SERMON XVI.
THE DAYS OF EXPECTATION.

FRIDAY BEFORE PENTECOST.

ACTS i. 14.

"These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren."

WE are told over and over in Holy Scripture, that if we really desire the grace of God, we ought to put ourselves in the way of it: we shall do so of course, just as we look after any thing which we desire to find, or ask for any thing which we wish to have, or knock at any door which we want to have opened. Our Lord has taught us all this in the Sermon on the Mount. "Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." As if He should say, "You must not think of obtaining what you want, if you will not give yourself the trouble of doing what little in you lies for it." And lest any one should say, "the Holy Spirit is so great a Gift: our doings are nothing at all towards it: surely in vain shall we give ourselves any such trouble:" hear how, in the same breath, He distinctly makes our obtaining the Holy Spirit a thing to depend on our prayers. "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him!" Fathers give their children what they ask, not for any profit that they have of their children's asking, but because they are their fathers, and love them. So the Lord God will hear our petitions, when we say, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from us," not for any worth in those prayers of ours, but because He is our loving Lord, and from Him alone flows out all fatherly and motherly love. As our parents, for our good, often made us ask respectfully for a thing before they gave it, so our Lord would have us pray to Him, or ever His gifts of grace shall descend upon us.

He will have us pray; and there are also other things which He will have us do. One of them, as I shewed you the other day, is to make much of the very places, where God has at any time shewed us any particular mercy: where He has at all wrought wondrously with us. I shewed you, how the disciples of our Lord, having to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Ghost, waited in that very Upper-room, in which they had seen so much of Christ before His departure: where He had given them the First Holy Communion, and where also, as we may well believe, He had often met them, after He was risen. So may we prepare ourselves for a new gift of the Holy Ghost, by going back in spirit to the places, times, and ways, in which He has, before now, graciously given Himself to us. We may come to Church, or if we cannot come always, we may think of the holy place: we may in spirit kneel at God's altar, and remember what Holy Communion has been to us, and how much more it might have been. All this we may ponder upon, whilst we are at home or at our work: and this will be like abiding in the Upper-chamber, in the place where Christ has met us aforetime, in hope of another happy meeting.

But there was another thing which the friends and followers of Christ crucified did at that time; they not only staid in the place which Christ had blessed, but they continued also in company with those, whom they knew to be dearest to Christ. Each Apostle continued with the other Apostles: they did not go apart, each to his own place of devotion, but all went up together to the same Upper-room, and there abode the whole ten days. They did not part; why should they? They were all alike thinking of the same departed Saviour, they were all alike waiting for the same Blessed Spirit: that sacred Upper-room belonged to one of them as much as to another: there they had been all alike used to meet their Lord; and to see one another there, would help as much as anything to keep them well in mind of Him. And so, I suppose, my brethren, we all feel, when in obedience to our mother, the Church, we try to prepare ourselves for great and holy seasons, such as this of Whitsuntide which is coming. As it helps us to be here in Church, so it helps us to see one another here. Those few who are able to come, more or less regularly, on other days besides Sundays, know well, if they come thoughtfully, how good it is for them to be here; here, in the immediate Presence of Christ; here, where they have so many times had great spiritual mercies; here, where their hearts have burned within them at hearing His holy Word, and where He has afterwards shewn Himself to them in breaking of bread. They know how much good the very place by itself seems to do them: how the very air and shadow of it is felt the moment they come in, as a shelter from the bleak rude wearisome world without. And are they not also able to say something of the comfort it is to them to meet the same people there continually? how much help it sometimes gives them in their own prayers, if their eyes fall on some devout old man or innocent child making the most of God's house: how they miss such their fellow-worshippers, if by chance they are absent: how, if they meet them elsewhere, or do but hear their names mentioned, presently cheerful and edifying thoughts of this holy place and its services arise in their hearts. Indeed, there is no end to the ways, in which those who are used to walk to the house of God as friends help each other, knowingly or unknowingly, to obtain yet further blessings from God. No wonder then that the Apostles continued together "with one accord in one place;" and that place, the place of Holy Communion; while they were waiting for the Spirit. They did so, all of them, because as yet they all had leisure to do so. Many of us have little or no leisure so to come into God's house on week-days: but it would be well, if all who have health and leisure did come, according to some constant rule, as their own conscience tells them would be best. It would soon make a great difference on our Sundays and great days, if the Christian people would make up their minds to make more use of the Church on common days. Putting themselves more in the way of grace, they would be more likely to receive grace. Abiding together in the Upper-room, they would be where the Holy Spirit is most likely to descend: just as the Israelites in the old time, if they would fain see the Glory of God, knew that their best chance was to abide with God's priests in His Tabernacle or Temple.

