James Galloway Cowan

“ There are men and women who do make religion the one thing needful; who hold themselves in check by its restraints; who urge themselves on by its promises; who bask in its sunshine, and reflect its glorious image in their lives. There are men and women whose business is religion; who kneel long and often in prayer; who meditate day and night on the Bible; whose hearts ever leap to God; who grieve to forego an opportunity of holy communion; who never stop away from church because there are only prayers, or because their favourite preacher will not be in the pulpit, or because it is hot or cold. ”

“ Nay, there seems every reason why it should be otherwise: the back is weak upon which the heavy weight is laid; the understanding is simple which has perplexities to unravel; the life is upright which has been afflicted; the hand is willing which has no work to do. These are the burdens, the "heavy things," the grievances of which the text speaks, burdens from beneath which the bearers may naturally cry, "Why am I thus?" burdens the beholding whereof from afar should prompt the humble, adoring exclamation, "Why am I not thus?" ”

“ No! brethren; nature is the handmaid of religion. It will corroborate what is already revealed; but it is no ladder to heaven; it is no telescope, to bring near what is afar off. Look at yourselves, and at all around you, by natural light only. You perceive Providence, but not love; sin, but not its remedy; mortality, but not immortality. Read history, ponder probabilities, accredit testimony. Your mind will be instructed; your heart, perhaps, touched; but your spirit will not be quickened. ”

“ Assuredly, my brethren, as man is three-fold and has been redeemed in his three-fold nature, mind, heart, and body, so has each part of him its appointed, its bounden part, to take on its own account in the positive worship of God. And were it not so, were the body merely the case of the soul—its link with the material; its tabernacle in the temporal; its agent among the natural and outward—still, is it not in these respects part of its office to exhibit what is in the soul? Does not the soul naturally move it when it is moved itself? ”

“ Grace is no reserved blessing. Heaven is no distant home. Grace is ever to be had if we will seek it. Heaven is everywhere, if we will but realise it, for where God is, is heaven.
But God is not manifest to all. His help is not given unsought. The eye of faith alone can see Him, the cry of faith alone be heard. As He will be served for reward, so will He be asked for grace: we must be alert to see what help we want; we must be prompt to seek it. We must acknowledge Him, or He will not guide us. We must cast our care upon Him, or He will not take it. ”

“ But, my brethren, if such as these fall short of God’s standard, what of us, who, alas! can lay no claim to attempted perfection, or to grief and contrition for shortcomings? What of our service of God? What do we offer Him? What does religion cost us?
It should cost us much thought—more thought than anything else. Does it? Is it the most frequent and most encouraged employment of our minds to meditate on God, our Creator and Preserver, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier, our Lord and Judge, on heaven, on holiness, on trial and reward, duties and hopes? ”

“ It is what we have done in self-love which has made them miserable! And how nobly, how heroically, how religiously, are they bending to the burden! There is no bitter outcry against the blockaders, no intemperate act or speech against the mill-owners, no riotous agitation for national intervention, no lawless depredation, and desperate helping of themselves, no clamour for relief, no greedy grasping of what is offered. Their very failings lean to virtue's side. They have struggled to be independent. ”

“ And as for difficulties and hindrances, our own infirmities, the opposition of the world or the Devil, the sneers of despisers, the distance, the crowd, the hurrying on, can aught compare with what threatened this woman, and what she overcame? O are we not ashamed to forego salvation, to keep away from Christ, to desist from determination to reach Him, by any plea of personal infirmity, or of difficulty in the way? What in ourselves is worse than the twelve years’ growing, enfeebling, overwhelming malady of this woman? What in aught around us is more impenetrable than the great crowd? ”

“ And then, again, my brethren, where are we told that Christianity is a purely spiritual religion; that its functions are all such as can be performed by mind and heart, without body; that, in fact, the body has no real part in them? The worship of the body is indeed no worship by itself, for: “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” But is it not Christianity that has redeemed and consecrated the body? ”

“ And if, brethren, we look along our lives in the light of God’s providence, is it not just so with us? Supposing us to be faithful servants of God, has not all that has happened to us been for our good? Was it not well for us that we were removed from the state in which we were being spoiled, becoming selfish and proud? Was it not good for us to be afflicted? Did not some earthly loss make us seek to fill the void with heavenly consolation? Are we not now better—better in fact—better in hope—because God has prospered us in His own way, than if we had had what we thought prosperity? ”

