A sermon, preached at St Paul's church, Brighton : on St. Luke's day, 1858

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A SERMON,

PEEACHED AT ST. PAUL'S CHTJECH, BRIGHTOiS',

ON ST. LUKE'S DAY, 1858.

BY THE

REY. JOHN KEBLE, M.A.,

VICAll OF IIURSLEY

ALFRED IIAWKIXS & CO., PUBLISHERS, 3-5, "WEST STREET
K^^ 80, KING'S ROAD.

F 0 UR- P EN C E.

alfred hawkins and co.,

«5, kings road & 35, west street, brighton.

"south coast" printing office.

SEEM ON.

" In this rejoice not, that the spirits are made subject mito you, but rather rejoice
because your names are written in Heaven." — St. Lvke x, 20.

I need not tell you, my Eretlircn, for it is in every one's mouth,
and wherever we go, we hear and read it, that we are living in an
age of progress — an age of intellectual research and discovery, of
mechanical and social acti^dty, increased and increasing. Making
all allowance for the tendencj' which is in us to think most largely
of what is nearest at hand, — the men of every successive generation
accounting theii' own times more marvellous than any which have
gone before, some for better, some for worse, according to their
several tempers and opinions, — making allowance for this, the coolest
and least imaginative and best informed judgments agree to call this
truly a wonderworking age : All of us observe it ; all who 'know the
Scriptures are hoiuiy reminded of the prophetic warning, they can
hardly help saying to themselves " Many are running to and fro, and
knowledge is increasing :" and if they are thoughtful, and have a
deep sense of their own and others responsibility, must they not also
call to mind the other prophecy comiected with this — ''There shidl
be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation,
even unto that same time."^' And will not this make them very
anxious, full of prayer and religious forethought, lest they themselves,
and those whom they can influence, should be unawares bringing on
that time of trouble, by some cyH use of this time of progress ?

I make no question, but that the part of God's creation in which
man's present lot and trial is appointed — this earth on which we arc
now abiding for a time — is daily becoming more and more comfort-
able, in bodily and out^^'ard things, for mankind to abide on. And
this I suppose is what people principally mean, when they speak of
the spread of civilization and commerce, of a certain degree of law,

• DaniclTcii, 1.

and order, and refinement, among all nations and races. They speak
of these things hopefully and thankfully, as they ought to speak of
all the good gifts of God, whether pertaining to this world or to the
next. But a Christian who knows his Eible, will not he able to
separate his thankfulness from a deep sense of awe and alarm, when
he considers that, after all, this outward civilization, if men are
content to look no higher, does but make the world more perfect and
intense in its attainment and enjoyment of those things with which,
as we know for certain, it "svill be taken up when that time of trouble
shall come. They will be '' eating and drinldng, marrying and
giving in marriage, buying and selling, planting and building,"
when " the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in Heaven, and all
the tribes of the earth shall mourn and wail because of Him."

Any one who thinks seriously of tliis, will surely be di^awn to
watch and pray against those temptations in particular, which such
a time of progress brings with it. I will specify one to which the
services of the day (as I shall by and by shew you) direct our
attention.

Knowledge, we are often told, is Power : a time therefore of dif-
fusing and increasing knowledge is a time in which the sense of Power,
or the yearning after it, may in one way or another become a dan-
gerous snare to men. Por almost all of you, I suppose, would own
to a natural craving for power, each in his several department which
he has chosen for himself, or to which he has been called : the power,
I mean, and the skill, of doing what you wish to have done, or of
getting others to do it for you. 'Men covet this power and skill, they
long to have it, they long to feel that they have it ; and now that
it is put so much more within their reach, they naturally long and
crave for it more than ever. They are, perhaps, more impatient
than ever of not seeing the fruit of theii' works : and this not only
in secular but in spiritual things, and of this comes a double evil :
we mistake great and showA" works for good ones ; and when the
work is really good, we too often mar and blemish it, if we do not
altogether spo3 it, by hurry and display. This is the evil — the
imdue love of power, and the consciousness of power, which tempts
us in our time of progress. Let us see how the Gospel, which is the
imerring cure of every evil, deals with this.

