Personal Ministry to a Christian Faith

Personal Ministry of Steve Kellar

Sermons on National Subjects 6 – Kingsley

VI–TRUE ABSTINENCE

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT.

I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.–1 COR. ix. 27.

In the Collect for this day we have just been praying to God, to give
us grace to use such abstinence, that our flesh being subdued to our
spirit, we may follow His godly motions.

Now we ought to have meant something when we said these words. What
did we mean by them? Perhaps some of us did not understand them.
They could not be expected to mean anything by them. But it is a sad
thing, a very sad thing, that people will come to church Sunday after
Sunday, and repeat by rote words which they do not understand, words
by which they therefore mean nothing, and yet never care or try to
understand them.

What are the words there for, except to be understood? All of you
call people foolish, who submit to have prayers read in their
churches in a foreign language, which none, at least of the poor, can
understand. But what right have you to call them foolish, if you,
whose Prayer-books are written in English, take no trouble to find
out the meaning of them? Would to Heaven that you would try to find
out the meaning of the Prayer-book! Would to Heaven that the day
would come, when anyone in this parish who was puzzled by any
doctrine of religion, or by any text in the Bible, or word in the
Prayer-book, would come confidently to me, and ask me to explain it
to him! God knows, I should think it an honour and a pleasure, as
well as a duty. I should think no time better spent than in
answering your questions. I do beseech you to ask me, every one of
you, when and where you like, any questions about religion which come
into your minds. Why am I put in this parish, except to teach you?
and how can I teach you better, than by answering your questions? As
it is, I am disheartened, and all but hopeless, at times, about the
state of this parish, and the work I am trying to do here; because,
though you will come and hear me, thank God, willingly enough, you do
not seem yet to have gained confidence enough in me, or to have
learnt to care sufficiently about the best things, to ask questions
of me about them. My dear friends, if you wanted to get information
about anything you really cared for, you would ask questions enough.
If you wanted to know some way to a place on earth you would ask it;
why not ask your way to things better than this earth can give? But
whether or not you will question me I must go on preaching to you,
though whether or not you care to listen is more, alas! than I can
tell.

But listen to me, now, I beseech you, while I try to explain to you
the meaning of the words which you have been just using in this
Collect. You have asked God to give you grace to use abstinence.
Now what is the meaning of abstinence? Abstinence means abstaining,
refraining, keeping back of your own will from doing something which
you might do. Take an example. When a man for his health’s sake, or
his purse’s sake, or any other good reason, drinks less liquor than
he might if he chose, he abstains from liquor. He uses abstinence
about liquor. There are other things in which a man may abstain.
Indeed, he may abstain from doing anything he likes. He may abstain
from eating too much; from lying in bed too long; from reading too
much; from taking too much pleasure; from making money; from spending
money; from right things; from wrong things; from things which are
neither right nor wrong; on all these he may use abstinence. He may
abstain for many reasons; for good ones, or for bad ones. A miser
will abstain from all sorts of comforts to hoard up money. A
superstitious man may abstain from comforts, because he thinks God
grudges them to him, or because he thinks God is pleased by the
unhappiness of His creatures, or because he has been taught, poor
wretch, that if he makes himself uncomfortable in this life, he shall
have more comfort, more honour, more reason for pride and self-
glorification, in the life to come. Or a man may abstain from one
pleasure, just to be able to enjoy another all the more; as some
great gamblers drink nothing but water, in order to keep their heads
clear for cheating. All these are poor reasons; some of them base,
some of them wicked reasons for abstaining from anything. Therefore,
abstinence is not a good thing in itself; for if a thing is good in
itself, it can never be wrong. Love is good in itself, and,
therefore, you cannot love anyone for a bad reason. Justice is good
in itself, pity is good in itself, and, therefore, you can never be
wrong in being just or pitiful.

