We know that all things work together for good to them that love God Preached at St. Paul's on the Sunday after Christmas, December 29, 1872. Eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the Child Preached at St. Paul's on the Feast of the Circumcision, January 1, 1887, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have Preached at St. Paul's on the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, January 15, 1871. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Preached at St. Paul's on the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, January 22, 1871. 387 Preached at St. Paul's on the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, January 29, 1871. SERMON I. THE INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS. (FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT: FEAST OF ST. THOMAS.) ST. JOHN XX. 25. But Thomas said unto them, Except I shall see in His Hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His Side, I will not believe. IF F there is one characteristic more than another by which the Bible account of great servants of God differs from most of the biographies of good men in modern times, it is the fearless truthfulness with which the Bible describes the failings of its heroes. Generally speaking, a modern biographer is afraid to be perfectly explicit when he has to notice some less favourable side of a life and character on which he is engaged. He says to himself that his first duty is to be loyal to his subject, and that he cannot afford to play with topics which would imperil the feeling of respect or admiration which it is his object to produce. He leaves it to the critics to pick holes in the man whom he is describing; and so he touches weaknesses or faults with a gentle or a sparing hand, and throws all his strength into the description of what is plainly excellent and admirable. Too possibly, he finds that he has defeated his real purpose after all; A a с men say that they wanted a history and have been put off with a panegyric. But with the Bible it is otherwise; the Bible enumerates, with a dry simplicity, the failings no less than the virtues of the Saints. The falsehood of the Patriarch Jacob; the murder and adultery of David, the "man after God's own heart; "b the cowardice and temporary apostasy of St. Peter; even the impatience, as it might seem, on one occasion, of our Lord's Blessed Virgin Mother,d-are described in the Sacred Text without emphasis, but also without shrinking, when they have to take their place in the order of the narrative. One only Life is there in all Holy Scripture wherein no trace of imperfection is really discoverable; His Life, Who, though He was made sin for us, yet knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And thus, as Holy Scripture guides us to adore the Sinless Manhood of the Divine Redeemer, it puts into our mouths, generation after generation, the confession in which all, without exception, must join: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one unto his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." f g And thus it is that in to-day's Gospel the great Apostle St. Thomas, who now reigns with Jesus Christ our Lord in glory, comes before us as illustrating, not a virtue, but a grave failure, and on an occasion of critical importance. That the doubt of St. Thomas was overruled, as the Church says, "to the more confirmation of the Faith," does not affect its intrinsic character; and St. Thomas is our example to-day, not as the Apostolic doubter, but as the Apostle who shows us how faith may a Gen. xxvii. 18-24. b 2 Sam. xi. 2-17; Acts xiii. 22. |