Be obedient as Jesus

And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and He was subject unto them. Luke 2:51a

Somebody said to me about a teenage boy, the other day, “He’s a nice lad. You can tell he’s been well brought up.”

I knew that they meant. And so do you of course. The remark has a ring about it similar to this text. Listen! “He went with them and was subject unto them” It was eighteen years of discipline packed into it. 

We read the only authentic story we have about the early life of Christ telling of His visit to Jerusalem at the age of 12. 

A truly remarkable story that most likely in the first instance was told by His mother. And when the excitement was over Jesus returned to Nazareth with His parents and accepted discipline of the home. 

We can picture them walking along the village street. Entering the house and closing the door behind them. It closes as far as authentic stories go for another 18 years.

We should like to know what happened behind that door; but I doubt whether we have any more right to conjecture that we have to pry into the private life of any family. 

There is one thing, however, we are told. The one thing we can be certain about. The one things, maybe, that we are supposed to know. That as a bot and a growing man Jesus was obedient to his parents. “He was subject unto them” or as Dr Moffat translates it “HE DID AS THEY TOLD HIM.” 

We know that there were during these years seven other children born into the family. Five brothers. Two Sisters.

And it is fairly certain that before Jesus left the home for his ministry His father Joseph died and He carried on the work of the carpenters business. That may have been why He stayed at home so long. 

There must have been many ups and downs in such a family. But He was always content to accept the judgement of His mother.

All of this story singles out for us is the one fact that it was not His will that was done in the Nazareth home, but the will of Joseph and Mary. And it was at at time when most folk begin to find their own feet . Want to assert their own rights. Chafe and fret against parental control. But He was obedient Paul says “He learned obedience through the things He suffered” and there is little doubt that it began in His home. 

Just think! His ministry, with the full splendour of God’s glory shining through Him lasted only three years. But for 18 years He was content to teach Himself and us the one lesson – OBEDIENCE.

IT MUST BE IMPORTANT – AND SURELY HE WAS RIGHT. It was the foundation on which His life was built. What perfect patience was His. What humility. What purity. What goodness. It began in obedience practised in the home at Nazareth. 

It still is a fundamental virtue of life and though it may be a much more difficult thing in our day, when we prate so much about self expression and personal liberty, we still can get nowhere without it. Human nature has always been in need of discipline. We like to be a law unto ourselves. We don’t like being told what to do but unless we learn the lesson of obedience life will be a failure. 

This must be the foundation of all family life. - It is impossible without it. 

Imagine a home in which everyone did as he pleased – where there was no sharing of duties – where everyone had meals just when it pleased him. The place would soon be chaos. There has to be rule and order. There has to be one who embodies the law.

Let me say this to those of you who are parents. Teach your children obedience. Teach it not for your own sake thought but in their own interests. Surely God ordained that we should be set in families in order that we may learn at the very commencement of life this indispensable lesson. 

And what is true in the family life is true of all social life. We must live to fixed laws and regulations. We can’t have a thing just because we want it, irrespective of whose it is. We’ve got to observe the discipline of the highway code when we take to the road. In short we’ve got to obey the voice of authority. None of us is free to do as we like. We are proud of the freedom of our democratic government. It wouldn’t last very long though if men grew lawless and disobedient. Obedience is the very foundation of our liberty. 

And this holds true in the life of the individual – in your life and mine. 

As Paul argues – Christ was the Son of God yet he had to learn to be obedient to all the laws that governed human life. And if that was true of Jesus, can we claim any exemption?

He learned obedience by stern discipline – by times of quiet meditation – by regular worship and fellowship in the village synagogue. Without it He could never have been the true Son of His Heavenly Father. 

And it was Jesus who taught us that we are all children of God – He taught us to pray “Our Father which art in heaven.” But it isn’t just as easy as that. There is no getting near to God without obedience.

We all know our lives are not what they ought to be. Sometimes we know quite well what is wrong with them too – but we just won’t face up to is. We are not really happy and the failure is our disobedience. 

It isn’t for me to tell you what to do.

We each know what we ought to do, We can never be truly happy – or feel ourselves to be the children of God until we do it. 

So I ask you very humbly but very sincerely go home and begin to do the things that you know God wants you to do.  

His ain folk didna ken Him

He came unto His own and His own received Him not. John 1:11

I was considerably interested a week or so ago when I found this text translated “He came… and His own did not recognise Him.”

And then when I found a Scottish version of it which read “He cam unto His ain folk and His folk did’na ken Him.” I was distinctly intrigued.

It is one of the most chilling experiences of life to deserve and expect a warm welcome from strangers and yet to receive none. But to be greeted coldly and slightly by our relatives is even worse. None of us is immune from the hurt that come from being deliberately avoided and cold shouldered by those who know us.

That is the tragedy that lies behind this text. And it runs right through the Gospel -

John commences His Gospel with the pathos that this text lends it and strangely enough he closes it with a story equally as tragic “And when the morning was come Jesus stood on the shore but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.” Once again “He cam unto His ain folk and His ain folk didna ken Him.”

It is the SUPREME TRAGEDY of the New Testament.

MESSIAH came to OWN PEOPLE – (carefully prepared) Failed to recognise Him.

Reminds me of two stories – Ulysses

                                               Lost son.

THAT WAS HIS HEARTBREAK -

AND WHY DID IT ALL HAPPEN? Why so carefully instructed did they fail to recognise their King -

TOO CAUTIOUS!

TOO ORTHODOX – Dr Stalker

“Life of Christ” at time of Advent Jewish Nation had attained a degree of orthodoxy unprecedented in its history -

Free of idolotry – priests recognised and honoured – Temple Services attended Feasts observed with strictest regularity.

But FAITH had become STEREOTYPED – no room for new light – so failed to recognise their Lord.

(3) LANGUAGE – Masters of the letter – but strangers to the spirit of the prophecies.

R.L.S. used to tell of a beggar who often sought his company, Could recite noblest passage in English Poetry – could not DISCUSS -

Dr W.L. Watkinson – tells of student of his acquaintance – extraordinary genius for acquiring book-knowledge.

That was the tragedy – The Jewish leaders mastered the prophets - but all words.

Ye search the scriptures thinking that in them ye find eternal life; but they merely testify of me, and ye will not come to me that ye might have life.

(DETAIL) pay tithe 7 mint & cumin & have omitted the weightier matter of the law, judgement mercy and faith. These ye ought to have done and not left undone.

He came unto His own folk etc. It is the most ancient of tragedies - & Most MODERN – HOW CAN I PUT IT RIGHT?

Story from early days of American history. The animosity between red and white men had reached such a pitch that no home was secure – Resolved great Yeoman Army – BANCROFT described lovliest scene witnessed in Western World.

Beneath bower erected on green river bank – chiefs and warriors, Sencas, Delewares, Shawness sued for peace -

Surrendered captives – reunion.