But abstinence is not a good thing in itself. If it were, we should
all be bound to abstain always from everything pleasant, and make
ourselves as miserable and uncomfortable as possible, as some
superstitious persons used to do in old times. Abstinence is only
good when it is used for a good reason. If a man abstains from
pleasure himself, to save up for his children; if he abstains from
over eating and over drinking, to keep his mind clear and quiet; if
he abstains from sleep and ease, in order to have time to see his
business properly done; if he abstains from spending money on
himself, in order to spend it for others; if he abstains from any
habit, however harmless or pleasant, because he finds it lead him
towards what is wrong, and put him into temptation; then he does
right; then he is doing God’s work; then he may expect God’s
blessing; then he is trying to do what we all prayed God to help us
to do, when we said, “Give us grace to use such abstinence;” then he
is doing, more or less, what St. Paul says he did, “Keeping his body
under, and bringing it into subjection.”

For, see, the Collect does not say, “Give us grace to use
abstinence,” as if abstinence were a good thing in itself, but “to
use such abstinence, that”–to use a certain kind of abstinence, and
that for a certain purpose, and that purpose a good one; such
abstinence that our flesh may be subdued to our spirit; that our
flesh, the animal, bodily nature which is in us, loving ease and
pleasure, may not be our master, but our servant; so that we may not
follow blindly our own appetites, and do just what we like, as brute
beasts which have no understanding. And our flesh is to be subdued
to our spirit for a certain purpose; not because our flesh is bad,
and our spirit good; not in order that we may puff ourselves up and
admire ourselves, and say, as the philosophers among the heathen
used, “What a strong-minded, sober, self-restraining man I am! How
fine it is to be able to look down on my neighbours, who cannot help
being fond of enjoying themselves, and cannot help caring for this
world’s good things. I am above all that. I want nothing, and I
feel nothing, and nothing can make me glad or sorry. I am master of
my own mind, and own no law but my own will.” The Collect gives us
the true and only reason, for which it is right to subdue our
appetites; which is, that we may keep our minds clear and strong
enough to listen to the voice of God within our hearts and reasons;
to obey the motions of God’s Spirit in us; not to make our bodies our
masters, but to live as God’s servants.

This is St. Paul’s meaning, when he speaks of keeping under his body,
and bringing it into subjection. The exact word which he uses,
however, is a much stronger one than merely “keeping under;” it means
simply, to beat a man’s face black and blue; and his reason for using
such a strong word about the matter is, to show us that he thought no
labour too hard, no training too sharp, which teaches us how to
restrain ourselves, and keep our appetites and passions in manful and
godly control.

Now, a few verses before my text, St. Paul takes an example from
foot-racers. “These foot-racers,” he says, “heathens though they
are, and only trying to win a worthless prize, the petty honour of a
crown of leaves, see what trouble they take; how they exercise their
limbs; how careful and temperate they are in eating and drinking, how
much pain and fatigue they go through to get themselves into perfect
training for a race. How much more trouble ought we to take to make
ourselves fit to do God’s work? For these foot-racers do all this
only to gain a garland which will wither in a week; but we, to gain a
garland which will never fade away; a garland of holiness, and
righteousness, and purity, and the likeness of Jesus Christ.”

The next example of abstinence which St. Paul takes, is from the
prize-fighters, who were very numerous and very famous, in the
country in which the Corinthians lived. “I fight,” he says, “not
like one who beats the air;” that is, not like a man who is only
brandishing his hands and sparring in jest, but like a man who knows
that he has a fight to fight in hard earnest; a terrible lifelong
fight against sin, the world, and the devil; “and, therefore,” he
says, “I do as these fighters do.” They, poor savage and brutal
heathens as they are, go through a long and painful training. Their
very practice is not play; it is grim earnest. They stand up to
strike, and be struck, and are bruised and disfigured as a matter of
course, in order that they may learn not to flinch from pain, or lose
their tempers, or turn cowards, when they have to fight. “And so do
I,” says St. Paul; “they, poor men, submit to painful and
disagreeable things to make them brave in their paltry battles. I
submit to painful and disagreeable things, to make me brave in the
great battle which I have to fight against sin, and ignorance, and
heathendom.” “Therefore,” he says, in another place, “I take
pleasure in afflictions, in persecutions, in necessities, in
distresses;” and that not because those things were pleasant, they
were just as unpleasant to him as to anyone else; but because they
taught him to bear, taught him to be brave; taught him, in short, to
become a perfect man of God.

