Party spirit discomfited by Christ's advent.
I. In every age in which religion has not been utterly disregarded, perhaps even when it has been practically set aside by the great majority of men, there is usually some one strong tendency at work, which either divides into two great portions the minds of the more serious and reflecting, or at least colours and designates a deeper and more essential division. No one will deny that in our own time, and especially in the Universities, a division of this kind into the main directions and tendencies of religious opinions does manifestly exist. The serious and earnest are met by a strong temptation to throw themselves into one or other of these schools or parties in religion, which appear to be alone deeply engaged in the conflicts of the faith on earth.
II. Consider what must be the consequence of the habit of early partisanship. (1) Be assured that no one set of opinions, no one body of teachers, is or can be in possession of the whole truth. He who so allies himself with one party, in the warfare of religious opinion, as to make its cause, as a party, his own, is quite sure, whichever be his side, to be fighting in the end against some portion of God's truth, and in behalf of some portion, whether less or greater, of that error which the enemy, while men slept, has sown amongst it. (2) Christian candour and Christian charity can scarcely co-exist, even for a time, with a spirit of decided partisanship.
III. Let the text recall our thoughts to a coming day, when the spirit of religious partisanship, like every other offspring of human pride, shall be subjected to the searching light of the day of the Lord of hosts. That day shall be upon everything that is lofty and lifted up, and shall bring it low. And is not this the character of every human party, of every human system, whether in things divine or earthly? Think what the day of the Lord will be to him who has disputed about religion without its entering into his soul; who has done battle for what he called the truth, instead of opening the windows of his own heart to let it fully in; who has argued about God's grace, and the means and channels of its effectual working, instead of being himself, in will and life and character, transformed by its renewing.
C. J. Vaughan, Nine Sermons in the Chapel of Harrow School,p. 25.
Scepticism discomfited by Christ's advent.
I. Among the causes of the spirit of religious scepticism, there is (1) an early habit of spiritual negligence; (2) a state of exaggerated and credulous belief.
II. Consider the inseparable consequences of such a state, whatever be the peculiar causes out of which it springs. (1) He who is in suspense about the truth of the Gospel cannot pray. He that cometh to God must believe that He is. He who feels that he has sinned and that God is holy knows that he needs a mediator and he that would trust in a mediator must believe that He is. (2) He cannot resist sin. He who is in suspense about the truth of Christ's Gospel is as weak as he who denies it as weak, yea, weaker. For the other knows that he is thrown upon the resources of his own unaided strength, and he summons them all together for his support. He can take the shield of pride, and the helmet of self-confidence, and the sword of reason; and with these, within their own narrow limits, he can go forth and conquer. But the man who doubts who would be a Christian, or thinks he would, but cannot satisfy his intellect of the certainty of word of Christ he is a divided man. He has cast off his other armour; and this, the armour of God, he cannot take, for he has not proved it.
III. Think what the advent will be to such a mind. The day of the Lord of hosts will be "upon" it, and will bring it low. We fools inquired whether there wasa day coming; and behold, it is come. While we inquired and reasoned and speculated, He of whom we doubted was carrying on His judgment upon us. He who was to come demanded fruit. He is come seeking fruit, and He finds nothing, but leaves only.
C. J. Vaughan, Nine Sermons,p. 47.
References: Isaiah 2:12. J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages from the Prophets,vol. i., p. 1.Isaiah 2:16. J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiii., p. 365.Isaiah 2:17. W. J. Knox-Little, Ibid.,vol. xxi., p. 406. Isaiah 2:18. G. John, Ibid.,vol. xxii., p. 129. Isaiah 2:20. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2230. Isaiah 2:22. J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages from the Prophets,p. 9. Isaiah 3:10; Isaiah 3:11. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiii., No. 729; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 180; E. Mason, A Pastor's Legacy,p. 206. Isaiah 3:11. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. viii., p. 17. Isaiah 4:1. C. A. Fowler, Parochial Sermons,p. 1.Isaiah 4:2. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xi., p. 273.