The Potter and the ClayWinnington Ingram, Arthur F. (Arthur Foley)
Religion
The Potter and the Clay
Winnington Ingram, Arthur F. (Arthur Foley)
Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 20th century; World War, 1914-1918 -- Sermons
To look to GOD, then, puts a great responsibility upon those who do
so; it means to rise to the level of the sacrifice of GOD. If it is
true that, as you will remember, another great English statesman
once quoted on a famous occasion, "Who sups with the devil must
have a long spoon," then, Who fights with GOD must have a high
standard. Is this a time, asked the prophet of the trembling Gehazi,
to receive oliveyards, vineyards, menservants and maidservants? Is
this a time, we may ask to-day, to haunt night clubs[10] or to spend
separation allowances in drinking? Is this a time to ignore Sunday
and turn your back upon GOD's House of Prayer? Is this a time to
spend anything which can be saved for the nation on personal comfort
or extravagant dress? The nation that looks to GOD must come back to
GOD; it must come back to GOD at once and come back to Him for good;
it is a question whether we at home have yet as a nation deserved
the victory which our righteous cause demands. The sailors of the
Fleet have deserved it; the soldiers in the trenches have earned
it; and when the nation at home has equally deserved it, all will
receive together their well-merited reward.
[10] Shortly after this night clubs were abolished.
5. But more than this; those that look to GOD must definitely and
persistently seek GOD's help. How many of those here to-day pray
earnestly and persistently to GOD for help and grace? How many plead
in the greatest service of all the one Great Sacrifice, once offered
for the sins of the whole world?
"Look, FATHER, look on His anointed Face,
And only look on us as found in Him;
Look not on our misusings of Thy grace,
Our prayer so languid and our faith so dim:
For, lo! between our sins and their reward
We set the Passion of Thy SON our LORD."
How constantly the faith of our fellow-countrymen amounts to little
more than a vague Deism, instead of a living faith in an Incarnate
CHRIST. They are learning more than that in the trenches, and I hope
also that the same truth is being revealed to those who remain in
the broad sea. These beautiful lines, entitled "CHRIST in Flanders,"
the Editor of the _Spectator_ gave me leave to reproduce in the
diocesan magazine:
"We had forgotten You, or very nearly--
You did not seem to touch us very nearly.
Of course we thought about You now and then,
Especially in any time of trouble:
We knew that You were good in time of trouble--
But we are very ordinary men.
"And there were always other things to think of--
There's lots of things a man has got to think of--
His work, his home, his pleasure, and his wife;
And so we only thought of You on Sunday--
Sometimes, perhaps, not even on a Sunday--
Because there's always lots to fill one's life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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