S. LUKE xi. 23
"He that is not with Me is against Me, and he that
gathereth not with Me, scattereth."
OUR Lord in to-day’s Gospel gives us an account of the kind of warfare
which is continually going on between Him and the great enemy. It
is not so much like regular fighting in the open field, with large armies
on the one side and the other, coming to one large conflict, which decides
the matter once for all. But it is a never ending course of severe
and dangerous conflicts, in which one side disputes with the other the
possession of every nation, every parish, every family, every individual
person. Thus in one of the parables which you just now heard, the
devil is compared to a strong man, a great warrior, in full armour, keeping
his palace. We seem as we read, to have before our eyes one of the
great lords of the Philistines, or one of those who in our own country,
when times were unsettled, seized upon castles, and made them a kind of
strongholds of robbery; so the prince of darkness and author of all evil,
having once gained a footing in the world by the fall of our first parents,
has never ceased to occupy, one after another, the houses and hearts, the
souls and bodies of men. Born in sin as we are, and children of wrath,
each one of us is by nature a palace or castle of the evil one, a place
where he abides, to do all the mischief he can, both to us and to all who
come within reach of us. And as long as the Almighty permits this,
his goods, the possessions of the evil one, are in peace, he has his own
way with the unhappy sinners who are possessed by him, there is no struggle,
no distress, no misgiving of conscience: people come to be past feeling,
they give themselves over to lasciviousness, to commit all uncleanness
with greediness: they go contentedly down the broad way. This is
the full power of Satan of which S. Paul speaks, the condition of those
who are without God in the world: a condition the more fearful, by how
much those who are in it are less aware of it. Out of this our natural
heathenish condition, God delivers men when He converts them and brings
them by holy Baptism to be members of Christ: as it is written, “He hath
delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son:” (Col. i. 13.) and again to S. Paul He saith, “I send
thee to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from
the power of Satan unto God.” (Acts xxvi. 18.) And accordingly it
has been very common in the Church of Christ, and still is practised in
some countries, to use in the Baptism service a regular form of exorcism,
the priest in the Name of Jesus Christ commanding the unclean spirit to
depart from the child or person to be baptized: and we may understand in
much the same sense our own short prayer which we offer up just before
the blessing of the water: “grant that he may have power and strength to
have victory and to triumph against the devil, the world and the flesh.”
Jesus Christ thus coming to us in Baptism, or if we have sinned afterwards,
by true repentance and Absolution, is that Warrior stronger than Satan,
Who will not let him possess his goods, his ill gotten goods, our souls
and bodies, in peace. He cometh upon the old serpent as that Seed
of the woman, promised of old time, to bruise his head, not without a severe
combat, viz., His Death and Passion: that bruising of His Heel, His lower
nature as man, by which from the very first He undertook to save us.
The Son of God coming thus upon the evil spirit to whom we were in bondage,
overcame him, took from him all his armour wherein he trusted, his power,
craft, command of the world, the honour in which he is held by poor deceived
mortals; all this Christ taketh from Satan, when He getteth the victory
over him, and divideth it as lawful spoil by the rules of war among His
own servants, the enemies of Satan. How is that? how may it be said
that the spoils of Satan are divided among Christ’s soldiers? Partly perhaps
because from that time forward whatever portion any of us may have in the
good things of this world, riches, power, pleasure, skill, wisdom, knowledge,
&c., it is all given up to Jesus Christ and His service: partly again
because redeemed man is intended in some sort to fill up the place in God’s
world which the fallen angels have left vacant: as it is written, “we shall
judge angels,” and “we shall be made like unto the angels.” And so the
spoils which Christ takes from Satan are the souls and bodies before lost,
but now redeemed, regenerated, saved, and so far “divided,” in that each
of them is employed by God’s grace and Providence in such particular work
as the Great King knows to be most for His glory and the good of souls,
and will each have assigned his own special reward, his own mansion in
the Father’s house.
In short, our Saviour here teaches that not only those unhappy ones
who were actually possessed by unclean spirits in the way the Gospel describes,
but each one of us, every child of Adam, has by nature a spirit of an unclean
devil, which can only be cast out by the Holy and Good Spirit entering
into each one separately, and uniting him to the second Adam as by birth
he was united to the first. Every such case, every Baptism, every
effectual repentance and Absolution, is a victory won over the strong man
armed, by one stronger than he. It is a warfare which goes on continually,
and will go on, from Pentecost to the end of the world.