But many remained unclaimed – someone suggested lullabies -

God knows every move of the soul to-wards Himself and will go out to meet them.

To those who know and receive He gives the right to be called His sons.

Preached in Horninglow Methodist Church. Year unknown.

What is it? Manna, the Bread of Life.

When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.” Exodus 16:15

Can you imagine the first light of dawn breaking over a huge expanse of desert – The light is dim and uncertain but already hundreds of men and women are about – men and women dressed in the flowing robes of the East. They are moving slowly over the sand – some going this way – some that – and all with heads bent and eyes glued to the ground. Yes’. They are looking for something which every now and then they seem to find. They stoop and pick up a little white pallet out of the sand – examine it – and excitedly shout to one another, “Man-hu”, Man-hu?” That is to say “What is it?”

AND JUST BECAUSE nobody knew wht it was, and no body could explain it or give it a name the word they used when they asked the question “Man-hu” clung to it and it has become known down the ages as “Manna”

The Psalmist you remember called it “Angels Food” “They did eat Angel’s Food”.

Now it strikes me this is a very fine story and quite suggestive for a temperance day discourse.

Let’s reconstruct the story. I’m fairly sure that most of us will have forgotten some of the details and the whole story is most interesting, almost peculiar.

The Israelites have been led from Egypt down the East side of the Gulf of Suez, past Marah and on to Elim. Now leaving Elim – Elim with it’s Palm trees and crystal fountains, it’s comfort and abundance – they were led by the Pillar of Cloud and Fire into the hot and arid desert. Soon they found themselves far from sources of supply and the provisions they had brought with them exhausted. The farther they marches the worse conditions became till in answer to cries and grumblings God met their needs with the equivalent of bread and meat.

The story reads like a romance of the desert and though I know it has a quite natural explanation there is no doubt that the story has been preserved throught the ages to show that God was and is of such a nature that He never leads men into circumstances where His provision for them fails.

The desert is a cruel, rentless place but it is true now, as then, that God never with-holds His grace.

So the manna came – and it continued for forty years – it continued, that is to say, all the while they needed it. Until they reached the Promised Land - “And the Manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the corn of the land, neither had the Children of Israel any more but they did eat of the fruits of the land of Canaan that year -”

God doesn’t do what men can do for themselves; “Piety must never paralyse the wheels of industry”

But there were never allowed to forget the wonder of the Manna. It was one of the things that was preserved as a memorial in the holiest of all places – the ark of the Covenant – Along with the rod that budded and the table of stone, was the golden “casket containing manna.” Ever to remind them how miraculously they had been sustained.

1. As Paul points out “He that gathered much has nothing over, whilst he that gathered little had not lack.”

It was the kind of pro-rata ration. The strong and agile gathered much but found that he had just enough to satisfy hi need. The weaker, less active man gathered less yet found he had enough in his smaller portion to make a new man of him.

There is behind it you see a divine principle of justice – fair treatment for all.

That was one of the earliest and most important lessons man had to learn, and still has to learn.

The security of national and international peace depends on it. The well being of each is the well being of all.

It is because some want more than enough that others have to go short. - Human greed in any shape or form is harmful.

We don’t need reminding that conditions have changed since bible days but the general principles of living haven’t. Men still need food, warmth, clothing etc and God’s provisions haven’t altered.

There is abundance in the world for all and thought men are slow coming to realise this truth gradually I think they are.

We may do much in our own personal lives to work out this principle but the state certainly has the obligation of providing living conditions for all; but let men having received enough for their needs be content and thankful for the provision.

Whilst no state can justifiably look upon appalling needs and conditions and ignore them, neither is an group of people justified in trying to exploit others.

2. There is another striking provision about the manna – it would not keep. Hoarding it became putrid and revolting.

It had to be gathered each day afresh

No man can live successfully on the graces of the past. What grand feasts and good times we have had are happy memories – good to be remembered – but they will not do for to-day.

Yesterday won’t serve for to-day not to-day for to-morrow. I need new grace with each situation. In our Christian life that is very true. I wonder if it’s general impoverishment isn’t due to our neglect to gather the heavenly food.

The Bible never lays down detailed regulations of conduct which are hard and fast rules for all men everywhere – it suggests divine principles to be applied to every human problem and need. And the principle here is that each new situation needs new consideration and fresh supplies of grace.

There is rather a delightful suggestion in the apocraphal Book of Wisdom that on the tongue of every Jew the manna assumed a different palate – just according to his taste -

God loves individuality. He revels in variety.

I may not need His grace in the same way as you may need it, but the glory of it is, it is just what I do need when I seek it.

That is the glory of the Christian Gospel it’s principles are the need and can be applied to all men everywhere.

3. And there is another thing about this manna – in spite of the rule that it would not keep – it was specially ordained that it should keep once a week, for a period of 48 hours. “For on the sixth day they gathered twice as much, as Moses said to-morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath of the Lord.”

This is another important and vexed problem that is taxing our Temperance and Social Welfare Dept.

Nowadays folks would have been saying “Why shouldn’t we gather manna on the day of rest? What possible harm can there be in it?

Whether anybody talked like that then I don’t know, but I do know that as the story says they didn’t gather on the Sabbath. It was forbidden.

Seems that one day had to be set apart to honour Him from whom the Manna came. And you see with God it was so important a point that He made special provision for the day so that the question of whether it was right or wrong to gather it needn’t arise.

At bedrock the principle of the Sabbath is for ever the same. For us the day has changed and the customs of observing it; but right from the day the underlying principle hasn’t. THE UNDENIABLE FACT IS, THAT THERE IS ITS NEED. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

We all know the various, religious, psychological and historical arguments for the need of a day of rest but that is beside the point.

It is a divine principle that our very exhaustion should compel us to rest.

The Sabbath is a divine creation and anything that tends to destroy is must be wrong.

What it is right or what it is wrong to do on the Sabbath is hardly the point – the point at issue is that we observe it.

The surest way of keeping our Sunday, and most folks want to, it by honouring it as God’s day. If we love God we should love His day and if we believe in Christ then we shall be zealous about keeping the day that celebrates the fact He is alive!

Now in case you just think this ancient story of the manna just a fable let us turn to the New Testament and listen to what Jesus has to say to those who taunted Him about this story of the manna. “It is true; your fathers did eat manna in the Wilderness and are dead; but as for Me, I am the bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

If this means anything it means that far from being an ancient episode, it may become a present and joyful experience.

We all know Matthew Arnold’s Verses -

‘Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead

Smote on the squalid Street of Bethnal Green,

And the pale weaver, through his windows seen

In Spitalfields Look’d thrice dispirited.