This is St. Paul’s account of his own training: in the Epistle for
to-day we have another account of it; a description of the life which
he led, and which he was content to lead–“in much suffering, in
stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watching, in
fastings”–and an account, too, of the temper which he had learnt to
show amid such a life of vexation, and suffering, and shame, and
danger–“approving himself in all things the minister of God, by
pureness, by wisdom, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the spirit of
holiness, by love unfeigned;” “as dying, and behold we live; as
chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as
poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all
things.”–In all things proving himself a true messenger from God, by
being able to dare and to endure for God’s sake, what no man ever
would have dared and endured for his own sake.

“But”–someone may say–“St. Paul was an apostle; he had a great work
to do in the world; he had to turn the heathen to God; and it is
likely enough that he required to train himself, and keep strict
watch over all his habits, and ways of thinking and behaving, lest he
should grow selfish, lazy, cowardly, covetous, fond of ease and
amusement. He had, of course, to lead a life of strange suffering
and danger; and he had therefore to train himself for it. But what
need have we to do as St. Paul did?”

Just as much need, my good friends, if you could see it.

Which of us has not to lead a life of suffering? We shall each and
all of us, have our full share of trouble before we die, doubt it
not.

And which of us has not to lead a life of danger? I do not mean
bodily danger; of that, there is little enough–perhaps too little–
in England now; but of danger to our hearts, minds, characters? Oh,
my friends, I pity those who do not think themselves in danger every
day of their lives, for the less danger they see around them, the
more danger there is. There is not only the common danger of
temptation, but over and above it, the worse danger of not knowing
temptation when it comes. Who will be most likely to walk into pits
and mires upon the moor–the man who knows that they are there around
him, or the man who goes on careless and light of heart, fancying
that it is all smooth ground? Woe to you, young people, if you fancy
that you are to have no woe! Danger to you, young people, if you
fancy yourselves in no danger!

“This is sad and dreary news”–some of you may say. Ay, my friends,
it would be sad and dreary news indeed; and this earth would be a
very sad and dreary place; and life with all its troubles and
temptations, would not be worth having, if it were not for the
blessed news which the Gospel for this day brings us. That makes up
for all the sadness of the Epistle; that gives us hope; that tells us
of one who has been through life, and through death too, yet without
sin. That tells us of one who has endured a thousand times more
temptation than we ever shall, a thousand times more trouble than we
ever shall, and yet has conquered it all; and that He who has thus
been through all our temptations, borne all our weaknesses, is our
King, our Saviour, who loves us, who teaches us, who has promised us
His Holy Spirit, to make us like Himself, strong, brave, and patient,
to endure all that man or devil, or our own low animal tempers and
lusts, can do to hurt us. The Gospel for this day tells us how He
went and was alone in the wilderness with the wild beasts, and yet
trusted in God, His Father and ours, to keep Him safe. How He went
without food forty days and nights, and yet in His extreme hunger,
refused to do the least self-willed or selfish thing to get Himself
food. Is that no lesson, no message of hope for the poor man who is
tempted by hunger to steal, or tempted by need to do a mean and
selfish thing, to hear that the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore need and
hunger far worse than his, understands all his temptations, and feels
for him, and pities him, and has promised him God’s Spirit to make
him strong, as He himself was?

Is it no comfort to young people who are tempted to vanity, and
display, and self-willed conceited longings, tempted to despise the
advice of their parents and elders, and set up for themselves, and
choose their own way–Is it no good news, I say, for them to hear
that their Lord and Saviour was tempted to it also, and conquered
it?–That He will teach them to answer the temptation as He did, when
He refused even to let angels hold Him over the temple, up between
earth and heaven, for a sign and a wonder to all the Jews, because
God His Father had not bidden Him to do it, and therefore He would
not tempt the Lord His God?

Is it no good news, again, to those who are tempted to do perhaps one
little outward wrong thing, to yield on some small point to the ways
of the world, in order to help themselves on in life, to hear that
their Lord and Saviour conquered that temptation too?–That he
refused all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, when
the devil offered them, because he knew that the devil could not give
them to Him; that all wealth, and power, and glory belonged to God,
and was to be got only by serving Him?

