And so had this good soldier his reward; his reward for the soldierly qualities which he had acquired; for subordination; for reverence; for admiration of great and able men. And what was his reward? Not merely that his favourite servant was healed at his request: but that he learnt to know the Lord Jesus Christ, whom truly to know is everlasting life; whom the selfish, the conceited, the envious, the slanderous, the insolent, the mutinous, know not, and never will know; for they are not of His Spirit, neither is He of theirs.
But more: What is the moral which old divines have drawn from this story? If you wish to govern: learn first to obey. That is a moral lesson more valuable than even the use of arms. To learnas the good Centurion learntthat a free man can give up his independence without losing it. Losing it? Independence is never more called out than by subordination. A man never feels himself so much of a free man as when he is freely obeying those whom the laws of his country have set over him. A man never feels so able as when he is following the lead of an abler man than himself. Remember this. Make it a point of honour to do your duty earnestly, scrupulously, and to the uttermost; and you will find that the habits of self-restraint, discipline, and obedience, which you, as soldiers, have learned, will stand you in good stead for the rest of your lives, and make you each, in his place, fit to rule, just because you have learned to obey.
But now go on a step, as the good Centurion went on, and sayIf there is no succeeding in earthly things, whether in soldiering or any other profession, without subordination; without obeying rules and orders strictly and without question: then perhaps there is no succeeding in spiritual and heavenly things. For has not God His moral Laws, His spiritual Laws, which must be obeyed, if you intend to prosper in this life, or in the life to come?
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul, and thy neighbour as thyself. Thou shalt honour thy father and thy mother. Thou shalt not kill, steal, commit adultery, slander, or covet. So it is written: not merely on those old tables of stone on Sinai; but in The Eternal Will of God, and in the very nature of this world, which God has made. There is no escaping those Laws. They fulfil themselves. God says to them, Go, and they go; Come, and they come; Do justice on the offender, and they do it. If we are fools and disobey them, they will grind us to powder. If we are wise and obey them, they will reward us. For in wisdoms right hand is length of days, and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold of her, and blessed is every one that retaineth her; as God grant you all will do.
But you, too, in time may have soldiers under you. Think, I beseech you, earnestly of this, and for their sake, as well as for your own, try by Gods help to live worthy of Christian English men. Let them see you going out and coming in, whether on duty or by your own firesides, as men who feel that they are ever beneath their great taskmasters eye; who have a solemn duty to perform, namely, the duty of living like good men toward your superior officers, your families, your neighbours, your country, and your Godeven towards that Saviour who so loved you that He died for you on the cross, to set you the example of what true men should be; the example of perfect duty, perfect obedience, perfect courage, perfect generosityin one wordthe example of a perfect Hero.
Live such lives, and then, will be fulfilled to you, and to your children after you, from generation to generation, the promises which God made, ages since, to the men of Judea of old; promises which are all true still, and will continue true, in every country of the world, till the worlds end.
Put thou thy trust in the Lord, and be doing good; dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
The Lord knoweth the doings of the righteous; and their inheritance shall endure for ever.
They shall not be confounded in the perilous time; and in the days of dearth they shall have enough.
The Lord ordereth a good mans going; and maketh his way acceptable to himself.
Though he fall, he shall not be cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
I have been young, and now I am old; yet saw I never the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.
Flee from evil, and do the thing that is good; and dwell for evermore.
For the Lord loveth the thing that is right; He forsaketh not his that are godly, but they are preserved for ever. Amen.
II. CHRIST IS COME. A CHRISTMAS SERMON
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.
Isaiah ix. 6, 7.It is now more than three thousand years ago that God made to Abraham the promise, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Again the promise was renewed to Moses when he was commanded to tell the Jews, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me. Hear ye him . . . In Davids Psalms, again, this same strange person was spoken of who was already, and yet who was to come. David calls him the Son of God, the King of kings. Again, in the Prophets, in many strange and mysterious words, is this same being spoken of as a virgins childBehold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us; and again, Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty Godthe Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And again, There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And with righteousness shall He judge the poor, &c.
And again, Thou Bethlehem, though thou be little among the princes of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth He that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from everlasting. And He shall be great unto the ends of the earth.
But time would fail me if I tried to repeat to you half the passages wherein the old Jewish prophets foretold Him who was to come, and in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed, more and more clearly as the time drew nigh.
Well, my friends, surely you know of whom I have been speakingof whom Moses and the prophets spokeof Him who was born of a village maiden, laid in a manger, proclaimed of angels to the shepherds, worshipped with hymns of glory by the heavenly host on the first Christmas day eighteen hundred and seventy-eight years ago, as we count time. Aye, strange as it may seem, He is come, and in Him all the nations of the earth are blessed. He is comethe Conqueror of Evilthe desire of all nationsthe Law-giverthe Lamb which was to suffer for our sinsthe King of kingsthe Light which should lighten the heathenthe Virgins child, of wondrous wisdom, whose name should be God as well as manwhom all the heathens, amid strange darkness and mad confusions, had still been fearing and looking for.