I met a preacher there I know, and said;

“Ill and overworked, how fare you in this scene

‘bravely;’ said he, ‘for I of late have been

Much cheered with thought of Christ, the living bread;”

How wonderfully everything brings us back to Him who is the Bread of God sent down from heaven, it Him who is the answer to the world’s need.

Year Unknown

The mention of the Temperance and Social Welfare Department implies this sermon is from between 1932 and 1950, though Temperance Sunday continued to exist until 1960.

The Parable of (What to Wear at) the Wedding Banquet

“My man how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” The man was speechless.” Matthew 22:12.

Well might he be speechless – He had no excuse for being there without the necessary regalia.
I remember when I was a boy I used to read this story with a great deal of sympathy for the man. I felt keenly his embarrassment – it must have been bad enough to be the only one in the company not properly dressed for the occasion without having attention drawn to it. I couldn’t quite reconcile the scene with my idea of Jesus either. It didn’t seem like Him to be inconsiderate - perhaps the man was poor and didn’t own a dress suit: And in any case did the clothes matter so very much?
I know now of course that the matter of respectability doesn’t enter into it – Jesus we know too well had more sympathy for the poorly clad than the prim and proper Pharisee.
But still I gather from the story that the question of clothes does matter. After all that is the main point of the story – the man was there without the correct dress and he had no excuse, because as a matter of fact there was a robe provided for every guest who came to the feast. It was the custom of the day. Well might the Master enquire – HOW CAMEST THOU IN? The man was an impudent gate crasher
Actually he was as welcome as any other guest but to refuse the provided regalia was an insult to the host which could not be tolerated.
There is you see a significance about clothing after all. There are times when to be improperly dressed is detestable and insulting. I might grub around in my garden in an old suit and without a collar but you would hardly expect me to enter this pulpit like it, or yet would my friend feel honoured if I turned up at his wedding slovenly and unkempt.
We need only to recall the familiar pictures that Ian McClaren and Isobel Cameron has drawn for us to the Scottish Kirk men carefully dressed in their Sabbath black to recognise at once that the matter of correct dress has invaded the realm of religion. The church also has always had it’s special vestments and though the old puritan hated ritual and ceremony yet he carefully preserved his Sunday Best Clothes. Maybe we haven’t quite grown out of the habit.
‘And in so far that these gestures are in acknowledgement of values that have their proper place’ They do at least keep us reminded of the dignity of the church and the Sabbath.
But we must not forget that we are dealing with a parable – If you like a parable about correct dress, and if it has a meaning at all it does mean that it is useless expecting that we can feast on the good things of the Kingdom of God unless we are properly clad for the feast in the garments of truth and sincerity.
1. Worship – We gather for the feast of good things provided in this free gift of worship. Does it matter what clothes we wear? We remember the story of the Sunday School teacher who would tell her girls to put on their best dresses when they came to worship as a suggestion of reverence. And as far as as it goes we agree. But we mustn’t descend to the level of Samuel Pepys who boasts openly that his object of worship was often to see what clothes people wore and display his own. We know it doesn’t matter as far as real worship is concerned whether we are richly or poorly clad. But the symbol is healthy and good.
- we cannot expect to enjoy the feast of worship unless clothed in the garments of beauty and holiness. They that worship must worship in spirit and in truth.
2. Bible.  - We are very proud of our open Bible and speak of all the wealth and feast of good things to be found in it, but it’s wealth is not lavished on all and sundry. To approach the feast in the garments of a cynic, poking fun at the story of Jonah and facetiously asking where Cain got his wife from? Pouncing on this story which seems incredible and that passage which seems to have a discrepancy is merely to be thrown out of the feast. The Bible doesn’t yield it’s goodness to any common gate crasher. I know there are some folk who do have honest doubts about the bible – but so often the clothes these doubters wear are so obviously ready-made and ill-fitting. They have been picked up second-hand from somebody else.
American visitor to Royal Acadamy  - viewing pictures “Call this art?” “Sir these pictures are no longer on trial but visitors are”
“The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and quick to discern the thought and intents of the heart”
3. So it is true of all the Graces of God’s kingdom, no man is excluded from enjoying them, the only condition of entrance to the feast is the wedding garment. The dress is all important. To refuse the conditions is to be shut out of the feast. To enjoy the graces of God in the realms of our own lives we must adhere to their conditions. Unless ye forgive men their trespasses neither will your heavenly father forgive you yours.
So obviously, the garment stands for that which fits us to share in the joys of the kingdom and unless we are clothed in the spirit of unfailing grace we stand amongst the guests without the wedding garment.
To conclude let us return to the parable. You know that it is a parable of the kingdom setting forth the principles of the realm which Jesus came to establish.
Therefore it is true on a larger scale that there are men who often seem to crash into the territory of the kingdom of God and are found to be without the wedding robe – I was told of a young man who started to preach and yet repudiated allegiance to God – when asked why claimed to be communist etc.
So men in their service to country and humanity come over the borders of the kingdom wearing the uniform of another King.
“All Jesus said “The kingdom sufferth violence and the violent take it by force”, But the kingdom knows how to be courteous to such gate crashers. It tolerates them, but will not endure their rudeness. The kingdom is hospitable enough in it’s invitation to the feast of lavish things but the invitation cards state that a wedding garment must be worn and no man is admitted to the feast in any other clothes.
That’s where men stumble  - The kingdom is open to all it’s grace is amazingly free but there is no getting in with the crush. There is a reserve placed on every seat – A man does not enter the kingdom until the conditions of the kingdom have entered him.  The kingdom of God is within you, and until it is within us we are not within it.
When the guests in this story accepted the garment he at once pledged his loyalty to the king. And do it is that when you give the principles of the kingdom a place with you, you have an abundant entrance. Our personal and social redemption lies in our identity in the kingdom.
Men who try to reform the world without God are doomed to failure. The plan for the world’s redemption is complete. The feast is already spread – when men are willing to wear the garment prescribed for the feast the truth and reality of Christ kingdom with come.

Easter Day

Death! It was not possible that He should be holden of it. Acts 2.24

Last year on holiday called at Bucklers Hard – little village on the river Beauleu – Men of war – built there – famous admiral born there – used to gather acorns -
HE HAD NO VISION OF IRON SHIPS – Iron wouldn’t float – now seas are thronged with iron vessels going safely on their way - In the same way the skies are full of aeroplanes – though everyone knows that objects heavier than the air – FALL TO THE GROUND.
There are lots of things happening to-day that were said to be impossible even in my boyhood days. Yet, I suppose “THE IMPOSSIBLE” remains – you can’t mathematically square a circle – make a rope out of sand (or can you?) And dead men somebody says “DON’T RISE FROM THE TOMB.”

