SERMON XXXIX.
THE HOLINESS OF GOD, TOWARDS US AND IN US.

TRINITY SUNDAY.

RET. iv. 8.

"They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

"THEY rest not day and night." It is remarkable that these are the very same words which, further on in the book of Revelations, are used to describe the torments of the damned. "They have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." As much as to say, that after the sabbath of the grave is over, and the body is once more awakened and joined to the soul, there shall be no more sleep for ever. The good shall never rest from their happiness, nor the wicked from their torment. The one is as certain as the other.

And yet in another sense, the condition of the saints in heaven is entire and perfect peace and rest: as it is written, "Great is the peace that they have who love Thy law:" and our Lord's own promise is, "Peace I leave with you, My Peace I give unto you." Best is their reward, and yet here we read, "They have no rest day nor night." From care, from wearisome labour, from anxiety, from all pain and disquiet of mind and body, they are at rest for ever; but it is not the rest of sleep or of mere inactivity: it is resting from all lower works, that they may be at leisure to think of God, to adore and praise Him, to draw nearer and nearer to Him, in heart and spirit, for ever. "They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

My brethren, this is indeed too high and hard a subject for sinful mortals, swallowed up with the cares of this lower world. We cannot enter into it, more than very faintly: but even the little we may understand would be enough, were we but willing, to lift our souls far above the things that we see, and make us long, as the Psalmist did, for the wings of a dove, that we might flee away, and enter into that rest. For consider. When it is said that those blessed spirits are for ever crying out, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty;" none of us, of course, is so childish as to think only of the mere saying or singing the words over and over again. Of course we understand that the heart goes along with the words: that each one of the heavenly spirits, in every moment of the solemn services which they are continually performing, is evermore thinking more and more deeply on the meaning of those aweful words. That is, the employment of happy souls, now and for evermore, is to see God, and know Him, and love Him, more and more perfectly. "They rest not day and night," because the work they are upon, is so great and high that it can never be ended, and so full of joy and comfort and refreshment, that they can never tire of it. The Wisdom of God, that is, God Himself, says, "They that eat Me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink Me shall yet be thirsty:" as much as to say, that in heaven it is far otherwise than it is in regard to those things which most delight our frail hearts. Here, we very soon come to enough of a good thing, and from enough we presently go on to too much: but of that true joy in heaven God will so make us partakers, if we do not prove unworthy, that while we feel we always have enough, yet more and more will ever be most welcome to us. In one word, the joy of the saints is in God, and therefore it has no end, for God is without end. "They rest not day and night," nor ever desire to rest, from praising Him.

And what is it, for which, most of all, they praise and honour and adore Him, and desire to draw near to Him? It is His Holiness: their endless song is, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." Holiness, in Scripture, seems to mean that perfect Goodness of God, whereby He is most opposite to all sin and imperfection. "God is Light," says S. John, " and in Him is no darkness at all:" as if he should say, "God is Goodness, and in Him is no evil at all." "This," the same S. John adds, "is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you." This is the great message of the Gospel, that God will have nothing to do with sin, and that He has made Himself a way, by His Son and Spirit, for freeing us His people from all sin for ever. The joy then which we hope bye and bye to taste in God's Presence, is altogether a pure joy; a joy in holiness, a joy in Him who is most Holy. You cannot taste it, you can have no true notion of it, as long as you give yourself up to any kind of sin. A person who had gone on for many years, singing entirely out of tune, would be very ill-prepared to join in any perfect harmony: so are we unprepared for heaven, if we are living in any respect unholy lives. The chant of the Angels is not for such: they could not join in it, they could not understand it, even though by some miracle they were taken up where the Angels are. Oh may the good Spirit of God write this lesson deep in our hearts, and save us from the madness of thinking to be ever happy without being holy!

May He teach us also to have in perpetual remembrance what He has taught us of Himself, and of the great things which He has done for us: that we may love Him and serve Him and follow Him, His very self, not an image of our own contriving, which we vainly fancy to be like Him. For so the heavenly anthem instructs us, by repeating the word "Holy" three times, no more and no less: that we might know Him Who is Holy, Him Whom the saints and Angels are for ever praising, to be Three Persons, yet One "Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." Much in the same way does the Church instruct us, every year, by the return of this Feast of Trinity. After we have been keeping our solemn days of remembrance of the wonders of God's mercy, one by one, this Day is appointed to gather them, as it were, all together, and to acknowledge Him Who wrought them, to be Three Persons in One God. We know it is His will, that we should do so: for so, in the beginning of our Christian life, it pleased Him to reveal Himself to us, causing us to be baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: and so in the crown and end of that life, when we shall see Him as He is, we are to praise Him with the word, Holy, thrice repeated, in acknowledgement of the same Three Divine Persons. From beginning to end, and all along, we are to look upon Him as Three in One, each of the Three, Infinite in Holiness. And therefore, from time to time, as long as we live, we must praise Him in such hymns as the Creed of S. Athanasius, and as the Gloria Patri at the end of the Psalms. And when we endeavour, in our weak way, to join devoutly in such hymns, we may with humble courageous hope think of the Angels who are now and ever singing them in heaven, and of the promise given to the faithful, "el will hear thee, and thou shalt praise Me." The beginning, the middle, and the end, of our praise, our joy, and our love, must be for Him Alone, Who is Holy, Holy, Holy, Three Persons, One Lord God Almighty.

