notion of the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  These Israelites would not obey the laws of God’s kingdom, and be righteous and good.  But Amos told them, they could not get rid of God’s kingdom.  The Lord was King, in spite of them, and they would find it out to their sorrow.  If they would not seek His kingdom and His government, His government would seek them and find them, and find their evil-doings out.  If they would not seek God’s righteousness, His righteousness would seek them, and execute righteous judgment on them.  No wonder that the Israelites thought Amos a most troublesome and insolent person.  No wonder that the smooth priest Amaziah begged him to begone and talk in that way somewhere else.  He saw plainly enough that either Amos must leave Samaria, or he must leave it.  The two could no more work together than fire and water.  Amos wanted to make men repent of their sins, while Amaziah wanted only to make them easy in their minds; and no man can do both at once.

So it was then, my friends, and so it will be till the end of this wicked world.  The way to please men, and be popular, always was, and always will be, Amaziah’s way; to tell men that they may worship God and the golden calf at the same time, that they may worship God and money, worship God and follow the ways of this wicked world which suit their fancy and their interest; to tell them the kingdom of God is not over you now, Christ is not ruling the world now; that the kingdom of God will only come, when Christ comes at the last day, and meanwhile, if people will only believe what they are told, and live tolerably respectable lives, they may behave in all things else as if there was no God, and no judgments of God.  Seeking the righteousness of God, say these preachers of Amaziah’s school, only means, that if Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you need not be righteous yourselves, but will go to heaven without having been good men here on earth.  That is the comfortable message which the world delights to hear, and for which the world will pay a high price to its flatterers.

But if any man dares to tell his fellow-men what Amos told them, and say, The kingdom of God is among you, and within you, and over you, whether you like or not, and you are in it; the Lord is King, be the people never so unquiet; and all power is given to Him in heaven and earth already; and at the last great day, when He comes in glory, He will show that He has been governing the world and the inhabitants thereof all along, whether they cared to obey Him or not:—if he tell men, that the righteousness of God means this—to pray for the Spirit of God and of Christ, that they may be perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect, and holy as Christ is holy, for without holiness no man shall see the Lord: if he tell men, that the wrath of God was revealed from heaven at the fall of man, and has been revealed continuously ever since, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, that indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish will fall upon every soul of man that doeth evil; and glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good:—when a man dares to preach that, he is no more likely to be popular with the wicked world (for it is a wicked world) than Amos was popular, or St Paul was popular, or our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave both to Amos and to St Paul their messages, was popular.  False preachers will dislike that man, because he wishes to make sinners uneasy, while they wish to make them easy.  Philosophers, falsely so-called, will dislike that man, because he talks of the kingdom of God, the providence of God, and they are busy—at least, just now—in telling men that there is no providence and no God—at least, no living God.  The covetous and worldly will dislike that man, for they believe that the world is governed, not by God, but by money.  Politicians will dislike that man, because they think that not God, but they, govern the world, by those very politics and knavish tricks, which we pray God to confound, whenever we sing “God save the Queen.”  And the common people—the masses—who ought to hear such a man gladly, for his words are to them, if they would understand them, a gospel, and good news of divine hope and deliverance from sin and ignorance, oppression and misery—the masses, I say, will dislike that man, because he tells them that God’s will is law, and must be obeyed at all risks: and the poor fools have got into their heads just now that not God’s will, but the will of the people, is law, and that not the eternal likeness of God, but whatever they happen to decide by the majority of the moment, is right.

And so such a preacher will not be popular with the many.  They will dismiss him, at best, as they might a public singer or lecturer, with compliments and thanks, and so excuse themselves from doing what he tells them.  And he must look for his sincere hearers in the hearts of those—and there are such, I verily believe, in this congregation—who have a true love and a true fear of Christ, their incarnate God—who believe, indeed, that Christ is their King, and the King of all the earth; who think that to please Him is the most blessed, as well as the most profitable, thing which man can do; to displease Him the most horrible, as well as the most dangerous, thing which man can do; and who, therefore, try to please Him by becoming like Him, by really renouncing the world and all its mean and false and selfish ways, and putting on His new pattern of man, which is created after God’s likeness in righteousness and true holiness.  Blessed are they, for of them it is written, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”  Even Christ Himself shall fill them.  Blessed are they, and all that they take in hand, for of them it is written, “Blessed are all they that fear the Lord, and walk in His ways.  For thou shalt eat the labours of thine hands.”  “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.  The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, yea, all such as call upon Him faithfully.  He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him.  He also will hear their cry”—ay, “and will help them.”

Happy, ay, blest will such souls be, let the day of the Lord appear when it will, or how it will.  It may appear—the day of the Lord, as it has appeared again and again in history—in the thunder of some mighty war.  It may appear after some irresistible, though often silent revolution, whether religious or intellectual, social or political.  It will appear at last, as that great day of days, which will conclude, so we believe, the drama of human history, and all men shall give account for their own works.  But, however and whenever it shall appear, they at least will watch its dawning, neither with the selfish assurance of modern Pharisaism, nor with the abject terror of mediæval superstition; but with that manful faith with which he who sang the 98th Psalm saw the day of the Lord dawn once in the far east, more than two thousand years ago, and cried with solemn joy, in the glorious words which you have just heard sung—words which the Church of England has embodied in her daily evening service, in order, I presume, to show her true children how they ought to look at days of judgment; and so prepare to meet their God:—

“Show yourselves joyful unto the Lord, all ye lands: sing, rejoice, and give thanks.

“Let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is: the round world, and they that dwell therein.

“Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord: for He cometh to judge the earth.

“With righteousness shall He judge the world: and the people with equity.

“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

“As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.”

SERMON III.  THE