But now observe the next thing, as concerning this warfare, which the
great Captain of our Salvation most expressly warns us of. It is
a warfare in which it is utterly impossible for any one to stand by and
be neutral. In all wars and quarrels here we know there are many
who take no part at all, but only just look on. But in this war between
Christ and the devil, that cannot be the case with any one. We must
all take a part in it, whether we will or no. “He that is not with
Me is against Me, and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth.”
Even as in another place He says, “he that is not against us is on our
part.” Do you hear this, my brethren? it is a fearful sound, surely, for
us all: more fearful than if a trumpet sounded from Heaven, for a signal
which we must obey, to range ourselves on the right hand or on the left,
on the side of Christ’s enemies or of His friends. For such a trumpet
would only be an angel’s voice, but these are the very words of the Judge,
spoken to the very inmost conscience of every one of us. Some of
us may find it hard to receive them, just as it is hard, very hard, to
bring it home to ourselves that we must all without exception, every single
one of us, either go away at last into everlasting punishment with the
wicked, or with the righteous into life eternal. O! if we could indeed
realize this, if we could keep it steadily before our mind’s eye, how would
it help us in the right way! what power would it give us against temptation!
and in like measure, if we could really settle it in our hearts to feel
that we are, even now, in one or other of two great armies, if we could
by faith constantly discern our King on the one side, and our enemy on
the other, and ourselves ranged under this banner or that, would it not
make us very serious? would it be possible for us to go on as if our conduct
signified little?
One thing at any rate is clear, if we will take our Lord really at His
word, that such as feel quite easy in their minds, such as have no anxiety
concerning their duty and their souls, can hardly be on Christ’s side,
and in the way of salvation. For as on the one hand we read, “happy
is the man that feareth always,” (Prov. xxviii. 14.) so on the other hand
when the strong man armed keepeth his palace, our Lord tells us his goods
are at peace: i. e., when the devil has his own way with us most entirely,
then we are quite entirely free from spiritual anxiety and misgiving of
mind. We say to ourselves, peace, peace, most confidently when there
is no peace. I have heard people boast that they let nothing daunt
them, that they always kept up a good heart, and I have had reason to fear
that their hope was little better than an ignorant deadness to spiritual
things; that they were going on at the very time in plain, open, grievous
sin. Therefore, I beseech you, let us greatly beware of indulging
easy views of our condition: I mean our condition towards God: let us shrink
from the thought that all is safe, let us say often in our hearts, What
if after all I should be lost? Whatever else is right or wrong, this we
are quite sure must be wrong, for a soldier in the midst of the battle
to go on as if there was no enemy, no danger at all, for a Christian in
the wicked world to feel entirely at ease about his soul and his behaviour,
as if all would go right of itself. Such an one is surely against
Christ, if he did but know it.
So, too is he (no uncommon sort of person I fear,) who thinks he may
stand off for a while, and take no part in this warfare, until he is older,
or differently circumstanced: then he fully means to be religious, but
he thinks he may be otherwise as yet; not irreligious, from such a thought
he unfeignedly shrinks; but still not disposed to serve God entirely and
always. What shall we say to such a man? that he is like a soldier
in sight of the enemy, refusing to put on his armour, and declaring the
hour of the battle to be not yet come: as if, when the order was given
to charge, some should stand still, and say to themselves and to another,
it will be time enough by and by to take up our arms. Nay, who told
you that you should be here to take them up? who told you that they should
still be within your reach? who told you that you shall not by that time
be in the other world?
Bear with me, my brethren and sons in the Lord, if I say distinctly
that this way of putting off your duties is far too common among you.
I will just mention one instance: and many of you will guess beforehand
what I am going to say. You all know in your hearts, you have been
taught it from your childhood, and you have no doubt of it, that to be
a good and thorough soldier of Christ, to be really and truly with Him
and against His enemy, you must be one with Christ and Christ with you,
and you know also that this is promised to those only, who eat His Flesh
and drink His Blood, as He bade them, in remembrance of Him. How
can you put this duty away from you, and yet hope to be counted on our
Saviour’s side? Good intentions I dare say you have. I daresay you
think you shall begin to prepare yourselves, and come by and by.
