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Twenty Five Village Sermons

C >> Charles Kingsley >> Twenty Five Village Sermons




But some of you may say to me, 'You put a great honour on us; but we
do not see that we have any right to it. You tell us that we have a
very noble and awful knowledge--that we know the Father. We are
afraid that we do not know Him; we do not even rightly understand of
whom or what you preach.'

Well, my young friends, these are very awful words of St. John; such
blessed and wonderful words, that if we did not find them in the
Bible, it would be madness and insolence to God of us to say such a
thing, not merely of little children, but even of the greatest, and
wisest, and holiest man who ever lived; but there they are in the
Bible--the blessed Lord Himself has told us all, "When ye pray, say,
Our Father in heaven;"--and I dare not keep them back because they
sound strange. They may SOUND strange, but they ARE NOT strange.
Any one who has ever watched a young child's heart, and seen how
naturally and at once the little innocent takes in the thought of
his Father which is in heaven, knows that it is not a strange
thought--that it comes to a little child almost by instinct--that
his Father in heaven seems often to be just the thought which fills
his heart most completely, has most power over him,--the thought
which has been lying ready in his heart all the time, only waiting
for some one to awaken it, and put it into words for him; that he
will do right when you put him in mind of his Father above the skies
sooner than he will for a hundred punishments. For truly says the
poet,--


"Heaven lies about us in our infancy,
Not in complete forgetfulness,
Nor yet in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come,
From God who is our home!"


And yet more truly said the Blessed One Himself, "That children's
angels always behold the face of our Father which is in heaven;" and
that "of such is the kingdom of heaven." Yet you say, some of you,
perhaps, 'Whatever knowledge of our Father in heaven we had, or
ought to have had, when we were young, we have lost it now. We have
forgotten what we learnt at school. We have been what you would
call sinful; at all events, we have been thinking all our time about
a great many things beside religion, and they have quite put out of
our head the thought that God is our Father. So how have we known
our Father in heaven?'

Well, then, to answer that,--consider the case of your earthly
fathers, the men who begot you and brought you up. Now there might
be one of you who had never seen his father since he was born, but
all he knows of him is, that his name is so and so, and that he is
such and such a sort of man, as the case might be; and that he lives
in such and such a place, far away, and that now and then he hears
talk of his father, or receives letters or presents from him.
Suppose I asked that young man, Do you know your father? would he
not answer--would he not have a right to answer, 'Yes, I know him.
I never saw him, or was acquainted with him, but I know him well
enough; I know who he is, and where to find him, and what sort of a
man he is.' That young man might not know his father's face, or
love him, or care for him at all. He might have been disobedient to
his father; he might have forgotten for years that he had a father
at all, and might have lived on his own way, just as if he had no
father. But when he was put in mind of it all, would he not say at
once, 'Yes, I know my father well enough; his name is so and so, and
he lives at such and such a place. I know my father.'

Well, my young friends, and if this would be true of your fathers on
earth, it is just as true of your Father in heaven. You have never
seen Him--you may have forgotten Him--you may have disobeyed Him--
you may have lived on your own way, as if you had no Father in
heaven; still you know that you have a Father in heaven. You pray,
surely, sometimes. What do you say? "Our Father which art in
heaven." So you have a Father in heaven, else what right have you
to use those words,--what right have you to say to God, "Our Father
in heaven," if you believe that you have no Father there? That
would be only blasphemy and mockery. I can well understand that you
have often said those words without thinking of them--without
thinking what a blessed, glorious, soul-saving meaning there was in
them; but I will not believe that you never once in your whole lives
said, "Our Father which art in heaven," without believing them to be
true words. What I want is, for you ALWAYS to believe them to be
true. Oh young men and young women, boys and girls--believe those
words, believe that when you say, "Our Father which art in heaven,"
you speak God's truth about yourselves; that the evil devil rages
when he hears you speak those words, because they are the words
which prove that you do not belong to him and to hell, but to God
and the kingdom of heaven. Oh, believe those words--behave as if
you believed those words, and you shall see what will come of them,
through all eternity for ever.

