Seventh Sermon for Lent: On’ the Pilgrim, the Dead Man, and the Man That is Crucified

“ For I am*a stranger with Thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.”"—Ps, xxxviii. 13.

Happy are they, my brethren, who conduct themselves as strangers and pilgrims in this wicked world, preserving themselves pure from its defilement. ‘‘ For we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come’ (Heb. xiii. 14). Let us therefore “as strangers and pilgrims refrain ourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul” (x Peter ii. I). For the pilgrim walks along the high-road: he turns neither to right nor to left. And if he should chance to see persons engaged in angry discussions, he pays no attention; he may meet with wedding parties, or people amusing themselves with dancing, or occupied with some other worldly affairs; but he passes on because he is a pilgrim and has nothing to do with things of this kind. He longs for the homeland, and towards the homeland his steps are bent. ‘“‘ Having food and wherewith to be covered he is content ” (x Tim. vi. 8); he does not desire to be burdened with superfluities. Blessed indeed is the man who thus acknowledges and laments his exile, saying to the Lord with the Psalmist, “For I am a stranger with Thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were ” (Ps. xxxviii. 13). This assuredly is high virtue, but perhaps there is a degree still higher. For although the pilgrim does not mix with the citizens, he may nevertheless find a pleasure in seeing what is passing around him, in listening to reports from others, and in recounting what he has witnessed himself. And such things, if they do not hold him back entirely, at least delay him and impede his progress ; for they cause him to be less occupied with the thought of the homeland, and to proceed on his way with less eager longing. Nay, he may take such delight in these things that now he does not merely delay and advance less speedily, but he even comes to a stand-still and makes no progress at all.

Who then is he that is further removed from the ways of this world than even the pilgrim? Doubtless, he is one of those to whom the Apostle says, “ For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God ” (Col. iii. 3). For whereas it is very possible for the pilgrim to be delayed longer than is right in seeking provisions for his journey or to be overburdened with the weight of them, the man who is dead remains quite unconcerned even should a sepulchre be wanting. Abuse and praise, flattery and detraction are all alike to the dead man, he does not so much as hear them, because he is dead. O happy death which thus “ keeps us unspotted from this world” (James i. 27), yea, alienates us altogether from this world! But it is necessary that Christ should live in him who has ceased to live in himself. This is what the Apostle teaches where he says, “ I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. ii. 20). As if he should say, “‘ To all other things I am as one dead: I neither perceive them, nor attend to them, nor trouble myself about them : but if there beany things that appertain to Christ, these shall find me both alive and alert. And if nothing else is

ON THE PILGRIM 109 possible to me, I shall at least be sensitive to all that concerns Him, I shall feel pleasure on beholding everything that is done for His honour, and pain at whatever I see opposed to the interests of His glory.” He that is thus disposed has undoubtedly attained to a very sublime degree of virtue.

Nevertheless it may be possible to find a degree still more elevated. But where must we seek for it ? Where do you suppose but in him of whom I have just been speaking, who was “rapt even to the third heaven ”’ (2 Cor. xii. 2)? For if a third degree of virtue can be found, higher than the two I have mentioned, why may I not believe that it is of this we should understand what is said of the “ third heaven ” ? Listen, therefore, to the Apostle’s own words concerning this lofty eminence, not glorying in himself, but saying, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world ” (Gal. vi. 14). “ Not only am I dead to the world,” he says, “‘ but I am crucified to it—crucifixion being the most ignominious kind of death. I am crucified to it and it is crucified to me. All that the world loves is a cross to me: the delights of the flesh, earthly riches and honours, and the applause of men. On the contrary, whatsoever things the world reputes a cross, to them I attach myself, to them I cling, them I embrace with all the affection of my heart.” Is not this a higher degree than the first and second? The pilgrim, if he is prudent and does not forget that he is a pilgrim, proceeds on his way, although not without difficulty, and he does not entangle himself very much in the affairs of this world. The dead man is equally indifferent to the pleasures and pains of our earthly existence. But he that is “ rapt even to the third heaven,” finds a cross in everything to which the world is attached and attaches himself to whatever seems a cross to the world. Nevertheless the words of the Apostle can be rightly understood in this other sense also, namely, that the world is crucified to him in his estimation of it, and he is crucified to the world by the compassion he feels for its misery. For he saw the world attached to the cross by the bonds of vice, whilst he was himself crucified to it by the greatness of his pity.

My brethren, let each of us consider now for himself to what degree he has attained, and let us endeavour to go forward “from virtue to virtue (since) the God of gods shall beseen in Sion ” (Ps. Ixxxiii. 8). But particularly during this holy season of Lent—which, to keep our human fragility from despairing, consists of a definite and short period of days—let us, I beseech you, strive to live with perfect purity of conscience. If it were said to us, “ Be solicitous at all times to preserve your conscience in absolute purity °”: who could help feeling discouraged? As it is, however, we are merely admonished to atone during these few days for the faults and negligences of other times, that even for this short time we may taste the sweetness of perfect purity, and that for the remainder of our lives the fruits of this holy Lent may appear manifest in our conduct. Let us strive then, dearest brethren, to observe this holy season with the utmost devotion, and let us occupy ourselves during these days in repairing our spiritual arms. For now the Saviour, with all the children of the Universal Church, as with His whole army, wages war against the devil. Happy they that shall

ON THE PILGRIM IIt have fought strenuously under so noble a commander ! During the rest of the year it is only the King’s household troops that are called upon to serve in arms, for they must be always ready for action ; but once in the twelvemonth, and for a definite period, the whole power of the empire is gathered together into one general army. Happy you, who have been accounted worthy to belong to those domestic troops, to whom the Apostle says, “ Now you are no longer strangers and foreigners: but you are fellow-citizens with the saints and the domestics of God” (Eph. ii. 19). What therefore ought they to do, who have undertaken to fight during the whole year—what ought they to do now when even those who have no experience of war and have lived hitherto in peaceful occupations, are everywhere taking up arms? Surely they are expected to throw themselves into the old fight with more than their wonted energy, so that by achieving a splendid victory, they may advance the glory of their Emperor and secure their own salvation.