But in this first christian sermon preached only six weeks after Christ’s Crucifixion to people who have seen it or at least knew all that had happened, Peter claims that it would be absurb, irrational to suggest that Jesus did not rise from the dead. It was just impossible that death should keep Him in it’s grip.
It was not that Peter had any doubts about the power of death – HE’D SEEN IT ROB CHRIST OF HIS LIFE AND VITALITY. And he’d watched an unusually horrible death.
“But God had raised Him to life again setting Him free from the pangs of death because it was not possible that death should keep Him in it’s grip”

Impossible – for such a person as Jesus could not stay in the grips of death.

Do you remember the story of King Canute?
His courtiers flattered him by saying that he was so great that even the incoming tide would stop at his command – and not even wet his feet -
THEY MUST HAVE BEEN MAD – But says St Peter, it was just as mad to try and keep Jesus in the TOMB -
He was raised to LIFE and you could no more have stopped it than you could have stopped the SUN FROM RISING – HE ROSE FROM THAT TOMB BECAUSE HE WAS THE LIFE – NOT THE RESURRECTION COS HE ROSE – ROSE COS HE WAS.
Surely? What Peter means is that Jesus was a person of such flawless MORAL AND SPIRITUAL CHARACTER – SUCH ABSOLUTE GOODNESS AND PERFECTION OF SPIRIT that nothing could destroy HIS LIFE
- Impossible – because such a life was deathless
Death might destroy some mens lives but not Hid – THAT WAS THE FACT ABOUT WHICH HE WAS CONCERNED.

It was the TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS -
Look at it this way. Evil is like death. It’s essential character is to destroy, corrupt AND CORRODE LIKE RUST – UNTIL GOODNESS is annihilated  -
We’ve seen selfishness do that to a lovely friendship – the rust – rot sets in -
THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST WAS RUST-PROOF – it remained untarnished – it just could not be destroyed, EVEN ON THE CROSS HIS GOODNESS HELD FIRM -
Don’t you agree with ST Peter, the belief that Jesus rose from the dead isn’t crazy, irrational, it fits into all we want to believe about GOOD & EVIL

Good ought to triumph – deep inside us we want it to triumph -
We know Peter was right – THE RESURRECTION of CHRIST was the vindication of all that we had lived for – IT WAS THE TRIUMPH OF GOOD and Hid goodness over sin.

OH YES! But what difference has it all made. Look to all the misery and evil  in our generation. Naked terrorism to gain power over others.
We shall never understand it until we allow Christ’s spirit to triumph in us “Christ liveth in me”
Remember the story that Jesus told -
“This my son has come back to life again”


Beauty they thought was dead, was dead that day,
They sealed the mater in his new wrought tomb
and wondered all along the dusty way
white lillies of delight were all in bloom
Dear Christ, so long ago, so long ago
and men have dreamed again that gladness dies
chanted her requiem and laid her low
and turned to meet the smiling of her eyes.


I could not find him where the vestured priest
Intoned the ancient ritual of prayer.
My neighbour bowed the knee,
and yet to me
He was not there.

I could not find him where the bugles called
And men cried “Hallelujah” to the sky,
My neighbour sobbed His name -
To her He came
But passed me by.

Yes on a busy day when spring winds blow
My billowing line to the bleaching sun
That Man who served with wood
So clearly stood,
Smiling “Well done.”

(Doris M. Holden)

Christ cannot be found everywhere until we find Him somewhere


Notes indicate this was used from 1971 onwards

Good Friday

“Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden” John 19:41

I made a discovery when I found this text – that though three other writers of the gospel tell us about the crucifixion of Christ, John, who writes his story last is the only one who supplies us with the fact that in the awful place where it happened there was a garden. I said I found the text – I did in so far as I was browsing at the time amongst the readings of the passion story;- but perhaps the reverse is true that the text really found me and turned the musing of my mind from the shadow of the cross to the glory of a garden. And yet – without eliminating the cross.

Why was it I wonder that John saw something worth recording in the fact?

Was it that in later years he saw, what perhaps the others missed. How appropriate it was. That though the cross stood for the apparent end of Joy, and hope and life, the GARDEN was the symbol of things ever being renewed. It wouldn’t be one of those trim tidy little gardens which we know, with careful set out beds and prescribed places in which to walk. It would be a plantation of trees and shrubs, olives, vines and maybe figs, thick with foliage and blossom. A place where the breezes blew and the sun shone. Yes I think that John saw that out of the place of death life rises anew in the beauty and blossom of the garden. And when we linger near the cross, that has been described as the deadly tree, what fragrance blossoms even from its rude bareness. One of truly amazing things about the tragedy of the cross as Jesus never lost for one moment the beautiful and delicate point of his own self and soul.

“Father forgive them etc” - Love triumphant over hate.”Today thou shalt be with me in paradise” - Goodness overcoming evil. Beauty out of ugliness. A garden at the foot of the cross.

It reminds me of those lines of Matheson the blind poet,

“O cross that liftest up my head

I dare not ask to fly from Thee;

I lay in dust life’s glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be.”

Blossoms from the ground. A garden in the place of the cross.

In “The Everlasting Man” G.K.Chesterton declares that life is a great game of noughts and crosses – place in a new way. The NOUGHTS stand for the ordinary routine of life – the round, the grind, the treadmill, conformity to established tradition. The cross of the game, to be place with success, is placed inside the nought so that its points pierce the circle – and shatters its monotony for ever.

That is a remarkable and suggestive truth. It says in another way what John implies in this text, and what men like Matheson realised, out of their bitter experience, that the cross which on the one hand disturbs, and shatters life, may on the other hand save it and restore it. The cross always means hardship and sorrow and pain but there is no real progress without it. The saints of old realised it and deliberately chose it. In one of his essays Dr Boreham relates a story from the life of St Francis of Assisi by Prof Heckless. St Francis found a terrible conflict raging in his mind. He longed to be a monk but he loved a beautiful woman. He was not the type of man to pour scorn on the happiness of married life. But he chose the monastery. One moonlit night when the ground was covered with snow his fellows saw him step out into the garden and there with clever hands, he fashioned in the snow the forms of a beautiful woman and a group of children. Then giving rein to his fancy he experienced the joys of the family. Then he kissed them one by one broke up the snowy forms and returned to his cell. Once and for all he crucified part of his warm nature; but there was no bitterness or resentment. He turned the place where he was crucified into a garden and ever since men have gathered, the “Little Flowers of St Francis.” Life can bring us to difficult crossroads and terrific problems but no experience can come to any one of us that cannot be dealt with in such a way that we can have a garden in the place where we have the cross.

But there was another truth, so many of us are afraid of the cross. We prefer to get all the pleasure and comfort out of life we can without any thought of others. We turn away from any suggestion of sacrifice. The world to-day seems to be in the agony of its crucifixion, there is more sorrow, more trouble, more fears and forebodings than ever. It is so bad that sometimes I wonder if it could be much worse. Yet I remember that it was out of a darker more evil situation that the first ray of hope shone. Those that were about the cross thought that evil had conquered – had got away with it. But there was a garden in the place where He was crucified and it’s bursting bugs and blossoms refuted the lie.