“ Is it only as some ideal being, some vague, distant, indifferent, easy person of the past, the present, or the future, that you think of Him; or is He more real and perceptible to you than the men and women around you—more in your thoughts than any one else—more feared than your earthly masters and rulers—more implicitly obeyed than your most revered earthly superior—more looked to than your most substantial earthly benefactor—more loved than the dearest earthly object of your affections? Is Christ in you the worship of your heart, the motive of your life, the centre and summit of your hopes? ”

“ The Church is the ark of salvation, which God has provided to keep us safe in the drowning of the world. It is the kingdom of heaven, whose King is now in the midst of it. It is the bosom of the Father whereon each penitent prodigal now rests accepted, the Everlasting arms whose felt embrace assures of present peace and joy. It is the wedding feast whereat all the friends of the King’s son are decked with glories and feasted with good things ”

“ Do you suppose it will suffice to think of these things when the doctor tells you you cannot recover; to send for the clergyman to teach and move you when the faculty of heeding is well nigh gone, to pray for you, if you are unable to pray for yourself, to sigh over your body, if, alas! the soul has fled? Or are you now more or less possessed with religious thought and feeling, sitting loose to this world, weaning yourselves more and more from it, nerving yourselves for the last hour, sighing over and confessing your sins, trusting to Christ’s mercy, aspiring to heaven, praying for acceptance? ”

“ You know, indeed, that much remains written against you; but you believe that much more has been blotted out; that God has been propitiated and reconciled to fallen man by the sacrifice and intercession of His Son; that wrath has been displaced by love; that the way of return is open; that the ears of mercy are unclosed; that the arms of grace are stretched out to unfold all those, who by birth inherited banishment, and were kept in exile by the fiery sword which turned every way and allowed none to pass to the paradise of bliss and the tree of life. ”

“ But, oh! how little constraining is the influence of a Saviour who once visited the earth, of a Judge who shall by and by visit it! How dim is the remembrance of long past mercies! how distant is the prospect of heavenly consolations! Earth is now present with all its attractions and rewards. The world, the flesh, and the devil are now assailing and afflicting us with their many temptations. How can we resist the seen, and heard, and felt fascinations? ”

“ Do you act chiefly with regard to the praise of God, or the admiration of your fellow-beings? Do you feast on the expectation of heaven, or on that of some worldly joy or honour? Do you like, above all things, the thought of dwelling for ever where there will be no money-getting, no earthly indulgences, no flattery, no vain glory, no frivolity, no unseemliness, no rest from the praising of God, and the company of saints? ”

“ Study the life of Christ—is your life like it: like it in humility, in self-denial, in labour, in fact, in hope, in aim? Examine yourselves. Are you cleansed from evil propensities—are you adorned with Christian graces—are you fit in person, in will, in desire, for a heaven full of holiness, whose employment will be the doing of God’s work, as angels do it, whose relaxation, if I may so speak, will be the contemplation and the praise of God? ”

“ Is your pure faith illustrated by a pure life? Do you make the best use of an Apostolic ministry? Are you growing in the spirit of which you were born again? Do you feel and sustain the communicated presence of Christ within you? When you go down from the sanctuary, does your life shine, as Moses’s face did, with the reflected glory of God? If not, talk not of your high privileges—your case would be better without them. When God ceased to wink at the errors and ungodliness of mankind, He began by punishing, and with much severity, the errors and ungodliness of the privileged Jews. ”

“ I envy not the man—there is something unnatural, yea, and unspiritual, too, in him—who does not shrink from the first thought of death coming to himself or to those whom he loves. For death, in its best form, is a remembrancer of the wrath of God against the sinner, and it is in a sense a triumph—no matter that it is short—it is a defiling and withering touch—no matter that it shall soon be wiped away, and its blasting undone—of the foul and fierce enemy of God and holy man. ”

“ Are you encouraged in every aim, every resolute resistance of evil, every patient submission to suffering, every fulfilment of duty, every pursuit of righteousness by the thought “Man has done it, the Man Whom I am required to imitate.” Do you think of Him as still retaining His manhood with all its experience, and acquired wisdom, and perfected obedience? Do you rejoice in such a Sympathizer, such a Mediator, such a Helper, such a Judge? ”

“ How many so-called Christians, not only in their business or their pleasure, when they turn away their eyes from the manifested God, but even when they come up to the sanctuary, when they read the Bible, when they kneel in prayer or stand to praise, when they look Zionwards, when they are all attent, eyes and ears, yet see no sight, and hear no sound of Christ! The world which they have left is remembered, and stands before them in a life-like picture. ”

“ Welcome want, welcome sickness, welcome death—anything rather than worldly prosperity, if it can only be obtained by renunciation of God’s enjoined service and idolatrous devotion to mammon. The world will laugh at such preaching, brethren, and call it foolishness; but the world is nothing to us. It is doomed to pass away with all the things in it which lure us to take thought; but you and I must live on to eternity, and how we are to live shall be decided by the master we serve—God or mammon. ”

“ He knows that eternal life is the free gift of a God, Who is no respecter of persons; Who recognises no birthright, no personal merits; Who will have mercy on Whom He will have mercy: but that yet grace does not fall, as the rain from heaven, alike upon the barren and the fertile, the thankless and the thankful, the careless and the anxious, the indolent and the active; but is ever guided by a discerning and distinguishing hand, is ever bestowed upon righteousness. ”

“ And how blinded are the senses, and how dead the feelings of the sinner, who does not feel the degradation of his state, but makes open display of himself before the crowd, and with a bold front and unshrinking touch, comes to the All-pure and All-holy to be healed! Learn, fellow sinners, from this poor woman, what your sin is, how defiling, how miserable, how sure to grow worse under human treatment. ”

“ Nineveh’s cry of wickedness provoked the Lord to threaten it with destruction within forty days; but when those forty days were expired there was no cry of wickedness to be answered; but a cry of repentance, a pledge of amendment, a nation’s voice and posture of worship. God did not change, but Nineveh did. The judgment was ready to fall; but there was no object for it to fall upon, and so it fell not. If the righteous ceases to be righteous, the promises made to his righteousness cannot be fulfilled; if the sinner becomes sinless, the sentence of sin cannot be executed upon him. ”

“ It is well not to love this world, to have realised its vanity and misery, to have broken the links that would bind us to it, to refuse to find our perfect joy in aught that belongs to it. It is well to yearn for deliverance from all that vexes and hinders and hurts; to desire ardently—even to pray earnestly and continually for—presence with the Lord, and all that that presence implies, in Paradise, in Heaven. But when by God’s grace we have come to this state, we are not perfect, we have not begun to be perfect. ”

“ What, my brethren, let me ask in all plainness, for I speak for God, and God’s representatives—the poor—what does religion cost you in this respect? Are you sure that you have left no Lazaruses to perish of hunger? no pining sick to die for want of the nutriment or attention which you could have afforded? no children to grow up in ignorance and blasphemy whom you could have maintained at school, and helped to make enlightened, serious, holy men and women? Have you looked to these things, yourselves? ”

“ We know the force of such an exhortation in earthly things. We know by experience how light is the labour which leads to rest, how possible it is to smile through present tears at the prospect of coming joy; what pains, and self-denials, and dangers, and encounters, are readily embraced by those whom ambition prompts, and approval cheers, and reward awaits. Nothing is too hard to bear, nothing too dear to relinquish, nothing too formidable to meet, nothing too much to do ”

“ How is it that the Object of supreme love and fear is to us but a shadowy and unintelligible name? How is it that we have no perception of the ever-present, ever-speaking, ever-acting, all-important Spirit? How is it that we have no intelligent or inquiring thought of the heaven which we are bidden to seek, and of the hell which we have to avoid; of the Master we are bound to serve; of the business to which life is an apprenticeship ”

“ You are tempted to justify yourselves. You are not the unbelieving, and rebellious, and profane of our race. You recognise a God of providence and grace, a moral ruler of the world, a waiting Judge. To this God you say your prayers, His word you read, and reverence, and receive. To Him you dedicate at least several hours of each seventh day; by His commandments you order your daily life. You do no wrong to your neighbour by word or deed; you strive to purify and sanctify your very feelings and thoughts; you believe in a Saviour; you accept His salvation; you try to love Him ”