Well, but you will ask, What has all this to do with confirmation?
It has all to do with confirmation. Because you are God's children,
and know that you are God's children, you are to go and confirm
before the bishop your right to be called God's children. You are
to go and claim your share in God's kingdom. If you were heir to an
estate, you would go and claim your estate from those who held it.
You are heirs to an estate--you are heirs to the kingdom of heaven;
go to confirmation, and claim that kingdom, say, 'I am a citizen of
God's kingdom. Before the bishop and the congregation, here I
proclaim the honour which God has put upon me.' If you have a
father, you will surely not be ashamed to own him! How much more
when the Almighty God of heaven is your Father! You will not be
ashamed to own Him? Then go to confirmation; for by doing so you
own God for your Father. If you have an earthly father, you will
not be ashamed to say, 'I know I ought to honour him and obey him;'
how much more when your father is the Almighty God of heaven, who
sent His own Son into the world to die for you, who is daily heaping
you with blessings body and soul! You will not be ashamed to
confess that you ought to honour and obey Him? Then go to
confirmation, and say, 'I here take upon myself the vow and promise
made for me at my baptism. I am God's child, and therefore I will
honour, love, and obey Him. It is my duty; and it shall be my
delight henceforward to work for God, to do all the good I can to my
life's end, because my Father in heaven loves the good, and has
commanded me, poor, weak countryman though I be, to work for Him in
well-doing.' So I say, If God is your Father, go and own Him at
confirmation. If God is your Father, go and promise to love and
obey Him at confirmation; and see if He does not, like a strong and
loving Father as He is, confirm you in return,--see if He does not
give you strength of heart, and peace of mind, and clear, quiet,
pure thoughts, such as a man or woman ought to have who considers
that the great God, who made the sky and stars above their heads, is
their Father. But, perhaps, there are some of you, young people,
who do not wish to be confirmed. And why? Now, look honestly into
your own hearts and see the reason. Is it not, after all, because
you don't like the TROUBLE? Because you are afraid that being
confirmed will force you to think seriously and be religious; and
you had rather not take all that trouble yet? Is it not because you
do not like to look your ownselves in the face, and see how
foolishly you have been living, and how many bad habits you will
have to give up, and what a thorough conversion and change you must
make, if you are to be confirmed in earnest? Is not this why you do
not wish to be confirmed? And what does that all come to? That
though you know you are God's children, you do not like to tell
people publicly that you are God's children, lest they should expect
you to behave like God's children--that is it. Now, young men and
young women, think seriously once for all--if you have any common
SENSE--I do not say grace, left in you--think! Are you not playing
a fearful game? You would not dare to deny your fathers on earth--
to refuse to obey them, because you know well enough that they would
punish you--that if you were too old for punishment, your
neighbours, at least, would despise you for mean, ungrateful, and
rebellious children! But because you cannot SEE God your Father,
because you have not some sign or wonder hanging in the sky to
frighten you into good behaviour, therefore you are not afraid to
turn your backs on him. My friends, it is ill mocking the living
God. Mark my words! If a man will not turn He will whet His sword,
and make us feel it. You who can be confirmed, and know in your
hearts that you ought to be confirmed, and ought to be REALLY
converted and confirmed in soul, and make no mockery of it,--mark my
words! If you will not be converted and confirmed of your own good
will, God, if He has any love left for you, will convert and confirm
you against your will. He will let you go your own ways till you
find out your own folly. He will bring you low with affliction
perhaps, with sickness, with ill-luck, with shame. Some way or
other, He will chastise you, again and again, till you are forced to
come back to Him, and take His service on you. If He loves you, He
will drive you home to your Father's house. You may laugh at my
words now, see if you laugh at them when your hairs are grey. Oh,
young people, if you wish in after-life to save yourselves shame and
sorrow, and perhaps, in the world to come eternal death, come to
confirmation, acknowledge God for your Father, promise to come and
serve Him faithfully, make those blessed words of the Lord's Prayer,
"Our Father in heaven," your glory and your honour, your guide and
guard through life, your title-deeds to heaven. You who know that
the Great God is your Father, will you be ashamed to own yourselves
His sons?