England isn’t going to be the garden you and I want it to be though,

“By singing Oh how beautiful and sitting in the share, while better men than we go out and start their working lives at grubbing weeds from gravel paths with broken dinner knives” This is an old legend about St Peter fleeing from Rome – on the Appian way he met his Lord “Quo Vadis” Whither goest thou? - Peter went back and accepted the cross. - “He that cometh after me said Jesus, and this is no legend – let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Right deep down in my heart I know I don’t despair for the world because in the place where we has crucified there was a garden and it assures me that in the great encounter with evil God- took steps to ensure that goodness will triumph – it shall win the day. The empty tomb in the garden is the greater guarantee of that. But victory waits for folks like you and me to take up the cross. To set it up willingly in our own lives and let it’s points pierce our complacency and smug satisfaction. Our easy going selfishness and unconcern for anything but out own pleasure and comfort.

Yes! The kingdom of God awaits your choice to take up the cross. From the says of the early persecution the sign of the cross was the secret-mark of the Christians. It still is. No life can be truly Christian without it.

Dated 7th April 1946 at Sidney Street Methodist Church, Burton-on-Trent, Good Friday 1947 at Rolleston Methodist Church and Good Friday 1952 church unknown.

Beatitudes 4 - Blessed are the Pure in Heart

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

I was reading this beatitude of vision the other day when someone reading over my shoulder, unknown to me, abruptly asked “What does it mean to be pure in heart?”
Actually it was the very question I was asking myself and it seemed as though both our minds reached the same point at the same time. Isn’t it exactly the question this saying of Jesus prompts us all if we read it thoughtfully. Straight away it whisks us into a scene of dazzling brightness. We are with Moses, hiding in the cleft of a rock, as the glory of the Lord passes by or standing where Isaiah stood when the train of the Almighty filled the temple, or with the disciples bower and with our hands covering our faces before the glory of the transfiguration.
And we are a little awestruck and afraid. Maybe we find ourselves saying “How pure the soul must be when placed in thy all searching sight” Exactly! How pure? What does it mean?
The question is involuntary because the utterance is so searching. Our conscience recognises the justice of it too, Who but the pure in heart should see God? Can we hope for such a vision?
Yet isn’t it true that the age long desire of men has been to see God? ‘O that I knew where I might find Him’ cried the Psalmist of old. And Phillip years later, experiencing the same desire said “Show us the Father and it sufficeth us” and thus have men cried in each succeeding age, for even in the blindness of his sin and folly man has reached after this vision. He has made great sacrifices, sought in discipline and codes, and costly offering the place where he might see, not realising the blessing was to be found in these simple words of Jesus ‘the pure in heart shall see God’
In our own day men realise the defect in their vision I think, but instead of seeking a cure they try to find a pair of spectacles to remedy the defect. (Daily Newspaper discussion God and the War)  Men are inclined to blame the war on the existing state of evil things that they cannot see God while really all the time the reverse is true. The evil in the world is not the cause of man’s inability to see God so much as man’s misconception of God being the cause of the evil.
It is not a question of getting new spectacles with which to see God it is a matter of getting healed sight, or as Paul has it “A renewed mind” If men’s hearts were pure they would find God everywhere, it isn’t the great evil forces which hide us from God so  much as our own prejudices and  conventions, or own little selfishnesses and insincerities.
The Pure in heart shall see God.
Yes but my heart is already sullied. I need cleansing before I can see. Of course and when we recognise that and pray “Cleanse Thou me” in sincerity the sight healing process begins – God sees our desires for a pure heart, hears our cry and understands.
The Pure in Heart – yes that is where it begins, with the first sincere desire to cherish the high ideal and pure resolve.
The heart is the … - the fountain head
The heart may be pure tho’ the stream that gushes from it becomes sullied later on in contact with the world. We mustn’t sneer at good intentions, holy desires, “Man considereth the deeds whilst God weigheth the intentions” (An imitation of Christ – Thomas a Kempis) Edith Cowell  -  find consolation in lord self not as ‘man self’
“We may hope that our praise, Our God not only reckons
The moments when we tread his ways, But when the Spirit beckons -
That some slight good is also wrought, Beyond self-satisfaction
When we are simply good in thoughts, howe’er we fail in action.”

The Pure in Heart (Men of such intent) do see God, in fact, they have already seen him, and in that fact lies the explanation of the pure desires of their hearts. “At the cross, where I first saw the light” …....... thereby faith I received my sight.
Then a man’s whole vision is altered, he learns to see God everywhere and in all things. He meets the face of deity at every turn, every sound is the echo of his voice, he meets with Him in “every country lane and street” Just as kagawa meets him in the slums of Japan to-day, so this man who has seen God he sees Him in every means of grace, the church to him becomes the house of God, every Hymn the outward expression of the inward gladness of a purified heart, God becomes nearer than breathing, closer than hands or feet.
The way to Purity of Heart is by way of Bethlehem, Nazareth, along the hills and roads of Jesus, and onward to the steep green hill outside a City wall – it is the way of Jesus. As we walk with Him evil is purged from us and we see God dwelling in the midst of His people.
How eager we are to put the world in order, and how impatient we sometimes get, we much keep the vision splendid – must keep our spirits fresh, but it can only be done as we keep in company with Christ, and always there must be a willingness to climb that last will with Him and be prepared for such self-sacrifice ourselves.




Handwritten on back

O could I tell,
ye surely would believe it
O could I only say what I have seen
How should I tell or how can ye receive it
How, till He bringeth you where I have been.

Other passages written at top of sermon
Psalm 51
Ephesians 5:1-20
4:11-32.



Dates listed on back of sermon.
Sydney Street, 02/2/41
Rolleston 20/2/41
B 20/2/41
B 11/5/41
Pankell st 25/5/41
Horninglow 08/6/41
NEWHALL
Willington 26/7/41
Etwall 19/8/41

Also
Sydney Street Methodist Church
March 24th and April 28th 1946 folded together.

