SERMON IV.
T. STEPIIEN, who was one of the seven Deacons, is called the Protomartyr, as having first suffered death in the cause of the Gospel. Let me take the opportunity of his festival to make some remarks upon martyrdom generally. The word Martyr properly means "a witess," but is used to denote exclusively one vho has suffered dcath for the Christian faith. Those who have witnessed for Christ without suffering death, are called Cofessors; a title which the early Martyrs often made their own, before their last solemn coufession unto death, or Martyrdom. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the chief and most glorious of Martyrs, as having "before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; '' but we do not call Him a Martyr, as being much more than a Martyr. 1 Tim. vi. 18.
True it is, He died for the Truth; but that was not the chief purpose of his death, tie died to save us sinners from the wrath of God. lie was not only a Martyr; lie was an Atoning Sacrifice. tic is the supreme object of our love, gTatitude, and reverence.:Next to l lira we honour the noble army of Martyrs; not iudeed comparing them with llim, "who is above all, God blessed for ever," or as if they in suffering had any part in the work of reconciliation, but because they have approached most closely to His 1,attern of all ]lis servants. They have shed their blood flr the Church, fultilling the text, " tie laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives fr the brethren. '' They have followed His steps, and claim our grateful remembrance. IIad St.. Stephen shrunk from the trial put upon him, aud recanted to save his life, no one can estimate the consequences of such a defection. Perhaps (hummfly speaking) the cause of the Gospel would have been lost; the Church might have perished; and, though Christ had died for the world, the world nfight not have received the knowledge or the benefits of His death. The ehalmels of grace might have been destroyed, the Sacraments withdrawn from the feeble and corrupt race which has such need of them. Now it may be said, that many men suffer pain, as great as Martyrdom, from disease, and in other vays: again, that it does not follow that those who happened to be martyred were always the most useful and active defenders of the faith; and therefore, that in honouring 1 John iii. 16.
the Iartyrs, we are honouring with especial honour those to whom indeed we may be peculiarly indebted (as in the case of Apostles), but nevertheless who may have been but ordinary men, who happened to stand in the most exposed place, in the wav of persecution, and were slain as if by chance, because the sword met them first. ]Jut this, it is plain, would be a strange way of reasoning in any parallel case. We are grateful to those who have done us favours, rather than to those who might or would, if it had so happened. We have no concern with the question, whether the Martyrs were the best of men or not, or whether others would have been Martyrs too, had it been allowed them. We are graeful to those who were such, from the plain matter of fact that they were such, that they did go through much suffering, in order that the world might gain an inestimable benefit, the light of the Gospel. ]ut in truth, if we could view the matter considerately, we shall find that (as far as human judgment can decide on such a point), the M;trtyrs of the primitive times were, as such, men of a very elevated faith; not only our benefactors, but far our superiors. The utmost to which any such objection as that I have stated, goes, is this; to shoxv that others who were not martyred, might be equal to them (St. Philip the Deacon, for instance, equal to his associate St. Stephen), not that those who were mart)n'ed were not men eminently gifted with the Spirit of Christ. For let us consider what it was then to be a Martyr. 1. First, it was to be a q;oluntary sufferer. 5[en, perhaps, suffer in various diseases more than the martyrs
44 St. St@hen. did, but they cannot help themselves. Again, it has frequently happened that men have been persecuted for their religion without having expected it, or being able to avert it. These in one sense indeed are Jnartyrs; and we naturally think aflbctionatcly of those who have suffered in our cause, whether vohmtarily or not. But this was n)t the case with the primitive martyrs. They knew bctbr(qmnd clearly enough the consequences of preaching the Gospel; they had frequent warnings brought home to them of the sufferings in store for them, if they persevered in their labours of brotherly love. Their Lord and Master had suffered before them; and, besides suffering IIimself, had expressly,foretold their sufferings; " If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. ''x They were repeatedly warned and strictly charged by the chief priests and rulers, not to preach in Christ's name. They had experience of lesser punishments from their adversaries in earnest of the greater; and at length they saw their brethren, one by one, slain for persevering in their faithfulness to Christ. Yet they continued to keep the faith, though they might be victims of their obedience any day. All this must be considered when we speak of their sufferings. They lived under a continual trial, a daily exercise of faith, which we, living in peaceable times, can scarcely understand. Christ had said to His Apostles, " Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." e Consider what is meant by sifting, which is a continued agitation, a shaking about to separate the mass of corn into two parts. Such was John xv. 20. "-" Luke xxii. 31.
