True Words for Brave Men: A Book for Soldiers' and Sailors' LibrariesKingsley, Charles
Religion
True Words for Brave Men: A Book for Soldiers' and Sailors' Libraries
Kingsley, Charles
Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English
If the Bible is from God, I say, the question is not whether it is
_better_ to obey it or not. Better? there is no better or worse in the
matter--it is infinitely necessary. To obey is infinitely right, to
disobey is infinitely wrong. To obey is infinitely wise, to disobey is
infinite folly. There can be no question about the matter, except in the
mind of a fool. Better to obey God's word? Better indeed--for to obey
is heaven, to disobey is hell. _That_ is the difference. And at your
better moments does not the voice within you, witness to, and agree with,
the words of that book? When it tells you to care more for your soul
than your body--more for the life to come, which is eternity, than for
the present life which lasts but a few years--does not common sense tell
you that? The Bible tells you to reverence and love God the giver of all
good--does not reason tell you that? The Bible tells you loyally to
obey, to love, to worship our blessed King and Saviour in heaven. Does
not common sense tell you that? Surely if there be such a person as
Jesus Christ--if He is sitting now in heaven as Saviour of all, and one
day to be Judge of all--by all means _He_ is to be obeyed, He is to be
pleased, whoever else we may displease. Reason, one would think, would
tell us that--and it is just want of reason which makes us forget it.
What have you to say against the pattern of a true and holy man as laid
down in the Bible? The Bible would have you pure--can you deny that you
ought to be that? It would have you peaceable--can you deny that you
ought to be that? The Bible would have you forgiving, honest,
honourable, active, industrious. The Bible would have you generous,
loving, charitable. Can you deny that that is right, however some of you
may dislike it? The Bible would have you ask all you want from God, and
ask forgiveness of God for every offence, great and small, against Him.
Can you deny that that is right and reasonable? The Bible would have you
live in continual remembrance that the great eye of God is on you--in
continual thankfulness to the blessed Saviour who died for you and has
redeemed you by His own blood--with daily and hourly prayer for God's
Spirit to set your heart and your understanding right on every point. Can
you deny that that is all right and good and proper--that unless the
Bible be all a dream, and there be no Holy and Almighty God, no merciful
Christ in heaven, this is THE way and the only way to live? Ay, if there
were no God, no Christ, no hereafter, it would be better for man to live
as the Bible tells him, than to live as too many do. There would be
infinitely less misery, less heart-burnings, less suffering of body and
soul, if men followed Christ's example as told us in the Bible. Even if
this life were all, and there were neither punishment nor reward for us
after death--does not our reason tell us that if all men and women were
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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