“ They will cease to be foolishness to you. You will choose them in every circumstance, as wisdom; you will feel religion to be the one thing needful; you will make it the business and the pleasure of your lives. The life of a Joseph, an Abraham, a Moses, a Job, a David, a Stephen, a Paul, will be found to be not simply possible, but desirable; the only life worthy of the name. Obedience will be easy; trust will expel care; love will cast out fear; selfishness will pass away; temptations will lose their power. ”

“ Are you worldly, sensual, ill-natured, proud, self-seeking? Have you any trace of these stains upon you? Are you wanting in obedience, in patience, in holiness, in love of God? You cannot enter heaven, it would close its gates against you, you would flee from it as a place of torment, while you are in such a state. Now, what are you doing, or attempting to appropriate Christ’s salvation, to secure God’s approbation, to qualify yourselves in character, in taste and desire for a purely spiritual, a gloriously holy heaven? ”

“ Through the ear we arrest the natural man, as the voice of thunder did Saul on his road to Damascus; we do not sanctify him; we do not show him the things of God; we only convince him that there is something which he has not rightly received, or taken into account, and we bid him go elsewhere, to the Spirit, for instruction and salvation. The only possible good that a sermon can do, is, by working on the feelings, or appealing to the understanding, or cross-questioning the conscience, to stir men up to say: “I will know more of this matter.” ”

“ Eternal life has always been a free gift in Christ. Not for their merits or deservings does God love men; not by their own inventions or labours do they procure acceptance. The precious blood of Christ shed (in effect) before the foundation of the world, has ever been the fountain for sin; the intercession of Christ has ever been the means of reconciliation; the grace of Christ’s sanctified human nature applied by the Holy Spirit has ever been the leaven of regeneration, of conversion, of perfection in holiness and fitness for the inheritance of the saints in light. ”

“ God the Father invisible for ever, God the Holy Ghost, blowing like the wind where it listeth, so that you cannot see whence it cometh and whither it goes, ministering angels, spiritual influences, and consolations, and helps—what can ear, or eye, or hand know of these? But faith knows them, hears them, sees them, handles them, and joys in them. ”

“ Review your past mercies, consider how God has been with you at all times, and has ever been doing you good. Call to mind what progress you have been able to make spiritual or temporal; what success has attended you; what friends have been given you; what dangers you have narrowly escaped; what sicknesses recovered from; what wounds been healed, what troubles overcome, what tears staunched. Have they not caused you, like Jacob, to increase from the solitariness and poverty of that passing over Jordan, to the riches and prosperity of the two bands? ”

“ There is a manifestation of Christ to the world. He is ever speaking in their ears and showing Himself to their eyes. His Church, with its Bible, its means of grace and ministry, its duration and extension, besides being a standing miracle, the infallible credential of His divine authority, the proof of His wisdom and His power, is a very exhibition of Himself, mighty and eager to save. The Spirit, which is with and in that Church, declares Himself to be able and ready to enlighten, and persuade, and strengthen all, without exception, without delay, if only they will come to Him. ”

“ Are you putting off concern; heedless of thought and preparation for meeting God? Are you calculating upon being able to think and feel aright when you will, to ask and obtain pardon for all that is wrong, to be excused for all deficiencies in a moment, to do the work of life on a sick-bed, to satisfy God with the dregs of the cup of life, to become a passive recipient of the necessary holiness which God bids all acquire actively? ”

“ We are not to allow them to exercise such an influence as to make us forget that there is One greater than the storm, Who rules it even in its wildest raging, Who will cause it to cease when it is fitting, Who will not allow it to overwhelm us if we are dependent on Him in its continuance, if we hope in Him to stay it. ”

“ Is it not, too, strangely perverse to admit, that those in separation are brethren, fellow-pilgrims, fellow-heirs, to hope to meet them in heaven, and to think, and feel, and live in perfect harmony with them for ever; and yet here not to be concerned that we never can give them the right hand of fellowship—cannot journey with them, and help, and make for the inheritance together—can never even meet them in prayer and communion—must let them be as utter strangers? In earthly matters none of this would be tolerated, could possibly be. ”