^\Tiat says He who is Lord of all power and might ? Here is He
engaged in' the greatest work of all, that of converting the world to
Himself : and it is His j^leasure in this work to employ instruments
living and willing instruments ; and He chooses out a number of
persons, seventy, as you heai'd in the Gospel this morning, and sends
them before Him into every city and place whither He Himself would^

come. He sends tlieiii before Him with the same message with
which He had sent St. John Baptist at the first — '* The kingdom of
God is at hand." Only their credentials are more ample than those
of St. John the Baptist, for he did no miracles, but they are to he^d
the sick : so giving an earnest of the fulfilment of the marvellous
promise, ''he that is least in the kingdom of God" is in some sense
a greater prophet — has greater power and knowledge to do God's
work than St. John who was as. great as the greatest of the old
Prophets.

AVith such power Christ sends them forth as He does the humblest
of His ministers now : and at the same time, by this way of instruct-
ing them. He prepares them for disappointment, or at best for only
partial success. He makes them aAvarc that there will be cities
where they will not be received, and adds the fearful mysterious
notice, which might well cause them, or aiij man, to shrink from
such a mission, were it not enjoined on them by Himself. That
their failure would bring on those who should reject them worse
things than were prepared for Tyre and Sidon, for Sodom and
Gomorrha.

Thus He speaks, as He has been speaking by His Prophecies all
along to His Church ; and as the Church since, so the Seventy then,
went out and had wonderful success: and what next? ''They
return again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto
lis through thy name." AYell may we imagine how it must have
lifted uj) their hearts, to find that they had in some measure the
command even of the invisible world. They had been sent out with
power to heal the sick : but it is not that of which they speak, it
seems to have been in their eyes a small thing in comparison to
control the powers of nature for the healing of men's bodies : but as
when our Lord (you heard it this morning) first began His own
scenes of public miracles by casting out a devil in the synagogue at
Capernaum, there came a fear on all, and they spake one to another,
saying, " Wliat a word is this! for with authority and power
He commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out."
even so it was here; and so it has been always. So far as
men have believed and realized the existence of the unseen world,
and that they themselves live and move among angels good and bad,
so far they have ever felt it a more marvellous thing, a mightier
power, to command those spirits and to be obeyed by them, tlian to
work any other miracle. It could not be otherwise : and this is
why witchcraft, real or imaginary, hag ever proved such a deadly
snare. Xothing else so flattering to our inborn love of power, and
satisfaction at finding ourselves able to do great things.

It was but natural, then, that the Seventy should express them-
selves as they did. They do but say "what any one of us would be
moved to say in the same case. The sense of power in them may have
been for the moment stronger than the sense of the responsibility
which power brings along with it.

Observe now our Lord's reply. Does he depreciate their doings ?
Does He tell them it was a mistake to think highly of the power
which He had given them, and to report to Him with joy and
thankfulness what He had enabled them to accomplish ? Far other-
wise. He magnifies their work and their office, giving them to
understand that it was, as it were, a portion of His own great
economy, the end for which He came into the world, '' To destroy
the works of the devil." What they did, they had been doing under
Him, or rather He had been doing it by their means. So he signifies
to them, in saying, ''I beheld (or rather, I was beholding) Satan,
as lightning, fall from Heaven :" while you were on your
progress, and working these wonders of which you are telling ^le, I
was looking on and watching you : it was in mine eyes an additional
move or step in that great transaction, for which I came forth from
the Father, the casting down and binding and final overthrow of
Satan. And more : your portion in that great work was in all this
only just beginning. It is to go on : '^ behold I give luito you" — a
commission — " power," and authority to do much more in the same
way — ''to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power
of the enemy."