yield (which is not seldom) to inferior and ordinary temptations. 2. But, in the next place, the suffering itself of Martyrdom was in some respects peculiar. It was a death, cnel in itself, publicly inflicted- and heighteued by the fierce exultation of a malevolent populace. When we are in pain, we can lie in peace by ourselves. We receive the sympathy and kind services of those about us; and if we like it, we can retire altogether fro, the sight of others, and suffer without a witness to interrupt us. But the sufl'eriugs of martyrdom were for the most part public, attended with every circumstauce of ignominy and popular triumph, as well as with torture. Criminals indeed are put to death without kindly floughts from bystanders; still, for the most part, even criminals receive conmfiseration and a sort of respect. But fle early Christians had to endure "the shalne" after their Iaster's pattern. They had to die in the midst of enenfies who reviled them, and in mockery, bid them (as in Christ's case) come down from the cross. They were supported on no easy couch, soothed by no attentive friends; and considering how much he depressing power of pain depends on the imagination, this circumstance alone at once separates their suffertugs widely from all instances of pain in disease. The unseen God alone was their Comforter, and this invests the scene of their suffering with supernatural majesty, and awes us when we think of them. "Yea, though 1 walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for 2"ho art witt me." A Martyrdom is Psalm xxiii. 4.
a season of God's especial power in the eye of faith, as great as if a miracle were visibly wrought. It is a fellowship of Chrisfs sufferings, a commemoration of His death, a representation filling up in figure, "that which is behind of tlis afflictions, for his Body's sake, which is the Church. "1 And thus, being an august solenmity in itself, and a kind of saeralnent, a baptism of blood, it worthily finishes that long searching trial which I have already described as being its usual forerunner in primitive times. I have spoken only of the early lnartyrs, because this Festival leads me to do so; and besides, because, though there have been martyrs mnong us since, yet, fi'om the time that kings have become nursing fathers to the Church, the history of confessors and martyrs is so implicated with state atfairs, that their conduct is not so easily separable by us from the world around them, uor are we given to know them so clearly: though this difficulty of discerning t.hent should invest their memory with peculiar interest when we do discern them, and their connexion with civil matters, far from diminishing the high spiritual excellence of such true sons of the Church, in solne,respeets even iuereases it. To conelude.It is useful to reflect on subjects such as that I have now laid before you, in order to humble ourselves. "We have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin. ''- What are our petty sufferings, which we make so much of, to their pains and sorrows, who lost their friends, and then their own lives tbr Christ's sake; who were assaulted by all kinds of temptations, the Col. i. 24. Heb. xii. 4.
merciful, meek, self-denying than we are. Let us "crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts." 1 This, to be sure, is sorry martyrdom; yet God accepts it for His Son's sake. lTtwithstanding, after all, if we get to heaven, surely we shall be the hwest of the saints there assembled; and if all are unprofitable servants, we verily shall bc the most unprofitable of all.