Beatitudes 3 - Blessed are the Merciful

“Blessed are the Merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7

The more I square life to these sayings of Jesus the more I become certain of the truth of the saying that ‘Christianity cannot be said to be a failure because it has never really been tried.’ If it had we should not hear the word that is cried out so much to-day “Reprisals”. In a world where God reigned the central spirit would be forgiveness.
So we find ourselves again faced with another of these simple but hard sayings of Jesus, and even to the most casual thinker it is plain that this on is of primary importance.
It is a grace essentially Christian. Modern war does not savour much of mercifulness but it is significant in to-days struggle that the Nations which have renounced God and Christianity have become revoltingly merciless. Nobody wants existence in such a world and we are prepared to fight to save it from such ancient savagery, but we must be very careful that we preserve in our own National and private lives the spirit we seek to save. The solution is – Christianity. Without it the world would be a pitiless place. True we may meet with mercy at the hands of many who make no profession of Christianity but that in no way affects the issue. It only proves that after 50 generations of Christianity the spirit of Christ is so engrained in the very blood of the race that it would take 1000’s of years of any other ‘ism’ to stamp it out. The fact is the spirit that Jesus brought into the world exerts its unconscious influence and without knowing it men act under the influence of Christianity.
Heathendom is destitute of such eloquence signs of mercy as like hospitals, asylums, almshouses etc with which civilization is so familiar and wherever we find them they mark the sign of the forward march of the Christ across the nations. Yet the most Christian people are only superficially Christian; the relics of barbarism slumber just beneath the skin. It is significant isn’t it that in lands like out own we have to have organisations such as the N.S.P.C.C. & N.S.P.C.A.  Every such organisation testifies to the spirit of Christian mercifulness and at the same time to the mercilessness of the individual that has been unaffected by, or has broken beyond the restrains of Christian influence. The only mercifulness that, in these days, will be strong enough to remain steadfast and reliable is that which is definitely Christian which has come along the way Christ has set out in the beatitudes. The way of poverty of spirit, of meekness and thirst of righteousness.
So As though He were afraid that we were most likely to fail at this point Jesus was always urging by both practice, precept, and parable the necessity of being merciful. To forgive even as we are forgiven – and He likens the merciless recipient of mercy to the wicked servant who although forgiven seized his fellow servants throat crying “pay me what thou owest”
So if I am to enjoy this state of felicity I am to keep heart that is slow to condemn, ready to forgive,
The emphasis that Jesus placed upon this necessity for forgiveness was due to the fact that he was a realist and knew that we should have to live our lives in a world of men and women who ignore and sometimes defy God’s purposes, and the fact is that without the spirit of mercy the evil in the world can never be eradicated and God’s purpose realised.
At the root of the power of evil lie wrong standards of values. Men worship power and wealth and the crimes that follow, avarice and selfishness, perpetuate themselves and cause social unrest, industrial dislocation and still wider National and international strife.
When and how can it all be brought to an end? This Beatitude suggests the way. Forgiveness break the spell of the vicious circle. Instead of being vindictive and spreading more poison forgiveness stems the flow and draws the poison from the wound. A man inflicts some evil upon his neighbour and thereby awakes the desire for retribution – may develop into a life long feud – increasing in bitterness – extending its sphere – But if the injured man chooses rather to forgive the entail is broken and the whole process is arrested. Or if after the wretched business has begun one turns round to forgive the entail is broken.
It is from this point of view we must view this spirit of mercy, as a positive and active thing -m
It is not easy to be merciful when we feel like exacting justice, it needs strength of character, but mercy will accomplish what justice never can.
C. F. Andrews – Christ in the silence - young sikh headman – requires strength of character.
Calvary cost Jesus Gethsemane. - His aim was not merely to condemn evil but to cure it, and to cure it you need forgiveness. In His ministry mercy – made men whole.
Divine mercy so perfectly expressed in Him was a wall against which the waves of evil broke, and broke finally, for the could go no further. Mercy alone frees men from evil. I.e the appeal of the cross.
Jesus taught us to forgive not that we might be forgiven, but rather because we are forgiven, and this much is true that in so far as we fail to be merciful we exclude ourselves from fellowship with God. That must be so or we keep the vicious circle moving.
The effort to overcome bitterness against one who has wronged us is often the hardest thing we have to do – it is easier to ask for forgiveness. But our difficulty should help us to understand what is cost Him to forgive us “while we were yet sinners.”
It was only as we learn the worth of God’s pardon and it wins its way in our heart, and mercy become to habit of our life, that God’s mercy can have perfected its work, - and we can truly be said to have obtained mercy,


Other passages written at top of sermon
Matthew 18.23
Proverbs 17.25, 21-25

Preached on the evening of 17th November 1940 at Sydney Street Methodist Church, Burton-on-Trent.

Also Unknown date Morning service location unknown

Dates on back of Sermon
Station St 1/12/40
Byrnley St 2/2/41
Rolleston 9/2/41
Winshill 9/3/41
Unknown church 4/5/41

Beatitudes 2 - Blessed are they that Hunger

“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Matthew 5.6.

When Laura Bridgman, deprived alike of hearing and of sight was a small inmate of Dr Howe’s Asylum for the blind at Boston her teacher one day made some reference to the soul.
A look of bewilderment overspread the girl’s face and she slowly spelled out on her fingers the question, ‘What is the soul?’ ‘The soul’ replied Dr Howe, in the complicated language used in dealing with blind mutes, ‘the soul is that which thinks and feels and hopes!’ A look of rare discernment mantled the blind girl’s face. ‘And is it’ she immediately inquires with eager fingers ‘is it what which aches so?’
Exactly! And in that respect at least mankind is akin to God. We have so been made that we cannot find satisfaction in any fixed state and be truly happy. If the Soul within us be alive we experience Laura’s ache, or as Jesus puts it in this text we have a delicious hunger. Blessed are they that hunger etc. And so we see at once that
1. Self satisfaction is not a thing that receives His blessing.
Jesus made a startling statement once bidding men when “they have done all the  things which were commanded” to say “We are unprofitable servants. We have done that which it was our duty to do”.
It is a bit surprising isn’t it to be told after doing your duty to regard yourself as an unprofitable servant.
Surprising because it is so far removed from our ideas and standards of life. We are inclined to think that when we have done our duty we’ve done all that is required of us. ‘As though morality were a thing that could be exactly defined, a goal that could be reached’ so easily.
We all know the people who claim to be virtuous because they say, we pay 20/- in the pound, have done nobody any harm etc, There are quite a lot of such people in the world, but the surprising thing is that they don’t seem to rid the world of evil. * Pharisees in Christ’s day were similar +I’m not so sure that it wasn’t the cause of much evil.
I thought quite a lot about the old adage, “If  each before his own door swept, the village would be clean” during the snowy days last winter – some pavements were clean – what about roads?
No! When I face up to the truths of Christ’s Kingdom I begin to realise that no place is found for the self-satisfied spirit of Little Jack Horner – what a good boy am I.
I meet a whole realm of new requirements – If I merely do my duty I am an unprofitable servant.
Christ did His duty, but never do I find Him sitting down in satisfaction. He did more, and more and more, until finally He gave Himself. And such a life shows me that “Duty” - self-satisfaction, are not enough, but Love so amazing so divine demand my soul my life, my all. Jesus had little to say really about ‘Duty’ ‘Service” but He implores us to love God with, heart and soul and mind, and strength.
When love enters the heart service has another meaning – ’Service’ is no longer ‘Duty’ which is done to give self-satisfaction, it is a means of expressing LOVE.
What is it that Francis Xavier Sings:-
My God I love thee – not because, I hope for heaven thereby
Nor yet because who love Thee not Are lost eternally.
Not with the hope of gaining aught; Not seeking a reward
But as Thyself hast loved me, O ever loving Lord.
The difference is not just in the motive, but in the underlying spirit, and that’s why Jesus talks about Hungering and Thirsting after righteousness.
I can’t control the state of hunger and thirst by will.

So the follower of Christ does not obey a code to satisfy a just God and his own pride – he does what love impels.
And blessed are they say Jesus, that so ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’

2. Such a hunger is the sign of true life.
We have to be thankful for what men call morality, for standards of duty, and human conventions (they have their roots mostly in Christianity) but Jesus said “Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
This implicates that I am to do my duty, to home and church and society but after tat I must still be hungry to go on as love shall direct.
If I feel that discontent, that hunger for a fuller life – then I’ll be thankful it is the sign of life.
If I’ve settled down to easy ways, no appetite for service, I’ve reason to be concerned for my place in the Kingdom.
We are not made so as to find satisfaction in anything fixed or prescribed but only in creative activity. The only satisfaction we can ever know is to blaze fresh trail, go the extra mile, and press to higher things.

3. The need of our age is to recapture this truth.
Everywhere men are seeking satisfaction, reaching after something bigger and better. The Hunger is there but we have not yet learned where it can be satisfied/ Shop of progress is fast on the sandbank. And why? -
Jesus has shown us the true way of satisfaction – we must give ourselves wholly to it.


Other passages written at top of sermon
Psalm 42.

Preached on the evening of 29th September 1940 at Sydney Street Methodist Church, Burton-on-Trent.

Also evening service on an unknown date
Methodist Church, Horninglow, Burton-on-Trent.

Beatitudes 1 - Blessed are the Meek

“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5

In these times of such wanton aggression, we find these words of Jesus increasingly difficult. Had He said Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, we might have found it easier to grasp. And maybe we never shall understand this most challenging beatitude unless we realise that words change their meaning during the progress of time.
I remember when I was a boy the hymn we often sang “gentle Jesus” never appealed to me because I thought it was sloppy. But the hymn was framed in days when gentle meant  - high born - “meek” - one who knew the secret of self mastery, and ‘Mild’ was a princely virtue.
A prominent radio preacher I remember took this text some months ago and spent most of his time in a vigorous attack on “meekness” - evidently thought the word stood for something nasty, mean, and despicable – That isn’t the meaning of the word Jesus used here otherwise I can find no merit in His claim to be “Meek and lowly of heart”
It is I suppose to His character that we must turn for a definition of the word and docility and insipidity cannot be ascribed to Jesus, but what we can say of Him is that He had learnt that “Humble creaturely attitude towards God” He knew what the nature of God was and surrendered His life to Him and the result of that self discipline was meekness.
You remember that it was said of Moses the Old Testament pattern of meekness that “Now Moses was very meek above all men which were on the face of the earth” and when I hear men talk of meekness as a spineless, sparkless quality I think of Moses and he shatters the illusion. In this early manhood meets – Egyptian slave-driver – too much for him – soon sand crimson with Egyptian blood – Does it look as though Moses had a placid nature? What happened?
Moses learnt to control and curb his powerful passions and harness them to lofty service. And turning again to the N.T. model of meekness I find that Jesus, could bare personal insults, wounds and even death, and only turn the other cheek, but when these wrongs were done against the helpless and weak, or men trifled with holy things his indignation was roused – meekness is not passive none-resistance, not just backing down to evil.
The fact is that Moses learned the nature of God earlier that many of his day, and Jesus who knew the nature of God controlled the actions of His life to show us that nature.
It isn’t easy to grasp. The disciples found the ways of Jesus very difficult – Samaritan village – Peter and cross -
It was hard for men to seek that God did not sit on a throne of Might – Seer of Revelation saw not Lion but Lamb slain.
I think we make many miscalculations because we do not realise that crucified love and not might is on the throne of the universe.
Most men believe God is on the throne of the world but they do not realise the kind of ruler He is. Isn’t it because men have not surrendered to the meekness of God’s nature that they still persist to believe in aggression. To many the way to possession is the way of aggression. To push seems the common sense way to succeed – the strong get the spoils. But Jesus shows the most perfect expression of meekness is a life that can be strong enough to master itself and say, however contradictory the immediate evidence, “Thy will be done” “He doeth all things well”
“Blessed are the meek” I can understand that in the light of Christ’s character – He is a happy many who has learnt that relationship with GOD, but that “They shall inherit the earth” is not so easy.

It seems today that pushful men with a certain thickness of skin, Masterful, Ruthless, inherit the earth – Mussolini would say not meekness but guns and gas bombs etc conquered Abyssinia – If Hitler has taken peace treaty in meekness, what then? Or can it be said even that the life of Jesus was a successful career, It would seem that His own life was a disapproval to the theory of victorious meekness.
It seems true enough that meek are not always successful, but after all that is not quite what Jesus promised. Success is not a word to be found in our [Christian] Xian vocabulary. What we often forget is that what we hunger for in life is not just possession but the satisfaction which possession gives. Jesus could have conquered the world by military force – but that would have been the Devils way – Can any conquered possess the vanquished? The world might have thought Christ had failed, but He has proved that they were wrong. History reverses the verdict of His judges. Everyone now admits he was right and they were wrong. And in this sense not only in spite of His failures, but through them, He inherits the earth – I will draw all men -

So we begin to perceive (if dimly that Gentleness not violence is the true law of life and progress means the substitution of the one for the other – this is civilization – and in spite of failures and disappointment I cannot falter in the faith that nothing can stop this spirit winning its victory in the earth.

In these words lie my hope – they are prophetic of the story of human civilization.

Preached on the evening of 18th August 1940 at Sydney Street Methodist Church, Burton-on-Trent.

Abide with Me

This morning in Westminster Abbey there was a tablet unveiled to the memory of Henry Francis Lyte and one can think of nothing more fitting than that this faithful minister and poet should have his name inscribed in the place of honour among such illustrious names.
Doubtless this frail man who seemed always to be coughing and looking as if the wind would be likely to blow him away knew that his life would not be a long one and wondered how he could make it memorable and serviceable. How could he leave an influence what would linger on after his body had been laid to rest? He has always been fascinated by making melodies and he turns to his gift of poetry hoping to write something that will live for ages. Listen to these lines – If, he sings,
If I might leave behind
Some blessing for my fellows, some fair trust
To guide, to cheer, to elevate my kind
When I am in the dust.

Might verse of mine inspire
One virtuous aim, one high resolve impart,
Light in one drooping soul a hallowed fire
Or bind one broken heart!
O Thou, whose touch can lend
Life to the dead, Thy quickening grace supply
And grant me, swanlike, my last breath to spend
In song that may not die!

