SERMON XXXIII.
FESTIVAL JOY.

TUESDAY IN WHITSUN-WEEK.

ECCLES. ix. 7, 8.

"Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works: let thy garments be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment."

THIS is one of those passages, so remarkable in the writings of Solomon, in which the words of sinful men in the world are taken up by the Holy Ghost, to be applied in a Christian sense. As they stand in Ecclesiastes, it seems very plain that they are intended to represent the sayings and thoughts of sensual, careless people, indulging themselves in their profane ways, their utter neglect of God and goodness, with the notion that this world is all. As if they should say, "When people are dead, there is an end of them: therefore all we have to do is to enjoy ourselves as much as possible; to eat our bread with joy, and drink our wine with a merry heart; to wear always festival garments, and anoint ourselves with the oil of gladness, while God still 'accepteth our works,' that is, while it is yet well with us, and we are capable of finding delight in life, according to the order of God's providence." It is much the same as the unbeliever's saying, in S. Paul, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

But see the ever-watchful goodness and mercy of God. The words which the dissolute, wild-hearted sinner uses to encourage himself in his evil inconsiderate ways, He teaches us to take up, and use them in a very different sense: to express the inward joy and comfort which God's people may find in obeying Him. As thus: suppose a person giving himself up, with his whole heart, to the service and obedience of God: supposing him really withdrawing himself from the sins which had most easily beset him; suppose him making some great sacrifice, parting with what he held very dear, or submitting to pain or grief for Christ's sake: then the Holy and merciful Comforter seems to say to him in the words of the text, "Go thy way now, thank God, and take courage; the blessing of God is now restored to thee, and will be upon all thou hast, and upon thine ordinary employments and refreshments: now thou mayest eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works." For, "whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do," if we "do all to the glory of God," we shall do it with His blessing and approbation: it will be so much more of happiness, joy, and thanksgiving to us.

Thus we may understand the words to teach the same lesson as the Apostle, when he says, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again, I say, rejoice." They are God's gracious word of permission to those who fear Him, encouraging them to enjoy, with innocence, moderation, and thankfulness, the daily comforts and reliefs, with which He so plentifully supplies them, even in this imperfect world. They bring the same assurance from God as S. Paul gives to Timothy: "Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving."

Let us only think for one moment, what a heavenly light it would throw over our ordinary works and refreshments, if, being always careful to set about them with a good conscience, we could seriously bring it home to ourselves, that they are so many tokens of heavenly and eternal love; so many reasonable grounds of hope, that God really accepteth our works.

But there is yet a higher, a Christian sense of these words, a sense in which they were taken of old by the holy Fathers of the Christian Church. The bread and wine, the white garments, the ointment for the head, are, according to this interpretation, figures and types of our Christian privileges, the blessings and favours of the kingdom of heaven. It is, then, as if the Holy Word had said to us, being, as we are, Christian men, members of the mystical Body of our Lord and Saviour, "Now you have been brought into the communion of saints; now God has set His seal upon you; now, to speak the Apostle's words, 'd ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' Go your way, then; use your privileges with all reverence, joy and fear. Draw near as often as you can, to the holy feast of that Bread and Wine, which, to those who take it with penitent and obedient hearts, is the very Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ. Aweful as such an invitation is, you may yet draw near with holy cheerfulness, having God's seal and mark upon your forehead, and the earnest of His Spirit in your hearts."

And it would seem that if Christians were at all such as they ought to be, the words might be well and profitably understood with a particular reference to this sacred season of Whitsuntide.

For at this time, as you know, the Blessed Comforter came down, to set up the kingdom of Christ on earth; to dwell in men's hearts so as to unite them to Christ; by which union alone they can be partakers of the great things which the Gospel promises. This time, then, is the last of the Holy Seasons; it represents to us the full completion of God's unspeakable plan for the salvation of the world.

Supposing, then, any humble, faithful Christian to have rightly kept the former holy seasons: to have "worshipped and served Christ, for His Conception, in faith; for His Birth, in humility; for His Sufferings, in patience and irreconcileable hatred of sin; for His Death, by dying daily to sin; for His Resurrection, by rising again more and more unto righteousness; for His Ascension, by a heavenly mind:" may we not, without presumption, imagine him to hear the voice of his approving conscience, the certain yet silent whispers of the Holy Comforter in his heart, "Go thy way now, receive the fulness of the blessing of these sacred days, which thou hast so dutifully tried to observe. Let the light and warmth of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide spread itself in a measure over the rest of thy year. Whatsoever God putteth in thine hand to do, in the way of holy devotion and true Church-communion, do it with all thy might, in the humble hope that God now accepteth thy works."

