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Where no oxen are, the crib is
clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.’—Prov. xiv. 4.
I HAVE no liking at all for
an affected oddity in the choice of texts on which to found this; and you
may be quite sure that I have not selected this text merely because it is
out of the common way. It is quite true that the attention of an nmtive and
listless congregation may be aroused, first for a few minutes, by the
announcement of a particular text; and then the preacher has his chance
filling the ears of such people to what may be in an important instruction.
But in preaching to the congregation so intelligent and attentive as this
one is not driven to any expedients partaking of the nature of clap-trap :
and I now bring this text before your minds because a few days since I came
upon it in the course of reading in Proverbs: and, as it often happens in
the experience of every preacher, the principle implied in the words came
out with special clearness, as an interesting and suitable subject of
discourse. Let us pray that the Blessed Spirit may help us to draw spiritual
good from what in its first intention may seem nothing more than an axiom of
shrewd worldly wisdom.
Of course, you see, readily enough, the obvious meaning of the sentence. If
a man has got no oxen at all, he is saved any trouble which comes of one’s
having oxen: but he likewise loses the good which one gets by having oxen :
and that good, Solomon implies, is greater than the trouble. Where there are
no oxen in the stall, the stall is readily kept in a very tidy and orderly
condition : you put it right for once, and then there is nothing to put it
wrong; and so it stays right. But still, on the other side of the scale, the
wise man tells us, ‘ much increase is by the strength of the ox9: the fallow
field is broken up by the plough the poor ox draws: the golden harvest waves
in autumn, because of the spring labours of the industrious beast: then the
laden waggon bears the com to the farm-yard, drawn by the ox again: and thus
useful while it lives, when at last the poor creature dies, there is not a
bit of it which may not be made of service to man. You must take the animal
for better for worse: and doubtless in the judgment of reasonable beings,
the worse is very far overbalanced by the better.
That is the literal meaning of this proverb of Solomon. But of course you
know that a proverb is not said or written for the sake of its literal
meaning. The worth of a proverb lies in this, that stating one case, it
suggests a hundred. It sets forth a general principle. Many are the
instances in which it is as here : that there is something to be said on
each side of a debatable question; and it is for the wise man to weigh the
matter, and judge on which side there is most to say. Thus, in a house where
there are no children, the income goes much further: the father and mother
can afford to have things which if they had children they could not: the
dwelling is quieter, the furniture lasts longer, there is a general
orderliness. Yet, with all that, those whom God has blest with children,
amid all the anxieties which attend their upbringing, would not think that
any worldly advantages could make up for their loss. Then, a man to whom God
has given wealth, is spared many sorry calculations, much hard toil when he
has little heart for it: but on the other hand he runs the risk of living a
listless, useless life, or even one of gross vice and sin. So, in a National
Established Church, a clergyman, being entirely independent (so far as money
is concerned) of his congregation and parishioners, may possibly (if he be a
man of no principle) turn lazy, and grossly neglect his duty: the thing is
conceivable, though I have hardly ever seen it. But against this possible
disadvantage of the system, are to be set infinitely greater advantages :
the entire deliverance of the religious instructors of the people from the
temptation to preach not what is true but what is pleasant: a temptation
which as you know was strong enough to enable a race of slave-holders to
provide for themselves a race of preachers sneaky enough and blinded enough
to preach habitually that slavery is right: the lowest point of degradation,
as I think, ever reached by man.
These are examples of what Solomon says in that proverb. No doubt, the thing
is very plain. It seems so plain, that you would say no sensible person
would ever need to be reminded of it.
But it is just one of those things of which we all need to be reminded,
every day. For who is there that does not know, that a great many people,
when a plausible objection is brought forward to some belief they hold, are
ready at once to give up that belief as untenable; and that a great many
people too, when some plausible reason is brought forward why they should do
or think something, are ready to think so or to act so, without looking to
the other side of the balance of reasons ? In fact, immediately on seeing
that where no oxen are the crib is clean, they determine that they shall
have nothing to do with oxen,—forgetting altogether the weightier
consideration on the other hand, that much increase is by the strength of
the ox. In brief, brethren, the practical lesson for you and me from this
text is, that because we see an objection to a thing,—even a weighty and
undeniable objection,—we are not, therefore, to reject that thing, till we
see what there is to be said in its behalf: and further, that although we;
see a reason for a thing, a strong reason, several reasons, we are not to go
straight and conclude in favour of that thing, till we look, and find, and
weigh, what there is to be said against it.
