SERMON XX.
FORGETFULNESS IN CHRISTIANS, NO EXCUSE.

WHITSUNDAY.

S. JOHN xiv. 26.

"The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

AMONG other ways which careless people have of getting rid of the matter easily, when they have committed sin, one shall sometimes hear them say, They are sorry they did wrong, but really, at the time, the temptation was strong upon them, and they did not recollect that it was wrong. Angry and passionate people, for one instance, very often employ this excuse. They seem to imagine that God cannot be very much displeased with them, if they can but say that what they did amiss was done in a hurry, and without thinking.

But it is worth their considering very seriously indeed, whether the very circumstance of their being in a hurry, and doing bad things without thinking, was not itself their own fault.

Not to give yourself time to think, whether what you do is right or wrong, this surely is a sort of conduct very unworthy a reasonable being, who knows that it is as much as his soul is worth, whether he use himself to do right or wrong.

And the fact is, that this excuse of doing things in a hurry, together with all others which sinful Christians are apt to plead for themselves, has been completely done away with by that great mercy of God in giving us His Holy Spirit, as on this Day, to be with us always, and help us to do good.

In particular, no Christian can fairly pretend to plead his having forgotten his duty, and therefore done wrong, after this most gracious promise of our Lord and Saviour in the text, that the Comforter, that is, the Holy Ghost, should not only teach His disciples their duty, if they did not know it before, but should also put them in mind of it, if at any time they had forgotten it.

The words indeed were first spoken to the Apostles, who, being to carry through the whole world the message with which Jesus Christ had entrusted them, might well fear, if left to themselves, lest they should forget it, or remember it wrong. It was therefore exceeding merciful and considerate, both for them and us, to tell them beforehand, that they would not be left to themselves: that the Holy Spirit of God, Who alone can give man knowledge at all, would be with them continually; so that they should be always able to speak or write down, without any material error, the words of Christ and the truths of His Gospel.

By this promise we know and are sure, that the things written in the four Gospels concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, are the very things which He said and did: and the lessons contained in the epistles, the very instructions of His Holy Spirit, telling us what we must do to be saved.

Because, however, by the frailty and weakness of our mortal nature, we are in danger of forgetting, either for a time or altogether, what we once knew perfectly; we also, in some measure, stand in need of a promise like this: though we be not sent out, as the Apostles were, to teach all nations. If they might forget what Christ said in their hearing, we also, (especially those among us who cannot read,) may forget what they have written for our instruction. We have reason, therefore, to think, that our Blessed Saviour in the text was speaking, not to the Apostles only, but to all who should at any time become disciples of His. He tells them, one and all, that it must be their own fault if they forget His will, any part of it that is necessary to salvation. For He, in compassion to their infirmities, gave them, when they were baptized, His Holy Spirit, to teach them their duty, and bring it to their remembrance.

But then, in order to be taught, they must be willing to learn. They must steadily make up their minds to do their duty, when they know it; and they must ask God to teach it them, with a sincere and hearty goodwill. Then they are sure, upon the word of an Apostle, not to be left in ignorance. For S. James has said, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth unto all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

The true cause, then, of men's forgetting, or being ignorant of, their duty, is their not praying to God as they ought. Perhaps they say over some prayers every day; but they do not in their hearts desire the thing they pray for. They say in the Lord's prayer, "Deliver us from evil;" but they do not seriously wish, while they say so, to be delivered from their bad desires and foolish fancies, their worldly hopes and expectations, their false pleasures and profits. Again, whenever they join in the Communion Service, they pray that God would incline their hearts to keep all His laws, one as much as another; and would write them in their hearts. But while they say those words, they are perhaps thinking of something else. For all such prayers as these, there may yet be some favourite sin, from which they do not even wish to be delivered. It is no wonder, if men go on in such devotion all their lives long, and are never at all the better for it. And yet, for all this, it may be, and is, quite true, that no man, who sincerely keeps asking of God to teach him his duty, will ever, in any thing of consequence, be left in ignorance or forgetfulness of it.