Such is the kind of comfort, which the sacred Scriptures encourage us, as Christians, to take to ourselves, at every new return of these great days, bringing home to us things which are the very foundation of our hope. It is a comfort which would be to us far more perfect than it is, and far plainer to be understood, if we were less unworthy of our privileges; if we had not too generally fallen from the righteousness of Jesus Christ, given to us at our Baptism. But even as it is, the words have a sound most comfortable to penitents, as well as to those who, by God's help, have kept themselves from wilful, deadly sin. They sound like words of absolution: "Go thy way, return again to that holy Table, from which thy transgressions had for a time separated thee: eat thy bread, and drink thy wine with a courageous and hopeful heart: for now there is hope that God accepteth thy works; that He hears thee, since thou hast left off inclining unto wickedness with thine heart. Thy case indeed is alarming, from the continual danger of a relapse; and thy loss at best is great, penitency instead of innocency being thy portion; yet go on steadily and cheerfully."

Thus, whether to souls that have as yet preserved the purity of their baptismal robe, or to humble penitent souls, desirous of recovering it, there are in Holy Scripture, if we had ears to hear them, most condescending invitations as well as warnings. Christ, in His Sacraments, is held out to them as their only but sufficient Hope.

Observe, however, the words which follow, which to the hearing of a thoughtful Christian convey a very serious admonition, telling us on what these unspeakable privileges depend, so far as our own conduct is concerned: "Let thy garments be always white, and let thine head lack no ointment." This also would be felt by the Christians of ancient times, as particularly suitable to the holy season of Whitsuntide. For that, as you know, was one of the solemn times of baptizing, and the new-baptized were always clothed in white, as a token of the "fine linen, clean and white, the righteousness of saints," and of Jesus Christ; the wedding garment, which God had just put on them by making them members of His Son. To say, therefore, to Christians at Whitsuntide, "Let thy garments be always white," was the same as saying, "Take care that at no time you stain or sully the bright and clear robe of your Saviour's righteousness, which has just been thrown over you: according to the Apostle's saying, "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.' As much as possible keep it clear from all spot of wilful sin; and if you have unhappily fallen, give yourself no rest, until by your true and deep repentance, all your life long, you have put the matter entirely in your Saviour's hand, to wash out even that wilful stain, if so it please Him, by His most precious Blood."

Again, says the wise man, "Let thine head lack no ointment:" and this again is an allusion which would come with a particular meaning in early times to the new-baptized Christians, and those who had been present at their Baptism. For both in that Sacrament, and in Confirmation, which comes next after it, they used in those days to anoint with holy oil. And oil is in Scripture the constant token of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to say, "Let thy head lack no ointment," would mean, "Take care that thou stir up, cherish, and improve the unspeakable Gift, of which thou art now made partaker. Use diligently all the means of grace which Christ has provided for thee in His Kingdom, whereof thou art now come to be an inheritor."

Think not, that because we have received so great a blessing freely and fully, without any merit, without any exertion of our own, therefore we have but to go on quietly, taking no particular pains, and all will come right at last. Nay, the very greatness of the blessing is a call upon us to labour night and day, that we lose not, after all, the fruit of such exceeding mercy. It provokes the envy and spite of the Evil one, to take all the advantage he can of us: let it, therefore, encourage us to be more and more devout and watchful. What a shame for us to be negligent in prayer, who know that we have Christ's Spirit abiding in us, to help our infirmities, and pray for us and with us! What sin, what danger, what ruin, for us to be violently carried away with any worldly thing whatever, who know that "greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world!"

If we earnestly endeavour, and pray in Christ's Name, to have such thoughts as these, when we are reminded of our baptismal privileges, we may hope that the care of the Church in appointing these holy seasons will not be thrown away upon us: we may hope, next year, to accompany her in her mysterious round of holy feasts and fasts, from Advent to Trinity Sunday, with more dutiful and prepared hearts than we have done this year. But let us, above all things, beware of growing faint and cold, and treating these sacred things as matters of course. Let us remember that "we have opened our mouth unto the Lord," and we must not, we dare not, "go back:" but we shall undoubtedly go back, if we are not always labouring to go forward.

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