SERMON XV. THE TRANSFIGURATION



MARK, ix. 2.

"Jesus taketh Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into a
high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them."

The second lesson for this morning service brings us to one of the
most wonderful passages in our blessed Saviour's whole stay on
earth, namely, His transfiguration. The story, as told by the
different Evangelists, is this,--That our Lord took Peter, and John,
and James his brother, and led them up into a high mountain apart,
which mountain may be seen to this very day. It is a high peaked
hill, standing apart from all the hills around it, with a small
smooth space of ground upon the top, very fit, from its height and
its loneliness, for a transaction like the transfiguration, which
our Lord wished no one but these three to behold. There the
apostles fell asleep; while our blessed Lord, who had deeper
thoughts in His heart than they had, knelt down and prayed to HIS
Father and OUR Father, which is in heaven. And as He prayed, the
form of His countenance was changed, and His raiment became shining,
white as the light; and there appeared Moses and Elijah talking with
Him. They talked of matters which the angels desire to look into,
of the greatest matters that ever happened in this earth since it
was made; of the redemption of the world, and of the death which
Christ was to undergo at Jerusalem. And as they were talking, the
apostles awoke, and found into what glorious company they had fallen
while they slept. What they felt no mortal man can tell--that
moment was worth to them all the years they had lived before. When
they had gone up with Jesus into the mount, He was but the poor
carpenter's son, wonderful enough to THEM, no doubt, with His wise,
searching words, and His gentle, loving looks, that drew to Him all
men who had hearts left in them, and wonderful enough, too, from all
the mighty miracles which they had seen Him do, but still He was
merely a man like themselves, poor, and young, and homeless, who
felt the heat, and the cold, and the rough roads, as much as they
did. They could feel that He spake as never man spake--they could
see that God's spirit and power was on Him as it had never been on
any man in their time. God had even enlightened their reason by His
Spirit, to know that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God.
But still it does seem they did not fully understand who and what He
was; they could not understand how the Son of God should come in the
form of a despised and humble man; they did not understand that His
glory was to be a spiritual glory. They expected His kingdom to be
a kingdom of this world--they expected His glory to consist in
palaces, and armies, and riches, and jewels, and all the
magnificence with which Solomon and the old Jewish kings were
adorned; they thought that He was to conquer back again from the
Roman emperor all the inestimable treasures of which the Romans had
robbed the Jews, and that He was to make the Jewish nation, like the
Roman, the conquerors and masters of all the nations of the earth.
So that it was a puzzling thing to their minds why He should be King
of the Jews at the very time that He was but a poor tradesman's son,
living on charity. It was to shew them that His kingdom was the
kingdom of heaven that He was transfigured before them.

