Uniform with this Volume, THE GOLDEN LECTURES, for 1850, Being Forty-Eight Sermons selected from the Penny Pulpit, delivered at St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury, by the Rev. H. Melvill, B.D, bound in cloth, 6s. THE GOLDEN LECTURES, for 1851, Being Forty-Six Sermons selected from the Penny Pulpit, delivered at St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury, by the Rev. H. Melvill, B.D. bound in cloth, 6s. THE GOLDEN LECTURES, for 1852, Being Forty-Six Sermons selected from the Penny Pulpit, delivered at St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury, by the Rev. H. Melvill, B.D. bound in cloth, 63. THE GOLDEN LECTURES, for 1853, Being Forty-Six Sermons selected from the Penny Pulpit, delivered at St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury, by the Rev. H. Melvill, B.D. bound in cloth, 6s. THE GOLDEN LECTURES, for 1854, Being Forty-Six Sermons selected from the Penny Pulpit, delivered at St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury, by the Rev. H. Melvill, B.D. bound in cloth, 6s. THE GOLDEN LECTURES, for 1855, Being Forty-Five Sermons selected from the Penny Pulpit, delivered at St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury, by the Rev. H. Meivill, B.D., bound in cloth, 6s. The following Numbers of the Penny Pulpit contain Sermons by the Rev. H. Melvill, B.D., preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, London : Nos, 2,619, 2,624 2,627 2,633 2,644 2,646 2651 2,656. THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE, THE GREAT REASON FOR IIOLINESS. A Sermon Delivered on TUESDAY MORNING, JANUARY 1, 1856, BY THE REV. HENRY MELVILL, B.D. (Chaplain in Ordinary to Her Majesty,) AT ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH, LOTHBURY, "But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”— Matthew xxiv. 43, 44, ON New Year's Day six years ago, I entered on the duties of this Lecture, and now on New Year's Day I commence the seventh year of my ministrations amongst you. Again are the heavens most emphatically preaching to us the rapid flight of time! Again may the sun in his annual course be said to take up the words of the text, and to say to one and to all-" Be ye ready, for at an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh." We shall not stay to inquire whether, in uttering these words, our Lord had chief respect to his coming in the destruction of Jerusalem, or that final coming when the dead are to be raised and all men will be judged. Probably he meant to indicate both; and undoubtedly the one event typified the other, so that there would naturally be a great correspondence in their respective prophetic delineations. But it is a more material question to us whether there be any reference to the death of individuals, or whether such passages may be taken as indicating the uncertainty of life. And we must admit it to be a great mistake to suppose that to each individual, his own death is the same thing as the coming of Christ. The coming of Christ is always associated in Scripture with the resurrection of the body, and not with its death, so that nothing but forgetfulness of the statements of the Bible can induce such a supposition. Still the text may justly be accommodated to individual death; for whatever cause there may be of watchfulness in regard to our Lord's coming, the same undoubtedly must there be in regard to our own death. Therefore we may put away all that has to do with the first sense and bearings of the text. We are going to deal with you simply as with beings who know that they must die, and they cannot know when. We shall suppose, that is, that each of you may be likened to a householder who cannot tell the hour at which his house may be attacked, and we shall inquire into the spirit of the somewhat singular assertion, that if the "good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would not have suffered the breaking through of his house." Now, it hath pleased Almighty God to close up the future in an almost impenetrable darkness, so that although by observing the current of events, and tracing the connection between causes and effects, we may often con jecture with tolerable accuracy what is likely to happen, it is conjecture at best, and as often disappointed as confirmed; while of the great mass of things with which coming days are charged, we cannot attain to the most distant intimation, not even a shadow being thrown over our path to give notice of what is approaching. You must all have often been desirous to penetrate the future, and we must all have felt what a power it would give us of settling our plans, of averting danger, and of securing advantages, if we could but look beyond the day, and foresee what would happen to our purposes and endeavours; and just through our utter ignorance of to-morrow, we are too, ignorant of so much of bitter disappointment, of so many designs frustrated, and so many hopes blighted. Only take away this ignorance, remove only in a measure the impervious veil which is hung before us, and which recedes towards eternity at the same rate as we advance, and we shall be able we think, to prepare for what shall happen, for the occurrences of life, and the solemnities of death. This is unquestionably a common feeling, but is it a correct? In the matter, for example, of death, would there be more preparedness for departing out of life, were men quite aware of the time of their departure? Our Lord seems to answer this question in our text, and to answer it in the affirmative. He puts the case of a householder whose house had been broken through, because he did not know at what hour it would be attacked; but who would certainly have resisted the robber could he only have known at what hour, and in what watch the robber would have come. Now take