SERMON I.

CHRIST, THE KING OF ANGELS.
ASCENSION DAY.

1 S. PET. iii. 22.

"Who is gone into Heaven, and is on the right hand of God; Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto Him."

IT is most certain that, when we have done our best, we cannot lift up our minds and hearts fully to understand the unspeakable glory which the Son of God, as He is also Son of Man, obtained as on this day: when He, who a little more than forty days before had been "a worm and no man, a very scorn of men and the outcast of the people," was set at His Father's Right Hand "in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that also which is to come:" and had all things put under His feet, and was given to be head over all things. We cannot, I say, realize this in our thoughts, even as we cannot know or imagine the place, where the visible though spiritual Body of our Blessed Lord now is; or how, or which way, He was received up through the air when He hid Himself in a cloud from the sight of His servants, they stedfastly looking after Him.

They saw Him departing, yet could they no more imagine the manner of His departure than we now can. But did that hinder them from musing and meditating upon it? Nay, their very hearts and minds went after Him, and did in a manner continually dwell with Him. "They worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." Christ, ascended into heaven, took up their thoughts day and night. They were never satisfied with the wondering and adoring remembrance of it, and with hymning and praising the Almighty for that last and greatest of miracles. But did they think of it only as a miracle? Or were not their thoughts rather taken up with the portion which they themselves had in it, and all whom Christ came to save?

We indeed are but little able to enter into the thoughts of Apostles, of the favoured friends of Jesus Christ, accustomed to His Divine words and looks, when they saw Him in His very Body, His crucified Body, ascending up into heaven. But we may understand that this was a part of their feelings; that now One, Who is true Man as we are, Who can enter into our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears, He is set in the highest place, over all created things. And He carries with Him there the same tender love towards the meanest of His faithful servants which He ever vouchsafed to exercise here. He still loves to be called on by the afflicted, with earnest and most persevering prayer. He is ready, as of old, to reply to the woman of Canaan, "O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt." There are still families which He loves with distinguishing and peculiar love, as He loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus; and there are graves beside which He waits, as He did by that of Lazarus, in deep and tender pity for the sorrows of those who are tried by separation and bereavement.

His going up into heaven was to the Apostles, who remembered these things, a sign that, though absent from us visibly in the Body, He would yet be (if I may say so) more present than ever in spirit with the children of men, in all their cares, and griefs and anxieties. It was a sign of "the Manhood " being so "taken into God," that He would always (so to speak) be on our side, in all our struggles and conflicts, spiritual and temporal, if only we do not cast Him from us.

It was, in some sort, as if one's nearest and dearest relation were made absolute king of the country. If persons who care for earthly things would rejoice in such a change as that, and consider their own fortune made, how much more joy to those who care for heavenly things, when we set our hearts to consider that He Who "is not ashamed to call us brethren," He Who loved us so well that He laid down His life for us in torment, He is made "the great King" in heaven and earth, and has all the treasures of grace and glory put for ever into His hand.

In this, we see at once, is included every good thing. But for the present there is one blessing in particular, on which I wish to say a few words. It is, the subjection of the spiritual world to our Saviour, expressed by S. Peter in the words of the text, that "Angels and Authorities and Powers were made subject" to the Son of Man when He went into heaven, and sat down on the Right Hand of God. That is to say, that not only the things which we see, the sun and moon and stars, the earth and the waters, the bodies of men, their health and sickness, and all that we call the course of this world, is under the command of His Eternal Providence, Who is pledged to make all things work together for good to them that love Him; but also the worlds out of sight, the spiritual and heavenly world, is entirely ordered by Him.

Now, this is a great thing for us to know; a great comfort in our natural fears and misgivings; a great encouragement to well-doing; and a most serious warning against all carelessness and sin.

We naturally think, even from our childhood; at least, all thoughtful children think a good deal of the spiritual world: of beings out of sight, who yet, for aught we know, may often be very near us, and may have great power to do us good, or to hurt us in body and soul. What are the many stories and imaginations about spirits appearing, and tokens from unseen beings, and the like, of which most of us have at times heard so much; what are they all, but signs that we feel, how many things are about us which we do not see? They are providential ways of instructing us, how fearful it would be, were our eyes suddenly opened; and how greatly, therefore, we need some assurance that we are not left alone and helpless, in regard of this unseen world, any more than in regard of that world, which we discern by our bodily senses, and which therefore seems nearer to us.

