79

SERMON X.

THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.

LUKE, xviii. 10.

Two men went up to the Temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a Publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, or even as this Publican. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all I possess. And the Publican standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

WE may fairly call this a very religious age. Those who are old enough to remember the state of public feeling upon the subject of religion before those tremendous political events which convulsed the face of Europe, will agree with me that there has been a very marked improvement in the opinions and in the practice of the English people. The public duties of religion are beyond all comparison better attended to; religion is more thought of, more talked of, more profoundly studied; has (God be thanked) sunk much more deeply into the minds of men, and much more powerfully affected their practice. The object of Christian ministers is, to keep that flame alive, to take care that it burns, not fiercely, in a blaze which will soon expire, but steadily, with a warmth which will long endure. It is their object that religion should be professed with zeal, but with zeal according to discretion; that religion should never present

a fair hold to scoffers and infidels; that the strong feelings of the religious, should be watched, guided, and affectionately directed; that an age of impiety and laxity should not be gradually preparing itself, at the very moment when men's minds would seem to be in the most favourable state of feeling and of action.

I will not suppose any one here present so ignorant of the nature of man, as to imagine that religious feelings do not require attentive watching and pastoral instruction.

Every one must know that the most dreadful scenes of fanaticism, and the most foolish scenes of fanaticism in this, and in other countries, have taken place from mistaken notions of religion among men, who derived no moderation from thinking, and no experience from reading or observation. It is not sufficient in religion merely to desire to do right. In any common worldly interest it is wise to receive counsel; much more in the greatest of all interests-much more where every passion is awakened, every feeling roused, and every string wound up to the severest tension.

The Scriptures tell you, you can only enter into the kingdom of God as a little child, meaning what by this?

that a Christian should be humble and teachable, that he should suspect himself, that he should hear others, that he should remember that there is no subject in which he is more likely to fall into error-no subject in which it is so important to himself and others that he should not fall into error; that he must not walk proudly, as one who will not be taught, but be cautious in advancing, diligent in inquiring, attentive in hearing. Though firm in purpose, yet modest in the choice of means; weighing the difficulty of the execution against the glory of the enterprise; thinking of the danger of the way, as well as of the beauty of the goal: willing to hear all men where error is so probable, and success of value so infinite.

Give me leave, then, in the real spirit of affection and kindness to offer a few rules to truly religious persons, which I think will advance the cause of practical piety, and give a right turn to those admirable feelings by which they are actuated, and produce good fruit for those serious resolutions by which their lives are so properly governed.

"I thank thee, Lord, that I am not as other men are, and even as this publican!" Upon this I ground my first rule. Avoid comparisons, which are such a fertile source of spiritual pride. If you live a Christian life, and others do not, it is impossible you should not notice the difference, but beware that you do not make the perception of that difference a source of inward pride. The evil of such a conduct, and the folly of such a conduct, is, that you perform Christian actions from motives which are not Christian. You are charitable, why? and you are devout, why? Not because God has ordained it, not because it conforms with the mandate of our blessed Saviour; but because you wish to be better than that publican! You are, in reality, though unconsciously, substituting for the true principles of religion mere worldly vanity; and losing Christian rewards, though you perform Christian actions: act as you are acting; it is not the action wants changing, but the mind. Purify your motives, elevate your views, forget the publican; do what Christ bids you, because Christ has bidden you; think of your own soul, do not pollute yourself with wretched worldly vanities, and degrading considerations whether you have passed this man, or that man, in the path of righteousness; look not to the small distance between you and actual sin, but to the immeasurable distance between you and infinite purity.

And then open the Gospel, read a page of it, and see what little you have done. You have given a little, you have resisted temptation a little; is this enough? Is that a foundation for spiritual pride? Are you pure in heart?

G

Are you fit to see God? Are you yet of that number whose souls no torment shall touch? Come rather with a deep blush of holiness at the smallness of the offering you have placed upon the altar; do not look upon that altar and say I have brought more than my brother! Let your life be what it may,- if you come to boast to God and not to pray to God,-if you come to despise your fellow suppliant, and not to humble yourself,-you know the words of the text, "The wretched publican goes down to his house justified rather than you."

Avoid not only to make comparisons in your own favour, but, if you are good and religious, do not judge other men too severely, nor watch them too scrupulously. It is not suitable that religion should wear a rigid aspect, that men less perfect than yourself, should suspect that you are looking out for their imperfections, that what is bad in them will be accurately noticed, and what is innocent possibly be mistaken. Connect rather your own exemption from faults, with habitual indulgence to the faults of others: your own character is fixed. You are known to be serious and attentive to your Christian duties; you can afford to be indulgent to others, you do not want the assistance of comparison.

However good and pious your life, you have not become so all of a sudden. You know the force of temptation, the weakness of resolution, and the danger of relapse! Who ought to pity human infirmity more, or to be more sensible of it, than the good who have combated long, though at last not in vain? It is the paramount duty of the good, to take care that piety does not wear an harsh and hard-judging appearance to the mass of mankind; that men are not made afraid of righteousness, and that they do not avoid the righteous, as active accusers, and as judges too prone to condemn and too quick to punish.

Avoid all exclusive feelings, any phrases, or any habits, which insult persons less good and less respectable than yourself; and which seem to imply that you

and yours have exclusively monopolised all religious feeling, and that those who do not see exactly as you see, and think exactly as you think, and interpret exactly as you interpret, have no religion at all! This makes religion an affair of party, and of animosity; generates heat and violence, and is unfavourable to the great cause of Christianity.

I appeal to the numberless good men who occupy their whole lives almost in the concerns of religion, and who, I am sure, will agree with me in the remarks I have made; but I appeal to them whether they are not every day sensible of the immense importance, nay of the absolute necessity, of those incitements to humility which the Scriptures are constantly giving us, and of those barriers which they are always erecting against spiritual pride. Thank God, I am not a Pharisee! Thank God, I am not a Sadducee! Thank God, I am not as other men are! It is immensely difficult when men are bonded together in one faith, confirming each other in one practice, and dwelling almost in one community, that they should not form unjust and degrading notions of their fellow-creatures separated from them in so many particulars; but at this gate enters spiritual pride: guard it! Remember that others who have sought for truth as diligently as you, have arrived at different conclusions, and that the same honesty of heart is compatible with infinite diversity of practice and of infinite diversity of opinion.

Do not wage war against the innocent pleasures of life; give way a little more than your strict judgment may approve, rather than alarm others by an air of austerity and needless denial; and above all things do not fall into the fatal mistake of attempting to rack the human mind to too high a pitch of enthusiasm, and to make men occupy themselves more with sacred things than the nature of the mind will admit of, or the condition of human life allow. If this excess does not destroy