the householder as figuring the generations of the world, and the breaking up of this household, the dislocation of existing systems, which is to take place at the second coming of Christ; and then the representation certainly is, that were God only to make known the day and the hour of the mighty catastrophe, the world would be prepared for it, and not be found sleeping. Or take the householder as figuring any individual, and the breaking up of his house that demolition of the earthly house of this tabernacle, which is effected at death, and then as certainly the representation is, that if man were informed as to when he must die, in place of being left in the present utter uncertainty, he would take more pains to prepare himself for the solemn event. Nay, it might almost be argued from the statement of our Lord, that there would be no such thing as dying in actual impenitence, were men but informed of the time, as well as of the fact of dissolution. The householder forewarned, would not have suffered his house to be broken through. At all events, it cannot be disputed that a very great degree of preparation for death is given as a consequence of perfect acquaintance with the time of its occurrence, so that there would be far less of that hurried and uncared for departure out of life which is unhappily so frequent under the present arrangement. I know thoroughly well, that there is no need of any divination in order to the knowledge that there are numbers amongst you who have practically no sense of their mortality, and on whom the fact that they have only a short time to live can scarcely be said to exert any influence, so that their conduct would not be perceptibly different were they possessed of a charter which secured them against death. It seems to matter nothing that demonstrations of the shortness and uncertainty of life, are both continually and painfully given, so that every day forces evidence on the attention, and often through the heart's warmest feelings, that they are but sojourners below, and liable at any moment to be summoned to another state of being. There is a power in man of putting from him all this evidence, as though it were meant for others rather than for himself, and that too, not by any violent exertion, but rather without any perceivable effort; for unless it be in some extraordinary instances, there are no means required of resisting conviction as to liability to death. Means are needed to the producing and preserving that conviction. Men have but to let things take their course, and though thousands should fall at their side, they will not be more persuaded of exposure to danger. And if, in addressing these men who live as though secured against death, we could tell them precisely when they must die, in place of having only to argue that they may die at any instant, should we be likely to speak with more effect and might we reckon on producing such a preparation for death, that men everywhere might be ready to depart. Yes, we can quite believe this. It is the uncertainty as to the time which produces inattentiveness to the fact. A man who is visited by a disease which he knows to be incurable, is generally disposed to apply himself to the duties of religion. The man whom the law has sentenced to death on a fixed day, at a fixed hour, is commonly open to the admonitions of the preacher. And, therefore, we can readily suppose that the destroying altogether the existing uncertainty as to the time of your death, and the substituting for it an exact knowledge of the day, and the hour, would produce such a considering of your latter end as would strangely contrast with your present indifference. Beings, indeed, who were assured that they had yet many years to live would, in all likeli hood, systematically defer attending to religion; and that, too, with an excuse to which they cannot now pretend for deferring the high duties of repentance and faith. It might be, as with the householder, who, sure that for a long time to come, no attack would be made upon his dwelling, would take no means of defence, but even leave the door open and his property exposed. As, however, the time fixed for the assault drew near, he would be active in defensive arrangements; guards would be set; bars would be strengthened, and the whole aspect be that of expectation and preparation. In like manner, so long as men know death to be distant, they might be, were it possible, even more engrossed with earth, than they now commonly are. Yet as that day was known to be approaching they would apply themselves, like the householder, to prepare for their safety, and evince a settled determination to be ready for an event which was now near and inevitable. And thus it may be that many would be saved from final destruction were it possible for every man to foresee the time of his death. It is because we can scarcely ever find you in such circumstances as to warrant the speaking of death as actually at hand that we fail in fixing your attention on the great things of eternity. You are always able to avoid our urgency by whispering to yourselves that there is no need for immediate attention; that it will be soon enough when the time comes to withdraw yourselves from the fascinations of earth. You do not come a jot nearer to "a more convenient season," because you do not seem to yourselves a jot nearer to the termination of life. You cannot fix a termination, and what is always involved in the same darkness will always be practically removed to the same distance. whole thing would be altered if we could deal with one as having six months to live, and with another as having a-year. The "convenient season" would then be incontestibly fixed by the present; and unless the individual were determined-which is scarcely supposable-to go down without