Now I’m not really sure that “Abide with me” was his swan song, but I do know that it closed his ministry. He left England a week after he wrote it and died in Nice two months later.
BUT WE ALL KNOW that his prayer was answered – answered magnificently. There is no hymn more popular and more widely known.
Lyte was a Church of England minister and his first curacy was at Wexford in Ireland and he returned there in 1820 to visit some friends. He learned while there that an old acquaintance William Le Hunte was desperately ill and went to see him. He found the old man full of fear that the sense of the divine presence he had enjoyed in life might leave him in death and while the young clergyman sat by his bedside he repeatedly clasped his hand and cried “Oh abide with me, abide with me.” That is where the idea of this hymn was born without a doubt, but there is no grounds for saying as some do that it was written then.
In 1823 at the age of 30 he settled in Brixham and spent nearly 26 years in the happy and historic little Devonshire fishing village. He loved the peace and humble fisher folk and soon won their affection. But he was a consumptive and was never well and in the autumn of 1847 had arranged to go to Nice before the winter set in. The fourth Sunday in September was sacrament Sunday in his church and much to everybody’s alarm he declared he would preach the communion service and assist in the sacrament. Neither could he be dissuaded. PREACH he DID. A Sermon that was talked about for long afterwards. LATER in the evening of the same day, he went down his garden path for a solitary walk along the sand. (His house had been given to him by William IV – had terraced garden down to shore.) Whilst he was walking beside the waves in the moonlight, he thought again of his text and it took a new turn in his mind. He had read for his lesson The Walk to Emmaus and preached from “Abide with me the day is far spent.”
Then it seemed his memory goes back to the death-bed of his Irish friend. “Abide with me.” And as he ponders over the years of his own life, he become aware of the failing light as the moon became hidden behind the clouds. Somehow it all wove itself into his mind in verse and he hastened back to his study, and wrote out the stanzas that had swept into his soul. He handed the paper with words and tune to his daughter and left Brixham the following evening. SO Henry Francis Lyte had woven his matchless experience into what Dame Clara Butt has called the world’s loveliest hymn.
Canon Ellerton has said that there is not the slightest allusion to the close of a natural day in the hymn and it is better adapted to be sung at funeral (Something!)
There is a verse which does not appear in any of our hymn books :-

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile
Thou has not left me, oft as I left thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

It is obvious he had in mind the companionship of one who meets us (& still does) on the road of life. And I feel that the hymn lives and always will because it expresses the needs and experiences of men.
It was the experience of Dr Stanley Hones in India – He called the book he wrote about it “The Christ of the Indian Road.”
Great missionarys and explorers in the lonely outpost and along lonely roads have been sure of the same companionship. J.G. Paton seems alone as he stands ringing the death among the blood thirst savages of the South Sea Islands, Indeed, he said, but for the consoling, supporting presence of Christ his reason must have given way. Livingstone spoke of Christ’s promise “Lo I am with you always.” as the word of a perfect gentleman. “But dying alone in a mud hut miles from any white man he would seem to be forsaken and alone. But is HE? The last word of his diary refutes it. He died on his knees. Need we ask who his companion was.
And in that amazing expedition over slippery glaciers and tossing ice flows in the South, Sir Ernest Shackleton met loneliness and difficulties that seemed to have him and his companions insuperable. His ship was last, his men marooned but as he and his two companions turned back he said “It seemed to me during that long and racking march that there were not three but four of us.” Later Worsley to whom he had not mentioned it said “Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was another Person with us.” The story as Sir Ernest told it to his London audiences held them spell bound, you could have heard a pin drop.
Now, as I see it Christianity means little to us and these stories of others experiences tend to mock us, unless we can each one enter into a sense of Christ’s presence just every bit as real. And we can know it and feel it if only we will live as if it were true.
He is not far away;
Why do we sometimes seem to be alone
And miss the hand outstretched to meet our own
He is the same to-day,
As when of old he dwelt
In human form with his disciples – when
He knew the needs of all his fellowmen,
And all their sorrows felt.
Only our faith is dim
So that our eyes are holden, and we go
All day, and until dusk, before we know
The we have walked with him.

Abide with us – Abide with me. If we really desire it we can recapture the same divine presence ourselves as we sing it for our last hymn.
When Sir E. Shackleton took his last and fateful voyage he carried with him a gramophone record of that hymn as sung by Dame Clara Butt. He felt it would help him keep the sense of his divine companion. Just think of it ringing out over the icebound wastes of the Antarctic:-
“I need thy presence every passing Hour
What but T—hy grace can foil the tempters power
Who like Thyself, my guide & stay can be.
Through cloud and sunshine, O. Lord, abide with me.”
It was Shackleton’s one thought – a companionship that stayed with him to the end. He asked foe the record to be plated as he lay dying and listened with strained and reverent attention.
Now while as this was happening in South Georgia & the Elephant Island, Nurse Cavill waiting her execution in her cheerless prison in Brussels.
The British Consul called to say his last farewell and they repeated together very softly the words of Abide with me. And as he left she clasped his hand and said with a lovely smile “We shall meet again – Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s can shadows flee.” Then she turned and said to herself “In life, in death, O Lord abide with me.”

And now, to-night, as ever the words of this hymn “Abide with me.” will find a responsive echo in the hearts of all who hunger for the divine companionship.

So we are assured yet again that He who walked along the Emmaus Road, still walks along the roads of life and offers to abide with any who with true hospitality of soul desires and asks his company.


Preached on the evening of 16th November 1947 at Sydney Street Methodist Church, Burton-on-Trent.

My Big Grandad

My Big Grandad, Walter Harris, was a Methodist Local Preacher.

Born in 1901, married in 1925 and died 1988. Father of three, Grandfather to five, Great Grandfather to ten and alive for the first 6 weeks of my life.
He was a Baptist by birth but married into a Methodist family. He lived and preached in Burton-on-Trent, and worked as a Brewery Clerk.

A few years ago his daughter (my Granny) passed on his preaching notes to me. I have lots of small pieces of paper with hymn numbers on, many hand written notes and orders of service (including who did which reading which often included my Granny and her Sister) dating from the 1930s to 1980s and best of all his typed up sermons.

As with any sermon writer there are occasional short hands, mentions to what is happening at the time and language that we might not recognise today. As I've typed them up I've tried to keep as close to the original, though sometimes his hand written notes have not been easy to decipher. I've added the dates I think they were written or used when possible.

He often preached from just one verse or took a bigger theme, some are based on hymns and others include poetry or images from Winnie the Pooh. Do check out his World War Two Beatitudes sermons before he volunteered to join the army.

I hope you find nuggets of wisdom, ideas to riff off and snapshots of Methodist history.

Walter Harris' Great Grand Daughter, Rach.