Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
With God is the well of life. There is the answer. Thou wishest to
be a good man; to live a good life; to live as a good son, good
husband, good father, good in all the relations of humanity; as it
is written, 'And Noah was a just man, and perfect in his
generations; and Noah walked with God.' Then do thou walk with God.
For in him is the life thou wishest for. He alone can quicken thee,
and give thee spirit and power to fulfil thy duty in thy generation.
Is not his Spirit the Lord and Giver of life--the only fount and
eternal spring of life? From him life flows out unto the smallest
blade of grass beneath thy feet, the smallest gnat which dances in
the sun, that it may live the life which God intends for it. How
much more to thee, who hast an altogether boundless power of life;
whom God has made in his own likeness, that thou mayest be called
his son, and live his life, and do, as Christ did, what thou seest
thy heavenly Father do.
Thou feelest, perhaps, how poor and paltry thine own life is,
compared with what it might have been. Thou feelest that thou hast
never done thy best. When the world is praising thee most, thou art
most ashamed of thyself. Thou art ready to cry all day long, 'I
have left undone that which I ought to have done;' till, at times,
thou longest that all was over, and thou wert beginning again in
some freer, fuller, nobler, holier life, to do and to be what thou
hast never done nor been here; and criest with the poet--
'Tis life, whereof my nerves are scant;
'Tis life, not death, for which I pant;
More life, and fuller, that I want.
Then have patience. With God is the fount of life. He will refresh
and strengthen thee; and raise thee up day by day to that new life
for which thou longest. Is not Holy communion his own pledge that
he will do so? Is not that God's own sign to thee, that though thou
canst not feed and strengthen thine own soul, he can and will feed
and strengthen it; and feed it--mystery of mysteries--with himself;
that God may dwell in thee, and thou in God. And if God and Christ
live in thee, and work in thee to will and to do of their own good
pleasure, that shall be enough for thee, and thou shall be
satisfied.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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