a struggle into everlasting burning, he would have no option but to commence forthwith, in order to be ready for the dreaded assault. And, oh, then with all our consciousness that there is great mercy in the concealment of the future, we cannot question that there would be far more preparation for death under an arrangement which gave notice when life would terminate, than under another which leaves it wholly uncertain. We feel that men who now depart in impenitence would be found with their lamps trimmed and their lights burning. Therefore, we assent to the truth of the representation, when accommodated to individuals as appointed to die-"If the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up." The Now, my brethren, if this be so, if there would indeed be greater preparation for death, were there greater certainty as to its time, the question which necessarily forces itself on our attention is-Why this greater acquaintance is withheld? Or, if the householder would not suffer his house to be broken up, were he but informed in what watch the thief would come; why should that Being who can wish nothing but the final good of his creatures-why should He fail to furnish the intelligence which would confessedly be so beneficial? We may not always think it well to endeavour to answer such questions. In many cases it is our wisdom simply to resolve the matter into the sovereignty of God, and in place of endeavouring to remove every intricacy, to exclaim with the Saviour himself "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight." But the matter of the concealment of the future does not require this; for though we may not be able to show why God draws a veil before coming days, we may certainly determine enough to induce us to be thankful rather than oppressed. For you must readily perceive that the character of the existing dispensation would be altogether changed were we enabled to foresee whatever could happen. It would no longer be a dispensation of faith; but a dispensation of sight. We should be called upon for the employing nothing of that dependence on the guidance and guardianship of the Invisible Being, which is demanded from us in our present condition; and which is not more pressed upon us by the circumstances of our being, than advantageous to our discipline as accountable creatures. It is evident enough that walking by faith is now better to us than would be walking by sight. We find it intensely difficult in our ignorance of the future to submit ourselves to God in whose hands we are. What would it be if we had acquaintance with the future, and so were in a measure independent, and could make our plans with certainty as to their issue? As it is, the great mass of the world is but a few degrees removed from practical atheism; and nothing could be more likely to lessen those few degrees than the giving every man such prescience as would leave no place for faith. And, then, how easy to perceive that telling us what would happen would cause immeasurably more of evil than of good. Who would take pains to educate a child, if he foresaw that he would educate him only for the grave? Or, if a child must die young, it would neutralize every endeavour to fit him for the active duties of life, and at the same time, it would embitter all the pleasure of his society. The parent would almost strive to keep himself from loving what he saw he must loose. Why give up the heart, when it would soon have to lose its object? Yea, what must be the dislocation, were the future so laid open as to be no longer expectation, no longer hope; were every man's history marked accurately out, and things to come were already things present! Oh, what a world would this then be, were the veil drawn back of which we are so often disposed to complain. If a man knew he must be a bankrupt, he would make no struggle against bankruptcy, but would sink under misfortune before it came to his portion. The wife would be a widow while her husband lived; the child would be an orphan while yet blessed with parents; if the funeral were foreknown, and the day of separation clearly revealed. And even the bright things of coming time would be darkened through being discovered. The event which now ministers to my happiness, would minister incomparably less, had I known for years past when and how it would occur. What decreases the province of hope, would necessarily greatly decrease the pleasure of possession. In regard then, equally, to what is prosperous and what is adverse, men would be losers by looking into futurity. I know they would be able to ward off certain calamities; but how many calamities would seem to be inevitable; and they would be pressing upon men before they happened, as well as darkening everything by their shadow before they came down in their light. I know they might administer much happiness; but alas, how small a proportion does enjoyed happiness bear to the expected. And, if men might not hope for more than they are to have, and could measure beforehand their portions, the brightest light would be darkened. And if to these considerations, you take into account another state of being, the goodness of the arrangement is a hundredfold more apparent. Though, as a general rule, the householder would be prepared, had he known at what hour the thief would come, I can still feel it immeasurably better that the day of death should be hidden from our eyes. What hold would religion have on a multitude who were thoroughly certain that they had twenty, thirty, or forty years to live? It may have but little hold now, but it has some. There are thousands who dare not be as bad as they wish, because constrained by the urgency of conscience; and this conscience would have no urgency to make its voice heard, were men assured that years must elapse |