Westminster Sermons: with a PrefaceKingsley, Charles
Religion
Westminster Sermons: with a Preface
Kingsley, Charles
Sermons, English -- 19th century
They saw that the Lord was gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of
great kindness, and repented Him of the evil. They saw that the Lord
helped them to right who suffered wrong, and fed the hungry; that the
Lord loosed men out of prison, the Lord gave sight to the blind; that the
Lord helped the fallen, and defended the fatherless and widow. They saw
too a further truth, and a more awful one. They saw that the Lord was
actually and practically King of kings and Lord of lords: that as such He
could come, and did come at times, rewarding the loyal, putting down the
rebellious, and holding high assize from place to place, that He might
execute judgment and justice; beholding all the wrong that was done on
earth, and coming, as it were, out of His place, at each historic crisis,
each revolution in the fortunes of mankind, to make inquisition for
blood, to trample His enemies beneath His feet, and to inaugurate some
progress toward that new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness, and righteousness alone. That vision, in whatsoever
metaphors it may be wrapped up, is real and true, and will be so as long
as evil exists within this universe. Were it not true, there would be
something wanting to the perfect justice and the perfect benevolence of
God.
But is this all? If this be all, what have we Christians learnt from the
New Testament which is not already taught us in the Old? Where is that
new, deeper, higher revelation of the goodness of God, which Jesus of
Nazareth preached, and which John and Paul and all the apostles believed
that they had found in Jesus Himself? They believed, and all those who
accepted their gospel believed, that they had found for that word
"grace," a deeper meaning than had ever been revealed to the prophets of
old time; that grace and goodness, if they were perfect, involved self-
sacrifice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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