Thus He magnifies the power which He had given them, and
which they valued so very highly, and promises them more and more
of it. But having done so, mark well what He says next : — '' Not-
withstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject imto
you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven."
He does not grudge them their dutiful gladness at finding themselves
enabled to do great things by His JS^ame : but He would not have
them rest in it, or depend upon it He tells them plainly that, in
comparison, casting out devils is as nothing, but the ordinary
common-place privileges of the christian life, which they share with
every baptised person, they are every-thing. It is more, infinitely
more, to be a member of Christ and a child of God, and an inheritor
of the Kingdom of Heaven, than to heal the sick, to cleanse the
lepers, to raise the dead, to cast out devils ; more than to command
the elements, to discern spiiits, to foretel things to come : yet these
powers are granted only to a chosen few, but the former are the
portion of every little child whom our Lord, the One Heavenly
Baptiser, has taken up into His arms, and poured water on him by

the minister's hand, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Such a child is assuredly in a state of grace, a state
in which if it die it is undoubtedly saved : which of the two would
you rather choose for yourselves, and for those whom you love ; to
live and die such as that little child now is, or to be the greatest
Prophet and worker of miracles, to have the very devils subject unto
you, but to be uncertain whether you have the privileges of that
little child ? Iso one who considers in earnest what eternity is, can
doubt about the answer, however commonly, alas ! we make the
wrong choice both for ourselves and for those who depend on us.
Thus 5'ou see what plain truth, — if we may say it reverently, what
''common sense" our Blessed Lord was speaking to His disciples
when He bade them ''rather rejoice that their names were written
in Heaven," than in the highest spiritual endowTnents and wonder-
working powers.

In this I take it for granted that having " their-names wi'itten in
Heaven," means "being in a state of grace," a state in which if a
man dies he will be saved. Tliis we may gather from other places
of the Holy Scriptui'es where the book of life and the names written
in it are mentioned : as^-" when St. Paul speaks of " Clement and
other his fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life."
Tliis did not necessarily mean that they were so predestined to
eternal salvation, as that it should be simply impossible for them to
fall away. For elsewhere we read--' "Whosoever sinneth against
me, him will I blot out of my book ;" and in the Psalm, "Let them be
wiped out of the book of the liA-ingj" and in Kevelations "He that
overcometh, I will not blot his name out of the book of life." The name
must have been in the book, else it could not be wiped or blotted
out of it. The scriptural mark then of final Predestination is not
that a man's name is now in the book of life, but that it continues
there after his trial is over, and is found there when the book is
opened in the last day.

Plainly then, as I said, our Lord's meaning, when He bade the
Seventy rejoice, not so much in their power over the spirits, as in
their names being "^Titten in Heaven, was to move them and us
against the sin and snare of so valuing God's special gifts, as to set
them above His ordinary graces. His gifts, such as Tongues, Pro-
phecy, Miracles, in the early times ; eloquence, learning, skill to win
and convert others, in all times, are indeed most precious, if rightly
used, as they are freely given, for the good of our brethren ; but for
our own final good they will avail nothing, except we so use them

• rhilipians iv. 3.

])y c.liarity and humility, as that oiir names shall continue written in
Heaven ; that we fall not from our state of grace. "Whether others
profit by these our gifts or no, may be known in this world ; whether
we ourselves have profited hj them, none may know but in the
the world to come. When the judgment is set and the books are
opened ; when the dead, small and great, stand before God, and are
judged out of the things that are wiitten in the books, every man
according to his work ; when the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem
are finally closed against every one who is not written in the Lamb's
book of Life ; then and not till then shall it be fully understood
which was the most excellent way, and who were in it.

Thus our Lord teaches, and he proceeds immediately to exemplify
what He was teaching. In that hour He himself rejoiced in spirit,
and said, '^I thank thee, 0 Pather, Lord of heaven and earth, that
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes : even so, Father ; for so it seemed good
in Thy sight." Seldom indeed do we read of His rejoicing. Through
the whole of His mortal life, it pleased Him to be eminently '*a
man of son^ows and acquainted with grief." This once only, we are
told. He rejoiced : this once, just when He had been telling His
disciples how He would have them rejoice. And what is it He
rejoices in ? His Father's favour, shewn, not to the wise and prudent,
but to babes — to those who are as little childi-en still in the happy
state to which they were called by Baptism.