A great many people have been so brought up, both as regards their religious
belief and their ecclesiastical views, that their actual convictions are
subjected to a peculiar risk. These people (and there are many of them) have
grown up under the impression that on the questions on which they have been
trained to hold decided opinions, all the reasons are on one side, their own
side : and when they come to find that it is not so, but that very plausible
objections may be stated to their most cherished beliefs, their confidence
in these beliefs is rudely shaken ; and they are (in some cases) ready to
throw them aside and go over to new ways of thinking. If they had been
taught (which is the fact), that wherever rational beings, not personally
interested in the issue, have been ranged on different sides of a question,
there must have been reasons to be pleaded on either side: that on hardly
any debatable question are all the reasons on one side: then they would not
have been shaken by the first skilfully-put objection to their hereditary
beliefs : They would have thought, This is just what we expected, or might
have expected: and even if they were not able to answer the objection at
once, or at all, they would not cast aside the old belief till they had
weighed the reasons on either side, and found out on which side was the
greater weight. It is the preponderance of reasons and likelihoods which has
determined the intelligent creed of the race, on all questions lesser and
greater; and will to the end. It is not that nothing whatsoever could be
said on the wrong side. Go into any court of justice, so called; and you
will find how much an ingenious counsel will find to say in support of the
falsest and most preposterous conclusion. Take an example. We have all been
taught since we were children that certain of the essential doctrines of the
Roman Church (which I hope none of you will ever call the Catholic Church)
are wrong. We believe, and are sure, that they are wrong. But though there
is an overwhelming balance of reason against them, which makes one (in some
cases) practically as sure that they are wrong as that two and two make
four; still, there is something to be said, such as it is, for even the
worst of them. Take for instance the keeping back the Bible from the people
: refusing to allow a man to read the Bible without the Church's
explanations of it, and the priest's permission. To us, nothing appears more
flagrantly wrong than to deprive any man of God's written word. Still, the
Romanist has something to say for himself. He puts it that there is so much
difficulty in understanding much of the Bible; that such pernicious errors
have followed from false interpretations of it. All true: some of the
cruellest and wickedest things men ever did in this world, they have sought
to justify by the authority of God’s word. But still, on the balance of
reasons: considering that for one hard text in the book, there are a hundred
perfectly plain; and that for one man the Bible has led wrong, there are ten
thousand it has led right; we come back, after looking at the Roman
objection, to the old conviction of our childhood, that God’s word is to be
put in the hand of all; 'those holy scriptures, which are able to make wise
unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.'
Think, even, of the dogma of the Infallibility of the Church. The keen
Protestant puts that dogma as an instance of unheard-of arrogance. The
devout Romanist puts it as an instance of deep humility and earnest faith.
He says he ventures not to think that the Church, in her own wisdom, is able
to keep infallibly right: but he has perfect confidence that God will not
suffer the Church to deliberately fall into error. Two very different ways
of putting the same thing. I do not admit, that in the face of facts,—in the
presence of examples manifold of the Church's erring,—the Roman suggestion
shakes me for one instant from my conviction that (as is said in the
Confession of Faith) 'the purest churches under heaven are subject both to
mixture and error.' Still, the other view, though wrong, is arguable. And if
a case be arguable at all, there is no doubt that in skilful hands the worse
may be made to seem the better reason.
Further: there are matters pertaining to our religious belief, questions as
to which there are reasons on each side; but as to which we come to our
conclusion not merely by feeling the force of the reasons which support the
conclusion we come to; but also by persuading ourselves that we have seen
through all objections to it,—that we are able to answer, and set aside, all
the reasons and arguments which look the opposite way. This, certainly, is a
very assuring and comfortable thing. We can be in no perplexity whatever as
to how the balance inclines, if all the weights be in fact in one scale and
none at all in the other. But there are cases in which we hold a belief, and
hold it firmly, though all the while we see reasons against it which are not
merely plausible and weighty at first sight, but which we cannot, after the
fullest thought, answer at all. We hold our belief: and we are sure it is
sound: though we are well aware that there are objections to it which are by
us unanswerable. There is one notable case, in which we are quite sure of
each of two truths, which yet seem to us to contradict each the other. Each
is true : yet each is liable to an unanswerable objection.
I am thinking of that great and sure doctrine, that God not only foreknows
but fore-ordains all we do. And yet we know that we are free: that we're not
fettered by that fore-ordination in our choice of the course we shall take:
that we are responsible for all we do,—which we should not be if we were
imply constrained like a machine to run along the rules laid down for us.
