Second part of Sermon LXII. for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Gal. vi. 11-18. St. Matt vi. 24-34.
From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my body
the marks of the LORD JESUS.—GAL. vi.
17.
(for the first part, on the Epistle.)
...How does everything which tends to human glory so far impair and
impede that fulness of peace which is to be found in God? So far speaks
St. Paul in the Epistle. And now Christ Himself teaches us in the Gospel
for the day that same lesson of whole and entire rest in God, disclosing
to us in unspeakable tenderness something of that love towards us which
was perfected on the cross; and which can admit of no divided affection.
No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and
love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. It is quite impossible for a man at
the same time to love two things opposite to each other; to love the ease
and honour of the world, and also the self-denial and humility which is
found in the cross of Christ. What then is to become of the worldly callings
by which we live; of the farm, and the shop, and the wages of labour, and
to the minister himself, the profits of his ministry? Ye cannot serve them,
says our Lord, ye must be in heart above them, ye must make them merely
secondary, and subservient to the love of God and His service; or else
no doubt they are sinful; they prevent you from loving God and cleaving
to Him. They make you secretly to despise the cross, and things of Heaven.
Therefore, I say unto you; I say unto you, Who am Myself the
Bread of Life, and the clothing of your shame and nakedness, I Who am Myself
the Life of those that believe in Me, and their portion for ever,—I say
unto you, Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, or what ye
shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Let there
be no carefulness for food and raiment, much less for other things of this
temporal life; for re-member how the good Mary, who had chosen the one
thing needful, was praised, because she had forgotten all that pertaineth
to the meat that perisheth; remember how the disciples, when they had omitted
to take bread in the boat, were reproved by their Divine Master, because
on this account the subject was afterwards first in their thoughts; remember
how they were sent forth in need of all things, in order that they might
practise this heavenly mind, as having nothing, yet possessing all things
in Christ.
Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? If
He gives the greater, will you not trust Him for the less? If He gives
life, will He not sustain it? If a body, will He not give the clothing
needful for. it? And oh, how much more may not we add with St. Paul, and
say, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. viii.
32.)
Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not
much better than they? If these creatures that know Him not thus trust
Him, will not ye to whom it is given to know Him? Are ye not capable of
knowing God, of loving Him, and enjoying Him for ever? To be able to know
and love God, this raises you immeasurably above the beasts that perish.
Are ye not to Him of value unspeakable, beyond all that ye can think or
know? are ye not infinitely more dear to Him than ye are to each other
or each to himself? Does He not care for you far more than ye do for yourselves?
Our Blessed Lord does not, in this passage, say all this, which might be
truly said, but what is more constraining, even to the most faithless,
in His exceeding gentleness and condescension He suggests nothing more
than this: Are ye not much better in the sight of your heavenly Father
than the fowls of the air? yet even they are by nature itself taught to
trust in His care; He asks nothing more of you, for all His gifts, than
that you will rely on His goodness and trust Him.
And again, after all, how unprofitable such carefulness? For which
of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? Blessed
be the goodness and mercy of God, Who, to keep us from such anxious thoughts,
has made them to be of no avail: miserable cares, which end where they
begun, and can never prosper, because they consist in a distrust of Him
Who is the Giver and Disposer of all good.
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field
how they grow. Why do you think that your heavenly Father has raised
around you such abundance of flowers? why are they so beautiful and wonderful
in their structure, and colour, and varieties? why do they bear about your
paths such tokens of His hand, and seem to make silent appeals to you,
in order to call your attention? It is because God has designed them to
teach you, His children, of His unceasing presence, and His care, although
you see Him not, in order that you may trust Him. 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. He spreads the beauties of nature
at your feet, He gives delight and joy, He sends fear and sorrow, but it
is all for one end, in order that we may trust Him. A poor man, who sees
in the meanest flower the marks of his heavenly Father’s care, is richer
in that knowledge than he who is dressed in a kingly robe and forgets God.
What is there that a king can prize in a work of art, or an ornament of
honour, or a memorial of high birth, compared with a token of God’s love
to him that loves God? Because he knows full well that He will “show him
greater things than these,” he accepts it as a sign of those better things
in store, which “eye hath not seen nor ear heard ;“ of the hidden glories
of that robe of immortality by which Christ shall cover his shame, the
white vesture of those who are “made kings and priests unto God.” But what
our Blessed Lord here asks of him is far less than this; it is only that,
taught by these things, he should be without carefulness for that second
great need of our earthly life, which is raiment.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day
is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven,—if even this is so contrived
and adorned with the marks of God’s hand, which is of a nature so frail
and perishable, and for uses so poor,—shall He not much more clothe
you, O ye of little faith? It may be observed, that these exhortations
of our Lord are addressed to the very poorest, such as are tempted by careful
anxieties for the very necessaries of life; and they are expressions of
His great tenderness and compassion for them. It is to the poor His Gospel
is preached; the poor were the especial objects of His care, and the subjects
of His blessings; it was their condition which He Himself put on, in order
to comfort them; it was to relieve their hunger that He twice wrought a
miracle; and thus these precepts are especially addressed to them; it was
their carefulness, their anxiety He wished to relieve, knowing that if
they had faith in Him they were rich indeed; that poverty was the best
school to bring them to Him. And therefore, never was greater love expressed
than with these words, which seemed to upbraid them, “O ye of little faith.”