Not that Christians are to expect, in answer to their prayers, any thing like sudden illumination or inspiration from God Almighty. This is a fancy of some persons, who do not enough consider the difference between earth and heaven. If ever, by God's great mercy, we shall be so happy as to come there, God will speak to us, as it were, face to face, and we shall have no trouble to find out His will. But here, when our sins have put such a distance between us and Him, we must not expect such favours. We must humbly and patiently do our best, and leave every thing else to Him: remembering always, that our great business, the purpose for which we are to pray, and live, and do all things, is, not to be comfortable here, but safe hereafter.

Although, however, we are not to expect that the Holy Spirit should pour into our hearts any sudden, sensible comfort, in answer to our most earnest prayers; yet it is easy for us to see, in some measure, how our continually praying for grace should help to keep us continually from sin. We never pray to God in earnest, without seriously considering and bringing it to our minds, that He is with us. If we pray to Him on a journey, we must recollect that He is about our path; if in our chamber, that He is about our bed: in short, wherever we are, we cannot use thoughtful prayer without having it strong upon our minds, that God "spieth out all our ways." Now although the folly and misery of man is so great, that not even this recollection will always keep a person from private sins, yet no doubt it very often does so. If he still indulge bad thoughts, yet this remembrance of God's Presence makes them more uneasy to him, and gives him, so far, a fairer chance to repent of them and forsake them.

And hence the saying which I have often heard, that you cannot keep your prayers and your sins together. This would hardly be true, if it were spoken of such prayers, as the generality, it is to be feared, are content with. We see and know by sad experience, that men may keep up some sort of prayer, both in public and in private, along with many of the sins which God most hates. But that sort of prayer, which in earnest brings with it the remembrance of our Maker's Presence: this, indeed, it is hardly possible to continue for many years, and yet to go on carelessly in what we know will displease Him. One of the two, the habit of praying with thought, or the habit of sinning wilfully, must, one should think, wear out the other, in no very long time.

Prayer, therefore, as being a kind of holy meditation, and as bringing the Presence of Almighty God continually to our remembrance, is, of itself, likely to keep a man out of much mischief. But over and above what it is of itself, there is the promise of Jesus Christ added to it, that His Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him: that is, the Spirit of God, God Himself, will be always at hand, to keep those, who pray as they ought, from forgetting their duty.

For a Christian, then, to complain, that he cannot recollect his duty in the hour of temptation, is a sort of excuse which only makes bad, worse; for it is affronting God, in supposing that He is not at hand to fulfil His own promise. A poor man must not complain of being cruelly starved, when he knows he may have what he wants, upon merely asking for it: neither must a sinner plead that he has not grace to think of what he ought to do, now that he knows of the Holy Comforter, Who is come to bring all Christ's sayings to the remembrance of His people.

Besides, let us consider for a moment, what sort of things they are, in excuse for which we hear Christian people pleading this sort of forgetfulness. It is not in nice and hard points; but in such plain and necessary duties, as one would think no one could mistake; things, in which forgetting is itself a great sin, since it could not happen without a shameful carelessness about right and wrong.

Thus, men wrong and cheat their neighbours, and yet lie down at night with a quiet conscience, and think they have done nothing strange or shocking, because they forget that every Christian is a brother to them; and that, in robbing and cheating him, they are robbing and cheating a brother.

Now this is a thing which they cannot be excused for forgetting; any more than a mother could be excused, if she had cast off the care of her child, till she forgot that it was her's, and so came to use it unkindly.

Again, Christian men and women allow themselves to indulge wrong desires, and fall into sins, which are not fit to be named among us; because they forget what God has threatened to all such. They do not consider that, by pleasing themselves now with forbidden things, they wilfully give up their bodies hereafter to the worm that never dieth, and the fire that never shall be quenched. They do not call to mind what God's Spirit has plainly enough taught them; that it is madness to give themselves up to such things, unless they have made up their minds to dwell with the devouring fire, with everlasting burnings.

Now you see plainly, that such forgetfulness, being altogether their own fault, is itself a great sin, so far from being an excuse for other sins.