Consider, how in the work of our salvation each one of these Three glorious Persons has severally manifested His own infinite Holiness, His hatred of sin, and love of all kinds of goodness. God the Father, Who made us and all the world, made us pure and without spot of sin, and so declared how perfectly Holy He is. And when we had sinned, He again declared Himself Holy, by passing that fearful sentence, which turned us out of Paradise, out of God's Presence. And now being minded, in His unspeakable mercy, to forgive us, He requires no less a sacrifice than His Only-begotten Son, to reconcile Him to sinners, and obtain them His blessing. Alas! my brethren, what have we done? to think lightly of any known sin, and to think well of ourselves after we had knowingly sinned, while yet we had learned so much of the Holiness of the Eternal Father: that He has prepared Hell for the impenitent, and will not save even the penitent but by the Blood of His only Son!

Think now of the word, Holy; repeated the second time; and think withal of the holiness of the Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: how pure and undented He was, without blemish and without spot, and how His very enemies and murderers were compelled to .cry out, " I find no fault in this Man." Think, why He took our nature upon Him at first. It was because of His tender love towards us, joined with His entire hatred of sin. He sought to save us, but He knew and felt that our sins were so very bad, that the only way for us to be forgiven would be for Him to stoop from heaven to earth, become one of us, and bear our sins in His own Body on the Tree. So Holy is He, so unchangeably set against sin, that He will dismiss those who have not repented in time, and who will appear before Him at the Judgement seat;--He will send them away once for all, His own redeemed He will send away, if impenitent,--into everlasting fire. How then can we hope to be ever in His favour, so long as we permit ourselves to be entangled in any known sin?

Think, once more, of the Third Person of the Blessed and Glorious Trinity: think, Christians, of God the Holy Ghost, the good and gracious Spirit of the Father and the Son, how He condescended, as on Whitsunday, to come down and abide in men's hearts, for this very express purpose, that we might be able to fight the Lord's battles manfully against sin and wickedness. Think how near, how close He is to you: dwelling in the silence and solitude of our very hearts, counting your body His temple, your members as so many limbs of Christ's own Body: hating sin entirely, and making you feel, when you are tempted, that He really does hate it. Think seriously, think earnestly of this. Is it not so, that when evil conies in your way, you feel a certain inward whisper, deep down in your own hearts, "Why will you do this? God sees it, and entirely hates it." You perceive this, and you call it, perhaps, the voice of conscience, and you know that it is a very serious thing. But will you now set your heart in earnest upon this certain truth, that such inward whisperings, in you who are baptized, are indeed the voice of God, not at a distance, but dwelling in your own soul and body? What a horror then, what a sin and misery must it be, to go on with anything amiss, in despite of that still small voice!

And remember this also, that when we say, the "Holy Ghost is dwelling in Christians' hearts, we do not so mean it, as if the Father and the Son were away. For these Three Persons, as the text teaches, are One "Lord God Almighty." Their works are inseparable; so that where One is, there, in Presence and in Power, are all Three: as our Lord Himself gave us to understand, when He was taking leave of His disciples before His Death. "If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We," i. e. the Father and the Son, "will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." The Father and the Son will come by the Holy Ghost to every Christian who does not throw away the blessing, and will dwell within him, so that his soul and body shall be night and day full of God, a true temple of the Holy and Glorious Trinity. Do not turn away from this thought, because you cannot understand how it should be so. Do not forget it, because the wonderful Presence is all out of sight. Your own soul is out of sight: but yet you know very well what must become of you, if you forget and neglect your own soul. In like manner, be careful, I beseech you, to worship and adore the Living God, the Trinity in Unity, vouchsafing to abide in your hearts. And remember that, when you let your will go after any thing sinful, you offend and affront not God the Holy Ghost only, but God the Father likewise, and God the Son: for where the Holy Ghost is, there are also the Father and the Son, in all their glory, love, and holiness: and so, when a Christian man sins willfully: when he tells a lie, or looks on what is forbidden, it is as if he said to the Father Who made him, "depart from me, for I desire not the knowledge of Thy ways:" it is, as if he said to the Son Who redeemed him, "I will not have you to reign over me: depart from me, for what have I to do with Thee?" If this is almost too shocking to think of, what must it be to live in the habit of saying such words, in heart, to the Most High God? And yet, in heart and in meaning, we do say such words, every time that we consent to what He has forbidden.

This is indeed very terrible to think of: but on the other hand what joy and gladness is it, when we reflect on what Holy Scripture tells us of the Presence of the Blessed Trinity in all our endeavours to do good and obey our Saviour! S. Paul says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me:" and again, "Not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." The Apostle says not this of himself only, but of every one, even the simplest believer. The prayers and alms and other good deeds, the faith and patience of such an one, are not his own, but Christ's. They belong not to the man himself, but to the Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity, which has abode in him ever since his Baptism. They are therefore good and acceptable before God, as being the works, not of corrupt human nature, but of the Holy and good Spirit of the Father and the Son. The simplest action wrought by a Christian in Christ's Name with a good mind, is thus turned into something very precious and holy, and will in no wise lose its reward.

I do not of course mean, that good Christian people will themselves know, when they do things in this acceptable way, and so as to have a blessing laid up for them in heaven. The better they are, the more they will humble themselves, and of course, so much the less will they know of their own goodness.

Still however there will generally be in the bottom of their hearts, a secret indescribable peace, a calm courageousness of spirit, a deep conviction of their Lord's unfailing mercy, which will carry them through this world far happier, on the whole, than they could be any other way: and bye and bye, in the other world, they will find how all things have worked together for their good. They will then perceive how their constant endeavours to be indeed holy here, have prepared them for the constant solemn services, the praising God in His Holiness hereafter. They rest not here, but according to their measure are trying day and night to be holy: therefore to them it will be in comparison no strange thing, to find themselves hereafter wholly taken up with such anthems as that in the text, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty: " wholly employed in gazing on God, their Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier: and in receiving light from His Light, holiness and righteousness from His adorable Perfections.

So be it, O Lord, with us, Thy unworthy servants: for His sake, Who died to purchase the blessing for us!

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