The whole passage is a lesson in true chiistian joy. The joy of
the Seventy disciples returning fr-om their first circuit, happy in the
consciousness of His favour, which had enabled them to do so great
things ; this was good and innocent as far as it went, but it was no
more than natural joy. He in His most merciful indulgence, far from
reproving, accepts and encourages it, but at the same time instructs
them how to turn it into true, spiritual, heavenly joy. And lastly. He
condescends to become Himself their pattern in this as in all other
graces : thankfully rejoicing, before His Father, not in those who
knew most and did most ; not in those conspicuous for energy and
talent, and for producing great eff'ects in the world, but in those
whom He calls babes, and elsewhere little children : in those who
come to Him for rest, and are willing to learn of Him to be meek
and lowly of heart.

ISTow, my brethren, if there be a page in Christ's gospel which,
more than any other, may seem to belong to the men of this century,
of this generation, it is surely that which I have been endeavoui'ing

• Exodus xxxii. 33.

9

to unfold to you : and not least, as I -will tiy and shew you presently,
are those concerned in it, who enjoy such providential helps as are
vouchsafed to you, my brethi^en, who are providentially called to
worship in this chmx-h.

Generally, wherever we go, and whatever we read, talent, ability,
genius, iTitellectual excellence, by whatever name it may be known,
is apt to be accounted the principal thing : nol so, if you desii^e to
have the mind of Christ : you will not then be elated by the sense
of power, nor too much cast down if you find yourself inferior to
others ; but you will strive and pray to go on simply in yoiu' duty
without consciousness ; or to acquiesce in your own want of talent,
as good poor men do in their want of worldly substance. And to
help you in this difficult point of self-control, you may apply to your
own case what our Saviour said of riches : you may use yourself to
say in your heart, '' How hardly shall they that have secular and
worldly wisdom enter into the kingdom of God." And again, ''It
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for one
wise and able as the world counts wisdom and ability, to enter into
the kingdom of God."

This being the Great Master's general will in respect of talent
of all sorts, the memories of St. Luke's day would seem to
apply it more esjoecially to those who excel in literary, professional,
or artistic talent, or taste. It is no new observation, that the
traditions which are come down to us concerning that holy Evange-
list, may well teach us the right chiistian use of what are called
accompHshments, and the danger of abusing them ; for St. Luke, we
know, was a very accomplished person : he is called '' the beloved
Physician," and the natural meaning of ''beloved " in that place, is
that he was welcome to all, and necessary to all ; all were thankful
to have him within reach. There is a well-known tradition of his
hai-ing been a skilful painter, and his historical writings, his gospel
and the "Acts of the Apostles" are, if one may speak after the
manner of men, very skilfully composed.

I suppose there are few of us but would feel some temptation and
danger in all this. Besides the ordinary perils of vanity, and of
idolizing the work itself, instead of sacrificing it altogether to Him
who qualifies you for it ; there is need to be on your guard against
fastidiousness and false delicacy ; against an impatience of homely
things, persons, and duties ; most unworthy and unbecoming in tiie
servants of Him, who vouchsafed to spend the best years of His
-€arly life in Xazareth, as a Carpenter, and a cai-penter's son. The
holy St. Luke is set before us, as an example of one who subdued all
these temptations. What was to him, his art and science, his skill

