Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
Will you, my friend? Then you will soon grow tired of thinking of that
likewise, at least I hope and trust that you will. For, however much
faith you may have had, you will find that you have not had enough.
However so many good works you may have done, you will find that you have
not done enough. The better man you are, the more you will be
dissatisfied with yourself; the more you will be ashamed of yourself;
till with all saints, Romanist or Protestant, or other, who have been
worthy of the name of saints, you will be driven—if you are in earnest
about your own soul—to give up thinking of yourself, and to think only of
the cross of Christ, and of the love of Christ which shines thereon; and
ask—Is it great enough to cover my sins? to save one as utterly unworthy
to be saved as I. And so, after all, you will be forced to throw
yourself—where you ought to have thrown yourself at the outset—at the
foot of Christ’s cross; and say in spirit and in truth—
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling—
In plain words, I throw myself, with all my sins, upon that absolute and
boundless love of God which made all things, and me among them, and
hateth nothing that he hath made; who redeemed all mankind, and me among
them, and hath said by the mouth of his only-begotten Son, ‘Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’
SERMON XVI.
THE PURE IN HEART.
TITUS i. 15.
Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and
unbelieving is nothing pure: but even their mind and conscience is
defiled.
THIS seems at first a strange and startling saying: but it is a true one;
and the more we think over it, the more we shall find it true.
All things are pure in themselves; good in themselves; because God made
them. Is it not written, ‘God saw all that he had made, and behold, it
was very good?’ Therefore St. Paul says, that all things are ours; and
that Christ gives us all things richly to enjoy. All we need is, to use
things in the right way; that is, in the way in which God intended them
to be used.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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