But remember that a wise and good man used to say, “hell is paved with
good intentions.” The greater number of those who go down that miserable
road mean to repent at some time: only the time never quite comes.
Our Lord did not say, he that does not purpose at some time or other to
be with Me, but He said distinctly, he that is not with Me, not with Me
now, not fighting now on My side, now at this very time, he, be he who
he may, is against Me. He needs a great change, he is still in the
snare of the devil.
But some might say, surely we are on Christ’s side, the other day we
resisted such a temptation, yesterday we performed such and such a good
work, and though we have perhaps to-day fallen under the same temptation,
and failed to do the same kind of good work, yet will not one tell against
another? are we not on the whole with Him and not against Him? I would
ask you, my brethren one question. Suppose in battle you saw a soldier
striking a blow or aiming a shot or a dart now against his own comrades,
now against the enemy: on which side should you imagine him really to be,
in the purpose and intention of his heart? Should you not judge this of
him, that his secret purpose was rather on the side of the enemy, and that
what blows he struck at them were rather to save appearances, or for some
other selfish reason, than for any loyalty or duty which he had in his
heart? In like manner you may be quite sure that as long as you allow yourself
in any known wilful sin, you cannot be quite sincere in any part of your
duty, you are not a faithful soldier and servant, you do not love your
King and Master. He Who sees into your heart cannot reckon you to
be with Him.
Besides, what is the real consequence, even outwardly and before men,
when Christians thus allow themselves to be half on the devil’s side? Much
the same as it would be in an army, when the soldiers should now and then
turn against their own leader, in the very moment of action. There
would be no confidence, no one would know on whom he could depend: the
end would be confusion and flight, as our Lord goes on to say, “He that
gathereth not with Me, scattereth.” We see and hear and feel daily, the
like sad effect of our many backslidings and inconsistencies. The
unlearned and unbelievers say, behold how these Christians, these men professing
godliness, do in their hearts and works deny it. Why then need we
care for it? And they are bold to break off from God more and more.
O! depend on it, it will never do, it is what neither God nor man will
endure, for Christ’s soldiers wilfully to go on striking one blow for Satan
and another for Christ. They will find in the end that they have
been against their Lord altogether.
Neither again will it answer in this warfare if any man think to be
passively on Christ’s side, i.e., to lie still and merely do nothing against
Him. We cannot do so, my brethren if we would. Even if the
hands could be idle, the mind, the will, the heart, must be employed, the
whole soul must be tending this way or that, upwards or downwards, towards
hell or towards Heaven. I suppose there are not a few, who looking
on the sad falls and strange inconsistencies of such as have appeared earnest
in religion, are inclined to shrink from being earnest themselves, as though
there were some deceit in it: and so they are contented to go on, not only
cold and indifferent in their devotions, but careless too, and loose in
their rules of life, to their own and others’ great danger and harm.
I wish they and all of us considered more what the Great Shepherd here
assures us, he that is not actively engaged gathering the flock with Me,
is really scattering it. It is vain to think of being on Christ’s
side, and not being earnest and active in His cause. Remember the
wicked and slothful servant: what cast him into the outer darkness? not
his ill using his talent, but his not using it at all. Look round
you, my brethren, and see, see what comes of luke-warmness, and ordinary
ways, of being or seeming indifferent to the cause of God and His Church.
The bad example speaks: one after another says, my neighbour is not particular,
why should I be? my friend, my father, my master does not communicate,
why should I? my mother, my mistress, my elder sister bears with unwomanly
discreditable conduct, why may not I keep company with whom I will? Look
into your own hearts, consider how much you are losing of God’s grace and
blessing. You might be fervent in prayer, you might be full of all
good thoughts, holy seasons and communions might be a joy and crown to
you: what a pity to lose all this for want of courage and exactness in
your doings! Look again towards the enemy, see how you encourage him.
Depend upon it, he rejoices in every moment you lose, every opportunity
you neglect. Look, above all, to that which you know, or may know,
to be written in God’s book, as concerning your daily falls and backslidings:
the positive sins, of will and temper at least, into which you are continually
betrayed, for want of a courageous purpose of being entirely and zealously
on God’s side. O! if we will but turn our minds towards it, we shall
see that Heaven and earth all around us, are full of tokens how blessed
a thing it is to serve Christ with our whole heart, how fatal to serve
Him with half a heart.
