The Water of Life, and Other SermonsKingsley, Charles
Religion
The Water of Life, and Other Sermons
Kingsley, Charles
Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
We are not to say that any powers of nature are evil, or the laws of any
science false. Heaven forbid! Ezekiel did not say that the cherubim
were evil, or meaningless; or that the belief in angels ministering to
man was false. He said the very opposite. But he said, All these obey
one whose form is that of a man. He rules them, and they do His will.
They are but ministering spirits before Him.
Therefore we are not to disbelieve science, nor disregard the laws of
nature, or we shall lose by our folly. But we are to believe that nature
and science are not our gods. They do not rule us; our fortunes are not
in their hands. Above nature and above science sits the Lord of nature
and the Lord of science. Above all the counsels of princes, and the
struggles of nations, and the chances and changes of this world of man,
sits the Judge of princes and of peoples, the Lord of all the nations
upon earth, He by whom all things were made, and who upholdeth all things
by the word of His power; and He is man, of the substance of His mother;
most human and yet most divine; full of justice and truth, full of care
and watchfulness, full of love and pity, full of tenderness and
understanding; a Friend, a Guide, a Counsellor, a Comforter, a Saviour to
all who trust in Him. He is nearer to us than nature and science: and He
should be dearer to us; for they speak only to our understanding; but He
speaks to our human hearts, to our inmost spirits. Nature and science
cannot take away our sins, give peace to our hearts, right judgment to
our minds, strength to our wills, or everlasting life to our souls and
bodies. But there sits One upon the throne who can. And if nature were
to vanish away, and science were to be proved (however correct as far as
it went) a mere child’s guess about this wonderful world, which none can
understand save He who made it—if all the counsels of princes and of
peoples, however just and wise, were to be confounded and come to nought,
still, after all, and beyond all, and above all, Christ would abide for
ever, with human tenderness yearning over human hearts; with human wisdom
teaching human ignorance; with human sympathy sorrowing with human
mourners; for ever saying, ‘Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.’
Cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels, dominions and powers,
whether of nature or of grace—these all serve Him and do His work. He
has constituted their services in a wonderful order: but He has not taken
their nature on Him. Our nature He has taken on Him, that we might be
bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh; able to say to Him for ever, in
all the chances and changes of this mortal life—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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