Now the Ascension of our Lord is such a token. It assures us, that however deep our solitude, however overpowering our sense of spiritual beings possibly near us, One is at hand like-minded with ourselves, Who can pity all our misgivings, as well as protect us in all dangers. In darkness as in light, in desolation as in pleasant places, in melancholy as in cheerful hours, He is still the same. Could we but bring home to ourselves His most mysterious, but most certain Presence, we need not "be afraid for any terror by night," any more than "for the arrow that flieth by day." The whole world unseen, we are sure, is under Him, no less than the world which we see. And committing ourselves to Him, by serious prayer, will ever be as effectual a safeguard against the unknown dangers of our spiritual being, as against those of our natural being, which we can in some measure understand and foresee. Thus the disciples found Jesus at hand to relieve them, as certainly, when supposing Him to be a Spirit, they "cried out for fear," as when in the violent storm on the same lake, they woke Him with the appeal, "Lord save us! we perish."

Consider the matter in this way. The Bible teaches that there are two worlds, in the midst of which we all live, did we but know it and remember it; the one visible, the other invisible: and that there are in the invisible world two sorts of Angels, Authorities and Powers, with both of which we are concerned; with the one, as friends and fellow-servants; with the other, as unrelenting enemies. And the thought of our Lord gone up into heaven, and sitting on the Right Hand of God, is a thought of great power to set us right in our feelings towards both these aweful sorts of Beings.

Consider, first, what a thing it is to know that the good Angels are on our side: that they camp about us to deliver us: that as Christ Himself in His distress had but to pray to His Father, and He would presently have given Him more than twelve legions of Angels, so the members of Christ, in their several agonies of body and mind, have but to pray to the Almighty, and who knows but the same holy messengers, most likely unknown to them, will receive some commission to do them good? As they came to Daniel, to shut the lions' mouths; as they were like an army with horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha; as they opened the prison-doors of Jerusalem, and let out first all the Apostles, then S. Peter, on the eve of martyrdom; as in the book of Revelation they are introduced continually, helping the saints in their prayers, assuring them of blessings, taking their side in their warfare with the world: even so it is now.

In these instances, there is no doubt of the angelical ministry and help: but these are but a few out of many beyond number. In these, the Powers of heaven shewed themselves: but in fact, they are continually acting, continually ministering to such as shall be heirs of salvation. So the prayer of Elisha druns: "Lord," (he does not say, "Send Thine Angel and deliver us," but what he says is,) "Open the eyes of this young man, that he may see:" as though he might have seen the same at any time, if he would but have opened his eyes.

What a view does this present of the unspeakably watchful and tender care of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, over the very humblest and meanest of His servants! that the whole army of Angels and Archangels, all the hosts of the Lord, are set in array for each one of our defence and salvation: ready and glad to refresh us, the members of Christ, as they did Him Who is our Head, after great and sore temptation: to prompt those who wait on us with thoughts for our good, as the Angel that spake to Joseph in a dream: to strengthen us in agony, as he who appeared to our Lord in the garden: to remove difficulties, and declare good tidings, as he who rolled away the stone, and declared, "the Lord is risen." This certainty of angelical aid, so far as we are on Christ's side, we have by His exaltation into heaven, and the subjection to Him of Angels, Authorities and Powers.

But those words, doubtless, mean the evil angels as well as the good; our unseen enemies, as well as our unseen friends. And is it not worth a great deal to know, that the power of our Saviour is over them also, His restraining power, to keep them from harming us, as His gracious encouraging power is with the good Angels, commissioning them to help us to all kinds of blessings? Of this, also, there were wonderful tokens given in the course of our Lord's abode on the earth: first and chiefly, in the Temptation, when He overcame Satan in the wilderness; and afterwards in the power which He continually exercised over the unclean spirits, not only casting them out Himself, but giving power to His disciples to do the same. And in one very particular instance, He shewed us something of the unseen dangers to which we should be continually exposed, in body and estate as well as in spirit, were it not for His continual care to bind Satan, and keep him in chains. The instance I mean is that of the legion of devils, who were driven out of the men possessed with them, and permitted to take possession of a herd of swine; "and behold, the whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters."