Oh do you all, young people especially, think of this. As you grow
up and go out into life, you will be tempted in a hundred different
ways, by things which are pleasant–everyone knows that they are
pleasant enough–but wrong. One will be tempted to be vain of dress;
another to be self-conceited; another to be lazy and idle; another to
be extravagant and roving; another to be over fond of amusement;
another to be over fond of money; another to be over fond of liquor;
another to go wrong, as too many young men and young women do, and
bring themselves, and those with whom they keep company, and whom
they ought, if they really love them, to respect and honour, down
into sin and shame. You will all be tempted, and you will all be
troubled; one by poverty, one by sickness, one by the burden of a
family, one by being laughed at for trying to do right. But
remember, oh remember, whenever a temptation comes upon you, that the
blessed Jesus has been through it all, and conquered all, and that
His will is, that you shall be holy and pure like Him, and that,
therefore, if you but ask Him, He will give you strength to keep
pure. When you are tempted, pray to Him: the struggle in your own
minds will, no doubt, be very great; it will be very hard work for
you–sin looks so pleasant on the outside! Poor souls, it is a sad
struggle for you! Many a poor young fellow, who goes wrong, deserves
rather to be pitied than to be punished. Well then, if no man else
will pity him, Jesus, the Man of all men, will. Pray to Him! Cry
aloud to Him! Ask Him to make you stout-hearted, patient, really
manful, to fight against temptation. Ask Him to give you strength of
mind to fight against all bad habits. Ask Him to open your eyes to
see when you are in danger. Ask Him to help you to keep out of the
way of temptation. Ask Him, in short, to give you grace to use such
abstinence that your flesh may be subdued to your spirit. And then
you will not follow, as the beasts do, just what seems pleasant to
your flesh; no, you will be able to obey Christ’s godly motions, that
is, to do, as well as to love, the good desires which He puts into
your hearts. You will do not merely what is pleasant, but what is
right; you will not be your own slaves, you will be your own masters,
and God’s loyal and obedient sons; you will not be, as too many are,
mere animals going about in the shape of men, but truly men at heart,
who are not afraid of pain, poverty, shame, trouble, or death itself,
when they are in the right path, about the work to which God has
called them.

But if you ask Christ to make true men and women of you, you must
believe that He will give you what you ask; if you ask Him to help
you, you must believe that He will and does help you–you must
believe that it is He Himself who has put into your hearts the very
desire of being holy and strong at all; and therefore you must
believe that you can help yourselves. Help yourselves, and He will
help you. If you ask for His help, He will give it. But what is the
use of His giving it, if you do not use it? To him who has shall be
given, and he shall have more; but from him who has not shall be
taken away even what he seems to have. Therefore do not merely pray,
but struggle and try YOURSELVES. Train yourselves as St. Paul did;
train yourselves to keep your temper; train yourselves to bear
unpleasant things for the sake of your duty; train yourselves to keep
out of temptation; train yourselves to be forgiving, gentle, thrifty,
industrious, sober, temperate, cleanly, as modest as little children
in your words, and thoughts, and conduct. And God, when He sees you
trying to be all this, will help you to be so. It may be hard to
educate yourselves. Life is a hard business at best–you will find
it a thousand times harder, though, if you are slaves to your own
fleshly sins. But the more you struggle against sin, the less hard
you will find it to fight; the more you resist the devil, the more he
will flee from you; the more you try to conquer your own bad
passions, the more God will help you to conquer them; it may be a
hard battle, but it is a sure one. No fear but that everyone can, if
he will, work out his own salvation, for it is God Himself who works
in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. All you have to do is
to give yourselves up to Him, to study His laws, to labour as well as
long to keep them, and He will enable you to keep them; He will teach
you in a thousand unexpected ways; He will daily renew and strengthen
your hearts by the working of His Spirit, that you may more and more
know, and love, and do, what is right; and you will go on from
strength to strength, to the height of perfect men, to the likeness
of Jesus Christ the Lord, who conquered all human temptations for
your sake, that He might be a high-priest who can be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, because He was tempted in all points like
as we are, yet without sin.

On this day…

Leave a Reply