10

and success in liistorical composition, in painting, or in medicine,
compared with that devotion to Chiist and his Saints, of which vre
heard this morning, in St. Paul's farewell letter? ''Only Luke is with
me:" are we not quite sure that it was far deeper joy to the blessed
Evangelist to have this testimony of his being still one of Christ's little
ones, than when he returned with the other seventy, reporting that
the very devils wete subject imto him, through Christ's name?
Others of that favoiu-ed number, it is said, were not proof against
the temptations of their high calling; like Balaam, they "knew
the knowledge of the Most High," and in their measure did His
work in their day ; and yet, after all, they fell back with their eyes
open, into the portion of the Evil One. 0, my Brethren, beware !
depend upon it the like danger is not far from you; when God seems
to be giving you energy and power, skill and success, in any work,
intellectual or spiritual, so as to distinguish you among your
Brethi-en ; at such times you may be quite sure that he who fell
from heaven by trusting in God's gifts, and not in God Himself, is
close at hand,' watching how he may tempt you after him, as he
once tempted a Prophet, and afterwards an Apostle : Balaam first,
and then Judas. The temptation may steal upon you, as I have
said, on the side of refined intellectual delight, knowledge, taste, and
skill in literature, in eloquence, or in art, as one might well enquire
of any one, at this very place, and at this very time, rejoicing in
the glory of Chmx-hes and Church Services — ^holy music, holy
hymns, holy buildings, holy lessons and litiu'gies — and unawares
allowing himself to rest in some or all of these, which after all are
but as means to the great end of self-sacrifice and devotion of souls
to God. Or it may come, still more persuasively, in the shape of
active spiritual power and influence. Imagine a person more or less
like St. Paul — largely endowed with the best helps for preaching
the Gospel, and what perhaps is still more rare, for governing the
souls which he may have won — keeping alive and quickening the
flame which he has kindled. "NVhat a deep sense must there be in
such an one, all along, of God's special presence ! how thoroughly
must he accustom himseK to rest upon the conviction, that Chiist is
all and himseLf nothing ; how resolutely determined to know nothing
but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that he may not be exalted
above measure thi'ough the abundance of the Eevelations ! And
accordingly it is our Father's merciful way to counterbalance that
sore trial with some special hiuniliation and disappointment ; as in
the case of St. Paul with the thorn in the flesh. And it might be a
wise prayer in any of us, when we go about God's work, that we may
have success without knowing it ourselves, except sofar as to keep

11

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us from despondcncj' : success like that of the beggar Lazarus, whose
task was to lie at the rich man's gate full of sores, and longing for
broken ^-ictuals, and most likely seeming to himself as if he did no
good in the world ; but what is the result ? He is one of two, in
wliose favour the Eternal Judge has anticipated the sentence of the
hist day : declaring him by name to have his portion in Abraham's
bosom ; as to the other He said, '* Thou shalt be with me in
Paradir^e. ' ' And so the beggar Lazarus is known to all generations of the
['hurch as an eminent winner of souls, b}' the silent preaching of his
example after his death. In this sense the spirits are subject unto
him, — men's hearts are influenced by him for good, — without any
ianger of undue elation on his part : which danger always exists
more or less, when frail men on earth are allowed to see the good
that they do. AMuxt better portion dare any of us hope for, what
more glorious success, than this of Lazarus in Abraham's bosom ?

And Chiu'ch History is full of such examj^les : I will just
mention one — our own Bishop Ken — with whom, at the time, the
lid Chiu-ch of England might almost seem to have died out. Hu-
manly speaking, that holy man appeared almost thrown away on
tiis own generation. Eut who shall say how much of any subsequent
revival which our Lord may have vouchsafed in any measure
to this portion of His Chiu*ch may be owning to the remains and
memory of that holy Bishop ? and the same may be said of Bishop
Wilson in his spliere. 0 I well shall we have prayed, and happily
rtill our prayers have been answered, if it prove hereafter that we
lave won a grace and a success at all comparable to theirs.

In the meantime, let us not grudge to cast our bread upon the
ivaters, making up our minds not to find it until after many days ;
most likely not until after all our appointed days on earth. In no
lase despond : it were a kind of presumption to do so : it would be
is if one thought oneself entitled to share in tlie incommunicable
i)rerogative of Christ. Eor as ''God alone is what He would be;"
»o of Christ only is it written " He shall see of the travail of His
sOul and be satisfied," He only can do nothing in vain, nor yet be
unaware of any thing that Himself doetli.

Leave all to Him, my brethren, both your work and your reward.
Be humble and constant in keeping His plain commandments,
ibide by tlie Creed, the Ancient Creed, with all its old Articles,
ind no new ones. This is the way of Faith : by this the Saints
overcame the world : and by this, and Prayer, you sliall overcome
ilso, through the grace, mercy, and loving kindness of our Lord
Fesus Christ. To whom with the Father, and tlie Holy Ghost,
Phree Persons and one God, be all praise and glory, all might,
majesty, and dominion, now, henceforth and for evermore. Amen.

'*■■■

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