That doctrine of Predestination, as it is called: it is not to say it stands
in the authoritative Creed of the Christian Church: not to ;ay that it must
stand there forasmuch as it is plainly aught in the New Testament: in the
nature of things you cannot get away from it if you believe in God at all.
And yet, we know that we are free: we know that whensoever we do wrong, it
is our own Fault and not God's: we know in our conscience that we deserve
punishment when we do wrong, which we should not deserve if we were mere
machinery: and furthermore, after all talk of the doctrine of Election to a
share in Christ's Atonement, after all is said concerning God’s Elect, we
know well that if we have not till now accepted the Gospel salvation, the
ruinous doing is entirely our own: we might, if we would. Now these things
cannot be reconciled. One seems to say, you shall stick to the track marked
out for you and never leave it by a hair’s-breadth: The other seems to say,
You are free,—free as air, free as the air is not,—to choose your track for
yourself. One says, you can never believe in Christ and be saved unless you
were appointed to that ages before you were born. The other says, as firmly,
and far more practically, Believe in Christ and be saved : Free to you and
free to every sinner that will take it is His great salvation. We are sure
of each truth: and to us they seem contradictory. They cannot be so, indeed,
or they would not both be true: for the contradiction of truth must be
falsehood: but only God knows how they are to be reconciled. It must come to
this at the last; and we had far best admit it from the first: in the candid
spirit of him who wrote the text, and admitted that something might be said
against what he yet was sure of.
Now I know, as many clergymen know, that there are good men and women,
earnestly thoughtful about their soul’s salvation, to whom this doctrine of
Election is a hindrance and a difficulty. I am constrained to say that it
seems to me the doctrine w ill be so, only in morbid moods. It is not a
difficulty which will practically lie heavily on a healthful mind, or
permanently do so: it is a difficulty which for a time; and in seasons of
depression, and the tendency to take warped views which comes of that; has
probably been felt by all. Just let the old puzzle be stated, that any now
perplexed by it may be comforted by recognizing in it that which has been in
the experience of many others: and which they did not see through, but grew
out of it, and learned to be quite content in the presence of it without
seeing through. It is this: If I am appointed to be saved, I shall be saved
without doing anything or taking any trouble: and if I am not appointed to
be saved, then I shall not be saved however much thought and pains I may
take: Wherefore, I shall do nothing. Now, there is no refutation of any
argument like a practical refutation: and no stronger proof that there is a
flaw in reasoning than that the reasoning lands you in a practical
absurdity. Yet, without pretending to answer that difficulty which I have
just stated, let me say this: That all practical perplexity about Election
and Predestination comes of this: that people vaguely think that their
eternal state is more predestined than the events in their earthly life. If
you keep it clearly before you, that your eternal state is predestined
exactly in the same sense in which everything you say and do every day of
your life is predestined, the practical perplexity will vanish: you may find
it as difficult as ever to make up your mind as to what you ought to think
about it all, but you will have no difficulty earthly in making up your mind
as to what you ought to do. For just as the fact that God fore-ordained
whether you should come to church to-day or not would not lead any sane
person among you to sit down in the morning and say, If I am appointed to go
to church I shall be taken without my doing anything, and if I am appointed
not to go to church I shall not get there however hard I try: even so, the
fact that God has appointed whether we are each to be saved, is a fact with
which we practically have nothing to do: The thing for us, in spiritual
matters exactly as in worldly, is to go and take all the proper steps
towards the end we want, and to use all the suitable means. Whether or not
you are to reach heaven, is appointed exactly as it is appointed whether or
not you are any day to get your daily food. Of course, if you do not use the
means to get your daily food, you will not get it. If you do use the means
to get it, then by God’s blessing you will get it. And it is so with our
soul’s salvation: exactly and identically so. If you are in earnest for
that, go and pray for it and labour for it: Go and take it in God’s way:
there is no obstacle with Him: Go and cast your soul upon Christ: Do not
wait and try to clear up the riddle of the universe first: Do. not think to
see through secret things which we may leave with God, before you begin. If
you do that, you will never begin : and your doom will be on your own head.
See, this day there are set before you blessing and cursing, life and death:
Therefore choose life and good, and turn away from death and evil.
