Transcribed from the [1864] edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org TWO SERMONS PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF NONINGTON, KENT, JANUARY 17, 1864, Being the Sunday following the Funeral of JOHN PEMBERTON PLUMPTRE, ESQ., _OF FREDVILLE, IN THE SAME PARISH_. * * * * * BY THE REV. HERBERT JAMES, _Perpetual Curate of Goodnestone_, _Kent_, AND THE REV. EDWARD HOARE, _Incumbent of Trinity Church_, _Tunbridge Wells_. * * * * * DOVER: BATCHELLER. LONDON: NISBET, BERNERS STREET. * * * * * SERMON, BY THE REV. HERBERT JAMES. “Remember them which have the rule over you (are the guides), who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.”—Heb. xiii. 7. God’s gifts to His Church are manifold. He has given Christ and eternal life in Him. He has given the Word of Christ, the precious casket which enshrines Him and His salvation. He has given the Holy Ghost to lead us by the Word Inspired to the Word Incarnate. And He has given Christians indeed—men and women saved by Christ—living embodiments of a living Saviour and a living Word, through the living Spirit. In all these gifts He has a special purpose in view. They are not thrown at random into the world. God does nothing aimlessly. When He called this world of ours into being, and gave it its proper place in the universe as the habitation for man,—when He gathered up the light into the light-bearers, and commanded them to be for signs, and for seasons, for days, and years,—when He put the topstone to creation, and set man upon the earth to be His representative,—in all this there was nothing without design. “He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered.” And so, brethren, has He dealt in things of higher moment. When He gave His Son, His Word, His Spirit, His people, there was a meaning in each of these gifts. They are no accidents. His choosing is for our using. His mercies are for our minding. His gifts are for our gain, as well as for the glory of His own grace. Now, this is specially true of that great, but often little-regarded, gift—_a Christian indeed_. It is a mistake to suppose that such an one is here merely to work out his own salvation, and heap up treasure for himself in the world to come.