No wonder, again, if we find it so particularly mentioned that the disciples continued, as with one another, so also with the rest of them who had been nearest our Lord in times past. "They" (the twelve) "continued in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and His disciples:" to the number, all together, of one hundred and twenty. We see at once, what their rule and principle was: what one love it was, which ruled in all their hearts. It was the love of Jesus: therefore they abode together, because each helped the other to remember Jesus. And by whom could they remember Jesus so well and so entirely, as by Her, whom He had made nearest Him of all creatures-by His own blessed Mother? Surely, when they looked on her, it must have helped them greatly to remember Him. For His sake, they must have greatly loved and revered her, so long as she was permitted to remain on earth among them: even as He Himself had plainly directed one of them, and that one His own beloved, "Behold thy Mother." It was a great and high privilege to have her with them, and no doubt it helped them greatly, as she and they prayed together, in their mutual preparation for the coming of the Holy Ghost. And is she not also in a manner with us also? Yes, assuredly, by virtue of the Communion of Saints, that may be said of all our solemn assemblies, which is said of the marriage of Cana. "The Mother of Jesus is there" with Him and His disciples. Christ our Head being here, all His glorified members are with Him in spirit and in truth, and therefore we may think of that same company, which waited so devoutly for the first Whitsunday, as waiting in some sense with us here, even the Apostles, and the women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus and His brethren. So far as we are members of Christ, we are in real communion and fellowship with them. When we are honoured, they rejoice with us: they cry unto the Lord on our behalf, "How long, O Lord, holy and true?" And we on earth praise the Lord in the words which they have left us. Very often, as you know, we use in the evening service the holy hymn of the Mother of Jesus, "My soul doth magnify the Lord." God gives us that help by her, as who knows but she may in the same words have helped the devotions of that congregation in the Upper-room on Mount Sion? It is not the less a token of communion with her and the other saints, because they are out of our sight, and we know not, perhaps, whether or no we are in their sight: we have their holy and comfortable words, we have their pure and devout example; and with the thought of them we are permitted to strengthen and refresh ourselves in these our hours of waiting.

Further: it is said they continued in prayer and supplication; not only with the Mother and brethren of our Lord, with those who were nearest to Him after the flesh, but also with certain women. What women? The same, no doubt, who had so long waited on Him: following Him out of Galilee, ministering to Him of their substance, standing by His Cross, coming early to His Sepulchre. These weak and simple women, one of whom at least is believed to have been a very great sinner, were with the Apostles and our Lord's blessed Mother and brethren, both in the preparation for Whitsunday and in the great day itself. Are you then weak and simple? Is any of you a great sinner? See what blessed encouragement you have: you are not only permitted but earnestly invited to draw near and prepare yourselves to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Church, your mother, accounts herself imperfect without you: she longs to have you duly preparing yourself now, that she may present you next Sunday to be a worthy communicant: even as the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin, and the brethren of Jesus Christ, would have reckoned their assembly in the Upper-room imperfect, if the women from Galilee had not been present also.

All this care is taken of us: and shall we take no care of ourselves? Only imagine, good brethren and sisters, how it would have seemed, if any of that favoured company had turned his back on the gracious offers of our Lord. Our Lord said, "Stay in Jerusalem: stay but a short time: continue in the place which I have chosen, with My saints, in prayer and supplication: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Our Lord said it; they did it; and the Holy Ghost came down upon them, and they were most blessed. But suppose any of them had scorned our Lord's words. He said, "Stay in Jerusalem." What if one had gone straight out of the place, after his own worldly fancies? What if he had left the company of the Apostles? What if he had taken no care to remember his Lord's death? What if he had left off prayer? What if he had staid in the company, only to wrangle and disobey orders, and set up his own self-willed ways? You see how it would have been. Such a person would have forfeited the promise of his gracious Saviour, and he would not have received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Whitsunday. No more shall we, if we turn our back on the Church; if we refuse to remember our Lord in Holy Communion; if we neglect prayer, real prayer, and diligent self-examination. We know very well that to such as do so, Whitsunday will come and go without a blessing: and so it will to those who, although they may be diligent in these spiritual exercises, are not endeavouring to be truly humble in the practice of them. There is such a thing as going to Church, praying, considering, nay even communicating, and yet driving away God's Spirit. How? Because people worship, consider, communicate, in ways of their own, and not in Christ's true way. Their hearts are serious after a fashion, but they are not humble, lowly, penitent, obedient hearts. God preserve you and me from this!

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