Bunyan Characters

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Now, my good friends, we have kept all this time to the fourth shepherd
and to his noble name, but let us look in closing at some of his
sheep,--that is to say, at ourselves. For is it not said in the prophet:
Ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith
the Lord God. All, therefore, that has been said about the sincerity and
insincerity of ministers is to be said equally of their people also in
all their special and peculiar walks of life. Sincerity is as noble a
virtue, and insincerity is as detestable a vice, in a doctor, or a
lawyer, or a schoolmaster, or a merchant,--almost, if not altogether, as
much so as in a minister. Your insincerity and hypocrisy in your daily
intercourse with your friends and neighbours is a miserable enough state
of mind, but at the root of all that there lies your radical insincerity
toward God and your own soul. In his _Christian Perfection_ William Law
introduces his readers to a character called Julius, who goes regularly
to prayers, and there confesses himself to be a miserable sinner who has
no health in him; and yet that same Julius cannot bear to be informed of
any imperfection or suspected to be wanting in any kind or degree of
virtue. Now, Law asks, can there be a stronger proof that Julius is
wanting in the sincerity of his devotions? Is it not as plain as
anything can be that that man's confessions of sin are only words of
course, a certain civility of sacred speech in which his heart has not a
single atom of share? Julius confesses himself to be in great weakness,
corruption, disorder, and infirmity, and yet he is mortally angry with
you if at any time you remotely and tenderly hint that he may be just a
shade wrong in his opinions, or one hair's-breadth off what is square and
correct in his actions. Look to yourself, Julius, and to your insincere
heart. Look to yourself at all times, but above all other times at the
times and in the places of your devotions. Ten to one, my hearer of to-
night, you may never have thought of that before. And what would you
think if you were told that this Sincere shepherd was appointed us for
this evening's discourse, and that you were led up to this house, just
that you might have your attention turned to your many miserable
insincerities of all kinds, but especially to your so Julius-like
devotions? 'And Nathan said unto David, Thou art the man. And David
said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.'

What, then, my truly miserable fellow-sinner and fellow-worshipper, what
are we to do? Am I to give up preaching altogether because I am
continually carried on under the impulse of the pulpit far beyond both my
attainments and my intentions? Am I to cease from public prayer
altogether because when engaged in it I am compelled to utter words of
contrition and confession and supplication that little agree with the
everyday temper and sensibility of my soul? And am I wholly to eschew
pastoral work because my heart is not so absolutely clean and simple and
sincere toward all my own people and toward other ministers' people as it
ought to be? No! Never! Never! Let me rather keep my heart of such
earth and slag in the hottest place of temptation, and then, such
humiliating discoveries as are there continually being made to me of
myself will surely at last empty me of all self-righteousness and self-
sufficiency, and make me at the end of my ministry, if not till then, the
penitent pastor of a penitent people. And when thus penitent, then
surely, also somewhat more sincere in my designs and intentions, if not
even then in my attainments and performances.

'O Eternal God, Who hast made all things for man, and man for Thy glory,
sanctify my body and my soul, my thoughts and my intentions, my words and
my actions, that whatsoever I shall think or speak or do may be by me
designed to the glory of Thy name. O God, turn my necessities into
virtue, and the works of nature into the works of grace, by making them
orderly, regular, temperate, subordinate, and profitable to ends beyond
their own proper efficacy. And let no pride or self-seeking, no
covetousness or revenge, no impure mixtures or unhandsome purposes, no
little ends and low imaginations, pollute my spirit or unhallow any of my
words or actions. But let my body be the servant of my spirit, and both
soul and body servants of my Lord, that, doing all things for Thy glory
here, I may be made a partaker of Thy glory hereafter; through Jesus
Christ, my Lord. Amen.'




FOOTNOTES


{1} Delivered on the Sabbath before Communion.

{2} Delivered June 26th, 1892, on the eve of a general election.