The World's Great Sermons, Volume 06: H. W. Beecher to Punshon — John Shaqi
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 06: H. W. Beecher to Punshon
Religion
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 06: H. W. Beecher to Punshon
Sermons
also to this weary world--the world of which he felt the weariness
as age and infirmity grew upon him--the lesson which, in his more
active days, he practised to the very letter. He is at rest, he is
at rest; delivered from that burden of the flesh against which he
chafed and fretted: he is at rest! In his own words, "Babylon, with
its deathening inanity, rages on to the dim innocuous and unheeded
forever." From the "silence of the eternities," of which he so often
spoke, there still sound, and will long sound, the tones of that
marvelous voice.
Let us take one tender expression, written three or four years
ago--one plaintive yet manful thought, which has never yet reached
the public eye: "Three nights ago, stepping out after midnight and
looking up at the stars, which were clear and numerous, it struck
me with a strong, new kind of feeling: 'In a little while I shall
have seen you also for the last time. God Almighty's own theater of
immensity--the infinite made palpable and visible to me--that also
will be closed--flung too in my face--and I shall never behold death
any more.' The thought of the eternal deprivation even of this, tho
this is such a nothing in comparison, was sad and painful to me. And
then a second feeling rose upon me: 'What if Omnipotence that has
developed in me these appetites, these reverences, these infinite
affections, should actually have said, Yes, poor mortal, such as
you who have gone so far, shall be permitted to go further. Hope!
despair not!' God's will, not ours, be done."
Yes, God's will be done for us and for him. The Lord gave, and the
Lord taketh away.
VAUGHAN
GOD CALLING TO MAN
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
CHARLES JOHN VAUGHAN, Church of England divine and educator, was
born at Leicester in 1816, and educated at Rugby under Dr. Arnold.
He was ordained in 1841 and in 1844 elected headmaster of Harrow.
But the post which gave him the best opportunity as a preacher, was
that of Master of the Temple which he occupied from 1869 to 1894. He
was a leader in the Broad Church party and his sermons are marked by
simplicity of diction, deep sincerity, and rare spiritual insight.
He died at Llandoff, of which he had been dean since 1879, in 1897.
VAUGHAN
1816-1897
GOD CALLING TO MAN
_And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art
thou?_--Genesis iii., 9.
"I wish," said a great man of our day, "that some one would preach
under the dome of St. Paul's, on the text, 'Where art thou, Adam?'"
A noble subject, my brethren, when we think of it! But who is
equal to the task of handling it? The work of God is quick and
powerful--may it be so now, He Himself using it, and prospering it
in the thing whereto He sent it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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