If more needed to be said to take away the practical perplexity of
Predestination (and it is that only I meddle with), it might be this: Think
Who it is that predestines all things! It is God, only Wise, only Good,
All-merciful, Who wills not that one should perish, but all believe and
live! Are you content to leave it all in His bands? Whatever He does must be
right. Think: If you were asked now, would you wish to appoint what things
shall happen to you through this year,—or would you rather leave it all to
the appointment of your Saviour,—which would be the safer and wiser thing to
do? Would you, if you might, take the awful responsibility of deciding the
year’s events for you and yours: or not infinitely rather leave the decision
with Christ? Well, as you would trust Him with all yet to do, even so with
all already done! Thy will be done!
It must be a right, a wise, a loving will. You provide carefully for your
little children: and you expect them to trust you. And He, the Best Father
above, the Father Which is in heaven, Who loves His poor sinful children as
never did earthly mother,—He has ordered all things: and He looks that we
should trust where we cannot understand. Which by His grace we will, now and
evermore!
And now, coming towards the end of my discourse, I will tell you what it was
that was in my mind when I thought of my text to-day, with its plain
common-sense suggestion that a prudent man before determining to accept an
opinion or not to accept it will weigh what is to be said on both sides:
consider, to take a familiar phrase, both pros and cons: and not be taken in
by a plausible or even a weighty statement of reasons till he sees what is
to be urged on the contrary. Last week I glanced over a printed document
which some of you may also have seen, which sets out a grave indictment
against the Church of our fathers: a long list of charges against her:
leading those who sent forth that document to the conclusion that she ought
to be overthrown. Of the motives of the persons who published that attack
upon the Church of Scotland I know nothing: as I know nothing of themselves.
I wish to believe they are honest in what they do : though it is hard to
think so in the face of the crafty but clumsy paper they have issued; in
which I am bold to say the real reasons of their hatred of the National
Church are carefully concealed. There is not one of the arguments for
national Atheism which could not be answered at half a minute's notice: not
one which (religiously) has a feather's weight. And I remarked, not with
anger but with contempt, that the little document concludes by setting forth
that we, who hold as vital the principle of a national profession of
Christianity, are sure to have recourse to various mean tricks with the view
of keeping things as they are. For very naturally, the persons who wrote
that paper suppose we are somewhat like themselves. Now, I am not going to
refute the reasons, such as they are, which are stated in that document: but
only to counsel all of you, if in these coming months you have pressed upon
you, as it seems to be designed you should, statements to the prejudice of
the Church, and what seem plausible arguments against her continued
existence and power,—never to attach any consequence to these till you have
gone and asked some competent adviser what there is to be said upon the
other side: whether those statements are true,—whether those arguments are
sound,—whether, if there be weight in them, they are not counter-balanced by
reasons of tenfold weight. With the distinct statement before me that the
Church is forthwith to be systematically assailed, I deem it my duty to say
so much by way of caution: more than this I will not say in this place. It
is not here that such questions are to be argued out: and you know it is not
my way to touch them. My duty here is to preach the Gospel of Christ: and to
try to forget the enmities and jealousies which are the scandal and weakness
of the Christian Church; and which in the eyes of shrewd worldly men cast an
air of falsity and of ridicule on all fair pretences and public talk of
unity and concord. Nor do I believe that in your hearing the Church of our
fathers needs to be either defended or apologized for. I venture not to say
that she is perfect, any more than any institution on earth is perfect; nor
to say that either in government or worship she is incapable of being
improved. But I say she was good enough for better men: our fathers lived
and died in her: and I say there is no Christian virtue which may not be
practised and perfected within her pale. That is the great thing after all.
And surely it is well for the nation that in each parish over the land there
be an educated man set who has no other end than the good of sinful souls;
and who is ready at the call of every poor sick creature that would be
counselled or prayed with. I should like to know what good it would do to
any mortal that this state of things should cease: unless indeed to the
envious and sordid soul that grudges the Church her little patrimony, — the
little saved at the Reformation from hypocritical robbers,—which is the
patrimony of the poor, and which costs no living man a farthing.
But remember, Christian friends, that you are the Church: and that with you
(under God) it abides whether she shall stand or fall. A living Church will
not fall: and it is with you to say whether ours shall be a living Church. A
Christian Church is an assemblage of Christian people: it is by striving to
deepen our own spiritual life, and strengthen it, that the Church will be
strengthened and vivified. All her old renown; all her doings in ages past;
all her worldly advantages; will not maintain the Burning Bush if her people
turn cold-hearted and undevout; known among their fellow-Christians in the
land for less zeal, less work, less liberality. That reproach has sometimes
been cast at us: God grant it never come true! Rather let us seek higher
degrees in grace: simpler faith in the Redeemer, and souls more filled with
the Blessed Spirit of God. |
