The Good News of God - Charles Kingsley

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which fleets across the sky, not a clod of earth which crumbles under the frost, not a blade of grass which breaks through the snow in spring, not a dead leaf which falls to the earth in autumn, but is doing God’s work, and showing forth God’s glory.  Not a tiny insect, too small to be seen by human eyes without the help of a microscope, but is as fearfully and wonderfully made as you and me, and has its proper food, habitation, work, appointed for it, and not in vain.  Nothing is idle, nothing is wasted, nothing goes wrong, in this wondrous world of God.  The very scum upon the standing pool, which seems mere dirt and dust, is all alive, peopled by millions of creatures, each full of beauty, full of use, obeying laws of God too deep for us to do aught but dimly guess at them; and as men see deeper and deeper into the mystery of God’s creation, they find in the commonest things about them wonder and glory, such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive; and can only say with the Psalmist, ‘Oh Lord, thy ways are infinite, thy thoughts are very deep;’ and confess that the grass beneath their feet, the clouds above their heads—ay, every worm beneath the sod and bird upon the bough, do, in very deed and truth, bless the Lord who made them, praise him, and magnify him for ever, not with words indeed, but with works; and say to man all day long, ‘Go thou, and do likewise.’

      Yes, my friends, let us go and do likewise.  If we wish really to obey the lesson of the Hymn of the Three Children, let us do the will of God: and so worship him in spirit and in truth.  Do not fancy, as too many do, that thou canst praise God by singing hymns to him in church once a week, and disobeying him all the week long, crying to him ‘Lord, Lord,’ and then living as if he were not thy Lord, but thou wast thine own Lord, and hadst a right to do thine own will, and not his.  If thou wilt really bless God, then try to live his blessed life of Goodness.  If thou wilt truly praise God, then behave as if God was praiseworthy, good, and right in what he bids thee do.  If thou wouldest really magnify God, and declare his greatness, then behave as if he were indeed the Great God, who ought to be obeyed—ay, who must be obeyed; for his commandment is life, and it alone, to thee, as well as to all which He has made.  Dost thou fancy as the heathen do, that God needs to be flattered with fine words? or that thou wilt be heard for thy much speaking, and thy vain repetitions?  He asks of thee works, as well as words; and more, He asks of thee works first, and words after.  And better it is to praise him truly by works without words, than falsely by words without works.

      Cry, if thou wilt, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts;’ but show that thou believest him to be holy, by being holy thyself.  Sing, if Thou wilt, of ‘The Father of an Infinite Majesty:’ but show that thou believest his majesty to be infinite, by obeying his commandments, like those Three Children, let them cost thee what they may.  Join, and join freely, in the songs of the heavenly host; for God has given thee reason and speech, after the likeness of his only begotten Son, and thou mayest use them, as well as every other gift, in the service of thy Father.  But take care lest, while thou art trying to copy the angels, thou art not even as righteous as the beasts of the field.  For they bless and praise God by obeying his laws; and till thou dost that, and obeyest God’s laws likewise, thou art not as good as the grass beneath thy feet.

      For after all has been said and sung, my friends, the sum and substance of true religion remains what it was, and what it will be for ever; and lies in this one word, ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments.’

      SERMON V

      THE ETERNAL GOODNESS

Matthew xxii. 39

      Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

      Why are wrong things wrong?  Why, for instance, is it wrong to steal?

      Because God has forbidden it, you may answer.  But is it so?  Whatsoever God forbids must be wrong.  But, is it wrong because God forbids it, or does God forbid it because it is wrong?

      For instance, suppose that God had not forbidden us to steal, would it be right then to steal, or at least, not wrong?

      We must really think of this.  It is no mere question of words, it is a solemn practical question, which has to do with our every-day conduct, and yet which goes down to the deepest of all matters, even to the depths of God himself.

      The question is simply this.  Did God, who made all things, make right and wrong?  Many people think so.  They think that God made goodness.  But how can that be?  For if God made goodness, there could have been no goodness before God made it.  That is clear.  But God was always good, good from all eternity.  But how could that be?  How could God be good, before there was any goodness made?  That notion will not do then.  And all we can say is that goodness is eternal and everlasting, just as God is: because God was and is and ever will be eternally and always good.

      But is eternal goodness one thing, and the eternal God, another?  That cannot be, again; for as the Athanasian Creed tells us so wisely and well, there are not many Eternals, but one Eternal.  Therefore goodness must be the Spirit of God; and God must be the Spirit of goodness; and right is nothing else but the character of the everlasting God, and of those who are inspired by God.

      What is wrong, then?  Whatever is unlike right; whatever is unlike goodness; whatever is unlike God; that is wrong.  And why does God forbid us to do wrong?  Simply because wrong is unlike himself.  He is perfectly beautiful, perfectly blest and happy, because he is perfectly good; and he wishes to see all his creatures beautiful, blest, and happy: but they can only be so by being perfectly good; and they can only be perfectly good by being perfectly like God their Father; and they can only be perfectly like God the Father by being full of love, loving their neighbour as themselves.

      For what do we mean when we talk of right, righteousness, goodness?

      Many answers have been given to that question.

      The old Romans, who were a stern, legal-minded people, used to say that righteousness meant to hurt no man, and to give every man his own.  The Eastern people had a better answer still, which our blessed Lord used in one place, when he told them that righteousness was to do to other people as we would they should do to us: but the best answer, the perfect answer, is our Lord’s in the text, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’  This is the true, eternal righteousness.  Not a legal righteousness, not a righteousness made up of forms and ceremonies, of keeping days holy, and abstaining from meats, or any other arbitrary commands, whether of God or of man.  This is God’s goodness, God’s righteousness, Christ’s own goodness and righteousness.  Do you not see what I mean?  Remember only one word of St. John’s.  God is love.  Love is the goodness of God.  God is perfectly good, because he is perfect love.  Then if you are full of love, you are good with the same goodness with which God is good, and righteous with Christ’s righteousness.  That as what St. Paul wished to be, when he wished to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, but the righteousness which is by faith in Christ.  His own righteousness was the selfish and self-conceited righteousness which he had before his conversion, made up of forms, and ceremonies, and doctrines, which made him narrow-hearted, bigoted, self-conceited, fierce, cruel, a persecutor; the righteousness which made him stand by in cold blood to see St. Stephen stoned.  But the righteousness which is by faith in Christ is a loving heart, and a loving life, which every man will long to lead who believes really in Jesus Christ.  For when he looks at Christ, Christ’s humiliation, Christ’s work, Christ’s agony, Christ’s death, and sees in it nothing but utter and perfect Love to poor sinful, undeserving man, then his heart makes answer, Yes, I believe in that!  I believe and am sure that that is the most beautiful character in the world; that that is the utterly noble and right sort of person to be—full of love as Christ was.  I ought to be like that.  My conscience tells me that I ought.  And I can be like that.  Christ, who was so good himself, must wish to make me good like himself, and I can trust him to do it.  I can have faith in him, that he will make me like himself, full of the Spirit of love, without which I shall be only useless and miserable.  And I trust him enough to be sure that, good as he is, he cannot mean to leave me useless or miserable.  So, by true faith in Christ, the man comes to have Christ’s righteousness—that is, to be loving as Christ was.  He believes that Christ’s loving character is perfect beauty; that he must be the Son of God, if his character be like that.  He believes that Christ can and will fill him with the same spirit

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