect that you all understood them. It is no shame to you that you did not. Some of them are long and hard Latin words. Some of them, though they are plain English enough, are hard to understand because they have to do wit
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XVI. GOD’S OFFSPRING
SERMON XVI. GOD’S OFFSPRING
Galatians iv. 7. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. I say, writes St. Paul, in the epistle which you heard read just now, ‘that the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors, until the time appointed by his father. Even so,’ he says, we, ‘when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: but when the fulness of time was come, Go
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XVII. DEATH IN LIFE
SERMON XVII. DEATH IN LIFE
Romans viii. 12, 13. Brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Does it seem strange to you that St. Paul should warn you, that you are not debtors to your own flesh? It is not strange, when you come to understand him; certainly not unnecessary: for as in his time, so now, most people do live as if they were debtors to their own flesh, as if the
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XVIII. SHAME
SERMON XVIII. SHAME
Romans x. 11. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. My friends, what this text really means is one thing; what we may choose to think it means is another thing—perhaps a very different thing. I will try and show you what I believe it really means. ‘Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.’ It seems as if St. Paul thought, that not being ashamed had to do with salvation, and being saved; ay, that they were almost the same thing: for he says just befo
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XIX. FORGIVENESS
SERMON XIX. FORGIVENESS
Psalm li. 16, 17. Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. You all heard just now the story of Nathan and David, and you must have all felt how beautiful, and noble, and just it was; how it declares that there is but one everlasting God’s law of justice, which is above all men, even the greatest; and that what is right for the poor man is right f
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XX. THE TRUE GENTLEMAN
SERMON XX. THE TRUE GENTLEMAN
1 Cor. xii. 31; xiii. 1. Covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. My friends, let me say a few plain words this morning to young and old, rich and poor, upon this text. Now you all, I suppose, think it a good thing to be gentlemen and ladies. All of you, I say. There is not a poor man in this church, perhaps, who has not before
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XXI. TOLERATION
SERMON XXI. TOLERATION
[ Preached at Bideford , 1854] Philippians iii. 15, 16. And if in any thing ye shall be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. My friends, allow me to speak a few plain and honest words, ere we part, on a matter which is near to, and probably important to, many of us here. We all know how the Christian Church has in all ages been torn in pieces by religious quarrels; we all
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SERMON XXII. PUBLIC SPIRIT
SERMON XXII. PUBLIC SPIRIT
( Preached at Bideford , 1855.) 1 Corinthians xii. 25, 26. That there should be no division in the body; but that the members should have the same care, one of another. And whether one member suffer, all suffer with it; or whether one member be honoured, all rejoice with it. I have been asked to preach in behalf of the Provident Society of this town. I shall begin by asking you to think over with me a matter which may seem at first sight to have very little to do with you or with a provident
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter