Project Canterbury

John Mason Neale

Sackville College Sermons
volume I, Advent to Lent
Milwaukee: Wisconsin.
pp 74-79

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SERMON IX

"Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel."—AMOS iv. 12.

IT seems strange and sad, the way in which this Christmas Eve has come upon us. All outward signs of Joy, the holly, the laurel, the garlands, as in former years, and yet one among us suddenly called to meet his GOD, his last season of Advent ended for ever, the true Advent of his LORD revealed. So it is; on the one side, a Church that, like her LORD, cannot change, that is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; on the other, a world full of changes and chances, death in the midst of life, and sorrow in the midst of joy.

For let us take heed lest, when GOD speaks, we should not hear His voice. Less than four weeks ago we entered on that holy season, which to-day we have finished. Then, in GOD'S Name, I warned you, "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Then, as His servants were everywhere doing, I reminded you, "Now it is high time to awake out of sleep"; then, in the words of our LORD, I said, "In such an hour as ye know not, the Son of Man cometh." But GOD, if I may so speak, took this work of warning from out of my hands. Ten days scarcely passed, and one of us was struck down in a moment; in a single instant brought from health and strength to the very door of death; no power given, if she had needed it, even for a death-bed repentance; no sense left to cry, if she had never cried before, to GOD for mercy and favour. And so, in the midst of Advent, her day of grace came to an end. And GOD seemed to speak to us all Himself, "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy GOD, O Israel." But we went to the churchyard, we saw the grave closed, and then, I am afraid, we came back to our business and pleasure, and we would not hear the voice, and GOD spoke yet again.

Think that, at this very time only last night, and in this very place, one of you was here listening to me as I spoke of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, and told you that with all our hearts we must strive and struggle to enter into the strait gate, for that nothing less than such a struggle would open it to us. Now he, at least, can hear that message no more. His struggle, whatever it was, is over. His warfare, whatever it was, is accomplished. He could preach to you to-night, if GOD permitted those that have departed from us to come back to this world, he could preach to you indeed. He would tell you more than we can guess of what that next world is into which he had entered. He could tell you more than heart can imagine of what that meeting GOD is, which last night I told him to prepare for, which he has since known, which now I tell you, as then him, to be ready against. GOD, as I said before, has taken my office from me to-night; if I were to talk to you, as S. Paul once did, till midnight, I could add nothing to what He has said this morning. I would listen to Him in common with you. If He delivers the sermon, who will be bold enough, who will be foolhardy enough, who will dare not to listen?

Suppose that, when we were in Chapel last night, it had been revealed to me that one of you would be taken away before this time next day. How many of you should I rather have thought of? See how sudden all was. His seat empty, his very cloak there hanging useless, a great gulf fixed between us and him. And all this might have been said of any of us might more likely have been said of many of us and where should we then have been? I am not talking to frighten you as likely myself as he. I may be the next: and then a little wonder, a little pity, and, so far as this world is concerned, all is over for ever.

I say nothing to you that I do not say to myself I only say as the text does, "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy GOD."

But this is a melancholy sermon for Christmas Eve. This is a sermon that suits ill with the green leaves, and the holly berries, and the lights, and the joy throughout the world. Let us look a little more at the text. "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy GOD, O Israel." Do what? Why, the day tells us. It is the LORD JESUS that speaks. I will be born for you, I will lie in a manger for you, I will be despised and rejected for you, I will come unto Mine own, Mine own not receiving Me, for you; Herod shall seek My life, for you; I will take that long and weary journey into Egypt, for you; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy GOD, O Israel. If CHRIST had not done this, we could not have prepared to meet Him. It was impossible; sin had separated between us and our GOD; and He was a consuming fire, and we were the chaff that must have been consumed in everlasting burning. But it is not so now. The Child that was born in Bethlehem as on this night for us, is the Priest That offered up Himself for us, is the Redeemer That ever liveth to plead for us, is the righteous Judge That hereafter will condemn or reward us.

And now, what can I say to you about this? You have been warned to avoid such and such a sin, which you could avoid, you have some of you been asked to make such and such an effort which you could make. Now then, do it at once; how long halt ye between two opinions? If it be worth while to serve GOD, serve Him with all your heart and soul; and if it be not worth while to serve Him, then make up your mind to that. Gain one world at all events; do not lose this, and yet after all find yourself shut out from the other. Still, so to speak, GOD gives you the chance; He may invite you to cast away some favourite sin for His sake; He may invite you to make some effort, that seems now impossible, to please Him. Whatever it is that you know and feel you ought to do for CHRIST'S sake, do it, for the sake of Him that was on this day born for us, hereafter to be crucified for us; do it, and at once. We have now had a lesson that to-morrow may not answer, we have now had a lesson of "To-day, while it is called to-day."

And yet to-night gives us a cure for all these sorrows. "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem." This is a world of changes and chances. Very well; but He That was born in Bethlehem came into that world; came to be subject to them, came to overcome them. This is a world of sorrow. Very well; but He That was born in Bethlehem came into that world to bear it, to be the Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief, to raise us up to the pleasures that are at His right hand for evermore. This is a world of poverty: but Bethlehem is by interpretation the House of Bread, and He was born there Who not only gives Himself as the Living Bread to us,: but who has promised that, if we seek first the kingdom of GOD and His righteousness, He will answer all other questions for us what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or wherewithal we shall be clothed better than we could answer them for ourselves. This is a world of unsatisfied desires: but in Bethlehem was that spring for which David thirsted, saying, "O that one would give me to drink of the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate": that spring to reach which the three mighty men burst through the host of the Philistines at the jeopardy of their lives. And so in Bethlehem to-night the Fountain, as the prophet says, is opened for sin and for uncleanness, the Fountain of whose waters, if a man drinketh, he shall never thirst again; the Fountain which we can only gain by breaking through all the temptations of evil spirits, the world, and our own hearts.

Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, there to learn how to set at nought change and chance, how to change sorrow into joy, how to turn poverty into riches, how to awake up after GOD'S likeness, and to be satisfied with it.

Which GOD grant, for JESUS CHRIST'S sake; to Whom with the FATHER and the HOLY GHOST be all honour and glory for ever. Amen.

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