Oh, why will ye not trust in Me? It is all I ask in return for My love:
recline yourselves on Me, in My bosom ye shall find peace for all your
cares. Oh, why will ye not? I have left the riches and glories of Heaven;
I have emptied Myself of all My greatness, and become poorer than any of
you, in order that ye may trust Me; and that trusting in Me all which I
have may be yours. For why is God revealed in so much love, as your Father
in Heaven, and accepting you as His children in His well-beloved Son, if
ye are still to be as the heathen, without God in the world?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, what shall
we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things
do the Gentiles seek:) When you think so much of these things, it appears
as if there are no higher blessings which you value, and on which your
affections are placed; and as if there were no Providence in the world
to support you.
For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
It is an expression of more than fatherly affection and care: He knoweth
every want; there is no need ye can have which escapes His most intimate
regard. “Cast your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” And now our Lord
adds the sum of the whole matter in these memorable words, to be ever engraven
on all we think or do: but seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Here is
the reason given, why all thoughtfulness for things temporal is forbidden;
it is in order that all our thought, all our care, all our desires, may
be taken up in the one thing which alone abideth. Any one who looks back
on life, will see not only that his worldly cares have been profitless,
but that they have kept his mind from growing in grace. They have stopped
him on his heavenly journey; they have thrown him back; they have been
the occasion of precious (ah, how precious!) time irrevocably lost. But
when the cares after the Kingdom of God occupy the first place in the heart,
they lead one to perceive the hand of God’s providence much more distinctly;
and to see that whether it be by hardship and poverty, or any other means,
that all things work together for good to them that love God. So may we
learn to live only for God, in Him, and for Him, and to desire nothing
but for His sake, and that it may bring us nearer unto Him.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow. It is not the pressure
of want that fills men with faithless cares, but the fear of it; it is
not the need of to-day, but of the future; take therefore no thought for
the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself:
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Every day brings troubles
of its own, which it will be enough to bear with meekness and patience;
every day brings sins and temptations against which it will require our
whole undivided care and attention to contend; every day brings us nearer
to those vast overwhelming changes which await us, infinite in importance,
and eternal in duration, great realities of joy or misery; and every day
is of consequence with regard to them; so that well do we need to be unentangled
and unimpeded by faithless fears and hopes about the shadows of this short
passing existence.
“Henceforth let no man trouble me,” says St. Paul, “for I bear in my
body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Surely, my brethren, we may say this,
not only to all the glory of the world, its party spirit, its controversies
and self-righteousness, but we may take up the words, and apply them also
to all its petty anxieties, its faithless schemes, and disappointments,—henceforth
trouble me not. I bid adieu to you, in order that I may run the more readily
in the service of Him Whose mark I bear; I would cast off all such things,
in order that I may learn more and more the depth and height, the breadth
and length of His immeasurable love, Who loved me and gave Himself for
me. His mark I bear, as sworn to be His soldier and servant. His brand
has gone deep in my flesh; I am His; with His cross was I signed at my
baptism, in token that I should be for ever none but His alone; that His
cross should be my study, my pattern, my peace. From henceforth let no
man trouble me; for it is the knowledge of Christ only that I wish to learn,
and far from me be everything that hinders that study: blessed and welcome
be everything that helps me to it. All things are hurtful to me that impede
and hamper me in this race; all things are so far only profitable to me
as they aid me in this course. And what these things are Thou only knowest,
O my God; I am blind, and poor, and miserable, and know not what may be
good for me, towards my everlasting interest, and what not: Thou knowest.
Do Thou choose for me, O my God; and grant me to love what Thou choosest,
because it is from Thee; and to love it the more the more it partakes of
Thy cross; for then am I more sure that it is altogether Thine, and from
Thee.
And now, my brethren, may we not to-day consider the Collect, the Epistle,
and Gospel, as all bound together by that one golden chain which, extending
from the throne of God, holds all things that shall endure; and which is
no other than the mercy of God in Christ. Thus, therefore, may we read
the Collect and pray; Keep Thy Church, O Lord, we beseech Thee, with Thy
perpetual mercy; or rather, as it is in the original Latin, by Thy perpetual
propitiation; or, as St. Paul says, by the cross of Christ, by the mercies
overflowing to us from thence, by His all-prevailing atonement, Who for
our sakes became poor, that we by His poverty might be made rich; and because
the frailty of our mortal nature is such that without Thee it ever falls
away, ("Labitur humana mortalitas." -- Lat.) by Thy help may we be withdrawn
from things hurtful, and be directed to what is profitable for our salvation.