The Good News of God eBook

In the hour of death, and in the day of judgment; then the one thing which you will care to think of (if you can think at all then, as too many poor souls cannot, and therefore had best think of it now before their wits fail them)—­the one thing which you will care to think of, I say, will be—­not, how clever you have been, how successful you have been, how much admired you have been, how much money you have made:- ‘Of course not,’ you answer; ’I shall be thinking of the state of my soul; whether I am fit to die; whether I have faith enough to meet God; whether I have good works enough to meet God.’

Will you, my friend?  Then you will soon grow tired of thinking of that likewise, at least I hope and trust that you will.  For, however much faith you may have had, you will find that you have not had enough.  However so many good works you may have done, you will find that you have not done enough.  The better man you are, the more you will be dissatisfied with yourself; the more you will be ashamed of yourself; till with all saints, Romanist or Protestant, or other, who have been worthy of the name of saints, you will be driven—­if you are in earnest about your own soul—­to give up thinking of yourself, and to think only of the cross of Christ, and of the love of Christ which shines thereon; and ask—­Is it great enough to cover my sins? to save one as utterly unworthy to be saved as I. And so, after all, you will be forced to throw yourself—­where you ought to have thrown yourself at the outset—­at the foot of Christ’s cross; and say in spirit and in truth —

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling —

In plain words, I throw myself, with all my sins, upon that absolute and boundless love of God which made all things, and me among them, and hateth nothing that he hath made; who redeemed all mankind, and me among them, and hath said by the mouth of his only-begotten Son, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’

SERMON XVI.  THE PURE IN HEART

Titus i. 15.

Unto the pure all things are pure:  but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure:  but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

This seems at first a strange and startling saying:  but it is a true one; and the more we think over it, the more we shall find it true.

All things are pure in themselves; good in themselves; because God made them.  Is it not written, ’God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good?’ Therefore St. Paul says, that all things are ours; and that Christ gives us all things richly to enjoy.  All we need is, to use things in the right way; that is, in the way in which God intended them to be used.