They saw His glory--the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. The form of His countenance was changed;
all the majesty, and courage, and wisdom, and love, and resignation,
and pity, that lay in His noble heart, shone out through His face,
while He spoke of His death which He should accomplish at Jerusalem--
the Holy Ghost that was upon Him, the spirit of wisdom, and love,
and beauty--the spirit which produces every thing that is lovely in
heaven and earth: in soul and body, blazed out through His eyes,
and all His glorious countenance, and made Him look like what He
was--a God. My friends, what a sight! Would it not be worth while
to journey thousands of miles--to go through all difficulties,
dangers, that man ever heard of, for one sight of that glorious
face, that we might fall down upon our knees before it, and, if it
were but for a moment, give way to the delight of finding something
that we could utterly love and utterly adore? I say, the delight of
finding something to worship; for if there is a noble, if there is a
holy, if there is a spiritual feeling in man, it is the feeling
which bows him down before those who are greater, and wiser, and
holier than himself. I say, that feeling of respect for what is
noble is a heavenly feeling. The man who has lost it--the man who
feels no respect for those who are above him in age, above him in
knowledge, above him in wisdom, above him in goodness,--THAT man
shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is only the
man who is like a little child, and feels the delight of having some
one to look up to, who will ever feel delight in looking up to Jesus
Christ, who is the Lord of lords and King of kings. It was the want
of respect, it was the dislike of feeling any one superior to
himself, which made the devil rebel against God, and fall from
heaven. It will be the feeling of complete respect--the feeling of
kneeling at the feet of one who is immeasurably superior to
ourselves in every thing, that will make up the greatest happiness
of heaven. This is a hard saying, and no man can understand it,
save he to whom it is given by the Spirit of God.

That the apostles HAD this feeling of immeasurable respect for
Christ there is no doubt, else they would never have been apostles.
But they felt more than this. There were other wonders in that
glorious vision besides the countenance of our Lord. His raiment,
too, was changed, and became all brilliant, white as the light
itself. Was not THAT a lesson to them? Was it not as if our Lord
had said to them, 'I am a king, and have put on glorious apparel,
but whence does the glory of my raiment come? _I_ have no need of
fine linen, and purple, and embroidery, the work of men's hands; _I_
have no need to send my subjects to mines and caves to dig gold and
jewels to adorn my crown: the earth is mine and the fulness
thereof. All this glorious earth, with its trees and its flowers,
its sunbeams and its storms, is MINE. _I_ made it--_I_ can do what
I will with it. All the mysterious laws by which the light and the
heat flow out for ever from God's throne, to lighten the sun, and
the moon, and the stars of heaven--they are mine. _I_ am the light
of the world--the light of men's bodies as well of their souls; and
here is my proof of it. Look at Me. I am He that "decketh Himself
with light as it were with a garment, who layeth the beams of His
chambers in the waters, and walketh upon the wings of the wind."
This was the message which Christ's glory brought the apostles--a
message which they could never forget. The spiritual glory of His
countenance had shewn them that He was a spiritual king--that His
strength lay in the spirit of power, and wisdom, and beauty, and
love, which God had given Him without measure; and it shewed them,
too, that there was such a thing as a spiritual body, such a body as
each of us some day shall have if we be found in Christ at the
resurrection of the just--a body which shall not hide a man's
spirit, when it becomes subject to the wear and tear of life, and
disease, and decay; but a spiritual body--a body which shall be
filled with our spirits, which shall be perfectly obedient to our
spirits--a body through which the glory of our spirits shall shine
out, as the glory of Christ's spirit shone out through His body at
the transfiguration. "Brethren, we know not yet what we shall be,
but this we do know, that when He shall appear, we shall be LIKE
HIM, for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John, iii. 3.)

Thus our Lord taught them by His appearance that there is such a
thing as a spiritual body, while, by the glory of His raiment, in
addition to His other miracles, He taught them that He had power
over the laws of nature, and could, in His own good time, "change
the bodies of their humiliation, that they might be made like unto
His glorious body, according to the mighty working by which He is
able to subdue all things to Himself."

But there was yet another lesson which the apostles learnt from the
transfiguration of our Lord. They beheld Moses and Elijah talking
with Him:--Moses the great lawgiver of their nation, Elijah the
chief of all the Jewish prophets. We must consider this a little to
find out the whole depth of its meaning. You remember how Christ
had spoken of Himself as having come, not to destroy the Law and the
Prophets, but to fulfil them. You remember, too, how He had always
said that He was the person of whom the Law and the Prophets had
spoken.

