Short Sermon. OBEYING CHRIST'S WORDS. BY W. WALSHAM HOW, M.A., HONORARY CANON OF ST. ASAPH, St. John, xiv. 21.-' He that hath My Commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me.' HERE can be nothing more certain in all the truths of religion than this; that no man can love Christ without obeying Him, and that no man who does not love and obey Christ can be saved. 'If a man love Me, he will keep My words,' our Lord says; and again, 'He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings.' 6 Are you content, my brethren, to be judged by this rule? When I place myself at the bar, and try myself by it, I confess I tremble. I can hardly fancy any one not trembling, who, as an honest man, asks himself, Do I love Christ? And do I prove it by keeping His words?' Some of us, I hope, can say, even while we tremble, 'I do try. As for keeping Christ's words, I know I don't; I am for ever breaking them. But I want to keep them; and I try to keep them; and it grieves me sorely that I so greatly fail. "God be merciful to me a sinner!"" Then, again, even when we do try to keep Christ's sayings, does it never startle us to ask ourselves, 'From what motive am I doing this?' Are we never somewhat anxious about our state when we find how very very little the love of Christ constraineth us?' For, remember, it is quite possible, nay, very common, to keep some of Christ's sayings, in some sort of a way, without any love to Christ. We may be merely afraid of the open, wilful, breaking of plain commands. Many a man keeps the law of the land who does not love his country, or care for its welfare, or act on any higher principle than simple fear of consequences. And it is just the same with the law of Christ. Many a man keeps it, in some little degree, who has no love for Christ, but simply fears the consequences if he continually breaks it. Now, I am far from saying this fear is not a very wholesome thing. It sometimes ends in love, which casts out fear. But fear never saved a man, and never will. And if a man has no love for Christ, let him fear and tremble as much as he will, he is not Christ's, and cannot be saved. Now, when a man asks himself the question I have asked, 'Do I keep Christ's sayings?' if he wants a sensible answer, of course he must know what he means by Christ's sayings. I am afraid it is not certain that everybody could tell what are Christ's sayings which he must keep, or what are the chief of them, or what are some of them. When a person never reads his Bible at home, and never attends to it when it is read in church, it is perfectly astonishing how ignorant he can be of what it commands. And assuredly whatever God's Word commands, Christ commands. The sayings of Christ's Apostles are the sayings of Christ. They spake by the Spirit which Christ gave them. And as Christ could say,' The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's, Who sent Me,' much more could the Apostles say, 'The words we speak are not ours, but Christ's, Who sent us.' And just so speaks St. Paul. For in 1 Cor. xiv., where he Short Sermon. has just given his commands that a woman should not speak in the Church, he says, 'If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.' So we see, whatever Christ's Apostles say, Christ says. Their commands are His commands. This is true, and most important to remember; but I do not wish to take so wide a course to-day. There are plenty of sayings spoken by our blessed Lord's own divine lips by which to judge ourselves. We need not go beyond these to prove whether we love Christ or no. Take some few of the simplest and plainest of Christ's sayings. Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' Those are Christ's words. And He says, 'If a man love Me, he will keep My words.' Well, then, it is perfectly plain that if any one continues in sin, unchanged, unconverted, going on like an old man hardened in guilt, rather than like a little child in tenderness of heart and innocence of crying sins, that man cannot by any possibility love Christ. You may say, that is a strong case, and no one would suspect an unconverted sinner of loving Christ. Very well. Then we will take some other sayings. Search the Scriptures.' That is one. There is no mistaking the meaning of it. Judge yourselves by it, my friends. I suspect there are a good many well-meaning, respectable Christians among us, who do not keep this saying at all, who never search the Scriptures; by which no one would understand a bare formal reading of a daily portion for conscience sake, which some go through, still less the sitting in church while the Lessons are read to them; but a reading of the Bible with a real desire to learn from it, to find out what it teaches. Now I am sure this is a pretty fair test of loving Christ. If a man love Him, he will keep His words. And His words are, 'Search the Scriptures.' Or take such a plain, unmistakable command as, 'Swear not at all.' Swearing is a sin of the greatest possible frequency among us, and on that very account held in very light estimation. In fact, men are thought very little the worse of by a great many for an occasional oath. Well, mark this. Christ says, If a man love Me, he will keep My words. One of His words is, 'Swear not at all.' If a man swears. he breaks Christ's word. Therefore, he does not love Christ. Nobody can gainsay this. Now, another of our Lord's sayings is this: Love your enemies. Do good to them that hate you. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.' I suppose this, too, would not be counted hard to understand. I do not say it is not hard to practise. It certainly is. Few things are harder to us than to humble ourselves before others, and to give up what we fancy to be our rights. And this is just what Christ tells us to do. But now think with yourselves how it really is among people who fancy they are Christians and love Christ. Why, such is the blindness and self-deceit of man, that I have known a person to profess the deepest religious feelings, aye, and not only to profess, but really to believe in such feelings, and to act out in practice a great deal of religion, and yet all the time to refuse positively to forgive a neighbour a fancied wrong. I would just ask this little question,-Can such a person love Christ? He no doubt fancies he does; but fancy proves Short Sermon. nothing. The real proof is just what Christ says is the proof-the keeping of His sayings. And by this proof he is condemned. Now I will come to a saying of the Lord's which is quite as plain as any I have named, and as to which there is quite as much neglect among people fancying they are very respectable Christians, and who would be shocked to be told they did not love Christ. The saying I am coming to is a peculiarly solemn one, because it was spoken at a peculiarly solemn time. 'This do in remembrance of Me.' You know, without my telling you, what that saying is about. And it is quite as plain, and simple, and unqualified as Thou shalt not steal.' I confess, to me it seems very hard to understand what one perpetually sees, namely, a person who never has once obeyed this command, yet perfectly contented with his state, and professing perfect readiness to meet his Lord in judgment. I have constantly visited persons on the bed of sickness or of death, who have assured me they felt quite happy and ready to die, and who nevertheless have all their life long declared in the plainest way that they did not love Christ, and would not keep His sayings. My dear brethren, do not let us make a mistake about the matter. If God's word is not a cunningly-devised fable,' if Christ Jesus was not a deceiver, such as the world has never known, then those who do not come to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper do not love Christ, and have no right to trust in Him for salvation. It is so plain a thing that a child can understand it. If a man loves Christ, he will keep His words. Such people will not keep His words. Therefore, they do not love Him. They may say they feel love to Him, and judge by other things than the keeping of this or that particular saying. If they do say so, all I can say is that they deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them. O my brethren, you who seldom or never obey your Master's dying command, who time after time turn your back upon that holy ordinance which He bids you observe, listen to the truth. You do not love Christ. It is not I who tell you so, but Christ Himself. If a man love Me, he will keep My words.' You don't keep His words; therefore, you don't love Him. You cannot gainsay it. Some among you, though, are comforting yourselves a little, and thinking, 'Well, this does not apply to me, at any rate. I do come now and then to the Sacrament. I do obey this saying of my Lord.' So you do, now and then.' I suppose, therefore, you love Christ' now and then?' Let me ask, Do you not suppose that the same test will judge you, and that the amount of your love may be gathered from the amount of your obedience? Would it not follow naturally from Christ's words that he that loveth Christ most keepeth His commandments most? that he that loveth Christ a little serves Him only a little? and that he who only loves Christ now and then only obeys Him now and then? I think this is a natural and lawful way of applying my text. So, you see, you who come to the Sacrament now and then, have, after all, something to do with it. Judge for yourselves. Would those who loved Christ very heartily and very earnestly be likely to come often or seldom? I know you can defend the way of coming 'now and then,' which prevails so much among us, by some arguments as to the fear of losing the feeling of reverence and solemnity if you came oftener, and the like. I do not say such arguments are Short Sermon. not sometimes used honestly and acted upon conscientiously. But go back to my question. If you