Westminster Sermons: with a PrefaceKingsley, Charles
Religion
Westminster Sermons: with a Preface
Kingsley, Charles
Sermons, English -- 19th century
But against them all he had but one weapon, and one defence. However
much afraid he might be of his enemies, he was still more afraid of doing
wrong. His flesh, he said, trembled for fear of God; and he was afraid
of God's judgments. Therefore his only safety was, in pleasing God, and
not men. I deal, he says, with the thing that is lawful and right. Oh
give me not over to my oppressors. Make Thy servant to delight in what
is good, that the proud do me no wrong. If he could but keep right, he
would be safe at last.
I will consider Thy testimonies, O Lord. I see that all things come to
an end. Bad times, and bad chances, and still more bad men, and bad ways
for escaping out of trouble--they all come to an end. But Thy
commandment is exceeding broad. Exceeding broad. There are depths below
depths of meaning in that true saying; depths which you will find true,
if you will but read your Bibles, and obey your Bibles. For in them, I
tell you openly, you will find rules to guide you in every chance and
change of this mortal life. Truly said the good man that there were in
the Bible "shallows where a lamb may drink, and deeps wherein an elephant
may swim."
There are no possible circumstances, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant,
in which you can find yourselves, be you rich or poor, young or old,
without finding in the Bible sound advice, and a clear rule, as to how
God would have you behave under those circumstances. For God's
commandments are exceeding broad, and take in all cases of conscience,
all details of duty; saying to each and every one of us, at every
turn--"This is the way, walk ye in it."
At least this is the teaching, this is the testimony, this is the life-
experience, of a true hero, namely, the man who wrote the 119th Psalm; a
hero according to God, but not according to the world, and the pomp and
glory of the world.
No great statesman was he, nor conqueror, nor merchant, nor financier
passing millions of money through his hands yearly; and all fancying that
they, and not God, govern the nations upon earth, and decide the fate of
empires.
He was a man who made no noise in the world: though the world, it seems,
made a little noise at him in his time, as it does often bark and yell at
those who will not go its way; as it barked at poor Christian, when he
went through Vanity Fair, and would not buy its wares, or join in its
frivolities. Such a man was this Psalmist; for whom the world had
nothing but scorn first, and then forgetfulness. We do not know his
name, or where he lived. We do not even know, within a few hundred
years, when he lived. I picture him to myself always as a poor,
shrivelled, stooping, mean-looking old man; his visage marred more than
any man, and his figure more than the sons of men; no form nor comeliness
in him, nor beauty that men should desire him; despised and rejected of
men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, even as his Master was
after him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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