By this we see what would become of us, if God were to take off the chain, with which Satan, since Christ's coming in the flesh, has been, more than ever bound. We see that there are bad angels, powers of mischief and darkness, waiting around us on every side, ready to hurry us away into utter destruction both of soul and body, the moment that He in His anger shall let them loose. It is the power of our Lord Christ, sitting at His Father's Right Hand, that binds them. It is He Who says to them, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no further." Without His permission, we see, they could not hurt so much as a herd of swine; with it, the single case of Job shews, how they may vex and torment even good men; and the case of Judas shews still more fearfully what they are allowed to do with the bad, and with those who will not take Christ's warnings.

And, both as to good and bad angels, we must remember that what they do to us in this world, is but a faint type and shadow of what we may expect from them in the world to come: in that last great day, when the one shall gather together God's elect like wheat into His barn; the other shall be cast, with all impenitent sinners, into the lake of everlasting fire.

In these aweful and overpowering reflections, let this be our stay and our warning: that in the world of Angels as well as of men, Christ ascended into heaven, is supreme, and that He has promised to order and direct their power, and even the malice of the bad ones, so as may best work for the good of them that love Him. Nay, His Holy Scriptures teach that we, being united to Him by His Holy Spirit, are in some mysterious way ascended into heaven with Him; therefore we, through Him, except we have lost our hold of Him by our sins, have power to resist and overcome the bad spirits, and are permitted to depend on the succour and protection of the good.

These thoughts are not mere imaginations: they are great and true realities. They are true and real at all times: only, while we are in light and company, they are harder for us fully to receive. But in a few hours we shall be in the darkness; our day's work will be over; we shall be more alone, and more at leisure to think. Let us recall to our minds, then, what we have been taught of the presence of the two sorts of angels, Let us then fancy to ourselves the evil and unclean spirits lying in wait near our beds, ready to vex us with all sorts of bad thoughts, and torment our very bodies, if God would give them leave. Such imaginations are painful and distressing; yet let us not turn away from them, till they have filled us with a real fear of consenting to any bad thought, for that is the only way in which we can give those evil companions power over us.

Let us not try to put out of our minds the notion of the bad angels being around us, until we have turned in serious prayer to Him Who for our sake holds them in chains. Imagine Christ our Lord on His Throne, to which He this day ascended: imagine Him, how His Eye is ever fixed, both on you in your helpless slumbering condition, and on your adversary waiting to hurt you. And be sure, that if, before you lay down, you seriously and reverently committed yourself to Him in prayer, with sincere penitence for all your sins, He will not let the roaring lion devour you. You may, without presumption, imagine Him, then, saying to some of His good Angels, " Here is one who lay down to rest, desiring to dwell under the defence of the Most High; here is one who hath sought, day and night, to abide under the shadow of the Almighty; he hath set his love upon Me, and tried to know My Name; therefore do you, My good Angels, take charge of him, and keep him from the evil that walketh in darkness." And you may imagine that charge especially given to that one among the good spirits, who was set to watch over you at first, on your becoming one of Christ's little ones. And you may thankfully muse on the joy, with which those blessed spirits set about their loving task, and how it pleases them to cherish in you every good and wholesome thought; and how the tempter, finding you so well guarded, will depart, gnashing his teeth for disappointment, and leave you to your quiet slumber.

Such is the comfortable hope with which a penitent, believing person may lie down in sleep, yea, even in death, ever since Jesus Christ went into heaven, and the Angels, Authorities and Powers were made subject unto Him. I say, a penitent, believing, obedient person. For all these blessings depend on our keeping our hold of Christ: and that depends on our sincerely trying to obey Him, in thought, word, and deed.

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