Here was an actual sign and witness that His words were true--here
was Moses, the giver of the Law, and Elijah, the chief of the
Prophets, talking with Him, bearing witness to Him in their own
persons, and shewing, too, that it was His death and His perfect
sacrifice that they had been shadowing forth in the sacrifices of
the law and in the dark speeches of prophecy. For they talked with
Him of His death, which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem. What
more perfect testimony could the apostles have had to shew them that
Jesus of Nazareth, their Master, was He of whom the Law and the
Prophets spoke--that He was indeed the Christ for whom Moses and
Elijah, and all the saints of old, had looked; and that He was come
not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them? We can
hardly understand the awe and the delight with which the disciples
must have beheld those blessed Three--Moses, and Elias, and Jesus
Christ, their Lord, talking together before their very eyes. For of
all men in the world, Moses and Elias were to them the greatest.
All true-hearted Israelites, who knew the history of their nation,
and understood the promises of God, must have felt that Moses and
Elias were the two greatest heroes and saviours of their nation,
whom God had ever yet raised up. And the joy and the honour of thus
seeing them face to face, the very men whom they had loved and
reverenced in their thoughts, whom they had heard and read of from
their childhood, as the greatest ornaments and glories of their
nation--the joy and the honour, I say, of that unexpected sight,
added to the wonderful majesty which was suddenly revealed to their
transfigured Lord, seemed to have been too much for them--they knew
not what to say. Such company seemed to them for the moment heaven
enough; and St. Peter first finding words exclaimed, "Lord, it is
good for us to be here. If thou wilt let us build three
tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."
Not, I fancy, that they intended to worship Moses and Elias, but
that they felt that Moses and Elias, as well as Christ, had each a
divine message, which must be listened to; and therefore, they
wished that each of them might have his own tabernacle, and dwell
among men, and each teach his own particular doctrine and wisdom in
his own school. It may seem strange that they should put Moses and
Elias so on an equality with Christ, but the truth was, that as yet
they understood Moses and Elias better than they did Christ. They
had heard and read of Moses and Elijah all their lives--they were
acquainted with all their actions and words--they knew thoroughly
what great and noble men the Spirit of God had made them, but they
did NOT understand Christ in like manner. They did not yet FEEL
that God had given Him the Spirit without measure--they did not
understand that He was not only to be a lawgiver and a prophet, but
a sacrifice for sin, the conqueror of death and hell, who was to
lead captivity captive, and receive inestimable gifts for men. Much
less did they think that Moses and Elijah were but His servants--
that all THEIR spirit and THEIR power had been given by Him. But
this also they were taught a moment afterwards; for a bright cloud
overshadowed them, hiding from them the glory of God the Father,
whom no man hath seen or can see, who dwells in the light which no
man can approach unto; and out of that cloud, a voice saying, "This
is my beloved Son; hear ye Him;" and then, hiding their faces in
fear and wonder, they fell to the ground; and when they looked up,
the vision and the voice had alike passed away, and they saw no man
but Christ alone. Was not that enough for them? Must not the
meaning of the vision have been plain to them? They surely
understood from it that Moses and Elijah were, as they had ever
believed them to be, great and good, true messengers of the living
God; but that their message and their work was done--that Christ,
whom they had looked for, was come--that all the types of the law
were realised, and all the prophecies fulfilled, and that
henceforward Christ, and Christ alone, was to be their Prophet and
their Lawgiver. Was not this plainly the meaning of the Divine
voice? For when they wished to build three tabernacles, and to
honour Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, as separate from
Christ--that moment the heavenly voice warned them: 'THIS--THIS is
my beloved Son--hear ye HIM, and Him only, henceforward.' And Moses
and Elijah, their work being done, forthwith vanished away, leaving
Christ alone to fulfil the Law and the prophets, and all other
wisdom and righteousness that ever was or shall be. This is another
lesson which Christ's transfiguration was meant to teach and us,
that Christ alone is to be henceforward our guide; that no
philosophies or doctrines of any sort which are not founded on a
true faith in Jesus Christ, and His life and death, are worth
listening to; that God has manifested forth His beloved Son, and
that Him, and Him only, we are to hear. I do not mean to say that
Christ came into the world to put down human learning. I do not
mean that we are to despise human learning, as so many are apt to do
nowadays; for Christ came into the world not to destroy human
learning, but to fulfil it--to sanctify it--to make human learning
true, and strong, and useful, by giving it a sure foundation to
stand upon, which is the belief and knowledge of His blessed self.
Just as Christ came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to
fulfil them--to give them a spirit and a depth in men's eyes which
they never had before--just so, He came to fulfil all true
philosophies, all the deep thoughts which men had ever thought about
this wonderful world and their own souls, by giving THEM a spirit
and a depth which THEY never had before. Therefore let no man tempt
you to despise learning, for it is holy to the Lord.

