Sixth Sermon for the Dedication of a Church: On the Various Modes of the Divine Presence. Truly the Lord is in This Place. —gen. Xxviii. 16

The feast of the dedication of our house, my brethren, may be truly called a domestic festivity. But more domestic is the feast of the dedication of ourselves, which indeed is the festival we are keeping to-day. For to us appertained that sprinkling and that benediction and that consecration which were performed by the hands of the holy bishops, and the memory of which is recalled on this anniversary with joyous hymns of praise. ‘‘ Doth God take care = (xr Cor. ix. g) for dead walls? Surely no. It is not walls but human beings that can say, “ He hath care of us” (1 Peter v.). Jacob was a man, and once whilst asleep he saw the holy angels descending and ascending (Gen. xviii. 12). But there is something more marvellous still. He testified that the Lord of the angels was Himself present also, for he said on awaking, “ Truly the Lord is in this place and I knew it not ” (ibid. 16). He wondered at the favour bestowed upon him, he was struck with awe at the greatness of the divine condescension : for so we read “ And trembling he said: How terrible is this place!”’ (ibid.) 17. Oh, how much more terrible is this place of ours! And how much more certainly and manifestly the Lord is here, where it is not two or three that are gathered together in His name, but so

VARIOUS MODES OF DIVINE PRESENCE 431 great a multitude of faithful disciples (Matt. xviii. 20) ! Let none of us be ignorant of this truth, let none of us forget it. For “ we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God, that we may know the things that are given us from God ” (x Cor. ii. 12). Yes, terrible, undoubtedly, and worthy of all reverence is this place where the faithful abide, which the holy angels love to visit, which is honoured by the presence of the Lord Himself.

Now, we cannot suppose so great a patriarch to have been ignorant of the truth that there is no place where God is not present, Perhaps, therefore, it was rather the special mode than the mere fact of the divine presence that excited his wonder when he exclaimed, “ Truly the Lord is in this place and I knew it not.” For the Lord is truly there and there as truly Lord where angels and men are gathered together in His name. It is an undoubted truth that God is present in every place since He can be confined to no place, and nevertheless we speak of Him as being in an especial manner in heaven when we say, “‘Our Father Who artin heaven.” The reason is, that in heaven He manifests His presence in a peculiar and singular way, not that He is different in Himself, but because His mode of self-revelation varies according to the various dispositions of those to whom it is made. God, therefore, is present everywhere, containing all things, and disposing all things, yet present in ways that are widely divergent. He is present to the wicked in this world as benefitting and dissembling, to the elect amongst men as sanctifying and keeping, to the blessed in heaven as pasturing and reposing (Cant. i. 6), to the reprobate in hell as rebuking and condemning. Thus,

He “maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad” (Matt. v. 45) alike, but where there is as yet dissimulation of sin, there, at least in a certain sense, He is not present as Truth. Accordingly, I would say—if such language were allowable—that He is present to the wicked in dissimulation, to the just in truth, to the blessed in bliss, and to the damned in His fury. Perchance you consider “ fury ” too harsh a word to use of God? Well, the Prophet speaks both of His wrath and of His fury, and each inspires me with terror: “O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy fury, nor chastise me in Thy wrath”’ (Ps.vi. 1). “Truly,” said the Patriarch, ‘‘ the Lord is in this place.” For where God raineth “upon the just and the unjust ” (Matt. v. 45), waiting for sinners to do penance, He is present as a Father and as the “‘ Father of mercies ” (2 Cor. i. 3). Where He condemns the obdurate, He is present as Judge, and we know that “‘it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God ” (Heb. x. 31). Heis present as a Bridegroom where He reposes. And happy the soul He vouchsafes to bring into His bed-chamber ! But it is rather as Lord that He is present in this place, if yet we serve Him “ in spirit and in truth ” (John iv. 23). For, evidently, He was not truly Lord to them to whom He said, “ Why call you Me Lord, Lord: and do not the things which I say ?”’ (Luke vi. 46). We know from the testimony of the Holy Scriptures that the first Adam was “put into a paradise of pleasure to work in it and to keep it ” (Gen. ii. 15). In the same manner the second Adam has put Himself in the Church of the saints, in the congregation of His disciples, in the garden of His delights—for His “ delight is to bewith the children of men ” (Prov. viii. 31): thus, I

VARIOUS MODES OF DIVINE PRESENCE 433 say, the Lord Himself is in this place “ to work in it and to keep it.” For not only must we believe that “ unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Ps. cxxvi. 1), but also, that ‘‘ unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it’’ (ibid. 2). Furthermore, from what the Patriarch saw in the vision we can be sure that in this place also the angels are ascending and descending, ascending to contemplate the face of the Father, descending to minister unto us. Now, my brethren, what practical conclusion are we to draw from all this? In what manner ought we to deport ourselves, with what reverence ought we to stand in this holy place which the Lord is working in and keeping, where the angels are ascending and descending? Doubtless we must show ourselves contrite and vigilant. For that is the way in which we must “ forget the things that are behind ” (Phil. iii. 13), namely, we must disown, condemn, and “recount all our years in the bitterness of our soul” (Is. xxxviii. 15), and then, in thought and the eagerness of desire we must “stretch forth ourselves to those things that are before” (Phil. iii. 13). It is for this we have been brought hither, and for this have we been established here. For what more is required of us but that we do penance for the sins of the past and look forward with hope to the rewards of the future?

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