He was dying on the cross; it was to St. John that He revealed in vision after His departure the fortunes of His Church. Much migllt be said on this remarkable circumstance. I say remarbdlc, because it might be supposed that the Son of God Most High could not have loved one man more than another; or agaiu, if so, that He would not have had ouly one friend, but, as being All-holy, He wouhl have loved all men more or less, in proportion to their holiness. Yet we find our Saviour had a private fi'iend; and this shows us, first, how entirely He was a man, as much as any of us, in ]Iis wants and feelings; and next, that there is no.thing contrary t.o the spirit of the Gospel, mthiug inconsistent with the fltlness of Christian love, in having our affections directed in an especial way towards certain objects, towards those whom the circumstances of ottr past life, or some peculiarities of character, have endeared to us. There have been men before now, who have supposed Christian love vas so diffusive as not to admit of concentration upon individuals; so that we ought to love all men equally. And many there are, who, without bringing forward any theory, yet consider practically that the love of many is something superior to the love of one or two; and neglect the charities of private life, while busy in the schemes of an expansive benevolence, or of effectiug a general union and conciliation among Christians. Now I shall here maintain, in opposition to such notions of Christian love, and with our Saviour's pattern before me, that the best preparation for loving the world at large, and loving it duly and wisely, is to cultivate an intimate fl'iendship and affection towards those who are immediately about us. It has been the plan of Divine Providence to ground what is good and true in religion and morals, on the basis of our good natural feelings. What we are towards our earthly fi'iends in the instincts and wishes of our infancy, such we are to become at length towards God and man in the extended field of our duties as accountable beings. To honour ore" parents is the first step towards honouring God; to love our hrethren according to the flesh, the first step towards considering all men our brethren. Ilence our Lord sws, we must become as little children, if xve vould be saved; we must become in His Church, as men, what we were once in the small circle of our youthful homes.—Consider how many other virtues are grafted upon natural feelings. What is Christian high-mindedness, generous self-denial, contempt of wealth, endurance of suffering, and earnest striving after perfection, but an improvement and transformation, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, of that natural character of mind which we ea]l romantic? On the other hand, what is the instinctive hatred and abomination of sin (which confirmed Christians possess), their dissatisfaction with themselves, their general refinement, discrimhation, and caution, but an improvement, under the same Spirit, of their natural sensitiveness and delicacy, fear of pain, and sense of shame? They have been chastised into self-government, by a tilting discipline, and now associate an acute sense of discomfort and annoyance with the notion of sinning. And so of the love of our fellow Christians and of the world at
54 St. yo] z Eva z elist. large, it is the love of kindred and friends in a fresh shape; which has this use, if it had no other, that it is the natural branch on which a spiritual fruit is grafted. But again, the love of our private friends is the only preparatory, exercise for the love of all men. The love of God is not the same thing as the love of our parents, though parallel to it; but the love of mankind in general should be in the maiu the same habit as he love of our friends, only exercised towards different objects. The great ditticulty in our religious duties is their extent. This fi'ightens and perplexes men,naturally those especially, who have neglected religion for a while, and on whom its obligations disclose themselves all at once. This, for example, is the great misery of leaving repentanee till a man is in weakness or sickness; he does not know how to et about it. Now God's merciful Providence has in the natural course of things narrowed for us at first this large field of duty; He has given us a clue. We are to begin with lving our friends about us, and gradually to enlarge the circle of our affections, till it reachea all Christians, and then all men. Besides, it is 0hviously impossible to love all men in any strict and true sense. What is meant by loving all men, is, to feel well-disposed to all men, to be ready to assist them, and to act towards those who come in our way, as if we loved them. We cannot love those about whom we know nothing; except indeed we view them in Christ, as the objects of His Atonement, that is, rather in faith than in love. And love, besides, is a habit, and cannot be attained without actual practice, which on so large a scale is impossible. We see then how absurd it declaratious about Christian love. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. God is love, and lie that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God iu him. ''1 Now did lie begin with some vast eflbrt at loving on a large scale? Nay, he had the unspeakable privilege of being the.friend of Christ. Thus he was taught to love others; first his affection was concentrated, then it was expa,ded. Next he had the solemu and comfortable charge of tendin.g our Lord's.!other, the Blessed Virgin, after His departure. Do we not here discern the secret sources of his especial love of the brethren? Could tie, who first was tavoured with his Saviour's affection, then trusted with a son's office towards Iris Mother, could he be other than a memorial and pattern (as fitr as man can be), of love, deep, contemplative, fervent, unruffled, unbounded? Further, that love of friends and relations, which nature prescribes, is also of use to the Christian, in giving form and direction to his love of mankind at. large, and making it intelligent and discriminating. A man, who would fidn begin by a general love of all men, necessarily puts them all on a level, and, instead of being cautions, prudent, and sympathising in his benevolence, is hasty and rude; does harm, perhaps, when he means to do good, discourages the virtuous and we!l-meaning, and wounds the feelings of the gentle. Men of ambitious and ardent minds, for example, desirous of doing good on a large scale, are especially exposed to the temptation of sacrificing individual to 1.lohn iv. 7, 1 16.