knew any one to love Christ very deeply indeed, should you expect to find that person often or seldom at Christ's Table? Why, every honest man would give the same answer to the question. My dear friends, believe me, this now and then' attendance is sadly cold, unloving work. And what shall I say of those who only come once or twice a-year, who satisfy their easy consciences with less than the Church orders as the very least which a Christian man may do? You know, brethren, how much you love Christ. Judge you, if I am saying what is uncharitable or untrue, when I say that you love Him with a very paltry, niggardly love It is always a very saddening time to me when I see a congregation numbered, as it may be, by hundreds, flocking out of church, as if they had done all, and leaving a little handful of perchance not more than twenty to share in the highest service of all, and keep their Lord's saying, 'This do in remembrance of Me.' Certainly, this is not a satisfactory state of things. We are not keeping Christ's sayings. We are not showing that we love Him. We need more of consistent religion among us. We need more to set an example of simple and faithful obedience to Christ's commands. There is a low standard of Christian requirement among us. I much fear it betokens a scant measure of Christian love. There is godlessness enough around us and among us. Look at the group that stands about as we come to God's House at nights, and who never enter within its walls. See how the public-house is full often when God's House is empty. Count the number of labouring men and lads who come to church, and then think, if the number be few who are on God's side, if the many are on the side of the world, and know not God, think, I say, if those who do in some degree love Christ ought not to be more firm, unswerving, consistent Christians than they are? How are timid, wavering, lukewarm, half-Christians to be the salt of the earth, as they ought to be? Surely, in such the salt has verily lost its savour. No, my brethren, I plead, aye, I plead with all the earnestness and affectionateness I am capable of; I plead for Christ and for the love of Christ; I urge those who are trying to lead Christian lives to be more truly Christians. I urge those who do love Christ to love Him better. I urge those who already keep Christ's sayings to keep them more literally, more constantly, more unmistakably. And I urge those who scarcely know what loving Christ and keeping His sayings means, to begin this day and learn. Do you want to know how to love Christ? Think of His love to you. We love Him because He first loved us.' This is the way. Love Him because He so loved you as to give His very life for your sake. Yea, in all things, as Christian men, who believe these things, and would, by God's grace, keep His dear Son's words-in all things, take this for your watchword and motto: THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONSTRAINETH US.' DURSLEY-continued. That the blessing of God may rest upon this Parish and all who dwell in it during the year just begun, should be the prayer of us all. CHURCH REGISTER. BAPTISMS. 5-Charlotte Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Mary Jane Phillips. 14-Samuel James, son of Stanley and Frances Bendall. 99 Walter Amos, son of Amos and Caroline Shipton. 25-Albert Edward Sidney Savage, son of Ephraim and Elizabeth Savage Tilley. 26-William Nathan, son of Charles and Charlotte Yates. 99 Florence Emily, daughter of Arthur and Eliza Emily MARRIAGE. Dec. 27-Alfred Gibbons to Elizabeth Palzer. BURIALS. Dec. 26-William Richards, aged 67 years. KING-STANLEY. The Services on Christmas Day were: Holy Communion at 8 a.m.; Morning Prayer, Holy Communion, and Sermon at 10.30; and Evening Prayer with Sermon at 3. It is pleasing to record the large increase in the number of Communicants at this Festival. Carols were sung instead of Hymns on Christmas Day and the following Sunday. The Church was very tastefully decorated, Christmas roses and evergreens being the chief marterials. On December 3rd, the Day of Intercession for Foreign Missions, there was a Celebration of Holy Communion at 8 a.m., during which an address was given by the Rector. The Litany, with the Prayers appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was said at 11 o'clock. The Annual Sermons for the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts were preached on the 3rd Sunday in Advent, the collections with the Intercession Day Offertory amounting to £2. 13s. 1 d., to which is added Miss Wigmore's subscription of 10/-. The members of the Choir were hospitably entertained by the Rector on the evening of Nov. 13. The party consisted of 16 men and boys and 8 of the elder girls of the Sunday School, who Occupy the two front seats in the Nave as a supplement to the trebles. Several friends were also present by invitation. After a substantial tea in the Girls' School-room, several good Part-songs |