The Christian minister must set an example to his flock.
I. TRUE SHEPHERD GOETH BEFORE HIS SHEEP. He should be able to say, like the apostle, "Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ." For the preacher's words have little influence if they are not enforced and illustrated by his life. A real earnest Christian life is a living power; its light shines before men; it leads others to glorify that God from whom all true religion comes. For it proves the truth of God's Word and promises; it. is a miracle of grace, more wonderful than miracles of power; it draws those who at first believed not the Word, to believe the works. The work of God's grace, manifested in the changed life of the believer, draws souls to God. Hence we must strive always to set a holy example. But we must, like Andrew, find Christ first ourselves if we would bring others to him. Alas! not all who point the way to heaven will enter there; not all who helped to build the ark were saved therein.
II. THE CHRISTIAN MUST MARK THE SAINTS OF GOD.
1. Their example is precious, full of gracious attraction. A true Christian, wherever he is, in whatever circumstances, is of inestimable value. Having himself received grace from God, he becomes a center of grace for others; rivers of living water flow from him.
2. Such examples increase our responsibility. St. Paul bids us mark them. If we do not, we neglect one of the greatest helps to a holy life which God provides for us. To read the lives of holy men, still more, if we have that great privilege, to know them, ought to excite in us a holy ardor and ambition. They are men like ourselves, encompassed with infirmities; they have by the grace of God attained a high degree of holiness; we may do the like if we persevere as they persevered. We must be followers together of such men; we must try to reach the holiness which they have gained; their humility, their self-denials, their charity, their holy joy, their delight in prayer and praise, ought to stir us up to a holy emulation. Such examples, if followed, are an unspeakable advantage; if neglected, they must greatly increase our danger and our condemnation.
3. Christ's saints are many; their example is one. Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus, reflect in various degrees the one image of Christ. All Christians, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory. Their characters, their training, their opportunities, differ; they present some one grace, some another, more conspicuously than others; these different graces are so many different aspects of the one image of Christ. We may study these various graces severally as mixed with human frailty in the characters of saints; we may study them all combined in absolute perfection in the life of our Divine Savior.
III. BUT THERE ARE EVIL EXAMPLES IS THE CHURCH.
1. Many who are called by the Name of Christ wind earthly things. They will not take up their cross and deny themselves; they serve their own lusts. Such men are really enemies of the cross of Christ; they hate the cross, they shrink from the cross, and they grievously check the progress of the gospel. The Name of God is blasphemed through them. The end of such men is destruction.
2. Such evil lives cause real grief to the true Christian. St. Paul weeps when he speaks of them. Fools make a mock at sin; the apostle weeps. He knows the meaning of sin, its exceeding sinfulness, its awful danger. miserable thing to see men laugh at drunkenness or other forms of vice; these things kill the souls of men, souls for whom Christ died. The apostle reminds us of the psalmist, "Rivers of water run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law."
Lessons. Learn:
1. To study the lives of holy men, to imitate their graces, to avoid their errors; their history is written for our admonition.
2. Above all, to study the one perfect Example, the life of Jesus Christ our Lord.
3. To set a good example ourselves, remembering the great influence of example for good or for evil.
4. shun evil examples, to mourn over them.
The grounds for following St. Paul and other holy men.
I. Our conservation is in heaven. The false brethren mirth earthly things; follow us.
1. Our commonwealth is in heaven; we are citizens of the heavenly country. Here we are citizens of this realm of England; we have our sovereign, our magistrates, our fellow-subjects, our duties, our privileges. It is a shadow of heavenly things. The heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, is our true home, our continuing city. The almighty God, King of kings and Lord of lords, is the center of that vast communion. The blessed angels, our guardians, are his ministers, standing before him, to do his will. The saints, living and departed, are our fellow-citizens, the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn who are written in heaven, and the spirits just men made perfect. There we have our privileges, the sacraments, the means of grace, the help of the Holy Spirit of God, the hope of everlasting blessedness. There we have our duties, all growing from the one highest law of love: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart;… thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
2. Our real home is there now ( ὑπάρχει). We are citizens of the heavenly commonwealth first, then of our earthly country. We are Christians first, then Englishman. The first given at Antioch is cur highest title; it pledges us to unity, to holiness; pledges us to the service of the great Master, whose love passeth knowledge, whose life stands alone in its gracious beauty, in its perfect purity. Our home is in heaven, where he is; it is so new. "Ye are come to the city of the living God;" "Ye are fellow-citizens of the saints." Therefore "seek those things which are above." There must our treasure be, there must we set our hearts. We should try by God's grace to fill our minds with the blessed thought of heaven, to accustom ourselves to meditate daily upon its occupations, its never-ending worship, its unclouded contemplation of the Divine beauty. For there we hope to spend the ages of the everlasting life. will be, we trust, our last, our unspeakably most glorious prize; let us try to fill our thoughts and imaginations with it now, not with the poor prizes of earthly success. Thus let us seek to realize those striking words, "Our commonwealth is in heaven."
II. CHRIST IS IN HEAVEN NOW; WE WAIT FOR HIS COMING.
1. We are citizens of the heavenly country now; we have not yet its full privileges; we are heirs of the kingdom of heaven. But Christ is there now; he will come again as a Savior. Then he wilt make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; we must be changed. He is changing our souls now (if we abide in him) by the power of his grace. Then he shall change our body, this body of our humiliation, the body which is now subject to disease and death, and sometimes, alas! to the defilement of sensual sin. He shall make it like, in true and deep resemblance, to the body of his glory. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory."
2. For he is able to subdue all things unto himself. All power is given unto him in heaven and in earth. Therefore we may not doubt his power. He can raise these bodies of ours from the dust of the earth, no longer natural, corruptible, mortal; but spiritual, incorruptible, immortal. He can do this, for he can do greater things than these.
LESSONS. Learn:
1. To regard heaven as our home.
2. To practice its employments, to learn the new song here on earth.
3. To remember that the eternal life begins here. "This is life eternal, to know … God and Jesus Christ."
4. To love the appearing of the Lord, to look earnestly for his coming.
5. To rejoice in the hope of rising in the glorious resurrection-body.
HOMILIES BY T. CROSKERY