general good in their plans of charity. Ill-instructt, d men, who have strong abstract notions about the necessity of showing generosity and candour towards opponents, often forget to take any thought of those wh are associated with themselves; and commence their (so-called) liberal treatment of their enemies by an nnkind desertion of their friends. This can hardly be the case, when men cultivate the private charities, as aa introduction to more enlarged ones. By laying a fi)undation of social amiableness, we insensibly learn to observe a due harmony and order in our charity; we learn that all men are not on a level; that the interests of truth and holiness must be religiously observed; and that the Chm'ch has claims on us before the world. We can easily afford to be liberal on a large scale, when we have no aIt'ections to stand in the way. Those who have not accustomed themselves to love their neighbouts whom they have seen, will have nothing to lose or gain, nothing to grieve at or rejoice in, in their larger plans of benevolence. They will take no interest in them for their ovn sake; rather, they will engage in them, because expedience demands, or credit is gained, or an excuse found for being busy. IIence too we discern how it is, that private virtue is the only sure foundation of public virtue; and that no national good is to be expected (though it may now and then. accrue), from men who have not the fear of God before their eyes. I have hitherto considered the cultivation of domestic affections as the source of more extended Christian love. Did time permit, I might now go on to show, besides, presence of divine grace in them; and it is always a sort of symbol of it, for there is t first sight something of the nature of virtue in the very notion of constancy, dislike of change being not only the characteristic of a virtuous mind, but in some sense a virtue itself. And now I have suggested to you a subject of thought for to-day's Festival,—and surely a very practical subject, when we consider how large a portion of our duties lies at home. Shouhl God call upon us to preach to the world, surely we nmst obey His call; but at present, let us do what lies before us. Little children, let us love one another. Let us be meek and gentle; let us think before we speak; let us try to improve our talents in private life; let us do good, not hoping for a return, and avoidhg all dislAay betbre men. Well may I so exhort you at this season, when we have so lately partaken together the Blessed Sacrament which binds us to nmtual love, and gives us strength to practise it. Let us not forget the pronfise we then made, or the?,race we then received. We are not our own; we ar,e bought with the blood of Christ; we are consecrated to be temples of the Holy Spirit, an unutterable privilege, which is weighty enough to sink us with shame at our unworthiness, did it not the while strengthen us by the aid itself imparts, to bear its extreme costliness. May we live worthy of our calling, and realize in our own persons the Church's prayers and professions for us!
lloly l z iocc zts. before us a truth which else we might think little of; to sober our wishes and hopes of this world, our high ambitious thoughts, or our anHous fears, jealousies, and cares, by the picture of the purity, peace, and contentment which are the characteristics of little children. And, ildependently of the benefit thus accruing to ls, it is surely right and meet thus to celebrate the death of the Holy Innocents: for it was a blessed one. To be 1,fought near to Christ, and to suffer for Christ, is surely an unspeakable privilege; to suffer anyhow, even unco',sciously. The little children whom He took up in his arms, were not conscious of His loving condescension; but was it no privilege when He blessed them? Surely this massacre had in it the nature of a Sacrament; it was a pledge of the love of the Son of God towards those who were included in it. All who came near Him, more or less suffered by approaching Him, just as if earthly pain and trouble went out of Him, as some precious virtue for the good of their souls;and these infants in the number. Surely His very presence was a Sacrament; every motion, look, and word of His conveying grace to those who would receive it: and much more was fellowship with Him. And hence in ancient times such barbarous nmrders or Martyrdoms were considered as a kind of baptism, a baptism of blood, with a sacramental charm in it, which stood in the place of the appointed Laver of regcnel"tion. Let us then take these little children as in some sense Martyrs, and see what instruction we may gain from the pattern of their im.ocence.
