They rest not day and night saying, Holy, holy, holy, "He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered, and said, Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus answered and said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood "I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but "This is the love of God, that we keep His command- ments and His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth SERMON I. FAITH. GAL. v. 6. "In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by love." FAITH is the foundation of the whole spiritual building, whereby we are built on Christ Jesus. It is the root of the whole spiritual life of grace, the ground whereon the soul rests securely, the beginning of our spiritual existence. Faith goes even before love, in thought, but not in deed. It goes before love, in thought; for we love, because we believe, not believe, because we love. Faith gives us, in this our state, the knowledge of Him Whom we love. Faith is instead of eyes. By Faith we see Him Who to our eyes of sense is unseen. We behold both backwards and forwards, and round about us, and every way we behold the love of God. And, beholding and knowing His love, we ourselves, through B His gift, love. Backward, we by Faith, behold God creating us, and we see our own fall; we behold His Holiness, and Goodness, and Love, forming us to love Him everlastingly; and when we had fallen, by Faith we behold Him, the Father, for us willing that God the Son should take our fallen nature, should be born, despised, tortured, crucified, die for us. By Faith we see God the Son willing, for our sakes, to become Man. We see our dear Lord and Redeemer on the Cross, as though we were, with St. Mary Magdalene, at its foot. Faith has no past nor to come. It sees past and to come in the light of God, and is sure of them; yea, surer than of what it sees. More readily could it doubt that itself is, or that the things it sees are real. More readily could it think that all which it sees around is a dream; all things of nature which are seen with the eyes of the body, a vain show; seeming to be, as in a dream, yet not being, than it could doubt that God IS, or IS what HE hath said HE IS. For what we see around us we know to be, by our mere powers of nature. Faith is a Divine power. They are mere bodily powers, these eyes which shall soon decay, which tell us that the things around us are. Faith is the eye of the soul, which God has given us, to behold Himself. If we trust the eye of the body in things of earth, much more must we trust the eye of the soul in the things of God. If that which is highest in us, our soul, strengthened and enlightened by God, could deceive us, much more these bodily eyes. Had we the choice, (which is impossible) yet had we to believe either that this world is a mere show, just as a picture is a mere surface, without any real substance, or that God IS not, it were far easier to believe that He had set us in the midst of a vast waking dream, than that He was not the Maker of all we see, that He Whom we love, IS not. Το Faith, then, the Crucifixion of our Lord is not, (as some have coldly said,) a fact which took place 1800 years ago, nor is Heaven a distant object, removed far from us, in space and time, until the end of this weary world. The Death of our Lord is to Faith the Eternal Counsel of the Ever-blessed Trinity, the unceasing Source of all spiritual blessings. Each act of His Sufferings is a part of the determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God; each is a mystery of Love, whereon the soul shall dwell in love for ever. Faith beholds Him, because it is beheld by Him. It gazes on Him, because He has first caught and fixed its gaze. It sees, because He has given it eyes to see. Yet so it beholds Him, and He is more really present to the eyes of the soul, than all around her. To Faith which loves, things seen fade from sight, things heard fall dull upon the ear; it will be unmoved by all outward things; for it has an inward sight and an inward hearing, and an inward touch, whereby it beholds Him dying on the Cross for love of us, and hears Him pray for us; "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," and looks on Him Whom, by our sins, we sinners pierced, and catches the look wherewith He looked on Magdalene and the thief, and clasps His Feet, and in the shadow of His Cross feels itself protected and healed. Yea, Faith can enter into that Cleft of the Rock opened for us, whence gushed "the Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness," |