Suppose a father had warned his son very earnestly, not to steal, not to swear, not to tell lies, or anything else of that sort, which every child knows to be wrong. Would the father take it for a good excuse, if the son did the very thing forbidden, and said he forgot that his father had told him any thing about it?

But if, besides speaking to him earnestly himself, the father had left a friend to be with his son always, and keep his warnings fresh in his mind: then the excuse of forgetting, which would be foolish enough in any case, would be a much more wicked and un-dutiful mockery.

Now, this is just the case with Christians. They have not only the commandments of Jesus Christ, to let them know His will; but they have His Spirit also abiding with them, like a friend whom He has trusted, to put them in mind continually, when they are tempted to do amiss.

We may very well judge, then, what sort of an answer God Almighty will make at the last Day to those Christians who plead forgetfulness, when, if they would, they might have had grace to call upon Him in all temptation. And He is never far from those, who call on Him in good earnest.

In like manner, all the excuses, which ill-minded Christians employ, to keep themselves easy in their sins, are done away with, when it is once known, that the Holy Spirit is among us; as we are taught by His wonderful descent upon the Apostles, as on this Day.

We cannot now lay upon our corrupt nature the blame of what we do amiss; since, however bad that may be, God Himself is at hand to cure it, if we will apply to Him.

We cannot say, it was all bad example: since here we are assured of the assistance of the Holy Ghost, to turn our thoughts from the base and evil things we see around us, to the pure and blessed conversation of good men in times past, or of angels in heaven.

We cannot say, it was too much to expect from weak mortals, that they should resist the enticing customs of the world, when we consider what power and support it is, which we have given us to lean on; the power and support of the Spirit of God, God Himself

In short, when once a man believes, after a Christian manner, in the Holy Ghost; believes that he, however poor and mean, is yet, as a Christian, the Temple of God, and has the Spirit of God dwelling in him, from that time all excuses for sin are taken away, and it becomes indeed, as S. Paul calls it, most "exceeding sinful." It becomes like the rebellion of those Jews, who cried out against God and Moses, while the cloud was overshadowing the tabernacle in their sight; or like the sin of Balaam, who went on in his covetousness, when he saw the Angel of the Lord with his sword drawn in his hand.

If people will disobey God wilfully under such circumstances, we have great reason to believe they would disobey Him in heaven itself, as the devil and his angels did; and therefore they can no more reasonably expect to come to heaven, than the fallen angels can expect to return thither.

Such is the aweful, but most true notion, which the Church to-day would teach to every Christian concerning wilful sin and forgetfulness of God, when found in any soul that has been baptized, and that has received, of course, the grace of the Holy Ghost.

It is no wonder, then, that the devil should always have done his best to root this doctrine out of the minds of God's people; to make them forget, if possible, that the Spirit of God dwelleth in them. And sad experience shews, that it is but too possible, nay, easy for him, to keep such thoughts out of men's minds, that they may the more freely indulge themselves in their sins.

For can any one think, that such sort of Christians, as one commonly sees in the world, have really any serious consideration of God's Holy Spirit, as dwelling in them, and being in them? They could not be so easy in their secret sins, could not so composedly go about to defile themselves with all sorts of base pleasures, if they really laid this truth to heart; that they are doing all this, not only in sight of their God, but, while He is, as it were, speaking to them expressly, and coming close to them, to hinder them from such sins.

It is, therefore, the purpose of our adversary, the devil, to prevail upon us either to neglect this truth altogether, or to think of it amiss: as though the gift of the Spirit were partial, and as if (though He may have come to some Christians in this particular way) He had not come to us; in which case, we persuade ourselves, we have less to answer for.

This being the purpose of Satan, our purpose, of course, must be just the contrary, if we would save our souls. We must hold fast the doctrine of the catechism. We must "believe in God the Holy Ghost, Who sanctifies us and all the elect people of God," all Christians whatever; and believing, we must do all our best, that we receive not the grace of God, His last and greatest favour, in vain.

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