one day every year, as if for the contemplation of His word and deed. If we wish to affect a person, and (if so be) humble him, what can we do better than appeal to the memo T of times past, and above Mi to his chihlhood! Then it was that he came out of the hands of God, with all lessons and thoughts of Heaven freshly marked upon him. Who can tell how God makes the soul, or how lie new-makes it? \Vc know not. We kn,w that, }esides llis part in the work, it comes into the world with the taint of sin upon it; and that even regeneration, which removes the curse, does not extirpate the root of evil. Whether it is created in Heaven or hell, how Adam's sin is breathed into it, together with the breath of life, and how the Spirit dwells in it, who shall inform us? But flis we know full well,we know it from our own recollection of ourselves, and our experience of children,flat there is in the infant soul, in the first years of its regenerate state, a. discernment of the unseen world in the things that are seen, a realization of what is Sovereign and Adorable, and an incredulity and ignorance about what is transient and changeable, which mark it as the fit emblem of the matured Christian, when weaned from things temporal, and living in the intimate conviction of the Divine Presence. I do not mean of course that a child has any formed principle in his heart, any habits of obedience, any true discrimination between the visible and the useen, such as God promises to reward for Christ's sake, in those who come to years of discretion. Never nmst we forget that, in spite of his new birth, evil is within him, though in its seed only; but he has this one great gift., that he seems to have lately come from God's presence, a.nd not to under:stand the language of this visille scene, or how it is a temptation, hov it is a veil interposing itself between the soul and God. The simplicity of a child's ways and notions, his ready belief of everything he is told, his artless love, his frank confidence, his confession of helplessness, his ignorance of evil, his inability to conceal his thoughts, his contentment, his prompt forgetfulness of tronble, his admiring without coveting; and, above all, his reverential spirit, looking at all things about him as wonderfid, as tokens and types of the One Invisible, are all evidence of his being lately (as it were) a visitant in a higher state of things. I would only have a person reflect on the earnestness and awe with which a child listens to any description or tale; or again, his freedom from that spirit of proud independence, which discovers itself in the soul as time goes on. And though, doubtless, children are generally of a weak and irritable nature, and all are not equally amiable, yet their passions go and are over like a shower; not interfering with the lesson we may gain to our own profit from their ready faith and guilelessness. The distinctness with which the conscience of a child tells him the difference betveen right and wrong should also be mentioned. As persons advance in life, and yield to the temptations which come upon them, they lose this original endowment, and are obliged to grope about by the mere reason. If they debate whether they should act in this way or that, and there are many II] F considerations of duty and interest involved in the decision, they feel altogether perplexed. 1Leally, and truly, not from self-deception, but really, they do not know how they ought to act; and they are obliged to draw out arguments, and take a great deal of pains to come to a conclusion. And all this, in many ees at least, because they have lost, through sinning, a tide which they originally had from God. IIenee it is that St.,l)hn, in the Epistle for the day, speaks of Christ's undciiled servants as " following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." They have the minds of children, and are able by the light within them to decide questions of duty at once, undisturbed by the perplexity of discordant argmnents. In what has already been said, it has been implied how striking a pattern a child's mind gives us of what may be called a church t.emper. Christ has so willed it, that we should get at the Truth, not by ingenious speculations, reasonings, or investigations of our o], but by teaching. The IIoly Church has been set up from the beginning as a solemn religious fact, so to call it,—as a picture, a revelation of the next world, as itself the Christian Dispensation, and so in one sense the witness of its own divinity, as is the Natural World. Now those who in the firs place receive her words, have the minds of children, who do nut reason, but obey their mother; and those who from the first refuse, as clearly fall short of children, in that they trus their own powers for arriving at truth, rather than informants which are external to them. In conclusion, I shall but remind you of the difference, on the other hand, between the state of a child and that of a matured Christian; though this differenee is ahnost too obvious to be noticed. St. John says, "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous;" and again, "Evely one that doeth righteousness is born of Him. '' Now, it is plain a child's innocence has no share in this higher blessedhess. IIe is but a type of what is at length to be fiflfilled in him. The chief beauty of his mind is on its mel surface; and when, as time goes on, he attempts to act (as is his duty to do), instantly it disappears. It is only while he is still, that he is like a tranquil water, reflecting heaven. Therefore, we must not lament that our youthful days are gone, or sigh over the remembrances of pure pleasures and contemplations which we cannot recall; rather, what we were when children, is a blessed intimations, given for our comfort, of what God will make us, if we sun'ender our hearts to the guidance of His Holy Spirit,a prophecy of good to come,a foretaste of what will be fulfilled in heaven. And thus it is that a child is a pledge of immortality; for he bears upon hfin in figure those high and eternal excellences in which the joy of heaven consists, and which would not be thus shadowed forth by the Allracious Creator, were they not one day to be realized. Accordingly, our Church, for the Epistle for this Festival, selects St. John's description of the Saints in glory. As then we would one day reign 'ith them, let us in this world learn the mind of little children, as the same 1 John iii. 7; it. 29. -2
Apostle describes it: "Ny little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." '" Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."1