There is one more lesson which we may learn from our Lord's
transfiguration; when St. Peter said, "LORD! it is good for us to be
here," he spoke a truth. It WAS good for him to be there;
nevertheless, Christ did not listen to his prayer. He and his two
companions were not allowed to STAY in that glorious company. And
why? Because they had a work to do. They had glad tidings of great
joy to proclaim to every creature, and it was, after all, but a
selfish prayer, to wish to be allowed to stay in ease and glory on
the mount while the whole world was struggling in sin and wickedness
below them: for there is no meaning in a man's calling himself a
Christian, or saying that he loves God, unless he is ready to hate
what God hates, and to fight against that which Christ fought
against, that is, sin. No one has any right to call himself a
servant of God, who is not trying to do away with some of the evil
in the world around him. And, therefore, Christ was merciful, when,
instead of listening to St. Peter's prayer, He led the apostles down
again from the mount, and sent them forth, as He did afterwards, to
preach the Gospel of the kingdom to all nations. For Christ put a
higher honour on St. Peter by that than if He had let him stay on
the mount all his life, to behold His glory, and worship and adore.
And He made St. Peter more like Himself by doing so. For what was
Christ's life? Not one of deep speculations, quiet thoughts, and
bright visions, such as St. Peter wished to lead; but a life of
fighting against evil; earnest, awful prayers and struggles within,
continual labour of body and mind without, insult and danger, and
confusion, and violent exertion, and bitter sorrow. This was
Christ's life--this is the life of almost every good man I ever
heard of;--this was St. Peter, and St. James, and St. John's life
afterwards. This was Christ's cup, which they were to drink of as
well as He;--this was the baptism of fire with which they were to be
baptised of as well as He;--this was to be their fight of faith;--
this was the tribulation through which they, like all other great
saints, were to enter into the kingdom of heaven; for it is certain
that the harder a man fights against evil, the harder evil will
fight against him in return: but it is certain, too, that the
harder a man fights against evil, the more he is like his Saviour
Christ, and the more glorious will be his reward in heaven. It is
certain, too, that what was good for St. Peter is good for us. It
is good for a man to have holy and quiet thoughts, and at moments to
see into the very deepest meaning of God's word and God's earth, and
to have, as it were, heaven opened before his eyes; and it is good
for a man sometimes actually to FEEL his heart overpowered with the
glorious majesty of God, and to FEEL it gushing out with love to his
blessed Saviour: but it is not good for him to stop there, any more
than it was for the apostles; they had to leave that glorious vision
and come down from the mount, and do Christ's work; and SO HAVE WE;
for, believe me, one word of warning spoken to keep a little child
out of sin,--one crust of bread given to a beggar-man, because he is
your brother, for whom Christ died,--one angry word checked, when it
is on your lips, for the sake of Him who was meek and lowly in
heart; in short, any, the smallest endeavour of this kind to lessen
the quantity of evil, which is in yourselves, and in those around
you, is worth all the speculations, and raptures, and visions, and
frames, and feelings in the world; for those are the good FRUITS of
faith, whereby alone the tree shall be known whether it be good or
evil.

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